« Anticipation is everything | Home | Airport Redux »
Bomb the obvious
By Charles Martin | April 16, 2008
Why waste words? You’ve got better things to do. American’s and their vocabularies are dwindling.
- “Send it to my attention”… who else would I send it to?
- “References upon request”… of course you’ll send me references if I am going to hire you or buy your service or product.
- “here at XYZ company…” where else would your company be but “here”. Awful use of grammar.
- “off of”… it’s just OFF guys
- “like” anything… yuck
- qualifying anything. I edit so many sales emails and things from people that state their purpose and then go on and on to justify what they just said. They start out great and then worry sets in and writers think that any little missing word will kill the deal. They’re wrong by a long shot.
“Best Surveys says that our company is the largest producer of widgets” is all you need. It’s affirmative, clear, and nothing rides on it to give anyone an idea that there may be more. So many of us then go on to say (without even a period or comma) “… and widgets are little things that we sell to millions of customers and our customers are people who buy our widgets because Best Surveys says so…” You get the idea. The hothead was a comma-splicer deluxe in high school until someone woke him up.
Periods are very powerful tools. Hit the key and STOP.
Your customers recognize a person who can use more than 2 syllables to sell them something. Use Wiki’s and other devices to explain yourself if you have trouble with words. Headlines, bullets and imperatives work too.
Topics: Odd file, Read this, Sales Acumen | No Comments »