Selling on identity is the easiest way to make $40k a month as a closer

After taking over 7,000 sales calls myself I noticed a pattern. One pattern made prospects hard to close. The other made them easy. If you make this one shift, objections at the end of your calls basically disappear.

I'm Christian Polk. I've done $9M+ in sales and I train closers to hit a 60 to 90% close rate instead of sitting stuck at 30%. This topic is front of mind right now because of a conversation I just had with one of my students.

The $15k to $47k shift

When this student first came to me he was making $15,000 a month. For most people that's fantastic. He knew there was another level.

Last month he made over $47,000 in straight commissions. Selling the exact same thing. Selling real estate agents sales training. If you know anything about real estate agents, they're very type A. Hard to move with fluff.

The shift he made wasn't a new script or a new close. It was this: he stopped just talking about pains, goals, and aspirations, and started selling to people's identity.

What selling to identity actually means

In every sales conversation you've got two people. The prospect and the closer. The prospect has a problem. They're wearing a mask. They're sad on the inside. Your job as the closer is to take your hammer, uncover what's really going on, and get this person to change for the better.

Most closers are taught to focus on four things: thoughts, beliefs, actions, outcomes. I'd say 95% of closers only touch actions and outcomes. They skip beliefs. They skip thoughts completely.

So the whole call sounds like this: "What are you doing now? What outcome is that getting you? What do you need to do instead? What outcome will that get you?" Then objection handling is just that same loop, over and over.

"While this can work, this will only get you to a certain level of closing, because you're having a very surface level sales conversation."

To break past 30% and get to 60 to 90%, you need a more fundamental conversation. You need to go past actions and outcomes and start closing to identity.

Why identity beats logic every time

Every person you talk to has a picture in their head. Who they are right now. And who they want to be. That gap is the whole game.

Here's the simple way to think about the brain. Three parts: the thinking part, the emotional part, and the instinct part. The deeper you go, the more persuasive you become.

Most people logically know what to do. They know they should go to the gym, eat right, save money. They still don't do it. Why? Because logic is weak. Emotion is stronger. Instinct and identity are the strongest.

"Nobody has to persuade you to jump when you're scared. It's a real action, it's an instinct."

If you talk to an alligator and it bites you, it's not running a thought process. It bit you because that's what alligators do. That's its identity. When you get a prospect down to identity level, their thoughts, beliefs, and actions all line up on their own, and the outcome follows.

Finding the gap

To do this you've got to lead the call. You still need to know their actions and their outcomes. But under that, you're digging for two things:

• Who they are right now, as an identity
• Who they actually need to become

That gap between the two is where the real conversation happens.

I did this in my own life. To become an elite closer I had to adopt the identity of an elite closer first. To become a coach who builds other elite closers, I had to adopt the identity of a coach. My thoughts, beliefs, actions, and results all lined up behind that identity shift.

Weight loss example: A prospect isn't eating right, they're overweight, it's causing problems. Surface level, they want to lose weight. Dig deeper and you find out they want to lose weight to be a good example for their son. Now you're not selling a diet plan. You're selling whether they're going to be the dad they want to be.

"They're not deciding whether or not to do a weight loss program. They're deciding whether or not they're going to be a good role model, a good dad for their son."

Business example: Someone wants to escape a 9 to 5 and make more money online. Dig deeper and there's usually something deep seated they're running from or running toward. For me personally, I was deathly scared of being average. I was running away from that identity and running toward being someone free, who could do whatever they wanted. That's what actually got me to go all in on sales, not a spreadsheet of numbers.

"Find that in your prospects, I guarantee it's going to be so much easier to close, and very rarely will you even run into objections."

How to actually bridge into it on a call

You don't announce this. You sprinkle it in. There are two spots to bridge into identity: discovery and objection handling.

In discovery, after you've got rapport and you're leading the call, take it one layer deeper. Here's a line I've used thousands of times and never gotten pushback on:

"You can have the best diet plan in the world, but if you don't have the right mentality, what type of results are you going to get?"

They'll say "you won't get good results." Then you land it:

"So getting to XYZ outcome, yes it's skills, you need to know what to do, but more importantly it's about being a better person. Would you agree?"

Swap "diet plan" for whatever you sell. Selling real estate investing? "Can I make a suggestion... you getting to $10,000 a month wholesaling, yes it comes down to having the right skills, but more importantly it's about being a better person, would you agree?" Nobody says no to that.

From there you have the real conversation. Who are they now, who do they need to be, and what happens if they stay exactly who they are for the rest of their life. That consequence is what builds urgency, not a countdown timer.

In objection handling, if you do get resistance, bridge out of talking about the program as fast as you can. Once they're sold on the program itself, move the conversation to the person they need to become:

"I can understand taking that leap is hard, but right now we're not deciding whether we're going to do the program or not. We're deciding on what type of business owner we're going to be."

The bottom line

Actions and outcomes get you to average. 30% close rate, grinding, fighting objections on every call. Identity is what gets you to elite.

Find out who your prospect is right now and who they actually want to become. Build the gap. Bridge into it with one simple diet plan line in discovery, and fall back on identity when objections show up.

Start sprinkling this into your next calls. This is what took my student from $15k to $47k a month selling the exact same offer.