I think the "always be closing" mindset is hurting B2B founders more than helping

I used to buy into that whole "hustle and grind" sales culture for years. But last quarter I tracked my numbers and saw something weird: my close rate actually dropped 12% after I started pushing harder on every call. When I backed off and started focusing on just listening during demos, my deal size went up by about $4k on average. Has anyone else noticed that slowing down actually speeds up your sales cycle?

2 comments

2 Comments

cole_davis4712d ago

Double down on that listening approach. I started timing my demos and found that when I talked less than 30% of the time, my prospects brought up objections themselves and solved them before I even had to address them. The quiet moments where you just let them think out loud are gold because they reveal the real problems, not just the surface level stuff they put in the discovery call.

lopez.brooke12d agoMost Upvoted

Gotta admit, @cole_davis47, the timing thing threw me for a second. I thought you were joking about timing yourself, but honestly that kind of data is hard to argue with. My gut reaction is that talking less than 30% feels almost impossible at first, but it makes a weird kind of sense when you sit on it. You're basically letting the prospect do the heavy lifting, and people tend to trust their own conclusions more than yours anyway. Definitely gonna try this on my next call, just to see if the silence really does all the work.