Stance and viewpoint adverbials

• Stance and viewpoint adverbials allow revenue leaders to express their personal perspective, attitude, or the specific angle from which they evaluate a business problem. They help frame boardroom discussions with precision and professional tact.
• Adverbial
• Function
• Example in a Sales Context
• Frankly
• To speak with direct honesty
• Frankly, our London pipeline cannot support this quota.
• Ironically
• To highlight an unexpected contradiction
• Ironically, the Boston office missed targets while expanding.
• Tellingly
• To reveal a significant underlying truth
• Tellingly, enterprise clients rejected the recent price hike.
• Understandably
• To acknowledge a natural reaction
• Understandably, the investors want a higher return on equity.
• Technically speaking
• To evaluate based on strict specifications
• Technically speaking, our API integration is not yet ready.
• From a legal standpoint
• To assess through regulations and contracts
• From a legal standpoint, this clause limits our liability.
• Remember
• Place stance adverbials usually at the beginning of the clause, separated by a comma.
• Use them to soften potential pushback or to emphasize hard facts during executive meetings.
• Ensure the viewpoint matches the context, such as using legal terminology only when discussing contracts.
• Examples
• Frankly, our Seattle team will never hit those figures.
• Tellingly, churn spiked after the New York acquisition.
• From a legal standpoint, we cannot alter the Master Services Agreement.
• Common mistakes
• Frankly speaking, we need more enterprise deals.
• Frankly, we need more enterprise deals.
• Technical speaking, the software has bugs.
• Technically speaking, the software has bugs.

Complete the sentences

• ___ , the Manchester branch exceeded every quarterly expectation. (understand) ____ the Manchester branch exceeded every quarterly expectation.
• ___ , the Bristol contract requires board approval before signing. (law) ____ the Bristol contract requires board approval before signing.
• ___ , our newest sales director resigned right before the fiscal review. (irony) ____ our newest sales director resigned right before the fiscal review.
• ___ , the system architecture cannot handle such high transaction volumes. (technical) ____ the system architecture cannot handle such high transaction volumes.
• ___ , the Chief Executive Officer ignored the warnings from our Chicago office. (tell) ____ the Chief Executive Officer ignored the warnings from our Chicago office.
• ___ , this top-down number will destroy team morale in Austin. (frank) ____ this top-down number will destroy team morale in Austin.

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