Creative closing…

Closing deals before calendar year-end stimulates a salesperson’s creativity.  I’ve written about it before (see ABC).

The Me or My Successor Close was born out of necessity.  So was the It’s My Day Close that my colleague combined with the high risk-high reward Camp Out Close. 

Although they go by varying names, permit me to share other popular closing techniques. 

• The Trial Close can be effective but only when used skillfully.  Use it too soon or too often and it does more harm than good. 
• The Expiring Discount Close is popular this time of year.  It can easily backfire however when negotiating with an experienced B2B buyer.  Once you put that discount on the table it’s nearly impossible to take it away no matter when they finally buy.
• This time of year also reminds us how Amazon perfected the Convenience Close. Last minute shoppers depend on it; especially next day delivery.
• When employed early enough, the Calendar Close is effective with clients that have a January 1^st “start date” need.
• For clients that balk at a big transaction, the Alternative Close can break the deal down into smaller “pieces” or “phases”.  Of course, the contract needs to be structured so the client ultimately buys all of the smaller pieces.
• The Assumptive Close was perfected by legendary sales trainer Tom Hopkins and his Approve the Paperwork Close.
• Speaking of old school, there’s the Ben Franklin Close; a T-graph listing the pros of buying on the left side and the cons on the right.
• I witnessed Dan Callahan of Integral Systems (the best closer I ever saw) skillfully employ the Client Advisory Committee Close.  Of course, a prospect could only be on said committee if they buy and became a client.
• Back in 1992, ADP National Accounts used the Like for Like Close with Carnival Corporation.  Carnival outsourced payroll to ADP and in turn, ADP held a President’s Club trip on the inaugural voyage of the Carnival Fantasy cruise ship.
• I still use the Puppy Dog Close during my book signings.  If a prospect stops and briefly peruses my book they wind up buying it more times than not. 

Then there are those nefarious closing techniques that give the sales profession a tainted image: 

• One of my sales reps years ago was being trapped into a No Clothes Close by her prospect.  She didn’t fully understand what he was up to.  That is until I did a sales manager ride-along for a meeting he requested after business hours.  He was certainly surprised to see me!  Thankfully, she didn’t close the deal.
• The Side Letter Close was popular in the 1990s; giving the client an off-contract “out”.  The accounting community ultimately closed that creative sales loophole.  Although I never used a side letter I did benefit once from something similar. 

While a National Account Rep for ADP in Denver the Jiffy Lube account committed to a $300K deal only to call me a week later and cancel.  Not my proudest moment.  My Vice President of Sales along with his Vice President and General Manager employed a little known “UBV” accounting provision to make the cancellation just disappear! 

I didn’t get paid commissions on the deal but the quota credit qualified me for ADP’s President’s Club trip on none other than that Carnival Fantasy cruise!  Oh, and that deal qualified my two VPs for Club, too. 

UBV – Unexplained Business Variance.  Now that’s what I call closing creativity! 

GAP 

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.

 

Bad decisions…

I just finished the first draft of my new book, Extraordinary Tales of an Ordinary Salesman.  In Chapter 5, I Quit, I relate the story about the worst business decision I made in my entire career. A bad decision that literally cost me millions of dollars.

It was an emotional decision.  I let my ego take over.  I broke all of the rules: 

Rangnekar's Modified Rules Concerning Decisions 

• If you must make a decision, delay it.
• If you can authorize someone else to avoid a decision, do so.
• If you can form a committee, have them avoid the decision.
• If you can otherwise avoid a decision, avoid it immediately. 

The outcome served its purpose I suppose.  I learned to change from arrogant to grateful.  Oh I kept my competitive edge. I was still hungry; still a sales “hunter”.  But that one bad decision contributed to changing the course of my entire life.  There were other contributions.  A diagnosis; a couple of accidents; a few bad phone calls.  Before I knew it I became more grateful; less win-at-any-cost, egotistical. 

It took a while, but I finally learned how to make a good decision: 

The single most significant decision I can make on a day-to-day basis is my choice of attitude. 

Charles R. Swindell 

Today, I choose to look for the positive.  That is, until my emotions and my ego hijack me.  That one reckless driver who cut me off.  That one political post full of vitriol.  That one-too-many criticisms.  Happens to us all, true?  Those emotions put me on the path of making bad decisions.  And when I find myself on that path I try think back to Charles R. Swindell: 

I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. 

