Increase Sales Metrics by Using the Balance Close
One of the best sales books you’ll ever read is Ben Franklin’s autobiography. He’s really the only American philosopher we had. And he’s one of our only inventors and philosophers. What made Ben Franklin such an expert in sales? The way he made decisions. For any business transaction, or when considering anything major that would require his time or money (or both), he’d make a t-chart and weigh his options from a pros versus cons standpoint.
If the cons outweighed the pros, he wouldn’t do it. If the pros outweighed the cons, he would. In sales, most decisions made are weighed or balanced against each other. When I buy a pair of sneakers or a new iPad, I weighed the benefits of having them versus not having them.
High-performing salespeople know that’s one of the tools in our arsenal—to take the high ground, to really help a buyer go backwards through the process and weigh options against one another. This works with selling to buying groups. This works when selling to individuals. Because that’s exactly how they’re going to make a decision.
You could have seven feathers against something and three rocks for something. Which would weigh more? It’s not necessarily the quantity of pros or cons, but the quality. It sounds simple because it is simple. But salespeople often forget this technique. We call it the Balance Close, and it comes right out of Ben Franklin’s sales playbook.
They didn’t put him on the $100 bill for nothing!
Looking for more decision making tools to help your team close more deals? Get your copy of Selling is an Away Game, available online at Amazon.