Say This, Not That: Why Precise Language in Sales Closes More Deals

Imprecise language is quietly sabotaging your sales process — and most sellers don't even notice it happening. This week, Bill and Bryan dig into the art of precise communication and why "what they hear" matters more than "what you meant."

Bryan shares a real example from his own sales process: his team retired the vague word "calendars" as the last item on a sales agenda in favor of the more direct "get calendars out." They also cover why stating up front how many points you're about to make makes you easier to follow and easier to buy from, and why tired open-ended questions like "what keeps you up at night?" should be replaced with sharper, stack-ranked questions that force a real answer. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Welcome everybody to the Advanced Selling Podcast, the longest running sales training podcast in the history of podcasting. My name is Brian Neal. I'm Bill Kaske here every week for your listening enjoyment, as we have been for 19 years and I think nine months now. We're sneaking up on our 20th anniversary in September, and we are having a uh an extravaganza. Oh extravaganza. And so you can participate if you send us a little note or a little email at listener advanced selling podcast.com. We're also going to have a little website. You can go and log a video or an audio. Tell us what the advanced selling podcast has meant to you and why you listen every Monday and why you have for 20 years and why you're still in sales for 20 years after we've talked to you. We haven't done that. Um and then uh so uh listener to advanced selling podcast.com. Bill, do we have we don't have assets up?

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Do we have uh we don't have anything up yet? But listener advanced selling podcasts, best place to either communicate via a text like an email or send us an audio. I just was talking to a guy the other day who record who uh has a podcast and he asked me to be on, and he told the story and I captured it. So this is a really good story about when he first started listening to the podcast, what he was doing in his life and how his world has changed, and now he has his own podcast. It's somewhat modeled after us, although he's got his own deal.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

I'll take it. That's flattery. Yeah. Um, so we want you to participate. We're gonna have an event too, uh, a live event in September. So details to come, but you need to get your ticket. And the way you get your ticket is you don't have to pay us, you just gotta send us an email or a note or a video or audio is best to listener at advanced sellingpodcast.com. No matter where you are, just do that. Even if you say hi, uh, you know, I don't think you'd say this, but if you're like, you know, I've been listening to you guys for 15 years and you still suck, you can say that. I mean, there's nothing wrong with that. I'd question your judgment, but sucking, but why you keep listening? But anyway, years, yeah, right. And if you're the guy who hates this banter part, uh, you know, the one guy we know, the one guy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

Uh well, here's here's something that happened. Speaking of banter, um, you know, as an older dude, I have a language that's different. We're gonna talk about that today. Uh, a language that's different than a lot of young people. And so I was at Starbucks, of course, the other day at my home Starbucks, and they all know me there, and you know, all that. And there was nobody in the count around the counter, there was nobody. And so I waited a few minutes, being a polite guy that I am. And finally I'm like, Hey, you know, anybody back there? And this lady comes out who I know, she goes, Oh, Bill, I'm sorry, I got you. And I ordered a little espresso drink, and I said, Oh, thank you, thank you so much. She goes, That'll be 327. And my contention is that when she said, Oh, Bill, I'm sorry, I gotcha, it meant that she was gonna buy it. Right now, when you go into a bar with a with a bunch or with a bunch of people out, and you say, Hey guys, I got this. It means my treat means I'm by, but I got you is a little bit different than I got this. Yes. But wouldn't you have thought since it was late and since I was trying to find somebody? And when the to tone alley, like Kara said, the tone is the important thing. Yes. I gotcha. Meaning, well, who else? There's nobody else in line, so I gotcha. What else would it mean? So, what do you weigh in on that?

SPEAKER_01 3:27

Oh, that's funny. When you first said it, I didn't take it as she was paying, I took it as she was gonna take care of you. That was my first hit. Yeah, and now that you say that, it makes complete sense the other direction. So part of it is this is interesting because it's gonna get into our topic, is in what mindset is the receiver of that? Because you were in the not irritated, but a little bit like I come here all the time, I spend a lot of my tip, but yeah, where is everybody? And then you're a loyal customer. So the story of her, hey, I got you, makes a ton of sense. Bill's in here all the time, he takes good care of us, he gives us you know extra tips around the holidays. 327, I can handle that. We can write that one off.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

