Boosting Sales Through Urgency

I stopped asking "What are your priorities?" in sales calls. I'd get generic, unhelpful answers each time. I ask these instead: 1. What are the top 3 metrics you're measured on this quarter? ↳Knowing their key performance indicators reveals what truly matters. 2. What's keeping you up at night about hitting those goals? ↳Their biggest fears and challenges point to where you can create value. 3. Where are you currently losing revenue or leaving money on the table? ↳Quantifying the cost of inaction builds urgency for change. 4. Have you explored other solutions before? What didn't work? ↳Understanding past failures helps you differentiate and avoid the same pitfalls. 5. What would a successful outcome look like for you in 6 months? ↳Aligning on their definition of success guides your solution positioning. 6. Who else is impacted by this issue across the company? ↳Identifying all stakeholders ensures you bring the right people into the process. 7. What's your budget range for addressing this? ↳Getting a sense of investment appetite upfront avoids wasted time. 8. What's your decision-making process and timeline? ↳Mapping the path to a decision keeps the momentum going. 9. What concerns do you have about moving forward? ↳Surfacing objections early allows you to directly address them. 10. How will you measure ROI if we're successful? ↳Defining ROI metrics upfront justifies your pricing and business case. Vague, open-ended questions lead to vague, unhelpful answers. Get specific, and you'll uncover the insights to truly understand the buyer's situation. --- Repost ♻ to help your network with this important skill Comment “SEQUENCE” below if you want me to send you 13 email sequences that sell like crazy. 

FOMO works in B2B! Behavioural studies on scarcity show a clear pattern: when something is both desired and genuinely limited, people decide faster, assign it higher value, and are more likely to commit. When demand is weak, though, layering on urgency – countdown timers, “last few spots”, fake limits – tends to backfire, creating scepticism rather than sales. Humans don’t just respond to scarcity itself; they respond to what scarcity signals. Limited access suggests that others value it, that capacity is constrained for real reasons, or that the opportunity won’t be available in the same form again. In that context, FOMO doesn’t create demand from thin air; it nudges already-interested buyers out of indecision and into action. Practically, this means scarcity tactics are most effective when they sit on top of clear intent signals: people are visiting the page and returning, asking questions, joining a waitlist, or engaging with your content. In those moments, stating real constraints – a fixed cohort size, genuine capacity limits, a true deadline – helps buyers make a confident choice instead of endlessly circling the decision. What that means for your brand: FOMO should be a spotlight, not a smoke machine. Use scarcity to highlight real demand and real constraints, protect trust by avoiding artificial pressure, and design your campaigns so urgency accelerates good-fit decisions instead of trying to manufacture interest that isn’t there.

The answer to your outbound problems isn't: ⛔️ AI ⛔️ More volume ⛔️ SDR agents ⛔️ More relevance ⛔️ Dialers It's your OFFER. Let me explain... Most reps reach out with something like: “Just want to introduce myself and our company…” “Let’s do a quick call so you know your options when budgeting season comes around...” The problem? You have NOTHING to offer. If there’s no immediate need, there's zero reason to take a meeting with you. So you need a way to entice buyers to meet when they have a problem, but are not actively shopping. Here are three types of offers you can use to entice buyers to meet with you: ✅ Offer #1: Good - Pitch The Blind Date Position who the buyer will be meeting with. Hype up the AE, sales engineer, or yourself. Show them that meeting with you will be worth their while. Example: A client of ours sells an automated welding solution. The manufacturing industry is facing a massive shortage of welding talent. Their SDRs pitched it like this: “I’d love to introduce you to Eric. He’s worked with a dozen manufacturers like Caterpillar, Karavan, and more, who are all facing similar challenges. He’ll walk you through how they’re automating the most difficult welds and dealing with the labor shortage. Even if nothing comes of it, you’ll walk away with a better understanding of how the industry is solving this.” Even if the buyer isn’t shopping, they gain value from the conversation itself. ✅ Offer #2: Better - 1:Many Offers These are high-quality, reusable insights that still feel tailored. Think: competitive benchmarks, industry research, or best practice guides. Example: We have a client that sells to ecomm brands. They conducted a mystery shop of 400 competitors to analyze response times, customer service channels, etc. Their reps used those insights to open cold calls with: “Hey Katie, I submitted a ticket on your site, and it took about 48 hours to get a response. It was about 3x longer than folks like Patagonia and the North Face. Again, it’s Jason. Mind if I share more about why I’m calling?” That’s an offer that feels immediately relevant and valuable. It gets a conversation started immediately. ✅ Offer #3: Best - 1:1 Offers These are custom-tailored experiences or resources created specifically for the prospect. It’s you and your organization putting in serious effort to customize the offer. This works best at the enterprise & strategic levels. Examples: - A cyber risk analysis - A benchmarking analysis - A workshop - A personalized audit of a website checkout flow. - Visiting and experiencing the brand firsthand, then sharing insights. - Offering free data, licenses, or pilots. These take more work, but they convert like crazy. ~~~ Which one's most applicable for you?

