Soft Closing

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2 - The Foundation

A soft close requires a response from the customer, but not a definite commitment. Soft closes are largely assumptive statements or questions designed to plant a seed in their mind about why you are ultimately there and how they can obtain the service or product you offer. When the customer responds to a soft close, he/she will reveal missing information required for the sale which will give you the opportunity to add the proper ingredients to finalize the sale.

There are a few purposes of a soft close. One is to lead the conversation into “yes” mode created by multiple questions in which the customer will respond “yes.” In doing so, the customer will be used to saying yes, and when the opportunity comes to hard close, the theory is that they will also say “yes” because they have repeatedly done so already.

You can also use soft closing in order to gauge how the customer is feeling or how interested they are throughout the set. Using soft closes like, have you guys ever looked into solar in the past? will give the customer an opportunity to respond and give you plenty of information on how to proceed effectively with the rest of the conversation. For example. if the customer responds, “yes and we weren’t interested” then you know they already have exposure to solar and you can more quickly fond out what held them up from going solar in the past in order to have a more solid set.

Examples of Soft Closes:

How long have you lived in the home?
Do you know how much energy you used last month?
When was the last time you had a energy audit done on your home?
Do you guys plan to live here for at least a couple more years?
Do you pay your bills online, or get them in the mail?
Did you receive the notice from the utility company about the increase in rates?
Is this the ______ residence? I/m glad I caught you...
If we are able to qualify you to pay zero dollars out pocket upfront, replace your utility bill with a cheaper, fixed payment, and increase the home value immediately, would that be of interest to you?
Is it you or someone else that pays your power bill?
Do you know, roughly how old your roof is?

All of these examples of soft closes are questions to gauge the level of interest of the customer but do not require them to commit to anything. Notice that the answer will also not hurt your pitch.

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