The Only 3 Sales Closing Techniques You Need to Help You Win

The ability to close is undeniably one of the most important skills in sales. Even with a good product, strong relationships and great communication skills, if you cannot close, you can’t turn those important aspects of the sales process into physical profit for your business. Sales team productivity can take you most of the way – but your sales reps need to close.

Closing is the lifeblood of business and developing your closing skills is a worthwhile pursuit for any business owner or sales professional who wants to win more, make more and keep the business thriving.

In this article, we run through three of the best sales closing techniques you need to help you win. Each takes a different approach to sealing the deal.

The one that works for you can depend widely on your industry and the conditions of the sale. Keeping them all in your back pocket will ensure you are always ready to close a sale.

1. The Got-To-Have-It-Now Limited Offer Close

The limited offer close has been around for ages. The psychology behind this sales technique hasn’t changed, making it a trusty technique – and one of the only 3 tools sales reps need in their back pocket.

This technique is very good at tipping indecisive buyers over the edge. It works by creating urgency at the right time in the buying cycle. By giving the prospect an offer that is limited in some way, it prompts them to ‘buy now’ rather than waiting. These kinds of offers are often accompanied in sales and marketing with language like:

“Sign up today for…”

“Limited offer until…”

“For a limited time only…”

Limited offers work best when applied at the right time. If you use one too early — before the prospect is close to buying — it is likely to fail in grabbing their attention.

Traditionally this technique has been used as a standalone offer. For example, “Buy in the next 24 hours to receive 50% off”.

However, in modern markets where customer trust in brands is at an all-time low, it is now more important than ever to add context where possible. Rather than simply leading with a limited offer, tell the customer why that offer is limited. Without this aspect, customers are likely to believe that the same or better offer could be available once this one is up.

One example of this approach in a sales environment is offering transparency to your customers and explaining how you need to hit your target in the next two days, which is why this offer is only available until then.

2. Show You Know Their Needs With Flexible Packaging

Changing up your packaging options is a smart way to help you close sales. By offering a flexible approach you help customers to find exactly what they need and make your offering a lot more attractive in the process.

There are a number of approaches to flexible packaging. Here are a few that customers find attractive:

Discounting Your Packaging

This simple approach is useful when your customer is undecided on your offering based on price. Offering a straight-up discount isn’t always the best option as it can devalue the product or service. Instead, by removing something from the package in exchange for a discount you maintain value but offer a more attractive price.

Creating Value-Added Packaging

This approach works well when cost isn’t necessarily an issue, but the customer is still undecided. By adding an additional item to a package at the same price, even if that item comes at little or no cost to you, you show a willingness to compromise and add value, making it more likely that you will close the sale.

Tailoring Your Packaging

This is another approach that is successful in a cost-sensitive situation. By consulting with your customers and discovering exactly what they need, you can create a custom package.

This both shows an understanding of their requirements and generates value for money for them as you only charge them specifically for what they need.

Offering Multiple Packaging Options

This is a common, yet powerful approach to closing sales. By offering your customer multiple packages  (usually three) you create levels of value that can easily be compared by the customer.

Psychologically, most customers will lean towards the middle of the three options in terms of cost, so it is worth making sure that this option is very appealing.

3. Close Faster by Questioning

Sales expert Jeffrey Gitomer once said: “People don’t like to be sold, but they love to buy.”

This means that  people don’t like to feel that you are convincing them to buy. Instead, they like to feel that you have helped them to make their own mind up on their buying decision. One great way to achieve this is to close by questioning.

Rather than approaching your clients with a direct sales pitch, open the conversation by asking considered and relevant questions. This will help you to truly understand the needs of your customers and will allow you to coach them towards the solution you offer.

Start by asking questions about the issue or challenge they are facing.

For example, if you’re a selling lead generation packages to a marketing agency, you might ask them:

“Who’s your target client – and how are you trying to reach them?”

“What sales targets are you trying to achieve?”

“What is the lifetime value of your average clients?”

“Why do you find it difficult to reach your audience?”

These questions let you understand the issue and start to qualify the lead. Your next set of questions will look to connect their challenge with the solution. Using the same example as above, these questions may sound like:

“What do you think you need to do to fix this?”

“What are your competitors doing that works?”

The answers to these questions may link directly to your offering, which makes it easy to close. Alternatively, you may need to further coach them with more specific questions:

“Do you think a bigger presence on social media would help you achieve this?”

“If we could deliver you three to five hot leads a day, would you be able to hit your target?”

Once you have reached this point in the conversation you can ask a simple closing question:

“So, shall we create a package for you to sign off?”

During the questioning process, you may also want to ask questions that help you identify and answer objections to working with you. Ultimately using this approach is a powerful way to close sales. It helps the customer to convince themselves of their need for your product or service rather than you trying to convince them directly.

Seal the Deal!

These three sales closing techniques are powerful ways to seal the deal with your customer. Study each and apply them when they are most appropriate. In many cases, you may use two or all of these techniques during a buyer’s journey to finally close a sale.