Episode 285 Top Skills on How to Effectively Close

All right, Jeremy Miner here. Welcome to another episode of Closers Are Losers. Here with my business, one of my business partners and CEO Matt Rider. All the way down under. See you're working from home today.

Yes. Thursdays I like to try work from.

Home Thursdays you like to work from home. There you go, brother. All right, now today we're going to cover how to effectively close now at 7 level with any PQ neuro emotional persuasion questions. We've gone over this the past several weeks, kind of broken down the NEP Q sales process we had. So many people have always asked, and if you're not a client, you just wouldn't know, right? So when we say closing, we don't necessarily like to use the word, you know, you're closing. We, we like to use the word commit. All right? We want the prospect to commit to the next step. Taking the next step to purchasing, to purchase what we're offering. Now, commitment can come in two different forms. Forms, though, if you're selling, if you're more in the. Let me get a red group. If you're more in the B2B industry or B to G, business to government or business to business, commitment questions can also be used to get the prospect to take a series of smaller steps, smaller commitments that lead to the ultimate commitment of purchasing. Your solution. Okay, we call those, okay, micro commitments. All right, so little word right here. Write down mic.

Why, why would they, why would they be beneficial?

What's that?

Like, why would they be beneficial? Like, why is that, like, why is that a part of it? Why not just go in for the whole thing straight away?

Well, I mean, obviously, you know, if you're in a complex set environment, you're not closing on the first call, right? So you're, if you're selling high priced solution, let's say you're in cybersecurity and your solution's 290,000 and you're talking to Wells Fargo. You're not going to be closing them on the first call. And most businesses are like that. Unless you're talking to like tiny small businesses. Maybe you're selling like, you know, merchant processing and you run into like a mom paw laundry mat. I mean, I don't know, like you're talking like, usually you're not going to close it on first call if you're selling B2B. Now that's not always the case. There are some industries in B2B where it might be a one call close, but it's very rare.

Okay, so, and so you, you would do Is you would plan out the commitments that you're trying to get on each call. Yeah.

So it'd be a commitment, the next step. If I'm. If you're selling fast or some type of software, it might be a commitment to take the next step and do a demo. It might be a commitment to take the next step and meet the department head. It could be a commitment to take the next step and meet the board. You know. So you're getting these smaller commitments that lead to the big commitment of them.

Purchasing. Yeah. I asked that because I think a lot of the time people in those industries have extremely long sales cycles from what we've seen. Yeah. And I think a lot of that could maybe be to do with the fact that they haven't really planned out.

Yeah.

Those commitments and they leave it very wishy washy.

Yeah. Like oh, get back to me.

Yeah.

Because we see this a lot like even in B2B sales and is they'll do a somewhat successful first discovery call and they just kind of leave it in the prospect's hands to get back them and now they're following up with them instead of getting a firm commitment for the next step. If you do not get a firm commitment, someone on your calendar in two days, four days, six days, whatever. If even if you're in B2B or B2G it's just going nowhere, you're going to be in chase mode, calling, emailing and you're done. So you've got to use commitment questions to take those smaller steps to leave the sale. Like I said, depending on what your sales.

We had, we had a client that works for a really, really large SaaS company, like huge company and they have like a eight month sales cycle. And she came up to a training call and she was asking about this. I just said listen, like if I were you, I would just do one thing. Just end every call with same time next week. Right. And then because on B2B like that usually works to get the next meeting. Same time next week.

Boom.

Perfect. Same time next week. It's like this kind of the furthest you can possibly go. Do you know what I mean? With keeping within time frame. And she is now just from like that. She's now like the top producer by Country Mile because she's closing people in four weeks.

Yeah, no it's, it's true. Because she has a scheduled next step. The other people are just right.

They really are. It's wild. And she just from eight months to four weeks because of same time next week. Just because she. They just didn't think of it. It's so weird.

No, I know. And sometimes it depends on like let's say you're selling more enterprise. There's tons of decision makers and influencers. Sometimes you have to shift around that schedule depending on what other people you have to meet in their schedule. So that's, that's a whole nother training itself that we do that for our clients, our virtual training platforms. Now the second way we use commitment questions is when we're closing, we're getting into commit to take the next step and purchase what you're offering to solve their problems and getting them where they want to go. Now let's take a look at this. Okay, so I just going to give you a recap. This is kind of messy because I did this training the other day for some clients. Remember we're building the gap starting with, you know, connection situation questions. We call that the current state. What is their real situation? Most prospects don't even understand that when we first start talking them, we build a gap with our problem awareness and the first half of our solution awareness questions. Okay. If you've been paying attention on these last podcasts and then we get them to see what their future is going to look like once those problems are solved using solution awareness questions. All right, now actually we're not going to go into that. Okay, now should I give them some examples of some nice easy commitment questions or what should I do?

