The 5 Questions That Instantly Increase Your Close Rate

We share a five-question framework that shifts control to the buyer, builds urgency without pressure, and turns the close into a simple next step. The core idea: ask better questions at the start, and you will not need to push at the end.

• why pitching early triggers pushback
• how clarity questions surface real pain
• creating urgency with consequences of delay
• quantifying the cost of inaction in money and time
• mapping the decision process without ego traps
• testing commitment with a soft close
• using silence and listening to deepen insight
• avoiding scripts while staying structured

Please tell your friends
And please remember to like and subscribe
You can do that online in your own time, all of that stuff
Please like and subscribe if you feel that I’ve earned it for you

Welcome to the podcast!

Chapters

• 0:20 Why Deals Are Really Lost
• 1:04 The Close Starts At The Start
• 3:25 Questions Beat Pitching
• 4:56 Five-Question Framework Overview
• 5:06 Question 1: Clarity
• 7:52 Question 2: Consequences
• 9:51 Question 3: Cost Of Inaction
• 12:10 Question 4: Decision Process
• 15:23 Question 5: Commitment
• 19:22 Using Prompts Without Sounding Scripted
• 20:10 Listen More, Pause Longer
• 21:34 Closing And Calls To Action

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:14

Most salespeople don't lose deals because they're bad at selling, they lose deals because they're asking the wrong questions. So in this episode, I'm going to give you the exact five questions that can instantly increase your close rate, and that's without being pushy, awkward, or sounding like a script. So welcome to this podcast. My name is Graeme Elliott. And if you enjoy this, please tell your friends. And please remember to like and subscribe. So let's dive into it. And the very first thing is absolutely fundamental, and this isn't only something I've seen salespeople get wrong. I've even seen sales trainers teaching this incorrectly, which uh sort of blows my mind a little bit, but there you go. So, what most people don't realize about closing their deals is that the close doesn't happen at the end of the conversation, it doesn't happen at the end of the call. It actually happens right at the start. And it's it starts with the questions that you ask, and this is absolutely key. So, and look, the point is if some of this resonates with you, and I imagine it probably does if you're here listening, the important thing is to just recognize where you're going wrong and then change what you're doing so you start doing it right. So it's not about making you wrong or any of that stuff, but let's just step back, observe, and then correct. So, one of the things a lot of salespeople do is they talk too much, they pitch too early, and then they wonder why their prospect says, I need to think about it. Now, I'm going to pitch my course here, uh, just for a moment, and this is something I dive into in a lot more detail in the uh uh the course I have, consultative selling. You can do that online in your own time, all of that stuff. But this is absolutely fundamental. There is a right time to pitch, but much more importantly, you have to ask the right questions. If you don't, you will miss a lot of really important information and you'll lose your client in the process. And if you are if you get the right questions, if you ask the right questions, yours prospects will start connecting the dots themselves. So they'll convince themselves, and you you don't even have to convince them at the end. So this is one of the reasons why a lot of people hold back from closing. It's almost like closing is this, it's almost like a wrestling match or something like that with the client to try and overcome all these objections and all this other stuff. It's like there's a conflict going on, and in fact, if you are doing this correctly, there's no conflict. You go straight in, the client has convinced themselves, assuming you're a good match, that you're the solution they're looking for, and it's simply a case of doing the paperwork, getting everything moving, and it really is that simple. So let's first of all just look at why questions close deals faster than pitching. So, what what happens when you pitch to somebody? What happens when somebody pitches to you? You are putting pressure on the buyer, and you may also be creating some level of kickback or pushback from the buyer because not many of us like to feel we're being pressured into a decision. We like to feel we're getting there on our own. And once someone starts to feel they've been somehow pressured or manipulated into a certain outcome, they will quite often just dig the hills in and start pushing back, or they'll start saying yes to everything, they need to think about it, and you'll never hear from them again. So that often happens. Whereas what happens when you ask questions, you're giving control to the buyer. Now, obviously, as a salesperson, you need to be controlling the whole process, but this is where it gets subtle. If your questions are correct and you're asking the right questions, the buyer feels like they're in control, they definitely feel like they're being heard, they definitely feel that you care about giving them the right solution, but you are still running the whole interview, the whole meeting. So this is really important. Great salespeople don't talk people into buying, they lead people into making their own decisions, and most of the time that will be to go ahead with the purchase. So now you might want to write these down. Um, so I'm going to give you five questions that you can ask, and then we're going to um just round things up. So that's essentially the podcast. So the very first one is the clarity question. This, and the reason you ask this is to understand their current situation. So this works on two levels. One is you need to be really clear where they are, what the problems are, what the problem is they're trying to solve. Remember, salespeople, we're problem solvers. So it's really important that you get a handle on that, but you also get them to state where they are and what the problems are. So the first question to ask, and it can either be this exactly or something similar, but ask a question which is along the lines of what's happening right now that made you start looking for a solution. Because if somebody is speaking to you, often some event has happened which has just pushed them into taking action. And a lot of the time people don't want to take action because they kind of make do, your brain doesn't want you to make decisions, there's all sorts of stuff going on there, but something has happened to make them start taking action, and this is really important. So, this is where your prospect starts talking about the pain that they're having, their frustration, unmet