Words that make you sound like a vendor

Senior buyers sort messages in seconds. One vendor word in the first line and you're in the vendor pile, no matter how good the rest is.

Peers don't talk like vendors. So cut the words that give you away.

The words that sort you

"Solutions." Nobody has a solutions problem. They have a problem. Name it.

"Partner with you." Every vendor wants to partner. Buyers hear it as "sell to you."

"Best-in-class," "world-class," "cutting-edge." Claims with no proof. They make the reader skeptical of everything after.

"End-to-end." Means nothing. Means everything. Either way, it tells the buyer you haven't thought about their actual problem.

"Transformation." Big, vague and expensive-sounding. A CFO reads it as a large budget with fuzzy outcomes.

"Value-add." Jargon that sounds like a slide deck.

"Innovative." If you have to say it, it probably isn't.

The phrases that sort you faster

"I hope this email finds you well." The buyer knows you don't know how they are.

"I wanted to reach out." Of course you did. You're reaching out. Just say the thing.

"Excited to connect." Sounds eager. Eager reads as junior.

"Quick question." It's almost never quick and it's almost never one question. The post on why quick question kills your email explains why.

"Circle back," "touch base," "synergies." Meeting language that makes a note feel like a calendar invite.

"Companies like yours." Proves you didn't look at this company.

They're generic. Any firm can use them about any client. So when a buyer sees them, they learn nothing about you and nothing about whether you understand them.

They're about you. Most vendor words describe what your firm does or how good it is. A senior buyer doesn't care yet. They care about their problem.

And they're tired. These phrases show up in hundreds of messages a week. They've stopped meaning anything.

What to write instead

Write facts. What you saw at their company. A job post, a filing, a new leader, a comment they made in public.

Write about them. Their seat, their first months in the role, the pressure they're under.

Write a guess, plainly. Not "we can help with your data challenges." Something like "I'd guess the finance team is still waiting days for numbers that should take hours."

Here's what a peer sounds like.

Saw the claims operations role posted twice since spring and the 10-K line about modernizing core systems. Coming into the COO seat, I'd guess the backlog is growing faster than the new platform is taking load, and the team is working weekends to keep up. Is that close, or is the bigger issue somewhere else?

No vendor words. No claims about your firm. Just a researched guess the buyer can correct.

Where the vendor words come from

They creep in from your own website. Marketing copy is written to impress a crowd, and sellers borrow it since it feels safe and approved.

But a message to one buyer isn't a brochure. It's closer to a note from a colleague. If you wouldn't say a phrase across a table to someone you respect, it doesn't belong in the first line of a cold note.

A simple edit pass

Before you send, read the note and circle every word that describes your firm. Delete most of them.

Then circle every adjective. Ask if each one adds a fact. "Big," "great" and "leading" rarely do.

Then read the first line alone. Could a hundred other firms send it? If yes, rewrite it around a fact only you found.

Vendor language comes from writing about yourself. Peer language comes from writing about them. Fix the subject and most of the words fix themselves.

The post on writing in your firm's voice covers what to put in place of the template phrases. Cut the vendor words first, and you'll have room for your own.