So I have a thing against explicitly naming a meeting the closing call. I've seen reps send emails with the subject line, next steps or go no go. These types of things put a lot of pressure on the prospect unnecessarily. There isn't a good reason to do that, unless the prospect said, please schedule the next step call for us. And so there are two options to set up any next steps call, including the closing call. First, set up the next call during an existing call. As the call comes to a close, ask when the prospect will be available for the next call, and get a time on the calendar right then and there. Earlier, you learned about break-up emails, when it comes to booking the first meeting. You can use them here, too. If you've had calls with a prospect and can't get in touch with them anymore, use a break-up email. Here's an example. Hey David, over the last couple weeks, we talked about how we could help you reach your goal of increasing website traffic by 30% and increasing revenue by 20%. My perception was this was a priority, because if you didn't accomplish that by the end of the year, it could mean downsizing your team and further loss of revenue. I've tried to reach out a few times and haven't heard back. So I'm going to assume that something changed or you decided to go in a different direction and don't want our help. If I'm misunderstanding the situation, feel free to reach out. You most likely get one of two responses. Either first, the response will be, yes, things did change. Or two, something came up, so the process has been delayed. It could be as simple as, yeah, I totally forgot, let's schedule a call. As you learned earlier, preparation is important. Once you get the meeting on the books, spend at least an hour preparing for it. Review your notes from all your calls, and research, including their goals, challenges, plans, timeline, decision makers expected on the call, and potential objections. You should be able to state their GPCT from memory. If you don't know all those things, there's no way you'll be comfortable handling objections. One big tip is to research everyone who will be on the call. At that point, you should know all the decision makers involved, including your main point of contact, we'll call your champion. Your champion is your secret weapon. You don't choose a champion, they self-select. They're the ones who really want to buy your product because it'll help improve their life or help them do their job better. You've found your champion when you hear them saying things like, I love your company. I've been following you guys and I read your blog for years. Make them successful. Stay in touch with them on a regular basis and don't let them fall off your radar. That person is often times not the decision maker, but the one that's going to help you navigate the entire decision making process. That person can be your mole and provide you information that you wouldn't otherwise have access to. Such as competitors that are involved, conversations being had, issues they don't bring up with you on calls. You'll set up a call with a champion the day before a closing call and ask them about everyone who will be on that call. Learn more about the people you don't know, what they like, their communication style, their pet peeves, biggest concerns and so on. Everyone has their thing, their reason for buying, and they're all different. A VP versus CMO versus a marketer, they're all going to be different a little bit. So make sure you address everyone's concerns individually. The prospect, and most people in the buying process will have objections, you'll have to prepare by imagining the various reasons they might have for not buying from you, and prepare how you address those concerns. I'll share techniques for this in the next section. So here's one last thing to remember, it's going to sound counter intuitive, but the more you want to close a deal, the less likely you are to close it. You increase the likelihood of messing up and losing the deal if you get emotionally attached and become desperate. If you don't stay confident, your fundamentals start breaking down. You'll stop asking the right qualifying questions and you'll rush the process to get them to buy as quickly as possible just to hit your monthly quota. You'll likely pull out ridiculous discounts to close the deal. I've seen 30, 40, 50, 60, even 80% discounts that happen because of that desperation. It shouldn't happen, but it does. Instead, I was taught to always sell like I'm at my number. Sell like I don't need any new business coming in to hit my quota. And when you portray that level of self confidence and self sufficiency, you show that you're not there to get a commission check. You show that you're focused on helping a potential customer. By maintaining that mindset, you're comfortable and your mind is relaxed. That removes the desperation from your voice and let's you perform at your very best. So sell like you're at your number. [MUSIC]
