4 Steps to Closing the Sale in a Difficult Economy

As any agent will attest, by the time you get to the close, you've invested a great deal of time and energy into the sale. Are there any ways to increase your odds, close more sales and feel more confident? Absolutely!

Confidence is paramount in any sales pitch and to put it plainly, the more sales you expect to close, the more sales you will close. While you should never rush the prospective client, allowing them to linger over their decision should not be allowed. Let the clues from your prospective client guide the pace while you focus on managing the steps of the close. Ultimately, this is decision time. You need to help your prospective clients see that based on all the options available, you're the best! Essentially, a sales person must be focused on the customer to win the business.

The following four steps should assist you in navigating the close of any sales pitch:

Step 1: Readiness assessment

This is exactly what it sounds like. You must assess how "ready" the client is to buy before you ask for the purchase.

Timing is essential in the close. If you sell too soon you risk appearing inexperienced, overanxious and pushy. If you sell too late or don't ask for the business, you risk coming across as lacking confidence. Either way, you create doubt within your buyer.

There's one master "client" question that should guide you through the entire sales process -- "Based on all the options available, why should I do business with you?" Your ability to uncover the answer to this specific question often makes or breaks your close.

Ideally, the customer will decide you're the best option and will be ready to buy from you. But beware -- assumptions will kill the sale. In order to close, you must deal from accurate information. Your best strategy is to flush out the answers to these questions:

• What are the client's objectives for making this purchase?
• How well do your products and services meet these objectives?
• Have you clearly articulated the connection between the client's objectives and your products and services?
• What "readiness" indicators is the client sending?
• How accepting has the prospect been to your ideas?
• What's the prospect's sense of urgency in achieving their goals?
• Is there anything the client asked for that you didn't deliver?

If you have a clear response to each of these questions then you have a good handle on the customer's objectives, decision-making criteria, time line and readiness. If not, go back and ask a few clarifying questions before you attempt to close the sale.

Step 2: Final summary

Now it's time to transition from selling to the close: providing a concise summary stating your understanding of the client's situation and a brief review highlighting the fit between your products and services and their objectives. The goal is to test the waters -- make sure you and the client are on the same page and confirm that you have captured all of the details provided by the prospect and that the customer fully understands your solution.

This type of final summary gives you the ultimate opportunity to position yourself, your company and your products and services, making it easy for the prospective customer to say "yes."

Step 3: Invite confirmation

The transition from the final statement to the asking for the business is to invite a confirmation of agreement. When finalizing a sale, an insurance broker should ask, "Does that cover everything?" If the client is "with" you, he'll quickly confirm with a "yes" and you'll continue on to Step 4.

If the client still has unanswered questions, this is the spot where you'll see objections surface. Don't charge ahead and pretend you don't notice the hesitation. Instead, deal with the objection directly when it comes up. Always stick with a solid objection-handling process.

The best objection-handling process is collaborative in nature -- it's a seven-step cycle that requires you to:

1. Listen
2. Show empathy
3. Ask questions
4. Summarize
5. Answer
6. Check in
7. Close again

This process allows you to sell through involvement and shift from traditional objection handling to a more sophisticated process of problem solving.

Step 4: Ask for the business

There are many kinds of tricky closes, but in sales today, you need to rise above the tactics and use a strong sales strategy to close the sale. How? Be direct and expect the sale.

There are two effective approaches that create great results when closing the sale:

question-driven and statement-driven.

When it's time to ask for the business, use a question-driven approach:

• "How does this look to you?"
• "Do we have a 'go'?"

When you want to bridge the close with a strong remark use the statement-driven approach:

• "Let's take a look at the next steps."
• "So based on everything we've discussed, the most appropriate plan for you would Option A”

The easiest way to ask for the business is to do just that -- ask. Whether you're more comfortable with a question or a statement, make sure you ask!

Test a few of the suggestions with your customers and decide which feels most natural to you and creates the best sales results.