Senior Level.

Discovery Call Goals

• Build Rapport with your Decision Maker and/or Champion
• Determine your Ideal Decision Maker
• Qualify for the Demo: Are they a good Match?
• Understand Pain Points/ Growth Points
• Set the Demo & Close to Deal

Before the Discovery Call

• Research: Your Decision Maker or Champion- Have they used the tool at any company?
• Research: Any challenges they may have (Gong Suggests 3-4 Problems to Cover)
• Research: Gong Data shows that good discovery is when you ask 11-14 targeted questions and that you spread them out throughout the call vs front loading. What order will you ask these?

Prep & Understanding Workflow

• Clear understanding of the day to day
• Understanding how their current tech stacks integrate with your tool
• Get them to talk about 3-5 problems or areas of improvement
• The goal is to find out how these problems are personal and how they will implement this tool and when

Setting Meeting: Discovery Call

• I have an idea for you. Does {time x or y} work to continue this convo?
• What I'd like is to meet with you to share how you can solve X
• I'm gonna let you go now but let's pick this up later to find out a solution at X time

Active Listening & Problem Solving

• The goal of discovery is to get to know them, and their needs without selling your product at all
• Good discovery is about asking a series of questions, to get your buyer to give you real life examples of how they will use your product, and to solve some type of gap they have
• Being able to ask the right questions, clarify answers, and demonstrate that you understand another person's needs is one of the most important skill sets you can have in sales
• Sales discovery is a chance for both you and your decision maker to understand each other beyond a two-person exchange.
• It’s not a game of 20 +questions, but rather a two-way discussion that occurs at the end of the qualifying phase and before the product demo
• When conducting discovery, it is important to realize that each party is speaking from and listening through a filter of their own experiences, knowledge, and beliefs.
• The goal is to speak their language, while building enough value to set the demo
• Slow, unwavering cadence of speech - place emphasis only on key words
• Stay silent for several moments and really LISTEN
• Use ‘why’ questions to understand the intent behind their priorities
• Avoid leading with questions that do the opposite of building rapport even if you want the answer right away
• Gong AI Data shows that a high number of speaker switches per min (3.2/min) help the odds of closing a deal

30 mins Presidents Club Podcast Tips for Discovery
Nick from 30 Minutes to Presidents Club podcast provides some excellent tips for discovery

• "Most folks don't usually wake up on a Wednesday morning and decide they gotta check out a demo of our lead routing software. Could you tell me about the moment in time when you realized that this was actually a problem?"
• Use “typically questions” to raise problems instead of plain open-ended questions • “Typically when you’re doing X, that means A, B, or C can be challenging”
• Use “bucket questions” to get your prospect to agree to 1 of 2 problems.
• “Other CROs usually are focused on ramping reps more quickly, or making existing reps more successful, what’s your priority?”
• Uncomfortable question? Call it out with a humbling disclaimer to ask probing questions without offending:
• “I know this one might be out of bounds, but…”
• Soften probing questions by using “scale questions”
• “Is this a 1 meaning it’s the worst thing you’ve ever seen, or a 10 meaning you wanted it yesterday?”
• Get your prospects visualizing next steps to accelerate the deal.
• Use phrases like “Let’s say you love what you see...what happens next?”
• If you sense you’re not meeting the mark, call it out.
• “Hey, it sounds like we do X well, but we’re missing Y and Z. Are those dealbreakers for you?” 
• Empathize - “We hear stuff like this frequently, it’s amazing how…”
• Story - “I remember we were talking to X the other day and they said…”
• Recap - "What I am hearing from you is...."