So here’s to overcoming the hijackers; here’s to avoiding bad decisions; here’s to the 90% vs. the 10%; here’s to the peace and power of a positive perspective. 

GAP 

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.

Christ’s birth...

Wishing you and your family a day of peace, hope and joy.  Today reminds us that Christmas should last the entire year, yes?  

Whatever our spiritual beliefs, may each of us find long-lasting meaning in our life.  May we be reminded of that which is important and that which isn’t. 

A banker reminds us to be tolerant of our youth: 

A little boy received a new drum for Christmas.  Shortly thereafter, his father came home from work and the mother told him, “I don’t think the man upstairs likes to hear Georgie play his new drum, but he’s certainly subtle about it.”  “How do you know”? asked the father.  “Well, this afternoon he gave Georgie a knife and asked him if he knew what was inside the drum.” 

Herbert Prochnow

The gospel reminds us to recognize our blessings: 

You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are – no more, no less.  That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought. 

Matthew 5 

A novelist reminds us to be thankful for our “fortunes”: 

Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some. 

Charles Dickens 

My present blessings from God reminds me to say to you and yours from me and mine: 

“Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!” 

GAP

Windy…

It’s been a bit windy in Colorado recently.  Wyoming, too!  Like 144 MPH winds on the apply named Mount Coffin.  There were reports of 39 trucks blown over in a single day.  Not wanting to hazard driving, we flew back from Riverton, WY earlier in the week.  It was windy and the flight was rough but we were only in the air for 43 minutes.

I overheard a few of the passengers in the waiting area questioning if it was actually windy before we boarded.  Of course, we were shielded by the airport terminal building.  Once we were out on the runway and in the air, their doubts were erased. That was by design: 

You'll notice that the airport buildings are in the distance.  We don't land at the terminal because it scares the heck out of the people inside. 

Mark Sanborn

Colorado’s power company, Xcel, took it upon themselves to proactively shut electricity down in several counties to avoid downed power lines causing a wild fire.  Many are still without power.  Hopefully, that won’t occur on Christmas.  University of Colorado men’s basketball played a game against Portland State with no fans permitted to attend.  It was for safety reasons went the explanation - safety for everyone except the players, coaches, and refs I guess. 

Our December weather has been unseasonably mild, but not mild enough to break out the boats.  That’s allowed folks to avoid a derivative of Murphy’s Laws: 

Andrew's Canoeing Postulate 

No matter which direction you start, it's always against the wind coming back. 

When I meet someone and say I’m originally from Chicago they often respond with the “Oh yes, the Windy City” meaning wind as in weather.  Actually, it’s not weather related at all.  According to Google’s AI: 

Chicago's "Windy City" nickname originated in the late 19th century, not from weather, but from rival journalists, especially in New York, mocking its politicians for being "full of hot air" and boastful, particularly during the heated competition to host the 1893 World's Fair. 

Yes, Mother Nature’s wind stimulates many different responses, activities, and reactions, true?   She certainly catches our attention. 

Well, here’s to wishing Santa and his reindeer safe passage.  Safe passage for you and yours this holiday season as well! 

GAP 

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.

 

“Free”…

Are you like me?  That word “Free” always catches my attention.  Then I think to myself, “Wait.  What’s the catch?”  There is always a catch, true?  It’s in the fine print.  Free – with conditions! 

In the B2B sales profession sellers are classically trained to defer the price discussion until the end of their selling cycle.  They want more time for the customer to see the value of their offering before disclosing the bad news.  Unfortunately, the Modern Buyer knows that game.  Besides, there’s those pesky Murphy’s Laws and maxims: 

Business Maxims 

• No matter how low you bid the job there is always an idiot out there willing to do it for less.

• The more you cut your price to get business, the more likely you are to go out of business.

• The more you try to compete on a price basis the lower your prices will go.

Corollary: Your income will follow. 

“Well Gary”, you might challenge. “What about all those free cell phone apps?”  

In the tech space the game is played differently.  The known catch for some of those apps are ads.  Are you like me?  I’m willing to tolerate ads in exchange for my free version of Pandora.  But ads or not, there’s another hidden price to pay for those “free” apps. 