I think so.

Okay, so let me give you a few just really easy things to do. And these can this, this will. You know, we might make this more specific depending on your industry, but these are, these are generic ones that work for an industry. This biggest commitment question I ever asked in four completely different industries. 2B 2B 2B 2C. During my 17 year sales career, I would just simply lean in and just say, do you feel now you never want to say do you think? Why wouldn't we want to say? Do you think? Why would we want to say do you feel? I'm not sure what we said.

I know. But I want you to kind of explain more in depth here to see what I see. Obviously you want to tap into more of the emotion side of the brain. But like what are the benefits of doing that versus when you tapping into.

You think this could be the answer for you. All you're doing is you're putting your prospect back into their logical based thinking.

Okay.

You don't want human beings only make decisions on emotion. They justify logic by simply changing this Word. Do you feel like this could be the answer for you? Feel is completely different than think. Feel is their right side brain, like their emotional side of their brain. Okay. That's where we want them. We want them to stay in their emotional state. So don't say, do you think, say, do you, do you feel like this could be the answer for you? Now typically, I want to have like a verbal pause here. Right here.

Okay.

Do you feel like this could be the answer for you? Why would we want to.

Yeah, yeah, like, yeah, like why would you put that there?

You want to have a verbal pause because verbal pausing causes the prospect to think deeper about the question you just asked. If I asked it fast, do you feel like this could be the answer for you guys? It's too fast. I'm going to get a knee jerk reaction from the prospect because they don't think that. But if I lean and say, do you feel like this could be the answer for you? Causes them to think deeper about what I'm asking and I get the real truth. Now most people are going to say at this point, most people, I'm talking like 95% of your prospects, if you got them to this point, are going to say, yeah, I do or I do, but. And then they're going to tell you one of their concerns, which that's what I want them to do. If they have a concern, I want to know what it is. Well, I do, Jeremy, but I don't have the money. But I need to talk with Cindy, but I still got to get from the board. Okay, but that's one simple commitment question that we've trained, you know, hundreds of thousands of salespeople to use in every industry. That is crushing it. What's one good one that you like to use that you train people?

I mean, I always use that. So do you feel like this could, this could be the answer for you?

Very good.

It's basically the one that I use almost all the time. And the reason why I like it so much is because it just, it's not asking for the sale. And that's really important. Like we're not saying, so where do you want? Like, like, so do you want to buy? Like it's not a binary question. There's no, it's an open ended question. So it invites conversation. They can say yes and then from there, like I immediately interrupt and go, okay, but why though? Like very quickly, before they've even finished.

Yeah, that's an inappy approaching question. Hold on.

Why do you feel like, yeah, because they Might say exactly like you said. They might say, yes, but. So before the bot comes out, I interrupted, ask them to like, well, okay, like, but why though? And then I'll go a little bit deeper and I'll go. Because I'm more B2C. And I'll go like, what is it specifically? Like, what do you feel like from what I've kind of put together is, I don't know, like the, the key to the castle for you. Yeah. And then I'm making them take out a specific and saying why that's the most valuable piece for them to get the result. But all links back to the result. And then from there I go. That makes sense, I guess. You know, and then we go into the.

Yeah, and you can use that, you can use that for B2C. B2B. It doesn't really matter. So you can simply say, well, do you feel like this could be the answer for you? Yeah, I do.

Hold on.

Why do you feel like it is. It's almost like you're skeptical. Well, why do you feel like this? Well, I like it because of this. That. Then you can use that question that you just use. But what specific aspects of what we went over today do you feel like are really going to get you where you're wanting to go? See, I could use that for anything. Okay. What specific aspects of, of the policy do you feel like are really going to be the best for sending the kids? Like if I sold life insurance, what, what specific aspects of going solar do you feel like are really going to help you the most? If I sold solar, I mean, I could literally keep going on in every industry. Okay.

