Do you think that your clients do not buy from you, they just come, talk to you but go away without making that final purchase. I know it’s harsh, I have been there myself when 6 years before I started with freelancing and I was new to it, I wish someone could guide me with the right knowledge. It’s fine I had no one when I started so I learn the hard way. I do not want my readers to face those hardships and frustration. Today I am going to share with you a few of my techniques that I follow to close my clients. I always feel like when someone is talking to me it is very easy for me to close them and get them to purchase after all this that I know. Get someone to buy something might sound like persuasion and a bit dark but my business depends on it and how can I leave my own and my business’s fate on the chance of someone to make the purchase. I ought to be resourceful and be on the edge with every opportunity I get.
You better start thinking like this too. Because you can only get your skills to grow on a certain level at a certain point in time, and there will be a lot more people ahead of you if it comes to that particular skill. So, why not equip yourself with better pitching and selling techniques.
I close my clients more effectively by the techniques that I have honed through my 6 years of experience and everything that internet has taught me, I have read at least 8-10 books, a lot of articles and watching videos on better closing and sales techniques. Few of my most important technique are asking right and relevant question regarding the client’s vision, his/her needs, and vision regarding business. Giving client solutions and answers to him right away during our conversation and explaining to him why it would work. And some good old persuasive techniques like “yes ladder”, “mirroring”, “give two or more options while closing”. But always keep in mind that no amount of techniques and tactics would help you if your product is not providing any value to your clients and customers.
It is not that I was always so good at selling, when I started I was terrible at it as I told you earlier. And I use to turn off most of my clients, I knew how to design stuff but I never knew how to talk, I was never much of a talker you see! that’s when I started learning sales techniques through books, articles, and videos. Two people that I am very much inspired from are Tom Hopkins & Zig Ziglar. The moment I think about sales those are the names that come to my mind. With time I did improve my sales and the way I closed my clients. Trust me you can get better in your game it’s just that you need to step up and take the challenge.
Now its time to get into a little depth of the techniques that I have told you about.
1. Ask Right Questions
In sales, it is believed that whoever asks questions holds the power. This is the most basic thing in influencing and persuasion. Whenever someone asks the question in an ongoing conversation, that person can decide and control where to steer the conversation. Due to this reason, you should understand it is the most important thing to bring the right questions to the table when you are having a conversation with your client. Don’t just sit there and wait for your customers to ask you something that comes to their mind when he is asking the questions he is measuring you up whether he should choose to work with you or not. So asking question will give you one more benefit, while he is answering your questions he is not thinking whether I should work with this designer or not but now he is pondering over your questions and his mind is busy with the answers that he is providing you.
Ask insightful questions which will help you to understand your clients business, their problems, needs, and necessities. Which will help you serve him better and to give him more impactful solutions to help him? By asking the right questions and listening to his answers and responding he is going to feel that he is being understood. After that, you won’t have to sell anymore but what you are doing now is proposing the right solution and helping him/her overcome the shortcomings and problems.
2. Give a Solution
Think of the ways to bring value to the client. Don’t think whether the client will work with you or not. Provide value and solutions through your expertise and experience. Help him solve his problems. This way you will win the trust and faith of the client easily. And also he will have trust in your judgment. When you are proposing solutions he would know your level of expertise and he is more likely to work with you. Because he knows you who you are, and he is not taking a risk in hiring you. Otherwise, it is really hard to hire someone, especially when you are sitting on the other side of the world and they do not know whether you are going to provide what you say.
This will also communicate to the client that the most important thing for you is not to get paid but to benefit your clients and their businesses. Talk full of enthusiasm and passionately, suggest what can be better for them and their business. How can he make it more impactful? I know it might come to your mind, what if he goes to some other freelancer or designer to get this work done what I am proposing them, but that rarely happens. When a client thinks that your solutions are going to be really effective for their business then they are only going to think that you are the right person for this job, why would they go to someone else. Everyone wants to stick with people who can provide value in the long term.
Giving worthy solutions will help you close the clients more smoothly. The most important thing is the value you are giving to the other person for him to believe in you. It is the most genuine and effective way to close.
3. Use Effective Selling Techniques
- Yes Ladder
- Mirroring
- Give options
Yes, Ladder-
This is a very old technique in the book of persuasion. In this, technique what you do is you get your client to say yes more often no matter if it is just to make him agree to a random statement. For instance, I will say, “you want a brand identity that will communicate all the right values that your business stands on. Right?” do you think your client can say no to that. Just find a few more questions like this that you can ask your clients. and after getting all the yes, you are more likely to get them to agree to work with you.
Mirroring-
This is one technique that is used to generate strong rapport with your client or anyone. You can understand from the term “Mirroring” easily what it means. It means behaving in a similar way as the other person you want to build rapport with, It is not like copying someone and repeating exactly what they say but it is done in a way when it is not that noticeable. You need to make your moves to make him respond to it subconsciously. Use a similar vocab, tonality and the way your client is behaving. Through mirroring you can get people to trust you more easily in a short duration and connect with them emotionally on a deeper level.
You should look at mirroring happening naturally if you have doubt for it to be effective. Have you ever realized? that the people who connect more easily are similar to each other and have a lot of commonalities, usually we connect to people for whom we think would understand us easily, and to understand us easily is a lot easier to bet on people who are like us. Now you can think about why this technique works.
Give Options-
I would like to start this one with a situation, now imagine that you are a person who is selling a car and your client has shown his interest in a car of which you have shown him every feature, gave him a test drive and now it is time to close the deal. What do you think would work better? You asking would you like to buy it or not? or would you like to pay by cash or card? I can give you a thousand more examples but I think you have understood.
It might sound very interesting to use this but to execute it for your situation can be a little hard, what I do in my design services, I give them two or more packages, and I tell them why I think these packages are best suited for you, and then I ask them which package would they like to go with. It is a lot better to ask them this rather than asking them would you like to work with me or not. It gives them pre-assumed doubt in working with me, which makes it a lot hard for them to go ahead and work with me.
This has worked very effectively since I am using this. Sometimes it does happens when my client says the budget is too high for them, you can also convince some of those clients to raise their budget and make the purchase but that is a different story that I will share in another article. Until then, take care. I will see you guys around.
