Sales Closer Bob King Reveals How To Unleash The Joy Of Closing To Catapult Business Success (#422)

422 Bob King
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Jeffrey Feldberg: [00:00:00] Bob King is a seasoned sales professional, author, and coach with over three decades of experience in mastering the art of closing deals. Known for his practical and relationship driven approach, Bob has dedicated his career to helping salespeople and businesses achieve extraordinary results by focusing on authenticity, trust, and emotional intelligence.

As the author of The Joy of Closing, Bob offers a fresh perspective on one of the most challenging aspects of sales, sealing the deal. His book breaks down the myths and misconceptions surrounding closing, replacing outdating tactics with strategies that prioritize genuine connections and long term client relationships.

Drawing from real world experiences and proven techniques, Bob equips readers with actionable insights to transform their sales approach. for sales stems from his belief that closing isn't just about making a transaction. It's about creating value, solving problems, and building trust. His work has [00:01:00] inspired countless sales professionals to elevate their skills, overcome rejection, and embrace a mindset of continuous improvement when he is not coaching sales teams or writing.

Bob is a sought after speaker, sharing his expertise on sales mastery, motivation, and personal growth through his work. Bob King is redefining what it means to succeed in sales, empowering professionals to close with confidence, integrity, and joy.

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Deep Wealth Nation, welcome to another episode of the Deep Wealth Podcast. And let me ask you, you know that I love my rhetorical questions when it comes to bringing on new clients or growing your client's existing business to even a bigger one. Are you always talking about the one that got away? Or if you're not doing the selling and you're speaking to your sales team and saying, yeah, Oh, we almost got it.

Are you tired on being on the losing side? You want to close more? You want to grow the business? Do you want to ramp up the profits, your enterprise value, and all those good things? Well, you've come to the right place. Bob, welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast. It's an absolute pleasure to have you with us.

You're an author, a fellow entrepreneur, a thought leader, love what you're doing, but I'm really curious. I want to start things off with The story behind the story. There's always a story behind the story. So Bob, what is your story? What got you from where you were to where you are today?

Bob King: [00:05:00] Thank you for having me, Jeffrey. It's great to be here and that wonderful introduction. I think probably the best way to, tell the story behind the story. I was a filmmaker. I made a couple of movies, sold a couple of screenplays, did better than some of the people I went to film school with, not as well as others but never really figured out a way to make money real money.

then this thing came along called the global economic collapse. So, I had to pay 2007 through 2009, and I had to figure out a way to pay my rent that also coincided with the collapse of the independent film business, which, the part I was in, which I made art house comedies, which there just was no way to get money to make those movies or have any reasonable expectation of anyone paying to see them at that point.

And that really hasn't changed. Sadly with, yeah, that's just what happened, but anyway, I had to figure out a different plan. I went on a bunch of, but I just basically had to pay my rent. I went on a bunch of Craigslist interviews for sales jobs. The one [00:06:00] that paid to train you was for solar power and the guy doing, the guy that I interviewed with was an English guy.

basically could sell you a blender at the state fair on a day that you never thought about blenders. He was that guy. And when he asked me if I was in or if I was out, wasn't, he didn't say think about it, he didn't say, I, tell me tomorrow. He wanted to know right then and there if I was ready to do this training, selling a product I knew nothing about for a company that I knew nothing about as trained by this guy who I, well, I said, are you doing the training?

And he said, yes. And I said, I'm in. And that started this journey. I went through the training. kind of knew they were up to no good, but I love con artist movies and I always wanted to know how they did it. And so halfway through the second week, they explained the little trick they did to get the customers greed engaged and make them prompt a same day [00:07:00] purchase.

So, And I was completely fascinated I figured I owed it to them to go on a couple of sales calls, just because they'd paid 1200 bucks to train me and told me their secrets I didn't sell my first two leads. and then I came into that sales meeting, that first sales meeting with the full team.

And the guy wrote on the board, G R E E D. And he said, if you are not willing to engage your customer's greed, you will never get them to buy from us on the first day. And I kind of got it. And then I went on a couple of more sales and I quickly became. One of their top sellers, and the way I became that was by willing to do what this company, deemed necessary to close customers on the first day.

And also being honest with this guy who really told me all the things I was doing in my presentation to compromise a sale, making it about me. [00:08:00] Or picking fights instead of finding common ground. All these things that as I was learning them, I couldn't help but know that was exactly why I did not prompt anyone to hire me when I was in my directing career.

And it's not like I didn't get to make any movies, I was never able to capitalize on, the, whatever goodwill had been created by, you know, or maybe doing some good work or things like that. I just didn't turn that into another job, ever. And now I knew why. And so, it was really exciting learning all this stuff and overcoming all these, Bad habits, really.

