37 Business Clichés to Stop Saying Now
Raise your white-collared hand if you’ve ever heard someone talk about “grabbing the low-hanging fruit” in a meeting.
🙄🙋♀️
Clichés like this are common in business, but that doesn’t mean you have to use them. If Sally jumped off a cliff, would you, too? (There’s another cliché, in case you missed it.)
Using business clichés in your writing or speaking is lazy. Instead of sharing an original thought, you’re just repeating the same tired buzzwords everyone else uses — “jumping on the bandwagon,” as some would say.
Want to have a more authoritative, authentic brand voice?
Remove these business clichés from your vocabulary to sound less eye-roll-y and more like you actually know what you’re talking about:
- “The elephant in the room”
- “Think outside the box”
- “Move the needle”
- “Low-hanging fruit”
- “Get our ducks in a row”
- “Reinvent the wheel”
- “Let’s circle back”
- “Put a pin in it”
- “Actionable insights”
- “At the end of the day”
- “Build a better mousetrap”
- “Deep dive”
- “Paradigm shift”
- “Get a 30,000-foot view”
- “Content is king”
- “Push the envelope”
- “Have bandwidth”
- “Pick your brain”
- “Data driven”
- “Core competency”
- “Due diligence”
- “My two cents’ worth”
- “Drinking from the fire hose”
- “Getting some push-back”
- “Close the loop”
- “Quick wins”
- “Comparing apples to apples”
- “Peel back the onion”
- “In your wheelhouse”
- “Thought leader”
- “On the same page”
- “Break down silos”
- “Open-door policy”
- “Out of pocket”
- “Change agent”
- “Industry disruptor”
- “Stay in your lane”
Bottom line: Want to move the needle sound more original? Think outside the box Don’t use these business clichés.
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