Dan Tudor has a great post on his Landing the Deal blog – “The Takeaway Close”. The takeaway close is a powerful tool for a salesperson when used properly. I used to work for a sales trainer who taught this technique and it is most effective. Here is the gist of why it works:
Human psychology is funny: The more you tell somebody they can’t or shouldn’t have something, the more they want it.
As powerful as it is, let me explain when it doesn’t work. I’ve gone on sales calls with many salespeople to observe their techniques. The takeaway close is an embarrassingly clumsy technique if there has not been enough discussion about the opportunity. Salespeople who meet a prospect for the first time, talk about their needs for 30 minutes and then launch some version of “Maybe this isn’t right for you” will see the prospect agree and show them to the door. That’s a tough position from which to recover.
This technique works best when the salesperson has had an extended discussion with the prospect (probably more than 1 meeting) and has attempted to move towards a solution. The prospect’s own objections and stalls are the factors that give this technique its strength.
Most objections and stalls are basic prospect moves to negotiate a better deal. Their power resides in the ability to say no to your solution . . . and they know it. Hence, they use stalls even when they are most interested much like a bluff in poker. The power of the takeaway close is the salesperson’s ability to call their bluff.
The psychology behind the takeaway close is that the salesperson is stating to the prospect that it is ok if we do not do business. That move is utterly disarming to a prospect who truly is interested. It is at this point that the deal will normally move quickly to the closing stage. If it doesn’t, the salesperson has qualified the prospect for a no and can move on to a better prospect.
One rub here is that most sales managers are hesitant to allow a salesperson to potentially lose a piece of business. This move appears to be high risk to the sales manager. It is not risky when it is used effectively. Far worse for the sales manager to force the salesperson to continue the pursuit of a prospect who may simply be bluffing.
I speak from experience on this topic. I used the takeaway close back in the late ’90s when I was selling CRM software. I closed a large deal that was stalled until I used this technique. Long after the deal was closed, I was called into the VP of Sales office and reprimanded for using this technique (they read my notes in the CRM software that we used internally). I explained that we closed the deal because of the technique. His response, “Yes, but we could have lost the deal.”
I resigned not long after that meeting.