When it comes to sales, when it comes to closing, there are words that you wanna use to close, to sell more of your products and services. And there are words that you absolutely want to avoid. Today I wanna teach you something very, very practical. I’m gonna teach you 9 words or phrases that you want to avoid in sales. Here we go. Number one, to be honest with you. Have you ever heard of that one before from a salesperson?
1. Don’t say “to be honest with you or to be frank with you”
Comment below. Just to be honest with you. Right, this is the best price that we could give you. To be honest with you or we never give this deal to anybody else. Now, what happens is right after usually, to be honest with you, what you are telling the prospect is, well, all the conversation you’ve had up to this point, it’s a lie, right? ‘Cause, to be honest with you, it means what? You have not been honest with me this whole time, right? You’ve been lying to me, is this what it is? Or how ’bout this one? To be frank with you. It’s the same idea. Oh, means that you have not been upfront with me? You have not been frank with me this whole time, the last two hours, the last one hour, or since I’ve known you, is that what this is? Don’t use that word.
2. Don’t say “trust me”
Number two, trust me. Have you ever heard of that one? Just trust me on this. Yeah, this is a great deal, just trust me, man. Trust me. Usually, when people have to say, oh, trust me, do you trust them? No, right? It’s like, yeah, I’m a Christian, just trust me. It is such a bad word to use. If you want someone to trust you and if you’re trustworthy, do you have to tell people to trust me? No, because your action speaks louder than your words. Your action would show through. Your action would demonstrate if a prospect or someone should trust you or not. So don’t use those words, don’t use trust me.
3. Don’t say “sorry to bother you”
Here’s another one, sorry to bother you. Sorry to bother you. Then why the hell are you bothering me? If you feel so sorry about it then just don’t bother me in the first place. Sometimes I get these phone calls. Oh, you know, sir, sorry to bother you. Then don’t call me, don’t bother me. Like, you hang up. Why are you calling me in the first place? Why are you bothering me in the first place? Why are you wasting my time? Before you do anything when it comes to closing in sales, usually the prospect has the power. The closer, the salesperson, doesn’t have the power. In order to close, in order to be more effective as a closer, you wanna flip the table around, right? There’s always one party that has a higher status than the other party. You wanna level that up, right? The minute you are apologizing, before you say anything, before you even propose anything, before you give them any solutions before you find out if you could help them or not, oh, sorry to bother. You see how that immediately puts you at a lower status. You don’t wanna do that. So don’t use sorry to bother you, don’t have to apologize for what you sell, don’t have to apologize for what you can bring to the table, don’t have to apologize if you gonna offer them something. Why? If you believe in what you do, don’t apologize. Your time as a closer is just as valuable as the prospect. Just because they give you money, just because they would transact with you, doesn’t mean that your time is not valuable. People only buy from you because you could help them solve a problem, that your product or service could help them solve a problem. That’s it, right? It’s a value and money exchange. You’re not begging. You don’t need to be apologizing for anything.
4. Don’t say “Just following up with…”
Another one, just following up. Now, as a salesperson have you ever used this before? Are you guilty of using these words? Sir, I’m just following up with you. When we talked like three months ago, we talked last year, I’m just following up. The word follows up, now, you might think, well, what’s wrong with that, Dan? I mean, a lot of people use it. I use it all the time. The problem is this. Think about when someone says that to you. I’m just following up with you. The words follow up, it’s been used for so long by so many salespeople, automatically it triggers a response that oh, you’re trying to sell me something. That’s the problem. Last time you didn’t close me, you didn’t sell me. Now, this time you wanna sell me.
Just following up. Oh, I don’t have time for this, right? Think about you. When someone calls you to I wanna follow up with you. Oh, my God, right? No, don’t use the word just following up. Go directly, find out what the problem is. You can ask better, more effective questions.
5. Don’t say “buy”
Buy. See, people love to buy, they hate to be sold. Even though they love to buy, but they don’t like the idea of buying because the word buy means that oh, it’s gonna cost me money, right? Like, I have to spend money, right? So we do love the action, the act of buying, but the word itself triggers oh when you have to buy something I’m gonna spend money on it. So don’t use the word buy. Do you wanna buy this now? No. Like, oh, like, the minute, even if you kinda wanna buy it, but the word buy just triggers, like, a lot of, like, uh, tension. So instead what should you say? Own. Own. Or take this home with you. So imagine if I’m selling you this, hey, do you wanna buy this? I don’t know. Would you like to take this home with you? Sure, right? I wanna take this home with me. Would you like to own this? Oh, sure. Would you like to take advantage of this? Oh, sure. Would you like to move forward? Sure. Who doesn’t like to move forward, right?
