I went to a family party on Saturday.
An adult was talking to a kid.
He made a joke
using a long word
and everyone laughed.
Everyone except for the kid.
She scrunched up her nose
and said
“I’m in grade four.
I don’t know that word yet.”
The adult explained the word,
she then laughed
and we heard her using the same word
later on that evening.
The thing is…
most people,
your customers included,
wouldn’t admit to
not knowing that word
(or, yikes, acronym).
Not knowing all the words
makes people uncomfortable.
People don’t buy
if they’re uncomfortable with the purchase.
When I prepare any written piece
or any speech,
I always look it over
and ask myself
“Does my listener/reader know all the words?”
(yes, I do this for my novels also)
Having worked in the printing and advertising industry a bit over 30 years, I’ve seen and heard a lot of changes in technology and acronyms. Many of the people I work with today tend to misuse terms and processes basically from lack of experience. When I hit a bump like that with a buyer, I usually stop the conversation and say “I just want to check exactly what you’re expecting because sometimes (this) means one thing to one person and different thing to another…
Then, probably because I’m old, I try to build a story and a history of why this happens and why it’s called what it is.
Fun for me, education for them, and the world becomes a safer place….
– J.