The use of business jargon in marketing can be puzzling, uninteresting and boring to our customers; but as a business owner there is always that big temptation to lean towards it. We might want to sound like experts in the field or leaders in the industry, but our customers don’t really care. They want something that they can closely relate to; and as business owners, it is our job to provide them with that.

Tip Number One: Never use Acronyms

Never use acronyms unless they’re referring to something generally known like ANZ, UN, or such. As a general rule, avoid all types of acronyms in any material that get distributed to customers. Matter of fact, you’ll be very surprised as to how many people don’t even know what ASAP or RSVP means.

Tip Number Two:  Less Words, Less Mistakes

When you’re editing your materials, try cutting down what you want to say in half. You’ll be surprised at how much fluff can be edited  off your writing. Moreover, you’ll only retain the most important keywords that you need to get the point across. Treat each word like it’s worth about five dollars, and you’ll only be putting in the most important ones.

Tip Number Three: Set Appointments, Make those Calls, and Refrain from Emails and Text Messages

The number one cause of miscommunication is not meeting face-to-face or not talking over the phone. A lot of words can be misinterpreted on email because context such as facial expressions, bodily gestures, intonation, and emotions get lost.  As much as possible, set a meeting with your customer, or if this isn’t feasible, just pick up the phone and make a call. Emails or text messages should always be your last options.

Tip Number Four: Use Concrete Examples on your Proposals

One of the best ways to attract a customer’s attention to your proposal is to put in testimonials from real customers. Potential customers don’t really want to hear what you can do for them; but they’ll be more interested in hearing what you have done for people like them.

Tip Number Five: Present Clear Cut Options to your Clients

A client doesn’t want to hear the words, “It’s up to you” from you. What a client wants are clear-cut options with the pros and cons of each served on a silver platter. This not only makes options clearer to both parties, but it also gives the impression to the client that he or she is in control. More importantly, this also makes the decision-making process faster.

Tip Number Six: Stop Beating Around the Bush

Respect the customer’s time as how you want yours respected. In face to face conversations, don’t go dilly-dallying by going through irrelevant stories and such. Be straight to the point. Tell your customer why you’re in his or her office right away. Same thing goes for written materials. Treat written materials as your ‘one-minute-of-fame.’ Write down your proposition in a way that the sum up can be read by just a quick glance.

Tip Number Seven: Catch Key words and Phrases from your Client

Paying attention to key words and phrases that your client uses will help you determine your approach. For example, if the client uses a lot of words that are known to your industry, then you can use technical terminologies. If not, then you would need to explain everything in layman’s terms.

Tip Number Eight: Be Sensitive to Facial Expressions

Always be on the look-out for signs of doubt or confusion. Once you detect this, be proactive enough to anticipate the question and answer it.

Tip Number Nine: Check if your Mum would Understand

This is the best test in avoiding jargon. Pitch your product or service to your mum. Have her read your materials. If she doesn’t understand them, or you think she wouldn’t understand them, then you’ve used one word too many.

Tip Number Ten: Honesty is still the best policy

Persuade your clients with honesty. Transparency, rather than buzzwords, is always the key to any business deals.

Explaining difficult concepts and ideas can be quite a daunting task for any anyone. Clear communication is always a must for any business owner, but due to the different levels of familiarity and background that each person has, getting a message across is not always that simple.

I recently conducted a business planning session for one of my clients. During the workshop, the team was able to piece together a target audience, the product advantages and benefits, the business’ delivery model, and financial plan. During one of the discussions on marketing, there were some blank stares that were telling me that a most of the discussion went over their heads.

I said to the participants that this was expected because most of the audience were from academic backgrounds, and marketing terms were not their cup of tea. It was at that moment I decided that I would need to use other means of communication to get most of the marketing concepts to the audience in the most effective way.

Just a few days before the workshop, I was also crafting a communications plan for a different client; and I once again struggled on how to express marketing terms to an audience without any marketing background. It was then that I realized that I was going down the same path I trudged on many times before. I now needed to create a certain process for myself and my clients that would solve this dilemma for good.

I’ve spent countless hours crafting proposals in the past, and I was actually convinced that customizing each one was part of my non-generic approach. After some reflection about the business and its direction, I’ve come to realize that even though each proposal and document are unique, my way of piecing them together wasn’t really helping anyone.

