Sales Tip: One "my friend" is more than enough.

I was in a retail store and there was a problem with the way my purchase was rung up.

The cashier called over the manager who, in the course of five minutes, called me "my friend" about a dozen times.

Practically every person I have asked about this say they feel uncomfortable when a salesperson uses that phrase a lot.  They call it too salesy, uncomfortable, offputting and inauthentic.

Is "my friend" part of your regular sales patter??  You might want to re-think that.

Using it once might be okay....any more than that and you risk alienating the person you are trying to attract.

© 2011 Patrick L. Williams, The Selling Sherpa™

Comments

[Kristopher Gawron]

Hehe. You made a good point. It may be better if you raised your concern to the salesman so he wouldn't do it again. I think he's just trying to keep that friendly relationship between a salesman and a client.

[The $elling $herpa]

Yeah, I think he probably thought that was what he was doing....didn't work; not for me, anyway.

Which brings up another point....watch a person's face closely enough to see how they react. If they wince at something you say, stop saying it!