Only 19% of sales close, so you can have lots of selling conversations and the best closing skills but still not win new business consistently. That's because there is more to closing a sale than asking for the business.

Not all prospects are a good fit for your product or service. And if your potential buyer isn't ready to make a purchase, then your odds of successfully closing the deal is dead. That's why you need to recognize your prospects' buying signals.

But this isn't only about identifying when your leads are ready to buy your product or service. These signs occur throughout the buyer's journey.

So, you need to watch and listen for buying signals during prospecting calls, discovery calls, demos, and every other prospect engagement. This includes phone calls, emails, social media interactions, data within your sales tools and video calls.

But what are buying signals?

Buying signals are verbal and non-verbal cues, signs, or indicators that tell you when the lead is either ready to buy or interested in moving forward in their buying process.

You will often see buying signals from your prospect when a lead schedules a discovery call or when an opportunity responds to an email you've sent requesting additional information. In both cases, the prospect is giving buying signals indicating their interest in moving forward even though they aren't ready to become customers yet, by signing on the dotted line.

Buying signals are like road signs, helping you recognize how to proceed with each prospect. A lack of buying signals might even mean not advancing them through the sales process.

Spotting these buying signals is more critical than ever because sales reps are getting less time with prospects. For example, B2B buyers currently spend only 17% of their time meeting with potential suppliers. And if the prospect is considering multiple solutions, your time with this potential customer drops to as little as 4-5% of the time it takes for them to make a buying decision.

This lack of face time with your leads gives you less time to pick up on indicators that the lead is interested in buying or moving forward with the sales process. So, it's essential that you learn to quickly recognize buying signals as they happen so you can respond appropriately. Reading the prospect's buying signals can also save you time by allowing you to disqualify potential customers too. You want to disqualify potential buyers because you don't want to spend precious selling time with prospects who aren't a good fit for your product.

They are less likely to close or may take longer to close and are more likely to be dissatisfied or churn. Churn is when a customer cancels their subscription to your product after a short period or chooses not to renew.

Ultimately, by spending your time with highly qualified leads who will most benefit from your solution, you significantly increase your close rate.

Buying signals can be verbal or non-verbal, and some are more subtle than others, but with practice, you can learn to recognize all the different buying signals communicated by your prospects.

Here are some examples of positive buying signals or signs when a prospect is interested in buying from you:

An excellent way to develop your ability to recognize buying signals is to record your phone and video calls. Then review each call to see which buying signals were displayed by the prospect. Next, identify the ones you didn't recognize in real-time during the live call, so you don't miss them next time around. Doing this consistently will help you hear and see buying signs more quickly until it becomes automatic.

Even the most skilled reps don't close every prospect. It doesn't matter how well your sales and marketing team have done, the buyers purchasing intent is down to you to understand.

But the better you get at recognizing buying signals, the more time you'll end up spending with highly qualified prospects. This increases the percentage of prospects that you close. And it prevents you from wasting valuable selling time with leads who aren't a good fit for your product or service. This makes it easier to hit or exceed your quota targets and increases your number of sales.

So, learn to identify buying signals, revisit all your calls to figure out which signs you missed, and you'll soon become proficient at knowing when to progress the sale to a close.

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