And learning how to earn trust, build trust with a customer and earn their business. Unfortunately that company was horrible and the decision I was prompting these customers to make was a bad decision for them. And as I became more and more aware of that, about that.

Obviously, you know, I, I couldn't reconcile myself with those two things. And [00:09:00] so I left there, I went to another company that was a little better, but still largely, you know, had a different sort of scam. But by then I was kind of, I'd made peace with it. And then someone I worked with at that second company started his own startup.

And so, and offered me a job as the VP of sales and a piece of the company. And I said yes to that. And so I started, and you know, there's some things you just know how to do. And I know how to turn salespeople into closers that's just whatever I was able to do that skill, even though I'd only been closing for a relatively short time, the yogis say that if if you want to learn something, practice it.

if you want to master it, teach it. And I mastered the art of closing by teaching other people how to close. Now, I was still coming from this background of, engage the customer's greed. And all that stuff but we did have some success and that, company went from, you know, to friends and family sales to millions of dollars a month and built sales teams [00:10:00] in, LA and San Diego.

and, you know, that was really exciting thing. Unfortunately it imploded not, you know, a year later, basically. And I went from there to a very reputable company. And when that happened I had to figure out something in me knew this was the opportunity I'd been looking for.

And I had to figure out a way to prompt that customer to make a purchase without using tricks. And I thought about, when I first came to the startup, and and I, I had it set up. you know, it's kind of a third party close. You call someone up and say, oh, you know, can we do this? And the third party says, yes, but it has to be today.

And so now, some third party's saying it has to be today instead of you saying it to your customer. And that third party really is the one who closes the deal. That's the essence of what those closes are like in home improvement. and there's different versions of it and they're all pretty exciting and all that's detailed in my book, if you're interested in all that, or if you want to know why you bought a timeshare, when you didn't intend to, or a [00:11:00] car when you were just looking I can, you know, it gets into some detail about that.

but I knew that wouldn't work where I was, like, it was just a different customer, different relationship with that customer and that company, really was the best choice for them. And I thought about when I first came to the startup and I had it all set up to those third party calls and I didn't do, I didn't need them.

customers just said, yes, maybe not the first time I asked, but you know, a lot of times within that first sales call and I thought about why. And it was because I had belief. It's because I, believed that in what I was selling, that them going forward was a good decision.

And that we were using high quality equipment. We were charging a fair price and the company had really good intentions that we were going to make that customer happy. That was our commitment when they signed on that dotted line. And so I revised my whole approach. Distilled this rambling, stay as long as you can pitch into seven steps and a forecast that I call Won't Call Magic [00:12:00] and started and really centered myself with the idea that moving forward today was the best thing for everybody involved, the customer, my company, and for me.

And when I did that. Something happened and I discovered, how to combine classic, one call closing techniques with a setting where the customer was really making a good decision. anyway, that had a lot of success. I started coaching people in other industries at first, just because, you know, someone I bought services from needed help and I helped her.

And then I had a friend who referred me to someone who was selling insurance. And so I then got a bunch of insurance clients and I realized like this approach of, one call magic and having effective closing skills, like really, we can get into that in a minute had a lot of purpose in other industries.

and it was fun. I love figuring out, how telling a company story works a different context, different product, or this thing called the three reasons that's in my book, how that applies to different industries. I love figuring [00:13:00] out. how doing a presentation that engages with the customer's emotions instead of just spitting out numbers can be adapted to whatever it is that you're selling, even if you can't close them on the first day because you're not even meeting with the decision maker.

Salespeople, closers, you have one opportunity where you have the element of surprise and that is the first meeting. And so anyway, not everyone can afford my services and I can't see everyone that I would love to help. So I wrote a book. And then there's a book called The Joy of is the definitive guide to building trust, getting the deal and creating happy customers.

and that's why I'm sitting with you and talking to your audience.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And Deep Wealth Nation, as always, go to the show notes. We have everything there, including the book. You click on it. It doesn't get any easier. Point and click. Buy the book, The Joy of Closing, The Definitive Guide to Building Trust, Getting the Deal and Creating Happy Customers. Let's Bob, start to do a few things before we really get into this.

I want to dispel some myths because I know, and I, listen, I've been in sales just about my [00:14:00] entire professional life. Sales, we get a bad rap. You speak to most people. I could never be in sales. They're sleazy people. When I meet a salesperson, I'm counting my fingers after they shake my hand and I leave. I just don't trust them.

What's interesting though, the most successful people. That are in sales that I speak to. We were speaking about this offline, the most successful salespeople. When I speak to them, Jeffrey, I never sell a day in my life. I don't know what you're talking about. I'm actually going out there. I'm adding value.

I'm educating, having a lot of fun. So let's get rid of the myth. Where are, let's not put some judgments or labels on here, but the people who really aren't doing the sales properly, perhaps good intentions, not so great results, or maybe even bad actors, what are they doing? Or what aren't they doing?

