Closing a deal is often the most challenging and emotional point of the sales cycle.
After all the hard work setting up discovery calls, demonstrating your product or services, and working hard to build relationships, you want the payoff of a successful close to make everything worthwhile.
Being rejected at the last minute is what every salesperson dreads. In fact, in a recent poll of our LinkedIn community, we discovered that 60% of people cite rejection as their number one concern in closing.
So how can we overcome this fear of rejection, and make sure we close with confidence and integrity? We asked Dave Corlett, Business Director at Shaped By and Donna Owen, VP of Revenue at pawaPay, to share their ideas and techniques with our Ethical Sales Academy. With decades of sales experience between them, Dave and Donna had some amazing insights on this topic, from flipping conventional sales wisdom on its head, to solid advice on how to manage the buyers’ table. To access the full one-hour masterclass recording, sign up to our Ethical Sales Academy waitlist.
Making closing smoother and easier for everyone
While a common mantra in sales is to ‘always be closing’, this is a rule that can lead to problems. If closing is always on your mind, this creates too much focus on the end goal. There may not be enough listening to uncover your buyer’s true needs.
To combat this, remove any emotional attachment to the end goal (such as your bonus, hitting your targets, or being promoted) and instead be present with your prospect. From the very first discovery call onwards, make sure the focus is on what’s important to your prospect, and how your service or product can help them with their problem or pain point.
This is because it’s important to recognise that the sales cycle can be emotional for buyers, too. After all, they’re investing their time and effort, and are often under pressure to make a positive change in their business or solve a problem. Part of a salesperson’s job is therefore to take on some of this burden, recognising and acknowledging the emotional needs of the buyer and how they can be alleviated.
Be aware of what their stresses are right from the beginning, as well as any pressure and deadlines they’re up against. Remove some of these, and this turn will build trust – which is much more likely to result in a close.
“Yes, you need to think about when you’re going to close the deal, but that shouldn’t be the be-all and end-all,” says Donna. “Closing should be a by-product of you doing everything right along the way.”
“Yes, you need to think about when you’re going to close the deal, but that shouldn’t be the be-all and end-all...Closing should be a by-product of you doing everything right along the way.”
In fact, you can spin the ‘Always Be Closing’ rule into a forward-thinking mantra: if you’re focussed on doing the right things, with a solid process and an intent to solve your prospect’s individual problems, then you are, in fact, always closing because you’re making the close that little bit easier.
Alternative approaches to pitching
Many purpose-driven businesses such as agencies and service businesses are requested to present a ‘pitch’ as part of the sales process. However, this can take a lot of time and effort, as well as feel like a one-sided process.
Our experts discussed alternatives to explore with your prospective buyers. For example, if you take the time to identify target accounts and teams who are open to signing off projects without pitching, then consider offering your services in the form of a smaller or gateway project that showcases your abilities. Dave Corlett calls this an ‘ice breaker project’ – a small, paid project that lets someone try out your service, possibly at a discounted rate or with over-servicing, in order to win larger projects.
“I know a lot of prospects hold a pitch when they don’t really need to, because they feel they need to get to know an agency before they commit to working with them...But now we ask the right questions on the discovery call to diagnose the problem and if we’re the right agency for them, then always push for an ice-breaker project. In fact, we now use it as a closing technique during a positive discovery call, even if they’ve not mentioned a pitch.”
This is an approach that can be used by pretty much any business, even those selling SaaS tech products. Just be bold enough to ask this question, does this need to be a pitch?
“Sometimes it won’t work, but you’ll be genuinely surprised how many people say ‘you know what? That’s a great idea,’” says Dave.
How to stop deals being sabotaged at the last minute
When you’ve carefully nurtured your prospect and they’re ready to sign on the dotted line, it can be incredibly frustrating when another person swoops in at the last minute and pulls the plug on closing.
While there are no techniques that will guarantee this never happens, setting up your ‘buyers table’ properly can certainly help.
So how can you do this? Here are our experts top five tips.
Know everyone on the buyers’ table: at the discovery call, find out exactly who’s involved in the process as a stakeholder and decision maker, and keep this list up to date. Sales can take a while to go through, and in that time jobs may change so be prepared to stay on top of this.
Ensure you have a relationship with the whole table: whether this is created from direct meetings or cultivated through emails, phone calls or LinkedIn chats, it’s vital to know everyone on the table. Profile each one, and know whether they’re high risk or low risk in terms of derailing your sale.
Note who doesn’t turn up at meetings: continual absence from meetings can be a red flag that this person may end up vetoing the project because they’re not invested in it or know enough about it. If you know that a buyer was invited and didn’t turn up to your meetings, be proactive in seeking them out and having a conversation.
Get counterparts talking: if there’s a sense of reluctance or concern from someone at the table, a conversation with their counterpart from your own company can be helpful, whether this is a CFO, creative director or CEO.
Always ask questions: It’s easy to sabotage a deal by not asking enough questions. Never be afraid to ask anything, and never take anything for granted.
Closing your sale the right way
Ultimately, closing with confidence and integrity means being aware of the emotions of the prospect alongside your own emotions.
Yes, it can be daunting and the fear of rejection is real, but if you’ve set up everything up properly, made sure you’ve supported your prospect throughout the process, and covered all bases with your buyers’ table, you’re much more likely to get that signature on the dotted line.
For example, watch Dave and Donna below share their most memorable closing stories with us, both of which are very different!
Your own closing story can be written by you, with your own confidence and integrity very much intact.