Stop Saying This on Sales Calls (It Hurts Your Deals)

April 7, 2026·24 min·2 clips

Sales expert Oren Klaff explains why saying 'please' and 'thank you' on sales calls is silently killing your deals.

The tactic is tiny. A late prospect gets a clean time-check, not an apology, so the seller makes the first status move. Small line, big mood. The speaker treats it as a power reversal, especially with CEOs, people who manage billion-dollar funds, billionaires, and wealthy buyers who walk in assuming they hold the alpha position in the deal. In the speaker's telling, they often arrive late. Instead of smoothing it over with sorry or please, the seller asks whether they are joining the later meeting and lets the pause land. The example has the late person apologizing, which resets the room without a lecture or open confrontation. That is the point. The line points back to a basic value: everyone knows time matters, the same way someone apologizes to a waiting valet. This is not just politeness. It is a small pushback that tells the prospect the seller is not starting from the lower ground. The conversation stays on status. Sales comes off as its own odd social system, where everyone talks courtesy while one side quietly tests leverage. The advice is simple enough: do not beg for attention, do not apologize for someone else's delay, and do not dress basic business in extra deference. The audio still has video residue. The cold open is an audit pitch, with client reactions and a free-access hook around a normally $10,000 Tier 11 audit. The better part comes after the promo, when the case turns into protecting authority on sales calls without turning the call into a dominance contest.

As heard by us

A blunt sales-call reset for sellers who give away status before the real conversation starts.

Perpetual Traffic frames sales language as a status problem, especially for sellers who enter calls already trying to be agreeable. The episode zeroes in on habits that can weaken a deal before substance enters the conversation: saying sorry too often, leaning on please and…

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Take back the room before the call starts.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Perpetual Traffic