Closing deals is part of the sales world.
But to always be closing means you disregard prospect’s needs and only think about bringing in money.
Always closing
Always Be Closing is a motivational term pushing salespeople focus on getting new customers and closing deals.
But it’s not the best sales advice for modern reps.
Why is it outdated?
Today things are very different.
Closing sales is essential to the sales process but before the deal is closed the actual sales process needs time, attention and effort.
Today’s buyers are bombarded with information and don’t want to be sold empty promises that aren’t backed with relevant data.
So to “Always Be Closing” today would scare off potential customers before you get a chance to close the deal.
The Alternative
Alternatively the prospects are the most important element of the sales process.
So it’s time to focus on the buyers needs and put them at the centre of the sales process.
Instead of sales reps focusing on closing deals by any means necessary.
To sell, modern salespeople need to be helpful to all prospects.
Be Helpful
Your job is still to sell.
But your strategies should involve making people feel they are buying by being helpful.
In other words, move your prospect through the sales funnel by:
- Creating customer-centric experiences
- Providing resources and guides that solve complicated business problems
Why Be Helpful Instead?
Only focussing on selling doesn’t work in B2B or B2C sales processes.
The focus is now on the buyer.
Buyers have the power with information transparency and availability online like accessing third-party reviews.
Every prospects’ situation and needs are different, for example, your product could help one buyer but hurt another.
So being helpful is the right thing to do and better for your business.
Aggressively selling to customers who don’t match your product fit leads to:
- High customer turnover
- Loss of income due to clawback penalties
- Business shutting down due to high churn
- Damaging the brand image
And businesses with a reputation for aggressive and selfish salespeople, struggle to get new customers.
Remember, the customers you lose or scare away are customers you could have helped.
5 Strategies to be Helpful
Find prospect’s problems you can solve
If your prospects have problems your company can’t solve then leave them alone.
Because you can’t help everybody and bad leads cost money.
So utilise your time by picking who to help.
Do this by asking the right questions to:
- See if prospects have problems you can solve
- Clarify their pain points
- Understand how you can help
- Make it easier to create value propositions
This will help you pick the right prospects and make your quota every month.
But spending time and effort on unqualified prospects will make you miss the mark.
Prospect’s position in the decision making process
Conversations with your prospects should be based on them being at the awareness, consideration or decision stage in their buyer’s journey:
- Awareness Stage: Prospects know the problems they want solving but haven’t picked a solution or researched a vendor so nurture leads with marketing
- Consideration Stage: Prospects know their problems and will spend time and effort on potential solutions but don’t know how much they want to spend so a salesperson should make contact
- Decision Stage: Prospects have researched their problem and potential solutions. Haven’t decided on a vendor, if you’re a big company, they’ve come across your resources and BANT (budget, authority, needs, and timeline) is considered
To see where leads are in their buyer journey, track interactions with your business:
- Opening sales emails
- Viewing pricing pages multiple times
After knowing this information, create a personalised sales process based on their position.
And remember to prioritise the customer based on their needs.
Talk to decision-makers
So now you know your prospect is a qualified lead and your product is what they need.
Now it’s time to engage with key stakeholders, like decision-makers.
This will help to:
- Confirm your solution is best for prospects
- Understand prospects’ perspectives at each sales process step
Plus initial research information and conversations will help when presenting value propositions to decision-makers.
Make it easy for customers to buy
You need a balance in the buying process.
Which means give your prospect what they want whilst guiding them using your expertise.
You have been through this sales process with previous prospects when successfully selling your products before.
So you know the solution they need and how to get it for them.
This means working with your prospects to understand:
- How they make decisions
- Their perspectives
Then you can use all this information to successfully sell your product.
Educate
Educate your prospects on previous solutions to the problem you have found.
Being a consultant to your buyers by having a genuine conversation can:
- Build meaningful relationships
- Build trust
- Making sure prospects feel heard and understood through the process
Then when trust is built with buyers, educate them on the solutions to their problems.
To always educate buyers, share content for each stage that the buyer is in:
- Awareness stage: They want answers, so share educational Ebooks or videos answering questions they have
- Consideration stage: They are researching your business to see if you’re a good fit. So share case studies on previous customers, showing what doing business with you is like
- Purchase stage: They are making a final decision. So offer incentives like free trials or coupons
Conclusion
Salespeople who are helpful will establish trust and confidence before closing the deal.
They do this by helping their prospects genuinely find solutions to their problems.
Thankfully the salespeople who only focus on closing are no more, which is a good thing.
Now it’s over to you.
Tell me what’s the best way you help your customers?
And how it helped you close more deals without being pushy?
Let me know in the comment section below.