How to Close a Sale: Disrupt or Nurture?
To Disrupt or To Nurture – every sales person asks themselves this question at some point, if not multiple times, during their career. So which is better to close the sale?
The strongest close is the one where the prospect actually does the selling for you. If the solution/offer is strong enough and matches their wants/needs, then the selling becomes minimal on your end outside of the initial presentation. So why can’t sales close this way with all opportunities?
Sales professionals are driven by money and ego for the most part. Sales is an extremely competitive profession and not everyone can do it, let alone do it well. Adding to the challenge these days is the wealth of information available at our prospect’s fingertips, and many potential clients are becoming more and more educated before engaging with Sales. Given this new environment, Sales professionals need to adapt and understand that people want to be lead or coached to a sale and not forced or berated into making a decision.
Nurturing prospects takes time and patience. If you’re falling behind and your quota is slipping away then you’re going to become desperate, and desperation can bring out the very worse in people and typically causes more harm than good. My advice is to slow down and look at the bigger picture – just because you can turn it around quickly doesn’t mean that next month or quarter won’t see the same near misses. Let the prospects sell themselves instead!
Prospects will find your companies’ website, but when they do will they see what you want them to see? My advice to Sales is to work closely with your Marketing department to ensure that your website reflects what you would say and that it presents that message clearly. Assets need to help guide the prospect toward a sale, and proper guidance involves quite a few aspects working in harmony. A strong and logical Call-To-Action within the web pages, landing pages that entice and convince them they need to download an asset, and lastly that asset leaves them wanting more. Having these three components in place will ideally lead to the prospects reaching out to close the deal themselves!
Whether you’re engaged in Outbound or Inbound tactics, all paths lead to the internet and your website. Develop a strong Lead Generation plan and stick to it, because you don’t want to leave defeating your competition up to chance. It won’t happen overnight, but if your focus is on producing consistent, quality content then I guarantee that you’ll see results and those results will be sustainable.
There’s no shame in asking for help. A respected and results driven partner can add amazing insight and experience to ensure your strategy is sound and works towards the result we’re all looking for… business growth!
