Stop with the 4-letter Words!

I just spent some time reviewing materials from a potential new client. It was a deep dive into the cloud computing world. Which is fine. But it was ALL deep dive. Not a true customer benefit to be found - and I looked for one, any one.

As I clamber out of the techno forest - I'm back on a rampage about the importance of customer-centric and benefit-oriented messaging - and the words you use to tell that story.

Technobabble does not belong in our key positioning stories. Waxing eloquently using insider 4 letter words does not position us as a market leader. Not to the people that matter most, the economic buyers who write checks. Yes, technical buyers love that alphabet soup. But those conversations happen at a specific point in the communication cycle - and your Home Page and first engagement is simply not the right time or place.

I give you the following as an example of what I'm talking about - a list of 4 (and 3) letter 'words' found on the Home Page of my potential client - who will remain nameless.

* GRID,
* NET,
* SAAS,
* MTBR,
* SOE,
* TCO,
* kWh,
* SOA,
* Web 2.0,
* XML,
* MSP
* and M O U S E...

Alright, MOUSE wasn't really there. I was checking to see if you were paying attention. Plus that song just keeps running through my mind as I write this.

I know I'm going to get flak for this one from my techno-minded marketing friends, but here goes.

Spewing forth with the Alphabet Soup of your industry, aka acronyms, is NOT a market position. These 3 and 4 letter 'words' do not reflect the most important questions you need to answer for customers and prospects (e.g., So What). They describe a feature - not a value.

Technical standards, definitions, interfaces and acronyms do not belong as the lead in creating your corporate brand, positioning or differentiation. IMHO the only place they belong is in standards committees. And in the prerequisite technology deep dive explorations of how your solution will interface with and support the customer's infrastructure. Conversations best held one-on-one with technical buyers, and certainly not on your Home Page. Why?

• Where's the problem solution focus?
• Where are the benefits offered?
• Where are the So Whats?
• What's compelling enough about this alphabet soup to get someone to write a big check? (Yes, a sale and revenue still is the ultimate goal here.)

4 letter words are like Chest Thumping - you should go use them at the gym, er Library. Better yet, have a 4 and 3 letter festival! Support a technical user community where those words are featured to everyone's delight. Post them in the research and engineering labs in your company - where your brilliant technologists are slaving away to make them a reality. Use them with technology peers in your customers and partners.

Marketing's focus is first on the economic and user buyers. OK, user buyers might like a few 4-letter words thrown in for flavor, so use them in that technical specification sheet.

CIOs and BU execs (who are the economic buyers) are businessmen. So stop with the argument that they want technical sales information. They have to justify their 'business' just like every other exec. Trust me, they are not discussing cloud computing standards in their executive meetings.

Economic buyers do not speak technogeek. They speak customer.

So should you.