How to Ruin Your Website Lead Generation with Business-speak
Posted by Jason Rudland on Tue, Feb 21, 2012 @ 01:15 AM
There's a phenomenon I notice maybe once or twice a week, and it always give me a smile. Now, I am the son, and the son-in-law of GPO-trained telephone exchange operators. Before the days of British Telecom and fibre-optics there were telephone exchanges filled with row upon row of female telephone operators patching through calls by plugging in cables into a matrix of sockets - just like you see in old movies. In those days the GPO (General Post Office) ran the phone system, and drummed it into the phone girls they were to speak in clipped standard phrases, using the Queen's English - they all had a telephone voice.
You could be forgiven for thinking the days of the 'telephone voice' were over, but you would be wrong. Not only has it lasted in the ex-telephone operators, but it has morphed and found a new home as business-speak and is thriving.
Give Business-speak some down-time
Have you ever had a normal business conversation with someone when they have switched into business-speak? You will know when they do, as they seem to detach from any type of personality and start spewing pseudo-legal-gobledegook. You know the type of thing: 'helicopter views' and '101% commitment to successful customer transactional interactions.'
(why, oh why, aren't people satisfied with 100% anymore - it means full, everything, completely. If my glass is 101% full I have a puddle on the floor)
This type of business-speak often finds it's way into the website copy. People rarely read a whole web page, and honestly who can blame them when it filled with incomprehensible rubbish. It's bad enough when a website talks only about the company and how wonderful it is, but it's even worse when translating it into plain English gives you a headache.
Be Happy & Put on a Human Face
Business people are still human beings, even when they are at work. They still react emotionally, and make emotional decisions. When preparing your website copy, write as you speak to a friend. Use as few words as possible. Leave 'that', 'indeed', and 'notwithstanding' in the dictionary.
In your website copy, talk in plain English about how you solve your clients problems. Don't talk about your business and how great it is.
