Struggling to close?

Welcome to the Thought Follower, weekly tips & insights for savvy Solopreneurs.

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Most Solopreneur sales calls fall apart in the first 10 minutes.

Not because you didn’t say the right thing at the end, but because you didn’t ask the right thing at the start.

Everyone wants to get better at “closing the sale.”
But most Solopreneurs would close more if they just opened better first.

Every sales conversation has two parts:
1. Opening (Discovery - learning as much as you can)
2. Closing (Making an offer - asking them to buy your thing)

The goal of the opening isn’t to explain your service or how you can help.
It’s to understand what the prospect really wants, and why they want it.

🧠 What’s their dream outcome?

Go deeper than just “more clients” or “better content.”
You’re looking for the emotional driver behind the business goal.

Dream outcomes usually tie back to one of 4 core drivers:

• Health

• Wealth

• Relationships

• Status

It’s not just “I want a new website.”

It’s: “I need to replace this income before my runway runs out.”

It’s not just “I want more leads.”

It’s: “I feel like I’m shouting into the void and wondering if this business even has legs.”

This is where so many Solopreneurs (myself included) derail a sales call.

We ask some good questions, we start to identify problems we can solve.

And then we dive straight into fixing, advising, teaching, or worse, talking about our offer.

But that’s not your job right now.

The Opening part of the call belongs to the prospect.

Your job is to guide. To hold space. To listen more than you speak.
The moment you start teaching, you take the spotlight off them and put it on you.

So hold back.

Let silence do some of the heavy lifting. Nod. Take notes. Ask “What else?”

Once you’ve unearthed the real drivers behind their goals, summarise them back & validate:

“It sounds like what you really want is A,B & C - is that right?”

That’s the bridge.
When they say “yes,” you’re no longer pitching. You’re partnering.

Then (and only then) you can ask for permission to pivot into the closing part of the call:

“I believe I can help you. Would it make sense for me to show you what a partnership could look like?”

If you’re getting ghosted after sales calls, the problem probably isn’t your price, your offer or your skillset.

It’s that you tried to close before you’d truly opened.

What’s your favourite question to ask to open up a conversation?

PS. This week’s letter was inspired by the heroes in Solo Breakthrough Club - last week was the Sales module of the program which meant plenty of hot seats and pitch practice.

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