- Good morning, I'm Matthew Elwell
of the Elite Closing Academy, and in this video
we're gonna look at the four steps that you can utilize
right now to make sure that closing is easy.
Hi, I'm Matt Elwell of the Elite Closing Academy,
and in this video we're gonna look at the four key areas
that you need to really focus on right now,
to close more deals.
And I think it's fair to say during coronavirus,
I am on my own here in the kitchen today.
We're not in the studio, in the office
with my normal production team.
Look, the four things that you need to have
to close more deals before coronavirus, during coronavirus,
and after coronavirus, are a living system that,
for those of you that may have downloaded my book,
"Open with a Close", you'll already have a feel
for what this is.
But the system's called Punt With a Q, P-U-N-T,
and before I just delve into exactly what that means,
I just wanna remind you all that selling and closing
are two totally different skills.
A lot of people go, "Yeah, Oh I know
"what you're talking about."
The truth is for many, many, many sales people,
they are looking to serve, sell, close,
all at the same time, without really earning the right
to ask a closing question.
So, the way we differentiate it, just so this content
hits home for you, is we believe that everything
that happens before making a written proposal,
is it should be selling.
And once the prospect has got a bespoke, detailed,
written proposal, that that is the time to stop selling
and start closing.
Now many, like the lots and lots of different businesses,
all over the globe now, watching this information so,
this varies slightly, but the point is,
is that you may have to make a verbal written proposal.
But use your computer phone, even if it's verbal.
Make sure that you send them a text, so that they've
got something they can actually see.
The power of a written proposal is unbelievable.
And the other thing I just wanna remind you is,
just remember that selling is really hard.
It should be tough, it should be where
all your hard work happens, where you ask lots, and lots,
and lots of questions, where you qualify.
You're looking for helpful information
so you can make a decision as to whether or not
you're a good match, and the two businesses can thrive,
moving forwards.
And that's really important.
And just remember that selling is asking powerful questions,
sharing information, and understanding.
So the hard work is in the sales, the prospecting,
what we call the front end, so that when the close is ready,
it's nice and natural, and it's easy.
Selling is hard, closing is easy.
So for those of you that bought the book recently,
"Open With a Close", you'll have actually seen me
deep dive this in a bit more detail.
But the four things that you must have to close a deal,
are pains, or in brackets, challenges, wherever possible.
Urgency, so there's gotta be a strong reason
why another business, and remember, businesses are people,
so that humans in the businesses that you help,
or the humans in businesses that need your products
or services, have to have a strong reason
why they would do it now.
So that's the urgency of it, there's a reason
for them to do it.
Thirdly, you need to always understand what they
actually need from you, that gets even better results,
solves problems, goes from A to B.
Whatever it is, you need to find out the need,
so what that means is by not having the information
that your product or service presents, offers.
What's the problem?
What do they need?
That nut's where you got to go all the time.
And the fourth thing that you must have for a deal
to be closed, and it could be real estate, a service,
it might be a retail showroom, a car showroom.
The other thing that has to happen,
when people exchange contracts, cash.
When money exchanges, there must be trust,
and that's the T to the system.
So we just deep dive each one a little bit more.
My solid recommendation to everybody that I work with,
people that come to my trainings, which are now online,
so my philosophy during coronavirus, is to deliver
everything we said we would, at an even better level,
online.
And we're getting some amazing results, which is calling
the training in my academy, which is amazing.
And the reason for that is, you can hone even more.
Yes, it's pretty powerful.
Now, one thing that must happen is, when it comes to pains,
when it comes to challenges, when it comes to things
that businesses need from you, information,
it doesn't really matter what it is.
The harder you work at understanding what the actual
challenges are, I promise you the easier the close,
the better the result.
The P in pain, it is critical that you have,
and this is what I teach, minimum five pain questions
that are logical and linked to you being the outcome.
And five pain questions that are emotional,
so other than money.
So when you start to build this up, you know some of my
best students, some of the businesses that get
the biggest results, they've got lots, and lots, and lots
of these that you build over time.
If you're just starting out, if this is language
that you're just beginning to incorporate,
if you're following me, which is cool,
just go for one, or two, or three.
The questions, remember selling is questions,
that are linked to what you do.
So I'll just give you a great example of a pain question,
for me, that I could ask.
It would just be something as simple as, "Let me ask you
"a question.
"When it comes to your sales process, but in particular
"the closing aspect, right in the very end,
"doing the deal, what's your biggest challenge right now?"
That's a great example.
And what I'd like you to do is, on that simple,
easy-to-understand question, write down your pain questions,
that most obvious question that you can think of,
that would get you, when answered, a qualified prospect.
Because basically, if somebody doesn't have, like to me,
I'm being honest with you, we ain't got any closing issues
at all.
In fact, we're a hundred out of a hundred.
We're good, see you later.
I'm like, "Cool, who do you know that isn't at a hundred,
"that needs my help?"
I'm good, I'm just getting a referral,
because your responsibility, if you wanna close more deals,
is to make sure your pipeline's clean, with businesses
that actually need what you do.
