Geoffrey James, author of the “Sales Source” column for Inc. Magazine, recently wrote a great article on “5 Words That Create Failure.” We thought it would be perfect for our Tuesday Tactics readers.
Sometimes we overlook the language we use on a day-to-day basis, but the words we use can often have a big impact on our success. They shape how others perceive us and can even define our own attitudes about our goals.
According to James, these are five words you should consider eliminating from your sales vocabulary ASAP:
1. Luck: “Luck is an excuse that explains away failure (“It was just bad luck”) and devalues your successes (“It was just good luck”).”
2. Enemy: “The moment you demonize competitors by calling them enemies, you close off your business options. Today’s competitors are often tomorrow’s partners.”
3. Rejection: “You can pathologize such events by thinking of them as rejection, or you can understand that what really happened was that the other person’s desires didn’t match yours.”
4. Hate: “Hate is a sick word, and it creates sickness in your body. Every time you use that word, you might as well be sticking a cancer cell in your body. Seriously.”
5. But: “There’s a substitute for but that actually creates momentum: the word and. Try it next time a but is about to emerge from your mouth.”
Be sure to read the full article to get a better understanding of James’ theory behind limiting these “failure words.”:
http://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/5-common-words-that-create-failure.html
Photo credit: CarbonNYC
