How To Close A Deal – A Step By Step Guide

Knowing how to consistently close a deal is one of the most important things to learn in sales.

Without consistent sales; it’s difficult to plan and forecast, because you’ll constantly be in feast and famine mode.

The way in which we teach how to close a deal, is by using a consistent system; or framework.

In this article, you’ll learn how to close a deal with ease, by using a framework we call The 5% Sales Blueprint.

How To Close A Deal – A Step By Step Guide

To Close A Deal, You Need A System

If you want to learn how to close a deal not just once, but consistently – you need to use something called a sales process.

A sales process is a step by step system, or framework that guides you towards the sale.

Although there are various different types of sales methodologies, we teach a sales process called The 5% Sales Blueprint.

The 5% Sales Blueprint consists of the following steps:

• Build rapport
• Qualify and positioning
• Ask questions that learn pain
• Find out their desired state and outcome
• Discuss money
• Present your solution
• Handle objections
• Ask for the sale

These consultative steps are powerful, because when used correctly, you’ll close a deal by helping your potential client sell themselves, rather than you do all the selling.

To Close A Deal – You Need Consistency

Many Sales Professionals and Business Owners make the mistake of trying to learn a shortcut, or quick fix to close a deal.

Instead and more importantly; you should focus on learning the foundations, mastering the fundamentals, and learning sales psychology and why people buy.

As mentioned, to truly learn how to close a deal, you’ll need to learn how to close potential clients over and over again.

A sales process is crucial to your sales success, because it’ll give you the exact ingredients needed to consistently win new clients.

The reason why so many salespeople have stunted growth, is because they wing it with their sales.

Only by using a consistent system, can you get consistent results.

How To Close A Deal – The Steps

Below are the steps required to close a deal, as well as how to do so consistently.

Rapport

The first part of any sales conversation is building rapport with your potential clients.

Rapport us crucial if you wish to have a consultative sales conversation with your potential clients.

It’s also important because people buy from people they like and trust.

By building rapport, you’ll be able to ask deep diving questions that can ultimately lead to a buying decision.

Related article: A Guide To Building Sales Relationships/ Building Rapport

Qualifying

The next step in our close a deal guide, is qualifying your potential clients early in the consultation or discovery call.

A lot of Sales Professionals and Business Owners make the error of speaking with people they think are potential clients – but end up not being qualified to either afford their product or service or aren’t the decision maker.

Qualifying early saves you time, energy, and money.

The qualifying framework has been borrowed from an acronym called BANT.

Originally designed by IBM, it’s an easy to remember framework to remember what you need to ask to qualify your potential clients correctly.

BANT stands for:

• Budget
• Authority
• Need
• Time frame

Further reading: BANT In Sales – How Does It Work?

Positioning

The net step in our close a deal step by step guide, is what makes our sales process very different from the others out there.

Positioning yourself as a trusted advisor is crucial to separate yourself from the conversation; and we do this using something called a pre-frame.

This happens prior to your deep dive sales conversation.

The deep diving sales conversation you will have with your potential client, is called the frame.

You’ll have the opportunity to ask questions, and ‘frame the conversation’ in a way which will ultimately lead to a decision being made – either proceeding with a sale or deciding you may not be the right fit for one another.

The pre-frame is the conversation you have prior to the frame; in this case, it is what’s discussed prior to going into your deep dive sales conversation.

During the pre-frame, you want to cover three important things:

• Ensure all decision makers are present
• Let them know that you’ll be asking a lot of questions, to work out whether you can in fact help and serve them and their needs
• Give them comfort that at the end of the conversation, it is more than OK to say no if they’re not interested. Also let them know that many people use the “I need to think about it” as a way of covering for no. By giving them comfort, they’ll be more transparent.

The reason the pre-frame is key, is for two reasons.

Firstly, you’re removing two core sales objections up front – the I need to think about it objection, and I need to speak to objection.

Secondly – you’re getting permission to ask deep diving questions; this allows you to find pain and understand their deep desires.

