Simple Closing: The 3+1 method
After 13 years in sales this is how I end every sales call (and I think it's the best method for every "not salesperson")
Hola, dear reader.
Great to have you here. What you can expect if you decide to read this article:
Why I think closing is overrated anyway
Why I still wrote this article
How you close with the 3+1 method
How to deal with the answers
How you can turn the 3+1 into a 1-method (if you are lazy)
Let’s make things simple.
Why I think closing is overrated anyway
“We’re ready to fuck or what?”
This is arguably the worst closing you’ve ever heard. It’s fictional (Kendall Roy in Succession S1E1), but I wouldn’t bet my money that there isn’t a sales coach out there who is teaching this.
In the series, the deal falls through, as a surprise to no one. However, this is not because of Kendall’s cringe-inducing behavior. Later it turns out that his counterparts never wanted the deal in the first place.
You probably see where I am going with this. There has been so much talk about closers, closing and closing techniques, that you could get the impression there is some black magic here. Let me assure you it’s not. Of all the parts of a sales conversation, the closing is, in my opinion, the least important. If someone wants or needs something, if what you offer has so much value that it seems like a good deal and if you don’t screw it up completely on a personal level, almost any kind of closing will work.
Wait, who is this guy? Why should I even pay attention?
If this is the first time you’re reading one of my articles, let me introduce myself real quick. When my wife and I are going to an Italian restaurant, I always take the pizza margherita. When we go to a burger joint, I always take a cheeseburger. My wardrobe consists mainly of white T-shirts and dark chinos, which I combine with white sneakers (I have five similar pairs). I believe that simplicity is the key to a calmer, better, and ultimately more enjoyable life. As it turns out, it can also be the key to success in sales. I helped to grow a small Danish software company with a chronic lack of marketing budget and a horrific logo from 300,000 to 7.5 million in annual revenue and a 75 million acquisition in less than five years. The key to our success against players like LinkedIn was a philosophy of radical simplicity. This is what I’m sharing in my articles. Ultimately, I want you to be able to put together a customer acquisition engine that is so elegantly simple that you plus some AI automation can run it. Back to the topic.
Why I still wrote this article
If closing is overrated, why would I write about it? Frankly, I struggled with this question for a while. Ultimately, I believe that the method I “developed” can help to demystify that part of customer acquisition and it can help you to focus on other things that are more important.
How you close with the 3+1 method
So without further ado, this is the method I have been using for a couple of years now and that I would honestly recommend you use too. It is simple, logical, easy to remember, and it just follows a natural flow of conversation. Like two human beings talking, you know?
Here’s how you do it.
You ask a no question.
You ask a yes question.
You ask an implementation question.
You give a compliment.
This is it. At this point, I’m worried that this article will be super short, but there’s really not much more to say about it. To make this more illustrative, here are the questions.
No question: “Is there anything that you haven’t understood completely or anything that makes you unsure?”
Yes question: “So do you want me to help you?”
Implementation question: “When do you want us to start?”
I can’t give you an example of a compliment because the whole point is that it’s genuine and not scripted. That is not rocket science. If you have something nice to say, say it as the last thing before you hang up.
But Lorenz, why do you ask the questions in that specific order?
Well, thank you for asking, imaginary straw man.
The no question makes it easy for your counterpart to address specific issues that he has not grasped 100% or where he doesn’t feel comfortable. Asking for a “no” always provides more security psychologically, so whenever you want to reduce the risk of being lied to, asking a no question is a good idea.
The yes question that follows then has a better chance to land and is simply a good way to ask a second time without using the same words.
A yes is nothing without implementation, so asking for that as a third variation will give you a pretty good feeling that the commitment is genuine.
And for the compliment, there is this myth that your first impression is the most important one. I think that’s bullshit. The last impression is the lasting impression, and it’s made more important by how your counterpart feels when they leave the call with you. Watch this short video from Chris Voss. He explains it way better than I could:
How to deal with the answers
I could write an essay about this (or ask Claude to do it), but it’s late on a Saturday and I want to check if my son is sleeping, so here’s the short version:
If the answer to your no question is “yes, actually there is one thing…”, listen to understand (not to overcome), ask into it, and explain. Then ask the no question again (don’t pivot to a yes version of the question; stay with the no question).
If the answer to your yes question is anything but a clear and confident yes, ask into it or voice what you hear (“It sounds like you’re not completely sure”). Then wait and don’t say anything. Don’t try to be convincing or compelling, be curious.
If the answer to the implementation question is vague, do the same thing. If, for some reason, you don’t get to anything concrete, you can use this judo move of a question: “Hmm, this is a problem. If you don’t know when you want to start, how am I supposed to plan my resources?” Say it in a friendly tone, as if it was really a problem (because it is!). You need some confidence to pull that off, but it works extremely well because you give the ball to your counterpart and they need to solve your problem.
How you can turn the 3+1 into a “1-method” (if you are lazy)
Circling back to the beginning of this article, I think the whole issue of closing was blown way out of proportion. Business owners are closing deals every day without ever having thought about it too much. So if all of this seems to be too much effort (I won’t blame you!), your closing method can be this:
“Do you want to work with me/us?”
Then you wait patiently for an answer. The key here is being able to endure the silence. Don’t make the mistake of starting to chat again. You ask a simple question. Now you wait for the answer. Again, if there is hesitation or if you feel like they said “yes” but they mean “yes, but…”, ask into it calmly.
Afterthoughts
This seems to be an inevitable part of my writing process: as soon as I come to an end, I have these thoughts popping up that should have made it into the article at some point. Instead of going back and changing everything up, I will just put them here.
I don’t like the word “closing” to begin with. Closing reeks of something you do to someone. In reality, you never close someone the same way you don’t sell something. Somebody is buying and you help them to make a buying decision. Closing simply means to end a conversation with a committed way forward. But I see it that way.
If the implementation question gets a clear answer, I start planning the things we still have to do and I agree with my counterpart on what the next step is. This can be as straightforward as “send the contract” or it can be a process that takes several months (if you are doing big enterprise sales with complex decision-making processes and layers of stakeholders), but the concept is the same.
You can only get commitment from the person you are talking to right now and this should be your goal for the conversation you are having right now.
If the person you’re talking to can’t make the decision alone (which is the reality for almost all B2B), don’t try to get someone to commit to something they don’t have control over. It will make them feel very uncomfortable. Instead, just get the commitment on whether they want to move forward.
This method works for any kind of conversation in which you aim for a clear outcome. An internal meeting, planning a trip with your friends, or figuring out with your wife who does the chores.
I hope this helped. See you next time.
Lorenz
P.S. Substack is not my acquisition channel. I do this mostly for fun. If you know anyone who you think could benefit from this - share it with them.