Even the best marketing campaign won’t impact your bottom line if your team doesn’t know how to close a sale. Closing a sale may seem easy, especially with brand recognition and a great product, but even the most seasoned businesspeople can lack sales closing techniques and struggle with how to close a deal.

That’s not to say that closing sales is not important to them. According to a 2018 study by HubSpot, 75% of companies’ top sales priority is closing more deals. How to close a sale is a question asked across all types of organizations and industries.

When marketing campaigns have been well researched and executed, it’s time for a sales strategy that works with a close that lands the sale.

Sales Closing Techniques

There are many sales closing techniques. Find ways that work for you and your product as well as your customer. One method will rarely work for every type of prospect in every situation, so be sure to explore options.

Last Chance Close

This type of close relies on the customer believing your offer is only available for a limited amount of time. They should feel that the time to buy is now or never. You could make this close in a few ways:

  • Limited time offers: Limited time offers encourage customers to make a purchase immediately. The reason could be a small supply of product, a promotional price or the implication that demand will increase soon.
  • Timeline focus: This is especially helpful if you know your customers goals. Closing the deal could include saying something along the lines of, “We’ll need an answer soon to ensure we’re up and running by next month like you hope.”

This sales closing technique is more of a hard close, so be sure to use it with caution. It’s a good tactic to employ when customers seem afraid to commit.

Summary Close

Summary closes recap how your product or service can provide value to your potential customer. In today’s market, your potential customer is likely shopping around and researching. This type of close will sum everything you’ve discussed with them up neatly, making it easier for them to make a final decision.

A summary closing technique is fantastic if you’re product has a lot of differentiating features that help it stand apart from its competitors.

Question Close

This sales closing technique is the opposite of the last chance close. Instead of pushing your potential customers to make a choice, ask them a question that puts the power back in their hands. For example, you could ask any of the following:

  • Do you believe our product would help you meet your goals?
  • When would you like to make a final decision?
  • What unanswered questions do you still have for me?

These questions help your prospect examine where they stand and decide whether they truly have a reason to delay purchasing any longer.

These are just a small taste of the sales closing techniques you can use to sell your products or services. Exploring how to close a sale can help you make deals with more potential customers.

How to Close More Sales

Closing more sales is the goal of any marketing strategy. No matter what sales closing techniques you use or how successful you’ve been, your company is likely focused on how to close more sales, and there are some things you should keep in mind.

Understand Your Product and Customer

When you understand what your product can and cannot do, you can present it in a way that results in happy customers. Making sure your product is a good fit before pitching and closing a sale is imperative. Satisfied customers are more important than ever given the prevalence of word-of-mouth marketing and the importance of repeat business.

You must listen and form personal connections with your prospects. The more you know about them, the more you’re able to personalize your pitch about your product to their needs and challenges.

When you are excited about your product or service, others are more likely to be excited as well. Remember these tips:

  • You are the expert. The customer may always be right, but you are the authority on your product. Help your prospects understand why your product or service meets a need or solves a problem.
  • Focus on relevant benefits. Not all your product’s features will be important to each customer. Find the relevant ways you can help and focus on those.
  • Know how you’re unique. Prospects are likely shopping around. Don’t tell them what they’ve heard from other salespeople. Know what you do that competitors don’t and highlight those points.

A deep understanding of your product will help you close more sales. Listening to and understanding your prospects’ needs makes you a more successful salesperson.

Find the Right People

This step is twofold. Not only is it imperative to target potential customers who fit into your target personas, but when selling to businesses or organizations, you must also make sure you’re talking to decision-makers. Connect with people who can benefit from your service and can make the deal.

  • Conduct LinkedIn research. Know your contact’s experience and position at the company before speaking with them. This helps you understand if they can make the final call, and it gives you insight into who they are.
  • Ask upfront if they’re the decision-maker. Before making your pitch, it’s not out of line to ask if the person you’re speaking to is the one who can make the purchase decision. Asking this upfront saves you and your prospect time.
  • Reach out to connections. Networking is an essential part of sales. Use your network to get in touch with decision-makers at businesses.

These tips don’t only work when selling business-to-business. When selling directly to consumers, you also want to make sure you have all the parties interested in the decision available before making your pitch and use your network wisely.

Know When to Stop Pitching

Understand when it’s time to stop pitching your product or service and begin closing the sale. At some point, you need to stop talking, start listening and use a sales closing technique you believe will work on your customer.

Getting here takes a personal connection with prospects. Be sure not to waste your customers’ time. Understand where they’re at in the buyer’s journey and adjust how you pitch to them accordingly.

Mediafly Sales Director and author of Maximizing Productivity John Burns said, “Our buyers are very sophisticated and don’t care about a canned pitch. They care about the value that you’re providing them, and that’s where listening comes in.”

Listen, share what’s relevant and move to close your sale. Then, your customer’s time and knowledge will be respected.

To learn more about how to close a sale, consider an online bachelor’s degree in sales and marketing from Point Park University. A sales and marketing degree will open doors to exciting new professional opportunities. Point Park students graduate with the skills needed to research and interpret marketing data, effectively present and pitch and influence sales.