40 NOVEMBER 2021 WorldWide Drilling Resource® Be Careful of Your Word Use by Tim Connor “Like, Dude, let me be perfectly honest with you.” In this sentence, I gave three examples of common mistakes salespeople make quite frequently. #1 If you are selling to a younger person and you, like, use the work “like”, like every other word like they most likely won’t notice your overuse of “like”. However, if you are trying to sell to someone older and you use “like” several times, you will probably start to annoy them and whether they want, need, or can afford your product or service, will no longer be the issue. #2 Call your friends: dude, bud, honey, sweetheart, or whatever, but I am not your “bud” and I don’t want to be called “dude” and I’m most likely not your sweetheart. Again, I am going to have difficulty getting past your assuming you can talk to me the way you do your friends over a beer. “Wait a minute, Tim. You’re splitting hairs here,” you say? Maybe, but selling is difficult enough without sabotaging your success with the use or overuse of certain words, phrases, assumptions, or colloquialisms which directly or indirectly annoy people. #3 “Let me be perfectly honest with you.” I know what you are trying to do - you are attempting to call positive attention to a certain benefit, feature, or point in your presentation. However, what the other person can interpret silently is, everything else you say when you don’t reinforce it with “let me be honest with you” is less than true. I know it might not be, but the subtle message you are sending is only “this” is true, the rest is trash. “Do you understand what I just said?” is another major mistake. When you say it, you are implying they are stupid and you are doing a great job of explaining. Another example is, “Know what I mean?” Instead, ask the person, “Have I made myself clear?” If they are not getting it, it is not because they are dense, it is because you are not doing a good enough job of explaining. How about one more? Someone walks into your office and says, “I don’t mean to interrupt.” Of course they do, because they just did. It would have been better to say, “May I” or “Can I interrupt you?” The point is, words and phrases matter. Don’t throw them around assuming no matter what you say or how you say it won’t have an impact on the thinking and reaction and often decision of a prospect or client. In His service, Tim Tim Connor may be contacted via e-mail to michele@worldwidedrillingresource.com
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