Not all buying signals are created equal. Some are stronger than others. If you assume they are the same, then you could also try to close too soon. On the other hand, if you fail to recognize when prospects are ready to buy, then you could still lose the sale because you didn’t time it right.

A perfect example of this is when prospects ask for more information. It’s always to help them fill in the gaps, but the holes that remain may still be too big for them to buy. If you jump into your closing routine, then you could scare them off. They might feel that you’re moving too fast for them.

So what are the best signs that someone is getting ready to buy? How can you know that the signals you’re getting are leading up to your closing sequence?

Let’s be clear. We’re thinking about more than a couple of steps here.

It’s true that prospects will ask you for more information about your product. It’s also true that they may ask a different type of question, switching back and forth between what it does to how it could work for them. But within that, you will hear other things, and that’s what you need to listen for.

They see themselves using your product

Estate agents will tell you that people are serious about buying your house when they start to picture themselves living there. You can hear it in their conversation. “This would be Nigel’s room. We could put the sofa against that wall, and the flat screen TV here. And this room would be perfect for guests. And look. There’s even space under the stairs for your office. We wouldn’t have to devote a whole room in the house to it.”

And just like house-buying, your prospects will keep coming back to what your product can do for them as they think about their various problems. They want the big picture as well as the details. When you hear them trying fill in the gaps, you know you’re getting close.

A house solves a living problem for a family; your product solves a problem for your prospects.

It’s possible, too, that they will voice past frustrations they had with a different product. This is a chance for you to make a comparison between what you offer and what they used. Be careful not to talk down your competitors, but don’t be afraid to point out the weaknesses in their products.

They talk about using your product in a way you hadn’t thought of

Another buying signal occurs when prospects start to talk about how to use your products in ways you hadn’t thought of.

Here you have to resist the temptation to take back control of the process. You have to remember that you are there to help them solve a problem; but you have to be flexible enough to let them solve it their way. If you insist on your product being used in a particular way, you could lose the sale.

Alan Weiss, US author and management consultant, tells this story. He offers his clients a 10% discount if they pay in full upfront. This arrangement, of course, helps his cash flow – something that small businesses especially depend upon for survival.

Although the savings is beneficial to clients, that apparently is not the primary reason why it has proven to be a popular approach. One customer told him that they used it because it meant that they got what they needed if there were budget cuts. Having already paid for it, the company couldn’t deny them access to it.

So the client saw a benefit which the supplier had overlooked.

Prospects start making more notes

No one can remember everything. When your prospects begin scribbling faster, trying to record more information, asking you to repeat what you’ve said, picking up the pace of the conversation and even talking about details and dates, it’s time for you to stop selling and allow the buyer to take over. You may not even have to close. It could simply fall in your lap.

Let it.            

Prospect enthusiasm

The last one is that your prospects become enthusiastic. They get excited about you and your product.

Most meetings start out politely. Prospects are giving you the benefit of the doubt. They want to hear what you have to say; but most of them are cautious, if not sceptical.

When their tone changes to enthusiasm, then you know that you’re onto something. When they can’t wait to get started, that’s a powerful buying signal.

Think of the long lines of people queueing outside an Apple store when a new iPhone is released, or the people who spend the night outside of Harrods’s so that they be the first in the door for the after-Christmas sale.

That’s what enthusiasm looks like. Ordinary people doing ordinary things day in and day out until the day of or the day before the big opportunity. Then they go crazy.

Your prospects may suddenly ask you when you can start, or maybe they’ll tell you when they want you to start, and you’ll have to tell them that you can’t fit them in for a few weeks or months.

There are other buying signals to watch out for. Everyone is different. But these are strong signals, and they may not be ones that you would necessarily think of.

If it is important that you sell more and more often – click this link to email me