Stop Pushing! The Low-Pressure Way to Book More Meetings

0:01Zac Thompson:Closing time. Semi-sonic.

0:05Jack Frimston:Is that right? Beautiful. Yeah, semi-sonic. Nineties. Very, very nineties.

0:08Zac Thompson:Yeah, I remember when I heard that song for the first time. It was on a cruise ship and I thought, wow, I actually felt something. You know what? What song also makes me feel something? Off on a tangent. Yeah, go on. You know, have you ever seen The Rain by CCQ?

0:23Jack Frimston:I want to know.

0:26Zac Thompson:CCR.

0:28Jack Frimston:someone told me long ago wow really gets me i know anyway closing time where were we closing time so i want to talk about closing right this is another thing that abc we talked on the podcast a lot about this kind of urgency that people have for for the meeting to get in the diary and often it comes very unqualified fine we can talk about that in other episodes but it also comes from a place of push you know someone's like oh just send me an email well have you ever had a uh conversation that wasn't as good as an email like what so just why don't you get fucked and get in my diary like it's kind of how it comes across um and what do you think jack if i was selling to you and i really just pushed on you and then you were just like yeah all right i'll do something what do you think the outcome of me just pushing you into the diaries i'll just say yes get

1:23Zac Thompson:out of the call it's a counterfeit yes it's just i if you ever make me or human nature of human beings feel forced into doing something the chances are they're gonna back away they'll either fight you or they'll kind of flight you and they'll just like yeah cool whatever you want and then i'll deal with it later and then i'm gonna block that number and never pick it up again

1:44Jack Frimston:exactly so there's there's this thing that happens that in psychology if i have an idea and you have an idea. You always prefer your idea. Do you believe in that?

1:57Zac Thompson:I asked somebody that question the other day. I said, if I had an idea and you had an idea, what idea do you think would be the best? They went, the one that solves the problem. And I said, it's really nice. It's not true, but nice. Not true, but it's nice.

2:16Jack Frimston:So if I have an agenda and you have an agenda, you'll probably always prefer your agenda, right? So based on that, we came up with this thing called the test close. So, Jack, let's pretend I'm getting to the end of the call. We've been chatting for 12 minutes. That's usually a good meeting for us, about the 12-minute mark on a cold call. You really open up to me and you're chatting. Scratch my head and I say, well, Jack, if we did sit down,

2:42Zac Thompson:what would make it a good use of your time? I'd probably want to see some pricing. I'd probably want to see a demo. I'd probably want to see some case studies. I'd probably want to see some long-tail use cases and maybe some short-tail use cases.

2:58Jack Frimston:So quite a lot of use cases, both long and short, pricing, demo. What else was in there, sorry?

3:06Zac Thompson:I maybe have a reference call afterwards. Maybe bring a reference call.

3:11Jack Frimston:Okay. And then let's say we ticked all those boxes. What would happen then?

3:15Zac Thompson:Well, I think we'd have to see if it was a good fit for us. Okay. Okay.

3:21Jack Frimston:And then I might explore. What do you mean by a good fit for those at home? Okay. What's the diary looking like next week? Bang. Enter the test close. And I think people can't believe how low pressure that feels. Because I'm not saying get in the diary. I'm saying, look, I don't actually know. If we were to sit down together, what would make it a good use of your time? and you're telling me what the perfect meeting looks like you're building it we're but you're building it but the key bits here right for people maybe implementing this at home if jack brought up something there that he'd not brought for the whole rest of the call i'd have to integrate with this system or you'd have to be on the preferred suppliers list or whatever that's another

4:02Zac Thompson:opportunity for me to explore oh that didn't come up before let's explore and really qualify and

4:06Jack Frimston:understand that and the really nice thing this links into is if we were to tick all those boxes for you mr mr and mrs prospect what would happen then it's again not me forcing the close what um have you said anyone really nailed this in your team up in uh up in manchester yeah yeah there's

