Oren Klaff

I am ready to launch. I know that because I’ve lined my pocket with firecrackers and other flammables.

Oren Klaff

Yes.

I think there’s this word positioning, which is easy to understand because the root is position, but I’d like to reframe the word. It’s about status.

So when you’re when you’re positioning to go into a sale, into a pitch, into a presentation, to make your case, to give a logical argument, most people are so focused on, how do I close? What’s the silver bullet at the end of my presentation that will make the buyer decide to buy what I have?

My argument is that close starts an hour, two hours, four hours, maybe a month before you start making it.

I’ll give you the example.

I don’t have a close. I might be one of the best-known people in sales, buying, positioning, closing, and I have no close, but we do millions of dollars of transactions in every quarter.

My close is literally, “What should we do? I’m out of time. Do you guys want to send over the agreement? Should we draft it?”

If you look at that in context of the quality of close, most salespeople would say, “That’s the worst close I ever heard. How do you do any business?”

Salespeople are used to “So Mr. Jones, you can see the value of our offer, and I’ve drafted a contract here. I’d like you to take a quick look at it and press hard. The fifth copy is yours for the signature.” They’re used to that kind of close.

Oren Klaff

Here’s one of the secrets of closing the sale.

The better and higher your status, the more likely the buyer is to believe what you say, pay attention to you, and listen to you over time. The more likely they are to pay attention to you, the more they’ll be convinced by your ideas.

Status going in is one of the secrets of closing the sale.

Oren Klaff

When I think about positioning, it is “How does the buyer think about your status when he sat in a meeting at the beginning of a presentation?

Here’s a quick example.

My partner Jack is an investment banker, and when I set a meeting, he goes, “How did we get introduced here?” If the introduction was from somebody we don’t respect, or we don’t think the buyer respects, he won’t take the call. He goes, “I want to hire status intro before I pitch this account.”

Oren Klaff

They are secrets of closing the sale.

Oren Klaff

There are a couple of things going on there. One is strategic, and the other is tactical.

Let’s talk about the strategic.

Oren Klaff

The strategic is you didn’t leave any intrigue or anything unknown. Or they feel like they know everything about your product or service to where they can go on the internet and conduct their research.

Can we get it cheaper? Can we get it faster? Can we get it from a more reliable source? We need some time to figure that out. That’s where they are when they’re not responding.

For example, we get off, and we’d say, “We need to run some analysis on this deal. This looks pretty straight forward,” and then we push them and say, “But there are some unusual things about it. You need a recap. You need to draw some money out at closing. That makes it difficult. There’s quite a lot of competition, and it’s a dark space that doesn’t have clear comparable.”

“We’ll run an analysis, and try and figure out what you have here. Let’s jump back on the phone at the end of week and know what’s the art of the possible is between us.”

Oren Klaff

Then, we have to put a time constraint and raise our status, which are secrets of closing the sale.

You say, “This time of year, maybe it’s lucky. Maybe we’re particularly good this year but were extremely busy. I probably can’t get it to it this week. Maybe Tuesday or Wednesday mid-morning do either work.”

Oren Klaff

I want to get to that. Let me finish my thought because that’s one of the huge secrets of closing the sale. It has to be done correctly or entropy chaos, frustration, anger, sadness, and lack of conversion.

Oren Klaff

Yeah, everybody has.

Oren Klaff

I want to circle back to the tactic about, “We gave a presentation. We had meeting, and now, they’re not responding.”

You have to propose a date reasonably far out. The further out you propose it, the more likely somebody is to agree.

You get some general agreement or propose some date, “Hey. I’ve done some additional assessment. We have another client. We have done some work with one of your competitors.”

There’s got to be some intrigue to draw someone to desire back to the call. Then, you propose a time. You say, “Tuesday or Thursday 10 AM does either work.”

Oren Klaff

Then, you have to get out of that loop because every time you call back, email back, and say “Oh hey. It looks like we miss Tuesday, how about Thursday? How about Friday, how about Monday?” Your status keeps going lower, and you feel it. You’re getting needier.

So you need to offload the task of sending that call to an SDR, to your executive assistant, to your other Gmail account or whatever it is. But Susan or Jim has to set the call.

You can’t keep coming around as the account executive or the entrepreneur or the salesperson and continually ask for a meeting when they’re ignoring you. It has to be Susan who isn’t invested in the meeting.

