Keep asking with the general closes, then book the next meeting

1. Where objection handling sits

First, a warning: a team fixed on objection handling has a problem earlier in the sale. Reportedly, a mere 10 or 20% of what you sell comes from prospects who turned down your first ask.

Why so few. If you did your job and the rest of your funnel works, the person on the call is a really qualified prospect. They have seen, for instance, a handful of good content from you, and before you ever speak they have watched another hour of material: some kind of video sales letter or other pre-frame. If they are still not close, it is unlikely you will rescue that sale.

Where a bigger lift comes from. Say your team closes 20% and you want it at 40%. That will not come from objection handling. It might take them from 20 to 25. The jump to 40 comes from discovery, from the setup, from the offer, and from trimming words and whole sentences from your script. So if prospects raise objections with you a lot, go back to an earlier part of the process and practice it.

Most of the work lies earlier: the rep missed it in discovery, set the frame badly at the start of the call, came unprepared, or skipped call prep. Memorize your script. If you look at the data, most of your sales happen when you ask and they say yes; the next share comes on the first loop or two, with a quick logistical concern or a need for a little reassurance, and then they are in.

Discovery is SOP 239 — Build pain before the ask and clarify why they came, section 3. Opening the call and trimming the script are SOP 238 — Open every call the same way and keep the script short, sections 1 to 3 and section 7. The offer is SOP 242 — Map each pain to the offer and name the price. Call prep is SOP 248 — Prep every call with notes and proof matched to the prospect.

2. A change of mind: ask as often as you can

The view here on handling objections has changed. Once a clear reason to buy has been established, the aim of selling in general is to ask for the sale as many times as you can manage. The reason: the person who asks most often is the one with the best chance of a purchase.

The catch. Prospects dislike being pressed to buy over and over. The risk is that they want to end the conversation, and then you cannot ask again. So the question is how to ask many times without making them want to stop talking to you. The answer: ask without giving offense.

How. Most of it comes down to fitting your reply to the objection they raised and saying it in a good tone. Speak clearly, loudly and slowly, and they will not sense that you are pushing or spoiling for a fight. Asking questions does the same.

Loud, clear and slow are the constants on SOP 237 — Mark a script for tonality, section 2.

3. Fewer closes, known cold

One team was once drilled on each kind of objection. Five kinds are counted; only time, a spouse and money are named, and the rest are left as "all this other stuff".

A tentative conclusion. Two forms appear: you can memorize six or seven closes; or six or seven of them work on everything, and you memorize three or four. If you can say those few and know them inside out, they fit every case, which is where their power comes from.

Why fewer. There is less and less belief here that getting past someone's concern is why they buy, unless the concern is a logistical one, which is not really treated as a true objection. "I can't make that time" is a different matter from a prospect who cannot pay, is unsure, and so on. A logistical concern, such as a date or a time, or whatever it is: resolve it. That differs from an answer that is a smoke screen for a prospect who will not buy because they do not see the value.

The closes for each objection. There are closes for every one of them, and, in the view here, they are kind of nice to have: drill them and know them, fine. What is not thought worth the time is training a team through every branch of every objection when most of the work sits earlier in the sale. The closes for each objection are SOP 102 to SOP 107; sorting what a prospect is blaming is SOP 99 — Classify an objection.

Flag: memorize, or understand. This page says to memorize three or four closes that work on anything and know them thoroughly. SOP 100, section 5 says to understand the logic behind the closes and not memorize them, so you can use them in your own words. Known word for word, a few closes come out without a pause, but always in the same lines; known by their logic, they bend to the prospect, with nothing set to fall back on. This page does not settle which reading is right.

4. The loop, in order

Run it whenever you do not get a yes, whatever came before: they will not buy, or their reply when you ask whether they are ready to get started is anything short of yes. It counts as seven closes, or six loops, seven with the first. The first is the opening question, which one count leaves out because it goes on everything.

1. The opening question. Tell them you hear them, ask whether you can ask a quick question, and ask whether they think this can help them get closer to their goal. If they say yes, say great and get going; sometimes you close them right there. Sometimes there is no yes, and you pick up that they are a little uneasy.
2. Their main concern. Ask what it is.
3. The reason close. Whatever they name might be the perfect reason to do it: no time, a spouse to talk to, no money. It does not matter which.
4. The hypothetical. If this were a ten out of ten, perfect, would they do it? Then ask what is different between what they have in mind and what you are helping with.
5. Zoom out. Step back to the big picture: their goal is weight loss, and weight loss is what you sell; so what is getting lost?
6. One to ten. Ask what makes it a ten, then why they did not rate it a one. They give you every reason it is not a one, and in doing so they sell you on it.
7. Best case, worst case. Best case, they change their life. Worst case, they get their money back under the guarantee, and a great experience.

After each, a yes means you get going. The last close as worded here rests on a money-back guarantee; the guarantee closes are SOP 106 — Run the guarantee closes, and a version with no guarantee is SOP 101, section 6.

SOP 101 section 1 lists the six closes that follow the opening question here, in the same order, and adds one for a prospect whose card is not on them; it has no opening question.

