Better Than "Thank You For Your Time"

Here’s an interesting challenge and an elegant solution to it:  In my previous company I was VP and then President of a business unit and had sales people calling on me as the customer.  I noted that nearly all of these sales people stated conversations or presentations with phrases like, “I know you are very busy…” or “Thank you very much for your time…”  While these phrases are courteous, they sounded very pleading and anxious, and seemed to result in these sales people (unconsciously) placing themselves as subservient to their customer.  Not a particularly robust starting point!

One of my colleagues offered a terrific alternative that we began to use, with excellent success.  She suggested, “I’m glad we were able to invest this time together today…”, resulting in our sales team positioning themselves as equals to their C-level and VP customers,   Much stronger!