Do you know what a sales cliché is? They’re different from sales tips. They are trite sales expressions that express a common sales concept. These sales clichés lose all of their impact because of their overuse and their frequent stupidity. Good sales tips can help, but sales clichés can hurt.

“In my opinion, just saying ‘win-win’ in a buyer-seller context sounds a little creepy.”

One of My Most Unappetizing Sales Clichés
One of the sales clichés that hurts my ears is, “We just want to make this a win-win situation,” or one of its many variants. It’s getting hard to find a sales blog or selling articles that don’t promote “win-win” as some kind of ultimate sales strategy. But not in this sales tips blog.

When a sales pro uses the “win-win” angle, he or she is trying to tell the customer that the transaction being concocted will not only make the customer more profitable, efficient, well known, faster, better, etc., but will also help the vendor too.

What could be better? Everyone is now happy and successful. Buyer and seller alike.

Sales Newsletter: Why “Win-Win” is a Loser
Reality says that the customer could not possibly care less whether the selling company is helped by the transaction or not. Why is that?

• Most customers assume that vendors are smart enough to put something in the deal for themselves. They’re not worried about the vendor and don’t need to be.
• Customers are like everyone else; they’re selfish. They’re focusing on what they get out of the deal. Remember WIIFM (What’s In It For Me)? The “me” is the customer, by the way.
• The customer knows they have to take care of their own interests first because in actuality that is exactly what the selling company is doing too.

Sales Blog Wrap-Up
Customers want us to focus exclusively on them. They want us to help them fix problems and prevent others. They aren’t concerned if we “win” something when they purchase from us. In my opinion, just saying “win-win” in a buyer-seller context sounds a little creepy.

By completely taking the attention off ourselves and not positioning the sale as some kind of victory for us, we’ll always be in a better position to make the sale.

© 2010 Scott R. Sheaffer

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