Style vs Substance – What are you really saying?

Jan. 16, 2012 - PRLog -- Businesses work very hard to create a good image, and want to seem as big and professional and cutting edge as possible. “We want a clear brand or message that defines our company and has an impact on our entire circle of influence – employees, current customers, and potential buyers,” says Sean Sheehan of MkM direct,  “Unfortunately, this is often done through the use of business idioms and buzz words pulled from the week’s top leadership book.”

Noted author and business blog writer Dan Pallotta considers catch phrases and jargon to be an epidemic in the business world, with four main issues: Abstractions, Acronyms, “Valley-girl syndrome”, and meaningless expressions.

Abstractions are what we use to blow ourselves up and create empty inflation behind an idea – a garbage collector becomes a domestic waste management engineer and a pen becomes a hi-spec communication delivery system. We talk ourselves in circles and can end up confused in a sea of vague meaningless terms, speaking around a topic instead of on the topic directly. In this process of talking ‘around’ rather than ‘about’ we have gotten very good at reducing concepts down to 3 or 4 catchy little letters.  Everything is an abbreviation, and with internet business booming this problem has only gotten worse. Entire conversations can be carried out in acronyms that can leave everyone confused, especially as we often fail do define them or check-in and make sure everyone present knows what we’re on about. The use of acronyms and overly technical terms has become very exclusive as they leave most of us out in the cold in terms of understanding what on earth is being discussed.

However, with these first two symptoms, no matter how confusing, at least something is being said. Pallotta cites two common situations where as business people we have a bad habit of talking a lot but saying nothing at all. Much like a stereotypical California Valley-girl can ‘like, and um, and really’ her way through an entire conversation without using any actual nouns or verbs, we can spout terms like ‘value added’ and ‘synergy’ and ‘sort-of’ and oh so many more that maybe used to mean something but have really just turned into speech space fillers that accomplish less than if we had said nothing at all. In fact, business jargon has developed entire phrases that are used and abused daily. Gems like “thinking outside the box” and “exceeding customer’s expectations” are used to get people excited, but without an understanding of the situation or an action plan in place they fly in one ear and out the other before we make it to the coffee station after the meeting.

This is such an issue, Pallotta spends an entire article on the dangers and problems with ‘thinking outside the box’, and argues we need to think about what we’re actually saying, and maybe take a step away from what has become too common. He says we need to step back and examine what our business actually is and does at its core – understand the box, if you will. Know the box, love the box. Learn to work at 100% in the box before you move on. What do we think? It’s really not a bad idea.

Sean Sheehan thinks we need to take down the smoke and mirrors that are running rampant and get back to basics. Honestly and simplicity still have an impact because they cut through all the fluff that has collected in the corporate world.  Use simple, direct, confident language. Replace ‘we believe’ or ‘we think’ with ‘we’re confident’ or ‘we expect’ and see the difference it makes. While professional and technical terms are still important, make sure they are both necessary and understandable for your audience. Using too much flashy language can leave you resembling Gordon Gekko from Wallstreet – all style, no substance, and definitely not trustworthy.

As a company, ask: Who are we? What do we do? Why do we do it? How is our business relevant to others? Answer these clearly and concisely, using language a layman could understand and you will have created a message that will actually be heard and will draw people in instead of pushing them away.

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MkM Direct Ltd. is a leading outsourced direct sales and marketing company
with operations in Ireland. Key business areas are face to face sales and marketing through business to business, business to consumer and event campaigns.