Seal the Deal: Closing Techniques that Project Value
By Allan Pulga
Most retailers –especially cellular retailers – cater to the customer’s willingness to shop simply for the lowest price. But once your company has done all it can to lower its prices, what can you do to ensure your store keeps the sales opportunities it gets? It all comes back to selling value (See News&Views Volume #1, Issue #20 – October 11). Using the right closing techniques can help you differentiate your business and encourage customers to seek you out, regardless of price.
Sales and customer service whiz Mark Landiak has a number of closing tips to help you and your staff present your store as a haven of expertise, problem solving and consistent value. “You can’t change the way your competition sells,” he says. “But you can change the way the buyer buys.”
1. Introduce yourself to new prospects and reintroduce yourself to existing customers in a way that differentiates you from the competition. Explain that you work differently from most companies and show why this is valuable.“Be willing to develop expertise beyond the product and focus on applications such as customer service, productivity, procedural efficiency, and other areas that can decrease costs or increase revenue for the buyer,” advises Landiak.
He explains the case of a Chicago glass bottle manufacturer that not only supplies the bottles; it helps with the paperwork flow analysis and inventory management. In offering the related “extras,” the company raises the value of its bottles. While people can get glass bottles (or cellphones) anywhere, they can only get expertise from this company (you).
2. Develop a line of questioning around the applications of your product and resources that you will provide.This takes time: Landiak says you must be willing to spend three to four times longer in the needs analysis step of your sale. “You can’t solve buyer problems that don’t exist or address objectives that you don’t know the buyer has,” he says.
“The sales rep with the most information has the best chance of applying product applications and using the resources of his or her company.”
Selling cellphones, for example, involves more than just describing a handset and its benefits. You need to ask the right questions to figure out what each specific customer needs out of the cellphone, to project the value of your service and your resources.
3. Make a professional presentation of your recommendations. Don’t just deliver a quote or proposal.“Presentations that focus on helping buyers meet their objectives are much more effective than a proposal/quote package focused on offering the lowest price – and worth a lot more.”
Anybody can make a pitch for selling a low-price. As mentioned earlier, you don’t have to sell a low-price – it sells itself. The key is to sell beyond price alone and communicating value in your close is the only way to do that.
4. Portray yourself as a resource with expertise beyond the scope of what your competitors offer.You’re not only convincing the customer you know your stuff, but also that the competition doesn’t know their stuff as well as you. “This means redefining how you present yourself and your services,” says Landiak.
“Refocus your efforts and develop new services that surround your product. Redirect yourself to develop expertise beyond product knowledge into areas that can help the customer solve his or her set of problems.”
This could be as simple as communicating that you know exactly how a certain handset maker’s warranty policy works: where repairs are done, how long it takes to get repairs, and how reliable and worthwhile the whole process is. Putting customers at ease is a no-brainer in closing sales.
Landiak’s Key Point: “Don’t wait for management to give you the tools you need to succeed. Determine what resources you need and go out and find or create them. Look at the types of expertise necessary to be viewed as a value-added resource to buyers, and invest the time necessary to learn about those crucial areas.”