You can spend all your money on lead generation, without the right people to close the deal, there’s no point to all the efforts that you’re making. That’s why having a team full of closers is such an essential part of any successful business and why businesses tend to invest heavily in sales.
One of the most common tools businesses use to improve their sales team’s performance and efficiency is Salesforce. Salesforce is a customer relationship management (CRM) tool that helps organizations store their customer data in one place.
Salesforce benefits are easy to understand. Closing a deal on the platform looks like this; create opportunities, qualify leads, assess requirements, generate a proposal, negotiate, and then finally close the deal.
While this might seem like a simple sales pipeline, Salesforce helps enhance overall sales performance extensively. A primary benefit is that it helps provide a centralized view of the sales pipeline, which allows sales reps to track progress and identify any potential bottlenecks. Additionally, it also helps ensure that the collaboration between sales teams is completely seamless.
The platform also allows users to engage in better data-driven decision-making, the analytical abilities help provide valuable insights into sales performance. On top of that, Salesforce features powerful automation features that take care of many time-consuming tasks and leave your sales reps to focus on building relationships with customers and closing deals.
Now that you have a basic understanding of what Salesforce is and the benefits it can provide an organization's sales team, let’s look at how businesses can close deals by using Salesforce. Keep reading to learn more!
Understanding the Sales Process
While it might be slightly different for every organization, there are certain key components that every sales pipeline features. Here’s a breakdown of all the different stages in the sales pipeline:
Prospecting
Sales prospecting refers to the process of identifying and contacting potential leads to help generate more revenue. The sales team will generate prospects by finding and engaging targets to turn them into leads and turning them into customers.
Prospecting generally occurs on a completely one-to-one basis via outbound activities. The channels are generally cold calling, sending emails, or reaching out to individuals on Linkedin to people who fit the ICP.
Qualifying
The next stage in the process is lead qualification, during this time in the pipeline sales representatives will assess potential leads to see if they meet a certain criteria. Leads that will meet the criteria will be forwarded to the next step in the sales process, those that don’t meet the criteria will be removed from the prospects.
Initial Meeting
After the lead passes through the qualifying phase, the next stage in the pipeline is the initial meeting. During this phase the sales representative will have a meeting with the client, this can be in-person, over the phone, or virtually through video call.
The main purpose of the meeting is to address any potential questions or concerns, to help provide a better understanding of the offering.
Needs Assessment
Once the lead gets through the initial meeting, the next stage in the process is the needs assessment. The needs assessment is also known as needs analysis, it’s the process of determining exactly what the requirements of the sales prospect are to ensure that the product you’ll be selling is actually what they need or not.
Presentation
After assessing the needs of the prospect, you can present them the service or the product that you’re offering as a potential solution to the problem. The stage might include creating a sales pitch, providing a product demo, or sharing customer testimonials with the potential client.
Negotiation
During this particular stage, the sales rep needs to negotiate with the customer on the price, terms, and any other potential aspects of the deal. You typically reach this stage in the pipeline when you’re about to close the deal.
Closing
Lastly, the final stage of the sales process is when you attempt to close the deal and secure the customer’s commitment to make the purchase. Generally, sales representatives will use different types of closing techniques, that may include types such as the assumptive close or the scarcity close.
Now that you have a basic understanding of the sales pipeline and the different stages, we can discuss how Salesforce helps assist the department in each stage of the pipeline. During the prospecting stage, you can use Salesforce to generate opportunity records, then assign the particular opportunity to the appropriate sales representative. Salesforce also gives you the option of picking the forecast, which’s an indication of how likely it is that you’ll close the deal.
Salesforce’s lead qualification tools are also very helpful during the qualifying stage, it helps sales reps collect the essential information about the prospect quickly. This includes different factors like their budget, needs, and overall decision-making authority.
During the needs assessment phase, Salesforce’s notes and activity tracking features will help users document the lead’s challenges and any additional requirement. Keeping note of all of these different features will help you customize the sales pitch so it has more chances of convincing the lead.
Additionally, Salesforce also has quote generation tools that allow you to create customized proposals for clients. These proposals will automatically outline the product, pricing, and the terms once you feed them into the platform.
Lastly, when it comes to closing the deal, Salesforce’s contract management feature is a great aid when it comes to generating and managing the contract. You can then mark the opportunity as “closed won” in Salesforce to archive all of your successful leads. Doing so will effectively help your sales team manage
Preparing for the Close
Arguably the most important role for a sales rep is closing the deal. Even if a company manages to generate a 1000 interesting prospects, until you close the deal there’s no point. That’s why it’s important to build up trust and rapport with your potential clients.
You won’t get to the point of closing a deal until you work on developing a certain level of trust with the clients first. Here are a few important points that can help you build that rapport so you can effectively close deals.
Practice Active Listening
One of the most important techniques when it comes to building a rapport with clients, is practicing active listening. The act of active listening involves directing your entire focus on what the person is saying, instead of focusing on what your next response is going to be.
By following this technique you can ensure that you’re building a deeper connection and setting up the framework for a more meaningful conversation.
Positive Body Language
Along with active listening, it’s also essential that you pay attention to your overall body language. How you look while you listen, is equally important as listening. Even if you’re actively listening to the client, if your body language isn’t positive, you’ll give off a signal that might unintentionally put the client off.
Look For Commonalities
Lastly, the easiest way to build rapport with a client is to look for stuff in common. It’s significantly easier to make a connection with someone when you have similarities. If you’re actively looking for stuff that you can leverage to connect with a client, you’ll make inroads into a successful relationship quite early.
