You remember a couple of weeks ago I mentioned the lady who'd emailed me supposedly looking for feedback on something but then pitched a product at me when I gave that feedback?

Here's something else she did badly wrong.

In our first few emails we'd been chatting spontaneously. When it came to her pitch, the whole tone and style of her email changed.

All of a sudden she was using words that didn't sound like her. She was capitalising and using exclamation marks where she hadn't before.

The sentence construction was different. Her whole tone of voice was different.

She'd clearly copied and pasted what she sent me from a standard “best practice” sales email.

And it was obvious.

It really jarred.

I think there's something almost sacred about real human conversation, whether by email or face to face.

We have a reality detector. We know when a conversation is real or when someone is just parroting lines they've been told to say.

You've no doubt felt it when people lob their elevator pitch at you. Or you're talking to them and suddenly they get the inkling you might be a potential customer and their whole tone switches from being interested in you to getting out the great benefits of their product.

It doesn't work. It breaks the spell.

One of the great skills to learn is how to get your point across naturally. To write as if you're speaking to someone. And to speak to them properly rather than regurgitating “best practice” sound bites.

Give it a go next time you introduce yourself for example.

Have in mind what you want to get across (usually who you help and what they get from working with you). But don't use a scripted version with clever “designed to sell” words. Just say it.

I know that sounds strange. But, for example, if someone asked you what your favourite book was and why, you'd be able to answer them and I'm sure you'd give some good reasons that might prompt the person to check out the book.

It would be convincing, but it wouldn't sound canned, because you made it up on the spot based on your genuine liking for the book.

See if you can do the same for your business.