Productizing myself, I asked my free version of ChatGPT about those free cell phone apps: 

• As of September 2025, Google Play has about 2,074,270 apps, of which 2,011,196 (~97%) are free.

• The Apple App Store has about 1,994,112 apps in total, with 1,900,753 (~95.4%) being free,

• Combining just those two major stores, that gives us roughly 3.9 million free apps. 

3.9 million!  But are they really free?  Actually… no: 

If an app is free then the user is the product. 

Dr. Troy Butler

Turns out the product is you and me; it’s our online clicks; it’s what we say out loud in the mere presence of our cell phone; it’s our Ring doorbells; it’s our smart refrigerators.  The machines are watching us; recording us; productizing us; and then selling us.  And best of all for AI; we are the ones who are free!  It’s all in their “Terms and Conditions” aka fine print. 

Oh well.  At least we still have chocolate milk.  And everyone knows: 

Money talks but chocolate sings! 

                   Unknown Sage

Whoops… to get the cereal you have to buy the milk.  "Free" - with conditions! 

GAP 

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.

Scary!

I was chatting with my friend Tony recently.  More than just a friend, he has been a lifelong colleague; a client at one time; and a mentor continuing to this day.  I try to follow Tony’s lead in being an “informed citizen”.  That’s a job in itself.  Thankfully, we’re both retired from full-time employment LOL! 

He shared that in his pursuit of staying informed he invests some 3 hours per day reading (newspapers; The Wall Street Journal; online media sites; etc.) as well as watching TV news programs.  Problem is, he only skims the content because ultimately he gets fed up with the constant hyperbole; bickering; posturing; battling; and inundation of editorial opinions vs. factual, actual news.  He sees how scary these sources are becoming. 

Do today’s news sources scare you?  Are fear, anger, violence, and accusations the only things that catch our attention theses days?  Our information outlets sure seem to think so.  And when it comes to social media I saw this quote (in a USA Today online newspaper of all places): 

If it scares it shares

Other things “share” too, true?  I was skimming ESPN’s “Top Headlines” on my phone and one such headline read, “University of Green Bay basketball coach throws chair…”  OK.  Let’s go slow here. 

First of all, I’ve never heard of the University of Green Bay, have you?  Turns out they have an NCAA Division I basketball program (along with some 350 other institutions).  Second, it was a 2-point loss in an early season, non-conference game.  Is a chair-throwing incident really worthy of the national/international reach of this sports media outlet?  Or for us? 

Why are we surrounded by these outrageous headlines from anonymous sources; artificial intelligence; and powerful brands with agendas?  Who asked for this?  Truthfully, it scares me. I’m not alone: 

I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion. 

Alexander the Great 

Thankfully, we all have the common sense and the courage to know better.  For example, if you missed the U of GB chair throwing incident – good for you!  Now we don’t have to totally neglect basketball.  There are lots of life lessons that can be learned.  In A. H. Williams’ Big Bang of Basketball © (bet you missed that one, too) we find this: 

True courage is that noble quality of mind which makes us forget how afraid we are. 

Yes, that’s the good news – the important news!  We have a noble quality of mind and the courage to live in today’s age, don’t we?  And it’s courage that gets us through: 

Real courage is being scared to death and saddling up anyway.

James P. Owen 

So no, I won’t try to scare you.  You won’t read this little ditty in anyone’s “Top Headlines”.  I won’t even throw a chair to get attention.  I’m simply going to forget to be scared today; saddle up; and enjoy the day the best I can.  Care to join me?  

GAP 

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.

 

Hope +/-…

Hope is Not a Strategy© is a book by Rick Page I like to quote.  I hear that word, “Hope” spoken often by business people, salespeople, and entrepreneurs.  Successful businesses always make me wonder, “How did they make it?” 

I wonder about a lot of things.  How planes fly for example:

Launching a business can be like flying a plane - extremely challenging.  On the business side, what makes one business succeed when so many others fail?  It’s certainly not air, magic, or even important magic.  

