I've heard plenty of so called 'sales closes' before.  Ones like the 'Ben Franklin' close, and the 'Alternative of Choice' close. I even remember one years ago called the 'Dinosaur' close. In this particular close, the salesperson would bring an order form to the meeting, and if he had trouble closing the sale, he would just sit there until he turned into a 'fossil', or until the prospect agreed to sign the order as a way to get rid of the 'fossil'.

I was surprised to learn of a new 'sales close' today. It's called the 'Bathroom Close'. To explain what it is I'll have to tell a short story. Bear with me.

My webmaster Bob had a meeting in his home office with the owners of a small company seeking his graphic design services. The meeting setup was quite simple. There was Bob on one side of the conference table, and the two business partners seated on the other side. The meeting proceeded with the usual fanfare, and it soon came down to the time for the partners to make a decision. Before further adeau, Bob decided to get up and fetch himself a glass of water in the other room. As he began to fill his cup with water he overheard his prospects chatting to each other in the conference room. He strained to hear, but could not quite make out what it was that they were saying to each other. After a short while Bob walked back into the conference room, and both partners stopped talking and looked up. Then they looked at each other and pointed at Bob saying, there's the 'Bathroom Close'. Both partners went on to explain how when they were in the insurance business they would meet with sales prospects in their livingroom. Each time one of their prospects would say that they needed to "think it over", they would excuse themselves, get up, and ask for the bathroom. Then they would tell their prospect that it was perfectly alright to discuss it amongst themselves while she was in the bathroom.  That gave 'think it over' a time limit, and helped them to close more sales on the first call.

With that out on the table, Bob's prospects proceeded to tell Bob that they needed more time, and for him to go back to the bathroom. Bob did what he was told, and when he returned from the bathroom he found that the decision was made, and the sale was closed.

Thought I heard them all.