goals, whatever it is that is causing them uh problem, that they are defining what that uh problem is. So you're not hunting at this point for features to sell, you are listening. What you're looking for is emotional relevance. So, what I mean by that is that you are getting to state their pain, and pain is an emotional aspect, usually, um, and at least in the context of sales. So it's really important to get clear on what that pain is. And usually when somebody is looking for something, there will be somewhere between one and three pain points. There'll be a major one, usually, and then there might be some secondary ones, but it's really important that you understand what those pain points are, and certainly the key one: what's the big problem that you need to solve for them? So, other examples of questions you can ask could be what are you looking for? That's a little bit weak, but um, it's it's open, so it might encourage them to start to tell you. An alternative would be to use a question, which could be what's not working the way you want it to right now. So obviously, you know what you're selling, you need to think of ways you can just phrase or put a question together, but what you are trying to do, and what what's really important here is that you understand what the current situation is for the client, what their major pain point or pain points are, and what has prompted them to take action. So that's the first question. So that's the clarity question. Second one is to uh make it real. So this is the consequence question. In other words, what happens if they don't solve this problem? So once they've gone through what the problem is that they are having, ask the question, it can be again these words or something similar. What happens if this doesn't change in the next three to six months? So, what you're intending to do here is to move the conversation from kind of casual interest, uh, it might be almost theoretical, you've got to create a sense of urgency. So the reason that they are speaking to you right now is that there is some level of pain involved, and what we're doing in this question is stacking the pain. How can we stack the pain if we if they allow it to continue for three months, twelve months, whatever it might be? And this is really important because people tend to move away from pain. So when you're making a decision on something, you'll tend to you're more likely to take action if there's some pain involved, than the alternative is pleasure. Um, and we we tend to be more motivated by pain than we are by pleasure. So that's the second question, and we're now starting to build a sense of urgency. And why we do this is that people don't change when they understand the problem, they change when they begin to feel the cost of staying in the same place. So we can all experience pain for a little bit, we but when you start really illustrating how that pain will not only continue and be a constant feature, but it could even get worse, that's when we tend to create urgency on top of that need to um take action. Okay, so question three, we're looking at the cost of inaction. So here we've got to tie the problem down to it, may well be money, it might be time, it might be opportunity. So here we go a little bit deeper. And the kind of questions to ask would be along the lines of what does this problem already cost you in time, money or missed opportunities, all something phrased around that. What you're trying to get them to see is not only are they feeling pain about it, but there is a specific, there's a measurable level of discomfort, let's call it that. So if you're in business to business, it's probably money. Um, if you're in business to consumer, it may well be money as well. Uh, but you need to think about what it is your solution is solving, and that's where you've got to start pinning it down. So get them to not only recognize the pain, but recognize what happens if they don't take action, as we did in the last question, but with question three, we're starting to quantify it. So if they don't correct this problem, it's already cost them X amount or something else, maybe time or missed opportunities, whatever it might be, and this will only get worse. So that is the importance of question three. Now, what's really important here is that once you've asked the question, just pause. Let them speak next. And this is something I see a lot of salespeople do, they they'll tend to jump in, they're uncomfortable with silence, but silence is really powerful. So, where you want someone to really begin to feel the pain of not taking action, the pain of just having to carry on the way they are, this is where silence can be really, really useful. So, with question three, just make sure that you don't dive in, you give them time to think, give them time to answer, and that will only increase how much they're feeling um the cost of inaction, which is question number three. Number four, so this is about understanding the decision uh making process. The the reason we do this, and ideally you would have done this early on if you can when you're qualifying, but it's really important to make sure that the person you're dealing with, the person you're speaking to, is in a position to make the decision. And if they're not, you have to be speaking to the decision maker if you're going to um move things forward. And there is an important reason for doing this. And I came across this when I was selling uh I've I've sold all sorts of things, but um when I would first moved to Australia, I was doing any job I could, and um one of the things was selling um the uh American Express cards, so credit cards to people, and it was always a difficult sell, to be honest, and what I would find is that if I found somebody and I didn't get that decision-making process clear, and often in couples it will be the wife, not always, but it's often the wife who makes the decision. If you explain it to the husband in this circumstance, he might be completely convinced, but he is not going to sell that solution to his wife in the same way that you will. So, again, if you rely on somebody else to do the selling for you, you're really inviting that opportunity to go away to somebody else because they will not be able to, uh that person will not sell it the way you can. So, what we're trying to avoid here is making sure that you don't find out too late that your buyer isn't actually the decision maker. So they might be an influencer, they might even be a coach. So there are different roles that are played when it comes to uh moving through a sale. So you need to be making sure that you've got the buyer. So again, a really easy way to just phrase this question is to use something like if this feels like the right solution, what would your or what does your decision process look like? Try not to go for are you the decision