B2B Sales Part 5: How to Handle a Prospect’s “Just Browsing” and Close The Deal Fast

Ever had a prospect say, “No real problems here…just curious what you do”?

That’s where most sales calls fall apart.

In this final episode of the 5-part B2B Sales Training Series, we walk you through Full Circle Questioning—a 4-step framework designed to turn vague, surface-level responses into real, actionable problems and clear goals you can actually sell to.

You’ll learn how to navigate conversations when prospects are unclear, resistant, or “just browsing,” and how to bring the discussion full circle so that they tell you exactly what needs to change.

Whether you're selling to high-growth companies, impact-driven founders, or skeptical execs, this episode will give you a plug-and-play approach to move deals forward, even when there’s no obvious problem upfront.

Keypoints & Chapter Markers:

00:00 – Intro: What to do when a prospect gives vague answers
01:29 – The 4 Steps
09:37 – When to use Full Circle to dig into the real issue
10:28 – Why clarity of the problem = clarity in closing

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About The Hosts:

• Tim & Cindy Dodd are the Co-founders of PEMA.io, based out of Miami, FL. Connect with Tim and Cindy: Instagram

About PEMA.io:

• PEMA.io is a Inc 5000 Outbound Marketing Agency specializing in Enterprise Sales & Appointment Setting. With over 7-years and 1,000+ clients served in the industry, PEMA is the leading agency for cold outreach appointments & systems. Learn more about PEMA.io here: www.pema.io/discover

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro: What to do when a prospect gives vague answers
• 1:29 The 4 Steps
• 9:37 When to use Full Circle to dig into the real issue
• 10:28 Why clarity of problem = clarity in closing

Transcript

00:00
Welcome to the B2B sales training series. We're going to have five fast focused episodes to help you close more deals this year, this month, this week, whether you're a founder, a sales leader or a sales professional, this is your shortcut to a tighter pitch and a faster. Yes. New episodes drop every single week on Thursday. So be sure to follow. And if you're tuning in mid series, I highly recommend starting from episode one. let's dive in.

00:28
Welcome to the Takeover with Tim and Cindy, where we show you how to dominate  every area of life  and business. Let's get with it.

00:37
Honestly, was called unless you have a very strong problem that your prospect has that you're solving and a goal that they want to achieve once that problem is solved, it's going to be very, very hard to get them to part from their money or sign the contract or  move forward with you. So what do you do in the case when you get ambiguous answers around the problem or the challenge and they say, well, no real challenges right now. Just wanted to see what you do.

01:03
Or when you ask them their goal and the answer is ambiguous, well, know,  just kind of seeing what's out there. Wanted a little bit more. I'm going to walk you through this technique called full circle questioning. It's a very simple framework that's going to bring these ambiguous answers very quickly into specific problems that we can drill into, dig into, and ultimately  then dig into the goals and the outcomes that they want once the problem is solved.

01:29
There are four steps to this process. It is very simple. You have to acknowledge, clarify,  bridge, and then full circle. There's four steps in this. I'm going to walk you through each one and then I'm going to show you a couple examples of how you can use this. Let's give the example of you're selling

01:45
ads or marketing to a company that's already using ads or already growing, they're already scaling, they're a pretty healthy company. And then when they get on the phone with you and you say, hey, what's your biggest challenge with your ad performance right now? And they tell you, you know, it's actually pretty good. I just wanted to see what you guys offer. Getting an ambiguous answer like that and moving forward on the sales call is a death trap. You're not going to get this person to change.

02:08
who they're already doing ads with, what they're doing with their ads, their ad performance. I mean, there's a lot of work that goes into hiring a new agency  and all the upheavals and changes,  unless there's a big problem that you're solving. So what do you do in that case  when somebody says, hey, we don't really have any challenges right now. Just kind of seeing what's out there, wanted to  see what you guys offer. It's very simple. First off, we're going to acknowledge. So everything's working pretty well for you right now. And they're going to say,

02:36
Yeah, no, it's going pretty good. So what I'm doing right there is I'm getting some agreeance. So I'm just mirroring back what they said to me, essentially. So it sounds like everything you're doing is pretty good right now. Let's talk about acknowledge for  another scenario. It can be, hey, what's your goal? I just want a little bit more.  Things are pretty good right now. I just would like a little bit more.  Our KPIs are on track. Our growth's on track. We're on track to doing our revenue this year. We're doubling our growth every year. Things are great, man.

