We are often asked with closing sales and overcoming objections, and what magic words will make people sign up. Unfortunately, the fact is that closing sales can be very easy and even though there are no magic words, there is an approach that makes it easy. There are reasons that closing sales seems hard but you can overcome them all.

Closing Sales Problem - Abrupt Change Of Atmosphere

Many salespeople enjoy the presentation phase of the sale. They proceed along impressing the client with what they know and how much they care. The problem is that when it is time for closing sales, the atmosphere changes dramatically. It's time to ask the client to buy. This change is so scary to many salespeople that they do not ask for the sale. They give a card, a brochure or an estimate and leave without ever asking the customer to buy.

  Closing the deal doesn’t have to be hard.  It starts with building a solid relationship with the people who will make the decision, clearly understanding their needs, matching your offering to their needs to show them the fit, providing your offering for a fair price and asking for the business. (Not to over simplify, I know there are demos, trials, proposals and other things that need to happen in some cases.)

Gaining moments of commitment is the key to heat.

One of the biggest issues we hear from Sales Managers is that they never get a true read of the commitment status of their sales team’s accounts.

Recently a Sales Director from one of our top customers gave us the following fantastic insight:

“All I ever get from my sales guy is a comment like ‘Called and left a message asking after the proposal’ or ‘Next step – ask for the order’ which really doesn’t tell me much at all.  I feel like they are just paying me lip service.  It’s a bit like asking you about the weather.  It’s a pleasantry, but it’s not really going to get you thinking.  I need insights into how to advance the sale!  I want to know whether we have a chance of actually selling them something – what the customer’s feelings are, what barriers there are, how committed they are, and I never get the right information to know that.  Therefore I can’t help my team, which I desperately want to do.”

By now no one will argue that questions are the instrument of choice among sales “Artisans”.  They get the customer to think, they help you to mutually define requirements and value, and ultimately drive the impact you need to close the deal.  When it comes to fully engaging with a buyer, questions are indeed the way to go.  But while the buyer is the focus of the sale, there are other participants in the play who can impact the outcome who also need to be managed, not the least of these are your competitors. Read more at...http://www.soldlab.com/land-mine-questions/

How often do you lower the price of your product or service to close a deal?
Many times objections come up during the sales process and we are too quick to appease with a price reduction.  Price can be a smoke screen and if we rush too quickly to solve for that we may not find out the real objection. Price is only one type of objection. Prospects will have objections about timing, features, service, shipping and a myriad of other things.

“That’s too much money”. Is your client really correct? Or do you believe in the value of what you are offering?

Most business people simply don’t know what to do when confronted with this statement. They then try to handle the price objection by offering to lower the price. This approach sends three messages:

(1)  The price you were initially asked the client to pay was inflated. Therefore, had the client paid what you initially asked, you would have been overcharging them.

(2)  Where is the bottom to this thing? Translation: You have lost your credibility. From now on, every time you and the client do business together, they will expect to...Read more at http://www.soldlab.com/news/2011/7/13/drop-your-pricedrop-your-integrity-to-read-more-sales.html

“I don’t have a sale yet, but a  decision is pending”. Oh, really? In my experience, when a sales person says a deal is “pending” this usually translates to “dead on arrival”. How often are you saying this when what you really mean is “I haven’t got a clue when, how, or if the decision will be made”?

Let’s face it – your buyer has the right to “think it over”. In fact, when it comes to major purchases, I might suggest that a buyer who makes decisions on the spot might be using poor judgment by acting too hastily. I hope that doesn’t offend you.

On the other hand...Read more at http://www.soldlab.com/news/2011/6/29/shortening-the-decision-process-three-mistakes-that-delay.html