Fri 20 Jun 2008
Business-Speak: Please Use Sparingly
Posted by Megan Dorn under Random thoughts, Small Business
I’ll level with you. I hate business jargon. It’s misleading, confusing, boring and, to me anyway, it can be gibberish. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t know what I’m talking about; I understand business concepts completely. It’s the lingo that occasionally trips me up. I realize that sometimes it’s perfectly OK to dish out words like monetization or amortization, like when you’re speaking with colleagues and those within your particular industry. In fact, it’s good to know the language for instances just like those. But when you’re speaking with clients, it sounds a little pretentious—or at least that’s the way I view it.
Part of the job of a business owner is to clearly communicate with clients, using words that both parties understand. If I walked into a place of business where the owners or some customer service representatives attempted to “wow” me with their mouthful of industry-specific terms, I’d give them an earful of my own and walk right out the door. Actually I probably wouldn’t go that far, but you get the point. I would feel like I was being manipulated or talked down to, as I’m sure many other clients would. To me it feels more like it’s about impressing people rather than helping them.
When you’re immersed in the business world, however, it can often be difficult to avoid the mumbo jumbo, it’s everywhere. So here are a few tips to help you catch yourself before you fall too deep in to a pit of word vomit (I know, disgusting).
- Don’t overdo it with the acronyms. I know they sound cool as they roll off your tongue, but unless you’re talking about NASA or the IRS, your clients aren’t likely to understand you.
- When you’re trying to explain or support a point, use simple terms. Gaining customers is more about building their confidence, not building hype.
- Listen to the words that your clients use and gauge their knowledge of the subject matter from that. You can also look at the expressions on their faces as you speak. Do they look confused?
What usually gets my attention is straight-talk, especially with a good anecdote or some humor mixed in. But that’s just me. I know that you really want to impress your clients, so impress them by showing you care enough to communicate with them properly. It really does go a long way in building trust and developing a relationship.
June 22nd, 2008 at 9:05 am
Megan: Great observations and suggestions!
If you’re in business and still don’t get it, there’s a great book entitled:
“The Dictionary of Corporate B.S.: An A to Z Lexicon of Empty, Enraging, and Just Plain Stupid Office Talk” written by Lois Beckwith.
Great to reference for avoiding Business-Speak in your daily life OR for laughing at all the corporate lingo examples. Enjoy!
June 25th, 2008 at 5:47 am
Megan,
I am with you on this one. Yet I have been guilty of it many times.
I think your post overlaps into the whole area of positioning, and how important it is to get a clear message about what you, your company or product does.
Having gone through this before it is not always that easy to remove oneself from the technical jargon, or if you do you sometimes end up in the meaningless world of “Mission Statement” type language - i.e. a lot of words saying nothing.
Another of your points that I would reinforce: - if your selling into an organisation, you need to understand their language - this is key if you want to be seen as credible.
If you don’t understand their language, then be humble at the beginning of meetings and get the customer talking about their business before you launch into your pitch.
Cheers
PL