Speak THEIR Language

From Jill Konrath:

Are You Making Your Prospects Feel Stupid?

Posted: 08 Oct 2008 03:53 PM CDT

Of course, you don't mean to do that! But the truth is that it often happens without you even thinking out it.

Case in point: You've just learned all about your new product or service offering. Tons of details. All its selling points. You're so excited & can't wait to share what you've learned with your prospects.

And when you finally get into a meeting, what comes out?

"We've just introduced a new complete system (methodology/process) that's guaranteed to provide fully integrated communications for all your technology and non-technology needs as well as provide significant return on your investment with an ROI of only 9 months."

Blather! I know you're thinking you sound impressive, but from a prospect's perspective it's downright intimidating. Their eyes slowly glaze over and before long, you've lost them.

To be a successful communicator, you need to talk like a normal human being.

Here's an interesting tidbit that supports this premise: A language monitoring serviced analyzed the recent VP debate. Palin spoke at a 9.5 grade level, while Biden spoke at an 7.8 grade level. (Full article here.)

Both candidates are focused on connecting with voters, not impressing them. I have no doubt that they could have easily spoken at a much higher grade level - which would have meant bigger words, longer sentences and more complex sentence construction.

However, they chose not to do that. They wanted to relate to us.

If we're focused on impressing prospects with our vast knowledge, we'll lose them. They'll feel stupid. They won't open up. They won't ask questions.

And we won't get the business!

Question for you: Have you ever caught yourself trying to impress customers? What happened? Were you able to recover?

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