5 Keys To Solidifying Every Sale

Are you solidifying every sale? Or running out the door seconds after you receive payment from your new customer?

Go on, take the money and run works great for the Steve Miller Band song. But it’s terrible for business.

In sales, there is a buying line. On a scale from 1-10, when you first walk in the door, your prospect is around a 1-3. People decide to buy when they are in the 7-10 range. After the payment is completed, they tend to fall out of the buying zone down to a 5-6.

So if you walk out the door when they are below the buying line, you can run into trouble.

What if the boss/spouse walks in and doubts the purchase your customer just made? What if they have buyers remorse? What if they read something negative online about your company after you leave? You are going to get a cancellation call.

But if you take the extra time to solidify the sale, you will rarely get cancellations.

5 Keys Steps to Solidifying the Sale

Go back through the key features of your product

Even though you just covered the key product features moments ago, it’s astonishing how many important details customers don’t absorb the first time.

You can say something like “Let me run back through the key features real quick so you know exactly how this will help you”

When I sold supplemental insurance, I had a summary of benefits to leave behind. I didn’t just hand them the benefits and walk out the door. I walked through the benefits one-by-one and circled the most valuable parts with a pen.

Coach your customers what to do when they think about cancelling

This is huge. And 99% of salespeople don’t do this.

I learned this from our financial advisor years ago. When we finished up she said, “Kate and Daniel, the stock market and economy are going to go up and it’s going to go down. Whatever you do, don’t pull out. Can I count on you for this?

Months later, the economy crashed and it was tempting to pull out. But we remembered our promise. Since we didn’t pull out, our investment is doing very well now.

I started saying to my insurance customers “Jack, in 6 months or 6 years you might think about letting this go. You might get in a tight crunch financially, a competitor might come by or you might completely forget all of the bells and whistles of this insurance plan. Whatever the case might be, if you ever think about cancelling, please call me directly and I’ll walk you back through everything. Can I count on your for that?”

As a result, I had one of the highest retention rates in the entire company.

Add a follow up service visit/call to their calendar

If you hate servicing clients, you probably shouldn’t be in sales.

When your customers feel you are a service-minded salesperson, they will stick with you. And service calls have so many benefits.

It’s a terrific time to tack on additional products and ask for referrals.

Some of the most solid referrals come from customers who have already used your products. But most salespeople are not re-visiting their customers nor are they asking for referrals.

Share positive PR about your company

If your company has any positive press, A-rating with the Better Business Bureau, awards or testimonials, this is the perfect time to share this with your customer.

Credibility is king.

Ask for referrals

91% of customers will give referrals, but only 11% of salespeople are asking. Yikes! Referrals solidifies the sales tremendously because people feel good when they refer someone to their friend.

And it especially solidifies the sale when you follow up with your customer and say “Thank you so much for introducing me to Bob. He is now a new client of mine.”

In summary, don’t take the Steve Miller Band approach and take the money and run.