Discovery: Always CLARIFY

• What made you want to take this call?
• Can you help me understand
• Can you walk me through?
• Talk to me about/tell me about
• Direct questions like “walk me through or tell me about” will get the ball rolling
• What are your priorities?
• What is working for you right now?
• Why does that work?
• Is this the only way to do x?
• How did you/they do that?
• When did you realize it was time to _______?
• Why is that important?
• What do you really want?
• Why do you think that is?
• How does that make you feel?
• Sounds like you care about X I'm curious, what impact could you see by Y

Discovery: Problems

• “Many of our clients have told us that are having a big issue with ______I don't suppose that surprises you much...” - Charles Muhbauer
• This makes discovery more of a conversation and gives them an opportunity to say yes or no.
• What common problems are you having?
• When did you realize this was a problem?
• Tell me more about why this is a problem?
• What solution are you currently using to do that? What’s working?
• What about your current solution is not working?

Discovery: Solution

• Have you considered a type of solution for this?
• What results do you expect from that solution?
• What do you believe *must be* true of a solution for it to work in your case?"Asking this question:
• Reveals a buyer's assumptions about their problem
• Surfaces what your buyer’s already sold on
• Helps you influence key requirements
• Lets you challenge their thinking - Nate Nasralla - Fluint.io
• I think this may make sense__________
• What is your cell phone number? - Avi Mesh suggest this for getting in touch with your champion

Discovery: Timeline

• Where do you want X to be by when?
• What is your timeline for making an investment in fixing this problem? Why not now, and why not later?

The goal of the Demo is to use the information in both the discovery and demo with a clear call to action to try to close the deal. Always explain the “why” listen and adapt. Don’t be stiff and scripted.

• It is important to summarize past convos you have had and provide background and examples of use cases. The more specific you can be to their needs the better- do not be generic.
• Give the prospect an opportunity to ask questions and to match your tone and cadence to reflect active listening and curiosity
• Understanding how they will use the product to solve specific pain points will help eliminating feature dumps and will help as the right type of questions to close the deal.
• It is critical to be observant to your prospects emotions and concerns and frame your responses in a more personal to them way.

Make sure your demo is with a decision maker or champion

Never feature dump

Always seek to understand how they're using their existing tech stack

Understand why they agreed to the meeting

Slow. It. Down. Curiosity is key

Tie value prop to existing workflow

Ask questions on how they will use the tool instead of jumping straight into full fledge pricing

Know as much about your customer, their problems, and their experience as you do your product/services

Demos with Limited Discovery
Doing a demo without an in-depth discovery is risky but good reps know that discovery is a marathon and good demos include a lot of curious questions to get you prospect talking.

• “Can we just skip right to the demo?”
• Nick at 30 Minutes to President’s Club podcast suggests accepting that ask and to not be the demo gate keeper.
• However, it is critical to ask for something back by saying “sounds like you have something specific in mind - can you tell me what you are hoping to see?”
• Now you have the insights to do more discovery to determine what is most important.
• his reasonable ask forces them to think and articulate their needs and pain points so don’t fall for the trap by withholding the demo.

In-Depth Discovery on Demo
If you are not doing an in-depth discovery while on the demo you miss out on opportunity to influence your buyer. Kyle Asay from Sales Introvert talks about the difference between a good discovery and a bad one in his Solutions and Presentations Framework. “Deep discovery requires context. Initial discovery helps you get the context you need from your buyer to begin a solution presentation. Starting solution presentation gives your buyer the context to move with you into the deeper discovery you’ll need to win complex deals” Kyle Asay provides this great example in his frameworks on salesintorverts.com

Box Checking Discovery Example: Kyle Asay Framework

• Seller: Help me understand your current process for data analysis.
• Buyer: *Explains*
• Seller: How would more efficient analytics improve your situation?
• Buyer: Uhhhhh… I’d analyze things… more efficiently?
• Seller: Wanna see a demo?

Ongoing Discovery on Demo Example: Kyle Asay Framework

• Seller: On our previous call, you helped me understand a few gaps with your current analytics process. Let’s look at how our solution would handle that process more efficiently.
• Seller: Demos relevant analytics functionality.
• Seller: How would this demonstrate solution change your approach to analytics?
• Buyer: Provides fantastic and inspired answer. Seller: How would this more efficient approach impact you, your team, and your business?
• Buyer: Convinces themselves to buy your solution with their answer.

