Why Am I Not Closing More Sales?

Is this really the question you should be asking yourself?  You might have an issue closing more sales but is that really the right question you should be asking? The tendency with this question is to only look at your closing techniques and how you can strengthen them. The answer lies not in your closing techniques but actually in how you prospect and who you prospect. 

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You can’t sell a customer something they don’t want or do have not have a need for, yet this is what you’re doing when you have the wrong prospect.  If you fail to have a clear ICP (ideal customer profile), you will chase the wrong person.  This is why I say that you can’t take a Walmart shopper and make them a Nordstrom customer; it’s just not going to happen.  Both are great retailers; but they appeal to completely different types of shoppers.  The same applies to you and what you sell.   

When your ICP is throughly defined, it is amazing how much more focused you can be.  It all comes down to spending the majority of your time on those with the highest potential.  Customers have options; they have more choices than ever before, which means they are more selective than ever, regardless of what you sell.  In order to move a lead to the prospect phase and ultimately to becoming a customer requires focus on your part. Focusing starts with understanding who your prospect is and who he/she is not. Too many salespeople have what I refer to as squirrel leads.  A squirrel lead is one that pops up out of nowhere and distracts your attention.  You’re distracted because they’re right in front of you, and you think you can convert them to a customer.  You will fall for the squirrel unless you first determine if they fit your ICP.    

Spending time with only those who match your desired ICP is only the first step in being able to close deals at a higher ratio; however, if you only focus on this group you’ll save a massive amount of time.  Knowing your ICP allows you to know which questions to ask, and what information to share.  This puts you in a position of confidently knowing that you can help your customers. When you’re more confident, the customer becomes more confident.  Ask yourself if you have ever had a non-confident customer buy from you?  No, the only customers who buy from you are ones who are confident.  The more confident they are, the faster they will make their decision and the higher the price they’ll be willing to pay. Let’s look at an even more powerful scenario: you focus just on those those who match your ICP and then you don’t need as many prospects in your pipeline.   The beauty of not needing as many is that you get to spend more time with the ones you do have.  This all ends up allowing you to spend your time more efficiently and not waste it on anything but the best. 

The ability to close more sales does not lie in polishing up your closing skills, it lies in polishing up your prospecting skills. Closing deals should actually be the easiest part of the sales process. Why? Because it’s the result of all of the activities leading up to that point in time.  Your sales process is a pipeline: you cannot get out of one end anything different than what you put into the other end. It’s that simple!

In my new book, A Mind For Sales I wrote all about how to create the right ICP and how to manage your sales process. I strongly suggest you get a copy of the book and if you lead a sales team, buy copies for your entire team.  Learn more about the book and how I can help you and your sales team by visiting www.amindforsales.com.

Copyright 2020, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter” Sales Motivation Blog.  Mark Hunter is the author of A Mind for Sales and High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Results.