Oren Klaff

Let me come back around to “We’ve done a free consult” which I don’t like framing that way. It’s like the painter’s free quote. You know that is not quoted. It’s a sales pitch in your house where the guy’s hard to get rid of.

The free one hour, I don’t love for many reasons. People want what they can’t have. People chase that which moves away from them, and people only value that which they pay for.

And so, if you offer it free, they’re going to take as much as they can. You’re putting yourself in the low-status position. They’re not paying, and you’re giving away some valuable consulting or services. So, it’s set up incorrectly. We can talk about how to deal with that.

One of the secrets of closing the sale is set it up correctly, which is, “Hey. I’m busy. We’re choosy about who we work with. I’m trying to figure out what it is you have, and if this is an account, we’d be willing to take on.”

Oren Klaff

Those words might offend somebody, but that’s the structure, the positioning, the framing, the status that you have to go in with. The words you wrap around that explicitly depend on you, but that’s the structure.

You can say “I’m busy. This is a busy time of the year for us. We’re the best in the world at this, and we get to be pretty choosy about who we work with. I’m interested in this account. This is the thing we do. But I need to learn more before we would say, “Hey, let’s propose something. Why don’t we jump on a call for 20 minutes?”

“I’ll tell you a little bit about what we do, how we do it, and what we think the value that we deliver is. You say a little bit about yourself, and what you need. If our circles overlap, then we’ll mutually decide to move forward, and scope something out. How does that sound?”

Oren Klaff

For sure you can.

Some women say, “I can never say that. People get mad.”

I deal in finance where some of the meanest, harshest, hard, ankle biting, back scratching businesses in the world are. There’s just a requirement to have a more serious and high gravity tone, but you can say the stuff in the nicest way.

If you’re a wellness coach, I understand you don’t want to be bringing a Thor sledgehammer like I might have to in finance.

Oren Klaff

Here’s a script you can use which is one of the secrets of closing the sale.

“Hey Luis, just this time of year, I’m trying to get in shape. I’m super busy. My calendar is almost entirely stuffed. In our area, I’m the best at yoga Pilates strength training cross fit.”

“And so, we are pretty fortunate to be able to choose my clients. We want customers that are going to be committed for a while. I don’t do lose 10 pounds quick fix.”

“What I’d love to do is why don’t we get in a quick session and I see what your starting point is. I don’t save people’s souls. I’m not a psychologist and what I do is I help people get from a decent shape in the best shape of their life.”

“Let’s spend 20 minutes. Let me see your starting point. I’ll show you a little bit about my methodology. If you love the method and I like your level of commitment, let’s look at the calendar and see if there’s something we can do together.”

“One thing I know is I work as hard as you do and don’t stop when I’m tired. I stop when I’m done. I like to work with people who have the same mindset. Let’s spend a few minutes trying to figure it out.”

“Again, if we’re in agreement with each other, I’ll try and squeeze you in the calendar, and we’ll make it work. It looks like maybe next Thursday or even two weeks out to Tuesday, I could do 20 minutes at 10 AM or 1:30. Does either work?”

I went back into my darker tones there. Those are the secrets of closing the sale, and you can see that it’s not overwhelming.

Oren Klaff

That’s the structure.

Again, you’d say, “Well, why does this work? Or maybe I can say it.”

Oren Klaff

It’s funny, we had that pre-call, and you guys asked me a question. I answered, “Because the crux of the biscuit is in the apostrophe.” You guys almost took that as a reply to the question. It’s not what I said. It’s the way I said it.

With wellness people, painters, artists, creative designers, interior decorators, and all kinds of B2B, I understand you don’t want to be in conflict with your client. It feels like you don’t want to be in conflict because you guys want to do beautiful work together. You want to design something. You want to do interior decorate a fantastic home.

And so, you don’t want to be adversarial. You walk on eggshells, and you don’t want to see anything in any way confront or negatively criticize the buyer or the client.

Oren Klaff

People only want what they can’t have.

Oren Klaff

If you step out of bounce from those principles, you will be chasing clients, and when you’re chasing them, they’ll continue to play “fetch me another rock” especially in this area.

Oren Klaff

“Hey. Can you go get me some paint chips?”

“Okay, great. Got you some paint chips. What do you think?”

