Sales and Grammar: Should you bother?

They say Sales is all about pitching right. To do that, you need the right words.

Imagine you are writing a follow-up email to a new client,

“Dear Mr XYZ (Should I put a comma here?)

It was a pleasure meeting you (Or is it meeting with you?) last week. Further to our last meeting (What’s a good alternative to the ‘last meeting?’), I was looking forward to hear (hearing?) back from you on our proposal.

I am enclosing the commercials again for your (kind?) perusal.

Looking forward (I look forward?) to your response.”

How many times do you stop to think if the sentence you typed was okay? Hope your boss doesn’t point out any mistakes after you have hit send!

Correct grammar is essential, but it can be tough to crack even for the highest qualified personnel. If you are writing an official piece of communication, you would want to avoid making mistakes for three major reasons:

Company’s Image: We can deny it, but we cannot escape the fact that grammatical gaffes in official communication can fail to impress or even tarnish the company’s image. A silly mistake can take away the credibility of the document. For instance,

“We understand that your happy with the product and will be open to renewing the contract. If yes, we can than assist you with the revised copy.”

Effective Communication: Sales is all about successful interactions. If you are not speaking with the client in person or over the phone, you message or email him. Swapping their with there can cause unwarranted confusion. Some mistakes are very common and can easily skip our glance.

Avoiding Expensive Mistakes: At times, grammatical errors can even cost your organisation heavily. Remember the case where one missing Oxford comma in the Maine State Law cost Oakhurst Dairy $5 million in overtime pay? In one extreme case, unclear punctuation cost Irish nationalist Sir Roger Casement his life in 1916!

Fortunately, we salespeople don’t face such extreme situations, but the language we use in our official communication holds power to make or break the deal for us. We rely on digital assistants to show us the right way; Google Maps to avoid taking the wrong turn, a calculator to make basic maths easier, or an Outlook reminder for the 4 p.m. meeting.

So why not a tool that enhances our language and empowers us to communicate better?

While there are many tools available in the market, I recently opted for Grammarly. Then, last month, I tried their Premium Account. Here are five factors how it made a difference to my writing as a Salestor:

Reminding you of mistakes that skip the eye: You tend to overlook certain things when you are engrossed in penning your ideas. Grammarly can help you notice the errors that are difficult to spot.

Polishing the whole document: It scrutinises each word and gives an overall score on five factors -

• Correctness: Improves spelling, grammar and punctuation

• Clarity: Helps make your writing easier to understand

• Engagement: Helps make your writing more exciting and effective

• Delivery: Helps you make the right impression on your reader

• Style Guide: This is a great tool for business users. Organisations can set their writing style and ensure everyone sticks to it.

It even detects the document’s tone, so you know if it sounds just the way you want.

Word Suggestions: It works both as a spell-check and a thesaurus to ensure you never run out of the right words.

Omnipresent: You can use Grammarly’s desktop tool to help you write not only in MS Word or Outlook but everywhere else too! Grammarly app for mobile enables you to write well on the go, so you don’t end up texting, “I didn’t knew it!” to your prospect.

Plagiarism Check: It is an excellent aid for those concerned about being accused of copying without citing the source. You can correct the grammar and check for plagiarism from the Grammarly Assistant on the same page. So when your company asks you to write an article for their blog, or a whitepaper highlighting your product, Grammarly is a tool you cannot afford to miss.

Anyone communicating in a corporate setup understands the significance of the right words. Salestors, more than other people, know the dire need.

Our success rate depends a lot on how we interact, so let us not allow grammar to hinder. As Grammarly puts it, to err is human, to edit, divine.

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