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Dear sales "closers", Here's a pro-tip. What you speak matters! When it comes to sales closures, there are few positive words that you wanna use, to upsell more of your inventory, and there are obviously resistance words that you absolutely want to avoid. Lets explore some sales tips that's very practical on words that you want to completely avoid in sales closures. Here we go.

".. To be honest with you."

Have you ever heard of that one before from a salesperson? 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, you are telling the prospect, well, all the conversation you've had up to this point, is a lie, perhaps?

It begs the question, have you not been honest with your prospect this whole time. Have you been lying to me, is this what it is? Or how about this one? "To be frank with you" It gives the same idea. Don't use that word.

"Trust me,.."

Have you ever heard of that one? Just trust me on this. Yeah, this is a great deal, just trust me, man. Usually, when people have to say,  trust me, do you trust them? Perhaps, No. It is such a word to avoid. If you want someone to trust you and if you're trustworthy, do you have to ask them their trust? 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 its wise not to use the word, do you trust me?

"Sorry to bother you, but.."

Here's another one, sorry to bother you. Why are you calling me in the first place? Why are you bothering me in the first place? Quesiton: Why are you bothering someone over something? If feels you don't bother about their situation in the first place. Often many telemarketers call up and say "Oh, you know, sir, sorry to bother you." Quickly your mind races "Then don't call me, don't bother me." You only like to hang up on this, don't you? The usualy question that goes on is - 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?

If you believe in what you do, don't apologize!

There's always one party that has the higher edge than the other in sales negotiations. You want to obviously level that up. 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, apologizing puts you at a lower end of negoitiating table! You don't have to apologize for what you sell, and you don't have to apologize what you can bring to the table.

You don't have to apologize if you offering them something of value. 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's it, right? It's a value and money exchange. You're not begging. You don't need to be apologizing for anything.

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." If you talk like 3 months ago, or talked last year, and use I'm just following up, it's been used for so long by so many salespeople, automatically that it triggers a question if you're trying to sell the other person something. That's the problem. So, if last time you didn't make close, and you didn't sell, using this phrase makes someone think you want sell. Just following up. Oh, I don't have time for this, perhaps? Think about when someone calls and wants to follow up with you. Infact, you can ask better, more effective questions.

Buy

People love to buy, they hate to be sold. Even though they love to buy, but they don't like the idea that it will cost you some money. While people enjoy the act of buying themselves, no one likes to be told how to spend their money. Bad idea to use "Do you wanna buy this now?" No. The word infact creates a rift in mind of the buyer that, someone shouldn't influence their buying decisions, or how they spend their money. So instead you could use the word like "Own". Or take this home with you.

Hey, do you wanna buy this? A: I don't know. Would you like to take this home with you? A: Sure, right? Would you like to own this property? A: Oh, sure. Would you like to move forward? Sure.

Yes, the sales word "buy", or "sign" does trigger a lot of fear, and resistance. It raises some objections, and choice of words matters. If you're selling a car, ask

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 5-year lease? No. Would you take this V6 engine home with you? Sure. "Here's the key right there. Now let's do the paperwork."

See how that works?

Contract.

Now, when we say the word contract, its more like a 20-page document, and thoughts of signing away your life. It feels too serious, and sometimes it's too heavy to use the word contract in sales talk.

Don't say contract. Try something neater - agreement, perhaps! It gives your client the thought we can agree on something. It feels less intimidating, it gives lesser pressure on your client. We perhaps like to use paperwork! Instead of "Hey, would you like to sign this contract?" How about we get the paperwork out of the way? And, clients surely would reciprocate "Oh, awesome, let's do that." It also gives the client the necessary advantage to focus on what's more important.

I haven't heard back from you

Why do you say something they already know? "I haven't heard back from you" is a lot more like the previous word followup! It may sound so normal, and a lot of people use it. But the thing is as a sales representative, when you ask that question your prospect already has conveyed the reason why you have not heard from him or her. Obviously, they don't want you to contact them or they don't wanna contact you. And, they already know about it.

Client did not reply to your texts, or have not called you back, cause they have been busy avoiding you. Why do you bring that up? Automatically it creates a friction between you and the prospect. So its wise sales representatives don't use that word.

Don't embarrass them saying they avoided you for some reason. Its plain FOMO! When you contact your prospect, especially the ones who have not converted in the past, don't make them feel guilty! Instead, add value to what they do. Always offer something. When you make a contact, you do a sales touch point, always have something to offer. Keep offering them till when they are ready to do business with you, and they won't feel the gap of missing you out for a long time! It's a no-brainer.

Individual

Individual, might likely be a cold, and institutional word. "Oh, I know you are a busy individual." "I know you're a very successful individual." That's usually not how someone talk with each other in a candid way. It simply not how we talk to the people that one cares. It's an institutional word, and a cold phrase, and we recommend  you not to use it. Use more casual, more conversational words, and eliminate "individual" from your vocabulary.

"We are better than".

Avoid saying "We are better than" our competitor. We are better than ABC company. We are better than him/her. Never ever put down your competitor. And, the minute you do that, you might be perceived arrogant. Avoid lame words like "We provide better service, we provide better product". Although, you want to say it, avoid bragging, because your prospect might always judge you are pushy sales rep. Give them the opportunity to come to their own conclusions. Never put down your competitor. If so be anything, we would always avoid critcizing the competitor.

When someone asks, "What makes you better than ABC competitor?" we most commonly have a default candid reply, "We are better than them because we've been in business longer, we have more experience, we have better technical people, and we have better quality products." Never ever say that! You can train your team to 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?"

So, you 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/she has not made the decision, and questioning your judgement. Otherwise they would've gone with the competitor. Since the prospect have not made a decision, and yet pulled a trigger, they are still looking!

So you don't need to put down your competitors. Your prospect is only judging who is better from your point of view, and all you need to do now is demonstrate you understand their problems and can solve them better than whoever your competitors the other person suggests. When it comes to competition, you don't need to say it. Ask questions and find out.

So, this brings us the few words you want to avoid in sales closures. If you want to refine your closing game, or you're just looking for a few golden nuggets that will take your game to the next level, do reach us out. Try making a few sales from your inventory with these above tips. And, if you've never done any sales before but you want to develop a skillset, develop that self-confidence. If there's no skin in game, there's no game. Keep hustling folks.