When dealing with prospects, there are very few aggressive sales tactics that actually work—most will scare them away. But when you want to make the sale, sometimes you need to use persuasive sales tactics to get the job done.

Here are some persuasive sales tactics that are just the right balance of pushy and convincing.

1. Letting Them Make the Next Move

When you know a prospect is likely to buy, it’s easy to get antsy. This might make you try to push the prospect into a sale too soon. Every prospect is different and each will follow his company’s buying process. So you need to follow it as well. You need to adjust to every buyer’s schedule and preferences. By letting your prospects make the next move, while only offering guidance in the meantime, you can ensure that you’re not forcing them through your organization’s sales funnel before they’re ready.

2. Personalizing Your Messaging

Using scripted sales emails and calls just doesn’t work anymore. The sales process is now totally focused on the buyer, so you need to get to know the buyer’s business before reaching out. Non-personalized messaging just doesn’t work because it doesn’t give the buyer a reason to care about what you’re saying. You’ll be just another sales person in a sea of sales people and your messages will be ignored.

By personalizing your emails and calls, you can build rapport so you can get off on the right foot. Put in the extra time to get to know your prospects—getting personal is one of the most persuasive sales tactics that will work to garner attention.

3. Providing Value

It seems simple, doesn’t it? But providing value to your prospects can make a world of difference. Stop sending out your “just checking in” emails because they’re just going to turn off your prospects. Every time you reach out to a prospect, you need to be adding value so that your buyers see a return on their time invested. Send along a case study, testimonial, or some interesting media coverage about the buyer’s industry.

4. Providing Clear Information

This is one of the persuasive sales tactics that is often overlooked as unimportant. But trust us, you want your information to be clear, simple, and concise in order to keep buyers interested. Unclear and complex information will scare off prospects because they won’t know what they’re actually buying. And if you’re too vague, they’ll feel like you’re holding something back, so they won’t trust you.

5. Agreeing to Terms, but Getting Something Back in Return

Sometimes, you’re going to get prospects who are going to want to run the show and this can be detrimental to the deal. You don’t just want to flat out say that you’re not going to do what they asked if you honestly can, because this will turn them off. So instead, agree to the terms, but say that you’re going to need to get something in return.

6. Using the Feel, Felt, Found Approach

The feel, felt, found approach is one of the oldest persuasive sales tactics that still works because it is based on emotion. When you let a prospect know that you understand where he’s coming from and that you’ve dealt with a similar situation in the past, you can gain credibility and trust as well as build rapport. This is a far better way to handle objections than to get defensive.

7. Offering an Alternative

When a deal doesn’t work for the prospect or your company and you don’t offer any alternatives, you back the prospect into a corner, which isn’t good. Offering an alternative solution can open up the opportunity to have a brainstorming session so you can close a deal that works for you both.