Closing any deal can be somewhat challenging for some, yet that same exact task can be very exciting for others.
Hmmmm, wonder what causes that?
You see when it boils down to entering any business deal, its best to approach it from a place of abundance and faith. Why, you may ask?
Well, think about it. The main purpose behind earning any prospect’s business is to help solve a problem of theirs, right? Now how will we show our prospects that we can do just that? Well, thats where our demo, presentation or sales call (whatever we wanna call it) comes into play.
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When it comes down to any stage of the sales cycle, its really important to understand that we must have a strategy.
Here’s what I mean by this.
Some entrepreneurs I know like to separate their introduction call from their demo, for reasons of their own. They feel that it helps them save their breath in having to present their product/service to an unqualified lead(in which their questionnaire didn’t already vet out).
Whereas others like to combine the two, for the sake of time. By following the law of averages rule, they feel that once they combine the two calls, the chances of them converting more prospective clients into paying ones would be higher.
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Now assuming that you already have that part figured out, let's discuss how you can go about your demo process itself.
Your demo as we all know it, is a presentation of your product/service in which you feel would be of most service to the prospect that you’re working with. This is an opportunity for you to showcase who you are, what you do and what results you can provide this prospect if they were to work with you.
Here are a few ways I’ve seen other entrepreneurs go about running this:
phone call
screen-share demonstration
in person meeting
You’ll notice from your experience as well as any others, that the three strategies above can all be and/or scenarios. So whichever way you want to go about showcasing your solution to the prospect you’re speaking with, it would entirely be based on what’s most important and effective for you and your business.
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Lets say that you ran an incredible demo, you get to the end of that call and have to schedule a follow-up meeting with the prospect. *Now for the sake of this blog, we’re going to approach the close from the assumption that a follow-up call was scheduled. However if you operate in an industry where your sales cycle is much shorter than the average, I’d recommend you check out Conscious Biz Conversions, where we discussed how to approach the close when and if there is an opportunity to close it on the spot.
Being this particular blog is focused more so on the longer sales cycle based line of work, we’re going to break down the fundamental steps needed to ensure each and every prospect that you close, you do so with the upmost class and your morals top of mind.
You’ll notice that when reading through Conscious Biz Conversions, many of the same steps remain the same.
Really the main distinguishing factor between the two would be:
the length in between the completion of your demonstration and the closing of the deal
the nurturing of the prospect from point A to point B.
This could go one of two ways.
1. You qualified them very well at the start of the call, but asking about their decision making process and knew going into the call that you’d be scheduling a follow-up meeting towards the end. (In this case, you are in a good place-the expectation was previously set so no surprises here).
2. Once you completed the qualification stage of the call, you were under the assumption that the deal would complete on that same exact call. You go into the demonstration with that understanding and once you get towards the end of the call, the prospect hits you with the excuse of needing “more time” or having a “business partner” to run things by. (In this case, you’ve got some work to do my friend. Time to bring out your real sales techniques).
If you find yourself in the first scenario, you’re absolutely fine. There were very clear expectations set in place and so from this moment forward, all thats needed is the following:
schedule a firm time/date that works for both parties
email them a recap of what was discussed (using assumptive language all throughout,
“Thank you for your time today. Im confident that (product/service) will be a tremendous ass to (name of their biz). and ending it with “If you have any questions feel free to reach out to me by phone/email. I look forward to getting you started with (product/service) on (state time/date)!”
Now for the second scenario, what we’re really referencing here is a situation where there were very unclear expectations. There should be no need for any of us to get to the end of a sales call and be hit with any excuse that will only postpone a decision any longer than it needs to be.
Here’s what to do:
(regardless of what excuse you’re given)
address it with the upmost genuine care and best interest of the prospect in mind
ask them (as many times as you need to) if they have any additional questions to ensure all concerns and questions are addressed on that same call before you get off the phone with them
explain next steps very clearly(may have to say it twice if you feel you need to)
schedule a firm time/date that works best for both parties and send over your recap email
The follow-up day comes. Now what do you do? You go about your day as normal. You continue doing what you’ve been doing and once its time to hop on that follow-up call, you may wanna consider the following:
Go into the call with the same level of genuine enthusiasm as you did in your previous call
Confirm its still a great time, may even wanna ask them how their day’s been to create some (brief) small talk
Recap: bring up the previous call and what you both discussed
Ask them if they had any additional questions you can answer before getting them started
Address each and every one, calmly and patiently
Use assumptive language and then, go in for the close
Wrap up the sale: explain to them what the next steps are and send out whatever it is you send to your new clients
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Now of course, this doesn't always go as planned. But as long as you keep a solid plan in place and stay consistent in your approach, you will see more paid invoices in your inbox than unpaid ones.
In future blogs, I will discuss how to handle flaky prospects that cant make up their mind as well as the good ole’caspers. But for now, stick to this plan. If you feel some adjustment is needed here or there-have at it. Regardless, have a strategy and stick to it my friends :)
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Until next time my friends, keep your head up and know that whatever “obstacle” that comes your way throughout your business journey, its really just a blessing in disguise.
XO
-Bauer
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