Prospects and customers alike will judge you by the words you use when you speak. E-mail, instant messaging, tweeting and text messaging have reduced our vocabulary to slightly above a second grade level. Don’t fall into that trap when you speak or write. Below are five tips you should always avoid when interacting with customers and prospects.

• Eliminate the grunts: Um and Ah and Uh!

Be comfortable with the silence and resume speaking when the thought is there. People who use um to illustrate their thought process may appear less sure and less knowledgeable. Just relax, pause and let your next comment come into your head. You don’t have to fill the silence while you formulate your next comment with one of these irritating grunts.

• Sorta, kinda, shoulda – what?

These words make you sound unsure of your ideas. Casual language sounds unprofessional and sends the wrong message. Be clear with what you say. Use proper language and avoid these made up words. You don’t come across as a professional when you hesitate.

• Avoid absolutes.

When you use absolutes, you are asking to be proved wrong. Never say never and never say always. Substitute often for always and rarely for never. Use absolutes sparingly.

• Avoid slang or rough phrases.

Avoid using slang like ain’t, any profanity or rough phrases like that sucks. They make you sound very unprofessional and present the wrong image. You’re not in the locker room or the playing field. Clean up your language and find another way to say what you mean.

• Stop the hard sell.

Ending each thought with Okay, You know or You know what I mean? comes across as the hard sell and are especially annoying. People who abuse these phrases are often seeking support for poorly explained ideas. Instead just pause and allow your listener to digest what you just said.

A good exercise to see if you are using words correctly is to record a few conversations and play them back. The recorded session will provide you with all the information you need to evaluate what – if anything – you should do to sound more professional. Good luck and good selling.