Perhaps that's really putting people off.

Bob King: I think it's really a lack of commitment. think there's genius. I mean, I make a distinction in the book and in life between a salesperson and a closer. And what you're really talking about is closers. Closers have this stigma attached to them because I think a lot of books on [00:15:00] closing are taking an approach that I could never really identify with.

Part of the reason I wrote the book is because I don't want anyone to be trained the way I was, which was to, you know, march, stare at the Porsche you want to buy. And then marshal your self will to extract something from the customer. And that's just the opposite of how I see my value and my approach when I'm going to meet with a customer.

And what you said, I think is key. I'm not trying to get them to say yes. I am inspiring them to make an educated decision. And I almost don't care if the decision is yes or no. If I got the customer to make a decision and to commit to something, either going forward with this, salespeople are agents of change. At our best, we are agents of change. Change requires commitment, and the difference I find oftentimes between salespeople and closers is if you're not committed, it is impossible to inspire that customer a change. And closers are committed. A closer knows that your product has [00:16:00] value, your company has good intentions and that your customer will be greatly benefited by the change that you are inspiring them to adopt.

And so then it becomes a will. Are you willing, because you're committed, you're gonna be willing to work with their resistance to really be interested in that customer and what's holding them back. And we just live in a world where, people don't want to get messy. They don't want to get involved.

They don't want to get intimate with their customers. And those people are never as successful as people like you and me, who are genuinely interested in the person sitting across from us and really want to figure out that solution that's best for them. Whether it's not or for the product, really want to be a value, I want to bring value.

Like you said, educate them all. The price of admission for a great sales presentation is being fascinating. You have to be fascinating. If that customer gets bored, you're out the door.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And so let's talk about that, because so many times, and I've been there myself, Bob, we go in, we feel we gave the presentation of a lifetime, asked all the right [00:17:00] questions, all the right closing questions, we did all the needs analysis, we got the decision maker in the room, walk out, find out a short while later, we didn't get it.

So, what's going on there? What are some of the classic mistakes? And maybe it's even the Pareto's Law, the 80 20 principle, that most salespeople, most closers, they're making the same 20 percent of the, whatever it is, doing something, not doing something, possibly mistakes that are creating 80 percent of the issues.

What's going on there?

Bob King: If everything really went that great, if your ability to perceive the customer's reaction to you is accurate, and I'm going to go with that theory, Then it sounds like you just weren't willing to work with their resistance, that you weren't that interested in how they're responding to what you're saying and you didn't spend enough time paying attention to them to find out what's really holding them back. And the person who got that deal probably did, or you did a great presentation. You made them want what you have so much. But when you gave them price, you didn't [00:18:00] stop talking.

and when you asked for the deal, you didn't stop talking. Whenever you present price or ask for the deal, you have to stop talking. That is the cardinal sin of great presenters, right?

if you don't stop talking, they can't say yes. But more importantly, if you don't stop talking, it's about you. You're not letting that moment, that big moment that your whole sales presentation has built up to, be about them. And ultimately, this is about them adopting your agenda as their idea.

And if you don't give them time to do that, And space to do that's where you lose deals, is just that little space where you stop talking and pay attention to what they say next. Then there's the skill of closing. And that means finding ways to ask for the deal multiple times and making it seem fresh every time because now that customer's coming at it from a new set of perspective because you responded to something that they said.

Even something [00:19:00] they said that you know is a lie oh, I just got to run this by the boss, when you know they're the boss, if you respond to it, you know, you use your inner six year old to figure out a way around it,

And just staying in it and figuring out a way to ask for the deal one more time.

At the end of that loop, or at the end of whatever, there's a chapter on closing in the book that was the hardest chapter to write, that's by far the longest chapter, where there's I think it's 11 objections and 13 closes. So, and they're interchangeable. They're not meant to be, they say this and you say that.

Any book that tells us, oh, if the customer says this, you do that, is worthless. Because what you really need to do is be in that moment. Use your intuition, do it wrong a few times, do it right a few times, but mostly find a way to get intimate with that customer. Because what you're asking them to do.

is really hard, and everything in their lizard brain is saying, no, don't do it now there's a better option out there, or, you know, you don't know this guy, or whatever it [00:20:00] is, and you just need to get around that lizard brain and get their limbic brain, the part that knows intuitively that what you have for them is exactly what they need, And get that brain to blurt out a yes before the lizard brain can stop it.