Thinking like a Decision Maker

• What problem does this tool solve for my company?
• Can I picture myself using this solution to fix or help with said problem?
• What makes this fundamentally different than a competitor?
• Is this worth my time to explore further?

Building Value (Comparing Competitors)

• Here’s how we are different-
• Here’s why those differences matter to you-
• Here’s proof those differences add value-

[1] What is their #1 priority?
Ex- We need drive expansion by cross selling all of our additional products. 

[2] Why is that their #1 priority?
Ex- Due to the current economic landscape, it’s becoming more challenging to get new logos as our buyers are pulling back their budgets. 

[3] How are they doing that today?
Ex- We’re having team meetings every month, and we’re asking our team for feedback in pipeline reviews, but we’re not seeing many additional cross-sells. 

[4] Revenue impact?
Ex- If we can do this effectively, we believe there is a $10M opportunity. 

In this order, you can use these key points to kickoff a killer demo! [2] -> [1] -> [3] -> [problem you're solving] -> [4] -> [what will you show them] 

Example:
[2] Due to the current economic landscape, it’s becoming more challenging to get new logos as your buyers are pulling back their budgets.[1] So you’re focused on driving expansion by cross-selling all of your additional products.[3] You’re hosting team meetings and pipeline reviews, but you’re not seeing many additional cross-sells.[The problem your solution will solve] Driving adoption to anything new is incredibly difficult, and humans will forget 80% of what they learn within 48 hours. And you can’t be on every call with your reps, listen to every recording, nor can you read every email to know if your reps are cross-selling effectively in every opportunity.[4] But if you can do this effectively, there is a potential for $10M opportunity.[What you will show them] Today, you will find out how you be able to more effectively drive expansion by have visibility into which deals are your additional products being cross-sold, cross-sold effectively, and where there is a lack of adoption in your team so you can drive more cross-sells for this 10M opportunity

Build trust, and be mindful of language

Nick from 30 Minutes to Presidents Club Podcast suggests that admitting that your product isn’t perfect builds trust - being relatable and prepared is key.

He also encourages using “typically” instead of using love/I language.

“I would love to demo you our solution or I would love to take you on a custom proposal” contains a lot of “me me me” language

Instead, you can say “these demos typically go 1 of two ways - you either see the value and warrants next steps, or you think it’s the worst solution ever.”

By using the word “typically” (Or "usually" / "most of the time") communicates that you know how other people have bought and are following a proven roadmap for success (not an arbitrary process) This is a great way to build trust in demos and is a pro tip. Thanks Nick!

Do not forget to set expectations: helps you control the call and make sure you are on the same page

Let your prospect guide your demo

Mor Assoouline founder of FDTC suggests asking “What is your minimum criteria when evaluating a solution for you to say, ‘this is exactly what we need?’“

The result will be the prospect telling you EXACTLY what they want to see on the demo, and how that affects their buying decision. Helping reduce the number of prospects who buy from competition.

Take a few minutes before the end of the demo to set up for next steps

Demo End & Next Steps:
Finish the meeting by letting them know what is required on their end for the solution to work the way it should and be a success. Use the last slide of your presentation to set clear goals and expectations:

• Expectations their necessary commitment and skill and of course budget required
• In some cases, an additional meeting may happen- but it is important to end the meeting with what you will need to do to prepare next time
• The ideal scenario is you can come to a mutual understanding based on trust, value and empathy and you can close the deal.

What to Use - Kyle Asay

Use: Slides from your Discovery
• Kyle Asay from Sales Introverts says if there are slides that you want to share with your customer further, to have slides that are geared towards that concept. This provides a back-and-forth cadence to talk about these key aspects while going into a deeper discovery.
• Kyle mentions in his Solutions and Presentation Frameworks that you should have a discovery understanding slide. This will include the “buyer’s current state, negative consequences, desired after state, and expected positive outcomes. It’s a great slide to 1) dig deeper with your primary contact(s) and 2) validate and expand with new contacts added to the conversation.”
Use: Software Architecture & Feature Overview
• While not feature dumping, using slide images to go over the major solutions of your tool but Kyle Asay says it is critical to call out exactly what solutions you will go over, and mention the ones you will not briefly so they know it is not available.
Use: Customer Stories/Use Cases
• When deciding what stories to use the best ones are the obviously tied back to the same problems your current prospect has.
• While those may be few and far between Kyle suggests showing an example of how you solved your buyer’s problem and another example of your solution working for a similar company.
• Kyle says these two examples will build enough trust. The goal is to haze an engaging, ongoing conversation with about equal talk time for both seller and buyer.

