Brian Tracy explains the demonstration close, a qualification technique that asks prospects upfront if they can and will buy at a specific price or timeline. This filters out unqualified leads early and shifts the conversation from interest to actual commitment.
Another close that you can use right at the beginning is called the demonstration clothes. And boy, is this ever effective. You can use this for almost anything. The demonstration close is what you do to qualify the prospect in the opening statement and to get a clear statement from the prospect that they are in a position to buy and to pay for this product. We used to use this in selling mutual funds. We'd say, Mr. Prospect, if I could show you the very best investment you've ever seen in your life, are you in a position to put $5,000 into it right now? Prospect says, well, I don't know. No, I haven't got 5,000. How about four? Well, I don't know. How about three? Well, yeah, three. Yeah. If I could show you the best investment you've ever seen, would you put $3,000 into it? Are you in a position to put $3,000? He says, well, yeah, if you could show me the. See, now what you've done is you change the focus of the discussion. The discussion is not whether or not the person listens to your presentation. The discussion is, can you demonstrate that you actually have an investment or a product that's as good as that. Another thing you can say is, I can show you the best sales training system that you've ever seen. The best, cheapest, finest sales training system you've ever seen. Are you in a position to commit your company to it right now? Person says, well, you know, if it's that good, are you in a position to make a decision right now? Well, say, yeah, I can now. Then you go through your presentation. At the end of the presentation, the person can't say, well, I've got to check with the boss. I've got to talk to Harry about to cross the street. They've already said, yes, I have the money. Yes, I'm qualified. Yes, I'm in a position to make a decision. So a good strong opening question that grabs attention and says, geez, like, if a person is in the stock market or is investing in anything, when you say, if I could show you the best investment you've ever seen, what's the first thing that they ask? What is it? Tell me more about it. I'd like to learn about it. I can show you the best investments you've ever seen. Are you in a position to make an investment today? If I could show you the product that you're looking for, Are you in a position to make a decision today? In real estate, I've seen this over and over again. One of the first questions that you should ask people when you take them out instead of going to these people who are kicking tires and looking at homes two years before they ever plan to buy one is say if we could find the exact house you're looking for, when would you want to take possession? Just tell them as you get into the car like you'd ask them what do you think of the weather? Very often people will tell you, oh well, we're just looking. We're just sort of in the market. We're just looking. As we're visiting 27 other real estate agents, we're planning to spend two years at it. So we know every single house in North Chicago or whatever it happens to be. So ask them that question. If we could find exactly the house you're looking for, when would you be prepared to take possession? And they can tell you. They say, well, I don't know or they'll tell you that they're not in the market at all.
