The challenges of closing
What is the closing step?
It's very simple: it's when a prospect becomes a customer because he purchased your product or service. It's the moment that actually makes all of your business's marketing and sales efforts and investments a reality.
You can have the best strategies in the world, the largest number of prospects in the world, if you have 0% closing you make 0 in turnover.
Why is it important to have a good closing rate?
Optimizing your closing rate is one of the most powerful levers for multiplying your result.
Even a modest improvement can have an exponential impact: going from 15% to 20% of the closing rate, for example, does not only mean 5 points more, but potentially 33% additional turnover for an equivalent volume of opportunities.
That is to say his sensitivity.
As a final indicator, it is also a barometer of the effectiveness of your entire sales funnel, from lead generation to conclusion.
What is a good closing rate?
Good question.
In fact, the only correct answer to this question is the following: The right closing rate is the one that is better than the closing rate of the previous quarter.
Well yes, it doesn't matter if you have a 10% - 30% or even 80% closing rate (good luck for that), the important thing is to do better each quarter.
That being said, the average B to B closing rate is between 15 and 25% in France. But that's not a “good rate” and can be the result of a lot of different things.
At Sales Odyssey in 2024 it's 77%. Unbelievable! Or not...
In fact, this comes from our acquisition strategy, which is based on two pillars: Inbound marketing (35% of turnover) and the customer recommendation (35%), the remainder is upsell on existing customers. These are channels that greatly promote a good conversion rate.
In fact, my interpretation of it is that it is too high. We don't take enough risks, we win because we won in advance. How? By being in exactly the right place, at the right time, with an offer that can be demonstrated to be effective.
It is much more difficult when you contact someone who does not know you and who may not even be aware that they have a problem. So if your acquisition is based on cold prospecting, or Ads.
It's more difficult.
The levers to improve your closing rate
So how do you improve your closing rate? By working on everything that precedes this stage! It is illusory to believe that there are magic techniques for a successful closing when it is supposed to happen. Closing and its success rate take root much sooner.
The first and most powerful lever is your entire sales process. A high closing rate is the consequence of a frictionless journey, where each step is designed to make the prospect progress logically.
This involves:
- One initial and continuous, brilliant and rigorous qualification, to ensure that efforts are focused on the most promising opportunities.
- THE strategic use of relevant content at every stage (case studies, demonstrations, ROI calculators, clear value proposals) to educate, reassure and convince.
- Enablment room tools can here make it easier for salespeople to access the right resources at the right time.
- Clear passage criteria between stages, based on concrete actions by the prospect.
Your sales process should be a clear roadmap, detailing key actions at each stage of the decision journey of your prospects. Clear qualification and progression criteria between stages are essential to ensure the consistency and reliability of your pipeline. If the answer to “What is your sales process?” is “It depends”, clarification is needed. Defining or rigorously refining your sales process is often the most profitable investment in your sales performance.
The origin and initial quality of your leads strongly determine their closing potential. Leads resulting from a targeted inbound marketing strategy or active recommendations will have a much higher level of maturity and predisposition than those from unqualified cold prospecting. One close alignment between marketing and sales teams on the definition of the ideal lead (ICP) and the qualification criteria (MQL, SQL) is fundamental here to feed the pipeline with opportunities with greater potential for final conversion.
Although the closing is prepared in advance, its realization requires control of the final interactions:
- Expert objection management: Understand legitimate concerns and respond to them with confidence and solid arguments.
- Value-oriented negotiation: Defend your price by relying on the value delivered, and not by giving in to the first pressure.
- Administrative fluidity: Use modern tools (interactive proposals, electronic signature) to simplify the last formalities and avoid last-minute blockages.
- Analysis of interactions: Tools like conversational analytics can help identify best practices during critical exchanges and coach teams.
The action plan to double your closing rate
Radically transforming your closing rate is an ambitious but achievable project with a rigorous methodology. Here's how we approach this challenge at Sales Odyssey:
Before any action, a precise diagnosis is required. We analyze your sales data, your existing process, the quality of your leads, the skills of your teams and your tools. How do you measure your closing rate? What are your targets and why? The objective is to uncomplacently identify the real obstacles and priority levers for improvement.
This is often where the most significant potential for improvement lies. We work to optimize each step of your process:
- Refined qualification criteria to focus efforts.
- Alignment of sales actions on the real buying journey of your customers.
- Integration of “proof of value” and high value-added content at key moments.
- Optimizing the configuration of your CRM to actively support this process and provide reliable data for piloting.
- Definition of sales methods and objection management adapted.
A successful process needs quality fuel. If the audit reveals weaknesses in the initial generation or qualification of leads, we optimize your acquisition strategy to attract higher-intent prospects. At the same time, we can identify training needs for your teams on crucial aspects of the new process or consultative selling and negotiation techniques. The aim is to create total coherence, from the first interaction to the signature.
FAQ: Improving my closing rate
What is the “right” closing rate to aim for?
The ideal closing rate is one that is constantly increasing and is the result of a controlled process, and not by chance. While the B2B average in France is around 20%, this figure masks major disparities due to the acquisition strategy (inbound vs. outbound), to the sector, and to the complexity of sales. Focus on the continuous improvement of your rate.
What are the most impacting levers to improve your closing rate?
Mostly: 1. rigor and relevance of your sales process, in particular the qualification stage. 2. quality and maturity of leads from your acquisition strategy. These two elements, when optimized and aligned, have a multiplier effect on your ability to close.
Is there a miracle “closing technique”?
It does not exist. To pretend otherwise is incompetence and naivety. Closing is the result of a long conversion process and to improve it you have to be better from one end of the process to the other. Of course you can use a few techniques but they won't change a no to yes after a botched sales process.
