The Art of Closing Deals: Keep Them Standing

A note to young leaders.

In 1999, I was part of a team that worked on closing a major Infrastracture deal in Europe. The deal was negotiated over many months and the transaction documents had been through countless iterations.

On the eve of the signing, I spoke to the late, great John R Caldon, former Deputy MD of Macquarie Group.

I’ll never forget the advice he gave me: “Now Adam, you know what you’ve got to do when it comes to the signing, don’t you?” he asked rhetorically.

“Make sure there are no chairs in the room”, was his unexpected advice.

“Dont let them sit down. If they sit down, they will start flicking through the documents and finding clauses they either don’t like or don’t understand. Then they’ll start talking to their lawyers and the deal might fall over.”

When it came to signing the following day, we had documents placed on a standing table – and it all went through without a hitch.

We all get cold feet before signing a big deal. The art of closing deals is all about giving feet as little time as possible to feel the chill.