{"id":267,"date":"2006-08-31T11:26:49","date_gmt":"2006-08-31T16:26:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/?p=267"},"modified":"2006-08-31T11:26:29","modified_gmt":"2006-08-31T16:26:29","slug":"fuzzy-phrases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/08\/fuzzy-phrases\/","title":{"rendered":"Fuzzy Phrases"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I came across an interesting article on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.salesvault.com\/closer.htm#tip1\" target=\"_blank\">fuzzy phrases<\/a> in this week&#8217;s newsletter from Sales Vault and it is well worth the time to read.<\/p>\n<p>The author&#8217;s definition of a fuzzy phrase is something that really says nothing. You feel like you might have heard something of substance, but after analysis (usually after the call is over) you realize they just said nothing. They are his pet peeve as I am sure they are for all sales people. His suggestion is to ask for clarification.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>When you hear any statement that is vague or wishy-washy, ask for clarification. If it&#8217;s something that needs to be done or discussed, I&#8217;ll always say, OK, let&#8217;s do it now.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>What prompted this article was the author using a fuzzy phrase on a salesperson when the salesperson was trying to sell him some software. The salesperson accepted this fuzzy phrase &#8211; &#8220;I&#8217;ll give it some consideration and we can talk again.&#8221; The author provides some examples of clarifying questions that the sales person could have used in that situation:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Great! Which aspects will you weigh most heavily?<\/li>\n<li>That&#8217;s good to hear. What are you going to be looking at?<\/li>\n<li>Super. Where do you stand right now regarding moving forward with it?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Any of these questions would have elicited a substantiative answer as opposed to ending the call in a haze regarding what the next step the salesperson should take. Some of you may think that these questions may be too pushy. The author says these questions are definitive and get to the real answers. They may get you further with the prospect or you may find out the prospect has no further interest in your solution. Either way, you learn something of substance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I came across an interesting article on fuzzy phrases in this week&#8217;s newsletter from Sales Vault and it is well worth the time to read. The author&#8217;s definition of a fuzzy phrase is something that really says nothing. You feel like you might have heard something of substance, but after analysis (usually after the call is over) you realize they just said nothing. They are his pet peeve as I am sure they are for all sales people. His suggestion is to ask for clarification. When you hear any statement that is vague or wishy-washy, ask for clarification. If it&#8217;s something that needs to be done or discussed, I&#8217;ll always&hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/08\/fuzzy-phrases\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"","bgseo_robots_follow":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[14,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-communication","category-sales-techniques"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Oho-4j","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":594,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/01\/the-fine-art-of-stalling\/","url_meta":{"origin":267,"position":0},"title":"The Fine Art of Stalling","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"January 22, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Let me think it over.\" \"I'll get back to you.\" \"We'll take a look at it.\" If you have been in sales more than a day, you are familiar with these sayings. They are the prospect's attempts to \"stall\" a buying decision. These comments are trouble for any salesperson who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hiring Salespeople&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hiring Salespeople","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/hiring-salespeople\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1112,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/08\/what-is-a-fuzzy-phrase\/","url_meta":{"origin":267,"position":1},"title":"What Is A Fuzzy Phrase?","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"August 6, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The Rock Star posted on fuzzy phrases just about a year ago. I believe I have uncovered a pristine example from an email I received this morning: The deadline is mid September.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Communication&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Communication","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/communication\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":579,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/01\/of-cold-coffee-and-closing\/","url_meta":{"origin":267,"position":2},"title":"Of Cold, Coffee and Closing","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"January 16, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"This is not the way to start your day - it is -20 degrees here this morning in New Prague, MN. That's pretty cold even by our standards. Next I read that there is going to be a coffee bean shortage next season which certainly means that prices will be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sales Management&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Sales Management","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-management\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1165,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/09\/2-keys-to-finding-sales-stars\/","url_meta":{"origin":267,"position":3},"title":"2 Keys To Finding Sales Stars","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"September 5, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"ManageSmarter.com offers up an article I cannot resist - Find Your Next Sales Star. We're going to start a 10 part series on this article. No, we're not (though I would like to). I've written about this topic in the past (emphasis mine): Chet Bloom isn't a big believer in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Assessing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Assessing","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/assessing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1530,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/04\/trap-the-fat-words\/","url_meta":{"origin":267,"position":4},"title":"Trap The Fat Words","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"April 23, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The Northwest-Delta airlines merger is the talk of this town as you might expect.\u00a0 There has been much posturing up here as people and politicians realize that Northwest will probably leave this town as Atlanta becomes the new company's headquarters. I was reading an article on the merger in our\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Communication&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Communication","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/communication\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1545,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/05\/3-sales-hiring-inhibitors\/","url_meta":{"origin":267,"position":5},"title":"3 Sales Hiring Inhibitors","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"May 1, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Even bad salespeople can appear to be strong in a face-to-face interview situation.\u00a0 This reason is why sales recruiting is truly different than any other form of recruiting.\u00a0 Reviewing resumes and assuming abilities is is a fool's errand.\u00a0 Yet, there are certain aspects of general recruiting that can that hinder\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hiring Salespeople&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hiring Salespeople","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/hiring-salespeople\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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