Flag: the one-to-ten question. Here the close asks what makes it a ten and why they did not rate it a one. SOP 101, section 5 asks only what would get them to a ten. The question about a one has the prospect sell themselves on it but names no gap; the question about a ten names a gap you then have to close. This page does not settle which reading is right.

5. Move to the next close, whatever the answer

One strength of the set, in the view here: the prospect's answer does not change your next move. Spouse, a reason, anything: you can go through the six and ask them to buy each time. As long as you know the six, you can move between them without a seam.

A money objection, run through it. The prospect says they do not borrow to pay for things like this and have no cash to hand. You: maybe the need to borrow is probably the very best reason to go ahead. Then: hypothetically, if this were what saved your life, would you find a way? Then zoom out, and best case, worst case.

Zooming out, more fully. Prospects can pull you into the weeds: what about this one specific thing? Once you are there, you are lost in the sale. So zoom out: hold on, the big picture. Weight loss is their goal and your product. Exercise is what they need, and you offer that as well. They need to change their food, and everyone agrees. What is holding things back? For a business owner, the same move: they want growth, growth is all you sell, so what is missing?

A stall run through it. Played out on a prospect who answers "I need to think about it" at every step, the loop asks each step just the same. The closes for that stall are SOP 107 — Handle I need to think about it.

The ones leaned on here. Best case, worst case and the reason close are among the closes used here to close many times; their exact ranking is not established. Zoom out is probably the third most used. The reason close, best case, worst case and zoom out are used all the time, and the opening question on everything.

6. Why the set works

The closes never tell the prospect they are wrong. You do not tell them they have no need to think it over; you say that is great, you get it, and you ask the next question. They always get past the objection, whatever the prospect says, in the view here, as long as what you say feels natural to them.

As framed here, that is its purpose: it lets a rep ask many times over, with no decision tree to work through for each objection. It is called a breakthrough in simplifying one seller's own selling. Agreeing before you answer, and never disagreeing, is SOP 100 section 2.

7. When to stop, and what to send

If they have said no three or four times, tell them no worries and book the next meeting. Another figure is three, four or five loops; after that, do not annoy the prospect, and book the next meeting.

The line at that point. No worries, you can sense the two of you are a little off; you book another meeting, then send more testimonials from people just like them, six in the example, and get them back in.

What goes out before the next meeting. Proof and another video. In outline: tell them a video is on its way, followed by two more showing people like them, so they have a little more to decide on, and that you will talk tomorrow.

Booking the next meeting from the current one is SOP 89 — Run the seven-day follow-up cadence, section 6. A video before each conversation is SOP 247 — Put a video sales letter before every conversation. Choosing proof that fits the prospect is SOP 248, section 2.

8. What the loop gets you, and what it does not

The figure offered. You can get the 80/20 of it. If you can get a rep to loop three, four or five times, that brings in 80% of whatever sales you would close after a first no. Train a team on the set and the next meeting, and that gets you 80 percent.

What it does not buy. People used to find themselves an hour, or an hour and 15 minutes, into a call, on the ninth loop of a time objection. Impressive, but not where actual selling happens. Past the loop the call strays into empty ground: time goes, the rep runs late for whoever is next, and it does not pay.

The two-hour close. One sale took two hours to win. The question: do you really want that buyer? In the view here that buyer will be a poor customer who calls you back the next day. And the training hours that went into closing like that could have gone elsewhere; it was not the best return, and no more than that is claimed.

9. Tone at the ask

In sum, tone when you ask comes down to pausing, and letting your voice rise. The rest, in the view here, is myth; sounding natural comes from learning the script. The rising voice and the pause are SOP 237 section 4; knowing the script cold is its section 3.

10. What this page does not decide for you

• The rest of the objections. Five are counted, but only time, a spouse and money are named. The rest: Not established on this page.
• The ranking of the closes. Which are used most, in order: Not established on this page.
• How many loops before you stop. Two figures appear: three or four, and three, four or five. This page does not settle which reading is right.

11. The checklist

Step	What to do
1	If objections come up a lot, go back to discovery, the setup, the offer and a shorter script
2	Once there is a clear reason to buy, keep asking for the sale, many times over, without giving offense
3	Say it clearly, loudly and slowly
4	Know a few closes that work on anything, cold (see the flag in section 3)
5	Resolve a logistical concern, such as a date or a time
6	Whenever you do not get a yes, run the loop in order, asking for the sale after each close
7	Move to the next close whatever they say
8	The last close, as worded here, assumes a money-back guarantee; with none, see SOP 101 section 6
9	After three or four no's (or three to five loops; see section 10), say no worries and book the next meeting
10	Before that meeting, send proof and more videos of people like them
11	Do not chase past the loop; in the view here it does not pay

12. What this page does not cover

The words of each close are SOP 100 and SOP 101. The closes for each objection are SOP 102 to SOP 107. Discovery, the pain and the offer are SOP 238 to SOP 242. Drilling a team on closing is SOP 108 — Drill a team on closing; for drilling a script, see SOP 250 — Memorize the script, then drill it in role play. Email follow-up for a prospect who leaves without buying is SOP 254 — Nurture by email and book the next meeting months out.