03:05
Really, I mean, I guess you could have a little bit more, but you know, things are pretty great. Again, acknowledge. Remember, it's acknowledge, clarify, bridge, full circle. So I'm going acknowledge. So things are going pretty good for you right now. What do I do from there? So I've already acknowledged that things are pretty good right now. Things are going pretty great for you.  I'm going to clarify. So what are you guys doing for your ad performance right now? They're going to tell me they're going we're doing this and we have this thing and man, you know, it's working really well.

03:31
Then I'm going to do a bridge and this is very subtle. I'm going to stay agreeable. So that's working pretty well. They're going to say, yeah, no, it's working very well. Then step number four is I'm going to full circle. And this is where you really get them to transition is to start telling you that your problems and that's where you go. Well, let me ask you right now, what's one thing you could change about it if you could?  Well, you know,  we have some campaigns  that are performing really well, but we can't scale them or,  you know, it's going pretty good.

04:00
but I would like to see the client acquisition cost go a little bit lower or hey, it's going really well, but you know, we're trying to tap into this new market and it's not working as well as it could be. You see what I did there is I went from acknowledged to clarified to bridge to full circle and that full circle is a very subtle question because I'm already in greens with them. I've got a really good agreeance flow. And then, then, so then when I asked them, well, what's one thing that you would change about it if you could, well, I'd probably change this little shift thing here.  And that's going to be your

04:29
in road to digging into the problem. Now, if you haven't gone through my training on problem probe label, definitely go through that because this is where I'm going to problem probe label them. Say, well, that performance is good, but anytime we try to scale it, it kind of goes a little bit wonky. Goes a little bit wonky. Yeah, well, this problem, you see, that's where I go into the problem probe label. A problem probe label is very simple where I go, you know, what's your biggest challenge?

04:56
What's your biggest problem with Facebook ads right now? They're going to say, well, when I try to scale my ads go wonky, right? And then I'm to go, go wonky? What's going on there? Oh geez. So it's up and down. Is that what you're saying? How long has that been going on for? Two years? Geez. mean, given that you're, you have been able to scale your ads past a certain amount of spin for the last two years, what impact is that having in your growth? Well, oh, do you want to grow more than you're currently at right now? You do.

05:25
How long have you wanted to grow more? Okay, I got you. So what I'm hearing is  your ads are performing well until you try to scale them past a certain point. Once you do that, it gets wonky and you got to kind of turn the ads back down.  That's been going on for the last two years at your company. And because of that, because of the cap on your scaling,  you guys can't grow past X amount of revenue per month. Did I hear  that right or am I missing anything else? So I just gave you a high level on how to problem probe label.

05:52
But that's what I want to do. I want to full circle question until I get one thing that they'd want to change or one thing that they'd want to shift about it. And that allows me to problem probe labels. So you see what I did there is from the top of the call when I say,  what's your biggest challenge with your ads right now? No, it's going really good. Very profitable.  We're growing 50 % year over year.  Really good. And then, oh, so it sounds like things are going really well for you right now. Oh, yeah, they are. Tell me, what is it you guys are doing for your ads right now?

06:21
Okay, gotcha. And that's working really well for you? Okay, it is. Interesting. I'm curious, what's like one thing  that you would change if you could?  Oh, you have a scale problem. You can't scale past a certain amount. What's going on there? Oh wow, it gets wonky as soon as you try to scale your ads? Huh, that's odd. How long has that been happening for? Two years?  I mean, given that you haven't been able to scale your ads past blank amount,  what kind of impact is that having on your business?

