How to close in three easy ways

We've all heard about The Great Closer, Mister Big, the salesperson extraordinaire: “...will you sign before lunch, or are you not hungry ?”.

Having spent a lifetime in sales, I have learned that closing should be natural, easy, and without conflict for both you and the buyer. Great Closing is a Big Myth: sharp, hard closing puts people off: it actually ruins long term relationships. If anyone tries to close me I say "If I have to make a decision today, the answer's No.".

Here are three gentle and effective ways of moving a deal to close that don’t cause offence:

Summarise your offer and then ask how they feel:
“So adding it all up, it'll save you at least £25,000 every year....how’s that sound to you ?”
Or....“....how do you feel about that ?”
Or....“...if we could sort that out.....is that something that would work for you ?”

Summarise your offer and then ask about their next steps:
“Ok,....so how do we move to the next stage ?”
“Let’s assume this is all ok, what would your next steps be ?”

Work back from their chosen timescale:
“By when do you want the whole project completed ?…so that means we’ll need xxx done by yyy, and yyy done by zzz….which means we’ll need the formal go-ahead by Friday 23rd – are you in a position to sort that out ?”

Keep the tone easy and conversational, that way it’ll be comfortable for both of you. Just always, ALWAYS, leave a silence to let them answer. And if they don't give you a full answer, stay quiet, let the silence work for you for once...