I have a question for you. “Do I look dumb to you?” Odd question right? It’ll make sense in just a moment. One more question though… Have you ever spoken to a sales person who was obviously trying to dazzle you with “techno babble?” You know the type.

They keep throwing big words or industry jargon into their sales pitch hoping you’ll be so overcome by their superior intellect that you can’t help but reach into your wallet like a zombie and hand them money.

Perhaps I exaggerated just a bit there, but I wanted to paint a vivid picture of what’s going on and how it can impact you. I have a confession to make. I do a lot of shopping. I can’t help it! This line of work always seems to have me scrambling for the latest software or gadget. (Ok, ok I admit it! I’m a gadget geek!)

When doing this shopping, I’ve found that a lot businesses seem hell-bent on trying to impress prospects with their vocabulary. My wife was car shopping several months ago and came back annoyed that the sales people kept throwing out a bunch of words like “anti-lock this, and shift paddle transmission that!” (Her rant when she came home!)

Joining her at the dealerships the next time around, I found out she was right! Even though I’m a gear head and knew what these terms meant, she didn’t. And I found it very disturbing that these dealerships didn’t take the time to explain the benefits of these great features instead of throwing out a bunch of jargon.

Hey car dealers! If all I wanted was bunch of specs, what do I need you for? Just give me a sales brochure and leave me alone!

See what happened here? In an attempt to impress the customer with whiz bang terminology, these dealers accomplished nothing more than pushing their customer away, and making her feel that they didn’t understand her needs.

She didn’t care about the centrifugal supercharged 4.2l V8… What she wanted was smooth power delivery and shifting for a comfortable ride. She didn’t care about the automatic DSC system. She wanted to know if the car would leave her stranded on the side of the road come winter time! (We get a lot of snow here)

So I repeat my first question: “Do I look dumb to you?” That’s what customers are asking those who use this “verbal diarrhea” approach to selling. (Excuse the term - but it’s fitting no?) We’re not so easily influenced to make a large ticket purchase based on nothing more than an impressive vocabulary!

Speak in a manner comfortable and appropriate to the prospect, and you’ll have yourself a happier customer because of it. Heck, if your competition is still using the “dazzle em with words” approach, you just might have found yourself some new marketing ammo! “We’re the guys who tell it how it is!” Sounds good to me!