It's really important because it really gets the person thinking about like, whoa, like why will it work? You know, and it's a very important step. That was a huge change for me as to how I sold before because it got the person just going like thinking, going, well, you know, I really feel like, you know, this, this and this are the things that I really need and we'll really kind of get. Yeah, it makes sense. Well, you know, I don't, I don't have a lot much else for you really. From here what we do is go ahead and you know, organize your payment and like it's just such a nice easy transition. It's open ended. It's not binary. Like the old option close, you know, do you have to, you want the.

Red or blue one? Do you want to take delivery Saturday or Sunday at 5?

Yeah, well, from there you still ask for the money and they can still go, no. Like, it's not.

Yeah.

It works on lay downs and that's about it. Yeah.

One thing that I want to specify, because I. I see a lot. We see a lot of salespeople in every industry feel for some reason it's not their fault, but it is their problem. They were just trained this that they feel like, hey, can you give me some closing techniques so I can close more sales? The issue is people prospects do not decide to buy. When you ask a closing question, your closing question, if you use an option close, do you want the red one or blue one? Is not. When they. It's not like they just decide to buy because you ask them which option they want. If they say, I want the red one, that means that they had already decided from the conversation that they wanted the red one. It doesn't mean because you said you want the red or blue one, that automatically causes them to want to buy. That's not where the close happens. The close happens in the discovery part of your process where you build a gap from where they are to where they want to be. That's 85% of the sale. Closing is just 5%. I mean, you're talking like it's hardly anything. It's a few commitment questions at the end. But that's. They've already decided to buy at that point. Okay. Or they've got some type of concerns.

It's really about not screwing it up.

No.

100%, really. It's like long pitches and questions asked the Runway at that point, the person's like, if we look at the way that I look at sales resistance is that the whole, like, as soon as we present our offer, it spikes. So they're automatically like, the veil is now broken. Even if we do it. Great. We've now, like, we're presenting a solution with a price attached. Right. So, like, as long as you've done a good job keeping it low, then that spike is still lower than what it would be because you can never regain that ground if you do stuff on the way. So, like the presentation and the commitment phase of the page, where everything has to be really, really well, really well thought out, because that's when you lose the sale. A great pitch will never make the sale.

Yeah.

But a bad pitch will lose it.

That is very true. That's an excellent point. And so after, after we ask those few commitment questions, because typically when asked to commitment questions, we want to have a probe in between. Hold on. Why do you feel like it is, though? Okay. And then the second Commitment question. Then like Matt said, well, I don't really have anything else to go over with you. It looks like we covered the basis of what you're looking for in X, Y and Z. You know, really the next step would be is we make some type of arrangement for your XYZ purchase. You can use debit, credit card, invoice. It depends on if you sell B2B or B2C guys. Depends on what you do there. And then at that point. And then you go over what the next step is. At that point we onboard you with X, Y and Z. And then at the end of that you're just saying would that be appropriate? That's it. Would that be appropriate? That's it. And I send the reason why that.

The reason why would that be appropriate is it's an open ended question that invites the next part of the conversation which can be taking payment or it can be handling concerns. So like you're never boxed in. And like when I actually is actually one of the most powerful parts of learning an APQ was that not directly asking for the sale and asking for a. Yes. No, binary.

Yeah.

Right. And then having to work your way back so you can then handle objections and concerns.

Yeah.

Like that is actually. It's so much easier.

Yeah.

And going like. So would you like the, you know, the A or the B? Which one works better for you? Yeah. And then they're going to.

That induces massive sales pressure.

Yeah. Huge amounts. And like you're. You're putting yourself on the back foot. Because it works when it works and when it doesn't, it's hard to recover from. It takes a lot of time. Guilt.

Yeah.

To work that back and then start to move the train forward again. It's very difficult to do. Yeah.

Because when you get the prospect, when you trigger sales resistance, their guard comes up. You're now trying to get them to lower their guard the whole time. Well, we train you in any PQ is we train you how to make sure their guard never comes up.

Yeah.

Easier to sell way. Sell way less objections, deal with way less time. You have to work and you make way more money, which that's all about. And you have way more of your prospects, solve their problems and get what they want. So closing is really only 5% of the sales process. 85% is the discovery portion. Doesn't matter if it's B2B, B2C, whatever. And then you've got about 10% here, which should be your presentation. That's the breakdown of any EQ all right, and then when you get to that, would that be appropriate? Yeah, that'd be appropriate, but I have a question about this. Well, that'd be appropriate, but I'm not sure if I have the money. Okay. And that's fine because then they're at least telling you what the real concern is and there to help them overcome it.

