Course Focus –  Sales Skills

One of the most important stages of selling is closing the deal.

Too often, sales people do not ask for the business and attempts to get business agreed are too vague.

There are many closing techniques in sales which we will talk about shortly but if you have asked the right questions and overcome any objections, based on actually advising your client, then the closing becomes much easier.

I think it can often be as easy as asking directly for the business, rather than overcomplicating with too many techniques.

Closing is difficult if you are trying to fit your service to unknown needs.

If you know what your client needs, then it is much easier to simply ask for the business.

In terms of the different types of closing there are some different methods you can use.

Assumptive Close – This method is great in the estate agency and lettings agency world and it means you act as if they are ready to decide and advise them of the appropriate decision. This only works, if you have a clear understanding of your clients’ needs and that you have questioned them in detail, taken notes and they trust that you know what the y need.

If you know your client has had a bad experience with a poorly referenced tenant and is concerned that a new tenant might not pay rent – you can clearly explain the benefits of your full management service and then advise the client to use that service.

You will only know this is the case if you have questioned properly.

It becomes a simple case of “I think that property management would be the best service for you so let’s get you signed up for that – our fees would be…..”

One of the best-selling techniques is “Similarity Closing” which means tell them a story of a client similar to them who, either made a mistake, or had great success and HOW you SOLVED their problem.

This means using a positive tale to influence a decision. This technique uses emotions and real life tales to encourage a sales purchase.

PLAN – For similarity closing to work you should take time to think of those positive tales that apply to YOUR business.

Take time as a team to consider really positive success stories – this isn’t about statistics, it’s about human nature and how you solved a genuine problem for a customer.

By using real life tales there is a more emotional impact on any buyer.

Take some time to think of the following:-

• The positive auction success
• The happy landlord where you solved a problem with a tenant
• The buyer who thought they could only afford x and the mortgage advisor helped and they had a bigger budget
• a property that was on the market at too high a price and didn’t sell
• a Landlord who managed his own property with no experience and ended up having problems

Then use these tales to persuade and advise…

If you want to visit an overview of our sales skills course please click here.