3 Expert Insights About Ditching Sales Speak (July 2025)

A lot of sales outreach doesn’t fail because it’s too aggressive.

It fails because it’s lazy, low-effort, and sounds like everyone else. And buyers are fast to tune out anything that screams sales speak.

Here are 3 expert insights on how to ditch the fluff and templates and start writing messages that get responses.

Stop sending low-effort follow-ups

According to Mike Gallardo, lazy follow-ups are the fastest way to get marked as spam.

And there are many of them:

• “Any thoughts?”
• “I guess [X] isn’t a priority?”
• “Just bumping this up in your inbox.”

You shouldn’t see these as follow-ups. You should see them as reminders you haven’t earned a response. They add no value, spark no interest, and offer no reason to reply.

If your follow-up feels like a nudge with no substance, you shouldn’t be surprised if it gets ignored.

Instead, ditch the “checking in” routine and:

• Follow up once with a purpose
• Refocus on the challenge
• Add value with something useful, like a short video or relevant resource

How you can apply this

Here’s how you can turn weak follow-ups into follow-ups that get replies:

• Send something useful – A mini-case study, video, or article that solves a problem and adds value is far more effective than a nudge
• Retarget their pain – Reframe the problem and highlight the cost of inaction or how others are solving it with social proof and case studies
• Avoid blending in – One thoughtful, valuable follow-up beats five forgettable ones

Follow-ups shouldn’t be only about persistence. They’re about relevance.

And that’s how you stay out of spam folders.

Ditch overused buzzwords

“AI-powered.”
“Next-gen platform.”
“Seamless integration.”

These phrases don’t create curiosity. They kill it.

According to Josh Braun, when your copy sounds like marketing, it gets treated like marketing: skimmed, ignored, and deleted.

Your prospects aren’t going to be impressed by hyper-polished technobabble. They want real language that reflects their real problems.

And the best place to find copy that resonates with your potential customers?

Your actual customers.

Open up case studies, testimonials, customer conversations, and G2 reviews. Look for any quotes. Those are your gold mine.

They’re not polished. They’re not loaded with buzzwords.

They’re real thoughts from real users. And they work.

How you can apply this

Here’s how to apply this to your sales outreach:

• Speak in your prospects’ voice – Pull language straight from customer interviews, G2/Capterra reviews, case studies, and even sales calls
• Turns pains into questions – “How are you tracking, ‘Who said what when?’” hits harder than “We offer seamless coordination.”
• Cut the fluff – If it sounds like a tagline, you should rewrite it. If it sounds like your customer, keep it.
• Tell AI which words to omit – You can configure sales tools like AiSDR to avoid specific words and phrases you don’t want to use in emails

Great messaging doesn’t come from a product sheet.

It comes from your buyer’s mouth.

Avoid cliched lines

Jen Allen-Knuth sees these two phrases pop up in cold emails over and over again, and they do more harm than good:

• “I’d love to…”
• “I just wanted to…”

These lines might sound polite, but they’re self-centered. They put the focus on you, not the buyer. And worse, they come off as insincere.

People don’t want to read about you. They want to read about how to overcome their challenges.

On top of that, these phrases are overused to the point of being cliche.

In her experience, they pop up in ~40% of cold emails, and as a result, they just blend into the noise.

Lastly, they’re just sales-speak for “I’d love to sell you something.”

They sound polite, but they scream, “I have an agenda.”

How you can apply this

Here’s how you can apply this to your sales outreach:

• Drop the pleasantries and lead with value – Instead of saying, “I’d love to connect,” say what the prospect might gain by connecting with you.
• Make your message about them – Framing your message around their challenges, goals, or blind spots and not your desire for a call will help get a response.
• Sound like a human – Real messages resonate. Salesy cliches don’t.

Cold emails work when they speak to your prospect’s time and their world while skipping the fluff. And that starts by removing what you want and focusing on what they need.