June | 2008 | Common Sense Marketing

How to Close a Sale with a Contract

If you’re anything like me, your in-person and on the phone sales often come to a close when the prospect signs off on your sales contract. From that point, you can get on with work and send a bill.

But what’s the worst part of closing a sale with a sales contract? It’s the waiting. Waiting for the client to receive a copy in their mail or email; waiting for them to sign it and mail it/fax it/scan it back to you.

This part of the process has always been a killer for me because it gives the prospect enough time to lose confidence in their ability to choose the right product and call the deal off. The solution that I’ve started using is an online contract tool called SignatureConfirm.

This utility lets you make a contract online that another party can digitally sign. You can write whatever you need to in the contract part, and it will show up in your prospect’s email box. The best part is that once they get the email, they can digitally sign it right then and there! I’ve used this tool to narrow my 5-7 day contract waiting period down to less than a day. In some cases when I’m talking to a client on the phone, I can close in 5 minutes!

Picture this:

Me: Hi Bob, thanks for taking my call. Did you get a chance to look at those estimates I sent over?

Bob: Hi Keith! I did, and they look good. We’d like to move forward.

Me: Great! I’m emailing a contract over to you and we’ll start work as soon as you sign off on it. Look for the email from SignatureConfirm. You should have it by now.

Bob: I got it – I just put in the code and check the box?

Me: Yep.

Bob: Good deal! Do I need to do anything else?

Me: Nope, we’re all set! Thanks for the call and if you need anything call or email me anytime.

This is a true story, and it’s not the only client I’ve signed off like that. The ease of use factor does wonders for the time turnaround. I also have a theory that as a whole, we’re starting to get pretty blind to those little “Accept the terms of usage” checkboxes that you see on web sites everywhere and we’re more apt to click first and ask questions later.

Regardless of how you use it, it’s a good tool and I highly recommend it.

Improve Sales with a Loss Leader

Loss leaders are an integral part of sales. McDonald’s sells a double cheeseburger for basically the same amount it costs them to make it, but they turn a profit when you get fries and a Coke to go with it!

My business is consulting, which means my product is intellectual rather than physical. If I’m giving something away, it’s generally an information packet, a resource, or some advice. If you read my article on closing sales with email, you know that I generally have a good chance of closing sales either in person or on the phone. With that in mind, here’s a loss leader I ran on an internet advertisement recently:

Free Web Site Work – Tuesday, May 27th

On Tuesday May 27th, all the web site work done out of my office will be free. If you have a web site you would like updated, a project you want to discuss, or need some free advice please give us a call at the number below between 8am and 5pm.

Please don’t wait to call – calls will be first come, first served.

Our office phone: 999-999-9999

Who are you?

I’m the owner of medium sized web-design firm in the DFW area. Our focus is on web site design, maintenance, and marketing for local small businesses.

Why are you doing this?

Word of mouth is a powerful advertising tool. If we can help you and you like working with us, please tell a friend or consider us for your next project.

What can you help me with?

My specialty areas are web design, CSS, HTML, PHP programming, mysql databases, email marketing and online advertising. I have people in my office who can talk intelligently about search engine optimization and pay per click marketing as well.

Thanks,

Keith

Response to this ad was great, and I was really surprised at how little actual work I had to do. Most of the calls I got were from individuals who wanted to talk about ideas or just ask questions. I spent most of the day talking to prospects interested in developing web sites. The best part was that they called me!

At the end of the day I had finalized some sales, set up a new referral partnership, and scheduled meetings with prospective customers.

Closing Sales with Email

In person sales are a talent of mine. I’m not the most silver-tongued devil out there, but I’m not afraid to stand in front of another person, tell them about my product, and ask for their business. It’s immensely helpful that I genuinely believe my product has value and that I have a list of clients to testify to that effect.

This is off the top of my head and has no mathematical basis whatsoever, but here’s an estimate of my close ratio based on different types of communication:

Email close ratio: 10%
Phone call close ratio: 35%
In-person close ratio: 60%

These numbers assume that the lead has a mild interest and some available funds to pursue a project.

Note the huge jump between email correspondence and an in-person meeting. Knowing that the ratio is so much higher for a phone call or meeting means that my #1 goal in email correspondence is to get you on the phone. At the bottom of my first email to you, you’ll often see the phrase:

Do you have time for a phone call this week?

Can you call my office tomorrow at 9:00am?

With this phone call, I’ll often feel the prospect out for the next step. Sometimes I try to get their business then and there, other times I’ll go for a meeting. It’s a judgment call based on my instincts about the client. When in doubt, go for a meeting.

If for any reason I feel like the lead is a dead end, or is just not willing to take a call I do one of the following via email:

Present an invoice and payment method. Asking for business is a hard thing, but it has to happen. If you wait for people to volunteer it, your closing ratio will suffer. I’ve sat in on sales meetings where an inexperienced sales rep will spend an hour outlining the product and extolling its virtues, only to forget to ask for the sale at the end! The best way to avoid this mistake via email is to state that you’re ready to start the project and to clearly outline your payment method. Here’s an excerpt from one recent email:

Thanks for taking the time to talk with me today! I’ve attached an invoice to cover the initial payment on your project so we can get started. You can make a payment online at website payment address, or call my office and we’ll do it over the phone. If you have any questions, please email or call me anytime.

