In the previous chapter we talked about “Qualifying a lead”. We have introduced the BANT sales qualification methodology and discussed how it can help you prioritize your time between leads and how to use this methodology effectively to close more opportunities. And we have completed the “Qualifying a lead” chapter with a list of questions to help you to dig deeper into each criteria during a two-way dialogue you’re having with the lead.

Now, if you are at the closing stage with your lead, this means that you have been able to validate at least two, ideally three, BANT criteria. Congratulations on this! Your objective now is to clear the remaining criteria, and help the lead justify a buying decision for themself and their organization. Budget, authority and/or timeline are usually the last criteria that remain unclear.

Check budget

To qualify the budget, you want to understand if there is a budget already allocated to the purchase of the WingtraOne. If not, you should develop an understanding of how the company’s budgets are set and re-engage the conversation when the planning period starts again.

Check timeline

To get a timeline, you may want to ask questions about upcoming projects where WingtraOne would be ideal, and their related deadlines. You can also learn about the organization's buying cycle and procurement process, and any related timeframe.

Check authority

For authority, make sure you understand which stakeholders are involved in the buying decision: users, influencers, decision-makers and buyers. It could very well be that one person assumes all these roles. But larger organizations have buying centers gathering multiple people with different roles for making decisions. In this case, you want to be sure you have all of them covered. Make sure all roles express the concerns or objections they may have. And work your way around to address all of them, one by one, with the right counter responses and sales plays.

Later in this page, we will share best practices for making regular and effective follow-ups. And we will give you our most effective sales plays you can use to back your talking points and address the lead’s objections. So let’s go close this deal. Success!

Handling objections

In this chapter

How to handle objections?

Counter responses

How to handle objections?

At the time of making a final call on a buying decision, the lead might raise objections that you better be ready to handle. Here we have listed the most common objections we’ve seen from drone users at the closing stage. This should help you handle them efficiently with the right counter responses and the related content to back them up.

Counter responses

This content in our knowledge base is available for you. The way we use it at Wingtra is by having it in front of us - or in our head - when talking to a lead. We’ve organized it so that we can easily navigate between pages depending on where we are into the conversation. That is, whether we are qualifying the lead, handling objections or using the sales plays.

Follow-ups

In this chapter

How to perfect your art of the follow-up?

Reach out regularly

Offer multiple communication channels

Provide value with each follow-up

How to perfect your art of the follow-up?

According to a study by Brevet, 80% of sales require an average of five follow-ups in order to close the deal. However, 44% of sales reps follow up with a prospect only once before giving up. After four follow-ups, 94% of sales people have given up. That’s a lot of potential sales - 80% actually - that are never being closed, and potential revenue that is being left on the table!

In fact, do you know the number one reason why a lead won’t get back to you? It’s not because they are not interested... it’s because they are busy. Just busy! In other words if you have qualified them, they’re probably not ignoring you because they don’t want what you have to offer. You just need to be tenacious to get their attention because they have a lot going on. And here is how to perfect your art of the follow-up.

Reach out regularly

Purchasing decisions often move slowly, especially when it is about a drone expense in the tens of thousands of dollars. You should give enough time to your lead to reflect and make an informed decision. Over this same time, you want to keep the ball rolling into the consideration for the WingtraOne. So your challenge is to space out your follow ups in a way that fits both constraints. There’s no exact formula for correctly spacing your follow-ups. Every day will be far too often, and once a month is not enough. I find that once per week or so is appropriate in most circumstances.

Here’s an extra tip for you: set reminders for your future self on your calendar to ensure you never miss the opportunity to follow up at the right time.

Offer multiple communication channels

People are more likely to respond to your follow-ups when you use a contact method they are comfortable with. Emails, text messaging, phone calls, video calls on from your online tools, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram or any other platform. Giving this choice shows you care about your leads’ convenience much more than simply expecting them to be available when you ring, or you send an email. In short, if you’re not sure what someone prefers, try different follow-up methods. People may prefer different methods of communication, and what gets one person’s attention will go ignored by another. On the other hand, if someone specifies a particular method of communication, respect that. You won’t endear yourself to a lead if you keep calling them after they’ve said they like to do all business by email.

Provide value with each follow-up

Keep notes about the prospect’s pain points and the problems they are trying to solve — Always center the conversation on these pain points and problems.

Remember: you’re not just selling a product. You’re selling a solution to a problem.

Include a link to a relevant article, blog post, use cases or video in your follow-up email — The content must relate strongly to the prospect and the problems they’ve told you they are facing. By providing them with useful content, you prove that you are interested in a mutually beneficial relationship as opposed to a quick sale.

Remember that “value” does not have to be financial. You simply need to ensure that you are offering something useful to the person every time you speak to them.

Another way to provide value is to always define the next steps in your conversation. For example, if the prospect says they need time to discuss your offer with their team, agree to follow up with them a week or two later. If you’ve held a successful demo and they have expressed interest, arrange another call soon to move things along. Be as specific as possible. “I’ll call you next week” is vague. “I’ll call you on Wednesday — how’s 9:30 for you?” is much better.

Closing sales plays

In this chapter

When to use sales plays?

Extended services play

Limited offer play

Test drive play

Connecting to happy customer play

When to use sales plays?

In order to help you to back the counter responses, we have also shared our best sales plays at closing stage. These sales plays are cards you may want to use in order to address specific objections or to push the lead in a timeline for making a decision. This way, you double down the counter responses by matching your words with clear actions to support the lead.

From our experience, the best sales plays are:

Extended services play
Limited offer play
Test drive play
Connecting to happy customer play

To know how to use each sales play, you can go into the knowledge base and read the instructions. Each play is structured with 4 sections: