Have you ever noticed how violent the language in Sales is? Kevin murdered it…just killed it this quarter. We’re going to annihilate the competition. And so on. Such violent rhetoric has been around for a while, and not just in sales – in 2011, Steve Jobs declared a “holy war” against Google. In the 90s, the Big Consulting firms recruited like this: “We hire two kinds of people — hunters and skinners. Hunters bring in the kill, and skinners turn the kill into food.” We can change. We should take a stab at change. Don’t you think?

Learning: Competition is healthy, as is a desire to win, but do we really have to kill each other to ensure market dominance? We are talking about Marketing technology, NOT a Tom Clancy novel.

References and Resources

The Violence in Your Business Language Diminishes You and Your Company from Moshe Engelberg/Inc; Type: Article

New study reveals the powerful and bizarre effects of using violent rhetoric at work from JD Harrison/Washington Post; Type: Article

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Does this resonate with you? Have you seen any change in Sales language away from violence? We’d love to hear from you.