If upfront payment isn’t part of your business model (even though it should be) try to cement the deal with a contract. I use a digital signature service so customers can sign contracts online.
End by asking a leading question to keep the communication open. The longer you stay in touch with your prospect, the better your chances of closing a sale. You have to keep current on your follow ups for this to work! Just reference anything from your communication so far and ask them to elaborate. People love to talk about their ideas.
Be super helpful. One of the best ways I’ve found to get clients off the fence is to offer them free advice. I say things like:

Email me when you start doing blank. It’s not part of my business, but I’ve worked on blank before and I can probably point you in the right direction.
Share a lead. People will be extremely receptive to you if they think they can make money off of you. Look into setting up a referral partner for this kind of thing. Nothing schedules a call faster than “I think I may have a lead for you. Are you available for a phone call?”
Ask for permission to follow up. Something like:

I’d like to follow up with you when you hit the next stage of your project. When do you think would be a good time for that?

Don’t forget to follow up with them.
Create a sense of urgency. Be careful with this one because it’s a gamble that doesn’t always pay off. If your client is teetering on making a decision, imply that your offer will expire or that there will be something to lose if they don’t act quickly. This is a classic sales technique (just watch any auto-dealership commercial on TV). The line I use most often in email is:

If you could, let me know about this project by Tuesday morning. We’ve scheduled another client for work this month, but I’d like to get you in before we start them so we can finish in your time frame.

None of these are magic bullets to close sales, but hopefully they’ll help you develop your own style. Remember that while having a few go-to tactics to help out in tough situations is nice, they are no t a substitute for hard work, common courtesy, and a product that you believe in.

10 Ways I Improved My Web Design Business

Here are ten things that directly impacted the success of my web design business:

Build sales leads through face-to-face in person networking.
Accept credit cards online.
Require 50% payment in advance before starting a project.
People will respect you more if you charge them what you’re worth.
Spend equal amounts of time developing your own projects.
Track your profit and loss scrupulously.
Lock in repeat services like web hosting.
Build a network of reliable outsource vendors.
Establish referral partnerships.
Find a product you can deliver and focus on it.

I started this as an email in response to an article on kevinboss.net and it morphed into its own blog post. You can read Kevin’s article in full at:

5 Mistakes That Made Me A Better Freelancer

Autoresponder Success

Email auto responders are responsible for approximately 30% of the online product sales from my information based web sites.

My typical auto responder follow up happens like this:

Prospect signs up for the mailing list and receives a thank you email that day.
A second email is sent the next day with a follow up.
For the next month, we send emails on a weekly basis – always on the same day and time of the week. If this is when they were free to sign up, then they’re most likely free to read follow up emails.
Following the first month, we go to bi-weekly emails.
After that, we send out monthly until the end of the follow up series.

A lot of people ask me if it does any good to follow up for such a long period of time. Here are a few samples from the sales results of that site:

Joined 12/18/06, purchased product on 01/28/08, 405.97 days from signup.
Joined 01/07/08, purchased product on 01/25/08, 218.54 days from signup.
Joined 11/08/07, purchased product on 06/09/08, 213.95 days from signup.
Joined 08/19/07, purchased product on 02/19/08, 183.88 days from signup.
Joined 04/15/08, purchased product on 01/15/08, 90.59 days from signup.
Joined 11/13/07, purchased product on 01/10/08, 58.41 days from signup.
Joined 12/31/07, purchased product on 01/24/08, 24.07 days from signup.

Here are a few techniques I use to ensure successful campaigns:

Pre-qualify the recipient. In order to collect emails, I usually do a product giveaway. The product should be directly related to what you’re selling. That way, you know that anyone who signs up will have a good chance of becoming a customer.
Avoid stodgy subject lines. I try to use an email subject line like I would title an article – a three to five word description of what I’m about to talk about. I avoid things like June Newsletter
Personalization – During the signup process I ask the prospect for their first name and include it in all of the emails that go out to them.
Familiarity – I always try to write in a personal rather than formal tone. I find this more engaging and I think it helps to build trust with the reader.
Offer something of value. I rarely send out an email that’s just a straight sales pitch. I find people are more receptive to reading the emails if they offer something of value. It can be a short and informative article, a free download, or a helpful tip.
Pitch the product. Just because you’re a nice guy doesn’t mean you can’t try and sell your product. That’s what the autoresponder is for! Be sure to include a link to your product at the bottom of each email.

Ranking Keyword Video Tutorial

Someone sent this video tutorial to me the other day, and it’s not bad. Some of the techniques the narrator describes are tedious, but worthwhile. I think he leans a little more toward the game theory of search engine marketing as opposed to the larger picture, but that’s OK.

I’m actually a lot more interested in the tool he seems to be using.

Here’s the video