It's good to talk (and write...)
Summarize the 300 page novel you have just read in three lines. Now there’s a good exercise in making every word count - as my son discovered on a recent homework assignment.
Words matter.
They shape ideas and form opinions. They convey nuance and provide context. They influence your Google ranking (as our web meisters at Labrow marketing will testify - www.labrow.com).
Here’s two other very concrete commercial reasons why this is important right now.
Firstly, attention spans have definitely shortened over the last couple of years which means your twenty second and sixty second pitches have got to be effective in delivering the intended payload to their target. This means that you need to make sure what you say is relevant to the person you’re speaking to and is honed to maximize the value of each word.
Secondly the UK is an open, but highly competitive market. So, for non-UK businesses, when you succeed in your initial pitch and get to present something to your potential customer ( for example a PDF flyer or PowerPoint) make sure the English you use appears to be from a native speaker.
No one would consider entering a new market without ensuring that the product and commercial contracts complied with local regulations. Native English in sales collateral is what the economists would describe as a hidden barrier to market entry.
On more than one occasion we have had to tell a client that their English is perfect but completely wrong - their choice of words and phrases immediately positioned them as a company that was not serious enough about the UK market to get their collateral right.
Or to put it in the words of one client’s target customer, ‘we definitely remember them - every time we need cheering up we pass their brochure round the office. It still gets a laugh’.
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