7 Proven Tips To Close Deals Faster

Having a hard time closing sales?

Want to learn how to close sales deals faster and smoother?

Closing a sales deal is very important. In fact, according to a HubSpot survey, 71% of sales professionals consider closing more deals their top priority. Unfortunately, the salespeople hitting their quota has dropped by 10%. Based on the CSO Insights World Class Sales Practices Report, in the past six years, only 53% salespeople from 63% were able to close deals. To help you significantly shorten your sales cycle length, here are seven proven tips to close deals quickly.

Build genuine trust.

While your potential client understands that they are in a sales call, you also want to make sure you do NOT appear too calculated. Make your clients feel that you also care about their business more than just closing the deal — build genuine trust with them even if it means losing the sale.

“Great salespeople don’t focus on products or services, at least not at first. Great salespeople start with building genuine trust,” Jeff Haden wrote.

Convey to the client how the deal will benefit them more than how it will benefit you by addressing their pain points and assuring them that what you are telling them is true.

If you had another customer with the same pain point as the current one and if you successfully helped address the same problem, share it to your prospect. In this way, you can build trust brought about by reputation rather than promises.

If your prospect trusts you, closing a deal will not be hard anymore. In fact, you might find yourself closing a deal earlier than expected.

There are times when we have told clients that they are too early in the process for us and that we’re not a good fit. Those clients have referred others to us because of the trust we built with them.

Identify and approach the decision-maker

The most common speed bump in closing sales is talking to the wrong person. Imagine giving your best sales speech to a person and convincing him to sign up only to learn that his opinions about your product do not matter. Do not waste time and effort with a person who is not a decision-maker.

First, identify the person who will be making the decision and approach that individual directly. Reserve your utmost efforts convincing him or her.

For small companies, you have to sell directly to the CEO or CMO. For larger organizations, you may need to contact the Sales Director or Head of Sales Operations. Remember to start your sales call with “will you be the decision maker for this?”

Address the pain point

According to Resourceful Selling stats, only 61% salespeople are confident at uncovering their prospects’ pain points. If you can’t spot it, you can actually ask them for it. You can use this article as a reference on what questions you can use to find business pain points.

For example you can ask them these questions: “What’s your biggest inhibitor to company growth?” “Who in your company is working to fix this right now?” or “When is your deadline to solve this problem?”

A number of prospects haven’t thought about this at all. Asking these questions will build your credibility as well.

The same statistics show that salespeople who are able to identify what their customers are struggling with are 28% more likely to close the sale and hit their quota. If you want to close a deal quickly, don’t forget to address the prospect’s pain point as this is a key factor in their decision- making process.

If you don’t tell your customers about this right away, you will have to go through a number of emails and that will take time. Don’t wait to be asked about this, be aggressive in letting your customers know how the deal will benefit them by addressing the problem that they want to resolve.

Prepare for objections

Always get yourself ready for any objections. If you encounter an objection that you can’t address right away, this will surely hinder your efforts in closing the deal. It will not only slow your sales process down but it might even make closing the deal close to impossible.

Keep a central repository for objections. If you encounter an objection, log it in and put the answer there. By recording the objections, everyone involved in the sales department will know what and what not to expect. This will help your sales department be as efficient as possible.

Create a sense of urgency and scarcity

Adding a sense of urgency in your lead will also make a prospect decide faster because they know that your offer has a deadline. You can also add the element of scarcity by letting a prospect know that the offer is only good for limited individuals in a first come, first served basis like “30% off for first 10 buyers.”

Marcus Taylor increased his sales by 332% by using the scarcity and urgency method. You can imply urgency in your headlines, leadpages and calls to action. You can also add countdown timers and color the most important driving signs in red to make it more noticeable.

When adding a sense of urgency, you don’t want to give your prospect just a deadline but a good offer too. For example this promo “50% sales off + free shipping this week only” gives clients a week to enjoy a 50% discount and free shipping.

Educate your clients

Give away your best strategies to build trust (remember the first strategy) and bring in warm leads. Remember the sales process starts long before contact is actually made.

If you are able to out-educate your competitors, you will build inherit trust with potential clients and easily close deals.

Start by creating a YouTube video that highlights some of your best tactics and make sure to highlight the video on your homepage to further its reach. Once a potential customer has seen your face or heard your voice, you will have built rapport with them even before you have a one-on-one call.

Use social media

Social media presence is a must.

Sixty-four percent of sales reps who invest in social media hit their quota compared to 49% who hit their quota without social media.

If you have a social media presence, you are making yourself more accessible and building a brand. This gives your prospects another platform to learn about you and your business. It also gives them a more convenient way to contact you.

Conclusion

Closing a sales deal is not easy but there are a number of ways that you can do to shorten your sales cycle length. I highly recommend that you build a genuine trust and make sure to structure your sales pitch in a way that it addresses your prospects’ pain points.

Also, make the entire sales process easier by talking to the right person or decision-maker directly.