And that's so fun. The other thing that oftentimes salespeople versus closers do is they try and make the presentation the exciting part of a sales call. And it's not. The presentation is the same every time if you are effective at your job. What you say about your product, what you say about your company, You know, the order that goes in really shouldn't vary if you're good at your job because you're doing this multiple times, a day, a week, a month.

needs to be exciting for the customer, but it should not be the warm up is different every time. And how you close a customer is different every time. And if you let those things be exciting, which are about the customer and not about you, you will be fascinating to them in a way that you aren't right [00:21:00] now.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Okay. So why aren't we fascinating right now to our prospects? 

Bob King: Because your presentation is, you think you're living in a world where the best idea always wins and not in a world where what's important to your customer needs to be the reason that they're going to adopt your agenda. So in the warm up, you need to find out who that customer is. You need to find common ground with them, so they feel a tribal alliance to you, so they think this guy understands me, this person understands me, what I care about is what this person cares about.

They need to have that feeling. And by the way, you're not going to have that feeling with every customer, but the ones that you have it with won't do business with anybody else. and then at the end, you know, just need to stop talking and give that customer all of your attention and pay attention to what they say.

Don't take it as gospel, but use their response as a way to deepen the intimacy between you so that at some point they'll tell you what's really holding [00:22:00] them back, and then you can speak to that

Jeffrey Feldberg: Okay. So with all that said, let's put some of this into motion here. Someone who's gone through your program, you've coached them, you've trained them, they have mastered it. They can walk on water when it comes to closing. Set this up for us, Bob. So what would they be doing from start to finish, before they even spoken to the prospect all the way through to the very end, where paperwork is being signed?

What have they typically done that most untrained, I'll use air quotes, salespeople or closers supposedly simply aren't doing?

Bob King: I think the first thing is they need to connect with the idea that moving forward with you and your company is the absolute best thing for that customer. And that they're going to come to that conclusion. On a specific basis with the customer that they're meeting with, but they have to just have, look, if you sell inferior products for a high price because you trick people, I don't think my book's gonna work for you. if, if you've created a product and you have a company where you know that company was created [00:23:00] to fill a specific niche. And when you find that customer, like you know there's no better choice for them, that's what you need, you need to, commit to allow yourself to be vulnerable in the way that says, this is what I stand for, and I really believe in what I'm doing.

that's sort of the pre everything. And if you don't feel that way about your company or your product, Maybe think about finding a company that you can feel that way about. that would be my first little set of advice. Or, read one of the books about staring at the Porsche and, use their method.

But if you really believe in what you're doing, I think I have a great book for you. And I think I have a great methodology. So it starts with belief. And then, you need to present yourself in a way that is someone that your customer wants to do business with. Now, people will write million dollar checks to someone in flip flops and shorts, but it's an uphill battle every time, right?

And if that's your approach, that's your approach figure out your persona. Figure out who you are as someone that the person you're seeing wants to do [00:24:00] business with to the best of your knowledge about who they are. And dress the part. Look them in the eye shake them by the hand, call them by their first name if you want them to call you by your first name.

Make a good first impression. Take time to get to know the person that you're with. That's the warm up. and really like find common ground. Don't pick fights over stuff that doesn't matter. Remember that, there are places in this world where it's great to resolve conflicts, tailgate parties at football games or a courtroom where you're on different sides.

But a sales presentation or a sales call is not one of those places. This is where you want to find common ground, things you agree with. Make that customer feel like you're part of the same tribe and that the things that are important to them are intrinsically important to you. And don't be fake about it.

Don't make stuff up. Just be who you are. We are all human beings. And if you can't find common ground with most people in the world, then you're just too picky. And so that's the warmup. At the end of the warmup, you want to ask some [00:25:00] discovery questions, but don't be like Mr. Discovery. I coached one guy, he started selling more than the guy who was selling the most, and then they brought me in to coach the team. And the guy selling the most was like the hardest, you know, when you coach a team, The first thing you have to do is sell them on you, because I'm asking them to make a change.

That's the weird thing about this job. The closing never stops. Like, You think you leave your job closing, then, now you can just be the smart guy. And it's not like that. You have to close the people you're coaching on what you're coaching them to do. before anything you do is effective. And so this guy's well, I don't have a pitch.

And I was like, okay, well, that's never true, but let's, role play. And we started role playing and all he did was like pound me with discovery questions. That is not a good approach. Especially if you ask a discovery question, it's really important to reciprocate immediately with some information that's going to benefit that customer.

So, if they offer you a piece of information, you need to use your [00:26:00] expertise to give them insights that they did not have before they gave it to you. And that's just a little transactional thing, but it's really important. A lot of people miss that. They think they can just ask discovery questions and then, use that later to close the customer.

And that's not the purpose. The purpose of the discovery questions is to give, well, that's, it's great to have that in your back pocket. But the immediate purpose is to give the customer the experience of them being honest with you or them sharing information and you using it to benefit them immediately.

if they give you a electricity bill, you're going to recommend a scope of work. Or if they tell you I don't know, something about their financial situation, you are going to say, oh, that's great. This is how this would work for you. Maybe you're gonna talk about financing, maybe you're gonna talk about, whatever it is.

