Paula Phillips arrived back at her office at St. Paul Copy Machines around 4:00 on Tuesday afternoon. As she sat behind her desk looking dejected, her sales manager, Jeff Baker, showed up to ask how that afternoon’s sales call had gone. Paula had been scheduled to meet at 2:00 p.m. with a few representatives from Direct Mailers Inc. to finalize their purchase of a high-speed, multifunction copy machine. Direct Mailers uses these high-end machines to copy direct-mail pieces it sends out for a wide array of clients. The pieces are typically coupons that companies pay to have sent to residents to entice customers to visit their businesses and begin to buy their products or services. Because Direct Mailers’ clients require high-quality reproductions of their coupons, Paula has already made several sales calls to buying center members at Direct Mailers to get to know their operations and their specific requirements for a copy machine. At today’s meeting, Paula had planned to present to the Direct Mailers’ representatives the copy machine that would fulfill all of their needs, resulting in an order for a new machine. However, once Jeff saw the look on her face, he knew that things had not gone as planned.
JEFF: Hi, Paula. How did it go at Direct Mailers today?
PAULA: You don’t want to know. I’m not sure we’ll be able to salvage this sale.
JEFF: Why don’t you tell me what happened and we’ll see if there’s anything that can be done to give us another shot at the sale.
PAULA: Well, it started when I first walked in there. You know how things have been sort of rough with me lately. I haven’t made a sale all month, so I probably didn’t have the best attitude going in. Nevertheless, I made my presentation and it seemed to be going great.
JEFF: What kind of questions did they ask?
PAULA: The standard questions about warranty, when the copier could be delivered and installed, purchase price, annual operating cost, and how much more productive they can be with this new machine versus what they currently own. I handled all of these questions and they still were reluctant to make a decision today.
JEFF: What closing technique did you use?
PAULA: The one I always use—the balance sheet method. This method has worked for me in the past and I’ve used it on dozens of buyers. Not all of them buy from me, of course, but hey, you can’t have success all of the time, can you? Plus, I get enough buyers that I make my quota most years. I mean, what else can I do?
JEFF: How many items did you end up with on both sides of the balance sheet? 

PAULA: On the “reasons for buying” side I had six items and on the “remaining questions” side I had three items. I know that sounds like quite a few remaining questions, but at least the reasons for buying were greater. They were going along with the proposal pretty well at this point in the presentation. In fact, I’m pretty sure that they had decided to purchase the copier. It had gotten to the point where we were standing around chitchatting about various things.
JEFF: What kinds of things?
PAULA: You know, things like how much their business could improve with a new copier and how much more efficient they could be from an operational standpoint. You know the feeling and the look of how people relax when they have made a decision. We had reached that point and I thought it was done. I waited about 15 more minutes to pull out the contract for them to sign because they seemed to be having a good time talking about these issues among themselves.
JEFF: What do you suppose made them change their mind?
PAULA: In the conversation, someone mentioned all of the money they had just spent on supplies to operate their current machine—copy toner and stuff like that. Before I knew it, they had decided that too much money had been sunk into those supplies and they couldn’t justify a new copier. Having spent money on supplies for the current machine wasn’t even on the balance sheet list of “remaining questions.” It just came out of the blue and then I was stuck.
JEFF: You’re tired. Why don’t you use the rest of today to finish your paperwork and make sure you have everything you need to see your clients tomorrow? We’ll talk about this some more when you get into the office tomorrow afternoon.
As Paula finished her paperwork and checked her schedule for Wednesday, Jeff pondered what their conversation would include the next day.
Questions

1. What mistake(s) common closing mistakes did Paula make in her sales call with the representatives from Direct Mailers Inc.?
2. Why do you think Paula’s closing method did not work? What could she have done differently to give it a better chance to work? What other closing methods might have worked better in her attempt to get this sale? Write a brief script for what Paula could have said using one of the closing methods you just identified.
3. What do you recommend Paula do now? Are there any key follow-up activities she should undertake to get another opportunity to make this sale with Direct Mailers?