Weasel Words - Sucking Out the Value

Except for their Rikki-Tikki-Tavi mongoose cousins, weasels largely do not have a great reputation. When people think of weasels, the emerging mental image is often of a low-to-the-ground, slithering, swift and slick creature, keeping itself in the shadows. As sales professionals, this is obviously an association that we would be well served to avoid. President Theodore Roosevelt unofficially coined the term "weasel word" when he noted the weasel’s eerie ability to steal its meals by sliding up to a nest of eggs, tapping open a ready shell, and draining its contents. Having sucked its fill, the weasel slides away, leaving behind the (mostly) intact shell of the egg. In other words, what you see is an egg. What you get is empty. “Weasel words,” then, represent the draining of all the goodness we have to offer in our statements to prospects. What we present to customers sounds agreeable, but by cushioning ourselves against possible loss or rejection with soft words designed to be non-threatening or perhaps less “pushy,” we drain the best of what we have to give and leave behind an empty shell of a proposal. Consider the difference between these two statements: “I might have something that could work for you.” “I have something that will work for you.” ‘Might’? ‘Could’? Hmm… I don’t know why, but I get the image of a shy kid shuffling his feet as he’s asking for a date he already knows he’s not going to get from the prettiest cheerleader in the class. He doesn’t perceive his own value, and so, has a difficult time presenting it to her. She might have a good time with him. Maybe they will have great conversation. Possibly could they go out Saturday night? Since she doesn’t see why she should accept, she walks away from the negotiation, flipping her glossy ponytail as she goes. How many of your prospects have walked away from the negotiation, derailed by a simple “maybe”? How many times have you sucked the goodness out of your value proposition by skirting away from what you know to be true with a weasel word? Those value-suckers are quite pervasive, as Roosevelt further said… “One of our defects as a NATION is a tendency to use what have been called ‘weasel words’.” Think it through – how long of a list could you create? ‘Might,’ ‘maybe,’ ‘possibly,’ ‘could,’ “to tell you the truth” (have you been lying all along?), ‘think’ (unless you’re actually thinking something through and saying that aloud), ‘probably’… and so many more could all make their way onto this list. Sales professionals must carefully examine the words that they use – even more carefully when they are selling by telephone and do not have the benefit of face-to-face interaction with their prospects. Sales professionals must also enter each interaction with the knowledge that the product or service that they are bringing to the table has a value to that prospect. To help prevent the inclination to soften your offering, ask pointed questions that give you a clear view of what your prospect needs, so that you are speaking to those needs, and not to misguided guesses as to what they are. Practice what you will say before you actually say it. Drill into your mind those definitive words that seal in the value of what you are offering. ‘Will’, ‘can’, ‘definitely’, ‘certainly’ – these words bring a sense of power to your proposition. What others can you think of? Don’t weasel-word your way out of offering your prospects what you know they need. Take care in your words, bring power to your statements… and notice the difference. Reference: Word Spy (2002, February 12). Theodore Roosevelt. Words about Words. http://www.wordspy.com/WAW/Roosevelt-Theodore.asp