4:27Zac Thompson:there's been some people that really nail it i think that the big thing recently is just like it can feel scary can't it it can feel quite intimidating but but you're building it and And what we see really, really, what we see happen that works really well is like sometimes you get the solution bit. Well, I'd need to see that it does X, which is brilliant because, OK, why does it need to solve that? It gets me back into the conversation where I really start to understand the problem a little bit more. So it's like always leading those breadcrumbs towards problemville. You know, we always talk about like getting there first with like the objections, giving the objections up front, like taking it off the table i don't know what's happened recently and i feel like it's only the last year that i've noticed it but i'm starting to see a lot more reps especially on linkedin do their closing up front right and now there's a difference to if you're on a discovery call of saying like if we were to get to the end of the call is if you didn't like it would you let me know if you wanted to call you're doing some an element of closing up front like you're qualifying but some people just call up now and go zach it's uh it's jami lovely who wants to i want to get 15 minutes on your diary how do i do it what well like first of all have some goddamn respect what what's it what's it worth you want to get some time on my diary i think the only people that are just like yeah cool i think it could work well in america because i don't know if

5:57Jack Frimston:americans like hand it out but careful because you had some comments recently saying that we like Americans.

6:02Zac Thompson:No, they were commenting at you, actually.

6:05Jack Frimston:Well, I don't like Americans.

6:07Zac Thompson:Yeah, you said something offensive about the Americans. I wasn't saying anything. I've been to America.

6:11Jack Frimston:I love them. I like them. They're really quiet and they don't... Anyway.

6:17Zac Thompson:Anyway, but yeah, I think it's just like, I look at my diary this week and I look at my diary next week and it's fucking rammed. Someone called me...

6:26Jack Frimston:Language.

6:27Zac Thompson:Sorry. Kiss your mother without mouth. I don't kiss. or tell um i'd be like what do you mean 15 minutes why what's the point like what you're gonna like what it's gotta be useful you're gonna help me i think like this closing up front thing i don't know i'm not a fan of it i'm sure it works but i've seen a few people do it i think their sit

6:48Jack Frimston:rate is like 20 30 so like what's the i think you can do it but you just gotta qualify get it in the diary and then go into like but really how it should sound is like oh jackson you can help me can i tell you very quickly what i've called you'd say yes i'd say i found we've we've basically got a product that solves this key problem that hopefully through like the data i've built or whatever i know that you may be someone who struggles with that would you be against carving out 15 minutes for me to show you how it works but there's no qualification

7:21Zac Thompson:it's madness that i could just say zach can i get 15 minutes cool right yeah that's crazy you're not you're not turning up but then when you go oh yeah maybe you go right well just before i put it in

7:33Jack Frimston:wait what how does it show up give me example blah blah blah it's like it's the same psychology i keep saying this at the minute of the youtube video the youtube video like if it's a brand new thing it's not trying to let you know and trust it's the fucking it's the hook in it what's

7:49Zac Thompson:the hook get me curious get me to say uh yeah go on tell me a bit more yeah anyway this isn't about closing no i don't want to feel like i'm missing out yeah anyway closing i would say like these if you're struggling with your closing i always think these are some really easy fixes remove any element of time don't talk about time remove any element of uh my boss my a blah blah blah handover like I don't I don't think it needs it and then I've been doing some training with a company recently that that that was saying uh oh and it's a free meeting I don't think that's necessary a free meeting oh it's free it's free you have to pay for it that's what I'd say when it comes to the closing yes you get shit I saw something before that said a lot of AI content says the word human in it and that is a clear sign that it isn't human

8:47Jack Frimston:wow have you seen those little robots when you say free makes you go i thought it was really yeah what what do you mean it's not why do you brought that up when do i have to pay look get

9:00Zac Thompson:in my car i won't kill you you know what if you said that i didn't think you were gonna kill me well now you do every day what anyway uh there's robots coming the robots are coming i've got a Task, clean your house.

9:16Jack Frimston:Yeah, but have you watched the video of them? Yeah. Someone has to manually control them.

9:22Zac Thompson:Yeah. And they've got a lot of comments in the head office

9:25Jack Frimston:and have a little look.

9:27Zac Thompson:I hope they don't see what I'm up to in my kitchen. Anyway, I've got a task for this week. I've got a task for this week's episode. There's a guy that works at a company called Sentrama. goes by the name of marco alfonso rogers i've got a photo of him so what i want you to do is message me say can i have the photo of marco i'll send it you and then i want you to connect with marco and send him the photo back so just drop me a message if you've listened to this say do you have the photo i'll send it you and then you can send it on to him um and what outcome do you think that i'll have the first person to do that um first person to message me and then prove they've sent it to marco i'm gonna give you a grand you'll give someone a grand for doing it once yeah

10:20Jack Frimston:yeah and give it twice can't can't no just once just once cash cash only all right guys thank you i've been jack for instant take care cheers