7 steps to closing the deal

Reading prospects’ motivations at a time when you’re trying to close a deal is difficult unless you understand their motivation.

Here are seven tips that’ll help you understand how prospects work through the decision-making process:

1. In the minds of most prospects potential losses loom larger than potential gains. This implies that risk reduction or risk aversion is a major factor in decision making. A skillful closer will stress the risk-reducing qualities of his solution.
2. Decision makers are always asking themselves the question: “How can I justify my views to others if challenged?” The skillful closer will provide a variety of compelling tools for the prospect to use in justifying the decision to select your solution as the best choice from an array of competing proposals.
3. Decision makers are affected more by vivid and memorable information than by abstract or statistical information. A skillful closer will provide the prospect with graphical interactive tools to evaluate a plain black-and-white recitation of features and benefits. A vivid demonstration of the proposed solution may ignite great interest and desire in the mind of a prospect.
4. Prospects may exhibit behavior during your presentation that has little to do with the ultimate decision. A prospect may praise your product or service to you but not give you consideration in making a buying decision. A skillful closer uses trial closes to “smoke out” any false attitudes of the prospect.
5. Most prospects believe that positive outcomes are more probable than negative outcomes. A skillful closer will prove that the proposed solution has unique value ingredients that make it the best alternative and the most positive outcome possible for the prospect.
6. Prospects usually select the product or service they believe to be superior on the most important dimension under consideration. A skillful closer will have clearly identified what his or her prospect considers the most important value dimension. Once the dimension is identified, the salesperson can specify how the solution excels in that particular dimension.
7. Prospects prefer presentations that focus on key factors rather than a recitation of features and benefits that may hold no interest. A skillful closer involves the prospect with hands-on exposure to a limited number of unique features and capabilities involved in the solution so that those features and capabilities become embedded in the mind of the prospect.

Adapted from Are You Ready to Sell? by Mike Whitney.