“Oh, I love these, but I’d like to see an actual paint sample.”

“Okay, great. I’ll go and make some paints.”

“I love this. Well, I’d like to see one section of our wall painted so we can see how the whole house feels.”

“Okay, great,” and painted the part of the wall.

“Well, this is terrific. I want to see some furniture moved around by that and at least, get one other alternative.”

“Okay, I’ll mix another shade, one darker, one lighter. We’ll paint another wall.”

Oren Klaff

Here’s the way to think about it.

“Fetch me another rock. That’s a great green rock. I love it. It’s perfect. It’s the best green rock I’ve ever seen. However, it is better if we only had a blue rock with orange stripes that would tip us over the edge.”

“Oh. This is a great blue rock with orange stripes. Love it. We’re completely in.”

“You know, my wife or my partner or the accountant had a couple of questions. We need to see a black rock with a white dot on it.” It never ends unless you put your foot down.

We got safe installed in our office because we have some hard drives and stuff. It’s funny. The guys came and put it in. It’s a major operation. You’re moving a safe. It weighs 2,000 pounds. We told him where to put it down. These guys have sweated. It took them a couple of hours. They finally got them in place.

I look at it, lean back, and go, “You know what? That’s superb. Thank you, guys. So that’s one option. Let’s take a look at a couple of choices where I could sit. And they go, “Fuck you. We’re out of here.”

Oren Klaff

There are some thoughts here.

Oren Klaff

I think you’ve given up too easy. If you do time constrain, then you can play within that walled box or sandbox.

Let’s go back to the wellness instructor. I have a good friend who’s a coach, and he trains athlete. So I could put my mind inside of his, and this would be a good example.

“It’s a big decision deciding on who your coach is going to be. That is ultimately going to determine your level of fitness for the next year or two years. So you want to choose carefully.”

“For me, I need referred clients. I need people who will do the work. It doesn’t do me any good to go to 50 sessions, and nobody advances.”

“What I like to do is spend about two weeks deciding if we’re right for each other. Let me tell what that process looks like.”

“This is the first week and our first meeting. We’re going to talk a little bit. I’m going to do a quick test on your flexibility, your hip mechanics, how far you are, and how far you need to go.”

Oren Klaff

“Why don’t we talk again on Friday and see if there are any open questions. By the following Monday, it will be a go/no-go. If we get to Wednesday, basically, ten days out, and we haven’t decided to work with each other, let’s just say it’s too hard, and we’ll move on.”

What that does is it frames up your walk away early. Some clients are being difficult. You say, “Hey. We need to come to a final decision. We’re either doing it or not.” It can be too heavy handed if they’ve never heard anything about a walk away before.

Oren Klaff

The walk away signal is all the way through from the first call to the email. So when they hear it, in the final analysis, it has weight and merit to it. That’s one of the secrets of closing the sale.

Oren Klaff

Yeah. Right execution is one of the secrets of closing the sale. It can be heavy handed and it could off putting so I like to do it with fun.

So what makes serious things like time constraint and “we’re not going to discount” is when you’re too serious, shrill, or needy when you drop those. You have to layer in fun.

Oren Klaff

What makes things fun? Manufacturing fun is hard. You have to be having a good time. And so, it comes from having a great pitch and having a significant pipeline of people to choose from that you can work with.

You’re having fun because you don’t need any particular individual client, and you are being choosy because a bad client can do terrible things to business.

If you are busy, you would want to choose the best customers, and you are authentically testing them if they are good clients. That pushes them away a little bit and makes them want to work with you.

The narrative you gave me on a stand-alone basis feels a little heavy handed and doesn’t feel fun.

It’s important to have fun, so the deal mechanics don’t feel too oppressive to the buyer.

Having fun and making it feel very natural are secrets of closing the sale.

Oren Klaff

It’s not bringing the power back. You have it. You have it at the beginning, and the only thing you do is give it away because what you’re saying is correct.

Oren Klaff

Taking a bad client is a mistake to a small business.

They can sue you. They can Yelp you negatively. They can tell people in a small community that you don’t do good work after they miss all the meetings. They cannot pay. So you do have to be choosy.

I understand you need clients and want to make money. But it’s so important to etch on your mind, “Bad client makes me lose money, and can jeopardize the entire business. Therefore, I have to be choosy about whom I work with.”

