How to Close More Sales with Two Simple Questions – In Just 7 Minutes with James Muir

Resources/Links:

• Learn more about unstalling deals. Click here: https://www.unstickingdeals.com/book and if you want to know more about this effective two simple question, then go here: https://puremuir.com/

Summary

Is your sales pipeline full of leads that never convert? Are your deals stalling and your sales cycles dragging on indefinitely? Learn how to close more sales with simplicity and efficiency.

James Muir is the best-selling author of the #1 book on closing sales, The Perfect Close.

In this episode, James shares his expertise on how to close more sales using two simple, non-confrontational questions. He highlights common mistakes in handling stalled opportunities, such as incorrectly assuming business case issues and mismanaging client indecision. Additionally, James offers valuable insights into identifying and addressing the root causes of stalled deals, providing practical strategies to enhance sales effectiveness.

Check out these episode highlights:

• 01:46 – James’ ideal clients: My ideal clients are B2B organizations that sell into healthcare space.
• 01:54 – The problem he helps solve with his clients: Most B2B organizations are suffering from large, bloated pipelines full of deals that have stalled out.
• 03:38 – Mistakes his clients commit before seeing him: Two of the biggest traps that they make is they mishandle how they handle business case issues and client indecision.
• 05:40 – James’ Valuable Free Action [VFA]: Two questions you can use that are non-confrontational and 95% effective: Does it make sense for us to X where X is whatever the ideal advance is that you want them to take? And, what do you think is a good next step?
• 07:38 – His Valuable Free Resource [VFR]: Learn more about unstalling deals. Click here: https://www.unstickingdeals.com/book and if you want to know more about this effective two simple question, then go here: https://puremuir.com/
• 08:29 – Q: Why do deals get stuck in the first place or maybe how do you actually unstick them? A: There’s only three things that will cause your deal to stall: sales issues, client indecision, and business case issues.But there’s actually only six ways you can unstick them.

Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:

“When your client is suffering from indecision, don't try to solve the problem by selling the benefits of the change; shift to a risk mitigation strategy.” -James Muir Share on X

Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

Tom Poland 00:10
Welcome everyone, to another edition of Marketing The Invisible. I’m Tom Poland, beaming out to you from the Sunshine Coast in Australia. Joined today by James Muir. James, good day from down under. Very warm welcome. Where are you hanging out?

James Muir 00:21
I am hanging out in the mountains, just south and west of Salt Lake City, Utah. A small town called Herriman.

Tom Poland 00:29
What’s the geography like around there? What sort of, what are we talking about? Desert. We’ve got mountains, obviously.

James Muir 00:35
It is technically a desert. In the summer it gets up to a hundred degrees and in the winter we get snow and all the stuff that you would expect with a ski state like Utah.

Tom Poland 00:45
Four seasons happening there, all four. Well, welcome sir. I’m delighted you’re here because you really, your stuff puts the finger on the pointiest end of sales and marketing, which is close. For those of you who dunno, James, that’s kind of his specialty. He’s the bestselling author, the number one book on closing sales called the Perfect Close. And the subject today is, How to Close More Sales with Two Simple Questions. I know this is going to be a subject that is near and dear to the hearts, if not the bank balances of so many of you, because a lot of us freeze when it comes to close. We do all the hard work of generating leads, of qualifying prospects, of meeting with people who are interested. And when it comes to that super simple thing, what could be super simple, James is going to make it super simple for you by asking for the order. We win power or we get stressed or we fluff it. So this interview should end all those days. James out, seven minutes is going to start now. Question number one, tell us who is your ideal client?

James Muir 01:46
My ideal clients are B2B organizations that sell into healthcare space.

Tom Poland 01:50
Perfect. And what’s the problem you solve with them?

James Muir 01:54
Well, most B2B organizations are suffering from large, bloated pipelines full of deals that have stalled out. And so I generate increased revenues for them by helping them close those stalled opportunities in their pipeline.

Tom Poland 02:05
Perfect. Series of symptoms that someone or an organization might be experiencing, but I guess it’s just they’ve got lots of leads, but they’re not closing them at a rate that they believe they should be closing. Anything else you want to add to that?

James Muir 02:16
Yeah, sure. So the more granular indicators are bloated pipelines, which just means it’s bigger than it should be. Long sales cycles, right? And then most salespeople have stages that they sell into. Clients that are at various different sales stages in that process. Any stage that’s in a given process for too long is an indicator that they might be suffering from stalled opportunities.

Tom Poland 02:38
And let me ask you a sub question on this one. Are your clients often dealing with multiple decision makers?

James Muir 02:46
Yes, usually. So when I say B2B sales and healthcare, I really mean complex. So yeah, it could be anywhere from three to a dozen stakeholders. Could be more.

Tom Poland 02:56
Right. That’s complex. Can be complex. So we’ve got this organization that’s probably, who would be the person that would generally you consider to be your core client? Would it be a sales manager or a chief marketing officer?

James Muir 03:09
That’s who usually engages me. It could be a C-level executive, but like a CEO, it’s usually a sales leader.

Tom Poland 03:15
So they’re responsible for getting those sales closed, but ultimately for new sales revenue.

James Muir 03:21
That’s right.

Tom Poland 03:22
These are senior individuals who are smart and they are focused on achieving new goals. Their career probably depends on that. So they’re going to be trying stuff is what I’m saying. And what would you say are some of the common mistakes they make prior to finding your solution?

