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Immediately Improve Your English Language For Sales

You sell for a living. That’s your job, but you use English, not your first language. You know how to sell but you feel sure that because you have never had any specific English language training for sales, you could do much better. Well here is the answer to your dreams! Below you will find the most important English language tips for anyone involved in selling in English. Take time to try them out one at a time. Customise them to match exactly what you sell and then practise them with colleagues or a native English speaker until you are confident enough to introduce them into your sales pitch. You will soon find that are selling jst as well as you used to in your own language! We all know that the important and lasting first impression that you create depends largely upon the visual impact you create with clothes, hair, make up etc. We know that being aware of your own whilst being able to interpret other people’s body language is critical when negotiating in any context, but it is the impact of the words that you choose and how you use your voice to project them that are the focus of this article.

1 Building A Rapport And Lasting Relationship With Your Prsopect

We all know that first impressions count and that you really only get one chance to get it right. We still have to create a positive visual image of ourselves when selling in English. However, here it will be shown that a foreign speaker of English needs to take extra special care with the choice of words that they use and how they deliver their speech. Remember that you want your prospect feel that you have things in common with them and that they feel important.

Words – to use & to avoid

We know that people buy more when they are in a positive frame of mind. So avoid giving a normally negative and grumpy client the chance to tell you what an awful day they are having by substituting “Great to see you again!” for “How are things?”Also, always try and choose “can do” positive language that shows your prospect just how enthusiastic and happy to help you are: “Yes, that would be no problem”, “of course we can!” and “Absolutely, if that helps, we’ll do it.” Getting your prospect to visualise the benefits of ownership and buying from you is also a very useful technique: “Can you imagine how much easier life will be when you can…?” and “Think of the money you will be saving in the mid to long term!”. In this way you are also using the language of presenting the answer to a client’s problem: “If you can reduce costs by buying these, you will be able to make more competitive offers to your customers”.

Always avoid starting a conversation by apologising.

This immediately undermines and demeans you and your message: “Sorry to bother you, I’ll be very quick”, “Just a quick call to see if you have time to speak to me”. Don’t use negatives! You have a great product or service to sell and you are going to make your prospect’s life better as result, so why apologise for that?

Never use bossy phrases

like:”No, no, no, you can’t do that.” or “No, that will never work.” Native English speakers will always automaticaly rebel and kick against this. Finally, there are some words that should never be used as they just make the listener feel small. Any sentence beginning with “Obviously,….” or “Basically,….” or “Actually,…” will have this negative effect, so just make sure that you never use them!

Your voice is your most powerful weapon when it comes to selling

This generally concerned with the following 3 aspects : pace – pitch – projection.The speed that you talk at should match that of the prospect that you are trying to sell to. Like with body language it always pays to “mirror” the other person. In English we use a much more broader range of pitch than most European languages. Listen to “the music” when native speakers are talking, I bet it sounds exaggerated and unnatural to you the way that we use such a wide range of music in our intonation. Practise using a phrase from above in two contrasting ways: Great to see you again! First of all say it
absolutely flat, then exaggerate it so it rises steeply on the two stressed words of the sentence: GREAT and SEE:”GREAT to SEE you again!”. Then exaggerate it even more, because only then will you get near to how native English speakers use it. When it’s flat to a native speaker you will sound bored / uninterested in the person you are talking to / negative / rude / bored and boring. However, if you can manage to exaggerate enough to sound more like a native speaker you will sound interested / motivated / polite and genuine! This also very important as you try to make the potential customer
feel important. Finally, remember that you will sound too aggressive and “pushy” to a UK English speaker if you speak too loudly.

2 Identifying Your Customer’s Needs And Wants

“Wh” questions: why / what / where / when / who and of course how are all far more productive when asking questions to identify a customer’s needs and wants. This is because they are open questions and so produce much more than a yes/no questions. Any question that can be answered with a simple yes or no at this fact finding stage should be avoided. Remember that open questions always end with falling intonation, whilst closed yes/no questions always end with rising intonation.