What I did then was I lay out all my marketing materials on a desk, brainstormed on a new approach; until finally, a new strategy came into mind.

Out of this strategy, I crafted a two-part approach to a clear communication plan. The plan contains a strategic rationale that determined the different phases of the work and also laid out each objective. Moreover, a spreadsheet matrix that plotted all the programs against the months of the year was produced. This document also contained the projected budgets of each plan, some information on contacts, and a project timeline.  In a blink of an eye, I had one file with all the information I needed.

I tested out this file and rolled it out during the most recent workshop. In order to make the audience understand marketing,  I shared my file with everyone. I did produce the expected results, and, of course, there were still some blank faces, but now they’re only reduced to less than a handful. With the process I crafted, the workshop’s focus shifter from the marketing jargon to more tangible terms like  deliverables, the objectives, and the timeframe.

It would really help all businesses out if we can get a communication plan together to better explain more advanced concepts to our audience.

The advent of different communication technology such as email, mobile phones, and text messages has had its effect on the personalization of communication. With these types of technology now easily accessible to everyone, getting in touch has never been so easy; but do they really take away that personal touch?

Moving houses has always been on the top of everyone’s ‘don’t-want-to-do’ list, but there really are times wherein one has to really undergo that type of ordeal. As a personal experience, I transferred homes a few weeks back. During the move, best buddies called to send their regards. Some friends sent a few text messages wishing us the best. Both parents were also there with the wife and I for support. I also got a few emails on the subject of hoping that the relocating went well.

After a few days of moving in, I was shocked! I got two greeting cards on my ‘physical’ mailbox. Two friends actually went through the entire trouble of buying a card, finding out my new address, and sending them through the mail.

The numerous emails, phone calls, and text messages seemed to have lost their significance. These are too easy compared to sending a card thru the mail. I just sat there pondering if technology has greatly deteriorated the personal touch when it comes to communication.

This realization must bring us to ponder on our day to day communication. How many text messages and emails do we send out in a day? Do these means of communication actually equal making a call, or even being physically present?

I now developed a point system based on the time and effort spent to communicate. Receiving the cards were really great, but nothing really compares to lending a hand or being present during the day itself. Physical presence counts as five points, sending a greeting card four, making a call three, sending out an email two, and sending a text message as one.

The point system dictates that three text messages or one and a half emails would equate to a single phone call.  Five text messages or two and a half emails would equate to being physically present. But, really, would the person we’re communicating with really gauge our efforts with this type of point system? I believe, they won’t. The mere fact that we remembered and exerted some effort to reach out would seem enough for us, but then again.

With that in mind, we now need to weigh our means of communication. On one hand, modern technology makes communication a little bit detached; but on the other hand, its advancement  makes it easier due to ease of use and accessibility. Surely, hitting the reply button on an email makes conversation going more easily than taking a few minutes to returning a phone call; but still, nothing beats being more personal when communicating. Let’s try to rake in as many points as we can every time we communicate.

One of the biggest lessons I learned from reading those parenting books was that giving specific feedback works quite well with kids; and one realization is that it also works in a business environment.

As an example, when children are behaving well, it does make sense to give them a little bit of positive reinforcement. But instead of giving very generic praises like, “You did well;” it would be nice if you can give a specific example of what they’ve actually done well.  It’s always best to give feedback in a form of “It’s very thoughtful of you to clean up your toys.” The child then learns that doing that specific action would merit appreciation and positive feedback. If feedback-giving works well for kids, I’m sure it does for adults too.

As business owners, how  would we prefer to get feedback from our own clients? I’m sure everyone would appreciate getting feedback like “You presented the benefits of the product very well” rather than “Great job on the presentation.” Furthermore, any given day, anyone would choose  “Your website has contents that are easy to understand and an interface that’s easy to navigate” over “You’ve got a great website.” Also, who doesn’t wants to get a very vital piece of feedback like “The fact that your company didn’t return my calls prompted me to cancel the service.”

