When a woman says, “We should…” almost always she means, “You should…” So, when selling….
Most likely that salesperson you admire, keeps taking the cake because of her choice of words when selling. Appropriate word usage is indispensable to successful selling. This has got nothing to do with being an accomplished linguist. Far from it. It’s about knowing when to insert choice words and phrases in your pitch that influence the buyer’s thinking into feeling pleasure or pain thereby accelerating the sale to a close (agreement to buy). Here’s a few ways:
Focus on the buyer
First, always focus on the buyer. This means using the word “You” significantly more than “We”. “You mentioned that you want to stop the recurring expenditure on maintenance for your heater. (Pain). Because the housing in this heater is made of glass as opposed to aluminium, you will not have to incur any more costs on maintenance.” Compare this to: “With our heater which is glass-housed, we will ensure that you don’t incur more costs on maintenance.” Which of the two appeals to you more? Notice I didn’t ask, which of the two, have I managed to appeal to you more with?
Cost not money
Next, especially if it is a business you are selling to, using cost, value, investment and savings beats hands down, money and price. So, continuing the sale of the heater, “The savings on the maintenance can be invested into a second solar heater because, as you mentioned, the costs you are currently incurring using steam (or electricity) in the other three blocks, is much more than the savings you will make. The value you will get from this investment will be consistent with the cost savings target you have for the year.” Compare this to: “The price of this heater is less than the money you are currently using on maintenance. So having a second heater will reduce the money you are using to light up the other three blocks with steam.”
Borrow from women
Thirdly, borrow from women. When a woman says to a man, “We should…” almost always she means, “You should…” So, when selling especially at closing, instead of you should (which can come out as arrogant and presumptive) try instead, “Should we proceed with incorporating the other heater for the three blocks into the invoice?” Reformulating suggestions as questions helps the buyer keep an open mind and reduces the chances of the conversation taking an ugly turn.
In addition, in this era of pervasive social media, I think ‘Like our Facebook page’ is overdone to the point of creating inertia. Try instead, ‘Write on our Facebook wall’. Likewise instead of ‘Join our online sales community’ move the prospective subscriber with ‘Contribute to our online sales community.’
Use the senses
Finally, “See this”, “Smell this”, “Touch this”, “Listen to this” and “Taste this” are simple statements that influence purchase decisions by playing on the senses. Imagine selling a leather handbag and how powerful those statements would be. Or, a remote getaway destination with, “Listen to how loud the silence is. Can you hear it?”
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