Closing a sale is the pinnacle of any marketing cycle, but before you reach this ultimate goal, you must invest much time and effort into prep work. Besides, if we’re completely objective, a closed sale is not the end of the line yet — with many products and services, it is the beginning of a relationship with a customer. That relationship is to be maintained and nurtured. 

Still, nurturing relationships with existing clients is somewhat easier than converting leads into customers—which is exactly what a closed sale is about. While many sales reps aim for a 30% close rate as their ultimate goal, the factual reality is that most departments manage to close 20% of their sales-qualified leads. Still, even closing one deal in five can be a challenge, especially if there is a flaw in the sales cycle formula.

Below, we will analyze the essential steps that usually result in higher close rates and discuss a few successful sales tactics to help you during that final negotiation.

Essential Steps that Lead to a Close

Identifying decision-makers

The first step that often goes wrong for many sales reps is identifying the right decision-makers in a company. Depending on the type of products or services offered (as well as their cost), there can be several people with the power to say ‘yes’ to your offer. There is no step-by-step guide on identifying the right decision-makers — generally, it’s all about common logic. Clearly, if you offer programming solutions, you need to look for a tech expert; but when dealing with financial services, you should be looking for a CFO. 

The size of the company matters, too. For example, your ultimate decision-maker is the company CEO when selling to businesses with less than ten employees. The larger the company gets, the more complicated its hierarchy becomes, which means sales reps will need to look for heads of departments or even regional representatives. 

A pro tip is always to use professional software when looking for corporate decision-makers because a simple Google or social media search may not be enough. But a quality email-finding tool backed up by a professional database can give you access to the contact details of all top executives within a company, carefully listed in one place. Such software generally supports both bulk and individual searches and is designed to minimize effort in this initial research stage. 

Qualifying your leads’ pain points

After you’ve identified the decision-makers and their contact details, it’s time for that first pitch. Identifying your leads’ pain points is one of the primary sales manager’s responsibilities, and there are plenty of ways to accurately assess challenges your leads are facing that your product can solve. With cold pitches, a lot will be left to guesswork and common logic, but once your conversations with a lead warm up a little, you will get a chance to ask important qualifying questions, such as:

• Specific challenges faced; 
• Results the decision-maker plans to achieve; 
• Short- and long-term goals;
• Current solutions used;
• Current and planned budgets.

All this information will be necessary by the time you draw up to closing a sale, so make sure you pay attention and ask as many questions as possible. To ensure the questions are answered, apply the principles of consultative selling — a highly effective, customer-centric approach that shortens the sales cycles and boosts close rates. 

We will not discuss all the intricacies of consultative selling here, but the basic principle is to offer leads ‘free’ consultations that address their factual problems—that is, to educate your prospects and show that you care more about them than just making a sale.  

Still, as effective as consultative selling may be in the long run, it is not the only effective sales strategy to help you close more deals. So, as promised, let’s look at a few other techniques that work.

Examples of Successful Closing Techniques

Focusing on results, not benefits 

When selling B2B products and services, it’s all about the results — not just for the sales reps, but for the end-payers, too. The same logic applies to B2C marketing, too, but the power of future rewards truly shines in business sales. That is why it is so important to identify your prospects’ pain points — during your first conversations, you will be discussing potential solutions, but as you draw up to a close, it makes sense to emphasize the results. 

The trick is to make it specific, though. Instead of pitching ‘our project management tool increases productivity by 30%’ — a statement that does not actually explain anything, consider giving more details, i.e.:

• Built-in version control and code review features save up 30% (over two hours) of developer’s daily billed hours;
• Real-time updates on a cloud-based platform eliminate delays and ensure everyone stays on the same track, minimizing the number of face-to-face consultations, etc.

Creating a sense of urgency

Another classic sales technique that works in both the B2B and B2C segments is creating a sense of urgency. Also known as Fear of Missing Out (FOMO), this tactic encourages prospects to take advantage of a limited-time opportunity—a short-term discount, some free features available for a limited time, etc.

Sure, when pitching products or services to other businesses (whose decision-makers are usually aware of this common sales technique), you will not get away with something as simple as ’30% off only today, so buy now.’ On the other hand, you can apply the same logic to speed up the decision-making process. 

For example: “If I told you I could give you an extra layer of services free of charge for a month, would you sign today?” 

The basic logic here is based on the same FOMO principle most B2C marketers use, but the level of detail (and sophistication) differs. 

Presenting alternatives

A great example of a sales technique that is especially effective in B2B sales. The alternative close is about offering leads several products (or service packages) to choose from but gently pointing them toward a sales reps advertising plan. The benefit of this technique is that it creates an illusion of full control —prospects believe they are fully in charge of the situation. Consider this example:

“Our CRM can be customized to align perfectly with your team’s workflow. Would you like to start with the standard plan and make adjustments later, or do you prefer a tailored approach?”

Clearly, managers who want to automate team workflows prefer a tailored approach — so this seeming alternative is not really an alternative. At the same time, it puts decision-makers in the ‘driver’s seat’ and helps sales reps convey a better impression — which is still the cornerstone of successful selling. 

These are some of the most effective sales close techniques, but the list does not stop here. Depending on the type of products or services offered, there can be many other approaches that work. Still, you can never go wrong with building trust with your leads — even if you do not close a deal immediately, investing time into educating your prospects usually pays off in the long run. In a nutshell, the basic process goes down to correctly identifying the pain points and offering effective solutions tailored to each customer’s needs. 

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