Episode 5: The Sales Process: The Close

Hi everyone, I'm Ben Wright, successful entrepreneur, corporate leader and expert sales coach to some of the most talented people our amazing planet has to offer. You're listening to the Stronger Sales Team podcast where we bring together and simplify the complex world of B2B sales management and to help the millions of sales managers worldwide build, motivate and keep together highly effective sales teams. Teams who grow revenue and make their businesses actual profits along the journey. We also provide great insights and actionable steps to managing your personal health. A happy and productive year is not only better for your teams, but everyone around you. So if you're an ambitious sales leader who wants to build the highest performing and engaged teams, stronger sales teams is right where you need to be. Welcome back to Stronger Sales Teams, the place where we provide real world and practical advice to help you develop super powered B2B sales teams. I'm a 20 plus year sales professional that's included some pretty significant historical events, the arrival of a new millennium, who can forget the Y2K bug, the GFC and of course the COVID pandemic. In between those events were some really nice periods of prosperity as well. So I can comfortably say I've lived through some boom and bust cycles over the last 20 years or so. And while sales techniques and methodologies have definitely evolved over this time, there's one thing for me that simply hasn't changed and that's a reluctance by salespeople to ask for the business. Countless. And I've heard this so many times. So tell me, how's the prospect going with your latest customer? Oh, strong chance to close. Oh, this is a sure thing, this one. We'll definitely get this one over the line. It's just a matter of time. We're in the box seat on this one. Or even it's in the mix, right? So many deals where I've heard this feedback that have then been lost by a salesperson's terror of hearing a noise. So for me though, even more puzzling is that no matter how many deals are stuck in inertia in a salesperson's pipeline, the international code to a question around their confidence in their ability to close a deal is yeah, sure, I'm more than happy asking for the business. My reality is salespeople simply don't spend enough time working on closing. And that's not just closing at the end of the sales process, but that's closing throughout the journey or certainly making sure objections are handled throughout the journey to get the close. And to be honest, 65% of sales leaders globally. Agree with me on that point. Lots and lots of data on this. But the latest survey I read, and it was through serious decisions I think said that 65% of sales leaders globally and I'll quote, agree that salespeople spend too much time on non selling activities instead of closing out deals. 65%, that's two out of every three. So today is a perfect time then to deep dive into the fourth step of our sales process or the home run. The time when we close. We're going to really try and break down the stigma around closing out deals and give to you a couple of really, well, more than a couple of really chunky practical pieces of advice that will allow you to build a process for closing deals that's really easy to follow. In fact, today's gonna be a checklist style approach. We're gonna follow eight things that you can do to help get the best out of your sales teams. So a little check in for those who are new to the podcast and also a nice reminder for the rest of us is the five steps of the sales process we have defined. First one, lead generation, first base. Second one, meet and greet and needs analysis. That's getting to second base. Third one is your presentation in front of your customer or your service delivery offering. Fourth one is the close which we're talking about today. Just home base obviously. And the post game review is going to be the post sale key account or account management. Okay, so let's get into it. Today's going to be a chunky podcast in list format that I said a minute ago. So get your pens or typing fingers ready and we're going to give you some really practical tips on building sales teams who live to close. Okay, step one, a little warm up. But for me the best teams have a clear process. So every team member is aware of how the business closes from a process point of view, that is the levers, right, that the business use. So they understand their automated funnels, they understand their CRM systems and how to most effectively use them, they understand the campaign management software and they're really clear on where they can and can't negotiate. The teams that have purpose generally have structure and some clear rules of engagement about how and when they go about closing. Really important. Step number two is again successful teams that I work with. They've picked closing techniques that their teams use more often than not. Now there are plenty of great techniques to close out in the market, but for me, across the extensive the dozens and dozens of businesses I've worked with, I'M really clear that there simply isn't one technique that works all the time for me. These great sales teams, the ones that I've really seen succeed and built myself to succeed, they. They generally have multiple closing tools that they deploy in very different situations. Right. And sometimes they even leverage the skills of different salespeople. Right. For different situations. So I'm gonna go through now four that I really like and four that I've seen deployed effectively time and time again, starting with the softest approach and moving into what you'd say is probably the hardest approach. So your job after today is to choose which ones. And I say that ones in plural work for you, and if you haven't already, roll them into your team. Okay, so the first one question, closing. This is often called micro closing or trial closing, and it's repeated throughout the sales process. So this is all about regularly asking questions, and sometimes repeatedly, sometimes it's the same question along the process. Right. To make sure that you are drawing out objections as early as you possibly can. So these are questions like, what else do we need to tick off to move forward? Is there anything in the way of us working together? Are we the provider that you want to work with? Do we solve your problem? Is there anyone