If you knew Chet Holmes, read his New York Times best-selling book, ever attended one of his seminars or were lucky enough to experience a live coaching call—you know he was a straight shooter. Chet was direct, passionate and above all pig-headed in his beliefs. He was an idea man. And once the idea was out it was up to his hand-picked rock star team to work side by side with business owners and executives to make growth happen.

Chet didn’t like to be bogged down by the little things. It’s easy to run spell check, but he never did. He was always in a hurry to share those big ideas and provide the avenues to make them come to life in his clients’ world. He typed very fast and everyone else worked hard to keep up with what he was trying to say. Most high-level thinkers find greatness by being focused on the big picture. That was Chet. Ironically, he was a master at looking deeper to systematize marketing and sales efforts too, creating what he called The Ultimate Sales Machine™ over and over again in businesses of every size and in every industry.

In his zeal to get his ideas out there and show others how important or critical the idea was for their business, he developed some persuasive sayings that always cut through the marketing clutter and really dug into the gut of the audience’s pains. Chet wasn’t about flowery words or gentle message positioning – he was about getting results. So in true Chet fashion, and after interviewing several CHI long-timers who knew him well, I compiled a list of Chet Holmes® Top 10 Persuasive Sayings to get you thinking about yours.

1. Best Buyer Strategy™ or Dream Client – There is always a smaller number of ‘ideal clients’ vs. all clients.  Ideal clients need and can afford a lot of what it is you sell.
2. Market Education – Market data is so much more powerful than product data!
3. ‘Write this down’ or ‘companies we’ve helped’ (Chet believed in showing not telling)
4. Highly applicable (Chet always reinforced that what he was teaching mattered to everyone in the room)
5. PHD – Lasting success requires PHD “Pig-Headed Discipline”
6. Sales Superstars have a combination of the following: Empathy (Sincere interest in helping clients succeed.)/Ego Strength (Rejection Armor) and Ego Drive (Ambition)/Market Knowledge (Beyond product knowledge; market knowledge increases influence)/Super Skills Set (Highly Productive)/Training (Constant personal and business improvement)
7. Strategies versus Tactics:  Tactical approach – work harder.  Strategic approach – work smarter.  It is all about working smarter.
8. Real nuts and bolts
9. Time Management: Strategically working ON your business will produce great results.  Just working IN your business gives you a job.
10. Reshape (how you think, how you run your sales team, Etc.)

BONUS: Chet’s favorite power words: Bulletproof/ Superstar/Slaughter

Chet used these words or phrases frequently and in a variety of ways to get across the point that he was sharing real, nuts and bolts, insider information that was going to deliver results. He knew that the use of these words has the power to get people’s attention and make them sit up and start taking note—that something of value was coming at them. Chet was an amazing speaker because he was REAL in his delivery. He didn’t sugarcoat things. He just told it like it was and moved on. And the CEOs who wanted to ‘double their sales’ and experience real growth through ‘pig-headed discipline’ listened and learned.

These phrases were part of Chet’s brand that built trust through the sharing of knowledge and value at every turn. Everything he taught was about the people he was speaking to not about him or any one of his cornucopia of companies or credentials. Solving not selling took a front seat. And it all stemmed from real research into what moves the market brought to life through education-based marketing such as his pride and joy The Core Story™. But he didn’t stop there because that is just another channel to construct power-packed tools like the ‘smoking gun’.

“In the legal market, the term smoking gun refers to that piece of evidence that makes it so your opponent cannot win. You’ve found the smoking gun that makes the other party guilty. It’s the same with research. There’s always that smoking gun that positions you above everyone else. I can tell you this for sure: there’s always a smoking gun. Always.” Chet Holmes, The Ultimate Sales Machine

Ideas move mountains. Words move people. It is important to know your audience and find the words that will move them. If you have not taken the time to find yours, you are missing a very real opportunity to reach a larger stadium of people.

WORD WEIGH IN: Share your favorite Chet Holmes phrases, or your own, and include hashtag #powerphrases on our Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn pages. It might spark innovation for someone else and new ideas for you too!

By Danielle Lafontaine, Chet Holmes® International™

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