The Method — Socratic, Steelman, Strike

The Four-Part Method

Socratic Questioning

Hunt for premises rather than argue conclusions. When a buyer says "we're not in a rush," the conclusion is the least interesting part — the premise underneath it (a forcing function doesn't exist, or hasn't been named) is where the real conversation lives.

The Load-Bearing Premise Method

A five-step technique for finding which belief is actually holding up a buyer's claim:

1	Extract all premises — list every belief the claim depends on, not just the obvious one.
2	Categorize — which premises are factual, which are assumptions, which are values.
3	Counterfactual test — if this premise were false, would the conclusion still hold?
4	Substitution test — swap the premise for its opposite and see what breaks.
5	Check hidden priority premises — the unstated belief that outranks everything else being said.

Steelman

Rebuild the buyer's argument stronger than they made it — and give real credit — before challenging anything. This isn't a softening tactic; it's the thing that earns the right to challenge at all. Skip it, and the strike that follows reads as an attack.

Strike

Challenge the one load-bearing premise — not the surface claim. A weak rep argues with what the buyer said. A trained rep finds what the buyer's statement is quietly resting on, and challenges that instead.

Phase 11 — Resilience & Objection Handling

The objection library

Conditional — runs whenever an objection surfaces, in any phase. The six objections below account for nearly everything a rep hears across a full sales cycle. Each gets the same treatment: the premise underneath it, a Steelman, a Strike, and the phase to return to.

A. Price — "It's too expensive." ▸

Underneath: price is being weighed against nothing, or against a cheaper/weaker option.

Steelman: "You're responsible for spending this money well — you should push on price."
Strike: "The real question isn't the price of the solution, it's the price of the gap it closes. What does the status quo actually cost you — not in dollars, in the thing you can't put a number on?"

Return to: Phase 3 (personal stakes) → Phase 5 (business case).

B. Timing — "Not right now." ▸

Underneath: no forcing function, or a competing priority.

Steelman: "You can't chase every priority at once — triage is real."
Strike: "Agreed — and the one risk with 'later' is that whatever this prevents doesn't check your calendar first. What would have to change for this to move up the list?"

Return to: Phase 2/3 (trigger & stakes) → Phase 6 (timeline).

C. Competitor — "X is cheaper / has feature Y." ▸

Underneath: being evaluated on someone else's scorecard.

Steelman: "Worth taking seriously — you should compare."
Strike: "Let's compare on what actually matters when it matters — accuracy, real-world performance, and what happens the moment it's put to the test. Cheaper on paper can be far more expensive the one time it counts."

Return to: Phase 8 (competitive landscape).

D. Status quo — "What we have works." ▸

Underneath: the absence of a bad outcome is being read as proof of safety.

Steelman: "Nothing bad has happened — that's real, and worth acknowledging."
Strike: "'Worked so far' and 'will work next time' aren't the same sentence. The question is how much warning today's setup would actually give you — and whether you're comfortable with that answer."

Return to: Phase 2 (trigger) → Phase 8/D (inertia).

E. Trust / skepticism — "Does it really work?" ▸

Underneath: fear of a false positive, or of over-promised technology.

Steelman: "Healthy skepticism — a system that cries wolf is worse than none."
Strike: "Exactly why the metric that matters is the false-positive rate and the verification step. Let me show you the real numbers and how something gets confirmed before anyone's alarmed — not marketing claims."

Return to: Phase 4 (operational fit) → proof/references.

F. Internal politics — "I can't get this approved." ▸

Underneath: the champion doesn't have the authority or the ammunition.

Steelman: "You know your organization — if you say it's hard, it's hard."
Strike: "Then let's not make you carry it alone. Who actually says yes, what do they care about, and how do I arm you — or get in the room — so this isn't your uphill fight?"

Return to: Phase 7 (buying path).