The Invisible Close

Whilst surfing on something completely unrelated, I came across the website of one of those coaching programmes seemingly so beloved by middle-America that focus on self-help and personal improvement in your chosen pursuit.  What struck me as useful about Lisa Sasevich’s angle was how it attempts to formulise what needs to happen for the people to close themselves for you.

I remember back in the day when my first set of mentors impressed upon me how handy a tool it was to have when you could get buyers to beg of you “where do I sign” 🙂

Obviously I’m only going from reading a few blogs of hers rather than being a participant on her full-blown programme, but it does appear that a main pillar for her currently is all about how you stoke ‘tension’.

She neatly distinguishes this from ‘pressure’, which she describes as akin to the discomfort you feel from a pushy salesperson.  That kind of hard sell produces as external pressure, which no buyers appreciates.  Whereas tension is internal, generated by the value gap you create between where they are now and where they would be with your product.

Lisa calls this the “invisible close” and it’s a good way to ask yourself how likely a forecasted deal really is, dependent upon the extent to which such  feelings are prevalent within your prospect’s thoughts.