There is serious disagreement among the so-called experts on what is a cult and what is not.
That's why when I'm trying to get a JW to think for oneself or explaining how the religion works to somenoe who has little knowledge of the religion I don't even use the word "cult". Mention "cult" to most people and they think of the People's Temple, Waco or some other high profile group where death and destruction resulted from adherence to the philosophies of the cult, er, group. It just confuses people.
I prefer the BITE method that Steve Hassan reports on.
A dangerous mind control cult attempts to control:
Behaviour of the members
Information received by the members
Thoughts of the members
Emotions of the members.
I like the BITE method as well, except that it doesn't have to apply to just "dangerous" cults...it can apply to benign ones as well, though maybe not to the degree that it would with a harmful group.
We can identify the "dangerous" aspects of the JW religion/sect/cult here quite easily since many here have been damaged by them, but to outsiders and indoctrinated members themselves, they'll most likely never grasp the concept of "cult" the way we apply it. I prefer to point to the hypocrisies and the impacts of each of the BITE points in a way that doesn't cause a JW to throw up a defensive wall immediately or cause on outsider to think I'm just bitter and looking for every little negative thing.