Buck the biz-babble and start moving minds.
You’ve been there, at the airport, next to the guy with the Bluetooth pacing back and forth seemingly talking to himself saying something like, “Synergistic asset allocation for seamless transparency.” What? Aside from the fact that he’s talking to his wife about picking up milk at the grocery store, this business jargon has gone too far.
Now, I understand there is good reason for industries or professions to develop and communicate in their own language. They communicate with each other, which makes them more credible in business-to-business conversation. A wrong word in that context is a sure sign of being an “outsider.” Also, like lawyers or life insurance agents, language can provide a perceived advantage over the common consumer.
However, the overt usage of business speak that permeates the business conversation can be counter-productive. The purpose of communication is to attract, engage, persuade, motivate—move your audience. Too much biz-babble can confuse, misconnect emotionally or lose your audience altogether.
A quick Google to a business site and you’ll soon find telltale signs of business speak gone astray. There it is. Company ABC, paragraph four: “By taking a holistic approach, we’ve reengineered the paradigm.” Wow, powerful stuff. Huh?
Instead of “We employ expertly skilled sales engineers to ensure maximum revenue optimization” what’s so wrong with “Our people really know your business and they’ll blow the doors off your sales numbers.”
In short, what everyone needs is less “Relational opportunity to become a harmonized enabler, empowering an integrated strategy in a logic-based scenario to leverage language synergies to grow mind share connectedness” and more “Start talking straight to the needs, wants and emotions of the people who influence and buy your product and you’ll move minds.”
Article written by Mike McMillan, Partner and Chief Creative Officer at Introworks.
2 Comments
The buzz words invented to differentiate quickly become cliche. Remember “systems”? I worked hard at getting someone to explain what a “system” was–the account exec told me “anything with more than one component is a system.” That means my first-class postal enclosure sealing system is a sponge with water on it? Ditto “solutions”–for a few years there, “solution” was shorthand for “we haven’t taken the time to figure out what our customers’ problem is, but we sure do want you to buy our product.”
Great stuff Mike. I think that far too often insecurity and lack of substance breeds “filler” terminology and pretense. Confidence and substance look you in the eye and communicate clearly regardless of the audience and despite industry terms. It satisfies, not confuses.