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  • Hey, guys, this is Steli with Close.io. Today I want to teach you a question that's very

  • powerful in sales and is the best question to end a positive conversation with a prospect

  • with, especially in a moment when they give you verbal commitment and they say the deal

  • is basically done.

  • The question is very simple, it's this:

  • Dear Prospect, is there anything that could happen that you can think of, that would stop

  • this deal from happening? Is there anything you can think of that would make you change

  • your mind? Take back your word? Can you think of anything that would stop this deal from

  • happening?

  • You know when I discovered this question? I was watching an old school kind of boiler

  • room pressure sales guru on YouTube having a cold call or having a sales call with somebody

  • that one of his salespeople couldn't quite get to the close and then the big sales guru

  • steps in, chats with the prospect kind of on loudspeakers and uses a lot of real pressure

  • tactics to push the prospect to the decision of buying. So he pushes him and pushes them

  • and uses a lot of rhetoric, uses a lot of trickery, and eventually gets the prospect

  • to go, “Oh, all right, okay, yes, we have a deal, I'm buying.”

  • Up to that point, I have to admit that I was thinking, oh, this guy is good, but this deal

  • will not happen because what's going to happen is the prospect was so pressured into

  • saying yes, that the moment he hangs up, he's going to have buyer's remorse and he's

  • going to change his mind.

  • Then that sales guru, although his tactics were not necessarily what I would use to close

  • a deal, did something brilliant. He asked this very specific question, once he pushed

  • and pressured the buyer and the prospect into the yes, the guy said, “All right, all right,

  • I'll do it,” he asked this question: “Hey, before I let you go, is there anything that

  • you can think of that would make you take back your word, change your mind?”

  • Wow, when I saw that, I thought, all right, this is pretty good shit, this is powerful

  • stuff. The guy on the other side of the phone went, “No way! I'm a man of my word, I've

  • made up my mind, I'm going to do it.” He's like, “All right, that sounds great,

  • let's move forward,” and the call ends.

  • That question is really powerful because it does a multitude of things.

  • Number one, it kind of makes the prospect kind of reaffirm and reconfirm to himself

  • and to you that he is not a person to change his mind. He said, “I'm not going to take

  • my word back, I'm a man of my word, I'm not changing my mind when I've made a decision.”

  • Once you've come out with that strong of a statement, it's really hard for you to

  • change your mind afterwards without looking like an idiot or like somebody that doesn't

  • keep his word, that's not an honorable person.

  • It kind of tricks the person into hardening the deal for themselves and really sell themselves

  • one more time that, “Yes, now that I've made up my mind, I'm not going to second

  • guess is later on.”

  • The other thing that it does is that potentiallyin this case it didn't—but it potentially

  • would bring up some things that the person can think of, would change the deal. This

  • is the way that I would use the question. I'm not in the pressure sales kind of world,

  • push, push, push people into a decision and then trick them into a way where they can't

  • get out of the decision.

  • Although I'm not the type of person that would use these tactics, when I saw somebody

  • do it and they do it well, I appreciated it. In this case I thought that the question was

  • powerful and if used for good, could do a lot of good in sales and in business, so I

  • wanted to share that question with you.

  • Here's how I think you should use it:

  • No matter what your sales tactics and strategies are and I'm a big advocate of being friendly

  • and strong versus hostile and strong in the sales negotiation, at the end, once you get

  • somebody to say, “Yes, I think we're going to buy this,” orYes, it's a done deal,

  • we're going to purchase this, we're going to sign this contract or agreement,” or

  • whatever they tell you, ask them this questionand I wouldn't say it that would make you go

  • back on your word, I think that's too tricky, I don't think that's the right way to

  • say it.

  • I would ask the question:

  • Hey, this sounds exciting, I'm excited to get you guys on board, get this deal done.

  • Let me ask you, anything you can think of that would change this deal? Anything you

  • could think of that could come up that would threaten our partnership from happening or

  • this contract being signed? Anything you can think of that would make a change or make

  • a difference or change anything moving forward in the next few days?”

  • I think that's a powerful question because it's going to empower and allow the person

  • to think through all kinds of scenarios and tell you if there is one, because you want

  • to know, you don't want to be surprised after the fact, you want to be proactive and

  • know of all the little details that could come up and derail your deal.

  • They might go, “You know what? I'm pretty sure that we're going to do it, but I still

  • haven't talked to the CEO. It's unlikely that the CEO would change his mind about this,

  • but I don't know, I still have to ask him.”

  • Boom! Now you know there's this new factor you weren't aware of before, now that you

  • are aware of it, you have influence over it, you can change it or manage it.

  • You could ask the person, “Hey, is there any chance I could be part of the discussion

  • with the CEO to be able to answer all his questions, be a resource to you in the negotiation

  • with the CEO? What can I do to help you get this deal done with that person?”

  • Maybe they'll say, “You know what? No, I don't think so, there's nothing that

  • could change this and by the end of this week this deal is done and I've talked to everybody,

  • I've got everybody's agreement, like there's no reason that this isn't going to happen.”

  • If that's the case and they are not closing right now, ask them why and say, “Hey, if

  • there's nothing else that can happen, let's close this deal right now, let's sign this

  • contract right now since I've still got you on the phone.”

  • Maybe you're able to nudge them to make it happen today versus in a few days down

  • the line if there's no real good reason for that.

  • Either way it ends the call on a really important note, which is making sure one more time that

  • there's nothing you forgot, that there's no unknown factors in this deal and if there

  • are, it gives you the power to challenge or change or manage them and if they aren't,

  • it kind of reconfirms, it closes up the call on a really strong note, where the prospect

  • is telling you, “No, Steli, there's no way and nothing that could change this deal

  • from happening.”

  • That's a pretty good way to end the call, right? You go, “All right, well, that's

  • a strong statement, I'm excited about that. I'll talk to you tomorrow when we have this

  • contract signed. I'm really honored and excited we start working with you even closer.”

  • You end the call on that kind of note, that's the type of manager you want to have at the

  • end of a sales call, right?

  • Next time you are in a sales negotiation and things are going well but the deal is not

  • done, ask the question, “Is there anything that could stop this deal from happening?

  • Is there anything you can think of that would make you change your mind?”

  • See if some gold nuggets come up and if not, notice if the energy of your prospect changes

  • and kind of gets more excited, more committed and more determined to make this deal happen,

  • which is exactly what you want them to think of.

  • All right, I hope this was useful and helpful. Make sure to go to blog.Close.io and subscribe

  • to our blog to get more of these sales hacks, powerful questions to ask, how to prospect,

  • how to cold call, how to send email templates, how to do outbound sales, inbound sales. Everything

  • we know we teach. If you want to learn something we haven't taught yet, shoot me an email

  • at Steli@Close.io to learn more.

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  • All right, this is it from me. Go out there today and crush it!

Hey, guys, this is Steli with Close.io. Today I want to teach you a question that's very

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