I am a great fan of Victor Antonio, who writes books, gives lectures and training on sales. I listen to his Sales Influence Podcast and he has a lot of solid, credible advice. In a recent episode he spoke about not using “weasel words” in sales and being more directive and certain with the buyer. Weasel words are defined as “words or statements that are intentionally ambiguous or misleading” and in sales would include words such as “perhaps”, “maybe”, “could”, etc. I was thinking about how this would apply in Japan. The culture here of modesty, humility, not standing out, not being openingly directive is the exact opposite of the culture in the USA, where you have to be more aggressive. As a consequence, if I started being more assertive with my buyers, I believe they would dismiss what I was saying as American style push selling and reject both me and my solutions. I have lived here for 40 years in total now, so over those three sojourns, I have adapted my Aussie self to fit in with the way things work here. In sales, when I first started trying to convince buyers to buy, I was using consultative selling methodologies. That meant asking questions to understand the buyer needs. However, I am sure when I got to the solution explanation part, I was being very strong and forthright in my recommendation that they buy what I was offering. Having sold here for many years now, I have changed that method to be less strident in my recommendations and I do use a lot of what Victor calls weasel words in the sale. I have found that being too pushy with the buyer doesn’t go down well. Being too assertive isn’t viewed positively and the buyer feels they are being pressured to purchase. Deals don’t get done as a consequence. If it was black and white, that would make things easier, but where is the line between strongly believing in your solution and being too pushy. I know I really believe in what we sell. We see the results from our training and how it changes people’s lives, so we are all true believers. The problem is the buyers have to buy it, before the results are delivered and they have to take our word for it that what we are saying is true. We know for certain but they are not sure. We also know that confidence in the solution does sell. If we are too hesitant, too unsure, too circuitous in our explanation, then the buyer may not receive enough confidence from us, that what we are proposing will do the trick. How much is too much confidence and how much is too little? As I say – where is the line? I have found that the key is to be humble about what we say will happen after the sale, in terms of what they will receive in terms of results, and then pile on the evidence. We can be very sure, passionate and enthusiastic about what we have seen work for someone else. We can speak with total belief about what we have observed. We can speak with authority of one who has witnessed the changes and the improvements. In our explanation of the results from our training, the total certainty is there because we have seen it with our own eyes. When we speak about whether this will automatically transfer across to this particular buyer’s situation, we have to be more conservative. Having perfect knowledge of the buyer’s situation internally and externally, is unlikely for us. We cannot say, “well this worked for XYZ company, so it will definitely work the same for you and you will get equal or better results”. This is where the weasel words are needed. If we are too strong in our recommendation we will be doubted. Every buyer is concerned that what they buy won’t work as advised, and that internally they will be blamed and scolded for their selection of supplier. They like the passion we show for our belief in the solution, because this gives them more confidence in the possibility it will work. By not trying to push the sale through, we also show our respect for their position. We need to say something like, “this worked well for XYZ company, so given your situations are very similar, there is a strong probability it will work the same for you too”. When we say it with these caveats, we sound more reliable to the buyer, because we are not giving any 100% guarantees, which may or may not be worth anything. We sound more honest too, because we are introducing the possibility it won’t work for them, but that we will make a 100% effort to see that it does work. That small sense of doubt gives the buyer confidence that what we are saying isn’t salesperson blarney and that we are honest and can be trusted as a partner. We are telling the buyer that we are not here for a sale. We are here for the repeat order and we will do everything we can do to make sure it works so that more orders flow and we build a solid trusted advisor partnership. What we say and how we say it matters in sales and semantics are crucial in ...
