If I asked 100 people what the most powerful word in sales would be, what do you think they would say?

Mar 10

Close? Money? Ask? Nothing?

All those words and actions are powerful, but none of them come close to the most powerful word a customer wants to hear. “What is it?” you ask. It’s their own FIRST NAME. Yes, the most powerful advantage you have in a sales presentation is to use someone's first name throughout the meeting.

Have you ever watched the movie MEET THE PARENTS, where Gaylord Focker is reminded by his father-in-law that he's not in the Circle of Trust? There is nothing more useful then genuinely using a person's first name during a presentation to earn the right to be invited into their circle of trust and gain the advantage when it’s time to close.

How do I know this? I was the #1 unit salesman for the #1 security company in the world, ADT Security Services, completing over 10,000 sales in seven years, and earning the prestigious President’s Club Award.

Years ago, I was consulting with a very large company in the tens of millions of dollars. They spent most of their time selling their product on the phone. While recording their sales conversations I was able to show data that proved during these presentations the reps rarely used the person's first name more than once during the conversation.

I decided to visit their national marketing center and had the team sit around and listen as I conducted my own presentation with a customer. I asked one person to count the number of times I said the person's first name. The rest of the group didn't know we were counting and simply sat back and experienced the interaction.

At the end of the call, it was a unanimous response that they all felt it was one of the best sales presentations they had ever heard. They all felt the customer really seemed to trust me.

I then turned to the person counting and asked how many times I said their name. He said 47 times.

So, in a 20 minute phone conversation I said their first name 47 times, and neither the representatives nor the customer thought I had overused their name. What was the key? Saying their name earned me into their CIRCLE OF TRUST. Try it!