Corporate-speak (aka buzzwords or biz-blab) weakens your writing. Because it consists of cliches, biz-blab marks you as an unoriginal thinker. Because it is often ambiguous, biz-blab makes you seem fuzzy-minded and lazy.

With that in mind, here are 65 common business, sales and marketing buzzwords, followed by a plain English rewrite. While the rewritten versions sometimes require a few extra words, the result is clearer and cleaner.

Note: if you need to convince customers to buy, I publish a free weekly newsletter where I critique your sales messages for free. The free newsletter also gives you a heads up of new blog posts (like this) that I've written in the previous week.

  • We need to get these efforts into alignment.
  • We need to be headed in the same direction.
  • At the end of the day, we're committed to your success.
  • We are committed to your success now and in the future.
  • When all is said and done, the result will be...
  • When we've finished talking about this and have taken action, the result will be...
  • In this day and age...
  • The way things are today...
  • This will break through the clutter/noise.
  • People will notice this.
  • What do you bring to the table?
  • What do you have to offer?
  • This market is experiencing disruptive innovation.
  • People are now buying a less expensive product that does the same thing.
  • We empower our employees.
  • Employees to make their own decisions here.
  • Let's schedule some face time.
  • Let's meet in person.
  • Globalization is driving revenue.
  • More people living outside this country are buying our products.
  • Going forward, our strategy is...
  • Our strategy from this point on is...
  • We need to take a holistic approach.
  • We need to address all aspects of this.
  • How does this impact our business?
  • How does this affect our business?
  • We need to leverage their marketing campaign.
  • We need to direct our own activities to make use of their marketing campaign.
  • Moving forward, we will...
  • In the future, we will...
  • This is the new normal.
  • What was exceptional before is now unexceptional.
  • The business experienced organic growth.
  • The business found new customers for its existing products rather than acquiring other firms.
  • We need to think outside the box.
  • We need an original idea.
  • We are experiencing a paradigm shift.
  • The standards we've used to evaluate this have changed.
  • We need a proactive strategy.
  • We need to take action ourselves rather than respond to the actions of others.
  • This product really pushes the envelope.
  • This product does a great deal more than previous, existing products.
  • I'm reaching out to see if you're interested in....
  • Are you interested in...?
  • We are experiencing a sea change.
  • We need to change behavior in order to take advantage of a different situation.
  • We need to streamline operations.
  • We need to remove unnecessary steps and hindrances to getting things done.
  • Our companies have synergy.
  • Our companies can accomplish more working together than working apart.
  • Let me unpack that statement.
  • Let me simplify that statement.
  • We have a wellness program.
  • We have a program to help employees remain healthy.
  • This is a win-win situation.
  • This situation is good for both of us.
  • I don't have bandwidth to consider that.
  • I am too preoccupied with other things right now to think about that.
  • Our product is the best of breed.
  • Our product is superior to other products.
  • We are following best practices.
  • We are doing things that have worked well elsewhere.
  • We are competing against brick-and-mortar outlets.
  • We are competing against retail stores.
  • Let's circle back in five hours to discuss what we've learned.
  • Let's meet in five hours to discuss what we've learned.
  • Our sales team is client-centric and customer-centric.
  • Our sales team concentrates on what clients and customers want.
  • Let's close the loop on this.
  • Let's share what we've learned and make a decision we both agree upon.
  • We are in co-opetition with them.
  • Sometimes we work with them but sometimes against them.
  • This is a Come-to-Jesus moment.
  • We need you to decide to wholeheartedly support this.
  • We are doing content marketing.
  • We are providing free information to potential customers in the hope it will influence them to buy from us.
  • What is your core competency?
  • Of all everything you do, what do you best?
  • Let's take a deep dive into that data.
  • Let's examine that data in more detail.
  • We are downsizing.
  • We are reducing the number of people we employ.
  • To survive here, you must drink the Kool-Aid.
  • To survive here, you must not just obey the managers but believe in their superior wisdom.
  • This is an early-stage effort.
  • We've only just started and have a long way to go.
  • We must eat our own dog food.
  • We must use and test our products ourselves.
  • This product enables users to do "x".
  • This product does "x."
  • This is an enterprise-wide effort.
  • Everybody in this company will be part of this.
  • We have product fulfilment issues.
  • Customers aren't getting the products they ordered.
  • How granular is your report?
  • What level of detail does your report contain?
  • Making a decision here is like herding cats.
  • It's difficult to get people here to agree on something.
  • We need to go for the low hanging fruit.
  • We need to sell to customers who are ready to buy.
  • We need more mindshare.
  • We need people to think about us more often.
  • Does your project have management visibility?
  • Does management know about your project or spend time thinking about it?
  • We are outsourcing that function.
  • We are hiring another company to do that for us.
  • Customer service is part of our DNA.
  • Because we'd done so much of it, customer service comes naturally.
  • Let's peel back the onion.
  • Let's consider what's really important.
  • This department is a profit center.
  • This department must make more money than it spends.
  • What is the Return on Investment?
  • How long will it take to pay for this and how much money will it make and when?
  • What is our reverse fulfilment strategy?
  • What happens when customers return products they've purchased.
  • We are rightshoring that effort.
  • We are doing that at the location that's the most convenient and profitable.
  • Product "a" has seamless integration with product "b".
  • Product "a" works so well with product "b" that they appear to be the same product.
  • This product launch has a short runway.
  • We need to get this product out more quickly than usual.
  • We need to break down organizational silos.
  • We need the people to work towards a common goal rather than their organizational goals.
  • We'll have a tee-off meeting in two weeks.
  • We will meet in two weeks to start the project.
  • Let's touch base in two weeks.
  • Let's talk about this briefly in two weeks.
  • Our service people should be upselling more customers.
  • Our service people should ask customers if they need additional products.