In sales and marketing words are everything. A lesson from the pulpit, which my daughter-in-law shared with me about her minister, proves the point.
In a recent sermon from a female minister, the minister having a new hairdresser was asked, “What do you do for a living?” The wise minister knowing religion is a sticky topic, prefaces her answer with, “I’ll tell you but please don’t edit, don’t make assumptions, or don’t get all freaked out.” With the hairdresser nodding okay, the minister told her she was a minister.
The hairdresser was silent and got and distant. Seeing this reaction before, the minister tells the hairdresser how she serves a large community of 1000 in the neighborhood. At that moment the hairdresser drops her scissors and her face turns bright red and she asks, “1000 people?!” The minister says yes; Unitarian church. The hairdresser sighing with relief says, “Oh my god, I thought you said you were a mistress!”
We may think the words we use particular to our industry, product or service, are easily understood by others. Say you are a website designer and you specialize in search engine optimization. Why use that phrase until you know the level of knowledge your customer has?
Take clues from silence or non-verbals. “It looks like I may not have said something so clearly?” Give the prospect a chance to acknowledge this to be true or not and then continue. Use your ears to your advantage. What is the silence saying to you? Does the person just need time to think? Pay attention to any dropping of scissors, or other non-verbals.
Be aware how you are pronouncing your words. When I hired a speaking coach he taught some techniques to avoid monotone. Use inflection, emphasis on key words. Depending how inflection used the entire meaning of a sentence can change. It’s a good idea to pace your rate according to the rate of whom you are talking with. And most important, is clarity. Always speak succinctly.
Use common words, take clues from silence or non-verbals and always speak succinctly. The next time you are at your barber or hairdresser, if you stick with this, your hair will look fine. The next time you are with a prospect, your words will be understood.
How do you think words matter?
Then use your words to describe your natural tendency when it comes to networking, schmoozing. Do you sell and hate it? Take a moment to get honest with yourself when you answer this quick survey.
Going back to school has its merits. I have been through three communications classes that continually stress understanding your audience.
I personally turn off anyone speaking in jargon in order to introduce themselves. This assumption that “you know what I am talking about” always ends up saying “And, if you don’t, then I am not trying to reach you.”
We are taught there are three levels of audience. High-tech-those with high level of experience in a certain area, low-tech-those with some knowledge of subject matter and lay-those with no knowledge or those who you are not sure of their knowledge base.
The goal is to identify FIRST. If you can not identify, do not use jargon, techno-speak without explanations and questions.
In the end, my personal feeling is that people are tribe hunting. Incorrectly, they want to find other tribal members, instead of adding new ones.
Not a good move in sales or marketing.
Pat, as always, a good article that made me think!
Judith I love that tribe hunting metaphor: “Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.” author, Jane Howard. Maybe we even need more than one. But we want to take care that we speak clearly to attract who we really want to. Thanks for your comments.