How to Avoid the Top 3 Sales Phrases That Make You Sound Outdated and Old School – In Just 7 Minutes with Liz Wendling

Resources/Links:

• To get more FREE tips and secrets on how to sell more with less pressure quickly, click here: https://www.lizwendling.com/free-gift/

Summary

Have you ever wondered if some of your sales techniques might be a bit old-school or outdated?

Many professionals continue to use sales techniques that are over 25-30 years behind the times!

These methods are becoming less and less effective with each passing year.

If you have not updated, you’re likely outdated.

Think you know everything about know sales?

Think again.

It is time to make way for some game-changing, money-making, client-attracting concepts that will transform your sales success right now.

This week, we have another business coach/sales coach Liz Wendling. She transforms ‘old school’ professionals into wildly successful sales rock stars in front of today’s modern consumer.

Get a taste of what Liz has to offer and find out how your language plays a big role in how your prospects will respond to you. She also shares some of the phrases of the sale that will keep you updated and wanted.

Check out these episode highlights:

• 01:28 – Liz’s ideal client: My ideal clients are professionals who sell services but they have a really bad problem that I call “a love-hate relationship with sales”. They love what they do, but they absolutely hate to sell.
• 02:18 – The problem she helps solve: I like to teach them how to get out of their heads, and that negative belief around selling, that selling is bad and you have to be pushy, and you have to be aggressive. So old school!
• 03:32 – The symptoms of the problem: If they’re rattling off the mantras of, “I don’t want to be sales-y. I don’t want to be pushy. I hate being aggressive. I don’t want to be one of those people.” And on top of that, they keep hearing, “I need to think about it. I have no money. Call me in a few weeks”
• 04:23 – Clients’ common mistakes before consulting Liz: I talk a lot about the word, “follow up”. The F-word, the L-word, love, and then some minimizer words. And I bet to everyone out there if you checked your last 21 emails that you sent out, you probably said “I would love to get together with you. I’d love to connect with you. I’d love to get something on the calendar. I would love to work with you.”
• 06:17 – Liz’s Valuable Free Action (VFA): So, I would say to truly stop using the language that really doesn’t move the sales process forward. So, if you are going to drop an F-bomb, which I highly recommend you stop, instead of saying, “I’m just following up”, why don’t you say, “Hey, Bob, in our last conversation…”
• 07:00 – Liz’s Valuable Free Resource (VFR): To get more FREE tips and secrets on how to sell more with less pressure quickly, click here: https://www.lizwendling.com/free-gift/
• 07:32 – Q: What advice would you give to a salesperson or a professional who is complaining about and struggling with not getting people to return their calls their emails, or texts? A: I would say turn the table on yourself and ask yourself, “Would I respond to my own email? Do I sound like everyone else in the inbox?”

Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:

“If you don't change your language, it's going to be hard to change your results.” -Liz Wendling Share on X

Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

Tom Poland 00:10
Greetings, everyone, and a warm welcome to another edition of Marketing the Invisible. I’m Tom Poland beaming out to you here on the Sunshine Coast in Australia, joined today by Liz Wendling. From Jersey, but now living in?

Liz Wendling 00:22
Denver, Colorado!

Tom Poland 00:24
And I just got to, for the record, I just got to ask Liz to say the word “coffee” but in Jersey style.

Liz Wendling 00:30
Coffee.

Tom Poland 00:31
Coffee, I love the way you put an R in there, as well when you do that.

Liz Wendling 00:37
It does.

Tom Poland 00:37
Aside from being a Jersey girl, Liz is a nationally acclaimed and applauded speaker. She’s the author of, not just one, but six books! Her two most recent, and I love this, Liz, The Heart of Authentic Selling and, Sell Without Selling Your Soul. She’s driven by that mantra, “It’s not WHAT you sell, it’s HOW you sell it that matters.” And I can imagine that in there, Liz, is this heavy dose of the authenticity of wanting to help people not just flog another product, so I can’t wait. The title is, “How to Avoid the Top Three Phrases That Make You Sound Outdated and Old School in Your Selling”. Liz, our time starts now, I should say. Question number one, seven minutes to go, who is your ideal client?

Liz Wendling 01:28
My ideal clients are professionals who sell services but they have a really bad problem that I call “a love-hate relationship with sales”. They love what they do, but they absolutely hate to sell. And they’ve convinced themselves that if they do enough marketing, they never have to sell. And I tell people if you are talking to other human beings, and you’re trying to get that human being to hire you, and then pay you for that service, you are in a sales conversation. You can’t avoid sales. So, the professionals I work with are financial planners, accountants, attorneys, coaches, and consultants. And I teach them how to have a better mindset around sales and get some good skills so they can close more business.

Tom Poland 02:11
Perfect! Thank you for that. So, let’s go to question number two, can you tell us a bit more about the problem you solve? Six minutes left.

Liz Wendling 02:18
Okay, I like to teach them how to get out of their heads, and that negative belief around selling, that selling is bad and you have to be pushy, and you have to be aggressive. So old school! So outdated! So, they hang on to this outdated mindset around selling so that they can protect themselves. They say, “I don’t want to be one of those salespeople, so I just won’t do it at all!” And what they wind up doing is leaving a heck of a lot of money on the table because they’re not willing to step into the only thing, the only activity, that keeps them in business, and that’s sales activities. You can do everything else beautifully. You can have a perfect website and great social media, but if you don’t know how people buy and can’t inspire someone to buy from you, good luck!

