How to Sound Like a Real Person Instead of a Corporate Robot

Some of you like to say please kindly advise when talking to customers, potential clients, stakeholders, you know, partners, you know, things like that. But it's not something that I would recommend, at least not when you are in a selling situation. Now people say please, kindly advise for different reasons, sorry, excuse me. So a lot of times people say please kindly advise because they're just trying to be polite. Well, there are other ways of being polite, especially when you're sending a, an e-mail instead of using words that are just fillers and words that don't really mean anything.

Now, sometimes people say, please, kindly advise because of clarity. They're trying to put the ball in the other person's court. They want the other person to know that you're like, look, I've done my own. So now it's over to you. If this sale is going to move through, if this transaction is going to move through, if this relationship is going to move any forward in any way, then you know the ball is now on your court.

So please kindly advise. Now another reason why people say please kindly advise is, you know, it's just a habit because we've all grown up in Niger and you know, for those of us who have finished school and I've worked in one of two places, you know, you just, you see it everywhere. You know your girl will say please kindly advise. Your line manager says please kindly advise. And then after a while you just pick up the habit.

And when you're sending messages to people, you tell them please kindly advise. But before I continue, I need to point out one thing anyway, at least for those of you who like English or who are grammatically minded, you know, when you say please and kindly, you know that it's kind of redundant because kindly do so, so, so, and so, and please do so, so, and so, you know, kind of means the same thing. So it's kind of redundant.

So even if you're not going to stop doing that for any other reason, stop doing it because it's redundant. Now, some of you are now going to ask, OK, so if I can't say, please kindly advise in my messaging, then what am I supposed to do? OK, I'm going to provide an answer today. This is what you're supposed to do. Now remember that this is a sales podcast and every single thing that we talk about over here is built around how we can move the relationship further,

move the conversation, the conversation further because we're trying to, we're trying to sell, we're trying to get people to buy something. So First off, what I'm monetary to do is avoid all these formal sounding phrases. Excuse me, because we're trying to sell. And the more conversational we are, the better. I repeat, you're trying to sell something. The more conversational you are, the more you sound like a human being, the better.

So don't say, please kindly advise because you're sounding very, you're sounding very formal, very corporate. So avoid the corporate talk, be conversational, best let me say beep semi formal, sound less corporate and don't use any kind of jargon because it's not helping your case because you're trying to sell. And in the beginning people are uptight. What we're trying to do is we're trying to bring the temperature down so that we can have a conversation with someone from one human being to another.

But there are other ways that you can be polite and you can put the ball back in the other person's court to let them know that, look, I've done my own thing, I've done my own, I've done my own part. Now over to you so, so saying, please kindly advise. You can just tell the person that, look, I'd appreciate your thoughts on so, so, so, and so. It's clear that now the ball is in the other person's court. You've said over the proposal.

Instead of saying please kindly advise on something, something, something you said over the proposal and say, I'd appreciate your thoughts on section 123. Can you share your thoughts on blah blah blah instead of saying please kindly advise. Or for those of you who are trying to get the ball moving, that's why you're saying please kindly advise. You can just come out and ask the person what do you think we should do next?

What would you like for us to do next? Although me, I'm in favour of being more proactive, so I prefer to tell people so I don't send over something. I say please kindly advise. I send over the thing and then I say, OK, good. If we're in agreement on this, this, this, I propose that what we should do next is you see, that's how you flip it back into the other person's court. Can you share your feedback on when you're available?

Can you get back to me on? Do you have any updates on XYZ? Is there anything else we need from my end before we move forward? What do you think about so, so, so and so? Let me know what works for you. You know, these are the things that we can use that sound more conversational and are better than. Please kindly advise. Now of course, the reason why we're looking at this today is because currently coaching someone who is a salesperson and you know, this is just one of her things that she has inherited.

You know every single WhatsApp message, please kindly advise e-mail please kindly advise, please kindly advise. So summary, please kindly advise. It's kind of redundant. No point in saying it because please and kindly kind of mean the same thing. So even if you insist on being please kindly advise, I remove 1. You can say kindly advise or please advise. But in my own opinion, let's not sound too formal. Remove all the formal stuff.

Let's be conversational or let's be SEM semi formal. Let's not be too corporate. Let's avoid anything that sounds like jargon. And if this is about putting the ball in the other person's court, I would ask you to come over to my own side and do the more proactive thing. And you tell the other person, hello, OK, I've sent over the proposal. If we're in agreement with one 2-3 and four 5-6, then I would propose that the next step is blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, as in put it to the other person and put it well and put the ball in other person's court.

But then please kindly advise. And it's a bit redundant and to be honest, I doubt people see these things anyway. When they say please kindly advise you just say you know what, I'll get back to it later. So yeah, that's it. If you'd love to connect with me, you can call me, send me a text message or a WhatsApp message on the 080646621400. If you also want to join my WhatsApp channel, you can send me a text message on the same number 08064662140 and I'll hook you up.

So that's all for today. Thank you very much for your time and attention. I'll be in touch. Well then, sorry about the audio quality. I'm just recording straight into my phone today. I'm not using the whole microphone thing because to be frank, I'm tired of setting up. It can be a hassle just when you want to make a quick recording. Yeah, so that's it. I'll catch you guys some other time.