Thank Goodness It's Monday #417

HOW TO USE THE

“BEN FRANKLIN CLOSE”

IN THE 21^ST CENTURY

American Commissioners at the Treaty of Paris Conference  by Benjamin West

 

Sealing the deal are, from the left, John Jay, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Henry Laurens, and Franklin's nephew and secretary.

The right side of the painting is unfinished because the British commissioners to the conference refused to sit for their portraits.

Perhaps if Franklin had used his vaunted "closing" technique we could have had a completed painting.

We came away with a new nation instead. 

Someone actually unloaded the legendary Benjamin Franklin Close on me recently.

You know what that is, don’t you?

Of course you do. It’s a classic espoused by many legendary sales trainers and personal development folks -- Dale Carnegie, Zig Ziglar, Tom Hopkins and other less-known folks. There are abundant explanations and demonstrations only a mouse click away. 

But don’t leave here. Because even if you don’t know the technique –

 

I’m about to sum it up for you. With commentary. 

The Benjamin Franklin Close is also known as “The Balance Sheet Close” or “The T-Bar Close” and, from the seller’s point of view, it goes something like this:

You’ve made your usual masterful presentation. But the prospect appears to be unable to make up his or her mind. You feel as if you’ve tried just about everything in your sales kit but still can’t get them to commit. So, as the seller in my recent experience did, you say something like:

“We all know how smart old Benjamin Franklin was. He was a very thrifty fellow and like you concerned for getting the most value for every dollar spent, wouldn’t you agree Mr. Steck?” 

(Award one-half point for seeking agreement. Deduct one-half point for heavy-handed use of my name. Deduct 2 more points for not noticing all the books about Ben in my office.)

“Back in the day, whenever he was faced with a decision – and he had some pretty big ones – he would take piece of paper, draw a vertical line down the middle and head one column with a ‘plus’ (+) and the other with a ‘minus’ (-).” 

(No points here either way, but there should be deductions in the name of historic accuracy as we will see momentarily. And the lazy-brain phrase “back in the day” grates on my ears, but …)

“In his genius he discovered that by listing all the positive attributes on the plus side and all the negative aspects on the minus side, the decision would become obvious. Pretty sound concept, agreed?” 

(Lose 2 points for working the “get agreement” strategy too often. Add back one-half for NOT using my name again.)

“Let me show you how it works. Since you seem to be having a tough time deciding, let’s list the plusses – some of the reasons you may want to do business with us. Then we’ll list the minuses. Fair enough?” 

(This getting-agreement thing is getting a little irritating although it might have been OK here IF it hadn’t been overworked earlier.)

Now, if you’re like the guy pitching me, you get out a clean sheet of company letterhead and your company-logo giveaway pen and begin to list everything good about the offer, product, service, whatever. In your best leading-the-witness style, you get the prospect to say most of them. You take your time to develop a comprehensive list.

Then you say –

“OK, let’s list the minuses.” And you hand the pen to the prospect … and push the list toward him … and you say nothing more. 

Bing-o/Bang-o! Usually the prospect can only think of objections couched in terms of price or affordability. And you’ve got the answers to those down cold, don’t you?

Start calculating your commission!

Or not. If I’ve done my writing job right, you should be thinking, “But Geoff … do we detect in your tone and presentation that you have a problem with the Benjamin Franklin Close?”

Kee –rect! It’s Old World selling that is –

 

Destined to fail. In fact, as an Old World kinda guy myself AND a Ben Franklin fan, while I was almost entertained by having it trotted out, I was mostly and ultimately annoyed.

 

The reality of 21^st Century selling is: In this computer-info-powered age, any real customer …

… seriously intending to buy

… who has done their prep before you call

… and who has allowed you in but isn’t responsive after you’ve presented

…has pretty much made up his or her mind. 

 

You’ve just not been told the decision.

And I maintain this Death-of-a-Salesman-era closing ploy is unlikely to swing things in your favor.

 

So do you just forget about the Benjamin Franklin Close and never use it?

No! No! NO! I wouldn’t waste your time reviewing it if I didn’t think there was some more-than-cautionary –

TGIM ACTION IDEA: Be like Ben. Do what Ben really would have done. Use the Ben Franklin PRINCIPLE to prepare to get the sale to “Yes!” before you even walk in the door.

