The difference between the most successful real estate professionals and those who do average business may be
just a couple of words. The way you phrase what you say can have a big impact on your ability to attract clients, according to a
study by Gong, a product that uses artificial intelligence to identify top buzzwords for salespeople. The company analyzed more than 500,000 sales conversations to identify the most effective words and phrases.
“Ultimately, what you do and say during sales conversations is the most decisive separator between mega-successful salespeople and average salespeople,” Gong CEO and cofounder Amit Bendov told Forbes.com. “Top salespeople say and do very different things than their peers.” Gong found some of the following words and phrases to be most effective:
- “Does that make sense?” This phrase is most effective when moving prospects to the next step in the sales process. Gong uses an example: “Does it make sense to schedule a call or set up a meeting?” However, this phrase is least effective at the close of a deal.
- Imagine. Get your client to think about what living in a home might be like by using a statement such as “Imagine being able to...” That can help move them forward in the process.
- The client’s name. People like to hear their own name. Top salespeople tend to use the client’s name more than four times per hour, according to the Gong study. Agents who used their client’s name often closed about 14 percent more transactions than those who did not, the study shows.
- Decisive language. Top salespeople also were found to use phrases such as “definitely,” “certainly,” or “we can do that” more often. They tended not to give long answers to a “yes” or “no” question but would respond with one word. “Long answers create uncertainty on the part of the listener,” Forbes.com reports in an article on the Gong survey.
The study also identified words and phrases that were less effective in sales meetings, such as “we provide,” “competitor,” and “show you how.”
Source: “Words That Help you Sell, and Words That will Hurt You,” Forbes.com (April 15, 2018)
