If you have been to a business meeting, worked at a company, or have ventured outside of your house, chances are you have most likely heard a cliche… we all have and well know it’s cliche right when we hear it. “Bring your ‘A’ game, “I need more bandwidth, “increase operating efficiency, etc.” Sound familiar? There are a couple definitions for ‘cliche’, among my personal favorites is “a word or phrase used so many times that eventually it loses it’s meaning.” It’s funny, we all know about cliche’s yet sometimes we can’t help using them. What is it about the cliche that is so appealing to us?
Cliches are not immune to a particular industry, they are found everywhere. For example if you read a sales or marketing book for example, it will always tell you end a presentation with something like
- call now
- try today
- contact us
- get started
- thank you
Now, I’m not opposed to using a call to action to end a presentation, but does the call to action always have to be the same? If you were to stick a bunch of marketers in a room and asked them to present a product or service, most of them would end with a typical cliche, perhaps one from the list above.
The problem with relying on business and marketing books all the time is that so does everyone elses. You made a read a book that tells you to always end with a particular call to action, well over time more and more people will read that book and your “call to action” becomes just another meaningless catch phrase. Why not make something up that isn’t as widely used?
Think about it from the audiences point of view. If you are presenting or discussing something then make yourself stand out, add a bit of personality to everything you do. If you’re a startup, then you really have no excuse as to why you can’t make this happen.
I agree with Seth Godin, a cliche is oftentimes used to mask or hide something. It keeps the true meaning out of whatever is you are trying to get across. It’s hard to not use business cliches but then again it’s also hard to not use words like “and, like, um” every 3 seconds. Learn to avoid them and learn how to get your point across so that you stand out and don’t fall into the typical cliche category. Oftentimes you get one shot to say whatever it is that you want, don’t hide, don’t run, and don’t mask.
Seth Godin put together a list of some of the most popular business cliches. What are some of your favorite business cliches?
Thanks for reading
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