You wouldn’t use “f-words” in mixed company or in church or when explaining to your spouse what you do for a living so why are you using them when calling on prospects, especially decision-makers such as business owners, CEOs, Presidents and other VITOs?

No, I don’t mean THAT F-WORD! (I’m a polite Southern boy, remember?) I’m talking about the WORST F-Word a sales person can use in the presence of a “big picture” person who normally, typically, usually also controls the budget and creates the budget!

That word is FEATURES!

Geeks and “See-mores” and technicians and those that can tell you NO but not YES love features such as

• Horsepower
• Foot pounds of torque
• Power requirements
• Height, width and length
• Frequency and Gigahertz and Heebie-Jeebies and Flux Capacitors

Can you ever imagine Donald Trump asking a Dell or IBM or HP sales person

“Does your blade server have a quad core or six core processor and is it an AMD or an Intel chip set?”

No way, no how! Decision-makers and VITOs like Donald Trump want to know what you can do for them, for their company, for their division, for their people. How you do what you do is really not a concern, or even an interest, of decision-makers.

But most sales people have never had professional sales training. What you usually have received from your sales manager (who has not had professional sales management training) is actually product training. Your company brings you in, shows you how big or small and short or tall your product or service is and send you on your way.

You’re then HINDERED by the flood of features you have been taught, which gives you nothing to talk about EXCEPT features, which makes you a walking, talking brochure. If all you’re going to do is show up and throw up then why does your firm need you and why does the prospect need you other than to bring doughnuts or buy lunch?

Learn to ask questions that engage decision-makers and make them think, make them ponder the ramifications of not doing business with you because you ask questions they haven’t considered, and make them say, “Huh. That’s a great question.”

When you get to that point you’ll realize ALL of the benefits of dropping the f-word from your vocabulary.

Your mom will appreciate it as well.

If you need a little help or would like to receive my 5 page report “Questions Your Competition is Too Lazy or Scared to Ask” drop me a line. I don’t bite.