Closing leads is the last and most critical step in any sales pipeline. Once leads are at the bottom of the funnel, they’re primed and ready for a sale.
However, things can go wrong instantly if you’re not careful. You need dynamic sales strategies for that final stretch. We’re going to guide you through it! In this article, we’ll be covering:
- Sales closing techniques 101
- Why building relationship-based strategies is better
- Fundamental sales closing techniques
- Best practices for ensuring an optimized closing strategy
The Basics of Closing Sales
A sale still isn’t closed even after a set of successful cold emails and product demos. The good news is, that prospects at the bottom of the sales funnel only need a few more gentle nudges.
We need to facilitate the closing of a sale to ease any doubts left in our prospect’s mind. There are dozens of sales strategies out there. But, all of them are derived from these fundamentals:
- Lead generation and prospecting
- Research and personalization
- Outreach campaigns
- Meetings/scheduled demos or presentations
- Handling objections
- Closing
- Post-sale follow-ups
You’re probably familiar with all of these—but the reason we bring this up is because of the universal truth that each step in the sales process is as important as the next.
However, when it comes to B2B and, to an extent—SaaS, there should be a shift from transactional sales to relationship-based sales strategies.
Closing Sales: It’s Better to Build Relationships
In B2B, your target audience isn’t inexperienced customers easily swayed by ads on social media. Transactional strategies from B2C frameworks won’t work as well in B2B.
Here are the differences between a transactional and relationship-based closing strategy.
Transactional
Transactional strategies focus on the following:
- Emphasizes sales skills
- Reactive to customer needs
- Good products, price, and service
- Narrow customer focus
- Focused on faster sales/revenue
Relationship-based
Relationship-based strategies pivot sales strategies into:
- General management skills
- Proactive, innovative, and focuses on finding opportunities
- Value-based and organizational enabling products/services
- Broadened customer focus
- Focused on long-term/recurring revenue
7 Sales Closing Techniques that Convert
After building a solid relationship with prospects, closing sales become easier. Here are a couple of sales closing techniques you can draw inspiration from:
Leveraging Visuals
We’re used to seeing graphics and visuals during lead generation or outreach campaigns but, visualization is a powerful tool that’s often underutilized during the closing phase.
During demos, have prospects interact with the product themselves. After the demos, nurture prospects with more in-depth visual guides, infographics, or videos.
Offer an Alternative
Take a look at Apple. If their customers can’t afford an iPhone 14 Pro Max—they still offer the 14 Pro and the standard version. They cover all the bases across competitive price ranges.
This also works for B2B or SaaS. Offer flexible plans and payment options, give custom quotes, or free versions of your product with limited capabilities.
Providing Immediate Value, Then Pivot
Offering immediate value is great for relationship building even if it means not directly closing a sale. For example, providing a step-by-step guide on “how to solve x pain point” for free.
Then, you pivot and situate yourself as the most convenient, fastest, and streamlined solution to their problems. This is a great strategy for top-of-funnel all the way to bottom-funnel leads.
Give a Freebie
There’s something about getting free things that makes it so appealing. The word “free” triggers the “zero price effect.”
In a nutshell, prospects weigh the risks associated with buying your product or service. But, if something is free, these risks are diminished.
This works for both B2C and B2B customers. For example, during the final email communications with a prospect, you can send something like:
“To help you reach your goals this quarter, we’ll throw in {{product}} for free! This usually costs {{amount}}. But. we’re ecstatic to work with your team and want to ensure your success.”
Opportunity Cost
We can’t have it all. Each decision we make has an opportunity cost. Have your prospect realize the opportunity costs of not buying your product or services.
Highlight potential losses. Make prospects re-evaluate the pros and cons of their purchasing decision. During the final stretches of your sales cadence, you can say:
“{{negative effect}} often happens because of a lack of {{product category}}. This is easily avoided using {{product}}. Taking the next steps ensures {{negative effect}} doesn’t happen.”
Summarize the Deal/Offer
The larger the contract, the more complicated the deal. Although a high level of comprehension is required to cover all bases, it could also be detrimental to closing a sale.
Avoid this issue by summarizing what you’re offering. Emphasize the value, benefits, and amount of savings from the product rather than features. Here’s an example:
“We think our {{service plan}} with {{benefit 1}} and {{benefit 2}} is the right fit for your business. We’ll even throw in {{freebie}} for free to help accelerate your growth. So, would you like to negotiate this further?”
Be an Advisor
Using this sales closing technique requires you to do well right from the get-go. If you’re having trouble with cold sales emails, you can try out these conversation starters to build rapport.
Once you’ve built a solid relationship, position yourself as an advisor rather than a salesperson. Offer insights on how to solve your prospect’s issues. Be subtle with tying in your products.
Only offer products that make sense or are relevant to your prospect. This takes longer to close, but it’s a great way to create long-lasting relationships.
Key Takeaways
There are several sales closing techniques or strategies to choose from. What works for others might not work for you. So, remember to track your metrics and analyze data.
As a quick reminder, here are some best practices to consider for closing a sale:
- Use relationship-based sales strategies instead of transactional ones
- Utilize visuals when closing a sale
- Offer alternatives to your product but position yourself as the ultimate solution
- Provide immediate value
- Emphasize the opportunity cost of not choosing your product
- Become a trusted advisor to your prospect and earn their trust for the long term
If you want to close more leads and convert them into sales, you need an email tool to help you with every step of the sales process. That’s where Instantly comes in! Try out a free trial today!
