The assumptive close is based upon the idea of that the customer has already agreed to the sale so you should continue on with the process, ASSUMING they want your product or service. You don't give the customer a chance to say no by not even asking the question.

Closing Time

Product

• Where do you want them shipped?
• Do you want all of them in black or a mix of colors?
• Where do you want it installed at?

Service

• So, we will begin instillation on Monday and then do the training on Thursday and Friday.
•  

Personality Types

This morning at the City Club's "City Business Group" we discussed the concept of closing a sale. During the discussion, Spencer South from Southern Environmental mentioned he knew of 60 different method for closing a deal. I took it as a challenge to find the 60 different methods.

Here is a list of some of the types of closing techniques. (Note most of this list is taken from ChangingMinds.org)

1. 1-2-3 Close - close with the principle of three.
2. Adjournment Close - give them time to think.
3. Affordable Close - ensuring people can afford what you are selling.
4. Alternative Close - offering a limited set of choices.
5. Artisan Close - show the skill of the designer.
6. Ask-the-Manager Close - use manager as authority.
7. Assumptive Close - acting as if they are ready to decide.
8. Balance-sheet Close - adding up the pros and the cons.
9. Best-time Close - emphasize how now is the best time to buy.
10. Bonus Close - offer something special to clinch the deal.
11. Bracket Close - make three offers - with the target in the middle.
12. Calculator Close - use calculator to do discount.
13. Calendar Close - put it in the diary.
14. Companion Close - sell to the person with them.
15. Compliment Close - flatter them into submission.
16. Concession Close - give them a concession in exchange for the close.
17. Conditional Close - link closure to resolving objections.
18. Cost of Ownership Close - compare cost over time with competitors.
19. Courtship Close - woo them to the close.
20. Customer-care Close - the Customer Care Manager calls later and re-opens the conversation.
21. Daily Cost Close - reduce cost to daily amount.
22. Demonstration Close - show them the goods.
23. Distraction Close - catch them in a weak moment.
24. Doubt Close - show you doubt the product and let them disagree.
25. Economic Close - help them pay less for what they get.
26. Embarrassment Close - make not buying embarrassing.
27. Emotion Close - trigger identified emotions.
28. Empathy Close - empathize with them, then sell to your new friend.
29. Empty-offer Close - make them an empty offer that the sale fills.
30. Exclusivity Close - not everyone can buy this.
31. Extra Information Close - give them more info to tip them into closure.
32. Fire Sale Close - soiled goods, going cheap.
33. Future Close - close on a future date.
34. Give-Take Close - give something, then take it away.
35. Golden Bridge Close - make the only option attractive.
36. Handover Close - someone else does the final close.
37. Handshake Close - offer handshake to trigger automatic reciprocation.
38. Humor Close - relax them with humor.
39. Hurry Close - go fast to stop them thinking too much.
40. IQ Close - say how this is for intelligent people.
41. Minor points Close - close first on the small things.
42. Never-the-best-time Close - for customers who are delaying.
43. No-hassle Close - make it as easy as possible.
44. Now-or-never Close - to hurry things up.
45. Opportunity Cost Close - show cost of not buying.
46. Ownership Close - act as if they own what you are selling.
47. Price-promise Close - promise to meet any other price.
48. Puppy Close - acting cute to invoke sympathy and a nurturing response.
49. Quality Close - sell on quality, not on price.
50. Rational Close - use logic and reason.
51. Repetition Close - repeat a closing action several times.
52. Retrial Close - go back to square one.
53. Reversal Close - act as if you do not want them to buy the product.
54. Save-the-world close: - buy now and help save the world.
55. Selective-deafness Close - respond only to what you want to hear.
56. Shame Close - make not buying shameful.
57. Shopping List Close - tick off list of their needs.
58. Similarity Close - bond them to a person in a story.
59. Standing-room-only Close - show how others are queuing up to buy.
60. Summary Close - tell them all the things they are going to receive.
61. Testimonial Close - use a happy customer to convince the new customer.
62. Thermometer Close - they score out of ten, you close gap.
63. Think About It Close - give them time to think about it.
64. Treat Close - persuade them to 'give themselves a treat'.
65. Trial Close - see if they are ready for a close.
66. Valuable Customer Close - offer them a special 'valued customer' deal.
67. Ultimatum Close - show negative consequences of not buying.
68. Yes-set Close - get them saying 'yes' and they'll keep saying 'yes'.

Over the next few weeks I will explore how you can use each of these techniques to close a deal involving a commodity, a product, a service or an experience.

This past weekend "The Social Network" hit movie theaters and explained, some what realistically, what happened during the founding and initial growth of Facebook. The Wall Street Journal put out a column 1 about 4 tips a start-up can draw from the movie. WSJ mentions:

• Look for Inspiration in the Smallest Moments
• Ask Your Family and Friends for Seed Money
• Don't Be Afraid to Dream Bigger
• Make Sure You're on the Same Page as Your Coworkers

The Wall Street Journal makes a few good points, but they fail to mention that the movie glosses over the most important factor affecting the success of most new ventures; the boat loads of time required to start 99.99% of successful businesses. I have never meet a successful business owner who didn't work their fingers to the bone. Some work intensely on previous endeavors that failed and they used the experience garnered from the failure to launch a second business successfully. Others just sacrificed everything at the start the business for their long-term success.