No mystery, it’s in the history: In a letter to Joseph Priestly (the English scientist who discovered oxygen), Franklin commented about a perplexing decision that Priestly was wrestling with.

Franklin wrote to his chemist friend that the problem of deciding inexplicable situations is that "all Reasons pro and con are not present to the mind at the same time...." As a result, our minds are like a pendulum swinging back and forth, swayed by whichever aspect of the decision seems to be primary at the time without being able to arrive at a solution.

 

To help solve the dilemma at hand, Franklin informed Priestly that he (Franklin) would divide a sheet of paper into two columns, listing one Pro and the other column Con.

Then in the course of three or four days he would write in each appropriate column brief hints about the motives that at different times occurred to him for or against the decision. If, after careful evaluation, the Pro column contained more positive features, he would make his decision accordingly. The same evaluation process applied to the Con column.

 

Franklin admitted that his decision-making method was purely procedural, and that it could not advise him what to do, but only how. He did inform Priestly that "when each (Pro and Con reason) is thus considered separately and comparatively, and the whole lies before me, I think I judge better and less likely to make a rash step...."

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: Use the Pro-and-Con Column mindset as a sales preparation tool. Use it as a strategizing device. Use it to get yourself ready to make the big sale. Create those columns on a piece of paper or your digital device, and then start listing …

►   … the prospect’s needs

►   … the decision makers

►   … the questions you want to ask

►   … personal “things in common” to discuss

►   … the benefits and main points you want to cover

►   … why you believe they will buy

►   … the reasons this particular prospect may not buy – and your responses 

Thus prepared with Ben’s help, you are now ready to make the call and the sale without resorting to a default gambit.

And, if on the call you see a bunch of Ben Franklin books in the prospect’s office and you want to bond with him (or her), relate your knowledge of the real Ben Franklin PRINCIPLE and lock up the deal.

One more point in, well, closing: 

Is it stating the obvious? The decision tool aspect of the Ben Franklin PRINCIPLE is not limited to business choices. It can be helpful in most areas of daily living. It works to keep you rational. Taking the time to deploy it correctly also discourages rash “I want it now” acts.

If you would not be forgotten

As soon as you are dead and rotten,

Either write things worth reading,

Or do things worth the writing.

Ben said that (in his Poor Richard persona). And did both.

Hope this TGIM helps us do the same.

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com 

P.S.  About those column headings: As Ben says, they should be Pro and Con, not Plus (+) or Minus (–) although –

Ben the Scientist did make the choice of which type of electricity is called "positive" and which "negative" around 1750. In the end further discoveries established that he misunderstood just how electricity flows, but he was ballpark right for his day. We should all be that clever.

Thank Goodness It's Monday #414

HOW TO PREVENT A HOSTILE TAKEOVER

Ben Franklin observed: “Anger is never without a reason” -- dramatic pause – 

“But seldom a good one.”

Sure, in the heat of the moment our reasons for firing up the anger reaction seem, well, perfectly reasonable and good. To us.

• Irritated by that jerk who cut you off on the highway?
• Plotting your revenge on the simpleton at the meeting who took all the credit for your group’s accomplishments?
• Baffled by the mindset of the parents – let alone the kids – who walk around in public looking like that!?

Me too. On any given day we don’t have to wait too long to find an excuse to blow our top.

Sigmund sez: If you allow it, the mind easily fills with the most convincing, self-righteous, inner arguments for becoming indignant.

So maybe Freud didn’t say that specifically but … 

Contemporary psychologists agree: Dr. Daniel Goleman, pioneering writer on behavioral matters and themes of Emotional Intelligence, points out:

“Anger is the most seductive of the negative emotions. Anger is energizing, even exhilarating.”

It can also be incredibly destructive.

Fight-or-Flight Club. Anger’s physical manifestations are associated with the “fight or flight” response – largely the “fight” part. The universal trigger for anger Dr. Goleman says, is a sense of being endangered. Not only a menacing physical threat but also “it can be a symbolic threat to self-esteem or dignity, being treated unjustly or rudely, being insulted or demeaned or being frustrated in pursuing an important goal.” And –

It’s a killer. The infamous Type-A behavior, to be specific.

