Ryan Dohrn explains the upfront contract, a Sandler Sales Training technique where you validate time at the start of a call and offer three clear end options: yes, no, or need more time. This approach helps you control the close and improve your closing effectiveness.
Hey friends, Ryan Dohrn here, your Global Sales Coach. We're answering your listener questions sent in to ryan@ryandohrn.com. That's the website as well, by the way. All right, we've got Debbie from Columbia, South Carolina. Hey Debbie, go Gamecocks, Columbia, South Carolina. Debbie's question is, Ryan, you mentioned controlling the close at the start of the conversation, and it seems a little awkward to me. Could you perhaps better explain it? Debbie, I'm happy to explain it. So it goes back to some previous training that I've had. I've talked about it on the podcast and things like that. Now, I'm a big fan of what our friends over at Sandler Sales Training would call an upfront contract. When I'm meeting with somebody, I validate time, and then what I say to the person is, if you're going to buy from me and the answer is yes, that's great. At the end of the sales call, if your answer is no, it's okay. If you need more time to think about it, that's fine as well. But when we get to the end of our conversation, I'd love for you to kind of make a choice— yes or no, or, or I need to think about it. And I love that upfront contract concept. Now, don't get me wrong, Sandler folks, I know it's a little more complicated than that. I get that. But in general, what I'm trying to do is, is create an idea at the beginning of the sales call that I'm going to use at the end of the sales call in order to create a bit of a better close at the end. See, I find that a lot of times in the sales business, the start And the end of the sales call are 2 kind of awkward moments. So why not set yourself up for success at the end of the sales call by creating a scenario where at the beginning that you can use at the end? So this is kind of how it might sound. Hey Bonnie, thanks for the 20 minutes. Do you still have 20 minutes? She's like, yeah. Hey Bonnie, at the end of our conversation here, I'd love for you to, you know, have 3 kind of choices with me. One would be, you Yes, you love this idea and let's go with it. No, it's just not a good fit for me and that's fine. Or, hey, I need to think about this and I can set up a follow-up with you. So then when you get to the end of the conversation, you're able to say, you know, Debbie, when we first started talking, or Bonnie or whatever, when we first started talking, I said, you know, you could either give me a yes or a no or kind of a maybe. Where are you kind of thinking on a scale of sort of 1 to 10? Are you at a yes? Are you a no? Are you a maybe? And that just helps me guide the end of the conversation. So set yourself up at the beginning of the call for success at the end of the call, just by mentioning sort of those 3 options, if you will, or, or tweak it really, Debbie from Columbia, to really make it your own. Keep your questions coming, friends. I love these questions. Ryan@ryandohrn.com. And then go over to the website, check out the blog, the podcast, and so much more. It's ryandohrn.com. And don't forget, friends, if sales was easy, everybody'd be doing it. And they're not. We are the chosen few. We're a little crazy, right? But we found friends, careers that will feed our families for a lifetime. All right, we'll see you next week.
