OBJECTIVES
- Ensure the client understands your value by recapping how your solutions tie to their challenges.
- Leave the client with the three things you want them to remember.
- Share your excitement and gain agreement on the next steps.
CHALLENGES
- Their listening has spiked because they know they are about to be freed, so they expect your close to be clean and crisp. If you are not clean and crisp, they start to say good-bye in their minds. They mentally move on to their next meeting or whatever demand is calling them next.
- You are reluctant to ask for next steps because you do not want to be seen as pushy, or you feel it is unnecessary given the time you have spent building connections, but 90% of customers will not buy unless you ask. They need you to ask because it moves their brain from an inquisitive mindset to a decisive one.
TYPES OF CLOSING STATEMENTS
There are two kinds of closing statements:
1. The Prepared Close: This is the close you prepare in advance. It covers your 3 key messages, the business reasons why you are better, and why your solutions align uniquely well to their challenges. During the meeting, this will serve as your mental outline, but you will use their words, what you heard them say during the meeting, to summarize what you want them to remember.
2 The Extemporaneous Close: This is the close that you deliver when the meeting went deeper or wider than you anticipated, or perhaps it took some surprising turns. This close reflects what you learned during the meeting while still leaving the client with 3 key messages that align what you do so well with what they need. Because it is extemporaneous, it is more targeted to exactly what you heard during the meeting and allows you to use their words as you describe their challenges, opportunities, and how your solutions align.
TECHNIQUES
Whether you are delivering a Prepared or Extemporaneous close, here are techniques that will help you be effective and inspiring.
A. Leave them with the 3 things you want them to remember.
Tie back to your key messaging and repeat back, preferably in their own words, what you heard from the client during the meeting. Use their comments to tie directly to your key messaging and your solutions.
This is what you want them to hold onto after you leave.
B. Keep it short.
Be succinct because by the end of your presentation they now have all the context they need. You are simply highlighting for the client what they should remember.
You are not reselling. You are not telling them again. You are summarizing using as few words as possible.
Put a stake in the ground because they are right on the edge of having mentally moved on. They think the close is perfunctory, so give them something strong that will pull them back in and stay with them long after you leave the room.
C. Share your passion.
Share why you are excited and confident that you can uniquely solve their challenges.
You cannot ask the audience to be excited if they do not feel your excitement. They cannot buy in and come along unless you give them a compelling reason to do so. They will not be all in unless they know you are.
D. Ask for the next step.
Your close will always include a request from you for action or a next step. Have an idea going into the meeting what a good next step might be. Find something reasonable as an excuse to be in front of them again, something more than “We will check in to see where you are in a few weeks”.
Share it with the team so you are all working toward the same goal.
Your request of them will be a judgement call in real-time based on what you’ve learned in the meeting. Examples:
- Offering to send them follow-up information or something they pressed on during the meeting.
- An update you will have in the future.
- A conference call based on what you learned about the timing of their decision.
E. Thank them.
While it can be overused, it is still important to thank them and reinforce that you are very much looking forward to working with them.
Tell them how much you appreciate their business if you are already working with them, or how excited you are to move forward if they are a prospective client.
It must be genuine and in your own words since everyone has this in their close. If it sounds formulaic, you actually do more harm than good.
ADVANTAGES TO YOU
- You have sent them off with what you want them to hold onto, and you have earned points for a concise, well-articulated close.
- You have locked in the next step to keep the process moving forward.
ADVANTAGES TO THE CLIENT
- Your close tells them what is important to remember so they do not have to work to sort that out.
- You have provided them with a clear and concise message they can share within their own organization.
EXERCISE
Your prepared close
Always prepare your closing comments in advance of the meeting. This clarity will help you whether you deliver this using their words, or pivot to a more extemporaneous close because the meeting took some unexpected turns.
1. Tie back to your 3 key messages.
2. Provide the business reasons why you are better.
3. Recap the ‘So What’ — why your solutions align uniquely well to their challenges.
4. Propose a next step.
5. Thank them.
RELATED MODULES
Available upon request at info@thebardgroupllc.com
You don’t close a sale, you open a relationship.
Patrica Fripp