I’m Going To Be Totally Honest With You

On a recent shopping trip comparing a few products and talking with salespeople, we were taken aback by the one seller who chatted for a while, did the normal feature-benefit routine. He was a fantastic Product Peddler, as it relates to the scale of the four levels of selling. Then it happened.

A question was asked, and his response was, “okay, I’m going to be totally honest with you.” When someone says that to you, what do you think? Our reaction was, wait, was he lying before? Was he not being totally truthful? Why did he use that qualifying statement?

Using qualifying statements like that do more harm to your credibility than good. People assume the people they are dealing with are being totally honest. It’s an expectation we all appreciate and count on. So when they have to point out that they are going to be totally honest, it actually has the reverse effect.

Words matter. When you exude the confidence of someone who knows what they are doing, someone who has great knowledge in a particular subject matter – in our case marketing – there is no need for qualifying statements.

Are there words and phrases you catch yourself using, that upon further reflection you wish you wouldn’t? I know I have a few others that I’ll share this week in sales tips.