Could you possibly be confusing your prospects with business jargon? I’m sure you wouldn’t do it intentionally, but if you don’t pay close attention you might still be doing it.

For example, just the other day I got an email asking me if I’d be interested in speaking at the upcoming IFC Conference. While I was delighted to be considered, I had no idea what IFC stood for. So I googled it. But, then I was even more confused – was it the International Fundraising Congress, the Investing Financing Council, or the Inter-Fraternity Connection?

Turns out it was none of the above. But it did get me thinking about how often we use business words or acronyms and just assume that the people we’re talking to know what we mean. When we do that, it actually creates a rift. They get stuck trying to figure out what we mean and can’t pay attention to what we’re saying. That doesn’t help us at all.

Or, we deliberately use impressive sounding terminology to make our prospects think we’re really smart. Instead, they think we’re pompous you-know-what’s. Or, they feel really dumb. That doesn’t work either.

Our goal should always be to ensure clear communications. That means we need to speak like we’re talking to normal human beings. Sometimes that’s harder than it sounds. But, by keeping things simple, we all benefit.