7 Things Successful Sales People Never Say

What’s interesting about us humans is the fact that, even though we don’t like to admit it, we are judgemental beings.

Often, we don’t view ourselves as being judgemental; we consider ourselves to be realists.

A situation occurs and we decide whether it is right or wrong, good, or bad, black or white.

Where do those ideas come from?

From our programming and conditioning, that’s where.

We are conditioned to identify what we consider to be right based on our experiences, our values, our standards, and our rules.

Every other person on the planet has had different experiences from you, and so will have different values, different beliefs and, hence, different judgements.

For instance, when you say, “You shouldn’t do that!” you are coming from your own judgements and rationale.

You’re weighing up the situation, determining what you would do in a similar spot and then balance up whether what is done instead lives up to your standards or rules.

It’s natural.

It’s human. It’s us being us.

So, are there some things that salespeople should never say?

Isn’t that being judgemental just asking the question?

Well, in a way, yes.

However, when you see the ideas below, you will probably agree these are things that shouldn’t be said because clients and prospects will probably judge us negatively if we did.

And that’s the main reason.

Not because we consider them to be right, but because most of our clients would say they are wrong.

Let’s face it, all clients use judgement to determine if the like you, believe you, have confidence in you and trust you.

What you need to do is to lower the resistance by shying away from phrases or words that will cause judgements to rise up in the first place.

Let’s look at some of the thing’s salespeople should never find coming out of their mouths:

“Trust me!”

Really? Do you need to tell me that? Your words are worthless if you don’t prove trustworthy.

It’s pointless asking someone to trust you if you haven’t given them reasons to do so.

Demonstrate you are trustworthy; don’t tell them. “Trust me” is not a term you would hear any of my trainers use if you attended any selling skills training with us. We do not recommend it.

“How are you today?”

After opening a cold call.

Please!

Leave that to the slimy, smarmy toothy-grinned salespeople of yester-year, who thought that it built rapport with a stranger.

These days it screams out the message “I AM GOING TO SELL YOU SOMETHING!”

Attend our Telesales Training to learn exactly what to say instead!

“What will it take to earn your business?”

Err…give me a free sample?

This antiquated question lost its power when the first transaction took place in Antique-Land.

It puts so much pressure on the prospect because it’s asking them to do all the work.

They must think about what ‘deal’ they would take.

Instead, you should be building the value so that the prospect sees that accepting your offer is the best thing to do for them and/or their business.

“This is a limited offer”

Yeah right!

This smacks of all those furniture store closing-down offers, only to spring back, phoenix-like, from the ashes of despair, making customers feel cheated. We’d never cover these tactics on our Retail Sales Training.

If it really is a limited offer, build value first before you discuss price.

Limited offers come and go…they don’t have the impact they may have had in the 20th century (such a long time ago!).

“I give you my word”

Hah! The cheese monster rises from his lair again.

Another is “My word is my bond”.

If you have to say these sentences, you are thinking words have a greater effect on people than deeds.

Prospects want to know WHY they should trust you. Just saying it doesn’t make it right or true.

“What do you think?”

Eh? Surely there’s nothing wrong with this one?

After all, isn’t asking for the opinion of the prospect a good way of discovering their needs and wants.

Yes, of course, but this isn’t the way to do it.

The question creates logical triggers.

It’s better to ask how the person feels about the situation.

Thinking is rational, left-brained in its drivers.

‘How do you feel about this?’ gets the person to go deeper into their thought patterns and connects to the emotional decision-making process.

“Let me be honest with you!”

What? You mean you weren’t being honest before?

I know that seems far-fetched, but the subliminal message that gets through is that everything I’ve said up to now is questionable…I am going to be honest with you from now on!

Successful people don’t say these phrases because they don’t want to give the other person even a glimmer of a reason to doubt them or question their professionalism.

Think things through before you say things that might cause you to regret it afterwards.

Get in touch to discuss your Sales Training requirements or please check out our Sales Skills Assessment Test and Online Sales Courses.

Or take a look at our full portfolio of Sales Training Courses.

Happy Selling!

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Sales Training