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I’ve been noticing lately how many empty and overused sales words we use and I thought it was time I pointed out some in my sales blog. As sales professionals our most important tool is our words. That sales tip was given to me years ago and it has proven to be very true. I’ve put together a list of sales chatter that gets in the way of our sales skills and annoys customers or at best doesn’t even register with them. Customers appreciate when we use clear, sincere, non-jargon language with them.

1. “This is a win-win for everyone.” [Contrary to a lot of popular sales advice, customers don't really care that much about whether we win; they care that they win. I much prefer something like, "This solution is going to work well for you."]
2. “What would I have to do to get your business?” [This is really rookie sounding. My eyes hurt just reading it. Either the salesperson is not listening and/or not asking the right questions.]
3. “I’m just touching base with you.” [Why can't we be honest about why we're calling? It's a basic of how to sell. "I'm calling to see if that contract has been signed."]
4. “We are the biggest, best, oldest, best trained…” [I've observed that customers don't really appreciate all our verbal magnification about how wonderful our employer is. They want to know what we can do for them. Did you know this is the best sales tips sales blog in North America? See what I mean? Big turn off.]
5. “Please don’t hesitate to call me.” [How dated does that sound? If our prospects or customers need permission to contact us, we need serious sales help. We're going to need more than a few sales tips to fix this one.]
6. “I guarantee that…” [As salespeople we can't personally guarantee anything. This always sounds a little desperate to me.]
7. “Trust me.” [This has exactly the opposite meaning to every person in the known universe. Customers want sales help, not empty confusing statements.]
8. “To be honest…” [Now everyone is confused. Either you're now being honest and you weren't before or you always were and you're just reminding us.]

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We all know that there are people who say they are decision makers and there are those who really are decision makers. There is a psychological trick we play on ourselves that can keep us from identifying real decision makers. I learned about it from a Three Stooges episode. Did you ever think you’d get sales advice from the Three Stooges?

In this episode all three stooges dress up as physicians and find themselves in a hospital surrounded by legitimate doctors. The real doctors start to notice that these three new doctors are very odd. Not only do they act strangely, but they don’t seem to understand even basic medicine. The licensed doctors at the hospital are perplexed and don’t know what to think. After a short period of time the authentic doctors come to the conclusion that these three new doctors are probably extremely brilliant. They reason that these new doctors are so smart, knowledgeable and experienced that mere hospital staff doctors are not able to comprehend their brilliance. This helps to explain their peculiar behavior since everyone knows that brilliant people are eccentric.

The legitimate hospital doctors had fallen victim to what I call the Empowered Imposter Syndrome. In an attempt to make sense of authority figures who don’t seem to have any real authority or ability, we frequently explain their inconsistent behavior with irrational explanations that we fabricate. We need things to fit comfortably into our world as we know it, and want it.

We do the same thing in sales. You might be dealing with a customer who is no more a decision maker than your cat. You so desperately want that person to be a decision maker in order for the sales process to feel like it is moving forward that you create absurd assumptions about that person’s buying authority.

Example: You’re dealing with someone who doesn’t have any authority to create a purchase order. The company you are trying to sell to requires purchase orders for all orders. You have developed a great relationship with this person but he never buys because he doesn’t have the authority to give you a purchase order. You delude yourself by thinking, “He probably has an assistant that inputs his PO’s into their automated system that creates purchase orders.” The reality is that he has no assistant and they don’t have an automated PO system.

The salesperson in this example had created a decision maker version of an Empowered Imposter. One of the best ways to know if we’ve created an Empowered Imposter decision maker is to take our sales manager along with us to visit the customer. The sales manager won’t be operating under the same misconceptions and will spot the Empowered Imposter in a second. Yes, you can get good sales advice from the Three Stooges and your sales manager.

The sales tips that the Three Stooges provide in this episode are: beware of Empowered Imposters that we assume are decision makers and be honest with yourself about what you observe in your prospects and customers.

Please tell your business associates about Scott R. Sheaffer’s Sales Tips and Sales Advice Blog. To subscribe: <click here> to receive by email or <click here> for the RSS feed. © 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer

Neuro Linguistic Programming (also known as NLP) was created in the 1970’s. The idea behind it was to understand human communication beyond just the words being used, with obvious implications to sales. Over the last 30 years most researchers have come to the conclusion that it is a highly subjective semi-science that should be used with caution, if at all.

NLP was initially used in psychology and counseling. It wasn’t long until sales practitioners of one sort or another started applying NLP theories to sales training. Am I the only one that has noticed that every new type of pop-psychology is ultimately applied to sales? My most displeasurable example of this was the distortion of the data about the importance of body language in communication (The Myth of Body Language in Communication). I still hear sales trainers refer to that and it makes my skin crawl.