“To be choosy about whom I work with, I have to tell people that even if you gave me a check today or a contract right now, I don’t know enough. I’d like to learn a little bit about you.”

Oren Klaff

And, in the process, that signals to the buyer you aren’t needy, you have a serious business, and it makes them want to work with you. There is no risk to putting some pressure on the buyer to explain why they’re good to work with.

If you’re a wellness, fitness, strength coach, and you say “I’d like to know a little bit more about you before we scope something out. What is your job? When do you travel? How many coaches have you had before? What’s your view on athletics? What’s your opinion on diet? Do you have children? Are you raising children? Where are you with time? What is going on with you?”

If they go, “Listen, I travel a lot. I don’t know anything about nutrition, and when I travel, I just eat burgers and burritos on the fly. That’s what they feed me. I can’t afford to get anything better. I’ve had five or six coaches before, but I didn’t like any of them. None of the current programs, cross fit, P90X, 24-hour fitness, Orange Theory, Pilates, nothing works. Those are bad systems. I feel like it’s the coach’s job to get me in shape. I shouldn’t have to work that hard.”

Oren Klaff

Yes. Somebody said that red flags would go up and say, “I’m glad I asked,” because there’s a disaster waiting to happen.

“By the way, I’m huge on social media, and I love to Yelp and Facebook, and tell people every single thing about my vendors.” I’m like “I’m out.”

Oren Klaff

These high concepts, maybe we can turn that into tactics for people.

Oren Klaff

These high concepts, maybe we can turn that into tactics for people.

Oren Klaff

Coaches and B2B sales people take them a lot of effort to get a client. And so, we tend to be overly cautious. “Hi. It’s nice to meet you. It’s great meeting with you. I’m excited about with you about the training.”

“One thing about me is clients always come first. I’m available on weekends and nights if that’s needed. I take care of my customers. If you choose me, for sure, you’ll find that in my business, the customer always comes first.”

These are all status reducing statements that make it harder for the buyer to pay attention to you because they feel they’re in absolute control.

Oren Klaff

An alternative is, “Good to meet you. I have about 20 minutes today, maybe a few minutes extra if we get into a conversation. It’s about the time. I’m going to tell you a little bit about what I have, what I do, what my strengths are, and what I think I can accomplish.”

“Then, I’ll give you a few minutes to tell me about yourself. We’ll see if our values match if we want to accomplish the same things, and then we’ll decide together if it makes sense to move forward. Sounds good? Let me tell you a little bit about what we do.”

One of the secrets of closing the sale is instead of supplicating, coming with neediness, and telling the client they’re the most important person in the relationship, we frame it that we’re the most important person in relationship, and we’re choosing them.

That’s easy to do in the most simplistic way, and I think that leads us into a discussion of time.

Oren Klaff

These meetings are not 45 minutes long, an hour long, an hour and a half long, and they’re not in Starbucks for I believe what obvious reasons are. The span of human attention is 20 minutes.

I write pitches for people you recognize from TV. Some of my presentations affect what happens on the nightly news. I do this stuff at scale.

When I worked for Symantec, a Fortune 200 company, they flew in thousands of sales people from around the company to get the same ideas. That went out, and they’re a multi-billion dollar Fortune 200 company. So I have to get this stuff right.

Ultimately, I know what I’m doing. I know how to pitch this thing. I’d done it at scale for Fortune 500s from Google to Fortune 10 companies. I cannot pitch as good as I am for more than 20 minutes before people starts to fade, want to check their phone. It’s the span of human attention.

If you’re in a Starbucks, if you’re in a busy gym, if they got kids around, the attention span goes lower and lower and lowering.

Oren Klaff

To complete a sale, you need another person’s attention. The most amount of attention you’re going to get is 20 minutes. It might only be four or five minutes of attention.

It’s important to get what it is you do, how you do it, what the value is, raise your status, and push back on them a little bit, and propose some path forward in a fairly short amount of time.

That’s why I wrote Pitch Anything. That’s why we run Pitch Anything. That’s why we focus on how do you tell your story, what is it you have, why it’s good, how it works, and why they should work with you. Also, we concentrate on how to reframe the competition, the upside of getting it, what the return on investment is or what the result will be all within a few minutes.

In fact, I have a mini course that talks about other secrets of closing the sale.

Oren Klaff

Yeah.