Employing these different strategies also significantly helps with understanding the customer’s needs completely. If you don’t have a crystal clear understanding of the customer’s pain points and their requirements, you won’t be able to sell them an effective solution or product. Salesforce can help you keep an active track on these requirements through the note taking feature.
Additionally, after you develop an understanding of the customer, their behavior, and their requirements, you’re in the best position to customize your sales presentation. Only when you address specific customer needs in your pitch, will it resonate with the potential buyer. If you’re just presenting a general solution, the chances for the pitch being successful are fairly low.
To get to the close you have to also be adept at handling any potential objections from the lead. The sales process isn’t always going to be entirely smooth sailing, you’re definitely going to encounter some problems. You can use Salesforce to take control of the situation. The ability to create opportunities and take notes.
Then through using these notes, you can keep track of their objections and try to find the best way to resolve issues. By following through with all these different steps, you’ll be moving closer to closing the lead
Closing Techniques
After you’ve put in all the groundwork, you can move towards closing the deal and bringing the client onboard. To become efficient and effective at closing deals, it’s important as a sales rep to become more familiar with closing techniques.
Here are some of the more essential closing techniques that a sales rep needs to be aware of!
Trial Close
Trial close is a technique that’s used in sales by representatives to test the overall customer’s ability and readiness to commit to a purchase. Through the use of this technique, salespeople can gather information, address any potential concerns, and guide the interaction towards closing a deal successfully.
By asking questions that let the salespeople get an idea of feedback from the customer to assess the level of interest, they can then tailor their pitches accordingly to meet the customer’s needs.
Assumptive Close
The assumptive close is another technique which is more aggressive than the trial close by comparison. It requires a certain level of belief and confidence in yourself and the product/service you’re selling.
In the assumptive sales technique, you’ll move forward under the pretense that the lead wants to buy and the deal is done. However, it’s essential that you tread the line between being aggressive and assertive carefully.
If you end up coming across as too aggressive that can also send a negative signal to any potential leads.
Scarcity Close
Another technique that sales reps need to be familiar with is the scarcity close. The scarcity close makes use of the feeling of missing out, to entice the prospect into buying. Generally, you can sweeten the deal by either adding a discount or providing the client with additional benefits.
For example, the sales rep can offer the client a 15-20% discount, and set a deadline for when that offer expires. An offer of this nature, will help create that fear of missing out that might drive the client to engage quicker.
Takeaway Close
A more out of the box technique is the takeaway close. This particular closing technique focuses on the concept of reverse psychology. The sales rep deliberately makes the client feel like the product isn’t going to be a good fit or that the company size doesn’t qualify for the solution.
The technique is effective because it’s the exact opposite approach that your client will expect you to take. However, it’s important to be careful when you’re using the approach. The takeaway close will only work effectively if the prospect has established interest in the product but hasn’t confirmed that he’ll buy.
These are some of the more important closing techniques that sales representatives need to be familiar with, using these techniques you can help increase the overall percentage of deals that you can close.
Salesforce can help you in this regard by helping you track individual deals and opportunities. That’ll allow you to identify which closing technique will work in the most effective manner. Additionally, through the platform, it becomes much easier to manage any potential follow-ups and analyze the sales data accordingly.
Post-Close Activities
Once you’ve successfully closed the deal, the job’s still not done. There are quite a few processes that you’ll have to follow.
Firstly you’ll have to handle all the paperwork and the necessary contracts in a prompt and proper manner. All this documentation is necessary for both your company and the client. In the case that there are any issues or disputes in the working, the paperwork is what will work as the fail safe.
Another area where you need to focus on is client satisfaction, now that you have the client on board. Ensuring client satisfaction is one of the key ways to grow your business. Not only does it increase the overall retainership, it also gives you more chances to get new clients in the form of referrals.
Additionally, you can also use Salesforce to keep track of ongoing clients, then schedule different times for follow-ups. Keeping track of these clients will allow you to take advantage of potential upselling opportunities. Through upselling, you can leverage ongoing clients for the maximum amount of value.
Salesforce can also serve as a repository where you can save all your essential client information. By keeping your client information in one place, you’ll make it much easier for your team to collaborate and generate a more cohesive approach for your clients.
Conclusion
In today's competitive business landscape, closing deals efficiently and effectively is paramount. Salesforce, a powerful CRM tool, offers a comprehensive solution to streamline the entire sales process. By understanding the key stages of the sales pipeline and leveraging Salesforce's capabilities, businesses can significantly enhance their sales performance.
From prospecting and qualifying leads to negotiating deals and securing customer commitments, Salesforce provides essential tools and features. By utilizing active listening, positive body language, and common ground-finding techniques, sales reps can build strong relationships with potential clients. Furthermore, employing effective closing techniques like the trial close, assumptive close, scarcity close, and takeaway close can significantly increase the chances of closing deals.
Once a deal is closed, it's crucial to maintain strong customer relationships. Salesforce can help track client interactions, schedule follow-ups, and identify upselling opportunities. By prioritizing customer satisfaction and leveraging Salesforce's capabilities, businesses can foster long-lasting partnerships and drive continued growth.
In conclusion, Salesforce empowers sales teams to work smarter, not harder. By embracing this powerful tool and implementing the strategies outlined in this article, businesses can achieve greater success in closing deals and ultimately drive revenue growth.