No matter what, when a customer gives you a piece of information, the next thing that a closer will do if you're interested in earning that customer building trust with that customer is to. You don't just store the information, for later use, like a [00:27:00] squirrel you use that information like an expert to tell them something about the purchase that they're contemplating, or even just, whatever area of expertise you happen to have that they are consulting you to address, you want to give them an insight into.

Thanks. that they didn't have before they gave you that information. That is a really important skill to have. And it works in life as well as sales, by the way.

Jeffrey Feldberg: talk to us about that because you know what, Bob, for me, people who say business, it's never personal. They've never run a business. They've never been in business. Everything is personal, business included. And if really open and honest about this, when we walk into a room or when we show up on a zoom call or when we're on the phone, people know nothing about us, but within milliseconds, They're already typecasting us.

If I can go back to your former roles when you're doing the movies and different kinds of acting, they're typecasting us. They're making judgments. They're making assumptions about us. Maybe they're right. Usually they're wrong.

Bob King: And they're also having reactions to us that they, [00:28:00] they're maybe not even aware of. They're just like, Oh, when you came on, you have great lighting. No one can see it, but you have really beautiful lighting. And I was like, oh my God, I got to up my lighting game here if I'm going to be on screen with this guy, I paid you a sincere compliment, and when you pay a sincere compliment to someone first of all, it lifts you're in touch with something you appreciate about another human being.

And when that happens, it lifts all boats. And then when you express it, the other person reacts to you in a way that is, primal. They just like you. They don't know why, they just like you. It's the first exercise in the book is pasting three sincere compliments.

One to some of you work with. or see every day, one to someone you live with, and one to a total stranger. and it's amazing what comes back from people just from doing that and developing that skill. Their whole life can change. so yes, there's all kinds of non verbal clues and, it's got to be sincere, if you don't like a Velvet Elvis [00:29:00] painting, then don't compliment their Velvet Elvis painting.

Although, what's wrong with you? Who doesn't love a Velvet Elvis painting? But, you know, that's up to you. These are human beings. We're expressing ourselves. Creatively, everything we do is an expression of our creativity. It's impossible not to.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah, so interesting. And I want to circle back to something that you said earlier. And again, all this is in the book, Deep Wealth Nation. Go to the show notes, click on the link, buy the book, get the audio book, just go through it. You'll be better for it than not doing it. But what's interesting, Bob, going back to what you said a little bit earlier, you've said it, and then you've alluded to it.

Let's get this crystal clear. I'm just going to make this up. I have a hundred slide presentation. Everyone hates presentations. And I'm going in there and I'm going through all 100 slides every single time. Probably not going to get many sales because what I'm hearing you say, and so many salespeople do that, they don't take the time.

Hey, Jeffrey, what's keeping you up at night? What's a painful problem that you're speaking with me today on? And if only two of those slides out of the hundred are dealing with that, I'm throwing out the other 98. I'm focusing on those two. Okay, [00:30:00] Jeffrey, here you go. Here's what you need to know. Set us straight on this.

What should we be doing? How do we really optimize this?

Bob King: Well, I do think you need to tailor your presentation to the customer, but there's, presentation needs to be designed to take that customer on an emotional journey. From I'm confused to when you say, are we doing this? Their response should be, of course, who wouldn't?

And maybe they don't verbalize that the first time you ask.

But you'll know when that's there, when it's palpably there. So, getting back to your first question, if you really saw that response in them, then it's just a failure of closing. Then you just don't have the skill of closing them. And that requires commitment, patience. Paying attention to another human being and figuring out why they would do it, not why you would do it. And salespeople tend to be egomaniacs. That's why learning how to close is so good for someone like me. Made my whole life better because the opportunity to pay attention to other human beings and truly be of service to them [00:31:00] absolutely changed my life. And that's the other great thing about learning how to close is it's so valuable to you as a human being.

When you do it the right way, for the right company, for the right reasons. It is really an amazing feeling. But even if it's, earning someone's trust is such a powerful experience. And so you have to ask yourself, am I here to, present the numbers and, give all the rational reasons for someone should move forward with us?

Or am I looking to earn someone's trust today? Which, what am I looking to do? And, different people can have different answers, but if you want to be in the 20 percent that does 80 percent of the business. Those people know how to earn someone's trust. And so I think what you said in terms of, picking out those two slides, I mean, what are you really talking about?

Paying attention to the customer and finding the ways that making this decision is important to them and not making it about you because you have a hundred slides and number 36 is so gorgeous that, you feel like they have to see it. That's about you. Anytime you make a sales meeting about you that [00:32:00] souffle is going to fall and it will never be a souffle again.

