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5 Step Roadmap to Closing a Sale

Written by Chris Stilwell | Jul 10, 2023 8:32:21 PM

Navigating the landscape of modern sales can be like charting a course through a maze. Traditional methods and outdated strategies no longer cut it with today's savvy buyers. If you're struggling to establish a foothold, it's time to pivot and evolve. This blog post will illuminate the path by outlining a tested , five-step strategy that focuses on fostering genuine connections, understanding customer problems deeply, guiding customers towards self-discovery, and creating an urgency that prompts decision making. Within this post, you'll find a roadmap, not just to become another salesperson, but to emerge as an expert, a trusted advisor, and a guide for your customers. Buckle up and prepare for a journey that will transform your sales process.

Step 1: Establish Your Expertise

Establishing your expertise doesn't involve flaunting your resume or acting like a big shot. In fact, it's quite the opposite. Winning a customer over your competitors is challenging, and the secret lies in framing yourself as a specialist, not a salesperson. By providing a clear path for your prospects at the onset, you can facilitate their comfort, enabling them to focus on making a buying decision. Long gone are the days of fake rapport and artificial product excitement, replaced by a solid sales process aligned with your customers' buying habits. If you lack a clear roadmap for your sales call, your customer will pick up on that, spending more time trying to decipher you than getting emotionally involved with their issues. Learn to establish your expertise with us.

Step 2: Connect, Collect and Clarify 

Outdated tactics like DISC profiling or forced rapport-building no longer cut it with modern buyers. Savvy customers expect genuine connections, valuing interactions that respect and understand their current situation. Without understanding your customer's present circumstances, how can you facilitate change? The key is a sales process with questions designed to highlight the significance of their status quo. Once established, you become a trusted advisor, not just another salesperson pushing a product. We can help you create such connecting questions.

Step 3: Discover Their Problems

Assuming you know the customer's problems can prevent you from understanding their true reasons for reaching out. Often, this assumption results in repeated objections like, "we need to think about it" or "we want to get other quotes". Customers may recognize their issues but seldom understand their impacts. As a modern sales professional, your main task is to help customers visualize the effects of their problems. Activating emotional drivers through this awareness is critical to decision making and progressing to the next step with you. We teach you how to craft questions that highlight a customer's problems, encouraging them to make a buying decision.

Step 4: Find a Solution

Guiding a customer through self-discovery is essential in helping them realize the necessity of solving their problems. Once they're convinced of the need to change, they'll actively seek solutions. At this point, and only now, you can start discussing your product. Many salespeople mention the product within the first 90 seconds, losing their status and the buyer's respect. The right process keeps the consumer eagerly awaiting your product presentation. They see you as an expert who genuinely understands their unique situation and trust you to help them fix it. We show you how to structure your presentation, focusing on how your product will benefit the customer and improve their life.

Step 5: Create Urgency (and Close)

Quoting at the table can be intimidating, second only to asking for a large sum of money. From training thousands of salespeople, it's clear that although many can navigate a sales call, few can confidently close a deal on the first visit. So, what's the solution? Create a process that enables the customer to close themselves. By creating urgency about the consequences of not proceeding with your solution, you can organically prompt the customer to say "yes" while you're still there. This approach contradicts the advice of most sales trainers and old-school gurus, but facts show it works more than 50% of the time, given you've followed the roadmap.

In conclusion, today's sales environment has fundamentally changed, and traditional methods are no longer effective. As contemporary sales professionals, it's imperative to move with the times, positioning ourselves not merely as salespeople, but as trusted advisors for our customers. This transformation isn't a choice, but a necessity to succeed in this evolved landscape. The five steps outlined in this blog—establishing your expertise, fostering genuine connections, identifying customer problems, guiding self-discovery, and crafting urgency to prompt a close—offer you a roadmap for this new era of salesmanship. Keep in mind, your goal extends beyond a single transaction; you're building sustainable relationships founded on mutual trust and respect. Embrace these changes and adopt this new role wholeheartedly, and you'll find that true success lies not in selling a product, but in genuinely serving your customers. Your journey into the future of sales starts now.

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