What to Leave Out - Kyle Asay

Do Not Use: Feature heavy slides – this is what the demo is for
Do Not Use: Company History - Leave out your founder story, awards. No one cares
Do Not Use: Customer Logo Slides - It isn’t about the logos your brand has worked with, it is about the common problems and use cases.

Browser Profiles When Screen Sharing
When doing a demonstration, especially one that is going to be recorded, consider using multiple browser profiles or incognito mode.

• Create multiple buyer personas via browser profiles - helps you show the point of view with additional admin controls
• Will help you demo in the context of multiple logged on users - no need to load multiple browsers, eliminating the need to use private mode to accomplish this
• In some cases, it may be helpful to prerecord your demo vs try to wing it live

Screen Sharing & Load Times

• Full Screen - Use F11 to enter full screen, giving you more space for demos and hide open pages and get you into full screen
• Avoid Page load time – load webpages for your demo ahead of time, and use CTRL + Tab to quickly switch between active tabs, avoiding load times.
• Webpage load times or file load time can really lower the energy of your demo

User Profiles/Personas

• Using user profiles in Edge or Chrome is helpful for different personas
• You can always switch between windows using ALT + tab but there is a cleaner way to switch using desktops
• F11 will open full screen - You can use the CTRL + Tab key to switch between active tabs

Sequencing:

• A set of emails, and preset steps in the sales process through automation
• The whole point of sequencing is to help manage the follow up process

Emails:

• Emails have the best response rate - shorter the better
• Your email & messaging should be direct, and short
• Your emails should look more like text messages and be less than 50 words
• Bullet point emails tend to not get the most responses, but it doesn’t hurt to A/B test
• Do not use cringey wording like “evolutionary” or “transformative”
• When doing email sequencing it is best to think about what customers and what stories you will use to get a decision maker to show interest

Bumping & Follow-up:

• The average cold email opening rate is around 35% so using bump messages is critical
• With every bump you can add a little piece of value such as a visual, case study or customer quote/recommendation
• When you add a connection on LinkedIn, follow up with an email to build familiarity
• The first 3-4 messages should relate back to the original/ fundamental core messaging
• Like most nurture-based sales approaches, avoid selling vs building the needed value

Data Doesn't Lie

• You cannot improve on what you do not record and analyze
• Goal is to always increase open rates, click rates and reply rates
• Be sure to analyze your outreach sentiment data to fine tune sequencing for the highest positive response rate and the lowest negative/unsubscribe rate

Get Organized:

• Create or use a dashboard for all company related info, contacts, and personas to target your audience on the same account
• Engagement metrics, such as sent manual connects vs sent auto connections vs accepted auto connections.

• Monday & Friday: Research accounts
• Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday: Prioritize call blocks
• End of day: Prepare emails to send in the morning
• Morning: Send prepared emails, and call
• Add 100 new contracts to your cadence daily
• Spend 1 hour a day on each of:
  • Building lists and crafting reasoning for outreach
  • Outbound – may need to increase depending on pipeline
  • Social engagement
  • Auditing content for ideal messaging including the correct links, attachments and everything is accurate
• Ask for interest, not a meeting time
• 3 touch same day method:
  • Call first
  • Email (and reference the call)
  • Engage on socia
• Delay your sequence emails to be a day after a holiday
• Use out office replies to get phone #s after a holiday or trip