While anger defenders might argue that blowing your cork is a health-preserving emotional outlet, scientific studies identify the hostile, harmful traits of Type A as cynicism, anger and aggression. And that level of hostility can –

… magnify the impact of blood cholesterol levels thereby increasing the chance of clogging arteries

… weaken immune systems (never a good thing) and parasympathetic nervous systems, which act to calm the rush of fight-or-flight hormones

… make folks feel unhappy, socially isolated and more stressed

But please don’t be angry with me. Because TGIM is here to also bring you –

Good News: “Hostility is a habit that can change if you apply some emotional intelligence, combining being mindful of when it is aroused, regulating it once it has begun and practicing empathy – hearing the feelings behind what is said,” Dr. Goleman says.

“Trusting others goes a long way toward diffusing hostility,” he adds. “Practicing a variety of strategies can help you change biological patterns of behavior that you may have been born with but don’t have to die from.” 

TGIM ACTION IDEA: Before the stress in your life triggers its next gnashing-your-teeth reaction and stages another emotional hijacking that threatens both physical health and relationships, try some of these anger-altering approaches to turn away from anger:

►Avoid venting. Despite the widespread belief that the best way to get rid of anger is to express it, it’s not. In fact, catharsis – giving vent to rage – typically pumps up the brain’s arousal leaving people feeling more angry, not less.

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: Prepare for a mindset of neither venting nor suppressing anger. Recognize when you feel anger coming on. But don’t jump to get rid of it. Aim for the middle. Acknowledge what you feel and become aware of the effects on your body. With luck that will take you out of focusing on what’s happening in your mind.

►Nip anger in the bud. Challenge the assumptions that fuel anger in the first place. The earlier in the anger cycle the better.

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: Here’s an easy one: That jerk who cut you off in traffic. Maybe he had to swerve out of the way of the jerk in front of him. If that’s so, wouldn’t your anger be unjustified. Might you not be grateful that his quick action prevented a three car (or more) pile-up with you in it?

►Quit the Master of the Universe job. Psychologists say that hostile and angry people feel stress when they have to let go of being in charge because of their cynical distrust of others. If that’s you in any way, begin to reverse the situation by relinquishing control in small inconsequential matters.

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: Let someone else pick the restaurant. Figure you’ll adjust your ordering accordingly. Let someone else drive (at least on the short-distance, local outings). Think of it as a cost-free cab ride. (Still, remember to buckle up.)

►Take a chill pill. Out of sight is easier to put out of mind. Remove the immediate reminder of what riles you. If it won’t leave, remove yourself. 

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: Ease away. Walk, but probably don’t run. With an understanding of fight-or-flight, walk away from what irks you and keep walking. The exercise can’t hurt and it will also distract you as you pay attention to the changing landscape along the way.

►Be assertive, not aggressive. Modulating anger doesn’t mean allowing your view to be stepped on or ignoring injustice. Assertiveness, rather than flat out aggressive confrontation, allows you to ask others to change a specific behavior without demanding it. KISS – Keep It Short & Simple. Also keep it concise and specific.

"Benjamin Franklin
Drawing Electricity from the Sky"
by Benjamin West (1738-1820)
Philadelphia Museum of Art 

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: So, for the floor-grabbing meeting room interrupter, a well-intoned, “Will you please let me finish what I’m saying?” should be assertive enough to establish your control. Preface it with a show of controlled understanding of the other person’s point of view – “I’d like to address all your points as I understand them before you react, Dave …” and you’ll gain respect as well as attention. 

And speaking of attention … 

Thanks for yours.

And with a nod to Ben, who instead of telling someone in anger to “Go fly a kite” actually did and made history –

I’ll bring this TGIM message to a close – happily.

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com 

P.S.  BONUS ACTION IDEA: ►Write it off. Literally. Put some time and gain some perspective before lashing out in anger. Capture cynical or hostile thoughts as they arise and write them down. In this way you can reappraise and challenge their foundations in a reasonable and reasoned fashioned. 

Good enough for Honest Abe. Lincoln did this most famously. Civil War buffs know he occasionally wrote angry, piercing letters, had second thoughts and pigeonholed them in his desk, never to be sent.

Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book Team of Rivals chronicles a classic:

Later that afternoon, Lincoln wrote a frank letter to General Meade ... (stating) that he was “distressed immeasurably” by “the magnitude of the misfortune involved in (Gen. Robert E.) Lee's escape. He was within your easy grasp, and to have closed upon him would, in connection with our other late successes, have ended the war. As it is, the war will be prolonged indefinitely.” Before sending the letter, which he knew would leave Meade disconsolate, Lincoln held back as he often did when he was upset or angry, waiting for his emotions to settle. In the end, he placed the letter in an envelope inscribed: “To Gen. Meade, never sent, or signed.”

