How Empty Words Can Cripple Your Sales Writing

In his keynotes and recordings, world-class motivational speaker and sales trainer Zig Ziglar often talks about the importance of having meaningful, specific goals. And he'll drive home his point with the rhetorical question, "What would you rather be in life, a meaningful specific or a wandering generality?" 

As marketers, if we want our sales copy to produce profitable results we would do well to heed Zig's admonition. Because nothing will hold the attention of your reader and advance your selling proposition as well as specific and meaningful benefit-oriented copy. But many sales letters and direct response mailers I receive - especially those from small businesses - show little regard for this fact.

For example, I recently received a sales letter from a commercial real estate broker. Here are the opening few paragraphs:
Few decisions are as important to your company's future success as where you choose to locate your company and under what parameters.