If you're struggling to get your prospect to agree to next steps, try this approach on your next sales call: It's called the "5 Minute Drill" and includes 3 questions to help drive your deal forward. Note - you need a FULL 5 minutes for this. Even if that means you need to end your conversation a bit early. Rushed discussions about next steps aren't good for anybody. 🟢 Step 1: Ask them - do you want to keep moving forward? There's no sense talking about next steps if they don't. Pulse check their sentiment by saying something like: "We're coming up on time. How are you feeling?" "What did you think? Worth exploring more?" If YES, move to the next question (below) If they NO (or they seem unsure) - uncover their objection by asking them where you missed the mark. Now you at least have the REAL objection and the time to try and overcome that objection. ___ 🟢 Step 2: Timeline [Seed The Timeline] 𝘎𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵. 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘢 𝘧𝘦𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘟, 𝘠, 𝘡 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘘4. 𝘐 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘦'𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘺, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘶𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘨𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘯 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘧𝘦𝘸 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴... [Ask] 𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯'𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘥 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦? It's hard to recommend the proper next step if you don't understand the urgency (or lack thereof) If they need a solution implemented in a WEEK, you're probably gonna need to move faster than if they want to implement in 6 months. ___ 🟢 Step 3: Recommend Next + Next NEXT Steps [𝘕𝘦𝘹𝘵] 𝘈𝘸𝘦𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦. 𝘒𝘦𝘦𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘑𝘢𝘯𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘧𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥, 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐'𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘦 𝘥𝘰 𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘥 60 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘥𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘥𝘦𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘳 𝘥𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘺𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘴 𝘥𝘢𝘴𝘩𝘣𝘰𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘰. [𝘕𝘦𝘹𝘵-𝘕𝘦𝘹𝘵] 𝘐𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘨𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭, 𝘸𝘦'𝘥 𝘵𝘺𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘻𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘊𝘍𝘖 𝘑𝘢𝘯𝘦 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘧𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘣𝘦 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘺𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘴 𝘥𝘢𝘴𝘩𝘣𝘰𝘢𝘳𝘥. [𝘝𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘦] 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘯 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘵? You should always make a recommendation for how to proceed- your buyer is not a professional buyer and it's your on you to help guide them. It's OK if they disagree with what you recommend! Gives you a great chance to run some discovery on what their buying process looks like. ____ What 

