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When selling products and services, the words you and I use reflect to the prospect our education, training and knowledge of their business issues. In sales, communication can be the pen that signs the P.O. or the sword that cuts the deal..........  I look forward to your comments. 

 

 

 Rick Erling
(972) 727-6880
 
  

How to Close More Sales Opportunities by Using Words Your Prospects Want to Hear!
 by Paul DiModica

When selling products and services, the words you and I use reflect to the prospect our education, training and knowledge of their business issues. In sales, communication can be the pen that signs the P.O. or the sword that cuts the deal.

When cold calling or meeting with C-level executives of Fortune 1000 firms or presidents of private companies, what you say and how you say it determines your success or failure.

As salespeople, at times we take for granted the process of selling. Many times, salespeople shoot from the hip, not from an element of carelessness, but more from an element of repetition.

But great salespeople realize that sales is a premeditated sport.

For instance, describing your firm as a “company” on the phone or in person to a prospect has specific business connotations associated with it.

Have you ever noticed what kind of firms describe themselves a “company”?

• “A plumbing company”
• “An electrical company”
• “A landscaping company”

Yet, have you ever heard of a law or accounting firm being described as a “Law Company” or an “Accounting Company”?

What about the words “Client” and “Customer”? Do law firms have customers?

Of course not!

The words you use with a prospect paint visual impressions and deliver subliminal messages of who you are and who you are not.

The same word may have quite different meanings to different listeners. This is not surprising when you realize that the 500 most commonly used words in English have 14,070 dictionary meanings.

In the Second World War, Winston Churchill tells of a long argument in a meeting of British and American Chiefs of Staff Committee. The British brought in a memo on an important point and proposed to “table” it – which to them meant to discuss it right away. The Americans protested the matter must not be tabled, and the debate grew quite hot before the participants realized they all wanted the same thing.

You see, in sales, perception is reality.

So, just little changes in your sales presentation can make large changes in your closing ratio.

If you speak succinctly, the client will not know if you’re a salesperson calling from a Fortune 50 company inside a thirty story high-rise building or . . . calling from a five-person startup operating from your garage.

Using targeted positive communication that is unique to your prospect is one key to increased sales.

Dr. Herbert H. Clark, a psychologist from The Johns Hopkins University discovered that it takes the average person about 48% longer to understand a sentence using a negative word than it does to understand a positive or affirmative sentence.

Use positive executive words will help you sell more.

Sales Word Usage

• Stay away from canned responses.
• Always discuss, not sell.
• Discuss one product or service at a time. Never get so excited with your offerings that you over-communicate what you have and confuse the prospect with too many opportunities to buy.
• Never describe what you sell as the product or service itself; always describe your offering as programs and services.

Executive Sales Word Triggers

Below are two lists of executive sales trigger words. Look at your current telemarketing scripts and client sales presentations and substitute negative words for positive words.

You will be surprised at how slight adjustments in your speech pattern make big adjustments in your sales.

Positive Words That Sell

• Firm
• Specialists
• Productivity
• Expense Reduction
• Performance
• Services
• Program
• Value
• Executive Briefing
• Practice Manager
• Relationship
• You
• Chat
• Listen
• Situations
• Informative
• Clients
• Acknowledgment
• Proven
• Business models
• Business tool
• Benefits
• Efficient
• Discuss
• Listen
• Collaborate
• Client support
• Client oriented
• Decide for yourself
• Investment

Negative Words That Don’t Sell

• Consultant
• Demo
• Technology
• Company
• Talk
• Generalists
• ROI
• Salesperson
• Contract
• “I”
• Price
• Customers
• Brochure
• Expert
• Problems
• Perfect
• Price

Remember, the two words “information” and “communication” are often used interchangeably, but they signify quite different things. Information is giving out; communication is getting through. Sydney J. Harris 

 P.S. Click to download our Sales, Marketing and Strategy Seminars brochure now.
 

 I welcome your comments.

 To your success,

Rick Erling


 

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