The meta-model of NLP says that when one human being communicates with another they go through the following steps: the speaker first has a thought, it’s coded into words, the words are spoken, the hearer receives those words, the hearer decodes those words and then interprets the thoughts. The concept is actually fairly interesting to consider because, after all of those steps, the potential for misinterpretation in human communication can be better understood. Clearly we can see how this could apply to interactions with our customers.

As appealing as the theory sounds, it is generally accepted that NLP has not withstood the test of time (especially in the area of sales training). It has not been adequately supported by legitimate research and smacks of “new age” thinking, which has more of a spiritual or philosophical appeal.

My feeling is that NLP sales training is unproven and if it were advertised on TV you’d find it at 3:00 in the morning on an infomercial.

Stick with the sales basics that are proven over time and represented in Sales Vitamins™. There are no magic pills in sales.

If you’re not already a subscriber, <click here> to receive Sales Vitamins™ by email or <click here> to subscribe to the RSS feed. © 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer

Summary: First impressions are exceedingly important in sales. You can learn to better manage these initial interactions.

I wish I had a nickel for every time my mother made me comb my hair or put on a nicer shirt when I was a kid. She did that because she wanted me to make “a good first impression.” As it turns out she was right. First impressions are extremely important because they set the stage for the duration of the relationship.

Sales professionals know the importance of first impressions. Because of this we tend to be a little self conscious and nervous sometimes when it comes to meeting important decision makers for the first time. Anxiety like this can make it harder to express our real personalities, which can ironically hinder our capability to make the kind of first impression we’d like to make. Sound familiar?

Lucinda Bassett of the Midwest Center for Stress and Anxiety has the following rule when meeting people. Twenty percent of the people you meet are going to immediately like you and always will, twenty percent aren’t going to like you and never will, and sixty percent are up for grabs. What is the sales application here? You aren’t going to click with all prospects and customers. Don’t take it personally and move on to the next opportunity. Give yourself permission not to be loved by everyone; it’s unrealistic.

Depending on whose research you look at, it takes about 5-20 seconds for someone to form an initial impression about you. Most people trust their first impressions so they almost always believe they have accurately assessed you. As a result, people are resistant to letting go of their first opinion of you - even if it later proves to be inaccurate. This is great if you make a good first impression, but not so good if you make a bad one.

First impressions are an art and a science. Here are some thoughts on how to manage them:

1. Relax and be yourself. Nothing is less endearing than someone who is not being themselves. Remember that the person you are meeting wants to meet you and is probably a little anxious about how they appear to you.
2. Ask open ended questions about the person you’re meeting and then listen to their answers.
3. Be in the moment. Don’t be thinking about what you’re going to have for lunch; be thinking about them.
4. Make eye contact. When first meeting someone it is appropriate to make eye contact. It communicates that you are open, interested in them, and forthright.
5. Capture, remember and use a person’s name during your initial conversation. Dale Carnegie taught that “a man’s name is music to his ears.” Nothing could be truer.

Do you feel like you’re good at first impressions? Is this an area you could improve upon?

If you’re not already a subscriber, click here (salesvitamins.com) to subscribe and automatically receive Sales Vitamins™ as new posts become available.  © 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer

The title of this post sounds like something your mother would have told you. Guess what? She was right. I’ve spent many years making customer and prospect calls with salespeople. One of the most common things I see is salespeople not paying attention to the customer or prospect. Do I need to tell you how detrimental this can be to the sales process? The salesperson has worked for days, weeks or months to secure the appointment and then doesn’t treat the meeting as they should, with sacred respect. Getting in front of a prospect or customer can be difficult; take advantage of the time they are giving you.

Let me break the problem down into three common components.

1. The salesperson runs through their presentation at lightening speed. It’s obvious that the salesperson is bored, and even disinterested, in what they are saying and just wants to get through it. But what the salesperson forgets is that the customer or prospect hasn’t heard it before. The customer or prospect is not bored; this is new stuff to them. Your company has spent a lot of time and money helping you develop a good presentation (well, we hope they have, not always true). Slow down! Give the customer or prospect a chance to absorb all of the information.

2. The salesperson never really makes eye contact. I can’t begin to tell you how many sales presentations I’ve seen where the customer or prospect is literally beginning to fall asleep. I’ve seen others where they were looking at emails during the salesperson’s pitch. Basic presentation skills require that you look at who you are talking to and adjust what you are saying accordingly. If your customer or prospect is not paying attention, change strategies. You’re wasting everyone’s time if you don’t.

3. The salesperson has little or no energy while presenting. One of my pet peeves. Communications 101 says that without energy your message will be less believable, exciting, interesting and motivating. I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve said to a salesperson, “All you needed was a 500cc injection of adrenalin and your presentation would have been much better received.” If you can’t muster some energy and enthusiasm when presenting, you may be in the wrong career.

Slow down, look at the customer or prospect and keep a high degree of energy and enthusiasm during your presentations and appointments. None of these things are rocket science, but they can absolutely make or break your effectiveness.