Do you know which are the most important sales skills? Do you know what is required to close the deal?
Well, let me tell you, nothing is more frustrating when you spend all that time and effort talking to a prospect, and then, in the end, you don’t close the sale.
Today, I’m going to share the three most important sales skills with you that you must understand and master in if you want to be a successful entrepreneur or a successful salesperson. These skills I have learned from experience and by observing a lot of deal closures in the business.
I have seen that most people don’t know how to communicate. Very few people know how to sell, and almost no one knows how to close the deal.
If you are a business owner, if you are in sales, or marketing it is your duty, you must close the deal.
Now maybe, the kind of closing that happens –
- Maybe it is after a presentation that you have given in the conference room.
- Maybe it happens over the phone.
- Maybe it happens in a shop.
- Maybe it happens in a showroom, or
- Maybe it happens after you do an online demo.
Whatever be the case but as a business person, it is your responsibility to close the deal.
Most salespeople do not get this, right?
- They get very good at everything else.
- They are very good at prospecting.
- They get very good at cold calling.
- They are doing very well in terms of giving sales speeches.
- They are very good at giving presentations, or
- They are very good at giving people demos online.
But unless you close that sale, nothing happens. You become a very, very good presentation giver.
You become a very good demo guy, and guess what? Those things don’t get you money.
Closing is the only thing that gets you money.
So today, let me share the three sales skills that you must know, three important sales skills you must master if you want to earn more money, and close almost every deal that you come across.
3 Mandatory Sales Skills to Close the Deal
#1 The ability to empathize with your customers.
If you are selling a low ticket item, or you are selling a commodity in a retail shop, people visit the store, they see the item and they easily purchase it. It is a transactional sale. Nothing great about it.
You just show them stuff, well, you don’t really need to have an understanding of the product, and you need not connect with customers that deeply because you are just providing a quick answer, a quick solution.
However, if you’re selling anything significant, if you’re selling something that’s a high valued item, you need to have deep empathy.
When you are selling something at a higher price, at a high transactional value, your customers need to know that you’ve got their back.
The thing which is extremely important in a sale is people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.
In simple language give confidence to your customer.
- Give damn confidence about the results.
- Give damn confidence about product/service.
One more thing remains transparent if you feel your product or service has some shortcomings share it with your customer and tell them it is not a good fit for them.
If you know other people, that could provide a better service, better than you, don’t hesitate to recommend that to your prospect.
That is what I am talking about giving a damn.
You have to express with your words and body language that –
- You care.
- You have empathy
- You are close to the customer (connected) and understand his/her pain
Remember what I shared with you in my previous post – Three Powerful Sales secrets that “People buy because of emotion and they justify it with logic”.
Great closers have the ability, to develop deep connections with their prospects and that’s the reason they can close most of the deals.
#2 Ability to Discover your prospect’s pain points
No pain means no sale.
The problem is, is not that you don’t know how to sell. The problem is, that you don’t know how to diagnose. Most salespeople, talk too much.
They don’t know how to ask questions. You’re losing sales, not because you don’t have product knowledge. You know your products or services very well.
You’re losing sales because you cannot diagnose the problem. You cannot identify and pinpoint your prospects’ problems and concerns.
Your product doesn’t drive sales – Problems drive sales.
To motivate, inspire and empower your prospects to buy right now, you need to understand and diagnose exactly what their problems are.
Does that make sense?
So think about this as where they are at, where your prospect is at.
This is where they want to go. From where they are to where they want to go, guess what? This is a gap.
There’s this gap, it is your job as closer to make the prospect understand how your product or service or solution can bridge that gap.
If you don’t understand what this gap is, you are not going to close the sale.
If all you do is keep pushing your features and benefits, they’re not going to buy.
That doesn’t motivate them to buy. Then you’re going to get objections like, “Yeah, you know what, “that sounds good, but I need to think about it.
“Let me get back to you.”
Or maybe, “Follow with me in 1 month.”
When you can help your prospects understand that you are the perfect company to help them bridge that gap, that’s when they buy.
See, sometimes the problem is not what it sounds like or what it looks like.
Prospects don’t even know exactly what their problems are.
They might say, Hey, I want XYZ, and they might think, XYZ, that’s what’s going to solve their problems.
But actually, they need something else. Maybe they need ABC, right? They need something completely different.
But they don’t know, it is your job to help them understand, it is also your job, just goes beyond just your products and services,
It’s your job to understand the big picture, and how your products or services best fit to help them solve their problem.
You cannot do that if you can’t uncover challenges and diagnose their problems.
#3 Ability to handle objections
The ability to handle your prospect’s objection is a mandatory skill to close the deal.
Mostly all salespeople create the plan they make a script that this is what I am going to share with prospects. If the prospect says this, I will say that.
Readymade script. But a readymade script does not work all the time. You cannot play defensive every time. You should learn to play offensive (aggressive) also.
I believe the best defense is good. I like to preempt objections.
You believe that you need to set the agenda so objections don’t even come up. But I have seen that in 99% of cases the readymade script does not work.
If you think that you can close the deal with the script you are wrong.
Sales meetings are completely unpredictable. You cannot close all deals with a readymade sales script.
Meeting the customer for closing the deal is like entering a boxing ring. And you cannot go to a boxing ring with a predetermined plan.
If you think that a readymade script works it’s stupidity.
You need to prepare for the meeting but you cannot pre-plan too much. You need to have flexibility. You need to be like water that can fit anywhere.
You should have the skills and ability to handle the objection.
Final Words
Closing the deal is not just selling, it is moving people from where they are to where they should be. Helping them to make the right choice and take action towards their peace of mind and legacy.
Remember – Every sale has five basic obstacles no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, and no trust. As a businessman or salesperson, you should develop skills to handle all these obstacles and to come out successfully closing the deals.
Do you think these sales skills will help you in closing business deal?
If you want to learn more send me an e-mail – sk@moneyexcel.com
Happy Selling, Happy Closing 🙂
