Similar Situation Close
Close by describing a comparable customer's result rather than asking for the sale directly.
How it sounds
- You A customer in almost exactly your position started three months ago...
- You ...and here's specifically what changed for them.
- Buyer (sees themselves in the story instead of hearing a pitch)
- Result The close feels like information, not pressure.
The full entry
The similar situation close asks for nothing directly. Instead of pushing for a decision, you describe a customer who faced close to the same problem, in close to the same circumstances, and what happened after they bought. It is related to general social proof but used specifically as a closing move rather than early trust-building, and like most closes of its type it has no single named inventor.
Pick the closest match you actually have, not the most impressive logo. “A company almost exactly your size, with the same approval-delay problem you described, started three months ago. Their turnaround time dropped from six weeks to nine days.” Let the buyer draw their own conclusion instead of stating one for them.
It works because people trust a peer’s outcome more than a vendor’s claim, and it lowers the pressure of the moment since you are not technically asking for anything. The mistake is reaching for a story that only loosely matches; a stretched comparison is obvious and undoes the trust it is meant to build.