♪ Bless him in the mornings ♪ ♪ Come back Sunday morning ♪ California's top casino and entertainment destination is now your California to Vegas connection. Play at Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel to earn points, rewards, and complimentary experiences for the iconic Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas.

♪ Got to sort of tell 'em ♪ Two destinations, one loyalty card. Visit yamava.com/palms to discover more. - Welcome to the Radical Personal Finance Podcast. My name is Joshua Sheets and I'm your host. Quick coaching call version of the show today. I'll be back soon with the regular format of the show.

I want to talk with you about making decisions and clarifying costs. This is just a simple thing that I've noticed, very straightforward. But I've recognized that many people don't have a framework for making decisions, or at least they don't specifically isolate, they don't have a specific process that they could clearly say, here's my process, my framework for making decisions.

So I want to give you a tool that is going to sound incredibly basic to some, but incredibly useful to others of you. I receive a lot of questions here on the show, Joshua, should I do this, what would be the option here, what would be the, you know, should I make this financial decision, should I do this thing here?

And I often look at the questions and I think, but this is so simple. But obviously it's not simple to the person asking the question. Otherwise, well, unless they're just interested in my viewpoint, which is probable to some of them, but it's not simple to them because they haven't put it down.

And sometimes I respond back with an email and say, well, what about this information, this information? But it's very simple about just simply weigh the pros and cons and make a list of all of the reasons to make a change and all the reasons to not make a change and clarify the costs and clarify the benefits.

But the key is write it down. And that's the point that I want to make to you. Our natural way of making decisions is to think something through and think through the pros and the cons, the costs and the benefits. And then if the benefits outweigh the costs, we make the decision.

If the pros outweigh the cons, we make the decision, whichever direction it is. But what I've recognized is very few of us are disciplined enough to consistently clarify the key bits of info for each decision that we have to make. Rather, we let it all swim around in our brain.

And brains are a very bad place for processing some types of information. They're great at some things and they're bad at other things. And one of those things is trying to think your way through a decision. It's a lot easier if you get it out on paper and it's black and white.

The best way to do this that I use often -- excuse me, not the best way, the simplest way that's a good way -- comes from a sales closing technique. There's a whole business -- if you pay any attention to sales training, there's an aspect of sales that involves closing techniques.

And professional selling has changed from the way that it used to be done. But it used to be that a professional salesperson would spend a little bit of time finding out what you needed, more amount of time presenting to you the solution, and then a whole lot of time tying you down with some fancy closing language.

The best example would be alternative choice. "Dear Mr. Jones, you're looking at this furniture. Well, would you like it in blue or red?" That's a closing technique, just presenting an alternative choice. And most people are savvy enough now to spell that out. And most of us are not manipulated by, "Well, I don't know how to say whether I would like it in something other than blue and red, or I wouldn't like it at all." Most of us are familiar with that.

So, a pro tip for you, alternative choice is still powerful, but you've got to do it a little bit more elegantly. So if you're a salesperson, still use an alternative choice, but be a little smoother about it, and don't do it too soon, and position things a little bit more elegantly, rather than just, "Well, would you like it blue or red?

Is Tuesday better, or is Thursday better for you?" Be a little bit smoother. But that is a closing technique. And one of the more famous closing techniques that you probably should be aware of is commonly called the Ben Franklin Close. And every sales seminar that I ever listen to, or every sales training, they always cover the Ben Franklin Close.

And it's pretty tired because of that fact that most people have used it. But here is how the sales close was taught to salespeople. You would do a sales presentation. You'd finish up the sales presentation. You're sitting, whatever you're selling, you're sitting in front of a couple, and they're on the fence, and they can't make up their mind, and they haven't committed to the buying decision.

And so you say, "You know, Benjamin Franklin was one of the wisest and most respected men in history. Wouldn't you agree, Mr. and Mrs. Jones?" Got to get in the agreement. Whenever he was faced with a tough decision, much like you are today, he would take out a plain piece of paper.

