How to Close High-Ticket Deals (Even in a Recession): 

Read time: 4 mins

Hola Amigo!

Welcome back to Grow Solo Saturday.

Today’s newsletter is a value bomb. I spent a whole day compiling and putting this one together…

How to Close High-Ticket Deals (Even in a Recession):

Steal the sales process that helped me close £57k+ of projected revenue in the last 4 months…

The recession is on…

Doom and gloom. Nobody's got a budget.

Prices are getting slashed left, right, and centre…

It's a race to the bottom.

And yet there’s people on LinkedIn having their best quarter ever. How is this possible?...

Well amigo…

What if I told you your sales dry spell is down to one simple thing?...

The reason you can't close a deal is you have no sales process.

Today, I will break down my complete sales process that cost me thousands of hours and pounds in coaching to compile.

Using this method I:

-Book 30+ qualified sales calls a month

-Generate 20+ qualified inbound leads

-Book 99% of my meetings over LinkedIn DM.

Which has lead to the £57,500 of projected revenue in the last 4 months, amongst one of the worst markets since the dot{dot}com crash.

Why am I sharing all my sales secrets?

Because I've experienced the heavy weight of failing to meet quotas, the worry of securing a livelihood. That gnawing feeling of failure after you lose yet another deal…

This is the guide I desperately needed last year when I was struggling to make my rent.

1. My Sales Process:

Content → Mine Engagement → DM Flows → Call Research → Discovery Call → Proposal Call/Close → After Selling/ Follow up

Remember the Grow Solo rule for content that converts:

{Audience pain + inject your solution = generate leads}

2. Strategy:

Get your content strategy down to generate the necessary top of funnel to drive your business development.

Tofu:

Get on your future clients horizon.

-Industry insights

-AI guides

-Tool posts.

Mofu:

This stage is all about proving competency with your prospect.

• Step by steps,

• Contrarian takes,

• Personal stories - A to B (what transformation did you or a client have).

Bofu:

At this point your prospect is seriously considering buying. Encourage them to reach out to you by posting:

-Client Testimonials,

-Hard pitch posts (hand-raisers)

-Soft pitch (add a P.S. about your services)

-Proof posts (share a no context client result)

This is exactly how you can set up an inbound lead system when repeated over time.

Stay persistent - most lurkers require 8 weeks of seeing your posts to reach out.

3. Mine Your Engagement:

Your potential clients are hiding in your LinkedIn engagement. Here's how to find them:

Scan your...

-Likes,

-Comments,

-Profile views.

Reach out to casual scanners with a simple opener: "{Name}, thanks for the view, how's work?".

Blunter the better. Pattern interrupt your way into your decision maker's inbox.

3. DM Flows:

It's the crucial moment. You've invested weeks in trust building and finally connected with a potential client.

Mishandle this, and you're back at the starting line.

Your mission: Transition this DM conversation to a call.

Two key success drivers:

Maintain focus on their issue/opportunity, Remain curious about their world and profile.

Deploy SPIN selling questions to advance the sales conversation:

-How critical is resolving X problem for your business?

- How is {desired benefit} progressing?

-What strategies have you used to solve this? Were they successful?

-What are your goals for X? What's the goal behind that goal? (A favourite from my mentor - Justin Michael)

Your sole objective in this conversation:

- Keep the dialogue flowing

-Deliver value and serve

-Understand their goals

-Discover the deeper goal

-Let them prompt for the cost or process.

Then inject yourself as the solution towards their desired future state and suggest a meeting.

If you want an in-depth tutorial of how this works (book a 1-2-1 consulting call ;)

The key to closing lies in discovery.

Success in a discovery call relies on thorough preparation asking smart questions.

For each sales call, I use a crib sheet to guide my research.

It covers: The prospect's company and role: Grasp the nature of the prospect's company, their industry, and their decision-making power. Their location, Their products, Relevant press releases, Past interactions, Industry trends.

Personalize your approach. Remember, the prospect has one primary expectation:

 “Show me, you know me” - Samantha Mckenna (Samsales Consulting).

4. Discovery Call:

The closing occurs in the discovery.

Let me repeat that (and tattoo it on your eyelids while I'm at it):

CLOSING OCCURS IN THE DISCOVERY.

Often, deals falter because we don't delve deeply enough in the discovery phase to uncover:

-Burning pain (if I don’t change the house will fall down)

-Personal value drivers (how will this help the prospect meet their own goals)

-Telling a customer story relevant to their pain points

Don’t show your business as the hero, make your client the hero.

Here’s how I run a discovery to close high-ticket deals:

Effective discovery is like peeling an onion, diving deep through intelligent questioning.

You are the physician - Consider a scenario where an athlete consults about a painful knee, but the real issue lies in a foot misalignment.

It's your responsibility to locate the BURNING PAIN.

Call structure:

-Upfront contract (Summarise the call structure proves competency/ sets the tone)

-Broad opener - “I would love to hear about your team and challenges, and what made you show up today?”,

-Ask questions using SPIN selling.