Exactly. And it's an, it's an open ended way of making sure that you're never like. I think if I, you're never. So no, the way that I look at it is like you need to, when, when you put people into binary options, then like you're, you're giving them two doors and they can choose one.

Yeah.

People don't like being confined to that and so they end up sort of like pushing back on you a fair bit. So the way that I like to do it is like you open up, there's all the doors available to you.

Right.

And then as we move down, all the doors are there, but I've locked them as they go. So like the amount of doors that are actually available are much smaller and smaller. Like if you give me, would that be appropriate? Yeah, but you know, I'm not really sure about the money. Then we handle the money concern. We get to an actual like agreed upon. Hey, so this payment, this much apart, that works in your guys's current budgetary constraints? Yes, it does. Okay. How would you like to proceed from here? And then again we can go. But now all the money door, the locked. Yeah, you know, so like it's just a much more low pressure, higher skill. Yeah, but much more lower pressure way of doing it to where the prospect feels like they're always in control of their next steps. Yeah, but you're just kind of.

When in reality you're in control because you're facilitating that. And what it does is that it causes them to feel like because you're open with them, they can be open with you. When you use old school closing techniques, the option closed, trial close, you know, Benjamin Franklin closed, puppy dot closed. They feel like they're boxed in.

Don't. Benjamin Franklin. What's that?

It's where you write down a line through the, a piece of paper and write down all the positive things about the solution and then the negative things about the solution. And if there's more positives than negatives, you go with the positives. Believe it, believe it or not, there is a Benjamin Frank that could go.

So badly, that could go really bad. Like, I mean like that could go terribly.

There's 1001 ways the puppy dog closes. Why don't just give it a try? Just give it a try. Puppy dog. Just to take the puppy. Just give it a try. Have the puppy come in your home. And they're hoping that you keep the puppy because the puppy's like, you know, or like, you know, hey, just, you know, just take the keys to the car home. It's on us. Just drive it around tonight. So they're hoping that you drive around. You're like, I love this car. That's the puppy dog clothes.

How interesting. Yeah, right? We should do a whole podcast on that.

No, there's, there's a thousand and one ways to close. You can buy the book. There you go. But no, this makes it easy. The prospect feels that you're open to them. And because they feel like you're open to them, they start to trust you as a salesperson. You try to box them in with old school closing techniques. They emotionally shut down and that's why they stay surface level with you. And it's very hard to rebound you. You'll get some like that, but you're just losing a ton that you could be making if you're working with human behavior like we're showing you, like our clients learn how to do in our virtual training platforms. All right, that's all we've got for today. Matthew, thanks for being on. Now, just as a reminder, go ahead. If you, if you're on these podcasts, you're, you're hearing us here and there, going through different things. We keep it very light on here compared to what our clients learn in our virtual.

Light and breezy.

Very light and breezy on the podcast. So your first step will give you a few more nibbles. Just. You'll, you're welcome to go join our free Facebook group, Sales Revolution Pro. Sales Revolution Pro. We go live in there two or three times a week. Different q and A's, different trainings. Then you can message Matt or I in that group. If you want far more advanced training for your industry, if you're wanting to double, triple, quadruple what you're doing right now, also make sure you go to Barnes and Noble, get the new book. It's a Wall Street Journal bestseller now. This is an old version three months ago. It has a big thing on there now banner, Wall Street Journal bestseller. It's also a Barnes and Noble bestseller and an Amazon bestseller top five. So go to Barnes and Noble.com, buy the book. It's like $17. We made this very, very tactical for you. Tons of questions, different situations that will help you sell more. Jerry Acuff and I wrote this. Just got launched, published three months ago. It's everywhere. Make sure you look barnes and noble.com to get the book. If you need $18 to buy the books, you can learn how to sell more. Let us know. We'll help you start a GoFundMe page so you can sell more. You know, I'm all cheeky in here. Matt. Thanks for being on. We'll see you soon.

Thanks, everyone.

Hey guys. If you enjoy these, join our free Sales Revolution group. Join us and we're going to help you.

Thanks.

We'll see you real soon.