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Comment by mstroeck | Hacker News Reader

Ugh. Please don't read this and think you know anything about "closing" a sale. Closing techniques work well for small, unimportant, everyday purchases.

They do not work at all on sophisticated buyers. They might in fact cost you the sale.

The rule of thumb is: If there is any chance that the prospective customer might have heard of such a thing as a closing technique - DON'T USE THEM.

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I actually don't think this article falls in the same category as someone doing "A benjamin franklin close" or a forced close or whatever other closing technique involves manipulation.

The article states very simply that there are three different ways you can close a call, hard, medium and soft. It's not a technique, he paints with a broad brush and leaves the article very open to interpetation and adaptation to your sales style.

Exactly my point. All fluff, no informational content.

Read SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham instead of this (crappy) article, if you're selling "major sales".

http://www.amazon.com/Major-Account-Sales-Strategy-Rackham/d... is good, but SPIN Selling itself is a better intro.

Last summer I spent a day on a motorcycle tour with two retired IBM salesmen. They reminisced sales stories all afternoon. I couldn't believe the amount of preparation and planned sales tactics they employed. A blue suit was required at all times because blue conveys trust and will result in a higher sale.

I used to work at a place that used ClearCase and Lotus Notes. I can tell you that the only people who put any thought into that decision were the IBM salesmen.

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