“The words we use in a sales presentation all carry weight. Some weigh more than others. Some are more believable than others. Knowing the words to use can increase your credibility dramatically.”   Wayne Berry

For example…

If you’ve got around 50 happy clients using the particular product or service, don’t tell your prospect, “I have around 50 happy clients using this system”.

Instead give them a precise number.

“We have 53 clients currently using this system!”

The reasearch on this shows that your client is now far more likely to believe you, and your credibility will be much higher than if you than if you had simply said 50.

Similarly, if you are quoting a price.

A price of say $4,873 will “seem” more non-negotiable, than a price of $4,800 or $5,000. That is to say, you are less likely to be asked for a discount if you say the price is $4,873 rather than $4,800 or $5,000.

The reason for this is obvious enough. A price of $4,873 has obviously been calculated from a precise formula, using actual costs etc. (or so it will seem.) Hence it is less likely to be regarded by your cleint as a “flexible price”.

It’s important to always tell the truth.

When I offer my CD programmes from the platform at seminars, I tell my audience that we have a Money Back Guarantee, so they can return any programme that they purchase, if they are not totally happy with it.

I then ask them, “How many programmes do you think we’ve ever had returned?”.

Because people rarely expect a sales person to tell them the truth anyway, they give me the answer they think I want to hear. They always say the same thing. They always say “None”!

However, this is simply not true, so I tell them this is not true!

It is inconceivable that we’ve not had any returns in 14 years, so I always tell them the truth. I say, “No that’s not true, we’ve actually had 11 programmes returned over the last 14 years and we’ve made 11refunds”.

Notice that I use exact numbers again.

I used exact numbers for both the number of programmes returned and the number of years.

By the way, that’s 11 out of 12,658 audio programmes that we’ve produced and sold since October 22nd 1991. That’s a pretty good record and we are proud of it. By the way those figures are accurate because I’ve just looked them up on our computer system, so I can be precise.

Notice too the numbers I always use under my signature in this and every newsletter.

Go on, have a look.

Also notice that some of the most effective advertising you’ll ever see that quotes figures uses this technique.

In the USA one of the most popular brands of soap is Ivory Soap. Decades ago, Ivory set themselves apart from their competition and grabbed a large share of the market by claiming that “Ivory Soap is 99 and 44/100ths percent pure”.

They could just as easily claimed that “Ivory Soap is 100% pure”.

However they chose not to

The truth is, Ivory Soap isn’t 100% pure. Anything manufactured in bulk can’t be 100% pure or perfect and when we make a claim that something is 100%, people say to themselves;

“Oh really? I’m not that stupid. That can’t be entirely true and you know it too!”

And when a prospect feels this way, you lose points on your credibility scale with them.

Lose enough points, and as your credibility goes down, you become less believable even when you are telling the whole truth, and nothing but the truth!

From now on, be as precise as you can be and see what happens.
Have a great week, make it a great week!

Stumble it!