Basically, in a nut-shell…
TweetI don’t think that I can remember the last time I ate a nut out of a shell. I have more than one nut-cracker in my house, but I cannot recall the last time I purchased or ate a nut that wasn’t shelled for me already. And, to think of it, I can’t remember the last time I saw a nut-shell. Yet, salespeople and other people presenting to me constantly use this phrase.
The point here is not that nobody looks at the shells of nuts anymore, its that it is maddening to me to hear salespeople or anyone for that matter using tired and meaningless cliche’s like this one in their pitches.
And it isn’t just tired cliche’s, its lazy words like “basically” and “value-add” and “total solution” and “value prop”. If you want to get classified as a run of the mill salesperson, then use lots of these phrases. It indicates a tired pitch, a tired salesperson, and/or a un-exciting proposition.
One of the most important things to realize is that nobody actually cares about your product. They care about their own problems, and how you can help them. Your prospects want to feel like you took the time to care about them and their problems. When you have a routine pitch, using boring words, you can’t expect them to think that you aren’t just giving them the run of the mill presentation.
Did you take the time to understand their problems? How your solution relates to what they do? If your solution is appropriate? Or are you just dialing a number, showing up for a meeting and playing the numbers game – hoping that enough people figure it out on their won for you to make quota.
You want to crush quota? Throw out the tired language and speak about your product in a compelling and direct way.
