Watch Your Mouth!
Loose Lips Sink Ships! You Just Stuck Your Foot In Your Mouth! Slip Of The Tongue! Did I Just Say That Out Loud?
Yes, words can be powerful, and once they're out there, it's impossible to take them back.
In business, we must remember to choose our words carefully, or we can literally talk ourselves out of a sale, lose credibility, and make people run the other direction by simply choosing one version of a word over another.
A Real, Live Blow It Moment
To explain what I mean, I'll use an example based on an actual proposal that one of my reps sent to me for review. This is a sentence taken directly from his proposal, that he was planning to send to a potential client:
"You can add photos, videos, link to your web page, facebook, and twitter accounts for no extra charge."
Innocent But Deadly Statements
Now, this statement may seem harmless enough at first glance, but let's really consider what the potential client might take away from this statement. More specifically, the words "you can add". These 3 seemingly innocent words imply that the client will be doing the work. If this client is not tech savvy, they might be scared off by this. They may also wonder why they have to take care of this themselves.
You would hope that the client would mention or inquire about these concerns, but they may not, for various reasons; They could be embarrassed to admit that they don't understand, or that they wouldn't know how to do this, and may simply decide that they are not interested in the service that's being offered, without any discussion or explanation.
Appeal To Their Laziness
I've read many articles, books and blogs, and have taken numerous courses on copywriting, and one thing that they all teach, that is crucial, is choosing words that imply the simplicity, ease and LACK of work on the part of the reader. Why is this? Well, let me be blunt- Most people, by nature, are lazy (I'm just sayin'). They want everything to appear, occur, come to them and happen, with as little work as possible. Therefore, when communicating your business, opportunity, service or product, you must make it sound as effortless as possible, for the person you're trying to "sell". This applies to every communication will have with a customer or client, whether it be in written marketing material, on your website or blog, or in a conversation.
A Small Error Could Cost You A Sale
This is not meant to be "sneaky" and you should never lie to someone, but in the case of the above mentioned proposal, the rep was careless. The client does not handle this task. WE DO! This small, yet monumental error could have cost him the sale, and he didn't even realize it.
One Letter Could Increase Your Profit Margin By Over 100%
For more information on how 1 word can change the entire meaning or effectiveness of what you say or write in your marketing material, check out the book "Hypnotic Writing" by Joe Vitale. In it, he shares a story about a company that simply added an "s" to a word and more than doubled their sales. All they did was to change the word "put" to "puts", and the rest is history.
If All Else Fails, Ask Why
So, whenever you're communicating something with a prospect, potential client, or even in a personal setting, try to be mindful of the words you're using, or the variation of the words you're using, and if the conversation, sale or recruitment doesn't go the way you expected, based on their prior level of interest, you need to ask "why". Find out what caused them to change their mind, and then redirect the conversation.
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