Ben Franklin Close Technique
The Ben Franklin close is based on a technique that Ben Franklin used to use any time that he had to make a tough decision. Ben Franklin was a very intelligent, successful, and respected man in history so it the technique helped him be successful you can also apply it to help yourself and your customer become more successful. Our customers are often making very large investment decisions when looking at our purchases so it is important that you help them make the right decision and help simplify the buying process for them.
Here is how it works. Take out a blank piece of paper and draw a line down the middle (or you can do this on a whiteboard or projector). At the top of the Left Column write “Reasons to move forward with the Solution” and in the right column write “Reasons against moving forward with the Solution”. You can also title the columns “plus” and “minus”, whichever you feel more comfortable with in the situation.
Come to the meeting prepared with a mental list of all of the Positive aspects of your solution. Start by asking the prospect what they see as all of the positive aspects of your solution and write them out. If the prospect is having trouble say “what about benefit XYZ of our solution?” and write it out on the paper making sure to create an exhaustive list of all the positive attributes and aspects of your solution filling up the Left Hand Column of the paper. After you have completely filled the left column then ask the customer:
“What do you see as the reasons against going forward?”
(Then Shut up and practice Golden Silence)
As they talk just write them down, do not try to address their objections now. Just listen carefully. Once the customer has finished coming up with their list of objections chances are that the # of positive aspects which you carefully prepared before the meeting will far outweigh the negative aspects or minus that the customer came up with on their own. If that is the case it is a perfect visual add to help the customer see that there are more reasons for moving forward and deciding on your solution than there are against the solution.
In addition by allowing the customer to talk they have just told you every single objection that they have to your solution. Now comes the selling art of turning and Objection into an Objective. Objections are roadblocks -> Objectives are actions that allow you to remove the roadblock. You may want to ask the customer an open ended question about the objections such as “Tell me more about why XYZ is an issue?”
Then after you get all the details ask the customer “Just suppose if we could address the Minuses, would you feel comfortable moving forward with our solution?”
If the answer is “yes” then you next step is to develop and action plan to address each one of the issues and get back to the customer promptly. If the answer is “No” then ask the customer more open ended questions to explain “why”.
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