Four Possible Outcomes of a Sales Interaction

There are four possible outcomes of any sales interaction:

• Order
  • Clear written commitment to buy
• Advance
  • An advance is an agreement with the buyer that moves the sale forward
  • I'd like you to talk to my partner next week
  • Planning advances
• Continuation
  • The discussion continues without an agreement or action
  • "Great tooling, call me in 6 months"
  • A continuation is unsuccesful, no matter how complimentary the buyer seems!
• No-sale
  • A very clear rejection or refusal to buy