Thank Goodness It's Monday #404

WEALTHY & WISE ADVICE

FOR APRIL 15, 2013

The dread April 15 income tax filing deadline is upon us … again. 

Thank goodness this year’s deadline is Monday. 

Partly because, for filing procrastinators, that means at least you had the weekend to “git `er done” and – if you still support the Post Office by filing the old fashioned paper way – get your bundle properly postmarked today.

Not that that makes the process any less arduous or exasperating (which, I would observe, is one literal definition of “taxing”).

And partly because it gives me a specific TGIM Topic Target to shoot at.

I suspect most of the good citizens reading these posts feel a certain ambivalence about their mandatory participation in the process of progressive income taxation as currently practiced in our version of a capitalist economy.

• We all have moments when we look at what our taxes are funding and agree with the sentiment of respected jurist John Marshall (1755-1835), “The power to tax involves the power to destroy.”
• And yet we can also find a number of instances to agree with Oliver Wendell Holmes (1841-1935) that “Taxes are what we pay for civilized society.”

And those two quotes lay the groundwork for today’s TGIM subject matter:

 

WEALTHY & TAX-WISE ADVICE: No, not from me. My mastery of the mysteries of tax-savvy strategies is limited and strictly nonprofessional. I stand with the wit who said, “Few of us ever test our powers of deduction, except when filling out an income tax form.” My personal feeling is, even when you believe you’ve made out your tax return in a scrupulously honest way, you still don’t know if you’ve done right or not.

So I’ll concede the advice-rendering portion of this taxing TGIM – and it’s wise and wealthy guidance – to one of the smartest Americans that ever was or will be--

Benjamin Franklin

“The Way To Wealth”



Franklin first published what later became known as
The Way to Wealth as the preface
to his almanac for 1758. 
It began at the top of the left-hand page and
continued in the available spaces on the calendar pages.

This image is from
The Library Company of Philadelphia
-- the largest public library in America
until the Civil War.
 Founded in 1731 by Franklin,
it is America's oldest cultural institution, 
 

Ben’s essay “The Way to Wealth” was published almost two decades before the Declaration of Independence -- July 7, 1757. While packed with amazingly timeless messages, it is nearly 3,500 words long (and you think I go on!) and has a certain 250-years-old style that makes it challenging to read.

So I will spare you it in its entirety. 

The point is: This long tale is Franklin’s made-up story of stopping in his Richard Saunders -- aka, “Poor Richard” persona -- unrecognized, at a village market and overhearing the local “wise man” regale the crowd with insights he has gained from Poor Richard’s Almanack. 

HIGHLIGHTED FOR APRIL 15: In what follows I’ve exercised editorial privilege to focus on the portions that reference taxation particularly. And I dared to modernize Ben’s telling somewhat to get right down to what’s most relevant for us on April 15, 2013:

*****

They were conversing on the badness of the times, and one fellow called to a plain clean old man, with white locks, "Pray, Father Abraham, what think you of the times? Won't these heavy taxes quite ruin the country? How shall we be ever able to pay them? What would you advise us to?" 

Father Abraham stood up, and replied, "If you'd have my advice, I'll give it you in short, for a word to the wise is enough, and many words won't fill a bushel, as Poor Richard says." 

[Editorial aside: Franklin was always a master of self promotion; that was just another part of his genius. And as you’ll see, he keeps referencing his Poor Richard sources – by name and in an italic typeface -- throughout his essay.]

The crowd joined in desiring Father Abraham to speak his mind and, gathering round him, he proceeded as follows:

"Friends,” says he, “and neighbors; the taxes are indeed very heavy, and if those laid on by the government were the only ones we had to pay, we might more easily discharge them.

“But we have many others, and much more grievous to some of us. 

“We are taxed twice as much by our idleness,

… three times as much by our pride,

… and four times as much by our folly

-- and from these taxes the commissioners cannot ease or deliver us by allowing an abatement. 

“However let us hearken to good advice, and something may be done for us. God helps them that help themselves, as Poor Richard says, in his almanac of 1733.

"It would be thought a hard government that should tax its people one tenth part of their time, to be employed in its service. 

