Founders struggle with the balancing act of applying pressure vs “being salesy”.

You feel like if you ask difficult questions or shine the light on buyer ambiguity then you are backing them in a corner and it’s going to come off disingenuous.

→ But, that’s only if your intentions are disingenuous.

If your intentions are to help them, then tension isn’t a bad thing.

Read more about how you can create healthy tension in your sales process.

What’s the best way you can help them? Seek clarity.

What’s one of the easiest ways to do that? Build a critical event into a compelling one.

→ Because deals rarely fall of the tracks when buyers have real timelines to hit.

Today, I want you to learn how to create compelling reasons for people to change anchored around critical timelines.

For definition purposes:

A critical event is an actual date when something needs to get done. Think contract renewals, budget cycles, etc.

A compelling event is the “why” behind making this a reality and taking action. Think of all the emotional reasons to create change.

A critical event is not:

A critical event is something that:

It doesn’t mean a critical event can’t be created over time, it just means your sales process may drag on without movement. If the buyer can’t give you specifics, you might be in for a long, frustrating process.

→ Without one, there isn’t much urgency to do anything.

Critical events should be exposed during discovery through questions like, “Is there a specific timeline you are trying to get this up by?” Or “Are there any factors affecting when you are trying to make a decision”.

Reality is, they aren’t always obvious so this is why knowing your industry and buyers helps you guide them to ask the right questions. (ICYMI: read about the importance of knowing your buyers.)

When you don’t find a critical event, you compensate by:

The buyer isn’t pushing the envelope to get this done so you feel compelled to manufacture the excitement from your end.

→ It feels good in the moment but ultimately falls flat when you want the buyer to take action.

Their “event” could be anything like getting in compliance with some legislation, launching a new website before their busy season, getting graphics created for a conference, training for a marathon, etc. It could be something happening next month or next year.

Let’s use the example below for the rest of the newsletter but you can apply the general principles for your situation.

Let’s say you hear on a call:

“Our current software renews at the end of June.”

The mistake most sellers make is acknowledging it and then moving on to something else entirely without probing deeper into this important piece of information.

🛑 STOP

That’s your critical event. That’s gold!

Now the conversation can be anchored around this date.

→ You want to work backward from that date and help expose everything that has to happen to hit or exceed that deadline.

Now that you have a defined critical event, you need to anchor it to compelling reasons to hit or exceed that target. This is where we need to learn more about the internal factors effecting this decision to change.

It might sound like:

“If your contract renews at the end of April, when would you be looking to make a decision by?”

or

“What steps would need to happen between now and then to avoid any last-minute scramble?”

→ Put it on them to see how much they’ve thought about this. It helps you understand the priority level and if they’ve done (or will do) any leg work on their end to absolutely hit this date.

Once the event is on the table, your job is to help them map the path.

That means getting clarity on:

→ You aren’t being “salesy” here. You’re simply exposing the facts to get them to the finish line.

Additionally, your job is to tell them if the date is unrealistic.

If the event is too close, why isn’t that going to work?

If it’s too far out, why is that a problem?

→ You need to share openly because if you can help them avoid this trap, you’ve now earned a spot as that trusted advisor.

Inaction is a real thing so in order to keep momentum, and accelerate the deal, you need to understand just as much about what could prevent this from happening and what could get in the way.

Here are a few questions to help as you probe in discovery:

Remember, critical events are defined dates, compelling ones are why they will act on it.

Find out the critical event and then build compelling reasons around making it stick.

You do that and you’ll notice your pipeline becoming more real each and every day.

On your next call, listen (and ask!) for:

When one shows up, pause for a moment and gain clarity to support that date.

Then, build a plan around it.

That’s how you get deals to move forward without feeling like you are adding unnecessary pressure.