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Sales Script

Closing the Deal (Challenger Sale)​

  • Listen
  • Ask Questions, Lead Them
  • Empathy
  • Say Little, This is Therapy
  • Slow Down, When Speaking
  • Put Things in Customer Benefit
  • Be funny 🙂

Step 1: The Warmer​

“We are seeing the following three things at other companies like yours. Is there something you’d like to add?” This is where you start with a hypothesis of the company. What other companies have you worked at that face similar situations? Make it three things specifically. Get more data back.

Step 2: The Reframe​

You need to present something to the customer that reframes their perspective. Not an "I totally agree," but a "huh, that is interesting." It needs to shock. If you fail to create this "huh, how interesting" moment, you’ve failed the sale because they’ve already thought through how to solve it themselves. Break the news that their problems won’t be solved with the solution they’ve imagined. Get within their OODA cycle and throw them into chaos so they must reframe and reorient their decision-making process around you. Shock them. Create a "huh / that’s right" moment.

Step 3: Rational Drowning​

They need to feel like they truly need this solution. Make them consider the opportunity. Do not mention yourself at all. Reframe it with solid data. Why is this important? Provide examples of why this is important.

Step 4: Emotional Impact​

The customer must see themselves in the story you’re telling with the solution. Paint a picture of other companies like theirs who went down a similar path. Highlight behavior that the customer will immediately recognize as typical of their own company. Help them glimpse into the future. During a successful Emotional Impact step, your audience will feel personally connected to your presentation because you’re giving them a scenario that resembles their own situation. Relate to their pain. Create a story that helps them feel the pain. What is the unhappy ending here? Have them be in the picture, but the ending doesn’t look good.

Step 5: A New Way​

Talk about solutions, not about yourself. Discuss what the solution can do, e.g., the capabilities of the new system. Convince them how much better they would be if they acted differently. They need to buy into a solution before they buy your solution. Tell an alternate story with a happy ending. Describe a solution that could be generic.

Step 6: Our Solution​

Demonstrate how our solution is much better than anything else out there. Explain how we have experience solving that exact need. Show how we’ve created a solution that allows them to scale and grow. Explain why our solution is better.