Hi.
If you are to learn a single business skill to use for the rest of your life, and nothing else, this is closing.
This is because while FB ads are important, so other ads, so blog content, so your FB videos, nothing really happens until you get paid. And if you can’t close, then you will not get another person to pay for your product or service.
And you know what I’ve noticed?
Closing comes EXTREMELY unnatural for most people.
I can fairly say most people I’ve met are not closers. They don’t know how and they feel uncomfortable asking for money. I’ve even met people that would UNCLOSE a prospect. They’d have a person in front of them wanting to buy and they’d say something like “no, don’t decide now, let me know tomorrow”.
This blew the sale, because the potential buyer lost all confidence in the product afterwards.
But there’s good news here.
Even if most people are not closers, even if you may not be one, this is a skill you can learn with ease. You can double and even triple your ability to get people to pay you and you don’t need a lot of experience or to put a lot of effort in it.
I’m saying this because closing is easy to learn. You follow what works and that’s it. There are standard ways of closing, standard ways of countering objections you can follow from start to finish.
Once you build one for yourself, you can use it word by word and you would close with ease. Yes, it’s that simple.
The Principles Of Effective Closing
Let me teach you a few principles of successful closing. In this way, no matter what happens, you are prepared. And if you take these into account and remember them each time, you’re ready to get an order from someone, you’ll close most people that come to you.
#1 – Closing Is A Transfer Of Confidence
The dominant thought’s going through the mind of your prospect at the end of the sales cycle is “will this work for me?”.
We all have our doubts.
And we know that once we’ve paid for it, it will be very hard to get our money back, because of the refund terms or because we don’t want to go through all that effort. Also, we don’t want to be disappointed, to get our hopes up.
He may not express this directly. He may say “I don’t have enough money” or time or some other excuse. But more often than not, it’s just this doubt it will not work.
So when you close, you want to put his fear to ease.
You want to show him how it will work and paint a picture of the wonderful life after he uses your product. You want to show case studies from others that tried and achieved a wonderful outcome.
You may even bring the objection upfront and say something like…
“Look, I don’t blame you if you ask yourself if this will work for you. I ask myself this too each time when I buy something. But let me show you why it will…”
The opposite, the worst thing you can do is to plant seeds of doubt into his mind. He’s looking up to you, as a leader, to calm down the doubts he’s having. Don’t add doubts of your own. Sure, no product works 100% of the time but he knows that. When a couple falls in love, they know almost no couple ends up being always together but they go ahead anyway.
It’s up to you to infuse him with that confidence it will work.
#2 – Reverse Risk As Much As You Can
The ideal transaction is the one in which if it doesn’t work, he loses nothing and you also lose nothing.
For example, if you’re a coach and you offer a 100% money-back guarantee for the entire duration, that’s not really win – win. He can ask for a refund after six months and you’ve just wasted countless hours of your own time.
So when you design a guarantee, you want to minimize risk but not only on his side, also on yours. Getting back to the coaching example, you can offer a 100% money-back guarantee until the 2nd session. So if he is unsatisfied, he can ask for his money back after the first session is done. If he goes forward after that, then there is no refund.
And it is fair, isn’t it?
You should provide a guarantee. And it should be a fair one. But it needs to be fair for both parties involved. So what I like to do is create conditional guarantees. For example, you can say “if you implemented everything I’ve taught you (or even 50%) and it did not work for you, then you can get your money back”.
While conditional guarantees will turn somepeople off, these are the same people that would have bought and asked for their money back right away. Also, if someone starts a sales conversation with “what is your money-back guarantee”, then that will be a problematic prospect. Be careful in working with those people, especially 1:1.
#3 – Remind him of all the great things he’ll achieve
Don’t even assume that your prospect understands how your product will change his life. You need to repeat what will happen after he buys and uses what you offer. Paint pleasing pictures of how his life will be different. Remind him of everything your product will do for him.
You can also go towards more intangible benefits like the respect of others. You can tell him about how all will be in awe when he’ll finally achieve this goal or how others will see him as a role model and mentor.
