Having spent a recent week poring through the entries in HOW's Promotion Design Awards, we once again observed that the sales pitches in a lot of design firms' promos sound stunningly alike. Too, Brent Hodgins, a speaker at last fall's MYOB Conference, opened his session with, as it turned out, a mock new-business pitch that had the audience squirming with uncomfortable familiarity.

And now Steven Heller has posted an article on AIGA.com lamenting the sameness of the lingo with which firms talk about themselves. Here's a snippet:

... take virtually any promotional brochure for a design firm, scratch the surface, and you will find variations of the following platitudes:

• Design is a tool for achieving specific results. Being responsive, we begin each project by learning exactly what results our client expects. This then becomes our communications goal.
• Establishing an appropriate, positive emphasis is the key. This, in conjunction with good graphic design, is our special skill.
• Our work exhibits a great diversity of styles and imagery. In an era of design specialists, we invariably believe that as varied as the messages are, so should the means of conveying them.

These statements by three very different design firms are not inherently disingenuous, but when viewed as representative of most promo copy they are formulaic. Should all selling copy sound alike? Imagine what the prospective client who gets pitched by many designers must think after reading the same phrases and sentiments over and over.

Read the rest of Steve's article, then turn a critical eye on your sales pitch.