You-Turn

From SalesDog.com:


Make a "You-Turn" to Sell More
by Anne Miller

Which would you rather look at: pictures of my friends and family, or pictures of your friends and family?

Let me take a wild guess––you would prefer to see the latter. You know your friends and family. You relate to them. You have feelings about them. You "see" yourself with them. You have none of these reactions or connections to pictures of the people in my world.

In selling or presenting an argument, every time you say, "I / We have..." "I / We do..." "I / We can..." or "I / We think...", you are, in effect, forcing your listeners to "look at your pictures." This creates no particular emotional reaction in them and little inclination to buy what you are selling. Presenting everything from your point of view makes you guilty of "I-Strain."

Make a "You-Turn"
People care about what they get, not what you have. They get excited by the pictures they see in their minds, not the pictures you see in yours.

Next time you speak with a prospect, change your pronouns from a speaker to a listener focus. Here are some examples:

"You'll like how easy it is to implement" vs. "Our programs are easy to implement."

"When you work with us, you'll be able to customize the software to your needs. For example, you can..." vs. "We have software that is easily customizable. We can..."

"As you look at the chart, [you] notice how consistent the growth has been in all markets." vs. "I want to point out how consistent the growth,..."

"Something you'll find particularly interesting is how you will be able to... vs. "I think it is particularly interesting that our process lets people..."

"Clients [implied is 'like you] are able to double their..." vs. "We produce very good ROI on..."

"You may be wondering, how does this work?" vs. "Let me tell you how this works.

"In summary, working with ABC, "you'll get..., ..., and... to meet your objectives." vs. "In summary, WYZ (my firm) has....,...., and ... which makes us your best choice."

The power of "You"
Pronouns matter. "You" draws people into what you're saying. It gets them seeing themselves using your product or service. It fires up their imagination as to the possibilities of your offer. Bottom line, the pronoun "you" makes a huge difference in how your buyers receive what you are saying.

At first, making "you-turns" may feel a bit unnatural as you are no doubt very proud of your product or service to help clients and you want to share that enthusiasm. However, like anything else, the more you practice it, the easier it gets, until it becomes totally automatic.

Try it, you'll like it
On your next phone or in-person call, make more "you-turns." You'll notice how much more receptive your listener will be. You'll feel more connected to your listener. You'll have a much easier time moving forward in the sale cycle.

Anne Miller is a popular sales and presentations expert and author of the book, Metaphorically Selling: How to Use the Magic of Metaphors to Sell, Persuade, & Explain Anything to Anyone. She works with people in high stakes situations and clients like Yahoo!, Citigroup, and Time, Inc. to sell millions of dollars of business every year. Visit her site at www.AnneMiller.com.

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