06:49
Oh wow, so you're growing pretty significantly, but you're doing a 50 % growth year over year, but you really want to be at 100 % growth year over year. Oh, gotcha. And you feel like if you could fix that scale issue that all you need is a little bit more flow from your ads.  Okay, gotcha, gotcha. Quick reminder, this is part of our five part B2B sales training series. If you haven't listened to the others,  hit follow and circle back when you're done with this episode.

07:15
Each episode built on the last so you can master the entire B2B sales process from start to close.  You see? So what I did there is I unearthed whole problem and then I'm able to label it. Now, if you haven't gone through the training on the problem probe label, go through that training because that's going to allow you to really dig into that problem the moment you find it. I'm to give you one more example  on how to use a full circle questioning because this can work in a lot more scenarios than you think. It's any time you get an ambiguous answer.

07:44
Let's go ahead and walk through this. Let's say you're selling to like a lower end type offer. Maybe you're selling to  like a smaller business or you're selling to somebody that like  money's not as important to them, growth's not as important to them. They're really about like the impact they're making  in the industry, which at the end of the day, we know you have to have money to grow.  so, but this would be a scenario, one of those scenarios when there's no like specific goal or it's more about the impact or it's more.

08:11
more about something ambiguous and you need to get to the specifics. So in this scenario, I'm gonna give you a revenue, how to get a certain revenue number when somebody is ambiguous about their revenue goal and they're more talking in a way of, the impact they're making and stuff like that. So I'm gonna say, so tell me, where's your revenue goal? Like, where do you want the company's revenue to be this time next year? Oh, you know, it's not really about revenue for us. It's about impact and what we really wanna accomplish with this organization. Oh, I got you, so.

08:40
clarify. From what I hear, you're saying it's just really about impact for you. Yeah, it's just really impact. Tell me, what kind of impact do you wanna make over the next six or 12 months? See, I clarified, so I acknowledge, so it's more about impact for you. I clarified. So what does that impact look like for you over the next six to 12 months? Bridge, so tell me, what kind of staff and operations do you need to have in place to make that kind of impact? Then here's my full circle question, and what kind of revenue

09:10
do you think you're gonna need to be able to have that kind of staff and operations? You see, so what I just did there is I might need a revenue goal. I might need to understand where they need to be at revenue wise. They're more about impact and culture and they start talking about where they want the organization to go, but I can't sell them as well on the organization unless I connect that to a number of what kind of revenue do they need to have to have that kind of organizational growth.

09:37
If that's the thing that I helped them get is revenue through sales and marketing or whatever.  So I just essentially said, well, what kind of impact do you want to make? Okay.  And how much staff and how much operations? Like what is your company  need to look like to pull that off?  Gotcha. Full circle question. And what kind of revenue do you think you're going to need to be able to pull that off?  Okay. I got you. So you're saying you need to be making about X amount of revenue to pull that off.  Great.

10:01
So now I have a very specific number or a specific goal and you can use full circle questioning in so many different scenarios. The number one area that I'm going to use this is in problem, especially when you have cells resistance at the front of a call or I know, just kind of wanted to see what you wanted to do. I can use a full circle question to very, very quickly get them to tell me what the problem is, then use a problem probe label. So make sure to go to that training problem probe label on how to unearth.

10:28
the actual problem, dig into it, and then I'm going to spend  the rest of that entire discovery call and sales call and pitch and everything  solving that one problem. Because remember, when you have a clear problem that you're solving and your prospect or your buyer sees you as the clear solution to solving that problem, they are going to buy. But if you do not have a clear problem  or they don't see your solution as the clear solution to solve that problem,  you're not going to get the deals.

10:56
So that's how to do full circle questioning to unearth the real problem or the real goal so that you can move the deal forward. Thanks for listening to this episode of the B2B sales training series. Now make sure to apply what you've learned today  on your calls to keep the momentum going.  If this helped you out at all, make sure to share it with somebody else that could benefit from leveling up their sales games, whether an entrepreneur,  sales professional or a sales leader.  Remember,

11:24
Domination is not a destination, it's a way of life.  Stay winning.