What marketing language do you speak? Do you sound like your customers? Or are the words you pick filled with jargon, industry terms, and technical words? Most business people don’t hear what they say…but their customers do.
Does marketing language matter?
The way you talk may not kill a deal, but failure to use the same language as your customer may make your conversation a “non starter.” Why? Your customer has to not only understand your marketing language, but identify with it. Using too much jargon, or sounding like you don’t know your stuff puts you at an immediate disadvantage.
Use the same marketing language as your customer
There’s a blog post about selling called “Sales 101: mirror your customer.” It suggests that you must adapt and change your message to the customer’s style of communication, or it may get lost. It can be as simple as using the same language, but continues about the tone of your voice, posture, your hand gestures, and more. People like people who are like them. Employing the same terms is a crucial step in this process.
What’s your marketing language style?
I know a sales rep who makes a weekly presentation to a networking group. The idea is to educate the group so that they can refer you business. Each week this rep uses formal language that sounds like it comes from a business textbook or instructional manual. Terms like “Q4” (for the end of the year), “seats” (for number of employees), “outstanding ROI” (instead of saying its profitable), and “action item” (instead of goal). When this rep concludes, the entire room of networkers looks puzzled. They have not understood a word of this foreign language. One time when I “filled in” for this rep, I used ‘fifth grade words,’ held up a prop, and when I was done, other members said they finally understood what the rep did for a living. Choosing the right marketing language can mean the different between winning over your audience, or losing them.
What marketing language does your advertising speak?
Look at your brochure and advertisements. Listen to your videos and multimedia. Then consider what your customers hear. Would your spouse understand them? Or your kids? If not you may have discovered that your pitch needs help. Why not call me for a Free 15-minute marketing language assessment?