How to Accelerate a Close by lisafugere

[Doha]

How to Accelerate a Close
by lisafugere

When the pressure is hot to close at the end of the month, the quarter, or the end of the year, we start looking for deals to squeeze in before the next period begins. Sometimes we?re lucky to have found those extra deals at the beginning of the closing period, but other times, we?re stuck with a cleared forecast and a pipeline of deals scheduled to close sometime in a future that seems very distant. So how do you close a deal now that?s forecasted to close two months from now?

Make an immediate close attractive
If you can offer a discount, do it. And set an expiration date for the last day of the month. You may lose a few dollars, but those are dollars that won?t otherwise count in your quota. If you need the deal in before year?s end, offer a month or two of free service; start the contract on March 1st if you can get their payment today. You can also offer free training or services. It?s also worth it to frame out exactly how much money your prospect will save if they buy right now. Maybe your product helps your customers lower marketing costs ? show them the dollar amount or percentage that they?ll save in those extra two months of using your product or service.

Stay top of mind
Contact the prospects in your forecast for future closes. Maybe they?ve been in your pipeline for six months with instructions to close three months from now. You don?t always know what has changed within their organization in that time. Maybe they?ve rearranged the department and you?ll be dealing with a new decision maker who?s open to buying now. A tweet or an email is a small price to pay for closing ahead of schedule.

Reach out to all the decision makers
Find the contact information for all the individuals involved in the decision to buy your products. If your proposal gets stuck on the CFO?s desk, find out how to reach the CFO on Twitter or by phone or email, and contact the CFO directly. Going back and forth between your main contact keeps the deal familiar and professional, but when you can?t afford to wait around for gatekeepers to get to your name on a list of things to do, take action to move yourself to the top of that list.

Confirm prospects? schedules
Especially when closing time comes during a holiday season or three-day weekend, make sure your prospect is in town. They won?t necessarily volunteer their vacation schedule, but you don?t want to end up postponing a close because you didn?t know your prospect was going to Bali for a week.

Instill fear in your prospects
The fear of a missed opportunity can get you a long way. Present information to your prospects that spurs them into immediate action. Some prospects will delay forever unless you give them a little push, just make sure you use this tactic on those prospects, and not on the ones who are ready and willing to buy. Send over breaking news about your industry that reassures your prospects they?re not making a mistake. Point out their competitors? healthy balance sheets. Forward economic and federal speculation about shifts that will make their needs more acute. And if you?re unwilling to risk putting them off, the least you can do is put that information in places where you know they?ll see it, such as Twitter, or Facebook, or a LinkedIn group to which they belong.