When it comes to winning deals, closing is the most important part of the sales process. Improving your closing skills is a crucial part of becoming a better salesperson.
As the art of sales has evolved, consumers have become less inclined to make a purchase when pushed to do so. Instead, they like to be sold to in a consultative way, having the salesperson understand what they want or need before they’re advised or offered a solution.
Asking the right questions has become an integral part of improving your conversion rate. In this article, we give you 9 examples of sales closing questions.
Open With a Closing Question
Opening your conversation with the right question will ultimately help you close more sales. If it leads the conversation in the right direction, your opening question can be your most powerful question in helping you close.
Examples of these questions include:
What Brings You Here Today?
This is a great, non-threatening way to open the conversation to a new prospective customer. It immediately provides you with a summary of where they are in the sales funnel.
Are they just browsing – or is there something specific they wanted to explore? Why did they pick up the phone and call you?
This question puts the prospect at ease and shows that you are interested in them and what they are trying to achieve. This question can easily be rephrased to apply to all sales situations and not just those with a physical location.
Can I Help You Today?
Similar to the previous example, this is a great way to put your prospect at ease and show that you are there to understand what they are looking for. It also positions you as someone who wants to help them find solutions, opening the dialogue.
Can I Get You a Cup of Coffee?
This is the perfect opening question that will lead you towards closing a sale. It is a simple question that is easy for your prospect to say yes to, starting them down the road of being agreeable.
They will also feel like you have done them a small favor, opening them up to trusting you.
Explorative Sales Closing Questions
Just like closing questions being asked at the beginning of the conversation, they can also be asked during the conversation.
It is unlikely that one question will result in a sale, instead try asking a series of questions, which can help you understand the customers’ needs and how you can meet them.
Do this by asking these questions:
Why Are You Looking For (Your Product/Service)?
Your customers may be looking at your offering for any number of reasons. Not assuming your customers’ motivations means you’ll open yourself up to being a listening ear. With the right product knowledge, you can position your product or service in a way that addresses their problem.
By asking this and similar follow-up questions you start to develop an understanding of exactly why they are interested in what you have to offer. This will let you tailor the rest of the conversation, focusing on what’s important to them.
What is Important to You?
This is a key question that will help guide the conversation – cover what’s important to the prospect and identify potential objections.
For example, if you were selling something in the fashion space, you may typically focus your sales pitch on the style of the product. Although the style is likely to play some part, this question may also uncover that the prospect is interested in ethical fashion.
What Would Stop You Buying (Your Product/Service)?
A much more direct approach to uncovering objections is to ask the prospect specifically what would stop them from buying what you offer, which gives you a chance to handle their last-minute objections before it gets in the way of a sale.
Sales Closing Questions
More typically, when we think of a sales closing question we think of the question asked at the ends of the sales conversation, with the hope of making the physical sale.
These questions can be direct or indirect but ultimately aim to get a yes on the sale.
Should/Can We…?
This question can be used to sum up the feelings of the customer. For example:
- Can we get a quote sent over?
- Can we take your details?
- Should we reserve this for you?
Although this question isn’t directly asking for the sale, it should be a soft close, seeking to get a commitment from the prospect of making the purchase. This can be a good way to close when you are not certain if they are ready to buy, as it doesn’t end the conversation.
If I X, Would You Y?
This is another good way to test the water without directly asking the customer if they would like to buy. ‘X’ may refer to something that the customer has specifically asked for, for example:
- If I can secure you a 15% discount, would it be in your budget?
- If I can deliver this in the next two weeks, would it help you hit your deadline?
- If I can find it in that color, would you buy it?
Asking this sort of question puts you into a verbal contract with the prospect, making it much more likely for them to buy if you fulfill your side of the bargain.
Would You Like to Buy?
On occasion, a direct ask can work best. This is especially true if you know the prospect is likely to purchase from you or if they have come to you looking for something specific.
It can be difficult to pull back a sale after a ‘no’, so a direct ask to buy is only advisable if you are certain of the sale.
Want Better Conversion Rates?
Asking the right questions is by far the best way to improve your skills and make more sales. But a great closing question isn’t always asked at the end of the conversation, asking prospects well thought out questions from the very start is the best way to guide them towards a sale.
