The Top 10 Sales Terms You Should Avoid

There are worse things in life than death. Have you ever spent an evening with an insurance salesman?

~Woody Allen

10.         I will have to talk it over with my sales manager.   It was my sales manager's idea to offer this deal to you.  Now I will simply move on to the next person on my call list and never call you again.

9.            It will only take a few minutes of your time.  That is, to agree to meet with me but the sales pitch will take 30-45 minutes, more if you become a tough nut who forces me to bring out the high pressure tactics.

8.            We only offer our best customers.   You, my friend, are a loyal customer.  With your help, I will win a sales award or hit the commission jackpot!

7.            This is your last chance on this great deal!  ...... until next week when we have something else to sell you after we’ve gotten rid of this loser. 

6.            There is no obligation: Unless you read the fine print and discover something else hidden there that you will wish you had read.

5.            We offer the best value.  We can’t negotiate on price so we’d better think of another reason to convince you that this is our best price and you should buy what is on the table.

4.            I guarantee you!  I am not the one who has to make sure that this thing works, my job is to sell it to you.  Operations, service or support are the ones who have to make sure it does what I promised you.

3.            Trust me.  I can’t answer your stupid questions or provide you with the credibility you are asking for so you will just have to take my word for it.

2.            Do you have a few minutes?  That’s good because boy oh boy do I have a sales dump that I’m gonna lay on you in less time than it is going to take you to come up with a reason to say no.

1.            How are you?  I really don’t give a hoot how you are, I just wanna know if you’re in a good enough mood to fall for my sales pitch. 

Click on the following link for an  amusing look at sales:   

http://youtu.be/1VjVlwl1Jqc

Top 13 Sales Terms and What They Mean

I would rather entertain and hope that people learned something than educate people and hope they were entertained.

~Walt Disney

Ever wonder what all the sales jargon means?  Here is a look at some of the more basic terms:

Close:  If you close a sale, you’ve slam dunked and high-fived your colleagues and boss.    Can you say return or refund?  Most sales only begin once you’ve come to agreement to do business

Cold call:   The term alone seems to raise the “b.s. meter” jump several decimal points.  Go ahead, ask a group about cold calling and you will get endless advice, debates, opinions, and experts.    News flash:  Everyone does cold calls!  You've walked into a business without an appointment, you've asked an administrator who the best person to talk to, you've followed up a referral, or  you've telephoned, e-mailed, sent a letter to someone you’ve never met to introduce yourself, promote a product or sell a service.

Decision Maker:   Is the Ogre that will jump out at you or growl at you if you disturb them.  In reality, many sales professionals have learned the hard way after they’ve wined and dined the person they thought was the decision maker only to find out that they bought from someone else who was talking to the decision maker all along.

Farmer:  Someone who harvests crops, sometimes complains about the weather, and drives a tractor.  In sales it is used to describe a sales style.  Some sales professionals like to rely on warm leads while talking about their golf score, while others specialize in growing existing business by finding other departments or persons within their customer base to add revenue.

Forecast:   Usually, it is because you are planning an outing and want to know whether or not you should take an umbrella.   To sales professionals, it is how you determine what dollar figure you will arrive at and will be accountable for.

Gatekeeper:  Someone you should avoid at all cost!  They will make your life miserable, often curt or sometimes rude, they’re job is to get rid of you before you annoy or interrupt their boss.   Should you start out with this super person, it is best to get on their good side, ask them for permission to speak to

Hunter:   Someone that Daffy Duck always avoids in cartoons.   It is a sales professional who gets an adrenalin rush from uncovering a prospect, steals a customer from the competition and knows what the term “cold call” means.

Negotiate:   Some people will negotiate just to barter the price down – they don’t see the value in what you are offering, their only goal is to see if they can squeeze a “deal” out of you.  If you’ve done your homework, understood your customer, really listened, you avoid this phase altogether.  

