A short YouTube/podcast-style monologue by Adam Kay teaching two specific closing questions for end-of-quarter tech/SaaS deals. He distinguishes two deal scenarios—(1) timing looks good (80%+ to close) where you ask “What would derail us from getting it done on that timetable from here?” to surface and mitigate risks, and (2) timing looks possible but tight where you ask “What conditions would have to be true for us to be able to move forward together on [X timetable]?” to learn what must change to make the deal close. He also advises pausing/silence after asking to let the buyer reveal useful information.
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All right, welcome to another episode of the Getting to Club podcast. This is the show where you learn to become and stay a President's Club winner in tech sales by stealing the tactics, playbooks and techniques and skills from the top 0.01% of tech sales practitioners. So today I'm going to teach you two questions that can help you close end of quarter deals on time. Okay, so that's what we're going to talk about. These questions are best asked usually two, three, maybe four weeks before quarter end. And here's how it works. There are generally two types of deals you have in your pipeline toward the end of the quarter, if you're expecting to close them at the end of the quarter. Number one, you have deals where timing looks possible but tight, right? There's a risk of the deal slipping into the next quarter. It, it can be done, but timing looks tight. That's scenario one. Scenario number two is when timing looks good, you've tested it out with your buyer. It looks like you're probably going to close this deal on time this quarter. And there is a different question that instigates a closing motion for each of those two scenarios. I'm going to teach it to you right now. So let's talk about the easy one first. Okay, You've got a deal. You've talked about timing with your customer. You validated the timing, and it looks like you've got an 80% plus shot at closing the deal on time before the quarter ends. Right? These are probably the deals that you're forecasting. Maybe they're sitting in commit or something like that. The question you want to ask is start out with a softening statement and then ask your question. And it sounds like this. It sounds like we are slated to move forward on the timetable we've been discussing. But I have to ask what would derail us from getting it done on that timetable from here? Okay, so what you're doing here is the deal is already slated to close, and your closing motion, if that's what we want to call it, is finding and monitoring and mitigating any risk. Now, there might not be risk, but the best salespeople seek and confront risk. There might be nothing for you to do, but since the deal is already on a trajectory to close on time, you're looking for what would derail it, and then you're mitigating that risk accordingly. So that's question number one. Question number two is to ask in deals where timing looks tight, right, it's possible to get it done this quarter. But it looks kind of iffy, right? You might not be forecasting these deals or you might be forecasting these deals and timing looks like it's unraveling a little bit and you're kind of freaking out. Or maybe this is just a deal that's sitting in like, best case for your forecast. So for deals where timing looks tight again, you're going to use a softening statement to make a harsh question seem softer. And then you're going to ask a shoot your shot question and it sounds like this. You give your champion a call or whatever and you say, hey, feel free to stiff arm me if I'm overstepping my boundaries by asking this question. But what conditions would have to be true for us to be able to move forward together on X timetable? Right? Where the timetable is like quarter end or what conditions would have to be true for us to move forward within this month? Okay, that's a very different type of closing motion than the first one, right? In the first question, the deal is already on the right trajectory. You're looking for the logs on the rollerblade path and you're removing them in advance. That's what you do in deals that are trending well. In this one, you're not doing that because the deal is not on the right trajectory. And you're asking what conditions would have to be true to get that deal on the right trajectory. And then you're going to act accordingly once you get an answer from your customer. Now, the last tip I'll get you or give you before we close this one out is ask. After you ask either one of those questions, make sure you hit mute. Right? Put yourself on silent pause for longer than is comfortable and let your customer feel the silence because they are often going to tell you things that will help you get the deal done on time. So that's all I have for today. Again, there are two scenarios of quarter end deals. There are deals that are looking really good and there are deals that are looking possible but tight. And you're going to ask a different closing motion instigating question for each of those two types of deals. Go give it a try and I'll see you in the next episode.