You’re moving forward in life. Oh, would you like to buy this? I don’t know, let me think about it. It triggers a lot of resistance.
6. Don’t Say “Contract”
It triggers fear. So would you like to take this home with you? Sure. Like, if you’re selling a car, would you like to take this home with you? Sure. Would you like to buy this expensive luxury car? No. Would you like to sign a five-year lease so you make payments every month? No. Or would you take this home with you? Sure. Simple, here’s the key right there. Now let’s do the paperwork. See how that works? Another word, contract. That’s right, contract. Now, when I say the word contract, what comes to mind?
Comment below. Oh my God, I’m signing a contract. It’s like a 20-page document, I’m signing my life away. All right, it feels too serious, it’s too heavy. So instead of saying hey, are you ready to sign this contract with me? Like, it’s like, are you ready to sign your life away? No. Don’t say contract. Agreement. You see, from contract, agreement. Okay, yeah, we can agree on something. Like, just agree. That’s okay. Like, it feels less intimidating, it feels less pressure. Or I like to use paperwork, right? Instead of hey, would you like to sign this contract? How ’bout we get the paperwork out of the way? You see. Oh, paperwork, yeah, do you like paperwork? I don’t like paperwork. Let’s get it out of the way. Oh, awesome, let’s do that. What does that mean? It means some thing, you’re signing the contract, you’re signing the agreement. But when you say it, let’s get the paperwork out of the way, oh, yeah, sure, let’s get the paperwork out of the way so we can focus on what’s important. See the difference?
7. Don’t say ” I never heard back from you”
Another one, I haven’t heard back from you. I haven’t heard back from you. Now, it may sound so normal, and a lot of people use it. I haven’t heard back from you in sales, right? But the thing is when you ask that question your prospect knows why you have not heard from him or her. Because they don’t want you to contact them or they don’t wanna contact you. They already know it. Why do you say something they already know? Yeah, I have not heard back from you. Yeah, ’cause I’ve been avoiding your call ’cause I did not reply to your texts. Of course, I know, right? Why do you bring that up? Automatically it creates resistance between you and the prospect. So don’t use that word. When you contact your prospect, especially the ones who have not converted in the past when you contact them, don’t make them feel guilty, don’t embarrass them. Instead, add value to what they do. It goes beyond then in today’s video, but add value to what they do. When you make a contact, when you do a touchpoint, always offer something. Always offer something. Don’t make them feel guilty. Offer something, offer something. And then when they are ready to do business with you, they’ll be like this person has been staying in touch with me for a long time and adding value. Of course, I wanna do business with this person. It’s a no-brainer now.
8. Don’t say “individual”
Another word that you wanna avoid and that is individual.
Individual. Is it individual is a very cold, institutional word. It’s very, very cold. Oh, I know you are a busy individual. I know you’re a very successful individual. Do you talk to your friends that way? Hey, do you, individual, do you wanna go watch this movie together? Do you talk to your wife this way, individual, right? You don’t do that. So that’s not how you talk to your friends. That’s not how you talk to the people that you care about, right? It’s an institutional word, it’s a very cold phrase. Don’t use it. Use more casual, more conversational words.
Failure and Success in Business
To eliminate an individual from your vocabulary. The last few words you wanna avoid, and that is we are better than fill in the blank. We are better than our competitors. We are better than ABC company, right? We are better than him, we’re better than her. No, never ever put down your competitor because the minute you do that, you may think well, we are better.
9. Don’t say “we are better than…”
We provide better service, we provide better products. Even though that might be true, even that’s a fact, you don’t want to say it because your prospect is thinking oh, of course, you’ll say that because you want my sale. You want to close this sale, you wanna make that commission. Even though it is true, you don’t wanna say it. You want your prospect to come to their own conclusions that it is true. So never put down a competitor. If anything, I would always praise the competitor. I do the opposite. When someone tells me, well, you know, what makes you better than ABC competitor? I always reply, I never say, oh, we are better than them. We’ve been in business longer, we have more experience, we have better people, we have better quality. Never ever say that. I would say okay, ABC, they’re good people. Have you ever talked to them? Okay, and how do you like them? So what’s stopping you from going with them? You see, I don’t have to put them down. There’s a reason why the prospect is on the phone with you, even up to this point. It means he or she has not made the decision. That’s why they’re on the phone with you. Otherwise, they would’ve gone with them already. They have not made a decision, they have not pulled a trigger, it means that they are still looking. You are there on the phone with them, so don’t need to put down competitors. Your prospect is thinking. All you need to do is to demonstrate that you understand their problems and you can solve their problems better than whoever your competitors are. Don’t need to tell it, don’t need to say it.