I warmed up a prospect for 3 months on LinkedIn before our first call. They signed a £75K deal in 3 days. Modern selling demands a new approach: cold outreach fails, warm relationships win. Think about it... That prospect had consumed 47 of my posts. Watched my videos. Read my articles. Engaged with my content. By the time we jumped on that first call? They already trusted me. They already knew my approach. They already understood the value. I didn't have to sell them. They'd already sold themselves. Here's my framework for turning content into closed deals: 👇 1. Build trust at scale BEFORE the pitch Stop spraying and praying with cold messages. Start building relationships through value. Each post builds trust. Your insights mark credibility. Stories create connection. Your content is doing the heavy lifting while you sleep. 2. Let buyers self-educate on THEIR timeline Modern buyers don't want to be sold to. They want to discover solutions themselves. ↳ 70% of the buying journey happens before they talk to sales ↳ They're researching you before you even know they exist ↳ Your content is either attracting or repelling them Give them what they need to make informed decisions. 3. Recognize the REAL buying signals Forget MQLs and SQLs. Think about PQLs (product qualified leads) Here's what actually matters: - Multiple engagements across different posts - Bringing colleagues into the conversation - Asking specific, detailed questions - Moving from public comments to private messages These aren't leads. These are pre-qualified buyers. 4. Keep momentum BETWEEN meetings Here's where most deals die: The 167 hours between your calls. While you're chasing other prospects, your buyer is: ↳ Getting cold feet ↳ Talking to competitors ↳ Forgetting why they were excited Smart sellers stay present even when they're not there. This is where tools like Consensus come in. They let buyers explore demos on their own time. Answer their questions at 10 PM. Share materials with their team. Stay engaged between touchpoints. It's how you keep social selling momentum right through the demo stage. https://lnkd.in/ePVWw-Bi 5. Close with confidence, not pressure When trust is already built? When value is already proven? When buyers are already educated? Closing feels natural, not like a battle. The best deals I've ever closed felt inevitable. Because the relationship started months before the opportunity. Here's what this approach delivers (in my experience): ✓ Significantly faster sales cycles ✓ Much higher close rates ✓ Bigger deal sizes (pre-sold = less negotiation) ✓ Happier customers (they chose you, not the other way around) Stop thinking of social selling as "nice to have." Start treating it as your primary sales strategy. Your next big deal isn't in your CRM. They're scrolling LinkedIn right now. What content are you creating to catch them? #ConsensusPartner

Most sellers misuse discounts. They drop them too late. Talk to the wrong person. Add pressure. Miss their number. I’ve taught 1,000s of reps how to do it right. Here are 7 ways to use incentives without looking desperate: I’m not anti-incentives. I’m anti-commission breath. And that’s exactly what shows up when sellers drop a 30% discount on the 29th of the month…only to find out their champion still needs two more approvals and a legal review. It doesn’t close the deal. It just creates pressure. On you and your buyer. Here’s a better way. 1. Incentives are not discounts Don’t pitch 30% off like a used car dealer. Offer something valuable with a story behind it: → A month free → Preferred pricing → Bonus feature access It has to be legit—and tied to a reason (like quarter-end, new logo program, etc). 2. Talk to the decision maker If your buyer can’t actually sign, an incentive won’t help. You need someone who can say yes—or who can push it through. 3. Ask about their process first “What’s your timeline for getting this done?” If it’s next quarter, ask if an incentive would help them pull it forward. If they say yes, you might have a deal to accelerate. 4. Don’t offer anything if the timing isn’t natural You’re not trying to force urgency. So say: “I don’t want to show you this if it’s not something that’s realistic for you.” Let them opt in. 5. Always qualify timing “If we were able to offer something strong, do you think you’d be able to move forward this month?” You want buy-in before they see price. Not after. 6. Map the path to signature Lay out the mutual action plan: - Who needs to review the proposal? - When does legal need it? - How long does procurement take? If it’s not doable, don’t offer it yet. 7. Bring it up early in the month Waiting until the end will kill the deal. Even motivated buyers run out of time. So if you’re going to offer an incentive—do it with 2–3 weeks to spare. Not 2–3 days. TAKEAWAY Discounts don’t create urgency. Timing does. Know their process. Earn the yes. Stay out of panic mode. Close without pressure. Sell with trust.

Most reps lose because they never build a business case. They know the pain. They run a decent demo. And then… nothing. Here’s why: No business case = no urgency = no deal. If you want to close bigger, faster, here’s how elite reps do it: #1 Ask the 12 month consequence question “If this isn’t fixed in 12 months, what breaks in the business?” This elevates you out of tactical pain into strategic risk. #2 Run the RIM check (Relevance. Impact. Motive.) Every answer you get, filter through RIM: Why now. What breaks if it waits. Who has motive to fight for it. No RIM? No real deal. #3 Tie pain to money Executives don’t care about friction. They care about cost. Delays = lost revenue. Churn = real dollars out the door. Inefficiency = salaries wasted. Even back of the napkin math builds urgency. #4 Translate into executive language Don’t say “collaboration.” Say “3 months faster go-to-market.” Don’t say “better workflow.” Say “$2M saved in operating costs.” #5 Build the case with your buyer, not for them Ask: “If you took this to your CFO, what would they push back on?” Then craft the rebuttals together. Now it’s their business case. You just armed them. This is how top reps stop being feature pushers… …and start being trusted advisors who close complex deals. Next call you run, ask yourself: Could my champion defend this deal to their CFO tomorrow? If the answer is no, you’ve got work to do. — Watch me answer top sales questions for 98 mins: https://lnkd.in/gRV_T-XT

