The 6 Most Effective Ways To Close Sales Deals for Businesses

Imagine if you could close the deal at the beginning of your sales funnel and your prospects would sign a deal with you on the get-go. 

Seems too good to be true, right? 

Because it is! Closing a deal is nothing but a difficult task and it is that moment that will decide whether the efforts that you put in closing a deal would amount to success or not. Capturing the prospect into your sales funnel doesn’t guarantee you the final sale. 

And the process of closing a deal can go on for weeks and weeks, sometimes for extended months. 

So, what can you do to effectively close a sales deal without having to wait for a long time? 

In this article, we would cover “How you can effectively close sales deals!

1. Know Your Customer

Closing a sales deal is a whole lot of work, but what goes on before it is even more cumbersome. The pivotal point is your preliminary research and the early conversations that you have had with your prospect. 

For starters, you have to create an ideal customer profile that will help you identify whether the prospect is worth investing more time in. Moreover, the ideal customer profile will help you qualify whether the customer requires your solution or not.

If it turns out that the customer is not even the right fit then there’s no point in chasing after them anymore. You are better off queueing up with emails to other qualified prospects. 

2. Identify the Decision-Maker

Most salespeople fail to identify the decision-maker and waste their time with the wrong person. How do you suppose you will get the right information if you are seeking answers from the wrong person. 

Let’s examine this by walking through this example. 

If you are selling something for a marketer, and your experience tells you that the final decision to procure a tool like yours is likely to be taken by the head of marketing of a company, then there’s no point in talking to another member in the company.

So, in this case, I would start by reaching the head of marketing of a particular organization. 

However, it still doesn’t guarantee whether I will reach the right decision-maker or not. But it’s a more reasonable option — and that’s enough at this stage. 

Open up a conversation with the decision-maker and get on with your sales pitch.

3. Follow Up with Relevant Questions

This doesn’t give you the freedom to bother your potential customers. The key is to keep following up with questions without annoying your prospects. How difficult can it be to seek some answers from your prospects without being told off for behaving like a typical annoying salesperson? Not that difficult! Okay, let’s imagine a scenario. 

Let’s say you are done with your sales pitch. Now, follow up with a question like this:

“Dear (your prospect), now that we have touched upon the features of our product and you know how it can benefit you, it seems that we are a perfect fit. What further steps should we take to help finalize this deal?”

Now, if your prospect says something along the lines of: 

“Well, I’m not too sure…” Or “Well, too bad but we wouldn’t be able to buy right now since we are bound by another contract at the moment”.

You know you are in serious trouble! Now, unfortunately, no follow-up question can change your prospect’s mind. So, in this case, it’s better to let go.

I know, it is frustrating that you have kind of wasted so much time and effort on the wrong person but it’s time to move on to other promising prospects.

But what if the conversation pans out differently?

After all, you can’t always be unlucky in sales. What if the sun is shining down on you and the prospect replies with something like:

“Well, I would proceed after showing it to my colleague (or boss) and then get back to you.”

Grab this chance and go for it by following up with a conversation like: 

You: Great. How should we proceed if your colleague (or boss) likes the deal? 

Prospect: Then we would schedule a meeting or a follow-up call with you. 

You: Perfect! So, if everything works out, how would we move forward? 

Prospect: We will go ahead with the legal agreements after that. 

To keep the leads engaged, you can also touch upon other, relevant but not strictly related to the deal, conversation topics.

Ask your prospect whether they have purchased a similar product before. Don’t hold back and ask them about their typical buying process and more. 

All this effort would demonstrate your interest in the deal and get you better insights into your customers’ sales process. 

After you have acquired all the necessary information, start preparing the steps and get prepared for the peak of the final sales deal.

4. Face their Objections Head-On

You are not going to be handed over a sales deal without putting in your 100%. You are going to face objections of all sorts. Some of them would be impossible to address, but you can still get your way around a few of them. 

Here are some common objections that you might have to go up against:

  • We are busy right now to consider this.
  • We don’t have the budget for this.
  • Your product doesn’t offer solutions as per the nature of our business.
  • And so on… 

And you will have to be prepared because trust me, prospects will throw this volley of questions at you for sure. So, be prepared with your answers beforehand. 

For example, to derail that price objection you can say things like: 

“I understand your limitations, but we had similar customers recently who were a bit skeptical of the prices. But once they were on board, they found our product exceeding their expectations and a great value for money”.

You can also ask them why they perceive your product as expensive and prepare for rebuttals accordingly.

5. Price Reductions and Discounts

Bargain wars! | The Economist

Prospects tend to gravitate towards this question eventually – “Would it be possible to get a discounted rate?”

They know they have the upper hand — and even are not ignorant of this fact. If you think that giving a bit of discount or adding an extra feature wouldn’t hurt your company, then use this approach to close the sales deal. You can also flip this to your advantage by following up on the conversation like this:

“Sure! We will offer you an exclusive price for the deal, would you be able to sign the deal today?”. 

Since things seem to work in their favor, they will probably agree to this and you’d be able to close the sales deal a lot sooner than expected. 

Even if they do not ask for the price reduction, why don’t you take the lead and use this as a tactic to close the deal swiftly? Not many prospects would be able to ignore the temptation of a discounted offer. 

6. Know When to End the Conversation

ESL Beginner Dialogue—What's in Your Office?

So, after following through with everything, do you think it is the right time to close the deal? 

You have qualified your prospect? Check!

Identified the decision-maker? Absolutely!

Followed up with relevant questions? You know it!

So, why not just start asking the final question now? 

If they had harbored any objection, it might have come out by this point. 

So, now ask this question straightway without flinching: 

“Are you ready to move forward with the deal? When is the best time to sign the agreement?”

You can also be a bit subtle with your approach and go with the following statement.

“Unless you have more questions, I suppose we are ready to get started with the formalities”.

After that, try to avoid wasting your time and of your potential customers with off-topic conversations. Furthermore, 65% of the sales leaders say that their team spends too much time on non-selling activities, such as paperwork, and not enough time on activities that lead to closing. This does not translate well for the company’s profits. 

So, keep probing until you close the sales deal (but without pestering your prospect) and when the time comes, close the deal without wasting the time on frivolous or unnecessary activities. 

Conclusion

After you have closed the deal, don’t forget that now you have to work hard to preserve the acquired customer for a lifetime. Keep in touch with them and follow up with the questions asking them if they are satisfied with the product or service. 

Don’t forget to ask for their feedback and make sure you work to improve the things that get implemented.

Also, while we talked about some of the most effective ways to close sales deals, we cannot tutor about the tone you need to use with your prospect. So, it’s upon you to keep your interaction style and tone as confident yet friendly as possible.