Jeffrey Feldberg: As Dale Carnegie once said in his Oh. So famous book. People love talking about themselves, how to win friends and influence people and in

Bob King: greatest book on sales that's ever been written. It's the only book on sales that I've ever gotten all the way through, literally. And, I love that book and everyone should read that book. And just as a thing, forget about sales. It's a great book.

Jeffrey Feldberg: it, it's a great book. And so in How to Win Friends and Influence People, I love it when he said. I sat down for this conversation. I'm obviously paraphrasing. I'm sat down for this conversation. I really just asked a few questions. I didn't do any talking. The other person, I believe it was a woman at the time who was talking to him, walked away saying, Oh, Dale, this is the best conversation I've ever had.

You are the best conversationalist because people love to be heard. They want to hear about themselves. But let me talk to you about something. It's in your book. It's in the Magic part of it. It really resonated with me. And from a very high level side, because Deep Wealth Nation, again, get the book. But Bob, when you're talking about, it's in step two of the magic process, you're talking about feel the pain.[00:33:00] 

So for Deep Wealth Nation, can you really illuminate for them why this is such an important step in what we're

Bob King: Sure. Okay. So after the warmup the customer is a little bit confused, like they like you well, anyway, but now you need to turn to business, like they know you're there to give them information. Basically, what the customer thinks at that point is that you are going to provide them with a scope of work and a price, and a sales call is a strip tease towards price.

You do not want to show them the goods until the money is in your G string, and what that means is Making them feel the pain of their current situation, and the pleasure of your solution. Giving them a visceral experience of that, which is the next step. And we'll get to that in just a second. Telling them who your company is, who your core customer is, why they want to do business with your company, telling them and giving them a central experience of the product, doing a thorough price presentation that's the same every time, and then shutting up when you present the price.

Closing them, and when they say yes, doing a thorough presentation of [00:34:00] your contract and cool down. So that's getting the money in your G string. So, there's two things that, that people who don't close well always lack. And the first one is making that customer feel the pain of their current situation.

Because it's awkward, it's very confrontational, It's awkward. I'm a pretty obnoxious person by nature, so I kind of gravitate towards it and I love it. But yeah, I mean, you always have to decide, do you want your customer to like you or trust you? And I do not care if my customer likes me or not.

I do care very much if they trust me. And so when there's a decision to make, do I do that? Do I say that thing that's going to make them like me or do I say that thing that's going to make them trust me? I always go with trust me. Because a customer will buy from someone they don't like, but they will never buy from someone they don't trust.

And by the time they're buying, usually they will like you. So that, but anyway, so part of that building trust is like making them feel the pain of their current [00:35:00] situation. Because that's something that the other five people who, are competing on price. Probably didn't do, or didn't do very effectively because they wanted the customer to like them.

So, whatever, you're selling, you wouldn't be there if the customer were not looking to make some kind of change. And so change requires commitment. And oftentimes before we commit to anything, we have to be in a little bit of pain. And so as you take this customer on this emotional journey, it really starts, with feeling a kinship with you and that the, you understand their needs and you share their goals.

And then you you gotta take 'em down the, pain pit into what's gonna happen if they don't make this change. And I did, of my contributions to the world of sales is this thing called the three reasons. And I like to go over the three reasons why people adopt the change that you're, looking for them to adopt.

So you know, in solar, and so the first one is usually money. There's always a financial aspect to most sales [00:36:00] decisions, either, some money you're going to make from, making this choice. Or avoided cost, if you make the choice. So, if they're spending money on something now, you want to show them how that's going to increase and get worse.

there's always a money aspect, even if it's a luxury good. You can talk about how things were less money a year from now, a year ago, and they're going to be more money five years from now because of some shortage or whatever it is. You talk about how making that decision today is to that customer's advantage.

and make them feel the pain of the status quo as part of that. Very important. And then the second reason I call feels good. There is a feel good aspect to every decision you're ever going to make. In insurance, it's, security or your, family's future, things like that. In solar, it's the polar bears, save the polar bears.

When you're powering your home with the sun, it feels good. And for that reason, you're probably going to use a little more power. And then I'll ask them, about their, how their needs might change, if they're getting an electric car, if their kids are going off to college. You know, It doesn't necessarily always go in the direction of you building more or selling them more.[00:37:00] 

And that really establishes your expertise because you're not there to just, make a fatter commission. You're there to design a system using your expertise that serves them. And they need to have that feeling throughout your presentation at all times. The third reason timing.