Networking:    Scoring marks of a networking champion by the amount of business cards they can hand out in the shortest period of time, like speed dating.  Networking is when you speak and share information with attendees at a business conference, luncheon, dinner, or event.   

Objection:  Is where you haven’t convinced your prospect to buy because they are asking you endless, annoying questions when all you want to do is get them to sign or give you the money.    Objections are clues to figure out what the hesitation to move forward is.

Prospect:  Synonymous with target, market, or object for whom you are attempting to sell to.   If you haven’t done your research to even know if they’re in the market, they are a suspect.  Once you’ve established communication and interest, you’ve earned the right to call them a prospect.

Qualify:  Can they even pay for what you are selling them?  Or, do they enjoy playing with you, like a cat does with a mouse?  Yes, it may  look promising if they take a Porche for a test drive, however, if they drove up in a ’69 Beetle (unless they’re a rock star) they may be wasting your time where you can try selling to someone who can actually buy.  Asking the right questions will tell you that they were delivering pizza.

Referral:  Geez, you gave me a smokin’ deal or I get a rebate if I tell my friends to call you.  The best referrals often take place after an extended period of time because most people don’t refer someone unless they think they will make them look good.

  

How relevant you are is determined by how influential you are to your followers

I wrote this April 2011:
Upon reflection, was this advice more relevant today?

Whether a gifted scientist in Saudi Arabia, a gadget manufacturer in the United States, a successful entrepreneur in Canada, a publisher in the UK, or an investor in China, here’s what all, if not most, share:

·       A network of personal, professional or corporate relationships

·       A stable of trusted advisors, mentors

·       Interest in continual learning

·       Pay attention to your industry, its changes, your world evolving

·       A distinguished bio that makes you unique. 

How you define who/what they are, prioritize, leverage, expand and individualize is for you to decide.  More often than not, they are linked with your personal then professional goals.

We all have customers.  Our customers may be personal relationships, our boss, our patients, our clients, our shareholders, our readers ….. we all sell something.  What you sell could be solely yourself. 

What new technology does is create new opportunities to do a job that customers want done.

 Tim O’Reilly

Using the internet to expand your personal, professional or corporate relationships is key to grasping the profound impact that can unfold.

Admittedly, many perceptions relating to the internet is more often negative than positive, definitely a world with conflicting messages:  i.e. wasting time; job searching; keeping in touch, engaging in activities that you wouldn’t want your mother to know about. 

So you tip your toe into the pool to see what the temperature is like.  The temperature could really be what your pre-conceived notion of thinking it would be like, thus the reason you hesitated to begin with.  You could possibly have the same outlook towards the internet and that new term that swirls around you:  social media.    Whether you’re the aforementioned scientist or investor,  you truly have to investigate what it could possibly mean to you.

Voila!  There it is … all those things that you usually do, you still control the when, how, with who and what you learn,  all in the cost-effective (you’re not spending money attending a conference), environmentally friendly (think gas, airline fuel), informative, safe, comfortable environment of your home or office.    What about all the cool people you meet at the conference, chat with on the airplane?  Well, here’s the thing … if you could extrapolate all those benefits and call it social media, would you at least give it a whirl?

Okay, so you think you already have because you have signed on for Linked In and even use Facebook …. but aren’t you a bit more curious about uncovering what all the the fuss is about with Twitter and Blogs and Sharing?    Are you sticking your toe out now or are you a daredevil and going to swish your hand in the water?  The cool part is you’re not alone -- many start out with apprehension then discover the vast power that unfolds.  

Twitter is a powerful conduit that fuels the magical potency of social media (@optioneerjm #quote).  Think of it as graduating from high school or university with a PhD … you have your bio, but that is basically it.  You sign on, read up a bit, follow and hopefully follow back a few friends, even try a few “Tweets”  and think ok, this is boring.  You’ve tweeted and maybe even retweeted and sit there … this is still pretty boring, I should go back to Linked In or Facebook because at least there I know what I’m doing.