“But idleness taxes many of us much more, if we reckon all that is spent in absolute sloth, or doing of nothing, with that which is spent in idle employments or amusements, that amount to nothing. 

“And sloth, by bringing on diseases, absolutely shortens life. Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labor wears, while the used key is always bright, as Poor Richard says.

“But dost thou love life, then do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of, as Poor Richard says.

 

“If time be of all things the most precious, wasting time must be, as Poor Richard says, the greatest prodigality, since, as he elsewhere tells us, Lost time is never found again, and What we call time-enough, always proves little enough. 

“Let us then be up and be doing, and doing to the purpose; so by diligence shall we do more with less perplexity. 

“Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry all easy, as Poor Richard says; and he that riseth late, must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business at night. While laziness travels so slowly, that poverty soon overtakes him, as we read in Poor Richard, who adds, Drive thy business, let not that drive thee.

"So what signifies wishing and hoping for better times? We may make these times better if we bestir ourselves.

“And, as Poor Richard likewise observes, He that hath a trade hath an estate, and He that hath a calling hath an office of profit and honor. But then the trade must be worked at, and the calling well followed, or neither the estate, nor the office, will enable us to pay our taxes.

“If you would be wealthy, says he, in another almanac, think of saving as well as of getting. The Indies have not made Spain rich, because her outgoes are greater than her incomes. Away then with your expensive follies, and you will not have so much cause to complain of hard times, heavy taxes, and the expense of families.

Get what you can, and what you get hold;

'Tis the stone that will turn all your lead into gold,

-- as Poor Richard says. And when you have got that Philosopher's Stone, surely you will no longer complain of bad times, or the difficulty of paying taxes.

"This doctrine, my friends, is reason and wisdom. 

“But, after all: Do not depend too much upon your own industry, and frugality, and prudence. 

“Though excellent things, they may all be blasted without the blessing of heaven. Therefore, ask that blessing humbly. And be not uncharitable to those that at present seem to want it. Comfort and help them. Remember Job suffered, and was afterwards prosperous.

 

"And now to conclude: Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other, and scarce in that. It is true, we may give advice, but we cannot give conduct, as Poor Richard says.

“However, remember this: They that won't be counseled can't be helped, as Poor Richard says. 

“And farther: If you will not hear reason, she'll surely rap your knuckles."

*****

“Thus,” says Franklin as his essay wraps up, “the old gentleman ended his harangue.”

And we shall as well. 

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: Bestir yourselves. 

Or have your knuckles rapped. April 15, 2014 will be upon us all too soon.

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com 

P.S.  “The only thing that hurts more than paying an income tax is not having to pay an income tax.” Lord Thomas R. Dewar (1864 – 1930) of whiskey-distilling fame is credited with that observation. Cheers!

CELEBRATING BEN'S BIRTHDAY



Benjamin Franklin (1772)

Year depicted: 1766
Artist: David Martin 
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Philadelphia

It’s the always-notable, highly-quotable Ben Franklin’s 307th birthday today.

 

Here’s what he had to say about his life at age 65, well before he could also weigh his contributions as a Founding Father: 

The Opening of Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography

Composed at Twyford, England, 1771

Directed to his son, William Franklin,

Royal Governor of New Jersey.

Dear Son:

I have ever had a pleasure in obtaining any little anecdotes of my ancestors. You may remember the inquiries I made among the remains of my relations when you were with me in England, and the journey I undertook for that purpose.

 

Now, imagining it may be equally agreeable to you to know the circumstances of my life, many of which you are unacquainted with, and expecting a week's uninterrupted leisure in my present country retirement, I sit down to write them for you.

 

Having emerged from the poverty and obscurity in which I was born and bred, to a state of affluence and some degree of reputation in the world, and having gone so far through life with a considerable share of felicity, the conducing means I made use of which with the blessing of God so well succeeded, my posterity may like to know, may find some of them suitable to their own situations, and therefore fit to be imitated.

 

That felicity, when I reflected on it, has induced me sometimes to say, that were it offered to my choice, I should have no objection to a repetition of the same life from its beginning, only asking the advantages authors have in a second edition of the first.

 

So I might, besides correcting the faults, change some sinister accidents and events of it for others more favorable, but though this was denied, I accept the offer.

 

Catalyst Collection Takeaway: Live your life so that you may say the same.