Growing up in the 70’s and 80’s I always remember that my Nan always used to love watching a comedy programme called "Mind Your Language".

For those of you who do not remember the show it was about a night school class that taught English to ethnic minorities.

For those of you who do remember the show you are showing your age along with me!

Thinking back about the show I don’t think you would get away with airing the programme now in our very politically correct environment.

The reason why I mentioned that is because I was driving back home from Capital One Bank in Nottingham having just had a successful one on one coaching session and I was
reviewing over in my mind what we had just covered.

We were talking about the language patterns that he was using when communicating to people and how to improve this.

I said to him "You need to mind your language!" and hence I thought of that show!

Now, it’s not language as in swearing or slang or anything like that.

The language I mean is the intensity of the words that you use with your prospects and clients.

Let me give you an example from the session:

My client said to me that he wanted to talk about how good his team were to his boss and what their current workloads were like so that he could ask for an additional member of staff.

"I’m going to show him all of the work we complete and what achievements we have made and then I am going to ask him to attend an issues meeting with me to discuss the additional headcount"

"Issues meeting?" I said "That sounds like trouble to me?"

"Oh no" replied the client "I just want to go over my plan of what additional resource we need and why"

"So why are you calling it an issues meeting?" I said "Issues to me mean problems and BIG PROBLEMS at that"

"I don’t view issues as problems" said the client

"I appreciate that, but I DO and your boss might do as well"

The learning from that example:

You need to be very careful with the terminology that you use when communicating with people.

What do issues mean to you?

Small problems?

Big problems?

A challenge?

Niggly problems?

There are no right or wrong answers here It all depends on the meaning that you give to the word.

You see, if I were asked to an issues meeting I would think that we are going to cover some major issues!!!

If I were asked to attend "A meeting to discuss resourcing" I would know why I was attending and would have some idea of what we would be covering.

Let me give you an additional example of where the use of the wrong word can lead to all sorts of assumptions!

Many years ago, just before I set up MTD, I was project manager for a new company launch. Everything went so smoothly it was too good to be true and to be honest I was the talking point of the company of how well
the team had done under my leadership.

The Chief Exec flew over from Canada and sat me down to review what I had done.

"Yes, well done" he said "You did a reasonable job"

At that point I had to bite my lip!

"REASONABLE?" I thought "Is that all he can say REASONABLE?"

I was so angry it was unreal!!

"What sort of a word is reasonable?" I thought afterwards

Reasonable to me was never good enough, reasonable was not even a good job to me.

Well, to cut a long story short, I went to one of the break out areas for a "calming down coffee" and proceeded to tell one of my fellow Directors what had just happened who replied with..

"Reasonable? Is that what he said Sean?"

"Yes!" I said in a really miffed voice

"You got a reasonable out of MR X? - WOW, you must have done an awesome job! He never gives praise to anyone and when he says reasonable it’s the equivalent of AWESOME to us"

And with that I learned a lesson and I would like you to learn the same lesson as well…..

MIND YOUR LANGUAGE!

Be careful with the words that you personally use and be mindful of the words that others use to you.

What does good mean to you?

What does excellent mean to you?

What about reasonable?!

By saying the right words with the right tonality and inflection in your voice you can literally move mountains or start wars within your company and can AFFECT your sales dramatically in either direction!

Latch on to the kind of words your prospects and clients use and then use the exact same words

And on that note, all that’s left to be said is to have a great day………….if great means anything to you that is?

Live, love and laugh!
 
Sean

Whilst we specialise in sales training, coaching and consultancy we are very frequently asked, and especially myself for some reason, to help with either the recruitment of or the selection of sales people for organisations. And to tell you the truth I love it because I have seen it all with this!

The best and most effective interview question that I ask really seperates the "Consumate Sales Professional" from the wannbe.

Want to know what it is?

