What the heck do who and whom have to do with selling? Bear with me. All will be revealed at the end of this post.
I’m a copywriter, and I still struggle with when to use who and whom in speech and writing. Fortunately, correct usage requires following a few simple rules. (I am indebted to my friend Rob Austin—who recently introduced me to a delightful post on the topic from The Oatmeal.)
The Rules
- Are you referring to someone who is doing something (the subject)? Or someone who is having something done to them (the object)?
- Answer the “Who dunnit?” question and choose the response that sounds better.
- If the response is “He did it” then use who. (“He” is the subject.)
- If the response is “It was done to him,” then use whom. (“Him” is the object.)
- If you get confused, “…try stripping down your sentence to just the essential” and go from there.
- As in “I don’t care who/whom you invited to the soiree.”
- You invited she/you invited her. (“Her” sounds better.)
- Use whom.
- If you’re still confused, The Oatmeal counsels you to look for the pronoun that “precedes a verb in the latter half of the sentence.”
- As in “Whom do you love?
- As in “To whom did you write this letter?
Argh. Who, whom? Who the hell cares?
Actually, you should. Even though “Whom offers no real utility in our language”—and even though most people will never notice that you got the distinction right—it makes you sound good. In the words of The Oatmeal: “When you use whom, it instantly makes whatever you just said sound distinguished and classy, even if you said something terrible.”
So here’s the connection to selling. Even though we live in a “Whazzup, dude?” kind of world, people notice correct usage subliminally. They feel they’re in good hands when they deal with you. And that’s the kind or person they want to buy from. (No, it’s not wrong to end a sentence with a preposition.)
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