The Top 10 Ways to Make Sure Your Meetings Lead to Closed Deals

For the best sales tactics, I still reread greats like Brian Tracy and Zig Ziglar and adapt certain details to today’s selling climate. Normally, I focus on replicable processes and ways to build out sustainable growth for mid to later stage companies.

Many great tactics have been passed down through the sales generations, and most focus on framing conversations as you are trying to sell. While human dynamics have evolved over time, they haven’t changed as radically as we may think. Much of the old wisdom is successful even in today’s ADD selling environment.

Here are 10 classic but still effective tactical moves that will help you close deals.

1. Open early and close late

Use open-ended questions to invite conversation early, and close-ended questions to get to a point of agreement. Examples: Do you see how this will help? Do you see how this will get you to your goal of X? Ok excellent…now buy.

2. Speak their name and company name frequently

Granted, more than 10 times may be overkill, but this technique invariably helps to create a more human connection. If you overuse, you may come off as too personal too quickly —  use 5 times as a good starting place.

3. Recap early and often

Recapping what someone else has said makes people feel listened to, and ensures that you are pulling out the necessary facts and most relevant issues for your potential client.

4. Lead the conversation

Don’t leave it to the other party to control the conversation — but don’t be dominating or rude, either. With a good set of conversation techniques, you can give someone else the sense of control, but still be the one driving toward next steps. In negotiations, this is particularly important, so you can guide who plays their cards first.

5. Tell stories, don’t describe features

People want to know what things will do for them, or how a product or service will affect their day-to-day. The don’t care about the feature as a standalone with all sorts of bells and whistles. Context is key. So tell stories around how your product or service helps them or helped a previous customer.

6. If all else fails, get super passionate!

This is a last resort (you don’t want to overuse passion) but when a meeting goes way off track and can’t be brought back in, passion alone can be enough to convince people. Get enthusiastic, and your passion will be infectious.

7. Trust only gets you so far

First, build the business case, and then let trust be what seals the deal. When someone talks about trust or giving something/someone a chance but hasn’t built out a case for why this sale will help the company…run fast. Instead, look for the proof or data to drive a potential investment, tell your story, and then let trust be the final step.

8. He who talks the most usually loses

This may sound tough to reconcile with leading the conversation (see Tip 4) but it’s actually a valuable add-on. Be curious and ask plenty of questions about the person’s or company’s needs, so you can best position what you do in response. Don’t try to overwhelm people with everything you do or your product does, and how great you are. Let them talk through guided conversation and then use that information to better present your case.

9. Your job is to sell, not to foster new friendships

Yes, make people like you. Yes, be friendly and personable. But also know your goal is to have the other person do something for you — aka, buy. I prefer to keep my business contacts slightly more at arms length and prove out the business value first, and then let the personal element be the icing on the cake. Become friends after business is done. When you lead with the personable side, it can be tough to switch to being a shrewd negotiator, or an effective salesperson.

10. Make your “yes” and “no” piles bigger than your “maybe” pile

“Maybe” will kill your business and suck up your time. Many people are terrified of rejection or of having a difficult conversation, so they put off “no” conversations for far longer than they should. You have to set deadlines and timelines throughout a sales process to know if it is going to happen, or if someone is just kicking the tires.

Establishing a clear and consistent sales process is critical to your business’ success long-term, and having effective tactics can help more people get over the fear of buying. These tactics, coupled with a reliable sales process, will lead to significantly higher engagement from prospects, and are fun to use in action. Take these to heart, and remember: sales is about making things happen, not sitting back and waiting for someone to buy.