Yeah, you know what I mean? Yeah. Um, and I've been in that Starbucks. There's a guy there, a really nice young man, and and occasionally he'll buy me a drink. And the way he buys this, I I got I got you. Yeah, see, I got I got it was uh, you know, a little hand signal there. Yeah, but your money, your money's no good here, kind of right. I get yeah, I got I got you. Put that back so anyway, put that back. And then today I ran in, and this is another language thing, I ran into well, this is a little bit different than language. I ran into Trent. Yeah, you know, you know, and he might even be listening. And uh, and there's one there's one certain way to to bring the conversation to a halt, yeah, and that is I said, What are you doing now? He says, I'm mining Bitcoin. I've heard that from people before, and I never thought what to do with it because I I want to say, well, what does that exactly mean? Knowing full well I'm not gonna understand the next 10 sentences when I asked that question.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

Anyway, I didn't know he was doing that. What a great gig. Set it and forget it. You know what I mean? But very complicated and a smidrisky. But that's great. That's funny.

SPEAKER_00 5:11

I I admire, I admire somebody who is so innovative that they can take a concept that probably 10 years ago didn't even exist and they're working through it and they're entering into it. But anyway, I thought that topic of of language, not from Trent necessarily, but uh I gotcha language, imprecise language, I think sometimes gets us stuck in as a sales professional business owner or as a as a leader, as a leader of your team. And when it when the language is imprecise, it tends to have an effect on the process and on where people think they are in the process. And I know that you're uh uh adamant about, you know, at the end of a call, let's let's set up another meeting, let's have a clear future, let's have a date in the calendar. That would be an instance of precise language. So we're not just saying, hey, I'll get back with you sometime soon. We're we're being very precise with that. But I find that that's on that's more the uh it's it's rare. That's interesting.

SPEAKER_01 6:07

That is a great topic. I and one we haven't done in a while. We've been doing a lot of mindset stuff and a lot of process stuff, and now we're getting into the more the art of selling, which is the language part of it. Yeah. Um, and it brought me back, and I was looking um for someone who I think you would know who this is, and I just realized how old he is. He seems so young to me before. You remember Frank Luntz, L-U-N-T-Z, political pollster? Yeah, um, he wrote a phenomenal book a while ago, 2007, called Words That Work. Words that work. It's not what you say, it's what people hear. And he is responsible for a lot of, and I think he's bipartisan, maybe a little GOP uh Republican, I don't remember, but but he did a so he came up with some of these things like instead of you know, should we let you know homosexual people into the uh army? There was a big huge social issue. He came up with this concept don't ask, don't tell. Don't ask, don't tell. If I have that right, I think I have the application of that right. So uh little things like that. Um, the war on drugs, like these little words that, like, you know, we're gonna stop, you know, it's like became the war on drugs and it carried this thing. And so it's a really good book if you're looking for ways to say things that are more direct, that have an impact that um can be received well by the listener, so we get our point across more.

SPEAKER_00 7:33

Um, because communication, our ability to communicate either complex concepts or simple concepts to another person is what pays us. Yes. There's there's, you know, if you're good at this and you're good at setting the stage and you're good at all the things that we talk about on here, you will make a lot of money in sales because people will trust you more, they'll understand you, you'll be able to explain yourself, they'll know where they're going, they'll know what the next step is. And so it's not, I don't think communication should be complicated, but what you just said is true. It's not about what we intend, it's about what they hear. Yes. And if we're not careful, we we think, well, we're we're really good community. I mean, you people, um, you know, one thing I'm really good at is communicating, and they're not. But so let's talk about some ways that imprecise language might affect the buyer-seller dance. Yeah. Um, maybe from us, but it also goes the other way too, because they can have imprecise language. Then it's up to us to clarify.

SPEAKER_01 8:33

But uh, well, I'll start with a real example of one you just used that we changed some language. Um, so we teach, you know, extreme calendar clarity is a concept we have in our operating system. And tactically, how that shows up is we schedule meetings, uh, our next step meetings while we're sitting there in the meeting we're in. In the agenda, we used to recommend putting the word calendars as the last step. So you'd have a sales agenda. If I'm selling to Bill, we have five or six things in the agenda. And the last thing was always calendars. Okay. Calendars. And then I thought that's kind of vague. Calendars, what does that even mean? I said, let's be more specific and directive and actionable around what we say. So now the last thing says get calendars out. Get calendars out. That's the last agenda item. And if you said that to anyone, I say, What does get calendars out mean? Everyone will look at you funny and they'll go, uh, get your calendars out. I'm like, exactly. If I said, What does calendars mean? They're like, I have no idea. I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know the context. That's a great example of just being more precise. Literally. And and for years we were teaching calendars, you know, calendars. Calendars if needed, we would say that sometimes too. I'm like, why are we being so vague here? Just say what it is. And then when you do that, the buyer sees that they know exactly what's going to happen. Exactly. Yeah. Get I'm gonna get my calendar out. That's what we do. Get it out. So that's a real example where we change our own stuff because of this topic.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

