12 Words Of The Year For 2017 Sales Deployment

bigly

In a world where everything he does is immodestly ‘great’, the American President-elect likes to liberally plaster dollops of folderol (hyperbole, to chucklingly drop a scarce word) across his own achievements. Bigly as his particular superlative of choice has been the subject of much grammar chatter.

Honourable mentions from the world of politics here also go to funkapolitan. Argot (slang) coined by Britain’s FFS (Fine Foreign Sec) describing the vibrancy of London. As well as othering, the practice of creating an opposing group/force by blaming a host of people, reasons, causes that bind together your target audience.

factotum

This refers to an employee who does all types of work. Typically in an odd-job man, jack of all trades manner. I also note it often goes with the polite adjective genial before it.

In the age-old debate whether it’s best to be a generalist or specialist, this term could come in handy when needing to be disarming around describing those who’s expertise may not (yet) make the required grade in assessment or implementation of your ideas.

followership

Leaders need followers. But not just any old following. No. Vital are those that want to push your ideas forward themselves. Wikipedia suggests this features “the reciprocal social process of leadership”.

You need those who see something worth following. Hopefully how you’re trying to change the world fits snugly with them.

Should you also know how this could turn around? To use a faved quote from fictional (Yes,) PM Jim Hacker; “I’m their leader. I must follow them.”

Which also calls to mind the fact that the most dynamic of followers are converted doubters. The light they see has a much stronger beam. Ask any former smoker.

gegenselling

Who knew Germans could get so rockstar? Jurgen Klopp manages Liverpool. He is experiencing a media love-in through his deployment of his Dortmund all-conquering style, termed gegenpressing.

This is football of the extremely high-press. Hounding opponents as close to their goal as possible when you’ve lost the ball to get it back quick quick. Also nicknamed heavy-metal football, in deference to Jurgen’s apparently most favoured music. When it works, it can be a real rush.

The selling parallel is headbangingly loud.

Gegen in this sense means roughly ‘counter’. Where can you lose initiative on a bid? And should you, do you know how you’ll regain it? Have you planned in advance and can you deploy the manoeuvre at speed and successfully?

inertians

*sigh* I really don’t have much time for these.

There’s a history of people previously alluded to that are always “anti”. Flat Earthers. King Canutes. Luddites when they rail against the unstoppable march of technology.

One breed of the species is revanchists.

Once your proposed progress becomes policy, they actively set out about to undermine it, and focus on reversing the decision. A shocking waste of energy. Inertia helps no-one. Those feeling it is a desirable comfortable state really are from another planet.

ornery

CNN’s Richard Quest used this term to frustratingly describe unruly children, allowed by their parents to noisily run around airport lounges.

It harks to the “difficult to deal with or bad tempered”.

You get a lot of prospects like that. Could easily be another flag against each forecast personality.

resile

A word learned via barristers arguing over how you join/unjoin a treaty. It means to “abandon a position or a course of action”.

Something sadly many a prospect will exhibit. Wobble, U-turn, flip-flop, flake. There’s lots of pejoratives to pick depending on the culture concerned. So should you need something a little less aggressive to discuss a buyer’s hesitations/machinations, then resile is your puppy.

syzygy

The rarity of a supermoon lit up this one. Rather bizarrely I see it’s also the name of a tiny hair salon on Cape Town’s central Loop. The term seems almost exclusive to the position of celestial bodies. It refers to “a pair of connected or corresponding things”.

These occur aplenty in any solution sell. Things that need to be in close alignment for our plans to come together. Buyers, influencers, doers, pontificators, hopes, fears, events, ambitions, impacts. Hunt down that super-syzygy…

tautology

Saying two things that are the same together. A kind of repeating yourself. Often a lovely oratory flourish. 2016’s most famous has got to be from UK PM Theresa May; “brexit means brexit”. Which is brilliant.

The web is chock full of example ideas. One of which could well add a literary sparkle to your pitch.

Then there’s the implied tautology. Like you see so often these days which links a value with a brand. Sticking with Brexit, I feel compelled to point out their pitch in this regard. Vote Leave – Take Control. What is worth being synonymous with your selling marque?

torpor

This is a “state of inactivity”, or “lethargy”. The essential element of urgency is absent from your prospects towards you. In which case, you perhaps need a torpordo. Something to jolt them into looking at you with a degree of haste.

transmog

Change. A (the?) central tenet of a solution salesperson’s lot. This word I shortened in keeping with the nano times, from one synonym for ‘change’ that Google currently suggests as humorous; transmogrification.

As the saying goes, ‘everybody loves progress, but nobody wants change’.

So why slap the stigma on it? Is there a need to specifically call it change?

There are synonyms aplenty, for sure. Permute is another favourite when talking with techies. Metamorphose could send people running. Whereas refine or tweak have a different vibe.

I often think that you can also expose the anti-change with judicious language too. What is so precious about the status quo that you must preserve and keep the same? Stubbornly sticking to a stance can make you sclerotic.

Then there are pseudonyms as well. Very much the solution salesperson’s friend here; innovate, grow, survive, adapt, develop.

tremending

You know when you’re in ‘the zone’? You do get in the zone, don’t you? The place I also learnt this year where martial artists believe you experience a ‘mind like water’. Many a salesteam have a label for it. This is just but one word I made up to describe when someone naturally inhabits it.

The day I wrote this, Google’s top returned result – that wasn’t Britney’s 2003 album – stated, “The zone is not a zen-like or magical state. The zone is a state of being fully absorbed into the present – the here and now only.”

I’m sure high-performance psychologists (from the world of sport and beyond) may debate that view. Yes, it isn’t really some out-of-body experience. But it is a place where you feel in slow-motion, able to think and act naturally to perfection in a space where everyone else is clamouring at speed around you, yet you get it done on the spot.

As a bonus here’s a further trio of words with meanings attached of sales relevance of which (thanks to 2016) I am now blissfully aware; deepism ~ flutter ~ bricked.