One of the secrets of successful selling is making emotional connections.
One specific technique for accomplishing this is tuning into the specific words and phrases that your buyer uses. These keywords are a powerful means for literally speaking the same language.
This is one of those situations where the buyer is indeed right. Whatever words your buyer uses are the right ones for them, and that is why you want to be alert to the use of these trigger words
When I am doing my initial discovery work with clients, I’ll notice they will invariably use words that seem to jump out of the conversation. How about you?
When the same words are repeated more than once, you know you have found the trigger words. These words indicate what is most to essential to that buyer.
My practice over the last 30 years is to write these comments in quotations to indicate that they are the exact words or phrases the buyer is using. Then inventory them for future use.
These are more than words, they are keywords that are not only relevant to this potential customer, but most likely many others just like them.
This, of course, is what makes them key words.
Trigger Words Make Personal Connections
In a world where the web is now central, the awareness of keywords for SEO and online discoverability is now quite common. Consider even 5-10 years ago this was not the case at all.
Yet even before the Internet, sales professionals were trained to use the words that resonated with their ideal customer. The idea was quite simply to speak their language.
Just as we all try to dress according to the expectations of our audience, we need to do the same with language. One reason for this is that you are creating the right energy.
When the spoken word resonates, it literally vibrates within our minds. This is true whether it is spoken aloud or used as a thought. In fact, this is the basis of a mantra in meditation.
A mantra is a focusing sound whose repetition focuses or directs the attention of the user to disengage from the repetitive thoughts that are otherwise controlling their minds.
Just as a mantra makes a personal connection, so too will your key words when used in conversation and proposals. It’s critical to use the exact words or phrases. That is essential for making the desired vibrational connection with your buyer.
Keyword Hashtags are Searchable Triggers
If you are going to make the effort to understand the right words for your ideal buyer, you may as well embed them into your digital conversations with hashtags to make those conversations searchable by buyers with similar needs.
Hashtags are invaluable for discovering potential buyers. Yet, this is only possible when those hashtags use the exact words and phrases that resonate with that target audience.
Using hashtags on Twitter, Google+, and now Facebook is often considered to be an eccentric habit of the technologically inclined. On the contrary, hashtags are proving to be viable ways for businesses to connect with new business opportunities.
Consider the following best practices for using trigger words in your sales and marketing communications.
- Trigger words are often repeated several times in the same conversation. They are words that trigger emotional responses, such as pain or desire.
- Develop the practice of writing down these trigger words exactly as they are given to you.
- Ask your buyer to elaborate more on the key words they tend to use. For example, landscape designers often discover that a meditation garden, a tranquility garden, and a healing garden are descriptions different customers will use to describe exactly the same garden. You have to ask questions to know for sure.
- Work these same words back into the conversation to acknowledge your understanding of the words that trigger emotional responses with your audience.
- Make a list of the most common trigger words; and use them in both selling and marketing situations. This includes within your web copy to optimize it for search.
Now it’s your turn.
How are you using key words to trigger responses to your sales and marketing?
About the Author: Jeff Korhan, MBA, is the author of Built-In Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business and host of This Old New Business podcast.
He helps mainstream businesses adapt their traditional growth practices to a digital world. Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+