Yeah. This confusion. There's something that I've been recommending for the last couple of years to my clients about because I'm I'm a believer in, you know, you got to have some kind of follow-up, next step, clear future, whatever you want to call it. But then I think you if you're in a complex sale where there's a lot of a few of them and a few of you, and there's there's a lot of moving parts, I think it's important to also say, here's what's going to happen in that next meeting. Here's what, here's what I'd like to cover, or here are the here are the topics that I think my I would suggest we talk about in the next meeting. So that way we're not just booking a call. We're booking a call with an expectation of what the topics and what the agenda is. And that way when they include somebody else from their company in the process, they will be able to say, here's what we're gonna be talking about, A, B, C, D, and E. I think that creates a little bit more compelling narrative than just we're gonna have a meeting with Brian and we're gonna we're gonna talk about uh operating systems and training. I think it I think any kind, anytime you can be more specific and precise with the expectation. And this could happen at any part of the process. That's so good.

SPEAKER_01 11:11

And I would um another language, we really I'm not really getting to how it hurts it, more like how to help it, I think, here. Um, and we teach this as a concept that we have a mechanics manual that kind of teaches people these kind of mechanics, and one of the things it talks about is as much as possible in your communication, use numbered lists to communicate things. So, to your point just now, hey, so in the next meeting, uh we're gonna cover three things. Yeah, one, dot, dot that, two, and three, dot, dot, dot. Perfect. And one of the reasons we recommend that is one, it's much clearer to understand as the buyer, but the other side, it's way easier for you to communicate, right? Instead of you just like, oh, they talk about this, and then we'll talk about that, and then and they'll do this a little bit of that, just like and it just it always trails three things. One, two, three.

SPEAKER_00 12:05

Like that. I love that. In fact, I'm gonna I'm gonna add on to that that not just then, but uh, I've got a uh I've got a client who I'm helping create a um a presentation flow. And one of the most important parts of that in the first three or four slides is what do we observe in the marketplace today? What what you know we're in this world and we observe several things. And so she was going through it and she goes, Well, I've got the observe observation slide done. I said, Well, just rile it off to me. Let's not look at a slide, just let me hear you talk. And she went on and on and on and on and on. And I'm like, at some point I stopped and said, Ruth, uh I'm not sure how many of these are there. Are you way through? And she goes, Well, there's five of them. And I'm like, what number are we on? Right. The point there is I said, You if if there's five trends that your prospect needs to be aware of, say, look, there's five trends. Here's trend number one. Awesome. Here's trend number two. People then know, A, you're you're helping them consume the information better because they know where they are in the process. Two, B, you are uh you're you're precise, and there's there's something about this how you do anything is how you do everything. And if you're precise with your language, you're gonna be precise with the solution. They're gonna judge you a lot on how they how they feel in that in the communication process. So yes, uh, I think what you said is perfect, the whole three things, and then use that everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

If there's five, if there's 12, that's a lot, but you know, or say there's 12, and I've picked the top four that are relevant to this situation. It's so easy to understand. I'm like, oh, I got it. Um there's another part to this, and this is a little debatable in a lot of sales um training courses, philosophies, methodologies, whatever. So there's the concept of the open-ended question, right? So, what are your biggest problems? What are your biggest issues? These days, I feel like that is causing a little more harm than good. We've been taught that. Like, you know, this is awful, but people still say what keeps you up at night. I'm like, oh god, don't say that anymore. I hate that. It's just no reason, like nothing, no, nothing. You know, we get we get ambient now. So nothing does. So rather to contextualize a question around something that I know and then ask an answer that demands a more uh direct answer. So not necessarily yes or no, but if I said, So I've heard three things from you so far, I've heard about CRM um cleanliness, uh, I've heard about top of funnel, and then I've heard about um just rep efficiency in the field. If you had to stack rank those three things, put them in order for me. One's the most important, then two, then three, and tell me why you put each one there. Yeah, that's a more direct question with that that guides a better answer. Just like, so what all what all problems do you have here? Oh, tell me more about those, because that's what we've been taught. I was taught to tell me more about those. I'm just very vague. Like make them answer something.