Our firm helps entrepreneurs start their own businesses, and I have had to correct clients on the belief that they can have a 'normal' life while starting their dream business. Even though it has become cliche in corporate world, the sacrifice helps create 'ownership' in the project by the principles involved. Our help may drastically reduce the length of time the entrepreneur needs to sacrifice their 'normal' life, it does not eliminate the need. We have designed our level of involvement in the start-up process to expedite the development of the business and eliminate as many of the capital wasting errors made by many entrepreneurs.

After years of faltering in the #2 spot, Yahoo! has fallen to #3, being replaced by Microsoft's Bing. Nielsen reports that Bing increased by 2% last month while Yahoo! fell by 8%, which shifted Bing ahead of Yahoo! in total US searches for August 2010. Google still dominates the search engine market at 65.1%.

This same shift, and the huge, 30% jump by Bing year-over-year should be making some search engine optimization people rethink their google only matters approach. Also, the July 2009 deal between Yahoo! and Microsoft where Bing will power Yahoo! searches was implemented just last month on August 24^th, 2010. This effectively means SEO for Bing now directly covers Yahoo! searches, creating a single 27% chunk of the search engine pie. Specialized optimization for Bing is an interesting proposition for businesses to consider. If your business can not consistently get the first spot on Google, the top listing might be a nice alternative.

The July 2010 National Employment Report released by payroll firm ADP 1 indicates that the US non-farm PRIVATE payroll increased by 42,000 in July and actually did better than previously thought in June by increasing 19,000, versus the previously thought 13,000.

On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will release the total payroll statistics, which will include federal, state and local government hiring. In order for the economy to really recover and enter a sustained expansion, the private payroll must keep increasing, and by larger amounts each month.

What effect does 42,000 new jobs really have on the current economic situation when there is 9.5% unemployment? Assuming the median salary for these new jobs is ~80% of the national median salary ($35,000) because employers can pay less with the high competition for jobs, and the salary is evenly distributed over the year. This creates $122.5 million increase in economic activity next month. Cutting out the 30% for taxes and 35% for housing, this creates $42.8 million to be cycled through the economy next month. Using a 100% overhead of net salaries to net revenues, this should create 7145 jobs next month just from the 42,000 created this month. This doesn't seem like much, but it is an additional 6% increase in employment. Using the typical risk factor of 5% and no increases in the workforce, just the recycling of money from these increases in the employment rate would reduce the national unemployment rate to 6%. This is just over the 'optimal unemployment rate' of 5%.

Would more jobs being created be better? Yes, however as the unemployment rate continues to drop, the Federal Reserve will increase interest rates in order to prevent a mini-bubble putting the country back in a recession within months. Small businesses should use this time when sales are increasing but interest rates are low to get their businesses in order by reviewing their marketing strategies, fixing operational inefficiencies and locking in their financing at these low rates.

The shift to more technological solutions still does not trump the value of a big white board and colored dry erase markers for creative companies. This big white space is a canvas where employees can share ideas, brainstorm, work through problems, etc. Colored markers are essential because creativity is seldom black and white. Color also can help with organizing your thoughts.

Back when I was in an organic chemistry lab daily, I always kept one thing in the pocket of my lab coat: a 'permanent' marker. Organic chemistry labs generally long and narrow with a row of hoods running down the two long walls. These hoods are where the chemistry actually occurs, but they also have glass fronts. Everywhere you looked there would be little pictures or lists of numbers from when someone had an idea and they drew some pictures of it right there in front of them. While we did always use 'permanent' markers instead of dry erase makers and then use acetone to remove the markings, the concept is the exact same. When an idea occurred, it was immediately flushed out on a static surface.

You may think your small business is not a 'creative' company because there is no need for creativity in your industry. This is completely false. In every industry, from number heavy finance to art heavy graphic design, creatively solving problems has value. You encounter new problems everyday in your business that you can choose to solve in the status quo manner, or through a creative solutions. Choosing the uncreative solution will keep your business in its exact same market position; going no where. A creative solution will put you one step closer to advancing your business.

Regular usage of a simple white board can encourage you and your employees to approach problems in new ways. Choosing to embrace new ideas will move your company forward, rather than keeping it stuck in the quagmire most small business owners currently find themselves.

Consumer behavior is an interesting topic for anyone who deals with marketing strategies. Some consumer segments will openly embrace the stereotypes of their segment while other segments will often be resistant to be labeled as part of their segment. Even though the second group resist being labeled as a particular segment, their purchasing patterns still place them in the segment. Marketing strategies then must be developed that resonate with the customer, though don't play on the segment's stereotypes.

Today's primary results reminded me how well politics illustrates this example.

