How to Close a Sale Without Being Aggressive: 5 Sales Strategies That Don’t Push Prospects Away
1. Take It Slow When Closing Sales
The best salespeople are neither aggressive nor pushy to their prospects, while the worst salespeople are those who tend to hurry things up and go straight to pitching. It’s like asking somebody’s hand in marriage after the first date.
If salespeople rush and don’t go through the proper sales process, prospects will most likely get suspicious. This is because being too aggressive or impatient sends a signal of desperation.
Desperation can make people feel wary, or worse, scare them away. Taking it easy during the sales process and being patient sends the right signals to a prospect, such as:
Confidence
Security
Customer/prospect centeredness
Together, these things can make prospects feel comfortable and safe enough with the salesperson to agree to close a deal.
2. Avoid Pressuring Yourself and the Prospect When Closing the Sale
In Tip #1, I talked about taking one’s time to make a prospect feel safe and comfortable. Another way to make them feel that way is to avoid pressuring them into making buying decisions right away.
It’s possible to take the sales process “slow” but still make a prospect feel pressured.
For example, many online marketers put a time limit or a deadline for buyers to avail of their special offers.
They may not be pushing customers to “buy now,” but they’re pressuring them by giving short deadlines and an incentive, which can be in the form of a discount or special deal.
If you’re selling services that involve a great deal of trust, like bookkeeping services, pressuring prospects will likely turn them away.
Pressuring prospects to close a deal or sale quickly with bogus “threats” and appealing to their fear of missing out can lead to a damaged reputation. In the long run, it can be damaging to one’s business or professional practice.
RELATED: How To Make Clients Line Up And Beg You To Serve Them
3. Set Your Prospects’ Minds at Ease
For closing more sales without really “selling” more, thinking of prospects as fortified castles can be helpful.
Attacks force castles to draw their bridges and defenses up, making it practically impossible to penetrate them. In the same way, the more one hurries up and pressures prospects, the more guarded and defensive they become.
When prospects’ walls and defenses are up, it’ll be very hard or impossible to convince them and close a sale with them.
The key, therefore, is to set their minds at ease — make them feel as comfortable as possible. To maximize the chances of closing sales, you must learn to convince prospects to let their guards down.
Some of the best ways to make prospects feel more comfortable include:
Genuinely smiling
Assuming an open posture, such as keeping your arms on the side (not crossed in front) and your torso facing the other person
Adopting a confidence posture — standing upright with your head held high, shoulders back, and chest out
Slow and clear speech
Relax and avoid fidgeting.
Empathizing with them on their concerns
Humor
4. Talk Less, Listen More When Closing the Deal
Let prospects do more of the talking, so they can see that you’re truly interested in what they need.
In his bestselling classic book How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie taught an important social interaction principle: always make the other person feel important.
How does one do that? One of Carnegie’s tips is to let the other person do most of the talking.
By letting the prospect do most of the talking, a salesperson accomplishes several important things, such as:
Making the prospect feel his or her thoughts and opinions matter
Developing genuine rapport between the salesperson and the prospect
Making the prospect feel you’re interested in what he or she is saying
Giving the prospect a genuine sense of being respected and valued
Getting insights on what prospects are really looking for or need
The last point is especially important because it helps any salesperson say the right things to their prospects. When they do that, they can optimize their chances of successfully closing sales.
What’s the secret to making prospects do most of the talking? Asking good questions.
What makes for good questions? Here are some important characteristics:
They’re open-ended. A simple “yes” or “no” answer shouldn’t suffice, and the question should encourage the other person to expound.
Answers should reveal important things about the prospect that can increase the chances of closing the sale
Answers should provide more opportunities for you to ask more open-ended and insightful questions
5. Point the Spotlight on Their Needs and Wants, Not the Product or Service
There’s a saying that prospects or customers don’t care about what you know until they know you care about them. Making prospects feel that the most important thing is addressing their needs and wants increases the chances of closing deals.
Sadly, many salespeople focus more on their products and services instead of their prospects’ needs and wants. As a result, prospects walk away feeling they’re nothing more than walking cash registers to be taken advantage of.
What does it mean to focus more on the prospects’ needs and wants instead of the product or service? Indicators of a prospect or customer-focused pitch include:
At the beginning of the pitch, the salesperson clearly and accurately states the problems, challenges, or wants of the prospect.
The pitch dwells on how prospects will benefit from products or services in real, practical terms that relate to them.
Learning how to close a sale by not being pushy is one of the best ways to get more customers and clients. Mastering these five strategies can help you make prospects feel more at ease with you, earn their trust, and close more sales this year.
Which of these five sales strategies do you like the most, and why? Let us know in the comments section below.Up Next:
In Tip #1, I talked about taking one’s time to make a prospect feel safe and comfortable. Another way to make them feel that way is to avoid pressuring them into making buying decisions right away.
It’s possible to take the sales process “slow” but still make a prospect feel pressured.
For example, many online marketers put a time limit or a deadline for buyers to avail of their special offers.
They may not be pushing customers to “buy now,” but they’re pressuring them by giving short deadlines and an incentive, which can be in the form of a discount or special deal.
If you’re selling services that involve a great deal of trust, like bookkeeping services, pressuring prospects will likely turn them away.
Pressuring prospects to close a deal or sale quickly with bogus “threats” and appealing to their fear of missing out can lead to a damaged reputation. In the long run, it can be damaging to one’s business or professional practice.
RELATED: How To Make Clients Line Up And Beg You To Serve Them
