This is my all-time favorite type of close.

Simply put, the walk away close is when you get to a point in the negotiations where you take your proposal off the table and tell the client you’re removing yourself from consideration. If you’ve done your job during the sales process to identify the need and align your value, the walk away close creates an immediate power shift and has an awesome impact on the psychology of the buyer. In most cases, the buyer thinks they are the one in power and they typically act accordingly (some more offensively than others). When you pull the walk away close you immediately change that dynamic.

But before you use the walk away close, there are two main things you need to have in order to be effective with the close:

The first is a walk away line

The walk away line is the line that you won’t go below regardless. It could be a price/discount point, a certain concession you’re just not willing to give or a level of equality that simply needs to be there in the relationship. Having a defined walk away line allows us to limit the emotions involved in many negotiations.

The second is a big fat pipeline

The more opportunities you have in your pipeline the more confidence you have to be able to hold you ground and walk away from the opportunities that aren’t healthy or relatively equal. This is why consistent prospecting is so important, regardless of our role and how busy we are.

For more of my tips on effective types of closing, check out my latest Make It Happen Monday video on Facebook Live. And if you want to do a little extra homework, refer to this classic scene from Mad Men. It’s one of the best examples of a walk away close I have ever seen.

Make It Happen!