Negotiation expert Herb Cohen says when you enter a negotiation, you want to show the other party you care – but not too much. You want to show you care, because you want the other party to feel valued. But you don’t want to show you care too much, because then you seem needy and desperate. [...]
Talk to your customers like they’re people. It sounds obvious, but most businesses don’t use everyday language when they do marketing. Instead, they use stuffy, corporate language that is not only off-putting, it’s also confusing. Don’t confuse ‘formal’ marketing for ‘good’ marketing. Good marketing is marketing that is relatable and easy to understand. Formal marketing tends [...]
The day I became a better communicator … was the day I realised misunderstandings were my fault. In the past, if I wrote something or said something my audience didn’t understand, I assumed it was because they were too stupid to appreciate my genius. One day, though, I realised I was to blame for not explaining [...]
Newsflash: what’s in your head is never in anybody else’s. So you can’t assume your customers will automatically understand your marketing messages. In fact, you should assume they won’t. That’s why you need to go out of your way to communicate clearly. Here’s how: Remove all traces of ambiguity from your marketing Find simple ways to [...]
The best way to understand something is to call it by its proper name. When you don’t, you obscure the meaning. Sometimes, people want to be unclear. For example, bosses don’t fire people; they let them go. Armies don’t kill civilians; they inflict collateral damage. Often, though, people unintentionally cause confusion. If you want customers to [...]
Studies show that only 7% of communications comes from the words you use – 38% comes from your tone of voice and 55% comes from your body language and face. So when you’re dealing with a customer, what you say is less important than how you say it. If you say “I care” with your words [...]
Communicating clearly is a superpower. When you communicate clearly, whether verbally or in writing, you seem smart. So how do you communicate clearly? Ironically, by pretending you’re speaking to a 10-year-old. Use short sentences. Use simple language. Avoid jargon and acronyms. If you speak like a child, people will think you’re smart. That will help turn [...]
Isn’t it annoying when you deal with a doctor, lawyer, accountant or mechanic and they speak to you in jargon instead of English? “What the hell is that person saying?” you wonder in exasperation. “Don’t they realise I’m not an expert in their field?” Well, guess what? Your customers are probably saying the same thing when [...]
What is the ideal number of messages you should have in a piece of marketing? The answer is [drumroll, please] one. When you have just one message in a video, blog or email, that message is easy for your audience to understand. But when you have multiple messages, the audience is unclear which message to focus [...]
Guess why a business owner friend of mine finally settled on an accountant, after burning through several others? Because the accountant spoke to him in plain English. Not jargon. Not acronyms. Not gobbledygook. Plain English. Speaking simple English is a surprisingly powerful form of marketing, because it not only means your customers are more likely to [...]