else that needs to sign off? What else do you need me to run through today? Right. And there's dozens and dozens and dozens of ways you can ask this question. The pro of this method is that it's less direct, and it really does builds trust and builds a win win environment. Right. When you're constantly asking questions, the customer feels confident that you understand what they need, and there is absolutely no substitute for trust in this type of environment. The cons is this really needs a lot of discipline along the buying journey, a lot of patience at the seller end. And unfortunately, it does sometimes need a slightly more proactive closing technique to secure the deal right at the end. Right. But it's a very effective way to make sure that we're understanding our customer the whole way through. Of course, if we're understanding what they need, then we're providing something that's more relevant and we're more likely to move forward quickly at the end. Really, really great tool for when you're having open discussions with customers or where relationships are strong. Second, one of these is summary close. So this assumes the deal is going forward. And essentially how this works is that the salesperson will summarize the offer. So they'll summarize everything they've gone through and what's going to happen. Right. So when it's going to be delivered, what the price is, what the specifications are, colors, et cetera, and then they'll ask when they want to be invoiced, when they want the project delivered, when they'd like it to kick off. Right. So it's, hey, thanks very much for your time today. And over the last few weeks, it's been a fantastic time working with you. What I'm confirming is that we're going to deliver you three computers. They're black, they've got the ability to work as a tablet or a proper laptop. We're also going to include some software around 4G devices. We're going to make sure that we get these delivered to you in the next week because we know you've got a short deadline and we're going to deliver to this address. What's the best way for me to invoice you to move forward? Right, so the summary close at the end there is what's the best way for me to invoice for you to move forward pro is it avoids actually asking the question for yes or no. So there's a bit of an ego stroke. There's con is it can come across as a little bit too confident. And look, if you ask it too early, it can move you back a few steps. Right. So we've got to make sure with a summary close that it's accompanied by the question, is there anything else we need to summarise this offer. Right. So we've really got to make sure we know exactly what the customer wants before we go down this path. Third one, the soft close. And look, this is my favorite. I think this is a great close tool when you really know what a customer needs to move forward. Right. Or you're really confident that you can ascertain and exactly what's missing from their wish list. Right. So a soft close for me goes something like if I can secure the additional one year warranty or if I can secure delivery in the next week, or if I can secure that your invoicing is 50% now and 50% on delivery. Right. Will you then move forward today or tomorrow or by the end of the week? Right. What I really like about it is that you're giving something to get something and for salespeople that are really savvy and teams that are really savvy is you can give value that doesn't cost the business anything, but is really valuable to the customer at the other end. So the reason I really like this closing tool is because it creates A verbal agreement. And in my experience, most people will honor verbal agreements. Right, so if I give, will you give? Right. Or if you get, will you give is a better way to explain it. I love this, particularly if you've been able to structure a deal in a way that you know exactly what the lever will be to allow you to move forward. The con on this is you need to find the right lever, right. And it has a high risk of returning to price. So for me, I always recommend teams that are building soft close as one of their favorite go to tools that they have quite a few arsenal, quite a few levers to pull so that they don't have to default back to price. It is also a higher risk close, certainly higher than a question close or a summary close, but one that you can repeal if it doesn't go well. Right. So if a customer says, hey, you're pushing me too hard, you can go, look, I was just trying to secure you some extra value to enable you to move forward. That's absolutely fine. We can move at a pace that works for you and I'm here to help you across that entire journey. Okay. The fourth one, limited time offer. Now, this is your highest, highest of the risks of the close, but really has its place certainly when you're at the end of month, end of year, or when you've got customers that are looking for a deal. So this is a now or never style close that really puts a very distinct time frame on the offer validity. So things like after the end of the month, we can't hold the price any, any longer. Right. Or if you'd like the extended warranty or if you'd like the reduced price, we need sign off by tomorrow. Right. Or even something like if you want delivery by the end of the year, we've got to make sure we've got commitment before close a business next Wednesday, right. So a really nice sub technique of this method is also working backwards from your delivery or your implementation deadlines, right. To create somewhat of an artificial deadline yourself on a closing day. So what do I mean by that? Well, if your project's gonna take three weeks to manufacture, say a week lead time, a week delivery and maybe a week in admin, right. So that's six weeks in total. You can certainly sit down with a customer and say, right, so we've got a six week lead time from start to finish here. If you want delivery by the end of September, okay, we're the start of August now we really need your acceptance by the middle of August. The Pro for this method is that it really brings those who are serious and have their own deadlines to get a decision made. Absolutely removes procrastination and therefore your time spent in inertia. Right. Those who know me well know I hate deals being stuck in inertia. Get a yes or, or get a no, or worst case, get a no, not now. Right. But don't keep spending time and energy on deals that won't move