No doubt one of the toughest things for new sales people to learn is how to close sales. You have your presentations down pat, you know your products or services backwards and forwards. You’ve got meetings lined up. But how can you actually get prospects to sign on the dotted line?

Closing deals isn’t easy. But if you follow these sales closing strategies, you’ll be able to close more deals and boost revenue.

Understand What the Customer Needs

It sounds simple, doesn’t it? But many sales people forget to focus on what the customer needs—they’re too focused on what they want out of the deal or they just assume they know what the buyer needs.

When you want to close a sale, you need to focus on what prompted the prospect to talk to you to begin with. Listen and learn what their key drivers are to buy. Ask questions if you’re not sure. The buyer has a pain point that is impacting their life or business, and you need to figure out how your offerings will help solve their problem.

If you cannot show prospects that you are selling them solutions to their problems, they probably won’t buy from you. Understanding what the customer needs is crucial to effectively closing deals.

Leverage Emotions

Want to close more deals and boost revenue? Then leverage your buyers’ emotions. Though some of the decision to buy comes from logic and rational thought, a lot of it comes down to emotions. Take away their fears or frustrations with the status quo. Give them hope that things will get better with your products or services. Get them excited about your new and innovative offerings. Make people feel, and you’ll close more deals.

Be Real

It’s one of the simplest sales closing strategies, but one that many sales people fail to use: being real. A client can sense if you’re being unauthentic and fake during the sales process. It’s critical that you effectively convey that you care about the client and their business and truly want to help. If you come off as too calculated, fake, or manipulative, buyers won’t trust you. You’ll push them further away and you’ll never close the sale.

Overcome Objections

You’ll be faced with at least one objection in virtually every sale that you try to close. If you cannot effectively respond to these objections, you won’t be able to get the sale in the end.

Be prepared. Anticipate any and all objections that the client might bring up so you’re not caught off guard. Give your colleagues your sales presentation to see if they can brainstorm any additional objections that you might have missed. When you’re prepared, you can more efficiently respond, appease concerns, and move on to the close.

Be Silent

It will be a painful and agonizingly long pause, but stay silent immediately after you’ve stated your price or offer. You must allow your customer to consider the opportunity to accept or object. If you keep talking and talking, trying to convince the buyer to purchase, you might end up talking your way right out of the deal. Never underestimate the power of silence in sales.

Ask

Sometimes it doesn’t come down to which sales closing strategies that you use. Sometimesyou just need to ask outright for the close. Many sales people—especially new ones—don’t believe in themselves enough to ask directly for the sale. Others are too scared of rejection or objections so they skip this part of the sales process. What do you have to lose? Once you know a prospect is ready to buy, just ask for the sale. You’ll be surprised how effective this is at boosting revenue.