maker? Um, the reason is that if they're not, they might not want to admit it, so they might lie, and I've had that for sure. Um it also imagine if someone said that to you and you're not the decision maker, there's a sort of feeling of you're suddenly less critical and you look less critical to the sale, and that may well not be the case. So it really is important to make sure that you ask it in a soft way, it's respectful, and it's based on process, not personality. So it's about understanding their decision-making process. And the idea of asking this is to get away from going through all of this, having a conversation with them, and then at the very end, they say, I need to talk to my partner, my boss, my team. Um, when you've finished everything and you're ready to sign the deal, and all of a sudden you've basically got nothing at that point. Okay, so that's number four, and then finally, question five is about commitment. So, here what we're doing is we're testing how serious they are, but without applying any pressure to them. And often this is the question that most salespeople are afraid to ask. And the reason is quite simple in that you know you can get a yes or a no. And what what do you do if you get a no? So, again, in the course I run through different ways of handling this so that you don't have to be faced with a yes or no um outcome. Uh, but not going into that here. But the important thing if you're looking for a commitment question is to use something along these lines. So that would be if we can solve this the way we've discussed, is there any reason you wouldn't move forward? So this is not exactly a close, but it's requesting clarity. And psychologically, they are taking ownership of the decision. So if we can solve this the way we discussed it, is there any reason you wouldn't move forward? So what you're inviting them to do is to give them give you their objections, if there are any objections, but again, if you've got your questioning correct, the chances are there'll be little or no questions coming back. And if they are, they're probably about clarification, which is what this is about, and it gives you an opportunity to just close things down. Certainly, if there's nothing stopping them, then it can be well, let's shall we start the paperwork or something like that. Now, um, so that's given you a framework. There's a basic framework there to help you if you're struggling to close sales. Those five questions. So just to quickly recap them, the first question was about clarity, it was about understanding you understanding their current situation, but getting them to state exactly what the pain point or main pain point and main pain points are. Secondly, the consequence questions. So, this is about what happens if they don't do anything in the next what happens in three months, six months from now. So, this is about making the problem real and getting them to really start feeling the pain that they're feeling. Question three is the cost of inaction. So here we're stacking the pain. Um, we're going deeper into the real issue, which might be money or time or something else. So this will depend on what it is you're selling. But what you're doing here is making it real, you're stacking on the pain, and all of this moves them towards uh taking action. Question four is clarifying the decision-making process, and that, as I've explained, is to make sure that you are really talking to the right person. So um it is good in your qualification process if you can get some sort of a handle on this, but definitely if you haven't, this is where you need to do it. And then if they're not the decision maker, or somebody else needs to be involved, that's where you need to get them involved before you go for the commitment. Um now you can do a soft commitment if there is somebody else involved, and you can use the question that I've asked. Uh, I've given you already, if we solve, if we can solve this the way we've discussed, is there any reason you wouldn't move forward? Um, you can use that as a test. So it may be that you still need to talk to somebody else to get the final sign off, but it does give you a little bit of a heads up on what you know which additional um or if there are any additional objections that might um uh mess things up for you basically. Okay, so they're the questions. Now um I've given you some example questions and you may have written them down, and that's fine. So what you don't want to do though is sound like a robot. Um you can actually so you need to be careful how you do this. When I first started in sales, I actually wrote down a whole list of questions and I would keep them with in my notepad. So I used to use the notepad back then, and um I I would just say, look, I've got some questions here. Do you mind if I use them basically as an agenda for the meeting just to make sure that I get all of the information I need and and I get really clear on what it is uh that we need to deliver for you, what the solution we need to provide. So you can phrase that any way you like, but if you do feel that you need the prompts, then have them there. The key thing is not so much to memorize the words, but to be clear on the intent of the questions. So, what else uh do you need to remember? So, the first thing, and I mentioned this right at the start, it's to listen more than you speak. A lot of salespeople spend far too much time talking, and a lot of Them do it because they're uncomfortable, they're feeling vulnerable, and they feel that while they're talking, they can control the meeting, which is great because if you're feeling vulnerable, there's nothing better than feeling like you're in control because that's where safety lies. But of course, what you're doing is you're really turning off your client, and you don't want to be doing that. So, this is the power of questions. You um let the client speak a lot more than you do, make sure they feel heard, and then you can really start to move things forward. Um, pause longer than might feel comfortable to you because there is power in silence, and let the questions do their work. So the key th the key thing here is people don't like to be sold to. Not many of us enjoy that process, and it can create all sorts of pushback, all sorts of other problems. What we do like to do is to feel empowered so that we can make a decision, and that's what we do as salespeople. We are empowering people to make a decision, but we're guiding them so that the decision they make is with us, which is obviously what we want. So that's it for this podcast. Um, I hope you've enjoyed it, I hope you found it useful. If you have, as I said, please share, please let people know about the podcast. Uh, please like and subscribe if you feel that I've earned it for you, and um, please join me on the next one. So I will speak to you then. Bye for now.