There are countless approaches. Your task is to remain curious.

SPIN example questions:

-Situation: "Can you describe how you're currently getting leads on LI?"

-Problem: "Have you faced any difficulties with your current process?"

-Implication: "What might be the impact if these problems aren't addressed?"

-Need-payoff: "How would a streamlined workflow benefit your team?"

If I come across something I would like to dig more into on the call, I will follow up with Sandler pain funnel questions:

- “Tell me more about that…”

-“Can you be more specific?”

-“Give me an example…”

-“How long has that been a problem?”

-“What have you tried to do about that?”

- “Has anything you've tried worked?”

-“How much do you think that has cost you?”

-“How do you feel about how much this has cost you?”

I never leave a call without these things:

-Pain

-Objectives

-Compelling reason to act

-Budget requirements

-Are there any other decision makers?

-Next steps - I either suggest a proposal call or qualify them out (this one is critical).

Remember: The person who asks the questions is in control of the conversation.

Wanna know something weird about sales?

Often, when you concentrate on a prospects goals, the conversation naturally circles back to discussing pain points.

That’s some Jedi mind trick shid.

It triggers the brains negativity bias to swing towards the negatives. Like a magnet attracting back to negative.

Run your discovery like a detective and you will have the necessary fuel to make a bulletproof proposal.

Bonus tip: never leave a discovery call on the price conversation. Always paint it with possibility. “Imagine what you could do if you could {prospect's goal behind the goal}”.

5. Proposal Call:

Stop pitching. Choose collaboration instead.

The proposal is sent to the prospect before the call so they can be ready to make a buying decision before they even get there.

On this call, you will strategize on your plan together to grow their business.

Your proposal should outline:

-Main objective of your service

-Background

-Your method

-Objective (what you are trying to achieve)

-Opportunities (how you will achieve them)

-Investment (the cost)

-Next steps (how they can proceed)

-Time-bound offer to create urgency

- “Sign by Friday and receive X.”

-Attach relevant Client wins at the bottom.

If you went deep enough in your discovery, the proposal should be so compelling your prospect will sell themselves.

PICTURE THE SCENE: 

You reach the end of the call. It looks like that deal is coming in. Rubbing your palms together. Salivating.

It looks like next quarter is going to be looking crispy…

Trigger warning.

STOP.

Don’t get COMMISSION BREATH.

6. It’s time to deal with OBJECTIONS (if any):

Ask the question: “Have you seen anything that would stop you from moving forward?”

Brace yourself because this is your chance to seal the deal… Prospect: “Your prices are too high.”

You: "I can appreciate that…{relate to objection}. What about x concerns you?"

Prospect: “Response.”

You: "Aside from x, is there anything else holding you back?"

Prospect: “Response.”

You: “Remind me - what did you like most about today?”

Prospect: “Response.”

You: “If you i could do x and y” (resolve the objections).

Would you feel comfortable moving forward?

You: SHUT UP. (don’t speak, let them talk).

Prospect: Ok that makes sense, send the contract.

If you get further no’s, further clarify what’s stopping them.

Close that deal. Try to avoid being pushy - your overall tone should be cool and smooth like a late night radio DJ (Nods to Chris Voss’s - Never Split The Difference)

Objections are a great sign from your buyer that they are seriously considering your solution. They could also come at any stage in the sales process.

Hop over them compassionately and try to see the world through their eyes, and your win rate will treble.

7. After-selling/ follow up: Attract, don’t chase.

I run the same sequence every time a closing call ends:

-Top value adds from call

-What we agreed/ any next steps

-Reinstate the timed offer

-Attach client wins and testimonials

Top tip: Don’t oversell the deal.

If you don’t hear back Ghost for 7 days and send them a gif of george clooney to bump the feed a few days later in DMs (works every time).

Needy is creepy.

Remember: You are scarce and not the prospect.

I can’t stress this enough. An abundance mindset will only come when you have a full pipeline.

And that only comes down to one thing:

“Always be prospecting.”

And when you start closing deals. That, my friend, is when you go even harder.

Keep throwing fuel on that fire.

“Shy bairns get nowt.”

(Geordie saying which means - Fortune favours the brave)

Thought of the day:

Real talk from Kurogo Founder Sam Winsbury…

TL;DR;

Your sales process to become a Rainmaker:

Content → Mine Engagement → DM flows → Call Research → Discovery Call → Proposal Call/Close → After selling/ Follow up.

P.S. Crew: I want to hear from you… Send me your wins if you follow this process and I will share them in the future!

When you are ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. CXOs: Wanna become an industry thought leader, drive revenue and authority with LinkedIn Ghostwriting? Book a personal branding strategy call here to explore how Grow Solo can help. (Booked up to September - taking on clients for Q3/Q4 now)

2. Wanna turn content into cash? Book a 1-on-1 Consulting Call with me here.

3. Feature your business/product in my newsletter in front of 1600+ Soloer’s. Send me a DM on LinkedIn.

Peace,

Luke Shalom