Practise trial closes and asking for the decision in a recorded role-play.
Set aside about thirty minutes and find a partner. Write them a short brief for a buyer: the buyer's situation, the option you recommend, and the price. Then hand them a blank card. On it they write one concern the buyer holds but doesn't say, and they keep the card face down so you can't see it.
You already know the theory of trial closes and of asking for the decision. You've written your decision question and said it aloud. Knowing what to do is different from doing it in front of someone whose concern you can't see. In a real meeting, the hidden concern is the one that catches you. This exercise is a recorded role-play of the close. Your partner plays a buyer who hides one concern, and your job is to find it with trial closes, handle it, and then ask for the decision.
The brief gives your partner enough to play the buyer convincingly. It leaves one slot open for the hidden concern, which is a worry the buyer holds and doesn't mention unless a question draws it out. Your partner chooses it and writes it on the card. You don't see it. Good concerns are realistic and not too obvious. Your partner might pick a worry about how staff will cope, a person who hasn't been consulted yet, a cash flow issue in the next two months, a bad experience with a previous supplier, or doubt about whether the problem is big enough.
Give your partner three instructions. They should respond naturally. They shouldn't raise the concern unless you ask a question that would bring it out. If you ask about it directly, they should give a hesitant answer and hold back from a full confession.
Start recording from the point where the recommended option has been presented and the price stated. From there, do four things in order:
Use at least two trial closes before you ask for the decision, and spread them out: one after you recap the option, and one after any objection or question. Lesson 6.1, "Trial closes: check where the buyer stands", covers how these work. Listen for a hesitant answer. When you hear one, slow down and ask about it. Handle the concern with listen, clarify, respond, confirm, the method from Lesson 4.2. When the buyer has what they need, ask for the decision in plain words and then stay silent, as set out in Lesson 6.2, "Ask for the decision directly".
Hafiz (an invented example) used this exercise to practise his final meeting with Rachel and Kelvin. A colleague played Kelvin, and on her card she wrote: "The finance manager thinks we should wait until the new financial year."
Hafiz recapped option two and used his first trial close: "How does that compare with what you expected?" Kelvin said, "It looks good." Later Hafiz tried a second one: "If we went with this, what would worry you most?" Kelvin paused and said, "Probably just the timing."
That pause was the hesitant answer, so Hafiz clarified: "What about the timing?" Kelvin said finance would prefer to wait for the new financial year. Hafiz asked when the new financial year was and whether the night shift would start before it. It would. He played back Rachel's impact figure and asked whether a phased start, with the overtime module first, would make the timing easier for finance. Kelvin said it might. Hafiz then confirmed: "Would that answer finance's concern, or is there more to it?" Kelvin said that would answer it.
Hafiz asked for the decision: "Shall we go ahead with option two, starting with the overtime module before the night shift?" Then he stayed silent. After about five seconds, Kelvin said yes.
In the review, Hafiz saw that the concern came out at his second trial close. The first had only drawn "It looks good." His decision question named the option and the start, so it passed the plain-words test. The one change he wrote down was to ask the "what would worry you most" trial close earlier, straight after the recap, because the first question was too easy to answer with "looks good".
Listen to the recording together, then turn over the card and check how close you came. Look at four points. The first is where the concern surfaced: the exact moment, and which question brought it out. The second is how you handled it: whether you clarified before you responded, and whether you confirmed afterwards. The third is whether you asked for the decision clearly. Write down your exact words and check them against the plain-words test from Lesson 6.2. The fourth is whether you held the silence. Time the gap between your question and the buyer's answer, and check whether you were the one who broke it.
Then ask your partner how it felt from the buyer's side: whether any moment felt like pressure, and whether they felt heard when the concern came out.
Write down one change for next time, and make it specific, the way Hafiz named which question to move and where to move it. When you're done, you should have the recording, notes on where the concern surfaced and how you handled it, and your one written change. If you have time, swap roles. Playing the buyer shows you how easy it is to hide a concern and how much the right question helps.
Write your partner's brief now, hand them a blank card for the concern, and start the activity below.
Record the role-play, note where the concern came up and how you handled it, and write down one thing you will change next time.
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