And when you talk about the timing of the decision, absent, the pressure of a sale or discounts, it's just like the real world reasons why doing this today is going to be to that customer's benefit versus doing it tomorrow. There might be supply chain shortages or any, there's always a real world reason and you want to go over them detailed as possible as to why doing this today or why other people are doing this today as opposed to waiting.

that just sets up lots of urgency later. remember, you're not closing them at this point, you're just giving them information. But in their mind, and as you're doing this, especially when you're talking about money. You want to price condition them by showing them or letting them experience how every assumption that you're making [00:38:00] is very conservative.

And so when you say, so you'll save at least whatever, 50, 000, they think, well, it's really more like a hundred. That's what you want their lizard brain to be thinking. And so, so your price conditioning, using the three reasons at the end of this, that customer is really uncomfortable.

And if you don't do something towards the end of the field of pain section to sort of give them the light at the end of the tunnel. They're just going to say how much does it cost because you're just in too much pain. If you do it really well, they're in a lot of pain, They did not sign up for this when you got there.

They're happy. It's like a great massage, when they get into that muscle, but you got to give them some, you got to give them a little bit of, and so you do what's called a forecast. And a forecast is a one or two sentence, hopefully one breath. Pre cap of what's going to come next.

So, here's what we're going to do. I'm going to go over the three most important things about this decision. Who's going to do it, what we use and how much it costs. I will go in that order. And then without pausing, you don't even need a yes [00:39:00] there. You just do what you committed to do and start talking about your company. And so, the other area where closers are very distinct from salespeople is how they talk about their company. And doing a company story that is personal, that brings out tribal alliances that their customer agrees with, and by talking about their core customer way that makes the customer you're sitting in front of want to be that customer.

They want to be in the club. And so, and there's a whole chapter and actually a recipe for how to create a great company story. The next step is to talk about your product, which you want to do. You want to engage the customer's senses. So that could be a test drive if you're selling a car. It could be a video.

Hopefully it's somewhere where you're not talking because you've probably been talking for a while now and hearing someone else's voice is usually helpful. It gives a sort of third party reassurance, but you know, if there's a smell element, I used to. And, we would do a tasting and they would [00:40:00] smell it, they would taste it, and that would really make them want to buy this tea.

So you want to give that customer, but there's always a central way that you can present your product. And that's what, and, you know, you're going to talk about the bells and whistles that came up during discovery, why, how its value proposition fits into their agenda, and make them feel like what you have is the right product for them.

And that's also very educational. You are hopefully telling them things that they'll ask, and it has to be Fascinating. And the way it's fascinating is by not being the same as what everyone else said. And also giving them a sense that you stand, the reasons they should buy this product is the reasons why you represent it.

if they identify with your ideals, they will come to believe that because you're choosing to represent this product, they should choose to buy it. I mean, that's the kind of the intimacy that you start building. And that you start calling on as you talk about these things. And then when you presented your product, now you're going to do a price presentation.

And price presentation is not, just [00:41:00] spitting out a number. It's building value. You talk about all the bells and whistles. If you are old school, you'll do this thing called an ROI. I do not support that. It's not part of one call closing. That's something that gets the customer shackles up right before you're going to ask for the deal.

Hopefully you price condition throughout your presentation and that they think that you're underestimating everything and they're ready for the number that you put across. And we can go into ways to price condition as well but don't do it there. If you believe my system and then you, you build value, you write down a number or you spit out a number or you, you know, email a number and then you stop talking and that's when closing starts.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah, so key, stop talking, as so many really good closers have told me before, Jeffrey, you have two ears, one mouth for a reason. Just put it out there, stop talking, listen. But Bob, let me ask you this, my goodness, we can go in so many different directions, and there's so many questions that I've had to hold back, we're bumping up against some time.

Is there a question that I didn't ask, or a topic that we haven't covered [00:42:00] yet, or even a message that you'd like to get out to the Deep Wealth Nation before we go into wrap up mode.

Bob King: I'm so glad there's a Deep Wealth Nation and I want to be part of the Deep Wealth Nation. I understand that you have a lot of entrepreneurs and venture capitalist people and people trying to get 11 figures from there. Ten figure endgame, and I'm all for that. I learned very early on in sales that's why, yeah, that the more zeros after what you're selling, the better the sales job is.

And I've come to feel the same way about consulting. If your job is raising money or getting, attracting investors. You are a closer, not a salesperson, you're not a venture capital, you are a closer. Your job is to get other people to adopt your agenda, which is writing them, writing you a check as their idea.

And so I think if you accept that mission, that my skills, my services, the book that I wrote will not only help you close a lot more deals and sooner and quicker and for more [00:43:00] money, but really invite you to feel good about what you're doing. And that vortex of like, feeling good about it and doing it better just can bring on so much exciting success.

So that's one thing. The other thing is if you run a company and, you think your sales team needs my book I am running a special, if you buy 20 copies, I will give you an hour of consulting for free. That's on my website. which is joyofclosing. com, but also just understanding that anyone in your company that interacts with customers has the potential to be a closer because your sales team may be closing them on doing business with you, which is, obviously how things get started and brings the most value, but in the world we live in, which is so dependent on five star reviews and referrals.

