No sales professional ever intends to get stuck in one sale for a longer period than required. They would like to move on to the next prospect after closing a sale as soon as possible. That’s the way to increase total sales volume. Closing techniques ensure that a sales conversation ends with a deal. Depending on the situation, sales professionals implement any one or more of the several closing techniques that are generally used.
Trial Closing
Before finally sealing the deal sales people often use trial closing techniques to test the buying readiness of the prospect during the sales demonstration. Using a trial close helps to test the interest of the prospect with regard to buying the product or service.
A trial close is an attempt to determine how close the prospect is to actual making a purchasing decision. Trial closing is a low risk method of gauging the prospect’s interest and opinion. It’s an opinion seeking tool and not a decision seeking one. Sales professionals use this technique to gauze the mood of the prospect and alter their presentations accordingly.
Without a trial closing a sales person may run in to trouble trying to close the deal. A negative answer to a close cannot turn into a positive one easily. A prospect may stick to his decision and defend it. A negative response to a trial closing question on the other hand is just a signal for the sales person to change strategy. Sometimes a trial close will actually result in a real close and even if it doesn’t it will let the sales person know when or what needs to be done to close the deal.
The best solution is to try trial closing once or many times before the actual closing. A positive trial close will indicate when the prospect is ready to buy and will automatically lead to a close.
Closing Techniques
When the mood has been set for a possible deal with an excellent presentation and one or two good trial closings the order should be closed swiftly without wasting any further time and risking staleness in conversation. Without closing techniques a sales person would be shuttling between two zones: almost done deals to dithering by the prospect. There are several closing techniques that sales professionals apply. The most preferred method is the handshake closing. Generally, all successful business deals and discussions finish with a handshake marking the end of the proceedings.
There are also other methods of closing techniques such as: compliment close, calendar close, balance sheet close, economic close, best time close, conditional close etc. All these closing techniques aim at finishing the deal. The concession close is a technique where the sales person offers discounts with statements like, “if you buy today you will get a discount of 10%.” These techniques prod the prospect to shed any hesitation and go ahead with the actual ordering for the product. Closing techniques effectively seal deals and allow sales persons to move on to the next prospect.