Registered Democrats versus Registered Republicans

The percentage of registered Democrats versus the percentage of registered Republicans has remained relatively constant for the last 20 yrs; ~41% Democrats vs ~31% Republicans. Even with the large majority of registered Democrats, Republicans have won numerous elections and even controlled the White House, US House of Representatives and US Senate for substantial periods of time. This indicates the Republicans are considerably better at mobilizing their constituents than Democrats, or many people who vote Republican don't like the 'Republican' tag.

Stereotypes

Each party has a set of stereotypes that have differentiated them over their lifetimes. According to the registration numbers, the stereotypes of the Democratic party either resonate better with its members or are generally more socially acceptable than Republican stereotypes. Since the Republicans have done just as well as Democrats in recent elections, the stereotypes shouldn't resonate better with on group than the other. It is more likely that the Democratic Party's stereotypes are more socially acceptable than the Republican Party's stereotypes.

Why would the Democrats' stereotypes be more acceptable? Democrats may be:

• More forceful public speakers
• Viewed as being nicer than Republicans
• Viewed as being more youthful and vibrant

All of these attributes create a perception of Democrats being more socially acceptable than Republicans. This social acceptance encourages people to openly admit they are a Democrat while it shuns those who admit they are a Republican.

What does this all mean for business? Businesses who target a consumer segment like the Republicans must have a message which resonates with the segment, while not having the open association with the brand. This is a very difficult task, though one that can offer substantial dividends if successfully completed.

I must admit right now that this article is not focused on a purely small business issues, but rather a topic that small and big business both deal with: Market Positioning.

Today, Ford Motor Co. announced it was discontinuing the Mercury brand at the end of the year.¹ The Mercury brand has fallen by the wayside for years and Ford CEO Alan Mullay is attempting to refocus the company so Mercury had to join Jaguar, Land Rover, Aston Martin and Volvo on the chopping block. Originally Mercury was a 'mid-level' car, positioned between a Ford and a Lincoln. The marketing for Mercury, however has been non-existent for 30 years or so. This allowed the consumer to forget where Mercury fit in the automobile spectrum.

The four positions of the auto industry

Today, there are four real marketing positions for all of the mass-produced brands.

• Luxury (Mercedes, Cadillac, Lincoln)
• Professional (Buick, Lexus, BMW)
• General (Chevrolet, Ford, Toyota, Honda, Volkswagen, Nissan, Hyundai)
• Specialty (Mitsubishi, Subaru, GMC, etc)

Note: Other than 'Luxury,' the position names are not necessarily used by the auto industry. There are also many other brands out there not listed here. These are simply the ones I could think of off the top of my head.

Each of these positions has a particular type of consumer in mind. The 'Luxury' brands is targeted to wealthy individuals who want all the bells and whistles and want others to know they are wealthy. The 'Professional' brands are targeting consumers who want the luxury features while still being practical and affordable. These are the doctors, lawyers and other successful professionals. The 'Specialty' brands are focused on a very narrow set of consumers like construction personal with GMC or cheap sports cars with Mitsubishi.

Why the position maters?

Each position immediately generates a particular ideal in the consumers' mind. This ideal should be exploited by the brand to demonstrate the brand's value proposition to the consumer. People looking to buy a Cadillac or a Mercedes are not as concerned with the price as the performance and special features offered by the vehicle. On the other hand, people buying a Chevy or Ford care more about the price than high tech luxuries. Cadillac and Mercedes should market the insane luxuries of the cars while Chevy and Ford should be focusing on the practical features and low price.

A product or brand whose features are attractive to a segment of customers but is marketed to the mass market devalues the product and/or brand. Every product and brand must be marketed to the consumers best fit to purchase the products otherwise the company is leaving money on the table.

Microsoft’s Word program is essential to just about every business. Whether you are writing a note for the bathroom wall, an invoice for a customer or your employee handbook, Word can do it all. Most people who are competent on a computer are familiar with the basics of Word and can use it reasonably well. They can make just about any thing they want to and can make it look nice. It just may take a considerable amount of time. Word has a bunch of lesser known features that can help you produce your document faster.

Here are a few of them:

AutoCorrect is a feature that will change gibberish into a known word or phrase. It is the feature that changes things like “teh” into “the”, “acn” into “can” and other common typos. You can customize it to change your common typos and to change abbreviations into the actual words. This will cut down on the number of spelling errors caught by spell checker and save you considerable time in your proofreading.

To edit the AutoCorrect options in Word 2007, select the Microsoft Office Button and then click on “Word Options.” Under the “Proofing” tab and click on the “AutoCorrect Options” button. The dialog will pop up with the different options available. If you want to add, or remove, automatically corrected words edit the replace/with listing under the AutoCorrect tab.

The Format Painter is the little paint brush under the Clipboard section of the Home ribbon. It allows you to copy formatting from one selection of your document and apply it to another selection. It is best used when you have area of your document where you have multiple font and paragraph attributes applied and need to replicate the same appearance in another section.

To use the Format Painter, you select the text you want to copy, click on the paint brush button and then select the section where you want to apply the formatting. You can also copy the original to multiple sections by selecting another section.