Honesty in a salesperson is to be expected. However when a salesperson utters the phrase “to be honest” before making a statement or answering a question it throws up a red flag in the mind of the prospect. He or she thinks “wait, what about the other things she told me, was she being honest then?” In most cases this is just a verbal tic. You say it without thinking and without meaning it literally. Sometimes it is just a way of being apologetic about what you are going to say. But in any case just eliminate it from your vocabulary. It may not be easy, but earning trust is hard enough without throwing questions into the prospects mind needlessly.