He would draw a line down the middle and put a plus sign on one half and a minus sign on the other. And he discovered that by listing all the positive elements on the plus side of the paper and the negative things on the minus side, well, the answer would become obvious.

That makes a lot of sense, wouldn't you agree? With your permission, I'm going to borrow Ben Franklin's method for just a moment. And since you're having a tough time making a decision, let's list the benefits, some of the reasons that you should make this purchased, and then we'll list the negatives.

Fair enough? And then you write down all the positive qualities and benefits of the product or service, or if you're a little bit more advanced, you have the prospect write them down for you or list them off for you, and you pay attention to what's the most interesting. And then you write down the negative prospect and the negative options, and of course, as the salesperson, you never list any negatives.

You let the prospect list the negatives. And what happens is that almost always the negative list will be shorter than the positive. So that's the sales closing technique. And it's very effective, but the key is to use it professionally, and I won't go too deep into that. But it's good to know.

I love, by the way, in case you think I'm making fun of salespeople, I love being sold to. It's one of my favorite things in the world, and I often will buy things just because a salesperson is a great salesperson. I'm talking about smaller ticket items. But I love, love, love to be sold to professionally.

But the key is professionally, and jumping into a closing technique without all of the earlier steps, finding the need, clearly identifying it, proposing the solution, finding out, making sure it's appropriate, all that other stuff. I hate that. And most of you do too. So even though this is something that generally gets made fun of today, makes you think of a not-so-fun selling situation where a salesperson is being unprofessional and pushing you too far, still a useful technique.

That's called the Ben Franklin Close. Now, my encouragement to you is just to always use this yourself. Anytime you have a decision to make, take out a little notebook. I like the type of notebook, the Moleskine notebook type. I get some-- By the way, a couple times, if you like the Moleskine type of notebook, I've found some good deals on a brand called Ecosystem, and they're really nice notebooks.

So I like that type of notebook. Open it up where you got a page on the left and a page on the right. Put a plus or a minus, or put the two opposing. If I move, if I don't move, advantages to this job, advantages to that job. Write it down, and then just fill out the page with everything that you can think of.

And when you do that, the answer is going to probably emerge. Tip to make this work well, put everything on the page. Specifically, list all of the costs. Where I see this a lot of times would be something like buying cars. Many times when people are trying to make a car buying decision, I faced this recently.

I was making a car buying decision. You get excited about the acquisition. It's fun to buy stuff. It's exciting, at least for me. I like to buy stuff. And so you get all excited and wrapped up in the purchase, and then you don't want to write down all of the costs.

You don't want to actually do the research and say, "Well, if I buy this car, "how much is the car insurance going to be?" "Ah, it's $48 a month." Or, "Yeah, here's what the depreciation actually is." Or, "You know what? "If I buy this car, "I'm actually going to need to get it washed, "and so let me go ahead and add this." If you'll use this technique, pluses and minuses, one on one page, the other on the other, and you'll be honest and complete, you'll make better decisions, and you'll be able to coach yourself into better decisions.

Write a clear question at the top of the page, one page for pros, one page for cons, however it's structured within the form of a question, and fill up the page. Sleep on it for a night, come back the next day, look at it, assess, talk it over with somebody who's close to you, your dad, your mom, your husband, your wife, your boss, your employee, your friend.

Very simple, but very few people do it. Be one of those who does it. Be back with you soon. Thank you all for listening. Are you ready to make your next pro basketball, football, hockey, concert, or live event unforgettable? Let Sweet Hop take your game to the next level.

Sweet Hop is an online marketplace curating the best premium tickets at stadiums, arenas, and amphitheaters nationwide. Sweet Hop's online marketplace makes it easy to browse and book the best seats. With no hidden fees, and a 100% purchase guarantee, you can feel confident when you book your premium LA tickets with Sweet Hop.

Visit SUITEHOP.COM today.