I help founders who sell, but aren't "sales"people. Are you open to one hyper actionable sales tip per week, useful for your very next sales meeting and consumable in 4 minutes or less?
#035: Soft Closing
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Hey, 👋 Scott from The Sales Mastermind here. Today’s edition only takes 2 minutes. Imagine sitting on a demo when the seller asks, "Any questions…" You respond, "No, looks good." Of course, you don't have questions; it was all clear (in the moment). Or maybe you did have a question but didn't want to appear an idiot by asking. Now flip it… chances are this is 90% of your sales calls. From the seller's angle, it is evident:
From the buyer's angle, they're often thinking:
Introducing the Soft Close. As sellers, we have conversions about our product and the pains we solve all day, every day. Your buyers, however, may only be thinking about this problem once a week. To make the informational imbalance worse:
Therefore, your job is to lead the buyer. And like a good leader, you want to regularly "check-in" on everything you're teaching them. Checking in is the process of Soft Closing. What is a Soft Close? A Soft Close is the questions you ask to move a conversation forward when pitching or presenting. In practice, it can be before presenting, such as during a Discovery Call (link to disco call outline) when you run a mini demo. "Before sharing my screen, Mrs. Buyer, there are typically only two outcomes from this step. Either you're intrigued enough, and we book a follow-up meeting to get deeper, or you hate it and want to end this conversation. After I present, I'll ask you which it is. Sound fair?" Or you can Soft Close after presenting something: "Ok, Mrs Buyer, we just covered XXX. How is that landing with you?" Soft Closing is a crucial part of leading the buying journey. It should be ubiquitous throughout every sales call. More early Soft Close questions prime the buyer to answer your later questions. How to use Soft Closes Fundamentally, a Soft Close has two purposes:
I've found the best time to Soft Close is before you say anything (as in the example above), as it primes the next step with the buyer without them even realizing. Alternatively, as soon as you finish a mini-pitch, Soft Close. That way, you keep the pace to match the buyer and ensure they follow how your solution helps solve their pains. Soft Close Question Examples: "Great, so we just covered XXX. Can you see yourself using it?"
"Ok, so we've been through the workflow to solve XXX pain; how does that land with you?"
"What's going through your head?"
"Does that align with what you were expecting?"
"Help me out. Did I answer the XXX pain point question from your email, or did I miss the mark?"
Done well Soft Closing leads to Closed Won deals. When not done, you have no idea if your pitch is landing or if the buyer is following along. Let me know:
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I help founders who sell, but aren't "sales"people. Are you open to one hyper actionable sales tip per week, useful for your very next sales meeting and consumable in 4 minutes or less?
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