You already ask clients to rate where they are on a scale of one to ten, and you already know how it ends: almost everybody lands on seven and you leave knowing nothing you did not know before. One extra clause removes the number people hide behind, and each of the two remaining directions comes with its own follow-up line.
BAM went through the 16 closes Alex Hormozi broke down in an Instagram reel and pulled out the eight that map onto conversations agents are already having. The fourth one is the scale question, and BAM says it works at almost any stage of a buyer or seller conversation when you need an honest read on where someone stands.
The base script is: "On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 means you're not interested at all and 10 means you're ready to start right now, where do you see yourself?" BAM adds that Byron Lazine will typically tack one clause onto the end of it: "…and you can't pick 7."
Then the answer routes the conversation. At 8 to 10, you say "Great. Let's talk about what next steps mean here." At 6 or less, you ask "What would it take to get you to a 9 or 10?" BAM's point is that this gives the person permission to tell you exactly what's stopping them without it feeling like a confrontation.
“This close works at almost any stage of a buyer or seller conversation when you need an honest read on where someone stands.”
Seven is the polite exit. It sounds like interest, it commits to nothing, and it is what people pick when they do not want to tell you no while you are sitting in their living room. Every seven you collect is an appointment you thought went well and a client you cannot forecast.
Taking it away forces a choice that costs the client nothing and tells you everything. A six is not a rejection either — it arrives with a question attached that turns it into a list of what to fix. The one thing you can no longer do is walk out holding a number that means nothing.