During my sales training seminars, I often talk about power words and, more often than not, someone pops up and asks:” What the heck are power words?” Probably someone among you, guys, knows the answer.reading an US white paper on a survey from a well known American university, involving somehow 2.800 salesmen from “Fortune 500” companies. All those salesmen had a detail in common: they were extremely successful, earning an average of 200.000 USD per annum.
This article is about the effect of Power Words on sales results.

Power Words Can Change Your Sales Results

If asked, most of them weren’t able to explain the reasons behind their performances, and that’s why the survey was made. It showed that reason was mainly an extremely effective communication skill, common to those sales superstars. They were used to use great verbal patterns, leading them to success.
That verbal patterns, even though they were unconsciously used, were very similar to those commonly used by probably the greatest therapist of XX century, Milton Erickson. Erickson, in just a few clinical meetings, was able to heal patients already unsuccessfully treated for years by other less gifted therapists. One of his (many) strong points was the use of a very influencing verbal patterns, able to trigger rapid changes in the psyche of individuals.
Presuppositions, metaphors, double binds, open ended suggestions, creation of experiences, embedded commands were among Erickson most common weapons. To explain his way to treat patients, he was used to say:” Far too many therapists invite their patients to a dinner, and command them what to order; I invite my patients, and ask them what do they prefer”.
Among his vaste use of verbal patterns (impossible to list here) I’ve selected some great words (the above “power words”) which were discovered as commonly used by the panel of the 2.800 respondents sales superstar, and I’ll present them here.
I hope that my readers will like them, and start to massively use during their sales calls. Every sales training seminar, aiming to make a difference in the sales performance of a rep should take them at hand.

1. You. There’s a great difference when you tell a customer “…thanks to our insurance policy, our customers can sleep soundly” and “…thanks to our insurance, you can sleep soundly”. Customer aren’t interested in you, in your company, in your past, present and future successes: they just want to know “what is in it for me”.
2. Yes. Another magic word. It confirms, conquers, creates positive relations. Use in at the beginning of your sentences (“yes, I understand / yes, I can help you / yes, I agree).
3. Passion. It evokes warmth, positive emotions, friendliness, proximity. “… we make our job with passion”, “…passion is the key to serve you, as a customer”, “…this product has been assembled with passion” are all good examples of how to use this power word.
4. Saving. I suggest to use it not just in financial / economic scenarios: “… with this you’ll save time”, “… this car will help you in saving petrol”, “… this contract will help you in saving efforts”. When you pronounce this word your interlocutor often visualize a piggy-bank, a checking account, a pile of coins, no matter what it relates to. All positive and helpful images.
5. Easy. People want easy decisions, easy products, easy services. Everything which can be so defined acquires an higher gear.
6. Improved. Even an ordinary product, when it is improved, becomes great. “…this improved service provides you with…”, “…the product has been greatly improved”, “…customers like you, often talk about the improvements of this machine”.
7. Fantastic. Use it instead of good, nice, useful, … People perceive quality as a function of the used adjectives. If you tell your spouse “I’m exhausted” instead of “I’m tired” his / her perception of how do you feel changes, completely.
8. Powerful. One of the most strong words, from a semantic point of view. “…using this will benefit you with a powerful effect of …”, “… powerful protection of your home…”, “powerful action of … for you maximum advantage”.
9. Special. Despite being so common, this word conveys a sense of exclusivity. Probably the major part of your customers would like to be treated is a slightly special way, simply because each of them is unique. Do so, even verbally, for each of them.
10. Benefit. Combined with the pronoun you it becomes really powerful. “… you will reap these benefits using …” is something making hard to resist to.

As I recommend at the end of my sales training courses, train yourself in using the above power words during your sales calls, and you will easily experience fantastic and powerful results, saving efforts and improving your turnover.