Want to Close More Deals? This Is the One Question You Need to Ask

How often do your deals get derailed by the unexpected?

A prospect says: “We need legal to sign off on this,” or “Procurement has the final say.”

When surprises like these come up, many salespeople blame the prospect. I qualified them. I asked the right questions. They’re just not being clear!

But if legal or procurement catches you off guard, you didn’t do your homework. You didn’t ask the right questions. You didn’t go for the virtual close.

Once you’ve qualified a prospect, this should be one of the first questions you ask:

“What needs to happen for you to become a customer?”

You’re doing two things with this question:

1. Exploring the prospect’s buying process

2. Encouraging them to imagine a scenario where they buy your product

We’ll talk about more benefits later in this post.

Here’s what a typical virtual close conversation might look like:

You: “I definitely think this is a good fit. What needs to happen for you to become a customer?”

Prospect: “We’d probably need to take this back to the team.”

Don’t stop there. Follow up. Dig deeper. It’s your job to uncover last-minute surprises during the sales process. Think: What else do I need to know?

You: “Once your team has reviewed this, what usually happens next?”

Prospect: “We’ll probably schedule another call and loop in the stakeholders. I’m sure they’ll have more questions.”

You: “Okay, and let’s say I answer those questions to their satisfaction — what happens then?”

Prospect: “We’d probably want you to send a pilot proposal.”

Now’s your chance to ask more detailed questions, such as:

• What’s the average duration of a proposal?

• Is there any specific information the proposal should include?

• How long does a pilot usually last?

• How do you measure success?

Even once you learn all the details needed for the project proposal — they want a 5-page proposal with a high-level onboarding outline, the pilot will last 1–3 months, and their main KPIs are sales growth and customer acquisition cost — you’re still not done.

You: “Once we send the proposal, what typically happens next?”

Prospect: “Well, then it would have to go through legal.”

At this point, most salespeople stop asking questions.

They’ve learned a lot about the prospect’s buying process and identified some important steps. But stopping here is a mistake. You haven’t reached the virtual close yet.

You need to keep pushing:

You: “Once legal gives the green light, are we ready to move forward?”

Prospect: “Yes… we’d just need to run it by some higher-ups, then ethics and procurement.”

You: “Interesting. What can you tell me about that part of the process?”

Prospect: “Well, the ethics committee usually takes a couple of weeks to review deals, and if everything looks good, they pass it on to procurement, which has the final approval.”

You: “And then we’re in business, right?”

Prospect: “Yes. At that point, we’d buy your product.”

Now you have the full roadmap for success. You know exactly what needs to happen to close this deal. No surprises.

What Are the Benefits of the Virtual Close?

• You understand all the steps required to close a deal

• You guide the prospect through those steps to avoid confusion

• You identify opportunities to shorten the timeline (e.g., run the proposal by ethics and procurement simultaneously)

• You help the prospect visualize a future where they’re a customer

• You uncover red flags that could slow down or kill the deal

This last point is why you should ask for the virtual close as early as possible. If they say, “We have a 78-step approval process and our budget is $125/month,” is that really worth your time?

They might also say: “Our budget is allocated through 2022, so we can’t buy your product in the short term, but we’re still interested in a pilot.”

That’s great to know, right? You want to uncover those red flags in the first conversation — not three months into the proposal process.

When You Ask for the Virtual Close, You Gain Clarity.

99% of “surprises” are things you could’ve foreseen if you’d taken the time to understand the prospect’s buying process. Remember: when a deal gets derailed, it’s probably because you didn’t do your homework.

Practice the virtual close. Memorize this simple question:

“What needs to happen for you to become a customer?”

Then ask 40 more follow-up questions — until the prospect finally says those magic words:

“Yes, that’s when we’d buy your product.”