The Assumptive Close



Posted: Sunday, February 24, 2008

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I am not a big fan of "closes", especially taken out of context. You should be closing continuously from the time you meet someone till forever.

Now I am going to elaborate and incorporate a style in the process of continuously closing... "The Assumptive Close".

Quite the contrary to popular belief, the assumptive close is not just about assuming the sale and going for the paperwork. That is a small part of it. The real art of the assumptive close is to make EVERY WORD in your small talk and presentation imply that the sale is already done and that you are just discussing formalities. It is all about attitude.

I had the opportunity to call on a potential client the other day and truly it wasn't whether they were going to do it but whether I had enough time in my busy schedule to accommodate them! I have mentioned before that sales professionals often invite me to make a sale with them and I thoroughly enjoy the occasional interaction. Well, on this particular occasion the prospect told me within minutes that they were shopping the product and I was lucky to come at this particular time. I did not take the bait! Quite the contrary. I politely informed them that since our company was the largest with the lowest rates that we really didn't participate in that kind of business but I would certainly try and help them if I could. They then proceeded to tell me that I could take the information and come back at another time with the proposal. Again "The Specialist" didn't take the bait. I assured the potential client that I could take care of everything in a few minutes IF I could help them. I then proceeded to present my proposal and informed them of what I expected of them, in fact I made a list of what I would need in order to make it happen for them.

The sale was done. There was really nothing else to talk about except small talk. Everything I did and said during that sales call was from beginning to end an assumptive closing technique! If you noticed the sale was closed and I hadn't done any paperwork! In fact to show how powerful this technique is I informed them I didn't have time to finish but I would TRY and come back the next day. Well needless to say before I ate breakfast the next morning they were calling me to see what time I was coming back and could I squeeze them in that day so they could enjoy the benefits of their product.

I don't think I need to go any further! It is all about attitude! To be able to pull this off you really have to be a master of assuming you have made the sale the minute you meet the people, and every word you say has to be pointed in that direction all the way through. That customer knew from my attitude that they would be doing business with "The Specialist".

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