11 Weasel Words You Want to Avoid in Sales Emails

The language you use in sales emails will determine the outcome of a deal. Whether it’s painting a rosy picture or an innocent slip-up, the right choice forges a relationship while the wrong word will torpedo your chances. 

When writing sales emails, your words make a difference in how your message is received. That’s why you’ll want to avoid certain terms known as weasel words.

What are weasel words?

Weasel words are words or phrases that make statements sound uncertain, vague, or less direct. They weaken what you say by omitting any clear commitments or presence details.

Weasel words can be divided into three main categories:

• Numerically vague expressions (“some people”)
• Adverbs (“sometimes”, “possibly”)
• Passive voice in certain cases (“it is said”)

These aren’t the only types of weasel words. Generalizing qualifiers, subjunctives, and certain uses of past tense can also fall in this camp.

Weasel words are appealing because they let you build ‘wiggle room’ between reality and what you say. Since you don’t know a person’s exact situation, you try to avoid statements that seem like promises. 

The challenge is that weasel words sneak into our everyday speech and writing, and they’re super hard to avoid. They help us feel safe and sound less direct, which many find comfortable. That’s why it’s so easy to use them without noticing, but even though we think it softens the message, sometimes it makes the message less clear.

Why shouldn’t sales emails use weasel words?

As a rule of thumb, sales emails should avoid weasel words as much as possible. That’s because weasel words like maybe and possibly will make your email not only seem less confident, but it can lower trust with prospects. Too many, and it will set off alarm bells in leads’ heads.

Weasel words also keep you from getting to the point as soon as possible in your emails. When this happens, you’re wasting prime real estate that could be used for sales.

Clear, direct language that doesn’t equivocate shows confidence and smooths the way for readers to understand and trust your emails. 

11 weasel words and why you shouldn’t use them in sales emails

It’s impossible to eliminate all weasel words from your writing. There are instances when passive voice is the best or only way for you to say what you want, but this is rarely the case in sales.

But if you try to keep weasel words to a minimum, that should be good enough 🙂Prospects are people too, and they’re willing to overlook a weasel word or two. (However, they might be less willing to overlook words that seem like AI.)

To get started, here are 11 weasel words you should try to eliminate from your sales copy.

A lot

A lot is a large quantity, but how much is “a lot”? If you don’t say, your readers won’t know.

So either ditch it or get specific. Instead of writing “Our database has a lot of leads”, say “Our database has over 700M leads.”

Some

Some is another word that avoids getting specific. Same applies to many. It lets you answer questions and communicate ideas without revealing your hand.

But while that works for poker, it doesn’t work for sales. So rather than stating “Our users find some of our features useful”, say which features. As a bonus, you’ll avoid implying that your team creates features that add no value to the user’s experience.

Think

In most cases, action verbs are strong and show confidence. But not all of them. 

The biggest offenders are verbs like think, believe, and feel. 

They make you sound uninformed or uncertain why your product works the way it does. While these terms are okay on the post-sales side, such as when trying to fix a bug, you should avoid them during the sales process.

Probably

Unless you’ve read the internet twice, you probably don’t know the answer to everything. Especially if you’re speaking with a prospect who needs a highly personalized process or a very unusual use case.

So just be honest and upfront about it. But don’t stop at “I don’t know.” Explain why, like “This is a new case for us, so I want to double-check before answering your question.”

Often

Often and similar adverbs let you imply a certain frequency without – once again – getting specific. And specifics are what build trust between you and your leads.

So don’t say “Our users often ask about X”, use “60% of our users ask about X.” 

Typically

Typically suggests that something usually happens but you can’t guarantee it will happen every time. This makes you sound less certain, and it will raise red flags in the prospect’s mind about the reliability of your solution.

A good workaround in this situation is to provide specific examples or case studies that show how the product performed for a specific user. For best results, you should personalize the case study so that the case matches the prospect’s industry.

Could

Could is a very tricky weasel word that will sneak into your writing multiple times before you catch on. It lets you make a promise while also allowing you to ‘hedge your bet’. Although it gives you deniability, it leaves room for doubt.

Instead of “Our solution could save you 8 hours per week”, you should at least say “Our solution can save you 8 hours per week.” Or even better, eliminate the modal verb and say “Our solution saves you up to 8 hours per week.”

Cutting-edge

Cutting-edge is one of the favorite go-to words of many sales and marketing teams. It implies that a product is advanced or innovative without providing specific details or evidence that answers “Why?” or “How?”

In reality, most products aren’t all that innovative, with some exceptions. 

The next time you want to use “cutting-edge”, try being more specific about what makes your product unique and how it differs from other solutions on the market.

Game-changing

Game-changing (and revolutionary) is another frequent go-to buzzword that implies a product will completely change and reshape how the world works. In reality, game-changing and revolutionary get used to describe products that aren’t significantly different from what’s already available.

Rather than relying on such buzzwords, focus on the benefits your product provides and how it can help customers reach their goals.

Unique

It’s reeeally hard to build something truly unique in 2024. And the word unique has been so overused that it’s lost its magic. After all, if everyone’s unique, then what’s so special about being unique?

Instead, you should specify what sets you apart from your main competitors, whether it’s a certain feature that they don’t offer or an alternate approach to solving your customers’ pain point.

Customers say…

Customers say…, research shows…, experts say…

These are all phrases that let sales teams appeal to authority or make claims about product usage and expected ROI without actually giving evidence.

If you want to use social proof effectively and get leads to trust you, get specific. Cite your source. Reveal the name behind the review. Don’t say “Customers say they got 1.8x more revenue” when you can say “Metal got 1.8x more revenue.”

Putting a name to a statement will lift your claims from cliche to persuasive.

How to fix weasel words

Finding and fixing weasel words is a straightforward self-editing process. AiSDR stops weasel words from sneaking into its emails by using email frameworks from 50 of the top leaders in sales, like Justin Michael. 

But here’s how you can manually stop weasel words from invading your writing:

• Find them
  • Option A: Use your “Search” function or Ctrl+F (Command+F on Mac) and look for common weasel words like the ones above
  • Option B: Read through your writing with a fine-toothed comb
• Delete them
• Re-read the resulting statement to confirm it still works

If the statement becomes confusing, then figure out what you wanted to say and say it. If the sentence seems too bold, try saying it another way without resorting to a weasel word. And – last but not least – if the statement doesn’t add value and you have nothing else to say, just delete the sentence completely.