So that would be one, write it down,
and here's another one that I ask.
I'll say, "When it comes to your sales, and in particular,
"your closing, other than money, what impact is closing?
"What impact does that have, other than money?
"Like how does it affect morale, how does it affect
"bottom line?
"Not bottom line cash, but bottom line culture?
"What impact's it having on the team's culture?"
I've seen sales teams who were great, sending,
creating loads of leads, with a marketing team,
and then they sort of really struggle to actually
sign the deal, so.
And that can have, obviously a financial impact,
and you should always find that out, and deep dive it,
which we actually call, in the system we call it
Punt With a Q.
Q is quantitative, measured information,
to always find out how much they leave on the table.
How long have they left it on the table?
That kind of stuff.
But I think, going back to it, is when a sales team
is having a low patch, it can be really painful,
affect morale, affect language, affect culture,
affect the way people show up, relationships.
So there's a lot of other stuff.
And as an elite closer, you must ask, other then money,
what other things are happening that would be helpful
for us to know, because this is where value is created,
you see.
This is where you start to become a solution to a problem,
so it's really powerful.
And again, last week, online in my three-day-training,
we did a section on this, with a little bit like role play.
It was a game changer.
Because it's not just about money, you see.
And this is the crucial bit.
If it's just about money, then truthfully,
the deal's a bit on sand if it's just about cash.
You gotta find the value.
So the next aspect is urgency, and again, I'll demonstrate
an urgency question from my point of view.
Let's go back to my first question about pain,
which is how, when it comes to selling, and in particular,
closing, what's your biggest challenge?
When they start to explain what those challenges are,
it's also my job to find out how urgent it is to resolve,
so I might just say, "Thanks for sharing that,
"and how urgent is it to resolve for you, right now?
"What's gonna happen if you don't solve it?"
And again, as an elite closer, before closing the deal,
this is all information that's really, really helpful,
because it's coming from them.
And when your prospects are in choice, and they're deciding
the answers, that's when you're in control.
It's the opposite to the way the world sells and closes,
I understand, but it's the only way, in my world.
When you are asking and understanding,
you selling at a really elite level, and you're allowing
the prospect to decide for themselves, and to see
for themselves, that you're actually the solution
to their challenges.
And this is the skill.
How long have you had this closing problem?
What's it worth to you?
How long have you left that money on the table?
How long can you afford to continue knowing
that you're losing that amount of money, before something
even worse happens in the business?
That's an urgency question, on really high level.
And so yeah, you've gotta, you must focus on challenges,
pains, but also how painful actually are they?
Are they just humming along?
Is it gonna be okay?
Or is this something that the business must
get to grips with?
Thirdly, need.
Why?
And there's no better question than this, by the way.
I think this is such a powerful question.
Very simply, you can say to the prospect, you've done pains,
you've done urgency, you've sat. (claps hands once)
"Thanks for sharing all that information.
"What do you think, from what you've seen or heard,
"your business needs from us, to solve that urgent challenge
"that you've just been describing?"
See, the power of that question, it's so powerful.
What do they think they need?
Because this them selling you, and the product, and service
to themselves.
They're seeing, for the first time maybe, that actually
this is, for them, a really good opportunity to invest
time, money, and energy, in solving the challenges,
or accelerate results, whatever it is that your product
or service does.
Just a simple, "What have you seen or heard
"about us, so far, that you think you need from us,
"to get an even better result from what you've
"just described?"
That's so, so powerful.
It's unbelievable.
And this is how you sell, so that, when you come
to a close, it's effortless.
And the last thing that you must have in the relationship,
is trust, bottom line.
If you don't trust another human, you are so much
less likely to willingly, naturally say, "Yeah, I'm in,
"let's go."
Because trust is critical.
It's a really powerful word, and remember, trust works
both ways.
They need to trust you and you need to trust them.
You see, trust is built around a number of foundations,
but you have to trust that they trust you enough
to take on the information you've got, and actually change
what led them to get to this place in the first place.
You have to trust that's gonna happen, so that you can
get results, and you have to trust that they are
bought in to your product or service.
And vice versa, so it's a very powerful aspect.
And they way you do that is, making sure you're in line
with your business's values, make sure you conduct
your business all the way through the sales process,
with purposefulness, professionalism, persistency.
I think great trusting questions would be, "What do you
"know about us?
"What have you heard from others, that made you come
"towards me?
"What is it about my product and services, in particular,
"that you like, that you believe are gonna help?"
They're all great questions around trust.
So wherever pain or challenges, urgency, need, and trust
come together, that's where you're in a perfect position
to ask a simple closing question like,
"What's the next step?
"When can I sign the contract?
"When you wanna get started?"
Whatever your closing question is.
But the harder you have worked in the sales process,
the easier it is to get a close.
So just remember the system is Punt with a Q, pain,
urgency, need, trust, quantitative information,
so that you really get to the core of the problem,
and down to that, from the surface.
And whenever you've got that, you are in a position
where it would be a logical next step to do business
with you, to get the result that your product or service
really needs.
I do hope that helps.
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