Jeff Hoffman says, “Actions speak louder than words. When salespeople are speaking with their prospects, they shouldn’t tell them what they want to do — they should simply do it.

And yet, I find that reps often announce their intent during the first and last 30 seconds of a call or meeting — a mistake, in my opinion.

What does “announcing intent” sound like in conversation? A dead giveaway of announcing intent is starting a sentence with “I want … ” or “I’d like to … ”

For example, salespeople will set the call agenda by saying something like, “I want to go over these four features,” or “I’d like to delve into your challenges around X.” At the end of the conversation, salespeople soften their close by announcing intent, like so: “I want to show you how your team might use the product. Are you available for a demo next Thursday at noon?”

To be clear, announcing intent isn’t always a bad thing — but it’s never appropriate at the beginning or end of a call”.

4 Reasons Starting a Sales Call With “I Want” Is a Terrible Idea

HubSpot

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