Data-Driven Selling By Sales Insights Lab

KEY MOMENTS
0:58 1. Stop focusing on the close.
2:10 2. No sales breath.
3:20 3. Disqualify.
4:21 4. Drop the pitch.
5:21 5. Answer questions with questions.
7:19 6. Sell to your IPP.
8:42 7. NSO.
10:09 8. Solve.
11:17 9. SW3N.

1. Stop focusing on the close.

One of my sales mentors used to say, "Start strong, finish strong." If you're starting off the sales interaction strong, you're going to be providing lots of value up front, and demonstrating that you understand the prospect’s challenges better than anyone else. As a result, the prospect is naturally inclined to think, “This is someone I want to buy from.”

2. No sales breath.

“Sales breath” is my term for any words or actions that immediately give away that you’re desperate to close the sale. Have you ever been in a buying situation where you just got the sense that the salesperson sorely needed to close the deal in order to pay their rent, or just make it by? Ouch. There’s not much worse for a buyer than catching a whiff of “sales breath” that makes them shrink away and want nothing to do with that desperate salesperson.

3. Disqualify.

Most salespeople have been taught to persuade and convince prospects to do business with them. But in reality, you don't have to convince anyone to do anything. What you need is to determine whether the prospect in front of you is, in fact, a fit for what you offer. That's all.

The key to doing this is a process called disqualification, which consists of asking questions to determine whether there’s a real fit. When disqualification is done correctly, prospects can see the inherent value in what you’re offering.

4. Drop the pitch.

Pitching basically assumes that your ideal prospects are stupid…and I’m willing to bet that they’re not. In fact, they’re likely smart and well-informed, meaning that they don't need a sales pitch at all. What they need is to be led in a conversation to determine whether there's a strong fit. That's where disqualification comes in. Drop the old-school pitch; it’s hurting, not helping you to close the deal.

5. Answer questions with questions.

Consider responding with something like, "That's a really good question. Can you help me understand what prompted you to ask that in the first place?" Now the prospect is going to tell you why they care about more service. Maybe the last time they went through this process, the service was disastrous—or maybe there wasn't enough service, or maybe they're actually worried about a particular part of the service that they don’t fully understand.

6. Sell to your IPP.

IPP stands for your Ideal Prospect Profile. The idea of only selling to your IPP means focusing exclusively on selling to a smaller group of people who are truly your ideal prospects—people that actually have the budget, the money, the need, and the challenges that you solve. These are the types of prospects who can become good clients. That's your IPP.

The key to selling to your IPP is to tightly define your ideal customer. If you could get in front of this person, you would be psyched to have a conversation with them. Next, clarify who you do not want to sell to. Selling only to your IPP is critical to mastering how to close the sale. 

7. NSO.

NSO stands for Next Step Obsessed. We must be obsessed with scheduling next steps if we really want to learn how to close the sale.

This means that whether you're face to face, on the phone, or on a Zoom call with a prospect, you should schedule the next step in that meeting before you end the conversation. If you do this one simple thing, you’ll never have to follow up on a prospect again.

8. Solve.

Instead of presenting or pitching, the focus must be on solving. The goal of any sales interaction is simply to demonstrate that you can solve the prospect’s challenges. The first step, as we’ve already covered, is disqualification. When you’re disqualifying prospects, you're seeking to understand what's going on in their world; you're learning about their challenges; you're discovering what they really need; and finally, you’re showing them how you can solve the challenges they’ve mentioned.

9. SW3N.

This stands for: Some Will. Some Won’t. So What? Next. When it comes to closing the sale, one of the biggest hurdles salespeople face is actually mental. They’re so hard on themselves when they don’t close the deal. They beat themselves up when a deal goes south and then they take that mental and emotional baggage with them into the next sales conversation.

If you really want to learn how to close the sale, you need to learn to let it go. When a sale doesn’t happen, take a deep breath and say to yourself, “Some Will. Some Won’t. So What? Next.”