Selling to Close the Deal

There are many ways to make a sale, in person or in writing, and close the deal, but each of them requires a level of creativity and a strong level of confidence. Here is my short list that I have used successfully as I have seen others use these tactics successfully as well. What I am talking about is selling in-person to the decision maker or when you must submit a proposal against other companies competitively.

1. Sell on your expertise. Since I was in the consulting business, I had to give the impression to potential clients that our company knew more than our clients did on a subject of interest to them, and generally more than any other competitor. When I began in payment systems, my team in Atlanta installed the second ACH (Automated Clearing House) and our research on that subject was way ahead of the country. We organized a huge conference and charged handsomely to attend. Bankers from all over the country paid to hear what we had learned and it paid for our work for the next few years. We were selling knowledge no one else had and it brought in a lot of money.

2. Sell that you can produce excellent results when competitors failed previously. We knew that a major consulting firm did not deliver the work that the major banks were looking for. When the subject came up again, we approached the BAI (Bank Institute of Technology), an organization that represented the banks and assured them that we had a better approach, that we had the knowledge of the industry, and we could guarantee excellent results. We had a good reputation for that kind of research and we promised that we would have our best team taking on this assignment. We won and it led to a long relationship with the banks.

3. Sell on absolute confidence about promising excellent results. Even when you don’t have the expertise, you should act as if you have it and use whatever knowledge you have to persuade the prospective client that you can do the job. Absolute confidence often wins. I have seen it done by a consultant in my firm who just exuded an ability to get the job done and it often worked. I saw it in my boss who was a fabulous con man when he had no idea how to do the work, but he could close the deal. Even when bankers are skeptical, and they usually are, absolute confidence in selling can overcome skepticism.

4. Sell by offering a new product that will improve the client’s results. The best example I had occurred when I was a speaker at a conference by Unisys. I heard another speaker there talk about a new subject, image technology, when it was new to the banking industry. I took that idea and ran with it. We organized our own study, promoted it when no one else knew enough to compete with us, and it turned into a major source of revenue for my company. The prospective clients we approached weren’t asking about it, so we kept promoting it. As one bank joined, we told other banks that we had a small group and wanted them to join. Persistence paid off. One good idea that was just beginning for the industry helped make my company successful.

5. Sell on doing the work at a lower price than anyone else. This approach is useful when you are not known at all by the decision maker and you want to suggest that you accomplish the work with less cost than any other bidder. That can work if you can show that you have the expertise to do the job effectively, but it has great risk because it often suggests that you don’t have the expertise to do the work. A lower price often indicates that you don’t understand the problem, that you probably don’t have the right people to do a good job, and the client will not be satisfied.

The short version on selling is that you, the seller, are selling yourself. To be convincing, you either must have a reputation that precedes you, or act with utter confidence that you understand the client’s needs and you can fulfill them. Selling takes confidence in explaining the client’s problem and then providing the confidence that you can deliver on what is asked. This is not easy to do because clients will spend their own money on you and they want to be assured that their money is well spent. Focus on answering all of the client’s questions with absolute confidence that you can do the work and you might just close the deal.