Maybe its belief.  What do you think?  Does success require belief instead of hope?  Well, there’s this story by Gino Wickman: 

An entrepreneur slips and falls off the edge of a cliff.  On his way down, he manages to grab onto the end of a vine.  He's hanging there, a thousand feet from the top and a thousand feet from the bottom.  His situation seems hopeless, so he looks up to the clouds, and decides for the first time to pray.  “Is anybody up there?” he asks.  After a long silence, a deep voice bellows down from the clouds, “Do you believe?” 'Yes" replies the entrepreneur. “Then let go of the vine,” says the voice.  The entrepreneur pauses for a second, looks up again, and finally responds, “Is there anybody else up there?” 

Perhaps success requires both hope and belief.  Perhaps even more.  I enjoyed Phil Knight’s book Shoe Dog © about how he started Nike: 

The cowards never started and the weak died along the way.  That leaves us… 

Ahh, bravery and strength.  Maybe successful businesses are started and operated by the brave and the strong.  Well, farmers are definitely brave to make a living on crops, livestock, weather, and the marketplace.  They certainly have to be physically and mentally strong.  Farmers add another ingredient to success: 

ACTION: 

Having the world's best idea will do you no good unless you act on it.  People who want milk shouldn't sit on a stool in the middle of a field in hopes that a cow will back up to them. 

Curtis Grant 

Now we’re getting somewhere.  In researching successful entrepreneurs and business owners we find this: 

Don't hope more than you’re willing to work. 

Rita Mae Brown 

Ahh… “Work”.  A recent speech by this billionaire sought to debunk thinking about work-life balance   for entrepreneurs. 

I’m sure there are even more ingredients that go into a formula for business success.  Starting with Hope + Belief + Bravery + Strength + Action + Work – Work/Life Balance, what else would you add or subtract? 

GAP 

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.

 

Highly sensitive?

At my “last” company (meaning before I retired), our managers explored the team’s emotional intelligence.  Using an assessment from the book Emotional Intelligence 2.0 ©, we determined our initial score (e.g. “EQ”).  I wondered if they were sending me a message.  What if I failed the assessment, I feared.

Surprisingly my EQ score is high.  I did discover the likely foundation for my fear-of-failure from another source.  You might think it’s unusual for a career salesman.  Even so, it’s me: 

Fear of failure is actually overrated as an excuse… What people are afraid of isn’t failure.  It's blame.  Criticism. 

Seth Godin  

Though I passed the assessment it turns out I’m highly sensitive: 

Nine Signs You’re a Highly Sensitive Person:

You think deeply. When life throws you a curve-ball, you retreat deep into your shell, thinking through every aspect of what transpired before taking any action. Small things can have a big impact on you.

You’re detail-oriented. You’re as sensitive to details as you are to feelings. You see details that others miss, and you aren’t content until you’ve dotted all the i’s and crossed the t’s.

You take longer to reach decisions. Since you’re prone to dig deep beneath the surface, you tend to drag out decisions. You can’t help but try to run every possible outcome through your head.

You’re crushed by bad decisions. When you finally make a decision, and it turns out to be a poor choice, you take it much harder than most. This can create a vicious cycle that slows down your decision-making process even more.

You’re emotionally reactive. When left to your own devices, you have a knee-jerk reaction to your feelings. You also have strong reactions to what other people are going through.

You take criticism harshly. Your strong feelings and intense emotional reactions can make criticism hard to take. Though you may overreact to criticism initially, you also have the tendency to think hard about things and explore them deeply. This exploration of criticism can play out well for you in the long run.

You work well in teams. Your unique ability to take other people’s feelings into account, weigh different aspects of multifaceted decisions, and pay attention to the smaller details makes you extremely valuable in a team environment.

You have great manners. Your heightened awareness of the emotions of other people makes you highly conscientious. You pay close attention to how your behavior affects other people and have the good manners to show for it.

Open offices drive you crazy. Your sensitivity to other people, loud noises, and other stimuli makes it practically impossible for you to work effectively in an open-office environment. You’re better off in a cube or working from home. 

Dr. Travis Bradberry 

For me, attributes 1-6 are spot on; 7 is “iffy”; I’ll leave 8 for others to determine; as for 9, I actually enjoy the commotion of an open office environment.  All tallied; I’m highly sensitive. 

What about you?  Ever assessed your EQ?  Don’t be afraid, it’s a worthwhile exercise. 

GAP 

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.