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Bram Lagrou: Every salesperson knows the line, "Always be closing." ABC, always be closing. Most of us heard it early in our careers, maybe from a sales manager, maybe on a training course, maybe on a whiteboard in a sales office written in capital letters. And most of the people who repeat it learned it one way or another from a movie, Glengarry Glen Ross, a film about a group of real estate salesmen under huge pressure selling questionable land to people who didn't need it.
Now, there's a famous scene where a visiting sales hotshot writes those letters down on a chalkboard and tear strips off the team. It's a brilliant scene. It's a film about desperate men making bad decisions
So here's my question for today. [00:01:00] Why are we still using a rule from that world to sell multi-year partnerships to buying committees in businesses where the real money comes after the contract is signed?
Welcome to a new kind of episode on the Commercial Leader podcast. I'm calling it Myth or Method.
Every so often, I'm going to take one piece of sales wisdom that everybody repeats and test it. Is it a method that actually works, or is it a myth that quietly costs you deals? Today, we're starting with the biggest one of them all.
Now, a quick word on where this is coming from if you're new to the show. I've spent more than 20 years working with commercial teams across 25 countries. I've been a salesperson. I've been a sales manager. I ran a European region for a Fortune 500 company. I have a master's in psychology, and I built a methodology called Communication Mastery, which I license to corporate clients as an operating [00:02:00] system that builds high performance based on psychology and neuroscience.
I also wrote two books. One is called Selling Is Out, Create Buy-In, and the other one, How To Communicate For Results And Feel Great. So you can probably guess which side of this debate I land on. Now, I wanna be fair. Always Be Closing isn't completely wrong. There is something true buried inside it, and if we throw out the whole idea, we lose that, too.
So let's start with what the rule gets right. Here's the honest truth. A lot of salespeople don't ask. They run a great meeting, they build rapport, they uncover the problem, they present a strong solution, and then they say something like, "Well, have a think of it and let me know."
And then nothing happens. That's not patience, that's avoidance, and I see it constantly, especially in consultative and technical sales, where people are often [00:03:00] a little uncomfortable with the commercial part of the conversation. Now, a few episodes ago, I talked about the difference between following up and following through.
I told the story of a family member selling her home. Her agent was pleasant, he was friendly, and he never once picked up the phone to move the deal forward. A good offer came in, he misread it, and a sale that should have closed in days dragged for months
That agent did not need to hear, "Be more patient." He needed to hear, "Ask." So the intent behind always be closing is valid. Keep the deal moving. Don't let it drift. Ask for a client's commitment. The problem isn't the intent.
The problem is what most people hear when they hear that phrase.
When most salespeople hear always be closing, they don't hear keep the deal moving. They hear pressure. They hear push for the signature. Use a closing technique. [00:04:00] Overcome every objection. Create urgency, even when there isn't any. Don't let the prospect leave the room without a yes. And in some worlds that works.
In one-call sales, in low-value transactional sale, in a world where you'll never see that customer again.
That's the world of the film. Cold leads, one shot, no repeat business. The relationship ends at the signature, so it doesn't matter how the customer feels about you afterwards.
Consultative B2B is the complete opposite. Sales cycles are long. Decisions are made by committees, not individuals, and the real value of a client often comes years later from renewals, from expanded scope, from referrals to their peers in the industry.
In that world, the signature isn't the end of the relationship, it's the start.
And if you push too hard to get it, you're gonna win the contract and lose everything that was supposed to come [00:05:00] after it. Now, this isn't just my opinion. There's some serious research behind it.
In the 1970s and '80s, a researcher called Neil Rackham led one of the biggest studies of selling ever done.
His team analyzed more than 35,000 sales calls. Now, the findings became the book SPIN Selling, which many of you will have on your bookshelf. One of his most important findings was about closing.
