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How to Stop Using These 3 Sales Killing Words

Written by: Cheryl A. Clausen

Article Overview: One of the problems with any profession is you tend to use language that sounds good and makes sense to you. Yet, that language is a turn off to the people you want to work with. And the real kicker is you don’t even realize the impact certain words have on your potential clients.

How to Stop Using These 3 Sales Killing Words

One of the problems with any profession is you tend to use language that sounds good and makes sense to you. Yet, that language is a turn off to the people you want to work with. And the real kicker is you don’t even realize the impact certain words have on your potential clients.

Here are the three words you should remove from your vocabulary: customer, prospect, and pitch (deal or presentation). Wow, that sounds really hard doesn’t it? You use these words so automatically you’d be shocked if you actually counted how many times you use those words throughout your day.

First, let me explain why obliterating those words from your vocabulary is so important. Those words trigger immediate and lasting resistance. When a person you want to buy from you hears any one of those words they instantly peg you as a salesperson, and they put their guard up. Worse yet, once their guard it up it stays up.

The last thing you want to do is work with someone who is fighting you every step of the way. When you choose your words more wisely, you have people who want to work with you. The people you’re talking to are open to you and don’t have a reason to resist you until you give them one.

The word customer is a term associated with a transactional purchase. When you’re a customer you’re a face-less unimportant person. A client, on the other hand, is someone important. It’s your job to look out for your client’s best interests. Replace the word customer with the word client.

It’s pretty obvious the word prospect immediately triggers resistance. The potential client is thinking, “You may have sold Bob, but you’re not going to sell me.” Now you wouldn’t call someone a prospect to their face, yet when you use the word prospect it impacts how you think of the person you want to buy from you. Replace the word prospect with “potential client” or “future client”. When you do you’ll notice you immediately change your words and behaviors to match with the fact you plan to work with this person over a long period of time.

You may have been forced to memorize a presentation, pitch, or deal. That doesn’t mean you have to use it and it doesn’t mean you should ever under any circumstances speak of a sales conversation in those terms. Rather speak in terms of a “conversation”, “discussion”, or “share some ideas”. Those terms could also be used to replace a request for an appointment. The less resistance you trigger the easier it is to hold a productive sales conversation that converts a potential client into a new client.

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Article Tags: job, kicker, pitch, profession, resistance, salesperson, vocabulary, word client



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