ahead. So I like this type of method because it does remove that procrastination and you quickly work out if someone's interested or not. The con, it can burn someone who you've incorrectly identified as ready to buy. Right. It's absolutely a high estate close. So the key here is to make sure that you know that the customer is in a position to move make a decision when you get to set a deadline. If they're not ready to make the decision and you set a deadline, it's a complete waste of time and will absolutely break down the trust in your relationship. So really, really important. So there were four close methods there. Question closing, the summary close, the soft close, and the limited time off. And all of these will be in the show notes. So you can certainly get back in and check them out if you need to. So what I won't pretend though is the above is easy to master. However, with practice comes confidence and that's a very powerful ally of any salesperson. So I really encourage lots of workshop, lots of role plays, lots of practice to be able to make this work. There's also plenty more out there around closing, which, look, of course I can help you with along the journey. So I'd love, love hearing from people who listen to the podcast. So DM me on Instagram or LinkedIn. Wrongersalesteam, if you wanna book a free discovery call. Okay, so we've gone through step one and step two. So step one is that the best teams around closing have a process. Step two is that they've also got some predefined closing techniques, plural, that they use across their process. Step three is really powerful. Teams leverage skills across their business. This is people who are effective at closing right across the business or even effective at forms of closing across the business. Right. So where you know that you have a person in your team who is great in a situation and another person in a different situation being able to share the skills across the team. And this is where teamwork's really important. Right. When you're a team of a group of people rather than a team of individuals. This type of impact can really work because everyone's happy to help and support each other, right? Danger. Right. Real danger. When you've got teams that are very cutthroat, they're less likely to draw on this. So I think whilst it's important to have some competitive tension within a team, it's also really important that they work together. Also, if someone goes too far in this form of process. Right? So if you send someone into close to help with a salesperson that's built a great relationship, you can always repeal this. Right. And revert back to the original relationship person and say, hey, look, I'm sorry, they're really eager to help you, but I know you really well and let's revert back to this type of process. So it's not necessarily a winner takes all or a loser. Losers everything. But certainly leveraging skills across your business is really powerful. Okay, step four. Don't underestimate the role of a negotiation, regardless of the result. I love this quote. Sometimes it's a necessary stage for both sides to feel fulfilled. Right. Preparing teams to negotiate because it simply is a part of the process is very powerful. For some customers, just feeling like they've been heard and they've had an input into the buying process, right. And they've actually been able to secure some more value is critical. So regardless of the result, a negotiation can be really important. You as a leader need to be preparing your teams to negotiate and have them well briefed right on their flex to close deal. So what can they say yes to? Where can they flex? Where can't they flex and where they can't flex, you need to be able to provide really short decision making loops for them. Okay. Occasionally I understand you're going to move into decision making loops that will take a little bit longer, particularly in larger corporate environments where you need to go through a decision making hierarchy. But wherever you can have your teams briefed and short decision making loops available for them. Very, very powerful. And look for me, can you imagine, and I'm sure you've been in this situation where you found yourself negotiating without a real target, right? You are just negotiating for the point of it. They're the types of deals that you need to prepare your sales team to be ready for. Because often at the customer end it's just about getting a small win to move forward, not about what they get, but it's about getting that win. Now, of course, I don't want to be flipping. There are times when negotiations are across multiple competitors, multiple stakeholders, and in these Situations, the key is all about extracting what a successful offer looks like. The key to winning the deal is, is to work out exactly what you need to do to be placed in front. Easier said than done, but when you're leveraging skills across the business and rolling in experts into different situations, it really helps you work through that. Right, that's stepping back to step three. Okay, so step four was don't underestimate the role of a negotiation. Step five, workshopping deals. Love this. This is my favorite part of an effective close process and it's all about getting sales teams together. I historically have always done it weekly with my teams, one to two hours a week where you really flesh out what's going on with your deals. Why do I like it? Couple of reasons. One is it brings the team together, creates a sense of unity, creates a sense of us, we're in this together. Two, really like that. It actually then seeks ideas across the broad team. So Instead of having one person contribute to ideas or two people through a one on one, you might get 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 20. However many people are in, in that team workshopping ideas and then what comes out of that is a sense of accountability. Because when you go back and re look at those deals a couple of weeks later, it's nice to check in and see where they're at, right? Celebrate who's closed the deal. Also review a deal, right, to see if the strategies that you put forward hadn't necessarily worked. So then you get to have another go at workshopping those deals. So love it. Step five, workshopping deals. The most important part for me, step six successful teams in the close. Really get to know who the decision makers are, right? Or they find someone who can. I