Words have meaning. Sometimes the words we choose in our daily communication have so much impact that they can really affect the way others think about a specific subject or situation. The best examples of these come from politics and entertainment. The late, great George Carlin used to do many routines around words and their meaning. His famous (or infamous) routine, about the seven words you cannot say on TV, is quite legendary. If you are not familiar with that routine, you can go to YouTube and see it for yourself, so as to keep my content as family friendly as possible. One of my favorites was a routine comparing football to baseball. How football is played on the “grid-iron” and baseball is played on a “field”. Football is played in a “stadium”, and baseball is played in a “park”. Words conjure pictures in peoples’ minds and those pictures influence emotions and action.
In sales this is also true. In my almost 15 years of experience I have seen certain words many times and the pictures that are created in my mind are not always conducive to acquiring new customers and increasing sales. Some of my favorites are below.
Hunter
Sales and hiring managers often say they are looking for hunters. Someone to go out and get new business like one is hunting an animal to kill and eat. To me this implies you are going out to kill what you are seeking. Why would you want to kill a prospective new customer? I like the word prospector. Remember the old prospectors from the late 19th century? They were looking for gold. They were prospecting for something of value. Why not replace “hunter” with “matchmaker” or “relationship officer”? I view my job as a salesman that I am marrying a customer to my company, hopefully for life. To provide the highest quality service and build a lasting and prosperous relationship.
Suspects
In some sales organizations I have heard this term used when evaluating new prospects. If a prospective new customer is utilizing a competitor or is a good candidate for your product or service, they are suspects. To me this conjures the image of someone that is under investigation for doing something wrong or illegal. I try and refer to non-customers as “prospective new customers”, or “soon-to-be valued customers”. If you view someone in a negative light, your relationship is tainted from the beginning.
Hard Closers
This is probably my favorite. Any salesperson that refers to themselves in this light is usually too lazy to build a solid relationship. If a prospective customer has to be “closed” then the salesperson has not built enough value or spent the time really understanding their needs. If the environment is conducive to buying, then there really is no need to “close”.
So as you can see language matters. Change your language and change the way people think and act. If they think and act in your organization in a manner that is positive, it will attract new customers, who in turn can lead to referrals and lifelong customers.
