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These are "No No" words. Words that you should NEVER use in roofing sales. Learn why, and what to say instead.
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“Because your company is only as STRONG as you are.”
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Hosted by Adam Bensman
- Started in D2D roofing sales in 2011
- Former Roofing Company COO (multi-state)
- Creator of the Roof Strategist Sales System (used nationwide for retail + storm)
- Founder of The Roofing STRONG Alliance by TAMKO™ (formerly known as the Roofing & Solar Reform Alliance)
- Author of the #1 Best-Selling Book: The Roofing Sales Survival Guide: Beat the Odds, Overcome Yourself, and Win Big
Content produced on or before 5/13/26 was previously produced by The Roof Strategist, TAMKO makes no representations or warranties regarding the content.
The no, no words.
Yes, they do exist in sales.
And in this video, I'm gonna be sharing
with you the words that you never, ever,
ever should use in a sales appoint.
Except for one specific
circumstance, which I'll share
with you here in a minute.
Listen, whether you're brand new in
sales or you've been selling for a long
time, you've probably studied sales
communication and the language we use.
But in this video, I'm gonna take
it one or two steps deeper and
leave you with an actionable plan
to improve your communication.
So you can win more business
before we get started.
I just wanna say quick,
welcome, or welcome back.
My name is Adam Bens.
The roof strategist, and I'm
super glad to have you here.
If you haven't yet done it,
subscribe to the channel.
I put out new content twice a week, all
designed to help you implement as quickly
as possible, as fast as your very next
sale to help you make even more money.
So you can smash your income goal and
give every customer an amazing experience.
So let's get to it in today's video.
We're gonna talk about the words
that you should never ever use.
Now let's get the
fundamentals out of the way.
First is words, create emotion and
images in our mind, emotion and images.
When we hear a word oopsies.
Come on now, come on tablet.
There we go.
Um, when we hear a word they
trigger emotions or we visualize
the story that we, that we hear.
And that's why certain movies are
so captivating because as we're
watching the visuals, there's like
the narrator in the background and
they really supercharge the story and
bring that emotional feel whether the
narrator is using this soft voice or
they're really intense, it change.
Everything, but it's not
just the words they use.
It's the emotion that's tied to
that word and the image of it.
So I'm gonna give an example.
If I say the word stop sign, uh, you, you
are going to visualize in your mind's.
A stop sign.
That's in red, right?
That's the image.
Now that emotion that's tied
to stop is one of caution fear.
Okay.
So then the emotion comes in all
from a simple word, like stop.
All right.
We paint that visual individual
triggers the emotions, or sometimes
it goes the other way around
where we, we hear the word sad.
We might feel sad and then have an image
in our mind of the, the sad emoji, right.
Or whatever it is or someone frowning.
But these two work hand in hand and
true artists in sales understand
the emotions and the images that
are tied to the words that they use.
And that's why I encourage salespeople
to study the art of direct response
copywriting, the, the written
form of selling, because you get
more choosy because you lose.
The body language, the tonality, and being
able to read your customers and you rely
exclusively on the language that you use.
So pro tip go study direct response
copywriting, and you're gonna fine tune
your sales skills in a really big way.
All right, now that we have our
fundamentals in the groundwork laid that.
Words, trigger emotions and images.
Let's now go into the words that you
should stop saying, or never say in
a sale, along with the one exception.
First is the word contract.
Now what.
Emotion comes when you hear
the word contract contract
sounds like handcuffs to me.
I am contractually obligated.
A contract sounds scary.
There's a lot of risk it's
long term contract, not fun.
The images of a contract is fine.
Print legal terms and feeling like
you don't really understand it.
Would you agree?
Contract's not a very good word.
I'm gonna go through the list.
We'll talk about the.
Words to use in its place
here in just a minute.
Another word is price.
Okay.
And I'm gonna throw cost in here as well.
Price and cost.
These are two words that we
don't want to use, and some
will go so far as to say, bye.
And the reason for that is all of
these have a sense of losing something.
There's a price, meaning.
It comes outta my pocket, a cost I'm
giving up money when I buy something.
Although I do get a reward, I'm
losing my money in order to get it.
So price cost and buy I'll have this
feeling of loss associated with it in
images of when you buy now online it's
I have to go give them my credit card.
I'm gonna forfeit this money.
What's the cost of
something there's no upside.
It's purely a negative
connotation to losing money.
And then again, price, I'm seeing
a big ticket item with a big red
dollar sign in at least four numerals
to me, that's how cost breaks down.
So these simple words, again,
are all scary words to people
as is this one, the words sign.
And oftentimes, you know, people say,
Hey, I just need you to sign here.
We don't wanna say sign, sign.
A contract again, fear.
Do you like signing things?
No.
What does it mean when you sign something?
Usually you're giving up your
rights cuz you're acknowledging
how something works in this.
The, the, the the deck is stacked
in the other person's favor.
So again, the words and images
associated with these things here,
contract price, cost, buy and sign.