Well, after I have asked a series of well planned out questions I start getting in to "What would you do if…." mode and then I reach for any item within touching distance, place it on the table and say…

"Please sell this object to me" 

Now, what should you look for in the answer?

Well, all I want to know is whether they open with a question or whether they open with "Well, this item does this this and this and…."

If they ask a question to begin with then they have "passed" this little test and I’ll allow them to carry on to "sell" the item to me.

If they start puking up all over me with benefits and features, I’ll stop them in mid sentance and say "I don’t even want this product, so why are you telling me all this?" This proves a useful point.

Use it next time you interview someone and see what you get back!

Happy Selling

Sean Mc

My wife and I have been going to the same Indian Restuarant for the past 16 years, the exact same time that we have been together!

We’ve moved twice in that time too and now we live 20 miles away from the Dhaka Dynasty but we still make at least 1 or 2 trips there each month.

Here’s why:

- They made an awesome first impression when we first tried the restuarant. We didn’t have two pennies to rub together at the time but they treated us like VIP’s

- Today, they treat us exactly the same which is very impressive

- They have always called us by our names and have taken a real interest in us as a couple

- They know exactly what I like and what I don’t like. Often asking "The usual Sean?"

- They allow us to try dishes "On the house" as valued customers

- They always give us 2 or 3 extras with our meals whether that be a couple of naans, a samosa etc

- Once, when Donna and I turned up there was a queue out the door, we mingled with some of the people at the back of the queue and they said that they were told that there was a 1 hour waiting time. As we turned around to leave, the manager Abdul called us over and gave us both complimentary drinks at the bar and we got a table in 15 minutes

- When our daughter Holly was born, the first time we went for a meal, they made a real fuss of us and when the bill came they put a big cross through it and it said "congratulations from all of the team at the Dhaka - no charge"

So, why do they do this?

Well, I know from first hand experience that they understand the concept of the lifetime value of a customer. I was working out what we have spent there during past the 16 years and we eat there at least 12 times a year at around £40-£50. So we have spent £9,600! They understand the need to keep us coming back and so they really go the extra mile.

Do you understand how much your clients are worth to you?

What more can you do for them? In terms of the Dhaka, a free meal here or there is nothing compared to what we have put in their tills!

Learn these lessons and watch your sales soar

Sean Mc

When you believe in your heart in what you sell, the prospect can tell the difference.

A prospect can tell when a sales person begins to “push” for the sale because of selfish reasons; that is when the prospect gets annoyed and begins to feel pressured. 

However, when you are pushing the prospect and the person can see in your eyes, that you are pushing for their benefit; when the prospect can see that you are pushing from your heart, that is when the customer not only allows you to continue to push, but they thank you after the sale for pushing them and they become your best customers. 

There’s a buzz going around the marketing world at the moment that "Most advertising does not work".

I have to disagree.

It should really read "Most advertising does not work because people do not know how to do it correctly!"

It really is a shame to see so many businesses waste thousands of pounds each year through ineffective advertising.

The amount of times that I have gone into a company and reviewed their advertisements, only to be amazed at how poor they are is very common.

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF YOUR AD?

This may seem obvious but what is the purpose of your ad? Is it to generate a lead? A sale? An enquiry? A request for a free report?

Once you know make sure that every word within your ad is geared around this.

Here’s a short example that maybe of interest to you:

I was called in to redesign and optimise the adverts of a service provider. Their adverts were geared up to generate lead enquiries either through telephone, email or tear off coupon.

For their advertising expenditure they were getting 1 lead per every £10 of advertising that they spent.

I changed just one thing on their advert, it took me 20 seconds to do it and this figure came down to 1 lead per £4.50!

Want to know what it was?

Well, instead of offering the reader multiple options of how to contact the company like phone numbers, email addresses, snail mail addresses and even fax numbers, we just set up an 0800 number with a pre-recorded message, put it in big bold lettering during and at the end of the advert and let nature run it’s course!

My client received double it’s response rate within the first 20 seconds of meeting me!