Get Rid of the Corporate Speak

Article contributed by Mark Sutherland.

When you get letters in the mail from your bank or power company, insurance company or Telco, I know you won’t be that keen to read them.  How do I know this?  I get them as well and they are just ‘corporate speak’, all official with formal language and very politically correct so as not to offend anyone.

An example is financial commentators like economists from the various banks. They write columns in newspapers and do commentary and Q & A in radio interviews. They talk technically and corporately.  To this day I hardly understand a single thing they are saying.  They forget that they are talking to real people and not just other financially educated individuals.

Michael Cullen, the former NZ Labour Party Minister of Finance, only ever spoke in a corporatized way about finances – his favourite word was ‘fiscal’ and that’s about all I can remember.  His ability to connect with the population was hindered by his corporate speak.

I work with a lot of consultants and brokers who try to sell insurance. They spend their time talking waffle about the risks we face in life, and how to protect our families from the evil meteor about to hit the planet in the year 2314.  Yes I am being a smart ass and justifiably so.  They are trying to sell something that is almost intangible. They paint a picture of grief and sadness and a family not having any money if dad dies etc, etc, etc.

The insurance people I coach don’t go there.  I teach them to get rid of the corporate and insurance speak.  I urge them to normalise insurance and create immediate success with a client.

I ask them to be very observant when they go to see a client.  Look for the kids bikes with helmets hanging over the handlebars.  Look for the burglar alarm on the outside of the house and the fire alarms inside.  Look for the security latches on the windows and the portable gate at the top of the stairs so the baby does not fall down.

The first thing they should say to the clients is “congratulations on all your insurance”.  When the potential client asks “what do you mean”, the insurance consultant tells them about his observations.  All of what he observes is insurance.

By doing this simple activity they have normalised insurance to a real necessity for the clients who will understand immediately.  The corporate speak is gone and real life kicks in.  This becomes an introduction to health, life and income protection and other forms of insurance that can make a significant difference to people’s lives.

The key to connecting with people is talk to them as people rather than a ‘corporate information receiver’. 

I have worked with SME’s who try to do the corporate speak.  They spend hours on trying to find the right phrases to hook people into their services or products, when really all they have to do is tell them straight up what they have on offer.

I would rather hear that the paint for my house is long lasting and here are some photographs of houses who have had this paint for 10 years and they still look new, than our paint has xyz polymers and widgets including gobelty gook chemical stuff in it.  Cut to the chase and tell people the truth in plain English.

Get rid of corporate speak and talk to real people the way people really talk.

Mark Sutherland www.getaheadfaster.co.nz