SPEAKER_00 15:13

I agree, totally agree. And stack ranks because you might think number, you know, instead of what's your most pressing problem right now, be yeah, be more thorough about it. What what these five problems stack rank them, number five, you know what? And then then the person starts saying, Well, you know what? I mean, I named numbered that five, but really that's probably two or three. And then you just work through it. That's it. Love that. Um, here's another one that I feel like we're not very good at as sales professionals. And this gets back to you have to be detached from the outcome, I think, in order to use this. It's a little bit of an advanced strategy, but that is when the customer has a decision to make. So let's say you've been in and you've you've worked through things and you've got their dilemmas, you understand their problems, what you're trying to accomplish, all you're good with that. But at the end, they still have an option. One option is to do nothing, live with the problem. One option is to buy from you or engage you, one option is to fix the problem, but not with you. I think it's good if from a precise language standpoint, if you can say, look, as I understand it right now where we sit, you've got you've got several options. Number one is you can choose to kind of live with the problem. You can choose to in whatever I just said. That way, you're kind of recapping not just the content, but also the process. They've got a decision to make. And before they make the decision of who I'm going to use, they have to decide am I going to use anybody? Maybe I should just live with this. I've lived with it for 20 years. Maybe I should just continue to live with it. Um, this big nod on my nose. I've lived with it for that long. So what the no. So exactly right. Why are you getting that not fixed now, Bill? Well, I can't get through doors because this thing is growing. Uh, the point there is you can say things that you don't think you can say, and if you say them in the right way, it really helps clarify the issue. That's really what you're doing is clarify the issue. Yeah, that's so good.

SPEAKER_01 17:07

That's so, so good. And uh I'm gonna add um an example for my final uh answer here today on language is in the the case where uh customers asking us things that might sound clarifying or might sound like resistance, there's always a reason they ask something, and I think too often we answer the question with a does that make sense? I don't know. I say that sometimes I know, but you know, and they go, Yeah, but what's most important is why they ask that. Okay, so if I said, good, good, we good. I know I do that occasionally.

SPEAKER_00 17:47

Um we're good on that. We're good on me explaining a difficult concept in 30 seconds. We good, y'all understand that.

SPEAKER_01 17:53

I will say that does that make sense is a tonal thing too, as Kara said, because you can do the you can do the Gen Z version. Does that make sense? Like pat you on the head. I swear, am I making I'm want to make sure I'm clear here? Like, we good? I explained that really quickly. It's more I'm taking ownership anyway. Um, but if you ask me, um, well, can uh five of my leaders uh get certified in your operating system? I would say, yeah, they can. Uh what are you thinking? Yeah, well, I had two and I got these other three. I'm like, tell me who else you got, you know. I just want to know what's behind it, but so many off of uh a seller, an eager seller, when the person when we're set up to certify two and the buyer says, Can we do five? The eager seller goes, Well, yeah, of course. We love that. Yeah, we love that. Exactly. Like, why did they ask that? And who were they thinking of? And are those other three the right now? They're worth it. Five. Yeah, well, yeah, well, because that means let's see, oh yeah, extra grand. Yeah, sure. Grand for commission for me. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 18:54

Sure. No, it's good. It's like every question comes from somewhere. And if we don't, if we're not willing to say, and I never like the why do you ask that question? I never like that because it's like I ask it because I'm interested. But your your answer is, yeah, we can do that. Always answer the question unless it's unless it's a question you literally literally can't answer. Yes. Um, but I would always answer the question and say, What are you thinking there? Tell tell me what's yeah, what yeah. Tell me what the question, yeah. Yeah, but we can do that. But it's precise because now not only do you know what they ask, but you know why they ask it, where it came from. And you telling me you can't do more with that than just the question itself, of course you can. Totally, totally. So let us know what you learn from this. You can go to LinkedIn, uh, advancedologypodcast.com slash LinkedIn. I know we have a lot of plethora of people on there, but if you have something that maybe you have witnessed as a leader or as a sales professional, maybe it's prospect vague language, let us know. And we can either do a follow-up episode here or just what you learn, uh, leave us a message on LinkedIn. That'd be awesome.

SPEAKER_01 19:56

So good. So good. Can't wait to see it. Our 20th extravagant, 20th year anniversary extravagant. Buy your tickets, buy your tickets. Buy your tickets by emailing us at listeneradvanced link podcast.com and send us a note there. Video or audio. That's awesome. I'll see you next time. Bye. Bye.