Sequencing & Sales Experts to Follow

• Caroline Maloney
• Angel Brodin
• Keegan Otter
• Nate Nasralla of Fluint.io
• Nick Smith
• Jason Bay of Blissful Prospecting
• Patrick Joyce
• Anthony Natoli
• Dale Dupree of Sales Rebellion

Outreach & Sequencing Rsources to Keep Learning

• Making a sequence in Outreach.io
• Outreach FAQ
• 7 Sequences Every Sales Team Needs - Sam Nelson
• How to Nail the First Email in a Cold Outreach Sequence
• How To Create an Outreach Sequence
• Timeless Tips for Kick-Ass Sales Sequences’
• Outreach.io best practices
• Outreach Management Tips for New Admins
• How to Send Videos in Outreach Emails
• How to Set Up a Winning Sales Prospecting Sequence

Day 1: Triple Tap

• Call/voicemail -> email -> LinkedIn Message
• Focus messaging on the most common problem your prospects have related to your solution.
• Call and leave a voicemail. Point that voicemail to your email.
• “...no need to call back. I’m about to send an email to you with the subject line ‘Voicemail from Jason Bay.’”
• Then send your email.
• And then send a connection request or engage with their content on LinkedIn

Day 3: Quick Follow up

• Focus the messaging here on the same problem as the previous touch.
• Call, but don’t leave a voicemail.
• Then send a short email follow up
• “Any thoughts? - Jason”

Weeks Two and Three

• Follow the same pattern.
• Focus on a new problem each week.
• Don’t make sequences more complicated than they need to be.
• Start with a simple to execute sequence
• Adjust based on the results.

A/B testing in sequences doesn’t have to be completed. Start by tweaking the CTA in your cold emails. Here are three formulas you can try:

This or that

• Give your prospect a way out that assumes the positive.
• “Are you running across that right now? Or are you totally good to go in this area?”

No-oriented

• Simple no-oriented style questioning here à la Chris Voss.
• “Would it be a bad idea to share more?”
• “Would it hurt to share more?”

Multiple choice

• Give the prospect options and tell them how to respond if they’re interested.
• “Can you reply with “1” or “2” and I’ll send over a quick video showing how your competitors are handling those challenges?”
• Gong’s CTA data is pretty revealing: asking for interest vs. asking for time performs 2x better.
• Don’t copy/paste the CTAs above for your cold emails. Use them for ideas.
• Try keeping everything the same in your cold emails, but A/B test the CTAs to boost your positive reply rates.

• Know your prospect and their business inside out.
  • Previous engagement with old opps, current news, 10Ks, stock price, podcasts, mutual investors, recent hires from current customers, intent data, competitors of theirs that are your customers, customers of theirs that are your customers, etc.
  • Ian Koniak is a master at this!
• Put 5 people minimum from each of those 2 accounts into a personalized sequence each week. • https://www.linkedin.com/in/kremeralex/ Alex Kremer Suggests this
• Use research from #2 to personalize your messaging.
  • Actually care about helping whom you are reaching out to.
  • People feel that energy. We're humans
• Use LinkedIn and Twitter to find nuggets & video
• Recycle 1st personalized note if the prospect doesn't read/open your email
  • Thanks Vin Matano for talking about this with Nick Cegelski & Armand Farrokh on 30 Minutes to President's Club

Did you know that you can group prospects in the same sequence using Outreach?

If you have clients where you need to communicate the same message with multiple people in the same account, this could help you: Here are some use cases I use this for:

• Renewals
• Best Practices and Tips
• Events
• Help with Adoption and Training
• QBRs
• Shared Links - Possibly NPS Surveys
• roduct Updates
• Policy Changes
• Meeting No-Show (Multiple People)
• Monthly / Quarterly Check-In

When I am working with an Enterprise customer and I need to ensure all the appropriate people need a certain type of sequence, I've never liked sending them all the same sequence/content separately.

It could come across as laziness at times.

This "Grouped" Sequence feature allows you to choose prospects to target and place them ALL in the same sequence within the TO and CC fields.