In small, simple sales, classic closing techniques can help. But as the size and complexity of the sale grows, they stop helping. In larger sales, they can actually hurt your chances. Now think about why. In a small sale, a bit of pressure pushes a hesitant buyer over the line. In a large sale, the same pressure makes a careful buyer more careful.
They have more to lose. Their reputation is on the line. So when they feel pushed, they slow [00:06:00] down.
Rackham also gave us a more useful way to think about what a sales call should achieve. He described a few possible outcomes. You can get an order, you can get no sale, and in between, there are two very different results.
One is a continuation. That is when the meeting ends on something like, " Great meeting. Let's catch up again next month." It feels positive, everyone's smiling, but nothing has actually moved. The other is an advance. That's when the client agrees to a specific next step that moves the deal forward.
A meeting with their CFO, as an example, or a site visit, a pilot, sharing data so you can build a proper business case together.
In big complex sales, the best salespeople aren't always closing. They're always advancing. Now, that's a very different mindset.
If you listen to this show for a while, you'll know a model that [00:07:00] I come back to often, and it's called the brain elevator. Your client's brain is like a building with three floors, and you have to go up in order.
You can't skip a floor. Floor one is the crocodile brain. Its only job is threat detection. Is this safe? Is this person trying to take something away from me? Floor two then is the limbic system. This is where trust, rapport, and goodwill are built. Floor three then is the neocortex. This is where logical evaluation happens, weighing options, making a decision based on facts and figures.
Now think about what a hard close does.
A hard close is pressured, and pressure is a threat signal. The moment a buyer feels pushed, the crocodile brain wakes up, and the elevator drops straight back down to floor one, or it stays stuck there. Then you get one of four reactions, [00:08:00] fight, flight, freeze, or fawn.
Fight sounds like sudden objections that seem to come from nowhere.
Flight looks like the meeting that keeps getting rescheduled.
Freeze is the silence that you can't read, and fawn is one that fools salespeople more often. Warm nodding, smiling, "This looks great. We're really keen," and then nothing happens. I call that the poker face.
Here's the irony. The harder you try to close, the more likely you are to get that phone response. And because it sounds positive, you put in your forecast as closed. It's not closed.
It's stuck.
There's another reason why always be closing breaks down in B2B.
You're almost never selling to one person only. You're selling to a group, including an economic buyer, a technical evaluator, an operations lead who will live with the decision every day, [00:09:00] procurement, sometimes even a board. And they're not all on the same floor of the elevator at the same time.
Your champion might be ready to sign. Your CFO might not have met you yet. Your technical evaluator might still be quietly unhappy about something that happened in the demo three weeks ago.
So who exactly are you closing? If you push your champion hard, they'll push internally, and that pressure lands on people who have never been part of the conversation. People who now feel rushed into a decision they didn't help shape. And it only takes one person feeling pushed to quietly stop the deal.
You can't close a committee. You can only earn buy-in from each person one at a time, at their pace.
Now, this is where it gets practical because even when you do ask for a commitment, the way you ask matters enormously, and it depends on who you're talking to. [00:10:00] So here's what a good close looks like for each style.
Your D style is direct, fast, and results focused. A D wants to feel in control, so don't push them. Give them clear options and let them choose. It should sound like this: "Here are three ways we could do this. Which one works best for you?" A D closes on choice.
Your I style is warm, enthusiastic, and relationship driven. An I wants to feel excited about the future, so paint a picture of what success looks like together. Involve them. Co-create. Let them share it with their team. An I closes on a shared vision.
Your S style is steady, patient, and careful about change. An S wants to feel safe. Pressure is the worst thing you can bring to an S, so offer a small, low-risk step. Tell them honestly that there's no rush. [00:11:00] An S closes on reassurance. For example, your next step would be to invite them to a site visit and meet all the people they will be working with once they become a client as part of the process.
Your C style is analytical, precise, and thorough. A C wants to feel certain, not make mistakes and the likes. So give them the data, the detail, and the time to process it and check it. Put everything in writing as well. Give them the pros and cons objectively and the whole story. A C closes on evidence. They are skeptical buyers and stakeholders.
