It Ain't Over Til It's Over (Especially When You're Closing The Sale)

Copyright (c) 2008 Fabienne Fredrickson

The quote, "The opera ain't over until the fat lady sings" originated with San Antonio sports broadcaster Dan Cook during a television newscast in April 1978. He coined the famous phrase after the first basketball game between the San Antonio Spurs and the Washington Bullets during the 1977-78 National Basketball Association playoffs, to illustrate that while the Spurs had won once, the series was not over yet.

And it's not just for basketball. In Client Attraction, it's just as applicable, especially when you're closing the sale. You see, many self-employed professionals believe that once they've gotten an "OK", they're home free. And ideally that's the case, but not in every situation.

Many times, you're confident that this new working relationship is "good to go." Your prospective client signs on the dotted line, gives you their credit card information, you send them your welcome letter or package, and everything seems honkey dory. But that's not always the case.

Sometimes, brand new clients get cold feet. They may think about their decision and start to wonder if they really need your services. Did they make a mistake? Were they being foolish?

But most often, they rethink their decision because they're confronted with a possibility of change, even GOOD change, ESPECIALLY when you're promising radically different results. There's a part of them that wonders whether they're ready for this change, whether they can handle all that you promise in your marketing materials.

But that's where your job becomes important. Once you've closed the sale, it's time to Double Close. To secure the sale and make sure the new client doesn't back out, I used to use a Double Close technique that I learned from my financial advisor years ago. It's called the "Here's what we talked about e-mail."

You basically recap everything you talked about on the "get-acquainted" call and put it all in an e-mail that you send right away. When someone receives this after signing up to work with you, they feel even more confident about their decision and rarely if ever back out of the agreement.

It's all about reassurance, a confirmation (even from you) that they made the right decision. But you can also use this for someone who, after the get-acquainted call, still hasn't signed up. Just seeing all the things they need to work on and the goals they need to achieve in black and white often motivates someone to take action, especially if you don't pressure them.

Your Assignment:

As a Double Close method or with someone who's having a difficult time signing up, send an e-mail recapping everything you both talked about in your "get-acquainted" call. This creates fantastic results, even weeks down the road.

I've re-closed many a client this way and you too will be surprised by how well this works. Don't be surprised to hear from someone you thought wasn't ever going to sign up. With this Double Close or Recap method, they'll most likely be back.