i was assigned to close you... the b2b sales qualification question that works

earlier this week we ran a pipeline review with the closers, and somebody caught a line i haven't been able to forget.

one of our closers had been telling prospects, word for word, i was assigned to close you.

read that as the prospect. you took a call to explore something. now you find out there's a person whose job is to close you. you're not a conversation anymore. you're a target.

he meant it as transparency. it landed as a hunt.

and the real damage shows up later. if the prospect says no, or goes quiet for a week, every follow up after that line reads like a chase. you said you were here to close me. now you're back. of course you are.

he took the note well and changed it. that's the right response. but it got me thinking about how much of our process leaks into the prospect's ear without us noticing.

the words you use to describe your work to your team end up in front of your buyer. funnel. target. close. kill. they sound normal on a whiteboard. they sound terrible on a zoom.

the better part of that same call was charles sharing his favourite b2b sales qualification question. it's one plain question.

do you have a salesperson?

"if they don't have a salesperson means they don't give a shit about sales, which is bad for us."

crude. and right.

if there's no salesperson, the ceo doesn't prioritize sales. whatever you're selling them about growth is going to sit in a drawer. if there is one, you've got someone inside who feels the pain every day and who will sell you up to the ceo for you.

one question, and you've learned their priorities and found your champion. no forty-item checklist needed.

we also named the flaw that had been costing us. we were pitching after the booking instead of qualifying before it. people got on the calendar, we did the work of a full pitch, and only then found out they were never a fit.

flip it. a couple of sharp questions up front, before anyone's time gets spent. then the call is for the people who belong on it.

this matters more than it looks. every call with someone who was never going to buy costs you twice. once in the hour you spent, and again in the energy you bring to the next call, the one with the person who would have bought. a closer who's had three dead calls before lunch sounds tired on the fourth.

qualifying early isn't about being picky. it's about protecting the version of you that shows up for the right buyer.

and the team agreed one more rule. three strikes on follow up, then drop it. not out of spite. out of respect for both calendars. a deal that needs a fourth nudge is telling you something.

it's like dating. the person who says i'm here to marry you on the first coffee doesn't get a second one. the person who asks a good question and listens to the answer does.

long term, ai is going to make the mechanics of sales cheap. anyone can write the email and book the meeting. what stays scarce is how it feels to be on the other side of you. the language you choose is part of the product.

if you want to see how we qualify before the call instead of after, the flow is on the gtm page.

so listen back to your last sales call. what did you say that you'd never want the prospect to hear twice?