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I was teaching a new group of salespeople last week and we were discussing how to manage the tension level that usually arises when we get to the point in a presentation of asking for a decision from our prospect. If the prospect is uncomfortable at that moment, he usually won't buy from us. Because we are the only person in that interaction that we have control over, it's up to us to bring the tension level down, to make our prospect comfortable. How do we do this?
We want to make sure that we use words from the world of our clients, not from the world of radio or digital or any of the other advertising platforms we might represent. Our industry terms should never be used outside our offices. Most of the time, our prospects don't understand fully what we are saying. They may not want to admit that and to ask us to explain. More than likely, they simply don't buy because they are uncomfortable. Check yourself: do you use words like "Cume", "Average Quarter Hour", "Spec Spot", "Impressions", "CTR",
"Retargeting"? These are all words from OUR WORLD and can spike the tension level with your client.
We also need to make sure that we speak clearly. How's your grammar? Do you use dialects? In some areas of the country, it's considered acceptable to use improper English. Actually, it's not acceptable. You might get away with it in a small area, but if you talk to anyone outside the area, you will come across as uneducated. This makes it difficult to establish credibility. After all, we're supposed to be the marketing experts and marketing experts use correct grammar.
What about those "ticks", those physical things we do, often unconsciously, that signify that we are nervous. If we are nervous, soon our prospects are also. We transmit our nervousness to them. I've seen salespeople "leak" their nervousness with things like clicking a pen, shaking a foot, straightening a tie.
There are also some words that we can use to manage the tension level, to bring it down: authorize, approve, agreement, results, proven, easy, save, results, profit, let's. In the English language these words have a soft, soothing sound. Using them will help to make your prospects comfortable.
On the other hand, there are words we should omit from our closing vocabulary because they will spike the tension level: contract, deal, sign, cost, buy, liable, obligation, price, pay, decision. These have a hard, gutural sound in English.
One of my former students had been a newspaper salesperson for 15 years prior to coming to radio. When we were studying these words, he shared with me how he had used them in his former profession. When he was calling on a prospect who used a competitor's product, he used the words like this:
"How liable are you when you sign their contract? What type of obligation do you have to pay for their deal? With our agreement, we make it easy. All you have to do is authorize this campaign and the results have been proven by other of our clients."
In other words, he used the bad words when referring to the competition and the good words when referring to his own. Diabolical? Yes. Brilliant? Yes! "Sales is a play written by a psychologist". Small tweaks can give us an advantage when closing sales.
Our job is to reduce the risk and stack the value. How we say what we say can accomplish this. Doing so makes potential clients comfortable in saying, "Yes" to our offers. Higher billing awaits!
Happy Selling!
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