Avoid These Phrases when Speaking with Clients

Whether they want an addition built on their home or just their bathtub re-caulked, customers want someone who they can trust to get the job done right. Selling your services is about building a trusting relationship with your customer, but there are some words and phrases that might impair that trust. Stay away from the following “poison words”—as Jacques Werth, president of High Probability Selling Inc. in Media, Pa., calls them—to increase your sales while earning the customer’s respect.

1. “Interested”
“Don’t discuss whether customers are interested, discuss if they want it,” Werth says. “The word ‘interest’ has no commitment. When a prospect says they’re interested, it means nothing. It is usually an invitation to waste your time giving free advice. Ask questions such as, 'Does that mean you want your windows replaced in the next few weeks?'”

If you always use the word “want” instead, you could increase your sales by at least 15 percent, he says.

You need to know what the prospect wants, agrees David Lupberger, home improvement expert for Golden, Colo.-based ServiceMagic, a service that matches customers with prescreened contractors. “You ask questions to get to what they want,” he says. “Selling is understanding what the purchaser wants and deciding on whether you can give it to them.”

He gives the example of a woman who wanted a new deck and had three contractors come to her home for an estimate. The first two contractors, Lupberger says, came and took measurements, gave an estimate and then went home. “The third one came out and said, ‘Tell me what you want,’ and gave suggestions based on what she said,” he says. “She decided who she wanted right away.”

2. “Afford”
If you’re talking about money with customers, stay away from asking them what they can afford, Werth says. “It scares them,” he says. Instead, ask them if they are willing to spend within a price range.

It also is tricky determining when to discuss price or budget. “It’s an awkward subject to bring up, but it’s a conversation that must be had,” Lupberger says. “I think it’s appropriate as a professional to want to help the customer understand the range of prices involved.”

Price is not something that should be brought up right away, says Paul McGrath, president of McGrath Contracting Inc. in Van Nuys, Calif. “When I have an initial meeting, I don’t ask first thing, ‘How much do you want to spend?’” he says.

He says he usually brings up money during the second or third meeting, but he warns that you don’t want to waste your time with what you know will be a non-sale. “You can normally tell whether they’re serious pretty quickly,” he says. “You get a sixth sense for that.”

3.  “To tell you the truth” 
This phrase “implies that up until now you haven’t been telling the truth, and people are sensitive to that,” Werth says. People want to do business with people they trust and respect.

Lupberger agrees that most sales are built on trust. “Right away, begin building a relationship with them,” he says.

“To tell the truth” actually is considered an outdated sales technique to some, Werth adds. Other obsolete selling techniques include the phrase “Is that fair?” and using the person’s name as much as possible when you talk to them.

“Only salespeople talk that way,” Werth says. “Your customers recognize that it’s manipulation, and it turns them off.”

4. “Help”
Don’t say, “I can help you with that” when the prospect is explaining what they want, Werth recommends. “Help” implies that they will do some of the work.

“Do they want you to help them, or do they want you to do it for them?” he asks. “They want you to do it, not assist them with it.” 

5. “Great”
“When you say ‘great’ every time after they say something, it sounds insincere,” Werth says. “If a prospect says, 'I have to replace my siding,' and you say, 'Great,' it may sound like you just hooked a fish.” A better reply is, “When do you want that done?”

Also, shy away from the word “just” in a phrase such as “I just called to tell you about a job we're doing in your neighborhood,” he recommends. “It trivializes everything that you do.”

Ultimately, to build trust with the customer, you want to be honest with them, Lupberger says. “If they want a custom kitchen done by Thanksgiving and you know it’s going to take several months to make all the selections and it can’t be done, then tell them,” he says.

Overcoming the customer’s skepticism is important, as well. “Most people have preconceived ideas about contractors,” McGrath says. “They want to know they’re dealing with a professional who’s fair and not going to rip them off.”