When I attended a sales training course many years ago, it was suggested to us that an excellent way of pushing the prospect towards placing his order was the "alternative close" - offering two options so that his decision moved away from
whether or not to buy, and to
which of two alternatives ro select.
That's an interesting thought and something I've born in mind over the years; I'm not thrilled at the idea of
pushing a prospect, though there are times that doing so is a service to everyone, and I'm not thrilled at the idea of restricting the options to just two. Case in point this morning - an enquiry from a customer who's looking to train up a complete team. Although training the whole group at once would be very practical (from my view point) and cost effective (from his), the team has an ongoing support role which must be maintained while they're learning the new technology.
I can up with a whole wide range of options - should I simply offer to run two courses? Should I offer training at the weekend when the support role can be closed down? Should I suggest that the trainees attend two successive public courses, or that the majority have a private course and those who are left as office anchors attend the subsequenct public course? Should I suggest they come to our training centre where they'll spend less on each tiny group and the groups will be away from the office and not subject to interruption?
To offer just two options in these circumstances seems to me like it would be almost insulting, but to offer every option would be confusing. In the end, I decided to email through my three best suggestions, with a note that I would welcome an email or call to tune the best option further or to explore other possibilities. It won't close the sale quicker, but it will help better ensure that the customer gets the most appropriate possible product.
(written 2005-05-23, updated 2006-06-05)
Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles
G502 - Well House Consultants - Business Practice [15] 90 to 10 or 80 to 20 rule - (2004-08-15)
[27] Sales technique - (2004-08-25)
[68] Get the strategy worked out and the tactics just fall into place. - (2004-09-30)
[77] Telephone systems - (2004-10-07)
[88] Getting the right level of trainer - (2004-10-14)
[95] Five red flags - (2004-10-21)
[108] A typical morning - (2004-11-03)
[121] Fair and Simple - (2004-11-17)
[125] Staff theft - (2004-11-21)
[129] Trawling our site to prevent student copying - (2004-11-24)
[137] Certification schemes - (2004-12-02)
[157] Automatic service upgrades - (2004-12-19)
[180] Skunk works - (2005-01-17)
[188] Pink elephant and appreciation - (2005-01-24)
[200] Tips for the top - (2005-02-03)
[211] Look after your staff and they'll look after you. AOL. - (2005-02-12)
[217] Use of time - (2005-02-16)
[226] Growing our systems - (2005-02-24)
[297] A reminder that the customer is King - (2005-05-01)
[399] simplicity hides real size - (2005-07-31)
[438] Fair system for travel and accommodation expenses - (2005-09-07)
[457] Do the work and take the risk - a PHP contract to avoid - (2005-10-06)
[467] Tell them three times - (2005-10-17)
[487] On line course booking - credit card protection - (2005-11-06)
[491] Being atypical is typical - (2005-11-10)
[536] Cancellations and penalties - (2005-12-21)
[626] Not just a pretty face to answer the phone. - (2006-02-26)
[652] Morning Post - (2006-03-20)
[664] Ruby course - oops - it's not happening - (2006-04-01)
[766] Discounts and approved supplier lists - (2006-06-17)
[808] Sales call - (2006-07-19)
[849] Staff Meeting - (2006-08-30)
[869] UNABLE TO ATTEND - (2006-09-16)
[883] Age discrimination law - (2006-10-01)
[906] A commitment we won't be making - (2006-10-27)
[1057] Selling by phone and Skype - our policy - (2007-01-30)
[1084] Writing terms and conditions for conferences and other events - (2007-02-17)
[1133] B-2-B Networking, 20th April. Useful for YOUR business? - (2007-04-03)
[1157] Speed Networking - a great evening and how we arranged it - (2007-04-21)