Tom Poland 03:04
And not only are they leaving a lot of money on the table, but they’re probably failing to help a lot of people that need help.

Liz Wendling 03:10
Correct! And they’re ruining their reputation too.

Tom Poland 03:13
Yeah, sabotaging belief about not selling. So, let’s go to question number three, what of them would you say is the typical symptom? Someone listening to this would go, “This is what’s going on in my world, in my sales world, in my non-sales world.” How do people know that they should be reaching out and finding out more about what you do?

Liz Wendling 03:32
If they’re rattling off the mantras of, “I don’t want to be sales-y. I don’t want to be pushy. I hate being aggressive. I don’t want to be one of those people.” And on top of that, they keep hearing, “I need to think about it. I have no money. Call me in a few weeks”, and they’re getting ghosted. So, they have a mindset that they hate selling, and then nobody gets back to them, so they’re stuck. They are literally stuck in the same spot. And they keep moving around that same spot, but nothing is happening in their business. So, I would say they would reach out to me if they want to pull themselves out of that and start moving their business in a different direction.

Tom Poland 04:10
Perfect! Thank you for that. We’ve got just over four minutes left, common mistakes that people make when they’re trying to solve this problem. Now, you mentioned several phrases that people are using that make them sound outdated or old school, tell us about that.

Liz Wendling 04:23
Sure! I talk a lot about the word, “follow up”. The F-word, the L-word, love, and then some minimizer words. And I bet to everyone out there if you checked your last 21 emails that you sent out, you probably said “I would love to get together with you. I’d love to connect with you. I’d love to get something on the calendar. I would love to work with you”, and you drop an L bomb. And what they don’t realize is that when you say the phrase “I would love”, it’s a self-serving phrase. It’s not collaborative. It doesn’t invite me into the conversation. It only tells me what you would love to do to me. It doesn’t work anymore! We’ve got to lose that phrase. The next one is “follow up”, which also comes with touching base, reaching out, and checking in. And those phrases now, everyone’s using them! So, they don’t really inspire anyone to follow up with you, which makes you have to follow up again and again and again. And you say things like, “I don’t know if you got my last 19 emails. I’m not sure if you saw the last 27 messages I left you”, and they don’t take a look at why, what are they doing that’s causing that problem? And then the last one, I would say, is all those minimizer phrases. “I know you’re busy, so I don’t want to take up too much of your time. I hope you’re having a good weekend. I hope you had a great day”, or “How are you?” and all those minimizer phrases that we throw out there because we think that we’ve got to soften the blow of our message. And all those do is make you show up outdated, passive, wishy-washy, and weak. So, if you don’t change your language, it’s going to be hard to change your results.

Tom Poland 05:59
Stop dropping the love bomb. Stop with the-

Liz Wendling 06:02
And the F bomb.

Tom Poland 06:03
And stop minimizing. Perfect! The three big mistakes. So, let’s flip it now. Let’s talk about what people can do. Question five, I’m after one top tip, something that’s going to help people. It’s not going to solve the whole problem, they probably need you for that, but give us a top tip. Two minutes left.

Liz Wendling 06:17
So, I would say to truly stop using the language that really doesn’t move the sales process forward. So, if you are going to drop an F-bomb, which I highly recommend you stop, instead of saying, “I’m just following up”, why don’t you say, “Hey, Bob, in our last conversation…” or “When I saw you at the networking event last week, you and I talked about…” I call it getting “right to the meat of the message”. Leave out “I’m just following up” because that’s what you’re doing anyway – you are following up!

Tom Poland 06:45
Spoken like a true Jersey girl. Let’s get to the bottom line, and cut to the chase. Let’s give people some more, a valuable free resource we could direct people to. So, a landing page where people can find out more about your work.

Liz Wendling 07:00
They can go to my website and there’s a free gift on there that goes much deeper into some of the languages we talked about today. And that’s lizwendling.com/free-gift.

Tom Poland 07:13
Perfect! And I’m on the page right now. It looks like it’s got a real depth of value there. So, folks, go to lizwendling, W-E-N-D-L-I-N-G, .com/free-gift. Go get it! 55 seconds left, Liz. What’s the one question I should have asked you but didn’t and the answer, please?

Liz Wendling 07:32
Okay. I would say, what advice would you give to a salesperson or a professional who is complaining about and struggling with not getting people to return their calls their emails, or texts? And I would say turn the table on yourself and ask yourself, “Would I respond to my own email? Do I sound like everyone else in the inbox?” And here’s the hard one, “Where do I blow people off? Where do I not get back to people?” Is it just karma coming back to you? Or does your message really suck?

Tom Poland 08:07
Perfect1 Liz Wendling, thanks so much for your time and your insights and it’s a pleasure to be listening to the voice of experience. Cheers!

Liz Wendling 08:13
Thank you, Tom!

Tom Poland 08:15
Thanks for checking out our Marketing The Invisible podcast. If you like what we’re doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It’s very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.