Getting very specific feedback can really help out any business. This ever valuable feedback customers give will provide you direction on how to innovate or improve your products or service. This feedback from them will also tell you what you need to continue doing and what you need to drastically change. One thing to take note is that this specific feedback is not freely offered.  As a business owner, you have to ask, or sometimes even beg, your customers or clients to be more specific

Most of the time, people think that they’re great feedback-givers; but, almost always,  people lean towards using very generic statements when providing feedback. It is then up to you, as a business owner, to get this valuable piece-of-mind from them.

If you’re seeking firsthand experiences from customers, then it would be best if you craft your questions to be more specific. Asking questions like why they like or did not like the product or service or why their expectations were met or not met are excellent questions.

Moreover, it is highly suggested that feedback be given anonymously. This can be done by  sending requests for feedback from a neutral email address like customerfeedback@yourcompanyname.com. Doing so will prompt your customers to be more honest and be more explicit regarding their experience with you or your company.

With literally hundreds of resources available, you could find every good idea that may help you project a proper business image. Let me show you how:

1. Be specific at all times

If you wish that people will respect you just the way you want to project your image, then do not go around in circles. Avoid using lengthy incomprehensible lines that will have no bearing to your customers’ welfare. Be specific with what you can do. Your customers do not care how pretty the words are, they are only after as to whether you will make good of your words of helping them with their dilemmas. You should even be able to spell out your fee and what make you worth their while.

2. Be honest

It counts to be able to spell out your capabilities and capacities, but do not even attempt to exaggerate. You might be able to fool a few the first time but sooner or later you will lose your credibility entirely. If you think you need to boost your certain advantages over the others, then at least let someone do the appreciation. Do not be lavish on praises with yourself, it is pointless. People wants to work with professionals who could deliver what they say they could, rather than how much they could say about themselves but unable to deliver.

3. Be humble

Never be too proud to hear the advice of the people who walked the same path before you. Indeed, no man is an island. People are designed to be interdependent with each other, meaning one can never flourish alone. Associate with other professionals either they be of the same or different fields. Ask their opinions; seek their help to improve your own being. Sure success is not far from sight. Your success is only as good as the support you get from other people around you.

 4. Be accessible

Make it so easy for people to reach you most of the time. You are in a business and business people loves to be seen, touched and communicated with. You will be amazed how much benefit you will get when you start making yourself accessible and visible.

It is hard enough to make a good impression in sales during the first opportunity of introduction, all the harder when you do it by phone. If you wish to use the telephones as your medium of sales communication, you might find helpful to brush up your techniques before trying your first call. Here are some of them:

Be in an ideally conducive place

When you make a call, make sure you are in some place conducive for a sales pitch during a phone conversation; and a sales-conducive place means somewhere quite and relaxing environment.

Be in the right mindset

You have to have the right mindset if you wish to make an impact during your telephone conversation with a prospective client. If you are harbouring a negative vibe, then do not make the call otherwise it will emanate to the opposite side of the line. There are several ways for which you can help yourself change your mind frame, and one is by reinforcing the positive feeling or experience that you just had recently. Moreover, expect the best outcome from your conversation with a prospect and be sure to be friendly the whole time.

Have a definite goal

Before you make a call, you have to have an achievable goal in mind. If you believe that the sale must be done in person then the goal of your call is not to sell but to get the prospect meet you in person for your sales pitch. When you’ve reached your first goal, then move on to your next goal until you have reach the pinnacle of success.

Conduct an advance study about your prospect

Nothing could be more pleasant during conversation than when you talk something that you both could relate. If your prospect loves cars, then by all means study anything about cars so as you can strike a real conversation. When the prospect enjoyed every minute of your conversation, more likely he will buy from you out rightly.

Have an outline

Be sure to have a clear outline of your conversation way before you call. This way you could plan ahead how to lead your conversation in the direction that you need it to go.

Think ahead

Do not wait for your prospects to throw the questions before you start looking for the answers. Anticipate their misgivings, doubts and questions even way before they ask. This will give you ample time to craft an intelligent response.

Document the key points of your conversation

When you put the important things in writing, it helps you remember the important details and will give you a better chance of forming the right ideas.

Practice, practice, practice

Practice makes perfect! This is always true, even in sales. Make an effort to practice your telephone sales techniques to get used to it.