The Agreement To Act

At the end of your sales presentations, you want your prospect to say more than just yes. This might come as a surprise to many sales professionals who have been taught that a successful close means hearing the word yes, and they should focus all of their efforts on getting just that word. In fact, that word can often mean nothing. Far more effective is the attainment of an agreement upon action.

Have you ever heard the word yes at the end of a presentation, only to find that days, weeks, months later the sale never did come through? This happens because of the following important principle: a yes without action is the same as a no. When you understand this, you will begin to leave your prospects with an agreement upon action, something that will detail the important next steps that must take place in order for you to get the sale rather than allowing them the simple evasion of just saying yes.

Take the following example: Paul's small industrial equipment firm has managed to peak the interest of a major manufacturer. In trying to sell a number of large pieces of equipment, Paul gets an agreement to buy and moves on to another subject quickly. He fears the prospect will change his mind and so wants to discuss other items before he gets the chance to do so.

After the presentation, Paul tries to get the sale to actually go through. He sends over paperwork, makes a few phone calls and even drops by the office again. None of these initiatives lead to the sale. Without the completed paperwork, the yes that Paul's prospect gave earlier that week is useless. He wonders why his prospect said yes in the first place if he, in fact, never planned to buy.

Paul is experiencing how weak a simple verbal agreement can be in a sales situation. Now that he has left his office, he cannot get his prospect to take action, fill out forms or even return his phone calls. In truth, he felt a little uncertain about the sale which is why he was so eager to leave the office without bringing it up again. An agreement that does not get specific is easier to obtain than one that lays out all of the requirements before the buyer says yes.

As nice as it is to hear the word yes in a sales situation, Paul should not have left his prospect's office satisfied with this answer. He needs to make sure that the customer is actually saying yes to the steps he will need to take in order to finalize the sale. His dialogue might sound something like this. Well then, since this all makes sense to you we both have a few steps to follow. I'll go down right now and talk to your floor manager about space for the machines, you can fill out this order form in the meantime. I'll need a purchase order cut from your purchasing clerk, if you give her the form when it is completed, I'll come back to pick up the purchasing form tomorrow. I'll be in touch with you again when I have a shipping date. If your prospect has no intention of following through with his yes, you'll find out at this stage.

Action step: Turn your close into a next steps agreement. Break down your buying process into three or four simple steps and make sure that when a customer is interested in your product or service, you get him or her to specifically agree to these next steps instead of just saying yes.

At the end of your sales presentation, be sure that you get an answer that counts. When you have a prospect willing to say yes, push them further to agree to the specific steps involved in rolling out your proposal. Unless you have these action steps laid out and agreed upon, your close will be as uncertain as if your proposal had been met with a maybe.