Sunday, April 1, 2007

Sharing the Big 13

I have had a few emails from people who have seen my blog asking me about the amount of time and effort that is needed to have a good alignment between sales and marketing. There is a considerable amount of effort that needs to be invested in this. On top of the effort there needs to be a buy in from the executive team.

People have then come back to me and said; OK we understand that it takes to gain alignment and to benefit from that alignment. Are there some shortcuts we can take to see an improvement in sales. The answer is yes, there are some basic things that can be put in place that are easy to implement and have a huge measurable benefit in their implementation. A key element of any sales job is to be able to sit across from your potential customer and walk away with the order. I have listed 13 time tested phrases that will assist you in making an impact on your potential customer and will make you memorable for years to come. Not all of them are appropriate all of the time. It depends on the sales context; you need to figure that out for yourself.

The magic 13


  1. When am I going to hear those three magic words, here’s your order.
  2. My boss told me to come back with your order, or I was fired.
  3. If you give me your order today, I will try and get you 5% off of your next order.
  4. I have worked very hard with you on this order, I expect to be able to book it this month.
  5. You are an idiot if you don’t buy from me today.
  6. If you want me to get you that T-Shirt you had better place that order today.
  7. I think that both of us need to go talk to your boss about this order.
  8. Budget freeze!!! You promised me this order today.
  9. I am going to Hawaii on vacation next week, so I am going to stop by and pick up that order from you; I need to book it before I leave.
  10. Knock Knock. Who is there? Watts! Watts who? Watts up with my order?
  11. You owe me this one!
  12. We went to the same alma matter, why would you not do business with me.
  13. Let me talk to the decision maker, I will get some movement on this today.

By the way I have heard salespeople really use 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,11 & 13. I fabricated 1, 10 & 12. I am sure that you have also heard some interesting ways to ask for the order, if you have some that fall outside of this list, let me know I would like to share them.