In order to use the answers that your prospect produces you also need to do some “active listening”: Respond, restate and reflect. By physically nodding your head and making the right noises you show the other person that you are listening carefully to their needs and wants. You can also use “verbal nodding” by making the “Mmm” noise at the appropriate time. Remember, the intonation pattern that you use will let the prospect know what you think eg. falling intonation indicates agreement and understanding, a rise fall pattern shows enthusiastic agreement with fall rise patterns indicating you are not sure you agree. Also, reformulating or summarising back to the other person what you have understood you can check that you are following and can see what they want. “So if I understand correctly, what you want is….” is a good example of this. Finally, reflecting means effectively “mirroring” the other person’s: language + voice (see above) + body language. People do business with people they like. We all like people who listen to us!

3 Presenting A Tailored Solution

We all know that the best way to present your product / service to a client is to highlight its features and benefits. Features being what the product “has”, “is” or “does”. The benefits should then be connected to this answering the prospect’s question :”What’s in it for me?”. So, we then need to link a specific feature to a particular benefit by using “which means…”. So, let’s take an example, you’re selling an ecologically friendly car: “All of our electric cars run for up to 100 kms on a 3 hour charge from the household mains which means it’s quick, easy and cheap to maintain”. Research into the top performing sales staff shows that it is those salespeople who take the time to regularly write out the features and connected benefits of the products or services that they are selling who consistently have the most success.

4 Trial close

It’s widely accepted that it’s useful to “test the water” with a trial close. This way any objections that your prospect might have will come out, which is good because then you can deal with them. However, if they do answer in the positive, you can simply go ahead and close the deal. The following are useful trial closes to try out. Don’t forget to exaggerate your intonation. I have highlighted the STRESSED words:

  • “How does THAT sound?”
  • “Is THAT the sort of thing that you had in MIND?”
  • “HOW do you feel about THAT?”
  • “Could you see how THAT would save you MONEY?”

5 Dealing With Objections

When a client makes an objection, it’s a good thing because at least you know what is stopping them getting to “yes”. You need to listen carefull then try to overcome their objection. Again, it helps if you think through the most probable objections and your responses to them by brainstorming them and then writing them down in advance of your meeting / call. Then you are better prepared!

The Onion Method

Sometimes we need to discover if the prospect is making a real objection or just making an excuse, so like an onion, we have to start to peel away the layers and deal with each one in turn. Below are some useful questions that you should ask before you deal with an objection. They will allow you to understand if the objections are real or just excuses:

  • “Apart from that, is there anything else?”
  • “Is that the only thing that’s holding you back?”
  • “Is it just the cost that’s holding you back?”

However, once you feel that you know the objection is genuine, you can try the following question:

  • “If I can…(solve the problem), will you: be happy / go ahead / be ready to sign / buy from us?”

The Feel, Felt, Found Method

When the prospect is wrong in their objection or is just expressing a way they feel about something then the best method might be:

  • “I know how you feel, I felt the same way, until I found that it is actually cheaper.”
  • It’s even better if you can formulate this with a third person example, especially a brand leader they already respect:
  • “You know, I remember this happening to Herr Schmidt at Daimler Chrysler, I could understand his hesitation and he felt the same way as you, but then we tried it this way and it worked really well for him!”

6 Closing

We will look at 3 different ways of closing the deal here and the different language that is required:

The Direct Close

When we are very confident of getting a “yes” we can use this technique and it is usually in the form of a closed yes / no question:

  • “Would you like to go ahead?”
  • “Should I sign you up for 10?”
  • “When do you want to start?”

The Alternative Close

This gives the client 2 choices, both of which are good results for you!

  • “Would you like to take 20 units now or book a regular order of 5 per month?”
  • “Are you going to order it in red or green?”
  • “Shall we deliver tomorrow or on Saturday?”

The Presumptive Close

You need to make this one sound spontaneous, again, it’s all in the intonation!

  • “I know! Why don’t I book you a test drive?”
  • “Tell you what! Why not try a free lesson?”

And finally, always remember SW sW SW

Some will, some won’t, so what?

Who cares? Who’s next?

But be nice to everyone!