Selling the Price Increase

22Closing

This might come as a blinding flash of the obvious but your customer is not going to close the price increase for you. They are not going to call you to say, “You know, I've been thinking that we're about due for a price increase. You've been delivering great value to my organization and you deserve to be paid more for your services.”

Therefore, it is on you to face your fear of rejection, approach your customer, and close the price increase sale.

Closing is about compelling your customer to accept or accede to the price increase without resistance or resentment. If there is a magic wand that makes this happen, it is the assumptive close.

The assumptive close is, hands down, the most effective way to close the price increase. There is nothing complicated about the assumptive close. No tricks or smoke and mirrors. It's just confidently expecting (through verbal and nonverbal communication) that your customer will accept the increase.

In Chapter 17 you learned about emotional contagion and how people tend to respond in kind. This is exactly why the assumptive close works so well. When you confidently expect your customer to accept the price increase, you transfer that emotion to them and they typically do. It's such a powerful yet simple technique that sometimes it feels like a Jedi mind trick.

The secret to making the assumptive close work is projecting absolute confidence. No hesitation, no equivocation, no insecurity. Just assume that your customer will accept the ...