Every day language is what Mom and Dad taught us.

Its nice, polite, and it makes us fade into the social background, like bland wallpaper. Our parents werent trying to make us into salespeople.

They just wanted us to avoid being an embarrassment, especially to them.

Had they wanted us to succeed in sales, they would have equipped us with a much more assertive repertoire of phrases and sentences. For instance, if youre setting an appointment or closing a sale, your parent-given way of doing it would be to say:

What Id like to do is stop by to say hello and to discuss this further and youd go on from there, inserting even more wimpy phraseology, which Ill critique in a future article.

Had your parent been a top-flight salesperson, he would have urged you to say:

What Ill be happy to do is stop by to say hello and to discuss this further.

Whats the difference? Take a second to figure it out for yourself.

Thats right, the first phrase places emphasis upon what youd like to do, as in, what Id like to do if I had three wishes would be to fly in a spaceship, appear on Jay Lenos show, and have Bill Gates money.

Its never-never land. Its hypothetical; its a what-if scenario.

The second approach says, What Ill do, heres whats going to happen, the game is on; the switch has been thrown. Here I come, ready or not!

It makes a huge difference. At Time-Life, we measured the differential impact of these phrases on closed sales. Use the second one, and youll close twice as many sales.

Ive said it before, and Ill say it again. Those fools who contend that scripting sales talks isnt worth our time, dont know what theyre talking about.

Pay very close attention to the impact a word or two can have on your closing ratios, and youll be handsomely rewarded for it.

Dr. Gary S. Goodman 2006