Phrasal Verbs for Sales (Close Out, Follow Up, Reach Out)
CEFR B1-B2 • Phrasal Verbs • Pipeline, prospecting, closing, and follow-up phrasal verbs in real sales contexts
Sales English runs on phrasal verbs
If you sell into English-speaking companies, your week is filled with phrasal verbs: "reach out," "follow up," "close out," "ramp up," "scale down." Native sellers use these constantly — most are not in textbooks because they sound informal, but they signal fluency in business contexts. This page covers the 25 phrasal verbs that show up in every Salesforce CRM, every sales standup, and every customer email. Click each to hear the rhythm.
Prospecting and outreach
reach out (to)
contact a prospect or customer initially
"I reached out to the VP of engineering at Acme — waiting on a reply."
warm up
build interest before a sales pitch
"We are warming up the EU accounts before the Q2 push."
open up (about)
share more information than expected
"Once she opened up about the budget pressure, the deal moved fast."
line up
arrange or schedule
"I lined up three demos for next week."
Pipeline and discovery
dig in (to)
explore details
"Let us dig into the integration requirements before we send the proposal."
flesh out
add detail to a vague plan
"We need to flesh out the proposal before we send it to procurement."
push back (on)
disagree or resist a request/objection
"The prospect pushed back on the per-seat pricing — they want enterprise tiers."
walk through
explain step by step
"I walked the team through the ROI calculation in the demo."
map out
plan the structure of something
"Let us map out the rollout plan for the multi-region deployment."
Negotiation
knock off (price)
reduce the price
"Can you knock off 10% if we sign for two years?"
back off
retreat from a position
"They backed off the discount request once we showed the value comparison."
hold out (for)
wait for a better deal
"The customer is holding out for the multi-year discount."
land on
finally agree on (a number, a decision)
"We landed on $48 per seat with a 5% bump in year two."
Closing
close out
finalize a deal
"I am closing out three opportunities by EOQ."
wrap up
finish the final details
"Wrapping up the Acme contract today — signature is the last step."
seal the deal
finalize an agreement (idiom)
"The reference call sealed the deal — they signed the next morning."
sign off (on)
give final approval
"Procurement signed off on the contract this morning."
Follow-up and retention
follow up (with/on)
check back after initial contact
"I will follow up with the procurement team on Friday."
circle back (to)
return to a previous topic or contact
"Let me circle back to you next week with the updated quote."
check in (with)
brief contact to maintain relationship
"Just checking in to see how the integration is going."
upsell into
expand a customer to a higher tier
"We upsold them into the enterprise tier last quarter."
Pipeline management
ramp up
increase intensity or volume
"We are ramping up outbound for the EMEA push."
scale back
reduce intensity or volume
"We had to scale back the SDR team in Q3."
fall through
a deal collapses unexpectedly
"The Acme deal fell through — they went with a competitor."
kick off
begin a project or relationship
"We are kicking off the implementation next Monday."
Hear the rhythm in real sales sentences
"I reached out to three accounts this week, set up two demos, and am following up with the others on Monday."
"The prospect pushed back on price, but we landed on a 5% discount in exchange for a 24-month commit."
"After legal signs off, we will close out the deal and kick off implementation."
"I want to circle back on the multi-year proposal — happy to walk through the ROI again if helpful."
"The deal fell through last quarter, but I checked in last week and they want to kick off a new conversation."
Common mistakes by non-native sellers
- "I will follow with you" → "I will follow up with you." "Follow up" is the phrasal verb — without "up," it sounds incomplete.
- "I want to reach you" → "I want to reach out to you." "Reach out" is the standard sales-context phrase.
- "We closed the deal yesterday" is OK, but more natural: "We closed out the deal yesterday" or "We closed the Acme deal yesterday." "Close" alone needs an object.
- "I will return to you next week" → "I will get back to you next week" or "I will circle back next week." "Return to" is non-native English.
- "The customer is in pause" → "The customer has gone quiet" or "The deal is on pause." "In pause" is a direct translation that does not work.
Practice: Test yourself
Tap each question to reveal the answer.