Remember the basic rule of salesmanship, people don’t buy for what your product is, they buy for what it will do for them. You don’t go to the restaurant and buy a stake for what it really is but for the delicious taste you’ll experience and the sense of fullness that comes afterwards.
Basically, in the closing section, you’re not telling him much new but rather give him reason after reason for buying.
#4 – Appeal both to emotions and the intellect
There is a saying…
“A man buys for two reasons. The real reason and the one he tells his wife”.
Let’s think about a middle-aged man buying a Porsche 911. It is for the German engineering? It is for the 0 – 100 km/h in just 3.4 seconds? Of course not. He wants to be admired and seen as a certain type of person. It is a status thing. Most products are built around status and prestige.
But he can not go to his friends and say “I’ve bought this Porsche because I don’t feel respected enough and I want people to know how successful I am”. He will say it is a good investment, a great car, great resell value and it will help him unwind, relax from time to time.
So when you are closing someone, give him two sets of reasons for buying.
The first set are the logical ones, the rationalization. This is what he uses to sell this to himself and to others. This is what he’ll tell his wife when he goes home and tells her he spent $5000.
Use logic here. Show the ROI. Give strong logical reasons. They need not make sense as they need to appear legit. Keep it politically correct here. It’s pretending, it is rationalization.
And then give the real reasons. Paint images of his life changing. Paint images of his dreams come true. Help him realize all the wonderful things that will happen and most of these have to do with his ego.
#5 – Get him to commit now
Each time your prospect tells you “I need to think about it” or “I need to talk with someone else”, there is a huge chance you’ll lose him for good.
Sometimes this objection is legit. Most of the time it is not. In both cases, the more space there is between the present moment and the time he takes a decision, the more likely for that decision to be no.
So what do you do?
You frame everything to get action at the moment.
It’s hard to do it while you’re closing so you need to pre-frame it. This means setting a few spots before or have a very attractive bonus if he orders right now. Having a reputation where you enforce your scarcity, so if you say there are only three spots remaining, you take only three clients helps a lot.
Customers believe they are in control. They know you want their money so most will think “well, even if I return tomorrow or next week or month, he’ll still sell it”. So establishing clear rules or giving fast action bonuses is the only way to push for action now.
“A Closing Template In Action”
Why am I not giving you a template instead?
Because there are many circumstances. Closing after a webinar differs greatly from closing in person. Closing a cold lead is different from closing someone who knows you for a long time.
If you apply the principles, you have a far better chance of closing in any environment than if you follow a specific structure. But if you want a specific structure, let me teach you the cross-road close.
So basically, your prospect has reached a cross-road and there are three choices. You present all three to him.
The first one is to do nothing and get more of what he’s getting now.
The second one is to do low quality alternative and struggle for years without the certainty of getting any results.
The third one is to use your product.
And then you present the consequences of each in action.
Let me show you how this would work for a fitness product.
“Look, as far as I see it, you have three choices.
You can stay where you are. You can decide to live a sedentary lifestyle and if this is what you want, good for you. But it is just a matter of time until you’ll start to have heart problems. It’s just a matter of time until you’ll start to feel the consequences of your bad diet and lack of activity.
Or you can join a gym on your own. This works too. This is what most people do. But you know what will happen? You go there and you’ll feel confused and self-conscious. You’ll do a circuit of a few machines and then you’ll leave. You’ll get nothing done in practice apart from getting tired. And because you’ll feel like all are watching you and judging you, you won’t come back again. Believe me, I know, I’ve seen hundreds of people in the gym go through this cycle, a few days of wondering around and then never setting foot again in the gym.
Or you can do the smart thing and work with me. I’ll create a program for you so you can grow as fast as possible, in the last time required. You can lose 20 – 25 pounds in as little as 3 months and lower your belly fat significantly. You can improve your chest and your back and your biceps, so you look buffed up… (and so on).”
This works great because you’re using both logic and emotions, showing him exactly what will happen if he follows any other way than yours.
Now you know how to close, apply all these rules (and the close I’ve taught you) so you can get by more people, more often.
Best regards,
Imran