Top reps ask 4x more implication questions than average ones. Here’s why SPIN Selling still works. Most reps jump straight into pitch mode. They ask a few surface questions, then start talking features. That’s not selling. That’s presenting. SPIN flips the script. It gets the buyer to sell themselves. Start with Situation questions. Learn their current state, but keep it short. Experienced reps ask fewer of these than you’d expect. Move to Problem questions. Uncover what’s not working. Where they’re stuck. What’s costing them time or money. This is where small deals get won. But for complex sales, you need more. That’s where Implication questions come in. Show the consequences of inaction. What does this problem cost them? How does it affect other areas? What’s the revenue impact? Top performers ask these 4x more than average reps. They build urgency without being pushy. Finally, Need-Payoff questions. Let the buyer articulate the value. How would solving this help? What would the impact be? Why is this important? When they say it, they believe it. Here’s the key insight: Buyers don’t just want you to solve their problems. They want to understand why solving them matters. SPIN gives you the framework to guide that conversation. Not through charm. Not through pitch decks. But through the right questions in the right order. Save this framework. Use it on your next discovery call. Watch how fast urgency builds.

In the initial 6 months as a first-time founder, I'd get on sales calls, show our results, explain the process, and still lose deals. It took me months of trial and error to realize that deliverables don't sell, positioning does. I'd walk prospects through what we'd deliver. Case studies. Timelines. Proof. And they'd say, "Looks good, let me think about it," and disappear. The problem wasn't the work. It was how I was framing it. I was speaking like a service provider when I should've been speaking like someone who understood their problem better than they did. Here are 7 psychological principles that turned those "let me think about it" calls into "let's start" conversations: 1. Effort justification  ⤷ Show what went into your work, not just what comes out. People value effort they can see. 2. Future pacing ⤷ Make them imagine their life after working with you. The brain jumps ahead, and that's where buying happens. 3. Specificity effect  ⤷ Avoid vague promises. Use real numbers, timelines, and patterns. 4. Identity trigger  ⤷ Speak to who they believe themselves to be. 5. Effortless first step ⤷ Make the first action so easy that saying no feels harder than a yes. 6. Perceived exclusivity  ⤷ Open doors, but not all of them. Exclusivity isn't gatekeeping. It's signaling seriousness. 7. Social momentum  ⤷ Show momentum instead of making claims. When people feel momentum, they infer value. PS: Which one of these principles are you applying first? #SalesPsychology #PositioningSells #FounderLessons #HighTicketSales #ClosingTheDeal

Most AEs think negotiation starts when procurement shows up. Wrong. Negotiation starts in discovery. The deals I won at the price I wanted? I set them up in the first 15 minutes of the first call. Here's how: I quantified the cost of inaction early. Not at the end when they're negotiating. At the beginning when they're sharing pain. Example: Customer: "Our sales cycle is 9 months. It should be 6." Most AEs: "Got it. We can help with that." Me: "Help me understand the math on that. How many deals are in flight right now?" Customer: "About 40." Me: "And what's your average deal size?" Customer: "$50K." Me: "So if I'm doing the math right, every month your sales cycle stays at 9 months instead of 6, you're delaying $2M in revenue. Is that accurate?" Customer: "Yeah, actually more like $2.5M when you factor in Q4." Now fast forward to negotiation: Procurement: "We need 20% off." Me: "I understand you want the best deal. We established that every month you don't solve this costs $2.5M in delayed revenue. My product is $200K. Even at full price, you're ROI positive in 3 weeks. Does it make sense to delay this over $40K?" See what happened? Anchor to value. Not price. By the time you get to negotiating, the business case should be bulletproof. The lesson: Stop thinking of discovery as "qualification." Start thinking of it as "value building and defense." Every question you ask in discovery either strengthens or weakens your negotiating position later. Ask better questions early. Negotiate less later. P.S. These 7 strategies will help you CLOSE more deals in a GTM crisis: https://lnkd.in/d_DkYTSH