Think back then to networking or attending a conference.  In all likelihood you didn’t know anyone, if only a few.  I would hope you didn’t sit in a corner or just engage with those you knew.  Few of us are celebrities or have the luxury of being so controversial (if you want to call it that) you have to just announce yourself and immediately have one million followers.    Unfortunately, you’re going to have to do some work yourself.  First of all, what were your goals when you thought you’d try Twitter?

·       Expand network

·       Curiosity

·       Learn

The first thing I would recommend is latch onto someone that appears to know what they’re doing.  If all else fails, they will help you, introduce you to their “followers” and answer all your questions.  One of your first questions will be, I’m sure, when you look at your pitifull followers list, how do you get more followers?  You, my friend, have just stuck out more than a toe!  Congratulations!

Here is advice on how to magnify your experience:

·       Read what others are saying: follow their links, websites = pay attention

·       Interact with others = engage

·       Be yourself = authentic

·       Be positive, use the 140 characters to inspire

·       Value your followers

·       Be patient

·       Learn, learn, learn

·       Thank every new follower, treat them as though they’re your first one

·       Retweet articles, quotes, statements that you find interesting = helps to define who you are

·       Thank those who Retweet your quotes, statements or articles you post

·       Don’t be shy:  this is the world of equal playing field, everyone is anyone yet often someone

·       Be open minded:  the best discoveries are when you least expect them

·       Look for the like-minded:  those that share your interests, philosophy or goals

·       Be relevant:  your followers will depend on whether they share the same ideas

·       Be valuable:  Tweeting interesting thoughts, ideas, articles, sharing blogs

·       You don’t have to Tweet every hour or  day, but consistent presence helps promote engagement

·       Be helpful, solve a problem or question,

·       Click on #hastags on topics or interests = conversations on Twitter – you will meet likeminded

·       One of the biggest mis-conceptions is the amount of followers you have determines your success

·       The quality of your followers is what determines your social media influence

·       Be open to new ideas

In a nutshell, this is what you should focus on with Twitter or Social Media: 

·       Relevancy

·       Objectives

·       Engagement

·       Influence

·       Network

You may want to avoid tactics to keep your followers engaged:

·       Self-promotion (aka “spam”):  only Tweet about yourself – people eventually get bored

·       False pretense:  engage only to turn around it around towards yourself

·       Don’t focus on followers count, but on the quality of your followers

There are some no-brainers on who I would not follow or unFollow:

·       Tweet volume:  haven’t tweeted in more than a week or a month or more

·       Unfollow users who haven’t followed you back (unless they’re Donald Trump, etc.)

·       I’m leary of those with the default egg avatar instead of a profile image

·       No profile or bio information (unless you’re a celebrity you don’t have to)

·       Suggestive images or names

·       Exception:  Some applications require that you access via Twitter.

One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man.  

Elbert Hubbard

If your using Twitter corporately, Weber Shandwick prescribed five essential steps as a starting point for Fortune 100 companies to create true engagement and market interaction on Twitter http://www.webershandwick.com/resources/ws/flash/Twittervention_Study.pdf

·       Listen to conversations

·       Participate in conversations

·       Update frequently with valuable information

·       Reply to people who talk about issues that are important to your company

·       Retweet relevant content

A poll on MSN April 23, 2011 .... When did you get on Twitter?

Thanks for being one of the first people to vote. Results will be available soon. Check for results

1. Over 2 years ago
   2 %

   Over 2 years ago
   84 votes
2. About 1-2 years ago
   4 %

   About 1-2 years ago
   202 votes
3. In the past year
   6 %

   In the past year
   305 votes
4. I am not on Twitter
   88 %

   I am not on Twitter4,363 votes
5. Skip to results
   Back to voting

Total Responses: 4,954
Not scientifically valid. Results are updated every minute.