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Sales Clichés to Avoid
33 Phrases that customers hate to hear
I was responding to some posts
in a sales and business related blog when I came
across a thread that included responses from
various business people about phrases that they
hate to hear. These phrases include ones they
have heard, sometimes over and over again, from
sales people they’ve dealt with. Often times we
are unaware that the words we choose and
sentences we use may be offensive, abrasive or
just plain annoying to people, not to mention
meaningless. Hence, I wanted to share these with
you so you can look through your inventory of
phrases that you use with your clients and see
if you might want to make some alterations. If
not, that’s fine.
However, if you think about some of these
phrases and realize that they may be rather
annoying, if not empty and useless, then I
applaud you for striking them from your
repertoire of expressions. With that said, I
fully expect to some day use several of these
phrases myself since they are embedded in my
mind and I just can’t help myself. But practice
makes perfect. Or is it, perfect practice makes
perfect? Either way, I promise to try to
eliminate as many of these phrases as possible.
I hope you can too. Have fun reading them. Of
course, I added my own little parenthetical
commentaries after each phrase for your
enjoyment.
1. We have the lowest cost of ownership (What
does that REALLY mean? If I paid zero dollars
for it, wouldn’t THAT be the lowest cost of
ownership?)
2. We provide world-class customer service (Doesn’t
everyone claim this? Why not just offer
universe-class customer service to beat all your
competitors?)
3. This is cutting edge (So you’re selling
knives now?)
4. 360-degree service (I get dizzy just
thinking about this one.)
5. Any company that shows me its mission
statement has lost me -- especially if it could
apply to any other company in the world. (And
they do all sound the same, don’t they?)
6. If you don't act now (That’s the ticket –
threaten you customer!)
7. We are the leader in the _________ industry (Can
you actually prove this?)
8. We provide out-of-the-box functionality (But
what if your product comes in a bag?)
9. We develop our
product/software with your business objectives
in mind (Sure, but most sales people don’t even
know what my business objectives are in the
first place!)
10. Value-added (I don’t have a problem with
this one, except when it is over used or when
the sales rep doesn’t really present any value
to begin with. Then it is meaningless.)
11. Core competencies (Which leaves the
non-core items incompetent?)
12. Blue-sky thinking (Sure, I always have
trouble thinking when the sky is cloud covered.)
13. Manage expectations (Are my expectations
being unruly and need to be managed?)
14. Push back (Sounds too physical for my
taste.)
15. Win-win (This is something you should
strive for when negotiating, but it doesn’t need
to be said. Otherwise, you sound repetitively
redundant.)
16. Limited time offer (And when the time is
up, you, the Customer, are no longer important
to us.)
17. Our products have QUALITY (Yes, you and
1000 of your competitors. This is something
that’s assumed. If you don’t have quality
products, you shouldn’t even be showing up.)
18. Reporting capabilities unlike any other in
our class (Just what class are you in?)
19. But wait! There's more! (This guy should
be selling Ginsu knives on an infomercial.)
20. We have over X combined years of experience
in Y (To me, this means that you either have
too many employees or your employees are too
old. Useless either way!)
21. Incentivize when you mean incent, incite or
motivate (This word doesn’t even pass my
spell checker.)
22. We empower our employees (Usually this
means that the employees have all the
responsibility, but none of the authority. Hence
they get all the blame.)
23. We want to be your partner, not just your
provider (Again, this is something you strive
for, but shouldn’t have to say. You develop a
relationship which evolves into a partnership.
To actually say this is being somewhat
presumptuous.)
24. Exceed expectations (This is fine as long
as you first MEET my expectations.)
25. We are Six Sigma certified (The average
person may think this means you are a star in a
Kung Fu movie.)
26. Web 2.0 (This “concept” is too new to be
used in sales meetings. Perhaps it’s just a
little ahead of its time.)
27. We help you increase operational efficiency
(As opposed to completely screwing it up.)
28. Implications that the solution can be
completed and running in a day, an hour, 10
minutes, a microsecond (Yeah, let’s be
realistic here!)
29. Free, Perfect, Always and/or Never (Words
that are strong and definitive, but not always
delivered or believable.)
30. I'm so happy that we can give you… (Glad
YOU are happy, but what about the customer’s
emotional state?)
31. The net-net is… (Another repetitively
redundant statement. How about a simple “What
this means to you is…”?)
32. Utilize (A simple "use" will do, thank
you.)
33. Best practices (Everyone refers to them,
yet no one seems to know what they really are.
Except me, of course.)
If you have any of your favorites that haven’t
been listed here, please send them to me. I’d
love to do a follow-up article with more of
these fun tidbits.
Good
luck and good selling!
Russ Lombardo
PEAK
Sales Consulting, LLC
russ@peaksalesconsulting.com
(702)
655-5652
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