Having the ability to create happy customers, which is what closers do is valuable no matter who in your company is dealing with customers. And when you empower them to create happy customers and earn that customer's repeat business they're going to be a lot [00:44:00] happier and you're going to have a lot more business.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And Bob, it's perhaps for another episode, another time, I would take what you just shared, so true, I'd even add to it that everyone in the company, whether we realize it or not, we are all in sales and Deep Wealth Nation is saying absolutely not, no way, could never do it. Think about this, the last movie that you really liked, or you went to a new restaurant that put you over the moon, You are sharing that with your friends, with your family, you're selling that movie, you're selling that particular restaurant.

And Bob, I can share with you, in my e learning company, Embanet, we got a customer from the accounting department, go figure, everyone knows someone, six degrees of separation, someone in accounting was speaking to someone else in accounting at one of our clients, hey, do you know anyone who does what you do, but isn't using us?

Boom, got

Bob King: If you got someone to propose to you, if you picked the movie that your friends or your spouse saw on a Saturday night, if you got your kids to clean their room or their plate or go to college, you are a closer. You cannot get through life without [00:45:00] the skill of closing. And the only thing more satisfying than finding what you want and knowing it is helping someone else do that.

And that's really what closers do. And so, yeah, connecting with the good. And there are skillful ways to do it, and there are rookie ways to do it. If you don't do this, something will happen. And if you want to move into the skillful way and making it their idea, you can also read my book.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Get the book, all roads lead back to the book. So, Bob, that said, let's go into wrap up mode, and it's a tradition here on the Deep Wealth Podcast. I have the privilege and honor for every guest, I ask them the same question, it's a really fun question. Let me set this up for you. When you think of the movie Back to the Future, you have that magical DeLorean car that will take you to any point in time.

So imagine now, it's tomorrow morning, and here's the fun part, Bob, you look outside your window, not only do you see the DeLorean car curbside. The door is open, it's waiting for you to hop on in, which you do, and you're now going to go to any point in your life, Bob, as a [00:46:00] young child, a teenager, whatever point in time it would be.

What are you telling your younger self in terms of life wisdom or life lessons or, hey Bob, do this, but don't do that? What would that sound like?

Bob King: Make it about them. Be of service. Figure out a way to be of service and to pay attention to the person that you're with. And don't think that talent's the most important thing, or that you have to be a jerk in order to be respected, that actually paying attention to the person in the room. It took getting beaten up pretty hard by life to get to the point where I was willing to learn those lessons, and I would love to have learned them a little sooner.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Bob, if I had a dollar for every mistake I made, some of the same ones again and again, I would not have needed my exit deal. I would have been just fine. Thank you very much. I'm right there with you. But Bob, that said, before we wrap up, if somebody has a question, they want to speak to you, they want you to come into the company and train everyone.

Where is the best place online for someone to reach you?

Bob King: Well, so you can contact me through my website, joyofclosing. com just, contact Bob 

Jeffrey Feldberg: So Deep Wealth [00:47:00] Nation, go to the click on the links. It's all there for you. It's a point and click. Well, Bob, it's official. This is a wrap. Congratulations. And as we love to say here at Deep Wealth, may you continue to thrive and prosper while you remain healthy and safe.

Thank you so much.

Bob King: thank you so much. And thanks to Deep Wealth Nation for expanding their borders to my, territory. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: So there you have it, Deep Wealth Nation. What did you think? 

So with all that said and as we wrap it up, I have another question for you.

Actually, it's more of a personal favor. 

Did you find this episode helpful? 

Have you found other episodes of the Deep Wealth Podcast empowering and a game changer for your journey? 

And if you said yes, and I really hope you did, I have a small but really meaningful way that you can actually help us out and keep these episodes coming to you.

Are you ready for it? 

The dramatic pause. I'll just wait a moment. Drumroll, please. Subscribe. Please subscribe to the Deep Wealth podcast on your favorite podcast channel. When you subscribe to the Deep Wealth Podcast, you're saving yourself time. Every episode automatically comes to you, and I [00:48:00] want you to know that we meticulously craft Every one of our episodes to have impactful strategies, stories, expert insights that are designed to help you grow your profits, increase the value of your business, and yes, even optimize your post exit life and your life right now, whatever you want that to look like.

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So all that said. Thank you so much for listening. And remember your wealth isn't just about the money in the bank. It's about the depth of your journey and the impact that you're creating. So let's continue this journey together. And from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for listening to this episode.

And as we love to say here at Deep Wealth, may you continue to thrive and prosper while you remain healthy and safe. 

Thank you so much. 

God bless.