Adjournment Close

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.