A long time ago — in fact, far too long to remember now, I was listening to my friend’s father give him a lecture. The man said something like this, “A wealthy man doesn’t need to tell you how wealthy he is… a smart man doesn’t need to tell you how smart he is… and a funny man doesn’t need to TELL you how funny he is.”

And, to a great extent — at least in person — this makes sense. I’m not sure I’d agree with this in print, but… that’s really not what I want to talk about with you today.

However, there are a few things you most definitely should NOT be saying in print — at least… not to a new prospect or to someone you don’t already have an existing relationship with.

For instance, you shouldn’t say “believe me” in the wrong context. “Believe me, you’ll love this new doo-hickey,” isn’t cool, for example. It sounds VERY canned and frankly, if your prospect doesn’t even know you, why on God’s green earth SHOULD they believe you at all?

On the other hand, you can say “Believe me, I know EXACTLY how you feel — I’ve been in that EXACT same situation before myself, and it IS awkward.”

In this case, you’re not really “commanding” your prospect to “believe you” — you’re just using the expression as a colloquial segue way to express empathy, and this is good. In fact, this is good to say in person too, no?

Another thing you shouldn’t say in print, is “Let me be honest with you.” That’s a tough one to pull off in person because it implies a lot of different things, and each one of them puts the individual you’re talking to on the defensive. But in print, don’t even THINK about saying something like this, because you’re going to shoot yourself right in the foot if you do.

The bottom line is, think before you speak — and think even harder before you write — because it’s the only time you get a do-over, AFTER the words come out of your mouth.

In this month’s edition of the Seductive Selling Offline Newsletter, I show you a few HUGE problems you’re going to run into when you say things to your prospects you shouldn’t say — take a free test-drive and get your hands on it NOW, along with a TON of gifts, right here: http://www.kingofcopy.com/ssnl

Now go sell something, Craig Garber

P.S. Tomorrow’s Seductive Selling Coaching Call will be the conclusion of the second part of our “Lead Generation” series, where I’ll be showing you EXACTLY how I write lead generation free reports. You get to participate on this call if you own my Seductive Selling System, and you can get your hands on that right here: http://www.kingofcopy.com/seductive