James Muir 03:38
Well, in terms of handling stalled opportunities, if that’s where we’re focused, two of the biggest traps that they make is they mishandle how they handle business case issues and client indecision. With those two, organizations, often they concluded incorrectly that the business case is the root cause of any stalled deal. They think it’s their price, and what they do is they inappropriately drop the price to try to solve that problem, where that’s not really the problem. And that ends up eroding margins and affecting their finances on the client and decision side. The mistake they often make is, they try to overcome indecision by just selling the benefits of change even harder. And that actually makes the problem worse because the root cause of indecision is associated with the risks of changing. And so, it’s not the benefit. So selling the benefit’s harder doesn’t remove the risks. So salespeople need to be taught on how to pivot their messaging from why change to you can’t fail, basically.

Tom Poland 04:29
Do me a big favor, sum up those two things again in less than 60 seconds, would you, because I think you folks, we are listening to the voice of experience here. James is someone who’s dissected the issues and studied them. Can you repeat those two in summary form please again, James?

James Muir 04:42
Sure. Don’t assume that if your deal is stalled, that it’s a business case problem, and when your client is suffering from indecision, don’t try to solve the problem by selling the benefits of the change. What you need to do is shift to a risk mitigation strategy where you tell them, hey, you can’t fail. We’ve got to cover this.

Tom Poland 05:00
Yeah. So this is gold, this is absolute gold. And folks, if you know, you may not be selling B2B into for, to healthcare professionals, but if you’re selling into any situation, and I’d argue even if you’re selling to individuals that you’ve got the same two issues, you’ve got to, don’t assume that the issue is the business case or price. And don’t assume you just have to talk about benefit, look at risk mitigation as well. Very valuable insights. Let’s flip it now we’ve talked a bit about who you work with, what the symptoms are and what they’re doing wrong. Question five, what’s the top tip you can give someone that is not going to solve their whole sales, marketing problem, but it might just take them a step in the right direction?

James Muir 05:40
Well, in perfect pulse, we do give a couple questions where just the two questions to give you that one so we could share that. An easy tip if you’d like. Well, let’s do that. There’s two questions you can use that are non-confrontational and be 95% effective. And the first question is, does it make sense for us to X where X is whatever the ideal advance is that you want them to take. And then they’re going to say yes or no to that. If they say yes, great, you got it right. If they say no to that, you’re just going to use some variation of the second question, which is, okay, well what do you think is a good next step? And believe it or not, gong.io analyzed a million sales calls trying to figure out the answer, what’s the best closing approach that there is? And they determine those two questions, they are the perfect close. Is hands down the best closing approach that there is, bar none.

Tom Poland 06:22
Yeah. I got to ask you to repeat this again. I’m going to push the pause button. This is too valuable to rush. Two questions again, please.

James Muir 06:29
Okay, so basically there’s two key questions. Before we go to any sale, any meeting, the first question you’re going to ask somewhere near the end of your meeting, you’re going to say, does it make sense for us to X and X is going to be whatever you want them to do next.

Tom Poland 06:42
Does it make sense for us to start the trial? Does it make sense for us to go to the scoping step? Does it make sense for us to…

James Muir 06:50
Bingo!

Tom Poland 06:50
…interview your board, or whatever the next logical step is to progress the sale.

James Muir 06:55
That’s right.

Tom Poland 06:56
And if they go, hmm, not really…

James Muir 06:58
Then you’re going to say, and there’s other versions that enhance this, but the basic kindergarten version of the second question is, okay, well what do you think is a good next step? And what I can tell you is that in 90% of cases, they will just suggest a very logical next step for where they’re at in their buying process.

Tom Poland 07:14
Oh, I love this. Oh my.

James Muir 07:16
And you can see how non-confrontational it is.

Tom Poland 07:19
Absolutely. Yeah. This is something even a wimp like me could do.

James Muir 07:22
And it applies to every type of sale, not just B2B complex sales.

Tom Poland 07:27
Right. Yeah, this is absolutely gold and so true. All right, thank you, Sir. People are going to want more of your stuff. So where can people go to find out more about what you do and maybe download something else for free?

James Muir 07:38
If you’d like to learn more about unstalling deals, then you can go to http://unstickingdeals.com and there’s a whole load of resources there that will help you. They’re all free and they’ll help you prevent your deals from ever sticking, but also give you some models on how to unstick them. If you want more about those two questions that I just gave, you’re going to want to go to http://puremuir.com and there’s a whole bunch of resources that will help you teach you all the models.

Tom Poland 08:01
There’s a lot of valuable stuff there, folks. This is just not your normal lead magnet. This is the stuff you can use and profit from. Being there, I’ve checked it out. So there’s two URLs, we’ll publish them under the video, but if you’re listening to this on Stitcher or iTunes, http://www.unstickingdeals.com and puremuir, M-U-I-R, last name, dot com. Thank you sir. Question seven, what’s the one question I should’ve asked you but didn’t, and the answer please.

James Muir 08:29
Maybe you should ask me why deals get stuck in the first place or maybe how you actually unstick them, but deals actually get stuck by only three things. You’d be surprised. There’s only three things that will cause your deal to stall. There are sales issues, client indecision, and business case issues. That’s all there is. And we probably don’t have time to cover them all, but there’s actually only six ways you can unstick them. And so unsticking deals is actually a lot easier than people think it is.

Tom Poland 08:53
Folks, you’ve got to get yourself to http://unstickingdeals.com and http://puremuir.com. James, thanks so much for your insights and the value you’ve just given everyone. Cheers!

James Muir 09:03
Cheers!

Tom Poland 09:04
Thanks for checking out our Marketing The Invisible podcast. If you like what we’re doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It’s very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.