You can mark a certain person as the "Primary," so if they respond everyone gets pulled out of the sequence together.

Simply click "Show Advanced" after you choose the appropriate sequence.

This also helps to show that you care about the collective mind.

They don't have to back-channel as much to understand the current status update.

This helps with multi-threading, saves time, and creates fewer tasks for YOU

If your company doesn't have a place where you can see your metrics week over week, month over month...Create your own. This can be as simple as a spreadsheet, or (some of this can be) as involved as creating an actual dashboard/leaderboard type view on Salesforce, or whatever you're using. Ideas for metrics that SDRs can track

Call Channel - Data:

• % of numbers that are incorrect/wrong person
• % of numbers that are dial trees/not-direct
• % of numbers that are outdated (person moved on)

Call Channel - On the Phones:

• % of connections to right person
• % of times you use one opener vs. another
• % of times you get past pleasantries (talk time)
• % of times you get hung up on in the first 30 seconds
• % of times you handle a particular objection over another
• % of times you soft pitch (which approach did you take)
• % of times you get the same question from a prospect

Call Channel - Meetings - Successes/Gaps:

• % of times you book a meeting per call placed
• % of times you book a meeting per connected call
• % of closing lines you use over others while booking meetings
• Days you're booking meetings on where people show up the most
• Days you're booking meetings on where people no show the most
• % of lookalike meetings booked (same persona as last time? same title? type of company?)

Email Channel - Data:

• % of opens (subject line data/information to use)
• % of replies to specific templates/sequences (track them)
• % of replies at specific times of day per persona/title

Email Channel - Reply Handling:

• % of objections and positive/negative sentiments (Outreach tells you this!)
• % of meetings booked through email alone versus email + phone (or LinkedIn, etc.) warm up
• % of use-cases/customer stories injected in winning emails (which customer stories are most successful when highlighted in an email

Pricing

When talking about closing, pricing will come up. Especially in SaaS pricing is super important- learn more about pricing mistakes from Kyles paid frameworks. Kyle Asway in his End of Deal Frameworks talks about how the SaaS pricing model is constantly changing and you don’t get credit for proactive discounting. Kyle suggests refusing to negotiate price until the scope is finalized.

End of Deal: Getting to the Close

• When building relationships with prospects these signs could be the client trying to end the conversation, or they are planting seeds of interest.
• When closing deals and getting contracts, it is important to not get too eager, and use your emotional intelligence.

End of Deal: Genuine Interest

• They are more positive and give quicker replies - duh
• When the sales cycle is at a normal pace, and suddenly they speed-up the process.
• Your prospect starts asking specific questions around the tool & service pricing.
• Prospects start inquiring about your case studies, other paying clients and success stories in their industry.
• They show any interest in moving the conversation forward, or who, what, when where and why this tool will be used.
• Keep building HYPE & creating urgency

Closing Tips

• Play the long game
• Keep following up
• Be genuine and non-transactional
• Keep doing a deeper dive into the companies goals and workflows
• Continue to stay up to date with company changes including tools they are currently using by following their job postings
• Engage with your champions and decision makers in a genuine way on LinkedIn by liking, sharing, commenting on their content and building relationships with them online

This is a closing technique that assumes the sale. Confidence is key here! Instead of asking if they want to buy, instead asking them how many seats they want. This closing method requires someone with a nurturing sales approach as to not ruin the rapport. This close should only be used after building value as it does give the prospect enough time to talk about pains and objections, they would have.

Examples:

• When can we get started on implantation of the tool?
• Our customer success team will be reaching out today to start x if this works?
• Do you want to go with x tier or y tier? Who is best to send financial paperwork too?
• What is the name and contact of your accounting teams for billing?

Salespeople by nature are usually pretty good storytellers! This may be your chance to shine depending on how you decide to utilize this closing technique.

The best part of this closing technique is you have uncovered enough needs, value or examples and do not need to give discounts or promotional offering.