I'll share a few common
themes of negativity and.
sadness and loss.
All right.
With the feelings of loss, not good words.
Instead, a few simple adjustments.
We'll get this erased here.
And I wanna share with you
what you can say instead.
And then again, that one exception, cuz
there are some times that this can be used
in what I'll call a reverse psychology.
And I'll touch on that in a minute.
First with contract.
Instead, what we can say is agreement.
Okay.
An agreement is a mutually
beneficial arrangement.
We've agreed to do this.
So this is our agreement.
Again, you might be thinking, oh,
it's called a contingency agreement.
Yeah.
Not a contingency contract contract.
It's called an agreement.
The price and cost are investments.
Okay.
Instead of buying you get.
I know it sounds crazy, but
getting something is positive,
buying something is negative.
Do you want to get access to this or
do you want to go buy a new phone?
Do you want to get the latest
technology on the newest iPhone?
Or do you want to go buy one
and spend the $1,400 retail?
No, you want to get it?
So again, positive.
Spin of all of this positive
emotion, positive images agreement.
I think visuals of handshakes investments,
I put money in, I get money out.
I am playing into one of the strongest
human motivators, which is greed.
And by the way, greed has its upsides
and downsides, but all of us are looking
for gain, which psychologists kind
of classify into the realm of gain.
Excuse me, of G.
I can gain something from this.
And then again, get is a positive
mindset obtaining becoming wealthier,
having access or ownership to something.
And again, images of that
coming to me versus buy.
I have images of me forfeiting my money.
Do you see the difference here again,
whether your customer's aware this or
not, it's going on in their head now let's
get to the one little exception here.
there are times where I will mention
price and cost, but in an inverse way,
you know, here's what I mean by that.
If I'm going through the details of
let's say a good, better, best system.
What I may sometimes do is say
that this option is cheaper.
Now, I know the sales people
that are watching are saying,
Adam, that is an absolute no-no.
We never wanna say the word
cheaper, because that includes that
something's more expensive, but I
challenge on this because it is a
strategic use of this word in a way.
Where that customer feels
like they've gained something.
This is a cheaper alternative.
So what I know that they're worried about
if they object to the bigger package,
the best system, because it's too much
money and I'm talking about it as an
investment, I may say, Hey, I have a
cheaper alternative investment for you.
And to them cheaper equals.
Saving money.
So those are the very, very rare
exceptions, but I'll where I'll use these
on the inverse to play into the words
and the emotions that I know are tied
to the word cheaper, cheaper is a better
deal, a better bargain, saving money.
And I want that homeowner to experience
that emotionally and the visual images.
And then I'm gonna very quickly tie
back in to talking about the agreement
and the investment in the longevity.
And all the benefits of this new
roofing system that we're looking at.
So again, I did wanna share this as
a bit more of an advanced practice of
going through the good, better, best,
because I've had some people push.
To with me on it.
And I'm not saying that you need
to agree with me and I'm telling
you now, I'm not saying I'm right.
What I am sharing with you is the
psychology behind the words and images
that are tied to the language that we use.
Now, how do we put this in action?
It's very simple throughout your day.
Become very conscious of the words
and images that are appearing in
your mind when you hear people.
And I wanna give you a tip that I use
when I practice this, I close my eyes and
as I'm hearing people talk, I envision.
Right on my eyelids coming up
like the subtitles of the text.
If you were to watch a YouTube video
on mute, for example, and you have
the text overlay, I'm envisioning all
of this in my mind's eye, as I talk.
And as I use creative imagery, in words,
I start to see and feel those feelings.
And then by experiencing this first hand,
I've been able to refine my skills of
using the proper word choices to create
the right emotions in images to clearly.
The message that I'm
trying to communicate.
And when you master this skill, people
will not only hear you more clearly.
They'll find you to be a
stronger communicator, but your
message becomes more emotional.
And what's the number
one thing people buy on.
Emotion that's right.
So I hope that you're able to practice
this in your day to day, and you'll
see, as you begin to communicate
the details of your retail bid, the
details of the contingency agreement
and asking for the business is where
these language pieces will come in.
Really, really clearly now.
In my sales training that I
teach with the car park formula
slap form and the arrow formula.
You'll notice that a lot of the
key points that I emphasize in that
training system are designed around
this use of language to really
engage that customer emotionally, to
capture them on their visual imagery.
So you can close more deals without
having to really understand the
psychology behind why it all works.
It's just, here's the fast
track follow this, and it's
gonna kick some butt for you.
So there you have it.
Now, if you like this
video and you want more of.
What I want you to do is click right
here and you can download a free
copy of my pitch, like a pro roofing
sales training, video library.
If you geek out on this psychology stuff,
I've got a, a, uh, whole playlist in
there on body language and psychology.
And if you wanna continue your journey
with me right here, YouTube thinks
you're really gonna like this one.
Hey, thanks for joining me.
And I will see you.
I'm the next one.