What’s in a Word?

In any sales situation the words we choose can have tremendous effect both positively and negatively. For example, we know that in advertising words such as “free� and “immediately� are hot buttons and can greatly influence the decision-maker into buying. Keeping in mind this importance of word choice, I was particularly struck the other evening while watching one of the jewelry home shopping channels. They were selling diamond jewelry. Now for two hundred bucks you don’t get flawless white stones but I heard them describe diamonds that were non-white, beige or even brown as “Champagne� or “Cognac�. “Champagne�, “Cognac� - word choices that came across as positively desirable, not negative at all. Ooh - “Champagne� - “Cognac�. Gimme some of those.

The Right Word

In our own industry this same word spin has been used for the, dare I say it, fake/artificial foliage market. Fake is a bad choice of words as well as artificial. But years ago instead of using these negative words, someone called the product “silk�. “Silk� - luxurious, exotic, premium grade material and always placed in quotes because the materials used were not really silk at all but polyester. So from something no one would want to something desirable. This is all possible through the application of a single word. Overtime the “faux� foliage market has expanded so that now it includes trees, florals, branches and greenery and the words used to describe it include “replica� and “permanent� foliage. But long before the product got to today’s state-of-the-art level, the use of the word “silk� was absolutely pivotal for its success.

Which Would You Buy?

Now how does that apply to our main body of sales offerings - live foliage, guaranteed maintenance, and Holiday Decor? Well, one example is the use of common names versus botanical names for live plant materials. Which would you as a customer want to have in your office? A Spathyphyllum or a Peace Lily? A Dracena Marginata or a Dragon Tree? Maybe, just maybe, we shortchange our ability to sell live plants by concentrating on the horticultural sales position versus the romantic sales approach. Maybe we need to present plant material in softer phrases and put the expertise emphasis on the description of the maintenance end of it.

Practice Makes Perfect

Not a bad exercise for some driving time. Think about ways to describe your plant palette and your services in a more user-friendly manner. Try out different words. What impact does each have? It’s just likely that after you do this you’ll come up with new ways to use words in your sales presentation or feel a lot more confident keeping the old ones. And, when all else fails just remember the two magic words - “free� and “immediately