The Briefcase Technique

Hi, my name is Ramit Sethi from iwillteachytoberich.com several years ago, I developed a technique that I used to close job interview after job interview. I tested it, I tweaked it, and I found that it started working a huge percentage of the time. So a couple years after that, I shared it with a few close friends and readers of mine, and only recently I shared it publicly. Now, this technique is a way that you walk into an interview, whether it's for a freelance contract or a full time job, or in essence, any type of negotiation, and you walk in and you use astonishing preparation to basically close the deal. When you do this correctly, cost is a mere triviality, price is a triviality. What they care about is the level of preparation that you've done. Now I'm going to show you this actual technique and then I'm going to analyze it for you and show you why it works, take you behind the scenes. But before I do, let me just share a couple of things that my readers have gotten, the results that they've actually achieved. So one of my readers landed six times as many job offers using this very technique. Another one negotiated a $16,000 raise. In fact, we have generated hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions of dollars in increased salaries using the briefcase technique and a variety of other achievements. Now, what's fascinating is when I first publicly released this, many people said, oh, this sounds great, I'm going to try it. Other people said, this is BS for me. This is just marketing stuff. It works because we have documented hundreds and hundreds of testimonials of people using it and untold thousands of people who used it and didn't even submit a testimonial. So I'm going to show you this technique now and then I'll show you why it works directly afterwards. Here is the briefcase technique.

This is a technique that's earned me tens of thousands of dollars over the course of my career so far. And I love it because it works so well. It's called the briefcase technique. Now what happens is you're a freelancer, you're going into a client meeting, you've already sent them a number of materials and they're really interested in perhaps working with you. So you go into this meeting and they kind of just want to talk and get to know you and get.

A feel for it.

Now the client's going to ask you questions, oh, what do you think about this? What do you think about that? Now remember, up until this point, you've already understood what their business problems are, what their challenges are, and potentially how you're going to solve them. So the client says, you know, I'm really just curious, what's your price here? And what you say at that point is, oh, actually before we get to that, let me just show you something I put together. And you literally pull out from your briefcase a 1, 2, 3, 5 page proposal document. And this proposal isn't about your price, it's actually about things that you found in their business that you could improve and exactly how you would go through it. Imagine it to the business owner as the most compelling menu they've ever gotten. They're literally looking at business problems that they know about, but you've identified them on the outside and you're saying, well, the website doesn't convert enough, but there are three things I would do. I would run these tests. Time, approximately one month. Or we could do this. Or we could do this. Just choose and let me know. The business owner is salivating because he knows that he could get all these things done. And the person to solve it would be you. Okay, that is exactly how you want to be thinking about your pitch meeting. You pull it out of your briefcase. There's something very theatrical about it and they almost cannot resist. Right there, you've closed the sale.

So what just happened there? The surface level is that, yes, you theatrically pulled out a piece of paper. And many people believe that it's simply that. Or they look at it in a very insular sense and they say, oh, this only works for freelancing.

No.

What's really going on here? What's the theory behind it? What's going on here is an untold level of preparation. So that when you go and negotiate with a busy person, all they have to do is say yes. Think about the mindset and mentality and psychology of a busy person. They know that if they're hiring someone to do a new project or hiring someone for a full time position, they're going to have to spend more of their limited time training this person, coaching this person, monitoring this person. But if you come in with a fully fleshed out proposal, what happens in their mind? They say, I'm not even going to have to think about this. This person already has it documented on paper. You're making it easy for the busy person to say yes. Secondly, busy people love to tweak things. They don't necessarily want to create things. We all have blank page syndrome. But if you come into a presentation, you're presenting to me and you say, this is what I've got. Ramit, what do you think about it? Well, of course I can say, well, you should do this, don't do this, definitely do this. I love that. That's much easier than me having to use my limited cognition, my limited willpower as a cognitive miser to create something new. So you're making it easy for me to say yes. Now, what can you use the briefcase technique for? As you saw in the video, obviously you can use it to close freelance deals. That's no problem. That's been done hundreds and actually thousands of times. What else? You can use it when you're going into a full time job. Okay, you want to close a deal. I myself have used this. It works extremely well. What else? You can use it at your existing job to get more responsibility. You can use it at your existing job for a negotiation. You can say, here's what I've done. Here's a list of testimonials of what people have said about me, including you yourself, Mr. Boss, and here's what I'm looking for. And then of course, you pull out the salary.com, glassdoor.com, payscale.com salary figures that you've pulled. All of these have nothing to do simply with the piece of paper. What it shows is that you took the time in preparation before the meeting to actually come. Think about what it is you want to achieve and you are able to accomplish it. Now, one last point. If you simply walk into a negotiation or job interview, it's easy for the person to say, no, I don't think so.

I don't think that will work, or.

It'S not a good fit. When you bring in your briefcase technique, papers and preparation, all of a sudden it's not you arguing with that person. You're not adversarial at all. You're talking about the figures. You have changed the focus. You've framed the discussion to now talk about this. And by the way, who came up with this? You did. So you have now primed, framed the discussion and you control where it goes. That is the power of the briefcase technique. That is what you can do with it. That is what thousands of my students have done using the briefcase technique. Enjoy and use this technique with care because it is that powerful.