[1165] Extended Credit request - train in June and be paid in September - (2007-04-27)
[1243] Heavy duty hole punch - (2007-06-24)
[1260] An inspirational business talk from one of our prospective MPs - (2007-07-06)
[1263] 0800 043 8225 - a new phone number for Well House - (2007-07-10)
[1319] Customer feedback - lifeblood of a business - (2007-08-25)
[1342] Google, wwmdirectory, Freshwater, ATP - new scam? - (2007-09-09)
[1373] New Month, New Quarter, New Laws - (2007-10-01)
[1394] Business to Business Networking - North and West Wilts / Melksham - (2007-10-17)
[1453] What makes our courses special? - (2007-12-02)
[1485] Copyright and theft of images, bandwidth and members. - (2007-12-26)
[1626] Early May - a short chance to regroup and improve - (2008-05-01)
[1713] Ways to accept credit cards - or not! - (2008-07-19)
[1855] Volunteer v Employee - a skewed balance? (FSB) - (2008-10-25)
[1913] Alastair Darling helps make paperwork and confusion - (2008-11-30)
[2044] Please Trouble me - (2009-02-16)
[2122] Commission Creep - (2009-04-08)
[2126] Weeding out old phone numbers - (2009-04-11)
[2161] Get it right ... if it goes wrong, it takes so much effort to sort out! - (2009-05-08)
[2187] Are we IITT (Institute of IT Training) members? - (2009-05-17)
[2190] How you are (re)presented at an exhibition - (2009-05-19)
[2283] Everyone is in the customer relations business - (2009-07-12)
[2331] Certification Revisted - Lua - (2009-08-09)
[2465] Melksham Town - asleep or awake? - (2009-10-21)
[2598] An excuse for making a sales call - (2010-01-26)
[2788] Cost of Sales - (2010-06-01)
[2821] Chancellor George Osborne inspires Perl Program - (2010-06-22)
[2936] The service that customers should receive - (2010-08-27)
[2966] Cheap Country Hotel in Melksham, Wiltshire? - (2010-09-21)
[3073] Customer Service - the boundary - (2010-11-27)
[3157] A new monopoly on the ferry to Northern Ireland - (2011-02-04)
[3333] Honesty and a friendly welcome goes a long way - (2011-06-25)
[3506] Cold call contacts - preference services and turning off spam sales approaches - (2011-11-03)
[3613] Keeping Business Local. But is that realistic? - (2012-02-13)
[3665] Will will smile? - (2012-03-22)
[3750] Matching opening hours to when customers can come in and buy - (2012-06-04)
[3755] Cruising on the Mersey Ferry? - (2012-06-07)
[4107] Snog, Marry, Avoid - (2013-05-31)
[4293] Certification - (2014-09-15)
[4415] Buffet review - taking the price into account - (2015-02-05)
[4520] No cold sales calls please - but delighted to hear from others! - (2015-09-29)
G400 - Well House Consultants - Private course [181] Maximum number of trainees on a course - (2005-01-18)
[387] Training course plans for 2006 - (2005-07-23)
[994] Training on Cascading Style Sheets - (2006-12-17)
[1092] Tcl training - often for a larger group - (2007-02-24)
[1414] What we teach - expained for the non-technical - (2007-10-28)
[1555] Advanced Python, Perl, PHP and Tcl training courses / classes - (2008-02-25)
[1929] 2009 - Hotel, Meeting, Training Course prices - (2008-12-07)
[1968] Review of 2008 - (2008-12-31)
[2802] After the Perl course in Nurnberg - (2010-06-11)
[2881] Tailoring of courses to meet customers needs - how it works - (2010-07-21)
[2928] Public (scheduled) or private course? Book direct, or through a third party? - (2010-08-19)
[2953] Turning an exercise into the real thing with extreme programming - (2010-09-11)
[2965] Testimonials - Well House Consultants Open Source courses - (2010-09-21)
[3071] Well House Price list, January to March 2011 - (2010-11-25)
[3074] Running a course ... what if the tutor isn't well? - (2010-11-29)
[4082] Training around the world - easy payment in pounds Sterling - (2013-05-10)
[4358] A brilliant finish to 2014 training and business guests, and a look to 2015 - (2014-12-20)
Some other Articles
Gone Racing - Larkhill, WiltshireThe backtick operator in Python and Perl1 in 48 steelMore mapsSales - the alternative closeOrdnance Survey - using a 'Get a map'Accommodation and landing pagesChoosing a themeProgramming languages - a comparisonDevelopment Environments