Do you want to be sure that your sales call is moving forward so that your customer buys? Of course you do. Don’t make the following mistake, or your call will come to a screeching halt and you will walk away without a deal. You might even make your customer angry.

The mistake is saying five simple words: “I can save you money.” There are salespeople who start their sales call by making this claim. They think they know their market, their products and the competition. These salespeople think they have a general idea of what they can do for their prospects. If you’re doing this, you had better change the way you start your sales calls and stop this opening immediately.

How can you be so sure that you can save a prospect money even before you know anything about his specific operation? When a customer hears that you can save him money, you imply that you know what they’re paying. Most salespeople don’t really know.

You would have to know about any discounts they may be getting from buying in large quantities. You would have to know about their management practices and how lean their operation is. Do you know how often your prospects buy? Do you know all the discounts they get? Do you know their operating costs? All these variables contribute to their pricing models. Most salespeople calling on prospects simply don’t have this information.

The “save you money” opener leads to a negative assessment of a prospect’s negotiating abilities and strategy. By claiming you can save someone money without knowing what he’s paying, you really are telling that person that he is a bad negotiator. That person has already negotiated a deal to pay for a product he’s already buying. If you can save him money, he’s made a bad deal. Is this the impression you want to make when you start a sales call? I don’t think so.

It’s a bad idea to start the sales call by claiming you can save your customer money without knowing all you can about her business. Rethink your opening strategy if you do start sales calls this way. What you may not realize is that you are calling your customer an idiot. Even worse, you may not know that you’re showing the customer that you’re one, too.