Recently, I did a talk called “The Language of Sales” to a group of professionals who were attending the Small Business Times BizTech Expo.
I made three key points. The first was that the world may “like” salespeople, but it doesn’t “value” them. I know, not the most uplifting message. But there’s redemption in the end.
The second point connected to the first: customers assess salespeople’s value based on how they sell, not what they sell. I further developed this point by suggesting that customers see a salesperson as either a “traditional salesperson” or a “business resource,” (and of course, everyone wants to be viewed as one of these business resource things). And we control – by how we sell – whether customers see us as one or the other (that’s the redemption).
Our words define us
The third point was an extension of the first two: the words we use when talking to customers profoundly influence how customers assess our value. Words are to selling what numbers are to accounting – the building blocks of the discipline.
One slide in particular seemed to trigger a lot of interest. It showed a handful of words that can (emphasis on “can,” not “do”) cause customers to see a salesperson as traditional (and remember, nobody wants to be one of these anymore, now that they know about this business resource stuff).
I didn’t have time to comment much on why these words can unwittingly mis-position us, so I’ll do that here.
The cold call killer
The first point to make is that traditional selling has its own language. There are words and phrases that, no matter how hard we try, no matter what our intentions in using them, will always cause customers to put us in that “Traditional Salesperson” box. These words should be avoided for that reason alone.
The most prominent example of this association that we talked about was the words salespeople use when making cold calls. Let’s face it, there’s no more common way of opening a cold call than with some form of “How are you?” And frankly, there’s no more unsuccessful way to open one than that.
The problem is not that it’s a disingenuous question. The problem is that cold calls by traditional salespeople have been opened with “how are you” since time began. Nobody takes it as a “friendly way to break the ice by this nice salesperson.” In Pavlov fashion, on hearing these three words, the prospect’s guard goes up…and usually, the phone receiver goes down.
Words to avoid
What follows is the list of words that appeared on the aforementioned slide. These are a few words and phrases that send a traditional salesperson signal to customers. The list is not exhaustive.
• “Decision”… Traditional salespeople are always looking for the close. This word is associated with closing pressure.
• “Decision-maker?”… Just plain schmaltzy! Freshman! Also associated with “the transaction.” Shows lack of political insight.
• “I know you’re busy”… Classic “master/servant relationship” language of traditional selling. Intended to show respect, but it diminishes the value of the salesperson’s time.
• “Appreciate the time”… “Thank you” is not dirty language, except when it’s in the context of thanking customers for their time. Subconsciously, traditional salespeople believe customers are doing them a favor simply by meeting with them.
• “I’ll let you get back to work”… Umm, what was the last hour we just spent together, play? Another subservient phrase that implies customer is doing me a favor by meeting with me.
• “Opportunity”… Associated with your looking for “the deal,” or “the transaction.”
• “Quote”… “Would you like me to quote that?” Please! Quoting is not selling! This is the height of traditional sales language. Business Resource salespeople NEVER use “quote” as a verb.
• “Bid”… See “quote.”
• “Needs”… Guilty by association. For millennia now traditional salespeople have been telling customers how they want to “find solutions to meet their needs.” Yawn!
• “Relationship”… Too closely associated with schmoozing.
• “Contacts”… Ouch! It’s like, “I’m a sales guy looking for other contacts I can pitch.”
• “Who else should I be talking to?”… This is NOT a problem because it’s a slight to the person to whom we direct the question. It’s a problem because it shows an incredible lack of organizational savvy.
• “What’s your timing on this decision?”… See “opportunity.”
• “Partner (Partnership)”… Gag me! Do we really think customers are going to see their business relationship with us as a partnership just because we say it is? It’s kind of like trying to be a business resource just by printing it on your business card and saying you now are one.
So, there you have 14 (and again, there certainly are others) words and phrases that – and some more than others – we should jettison from our vocabulary if we want to avoid being seen as a traditional salesperson. If we want to be seen as a business resource the first thing we have to do is stop talking like a traditional “vendor” or “problem solver” salesperson.
