If you watch any news shows, or listen to talk shows on the radio you have heard the teasers:
“Coming up: something you will not believe.”
“After the break: tips on how to eat what you want, lose weight, get smarter, AND better looking.”
“When we come back, video footage you’d never thought you’d see.”
What I find annoying is that after they sucker you in to continue watching or listening, then it might be a few MORE breaks before they actually get to the promised good stuff, which often isn’t that great. OK, let’s talk about how this relates to you in sales.
While listening to some recorded calls for one of my training programs, I noticed a pattern with a sales rep. She tended to preface many of her statements with negatives such as,
“I have some bad news for you,”
“Are you sitting down?”, before she gave the price of an item,
“You’re not going to like this,” and,
“I hope you’re prepared for what I’m about to tell you.”
And not surprisingly, she continually got negative responses and results.
As a listener, when you hear comments like these, you’re bracing yourself for negative news. Regardless of your state of mind prior to the comment, you are now prepared to hear something negative.
People evaluate information based on the state of mind they are presently in when they hear it.
That’s a negative example of the principle of preconditioning.
But, you can use it to your advantage.
First, be certain you’re not now in the habit of negatively preconditioning your listeners. And with many people, it is a habit.
Listen to your calls from the perspective of the prospect/customer. Thoroughly analyze your language to determine if you use “conditioning” phrases that frost listeners. Catch yourself before you use them.
Then, get in the habit of grooming an atmosphere in which your listeners will positively view your information. And it’s not that difficult.
In fact, you probably hear it regularly when you see and hear an infomercial on television. How often have you heard,
“Now, for a product like this that takes the place of all the cleaners in your cabinet, you’d probably expect to pay $40 or more…, but no…”
You can do the same. For example,
“Here’s the good news…”
“Keeping in mind all of the ways this will save you money on your operational expenses, the price is low in comparison…”
“And now I’d like to share with you what people say is the best part of the entire system…”
“This is something you might even want to write down for future reference…”
The old clichè states, “It’s not what you say, but how you say it. True, but let’s add to that. It’s also what you say before you say it!