remember a deal that our team was working on. This would have been five years ago in one of the businesses I was in. It was about one and a half million dollars. This deal we just couldn't get to the decision maker, but we knew someone who could. So we utilised the services of that person, right? They did us a favour, they were friends of the business to get to that decision maker and get a couple of key messages across for us. Within seven days we had a $1.5 million closed. It had been in inertia for a couple of months but that act of simply getting to the decision maker closed the deal for us. Right. So step seven, make moving forward really easy for your customers. Today we are in the digital world. DocuSign, other digital signing tools. There's heaps of them out there. Face to face to get a signature. Resending proposals, right? Making sure they're at the top of the email account when people come in in the morning, sending across just the signing page. It's really important that we take away the time drain from executing contracts for your projects. Right? If your company works on just receiving pos, you might be able to email across exactly what should be written in the description of that PO to save your customer time. We need to make signing really easy for our customers. Step eight, last but not least, and that's all about asking for the business. Successful BDMs, successful salespeople, they need to know not only how to build up prospects, create deals, nurture customers through their buying cycle. They also need to know when to respectfully close out a deal. So very straightforward. This can often be just by asking a direct question for the business. Right? Of course, it doesn't always eventuate that way. And we've gone through a few closing tools. Whilst we love a fast yes, for me, a fast no or a clear no can be just as important to help salespeople really focus their time with on the areas where they're most likely to close out a deal. I've said this before and I'll say it again, there is nothing worse than a hard working, underperforming salesperson. We need to make sure that our salespeople are not spending time on deals that will never go ahead. Right? So that all comes down to how we are building a process for them to work within. Okay, so there are eight steps for me in teams that are very effective at closing. One, they have a process. Two, they have a closing technique. Right. Or multiple closing techniques. More importantly, and we went through four of those. Number three is they're leveraging skills across the business. Dynamic skills across the business. Number four is they don't underestimate the role of a negotiation. Number five is they're workshopping deals regularly as a team. Number six, they know how to get to the decision makers. Number seven, they make moving forward really easy for their customers. Digital signing, for example. And number eight, they ask for the business. They're prepared to get a no to get a yes. Okay, time to take your breath. There was lots of information in the last 15 minutes or so. I love keeping the podcast actions really focused so that you guys and my listeners can take really chunky and tangible action items out of it. But if we've moved too fast, please jump onto the show notes to process the information. Or better still, and I've said this before, booking a free discovery Call with me and I can help you. Specifically, you can get in contact with me through stronger sales teams on Instagram or LinkedIn and I get across every connection made into the business, so you should hear directly from me. So here we are, deal closed and a very happy salesperson. We all love winning the deal, but sometimes forget that we've made a commitment. So that's a commitment both on our personal brand and our company's brands, right, that we're going to be accountable for delivering what we've solved. So even though we've hit that home run, right, we've also got to make sure we're focusing on our post game review, our warm down, right, to make sure that our customers are looked after and that we get that super powerful, super powerful referral on completion. So next up is the post sale key account management or the account management part of the process. And that's coming up next week on our Strongest sales team podcast. For those who want to dive deeper, don't forget there's a free how to guide coming out. And that's for not only creating a sales process that teams will actually follow, but also more details on the steps. So DM me sales process onger sales team and I'll put you onto that mailing list. And I'd also recommend you jump back to episode one to make sure you're clear on how we define a sales process if you have time. All right, so before we go, today's health and fitness tip. This is continuing on the theme of how to be active while at work. This one flows from one of my favorite one liners. What gets measured gets done. And it's all about making sure you've got wearables going for your fitness tracking, right? So track your steps is the key outcome here. For me, that's the most important bit. Very, very hard to track calories, very easy to track steps. You'll be amazed, right, at how behaviors change when you know your steps are being counted and you have a target, right? And even the things you'll do, right? I remember in the early days when I was wearing a watch counting my steps that I used to walk laps in my house just to get to my step target for the day. So it doesn't matter how you do it, you've got to get those steps in and you'll be showing up to work a healthier and I'm going to say more engaging leader for your superpowered sales teams. So that's it for today. Until next time, keep living in a world of possibility. And you'll be amazed by what you can achieve. Want to be kept up to date with any of our free materials to help you build the best sales teams possible? Well, the easiest way you can do so is to follow us on your favourite social media channel. We're strongest sales teams on most of them, and if you DM us stronger, we'll send you right back some great resources to help you build your super powered sales team. If you'd like a little more help, please get in touch directly and book a free discovery call with me. I run a limited number of these sessions and they're free for my podcast listeners. I'd love to help you out. Until then, see you next week for another podcast of stronger sales team.