How To Sound Like You Know What You’re Talking About
You are an engineer offering a unique solution to a problem the world doesn’t even know existed.
You are a fitness instructor that I should almost certainly get in touch with.
You are an ice cream maker and you call it gelato and that’s fine.
You are an EdTech entrepreneur. You have developed an AI learning system that will ensure that future generations don’t waste their teenage years in a band called The Fuglies. At least I think that’s what we were called.
You get the idea. Or do you?
An engineer, a fitness instructor, an ice cream maker and an entrepreneur. They all walk into a bar and, after deciding that there was one too many of them for a decent joke, agree that they are experts in their respective fields. Their consumers, however, are probably not.
Your idea might be brilliant. It might challenge the norm and be on course to disrupt your industry of choice, it might kickstart a meteoric rise to world domination. Or it might get lost along the way.
Why?
Because you might be an expert in your field, but you might not be an expert communicator.
So much of the hard work has been done - the lost hours to endless product testing, the money thrown at merchandise, the stress and strain of building a business…but that doesn’t always mean you know how to spell it out. You fool.
We’ve seen what Dragon’s Den can do to the darers and the dreamers. We’ve seen forehead sweat glisten in glorious 4K.
Some people are great at communicating their ideas. That elevator pitch? A cinch. They know their product, they know who wants it and they know how they want it to be heard.
But even those confident few cannot always put their point across on the page.
It’s a different, delicate process that requires the same careful balance as the flavours in one of those tasty tubs of artisan ice cream.
You don’t want to come across as vanilla if you’re trying to excite and invigorate your potential new customers.
You also don’t want to throw a (Mc)flurry of toppings that confuse your consumers.
Now we all know where this is leading. You need an expert, someone good with words. You need impactful copy for your website, you needed newsletters written yesterday, you would literally crawl over broken glass for…hang on a minute, I’m still reading this brilliant blog, maybe this is the person I need.
Here’s the twist:
I’m not an expert. Yet.
I’m getting there, the same way that many of you folk might not be quite the finished article.
[That’s right, it’s the classic selling technique: forcing someone to listen to you for ages, pulling the rug from under their feet and then ending with an insult. The ol’ triple threat.]
Besides how to stumble over making a point, here’s what I do know.
I do know how to make you sound like you know what you’re talking about. And I do know how how to get your point across in the way that’s right for you and your brand. Especially if there’s ice cream for motivation.