Awesome photos, catchy videos and fancy graphics are helpful, but the most important thing where sales are concerned is the words you use.

Why? Words build relationships. People buy from people.

Words can also guide your approach to sales, because attitudes are often based on words.

Here are some words that will definitely improve your sales:

Benefits. Some salespeople try to impress you with specifications and features, and in the process just make you feel stupid. Others work to understand your needs and solve your problems. Guess which type is more successful?

Customers only care about specifications and features in relation to how those qualities meet their needs. Start with benefits, help the customer feel their needs will be met… and then dip into specs if they seem interested.

Value. It’s hard to compete on price alone. The key is to focus on value and not just on price. Create a suite of services. Create volume discounts based on economies of scale. Bundle related products or services or offer faster delivery schedules.

Shift your focus onto how the customer can get more, not how they can pay less.

Show. “Learn” implies the customer has to do some homework. “Show” means you will help. Customers buy from people who help them.

Emotion. While we like to think we’re rational when we make purchase decisions, if that were the case Gucci, Coach and Porsche would be out of business.

It’s impossible to rationally justify the purchase of many items. We may want them, but we don’t need them. Every purchase satisfies an emotional need. Never lose sight of how potential customers want to feel.

You. You need revenue. You need to make a sale. Maybe you desperately need to make a sale.

The customer doesn’t care, nor should they. Declining revenues, high targets or increasing internal demands are not the customer’s problem, but it’s easy for those factors to creep into how you approach a sale.

While you may desperately need to make a sale, only the customer can choose to buy — so always make the process all about the customer.