Always give your client options, and make the last option the one that you want them to choose.
For example, “It’s totally up to you. You can wait to get a few more quotes or I can collect your credit card right now and get everything sent over to your email so you don’t have to worry about it anymore.”
Better yet, make every option lead to the close, so no matter what the client picks, it results in the deal, but they feel like they chose it.
For example, “So we have two options here: I can send you a link where you can input your credit card on your own, or I can collect your card over the phone and then I can get started on your paperwork right away. Whatever works best for you.”
Both options lead to the close. Asking for the close this way is better than asking a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question.
With a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question, the client feels the pressure to choose ‘yes’ because they know that’s what the salesperson wants, but maybe they’re not ready and then they get nervous and choose ‘no’ because that’s the only other option.
Instead, if you ask a ‘yes’ or ‘yes’ question, the client still has the freedom to choose. And instead of making a big decision about whether to do the deal or not, they can just make a small decision about how they want to do the deal.
People love choice. They don’t want to feel like they’re being pressured into something where there’s only one outcome—the buying outcome that the salesperson is pushing them towards.
Let the client feel that they have the power to choose, while you, as the salesperson, maintain control over the choices that they have to choose from.
All this being said, I wouldn’t recommend giving the client options the very first time that you ask for the close. The first time you ask for the close, it should be more direct, with only one option—to buy.
Then, after you start getting objections, and you’re looping back after asking more questions and selling more value, then you can start using the options format when you’re asking for the close a third, fourth, and fifth time.