In my industry, I would beat We like a borrowed mule ! In others, maybe yours, I would wouldn’t work nearly as well.

Thanks for giving us something to think about.

The value of “We Speak” is not using it to avoid responsibility and accountability but more of a tactic, and mindset, in letting the prospective client know that there is more than just “you” (the sales rep) involved in making the purchase of your solution a positive experience.

I also use We Speak in contract negotiations in the tone of “You want/need to buy my solution”, “I really want to sell it to you”, “if we work together on the pricing and contract we can make this happen”.

It took a good many losses to larger competitors before I started to be a believer in this. We were a small company (10mil in rev) vs. MSFT, IBM, and Oracle. Sometimes “We” meant my entire company.

Take care.

Sasser

I’m inclined to agree with you, but am fairly old-school, so I’d still want the sales rep to say ” I’ll check …”

But the We/I’ll scenario seems to be better than plain ol’ We, for sure.
I’ll suggest that in some industries We is okay and in some I is a much better way.

Great discussion either way.

I don’t want his/her team to be accountable for it, I want him or her to be accountable.

When a sales rep takes full accountability by saying, ” I will get it done. ” I feel WAY more secure. If he/she leaves the door to blaming someone else by saying ” We”, I look for failure, just because he/she has left a way out.
I ALWAYS tell my customers that ” I ” will see to it that the task gets done and I have tremendous loyalty from my customers because of it.

Sometimes I beats We like a drum. Sometimes.

Instead of “I will check on that“, try “My team will check the details and I will report back to you.

It’s the *WE* power combined with the *I* accountability. Might be worth a thought.

A great activity to do is count the amount of times your boss or person trying to sell you something says I or me compared to the us or we.