Using a pre-frame will be a game changer for your business and overall sales process, because you’ll get to the underlying truth faster than using a traditional sales methodology.

Related article: Positioning In Sales – How To Sell Effectively

Questions – The Secret Ingredient To Close A Deal

The most important thing when learning how to close a deal, as well as your overall ability to close more sales, is the art of asking the right questions – and then diving deeper when you actively listen to their responses.

At The 5% Institute, we emphasise the importance of asking questions because we believe in using a consultative sales approach.

By asking the right questions – you’ll be able to help guide your potential client toward the sale and help them sell themselves on the need for a solution.

During your sales conversation, we recommend asking the following question examples:

• Finding pain
• Learning about their ideal outcome
• How they make buying decisions
• Why they’re speaking with you
• How long they’ve had their issue

We’ve written numerous articles on questioning and question categories, and recommend you read them to learn more. Check out the linked articles below to find out how.

• Sales Probing Questions
• Open Ended Sales Questions
• 10 x Questions To Ask A Potential Client
• 5 x Closing Questions To Win More Sales

Furthermore; if you’d like to learn about helping people sell themselves using questions, then we recommend learning about tie-down sales techniques.

Tie-down sales techniques are questions you ask that get an ‘agreed’ response.

Also known as trial closes – tie-down sales techniques help your potential clients sell themselves prior to having to ask for the sale.

Further reading: Tie-Down Sales Techniques – Your Ultimate Guide

An important note: finding pain is one of the most important ingredients when learning how to close a deal.

This is because if you can’t find friction or any issues with their current situation – they won’t need to make a change.

The article below details how to do so effectively, without being pushy or breaking rapport.

Further reading: Pain Points & Sales – Your Ultimate Guide

Learn To Consistently Close A Deal By Talking About Money Early

Discussing money is another important part of the sales process, because you can use the discussion to build monetary value around what a solution for their problem and pain points will mean.

This will help you close a deal earlier, because it focuses on two key areas.

• What is it costing them by having these issues? Learn the financial and personal impact of what the pain points mean.
• How much would they pay to fix it, and have a solution?

Discussing this here makes asking for the sale, and your closing questions a breeze.

Presenting

Once money has been clearly discussed, the next stage in our close a deal guide is presenting your solution.

Many Sales Professionals handle presenting incorrectly and do something we call ‘premature presentation’.

As per our article in Entrepreneur, premature presentation is when you present your product or service prior to understanding what they need solved and hope that something you say sticks and resonates.

This spray and pray method are outdated and won’t help your closing rate.

Instead – when you’re presenting your product or service, we recommend you do so by prescribing it to their pain points and demonstrate how each of their problems will be solved with specific features and benefits you have.

Using a prescription approach as a specialist would, will align you as a trusted adviser, rather than just another salesperson trying to make a quick sale.

Close A Deal By Objection Handling, And Closing

Finally, the last stage of our close a deal guide is handling their areas of concern, and asking for the sale.

Although many people advocate using word tracks and sales scripts, we don’t recommend using either.

Instead – we recommend using a simple and easy to remember objections framework.

The framework is:

• Listen carefully
• Repeat back the objection, and ask them to expand
• Validate the area of concern
• Re-frame the concern
• Confirm you’re on the same page

To learn how to do this in detail, read the article here to find out how.

Once you’ve handled all their areas of concern, simply ask if they’d like you to help them achieve what they intend to have solved and have them sign any agreements you may have in place.

Final Thoughts On Our Close A Deal – Step By Step Guide

This step by step guide will help you learn how to close a deal, as well as consistently close new sales with your potential clients.

If you’re interested in learning how to easily close more sales, register for our free 7 Day Sales Challenge here.

Want To Close Sales Easier?

Are you committed to closing sales a lot easier, and consistently?

If so, you should check out our self-paced and affordable online sales training program; The 5% Sales Blueprint.

It’ll give you everything you need to close sales consistently.

To learn more, simply click on the link below for more information.

Our Online Sales Training Program – The 5% Sales Blueprint.