Notice something here. Not one of those four looks like a classic hard close.
And if you use the same closing technique on all four, you're still running the old rule, just in a nicer suit.
Let me make this real for you. A while ago, I told you about Jan. He's a business development manager at a SaaS company. [00:12:00] He had a deal that had been in progress for 18 months. Lots of positive signals, no decision.
Jan's read was that the prospect was indecisive. When we mapped the stakeholders, his champion turned out to be a classic high S. Friendly, smiling, nodding in every meeting, and never quite committing.
Jan is a high I in contrast. Fast, enthusiastic, and energetic. His natural pace felt completely normal to him, but to his prospect, it felt like pressure.
So we changed two things; his expectations, so he could generally accept that this deal would move at the client's pace, not his. And his language, more space, fewer check-ins that felt like a countdown. And he told the prospect in plain words clearly that there was no rush, that it would be done in his time [00:13:00] when it all felt right.
Within a few weeks, the deal closed in Jan's favor after 18 months of stagnation. Think about that. Jan closed that deal by doing less closing. He stopped pushing, and the deal moved forward.
Now, I don't want you leaving this episode thinking urgency is always wrong. It isn't. Remember my mother's other experience. When she was buying an off-plan property in Spain, those agents were fantastic. Prepared, fast, on the ball. And when demand was generally high for their product, they told my mother straight, "If you're serious, we need your expression of interest within 24 hours."
That was urgency, but it was real, it was honest, and it was in her best interests because she generally risked losing the property that she was really keen on getting.
That's the line I want you to draw. [00:14:00] Real urgency serves the client. Manufactured pressure serves the salesperson. Clients can feel the difference every time.
So here's the rule I'd suggest for anyone selling in a consultative relationship-driven environment. Not always be closing. Instead, always be creating buy-in.
Now, what does it mean in practice? Three things.
First, every meeting ends with an advance, not a continuation. A specific dated next step. Something the client has agreed to, owns, and actually wants to do. Second, you match the client's pace, not your own. You read who you're dealing with, and you adapt. You keep the deal moving, but at the speed they feel comfortable to move.
Third, you earn the decision instead of forcing it. [00:15:00] You help each person on the committee get to floor three in the brain elevator on their own terms. Now, when they get there, the decision often makes itself, and they'll defend it internally because it's their decision, not yours.
Here's the thing about buy-in. It lasts. A client who was pushed into a deal will look for a way out at the first problem. A client who bought in will work with you through that problem. And in a world where the real value comes from renewals, referrals, and repeat business, that difference is worth far more than any single signature.
So myth or method? Always Be Closing is a method in a transactional world. In consultative B2B, it's a myth. The useful part of it, asking for commitment and keeping the deal moving is worth keeping. The pressure that comes with it is what costs you.
[00:16:00] Here's what I would love you to do this week. Pull out the notes from your team's last 10 client meetings. Look at how each one ended. Did it end with an advance, as in a clear dated next step the client agreed to and owns? Or did it end with a continuation, "Great meeting. Let's catch up soon," without any further?
Count them. I think a lot of you will be surprised by how many continuations are sitting in your pipeline being reported as progress. And then look at your stalled deals. Ask yourself honestly, "Is this deal stuck because we didn't ask or because we pushed too hard too early with someone who needed more time?"
Both problems are predictable, and both are preventable.
That's exactly the work we do with commercial teams through communication mastery, helping your people read each stakeholder, match their [00:17:00] pace, and create buy-in deliberately so deals move forward and clients stay for the long term.
If you've got deals sitting on we're close and you're not sure why, let's talk.
Book a free discovery call. The link's in the show notes. And if you've got a piece of sales wisdom you'd love me to put through Myth or Method, send it my way. See you next time. Thanks for tuning in.
