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Adjournment Close

 

Disciplines > Sales > Closing techniques > Adjournment Close

Technique | How it works | See also

 

Technique

Do not go for the sale now. Give them time to think. Tell them that they probably need time to consider the offer you have made.

Use this when:

  • You can see that they are not going to decide now.
  • You have set up enough tension that you are reasonably convinced that they will indeed seriously consider the deal and are likely to come back.
  • Given some more time, it is likely that they will buy more (for example if they are at the edge of a budgetary period and their current funds are low).
  • The relationship is important to you, and them making a wrong decision now would affect the chances of making sales in the future.
  • You do not need to make the sale today (for example you have made your quota and this sale would be just fine for next month).

Combine this with setting up the next meeting, when perhaps you will be able to solidly close the deal.

Examples

This is an important decision for you and I think you need time to consider how important it is. Shall we discuss the details further next time I see you?

I can see you're thinking very carefully about this. Shall I come back next week to see how you are progressing then?

 

How it works

In many sales situations the relationship is very important as the sales person will be going back to the customer with more sales to make. It is thus a bad idea to push them into a decision when they are not ready and may later be unhappy about this.

Offering an adjournment can be a nice surprise for the customer, who may be expecting a harder style of selling. This sets up an exchange tension, encouraging them to pay back your offer of time with later agreeing to the deal.

The Adjournment Close is particularly easy to manage when the sales person visits the customer, as opposed to having to hope that they will call back.

See also

Relationship selling, Tension principle, Surprise principle, Exchange principle

Books on Sales Closing

**** Tom Hopkins, Sales Closing for Dummies, For Dummies, 1998  **** Zig Ziglar, Zig Ziglar's Secrets of Closing the Sale, Berkley Publishing, 1985  *** Stephan Schiffman, Closing Techniques: (That Really Work!), Adams Media, 1999  **** Stephan Schiffman, Getting to 'Closed': A Proven Program to Accelerate the Sales Cycle and Increase Commissions, Dearborn Trade Publishing, 2002  *** Joe Girard, Robert L. Shook, Robert Casemore, How to Close Every Sale, Warner books, 2002 ** Gary Karass, Negotiate to close: How to make more successful deals, Fireside, 1987

 

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Site Menu

| Home | Top | Quick Links | Settings |

Main sections: | Disciplines | Techniques | Principles | Explanations | Theories |

Other sections: | Blog! | Quotes | Guest articles | Analysis | Books | Help |

More pages: | Contact | Caveat | About | Students | Webmasters | Awards | Guestbook | Feedback | Sitemap | Changes |

Settings: | Computer layout | Mobile layout | Small font | Medium font | Large font | Translate |

 

 

Please help and share:

 

Quick links

Disciplines

* Argument
* Brand management
* Change Management
* Coaching
* Communication
* Counseling
* Game Design
* Human Resources
* Job-finding
* Leadership
* Marketing
* Politics
* Propaganda
* Rhetoric
* Negotiation
* Psychoanalysis
* Sales
* Sociology
* Storytelling
* Teaching
* Warfare
* Workplace design

Techniques

* Assertiveness
* Body language
* Change techniques
* Closing techniques
* Conversation
* Confidence tricks
* Conversion
* Creative techniques
* General techniques
* Happiness
* Hypnotism
* Interrogation
* Language
* Listening
* Negotiation tactics
* Objection handling
* Propaganda
* Problem-solving
* Public speaking
* Questioning
* Using repetition
* Resisting persuasion
* Self-development
* Sequential requests
* Storytelling
* Stress Management
* Tipping
* Using humor
* Willpower

Principles

+ Principles

Explanations

* Behaviors
* Beliefs
* Brain stuff
* Conditioning
* Coping Mechanisms
* Critical Theory
* Culture
* Decisions
* Emotions
* Evolution
* Gender
* Games
* Groups
* Habit
* Identity
* Learning
* Meaning
* Memory
* Motivation
* Models
* Needs
* Personality
* Power
* Preferences
* Research
* Relationships
* SIFT Model
* Social Research
* Stress
* Trust
* Values

Theories

* Alphabetic list
* Theory types

And

About
Guest Articles
Blog!
Books
Changes
Contact
Guestbook
Quotes
Students
Webmasters

 

| Home | Top | Menu | Quick Links |

© Changing Works 2002-
Massive Content — Maximum Speed