Perfect this pitch using all the information you have learned in discovery about workflows, org charts and how your prospect measures success! A valued based, organic summary pitch may be enough close the deal- but it is important to note that some sellers have to attempt to close 5+ times before they get the contract signed.

Some gifted sellers with a track record of success with similar use cases and personas will add an additional case study to really loop their success to the destined success your prospect will have if they buy.

This closing technique is usually coupled with the assumptive close- or if done right will give you enough insights to do exactly what you need to do to win their business.

Some of the best use visuals in their presentation.

The Now or Never Close is a classic way of getting the prospect to buy now, this technique works because it creates as sense of urgency.

If you have by promising added features now. It works well when the prospect is having a hard time moving to yes- they are curious but not sold just yet.

• "We’ve got a 0% discount just for customers who sign up before end of quarter”
• “If you commit to buy before Friday, I can fast track you to the front of the implementation queue.”

SaaS sales is all about retaining clients, and upselling/cross selling down the line. However, a good way to close the deal immediately can be to utilize the now or never method but offer to add one of the many added features of the tool.

For example, the ability for a more seamless integration, ability to add more contacts, or send more emails. This same Method can be used by offering to reduce the prospect to a lower cost plan that can be expanded on later. This tactic only works if value is there, but they have objections such as budget.

Referrals that stick and pay are the real deal. Deals that come through referrals have a higher conversion rate, higher retention rate and lower churn rate. DUH!

Most salespeople ask for a referral after the close, but some salespeople use this as a method to get to the close. Some resources suggest you bring this closing technique up when you feel like your prospect has zoned out, and by straight up asking for someone they know who is a fit for the services may bring back interest. This is done by showing curiosity around their referrals needs and why your prospect seems like a fit.

Engaging in a light discovery may bring more light to the current conversation by talking more about this potential prospect needs and goals. Relate them back to your DM to close by connecting those same dots!

Providing multiple options for your buyer is the best way to avoid a black and white – yes or no response. This closing technique is best to use when you have a prospect who is unsure how often they will use the product or are having budget objections.

Instead of going for the close and offering a single service package you ask them to choose from 1-3 options. A common approach for this is service lengths. Do not overwhelm them with too many options to chose from. For example, a 3-month, 6-month, or 1-year subscription.

If you straight up ask them if they want a subscription, you may get the no you are trying to avoid. Testing the waters and offering a specific length may give you more insights (or a sale!) on what will satisfy their current needs.

Example: Now that I know all of your needs and requirements, I think these two options works best. Would you like to go with x length or y length.

This technique happens during the discovery process when a client will say what they like and don’t like about a product, services, or features. All feedback is good feedback, and when you get this feedback and see an opportunity to get the client what they need and close the deal- DO IT!

In the world of SaaS and services there is a lot that can be customized to the client, and a lot of information to work with if you get the client talking about their needs.

The sharp angel close comes up in software/SaaS because of all the details that need to align in order for a successful implantation to happen, especially in more complex deals. This includes installations and service/ software updates and other aspects of the deal.

Example:

• Asking a prospect “Do you like what we have Demo’d today or is this feature something that works for your existing workflows?
• Client: “The software seems great and solves a problem we have with Y but installation is too expensive and onboarding is too complicated.
• Salesperson: “If I threw in free installation by one of our experts could we sign the contract today and get you set with a customer success Manager?
• Sneak Peak Closing Technique
  • In a sneak peak sale close, you review the features of the product and how it will help meet their needs. This approach gives the prospect one more time to really envision what your product might accomplish for them. An example of how this could be done is having a sneak peak video that you share at the time of closing of how this product is used in real time, even better with real case study examples!

Offering a trial at a reduced rate or a free month’s subscription is a great way to push the deal out, but can bring a lot of value with clients who plan utilizing the tool within the time frame.

Example

• “Should I get into the subscription details so that you can get started quickly? 
• “The trial is about to end in the next 72 hours should we start your paid subscription and make it officially official?”
• “Now that I get you, your work flows & how you will find success here would you like to go ahead with a paid subscription so we can get our implantation team on this ASAP?”