Technical Jargon!

[multilingual]

People who work in a specific industry, such as computers, build up a vast knowledge of technical information that helps them to operate within their chosen field.

Most of them work in an environment where everyone else knows what they are talking about, because they also have the same knowledge and operate within the same industry. They can talk all day about mysql and php and ram and all the other stuff that makes them happy.

The trouble is, when they try to work with the general public and small businesses who do not give a stuff about all the techy stuff and are only interested in what it is and what it can do for them.

I think that most of the techies simply forget that 90% of the general poulation DO NOT know as much as they do, and do not care that much either.

I get dozens of brochures each month from computer companies and I don't have a clue what half of the stuff they are selling actually is, or what it does.

What are the features? What are the benefits?

If anyone is looking for a new business for the 21st century then get hold of a computer sales catalogue and rewrite it in plain and simple English. You will make a fortune!!

I run a translation company, but even we cannot understand what techy people are talking about!

:roll:

JB

[darren atkinson]

Hi

I completly agree with you on this. It surprises me that most 'techy' companies still do not seem to understand this point.

As a 'techy' myself I do understand 'most' of the jargon that gets banded about, and I have seen firsthand how peoples eyes seem to glaze over when I get technical about something.

Hopefully people who check my computer support website out get the un-techy version of what services I can provide for them.

I do sometimes wonder if this might give the impression that I don't know what I'm talking about (most of the time I don't anyway!).

I do enjoy visiting competitors websites and reading lines such as 'IT solutions taking care of your SQL and HTML, integrating with VOIP to lower your ROI' lol. Do they think a client would read that and think 'hey, thats exactly what I need!' ha ha ha

Anyway its their choice, and they probably are doing better than me! ha ha

/rant over

Darren

[Dawg]

Same old Same old
You are dazzled by brilliance or baffled by ********, the BS here being the jargon.
All trades have jargon to hide behind, really good people can get past using it and let us mere mortals WTF is going on.

[Gillie]

Yes, anyone who has a slightly specialised field can talk the talk, I like the language english myself though ... amazing what results you get when you use it!

Its reassuring to know that the person you are talking to knows their stuff but at the end of the day if you dont explain yourself to the level of the person you are talking to, whats the use??

[Astaroth]

Jargon can be a double edged sword though. There is certainly a number of people out there who are impressed by/ have confidence instilled by a person who can talk jargon (even if they dont know what it actually means). It can be seen to demonstrate a confidence/ wide knowledge of the topic under discussion if you talk about a computers RAM rather than memory.

The other element of cause is that there are a number of people out there who must have the biggest/ latest etc - they probably dont understand what the CCJ they get with their new plasma screen is or does but they hear that it makes the screen so much better and they are instantly reaching for their wallets/ purchase order pad.

There is an element of the industry you are talking about and the timing - when selling insurance people want it in plain english so they know what they are buying but when talking to a claims technition about how they will win the case against the other party they often do have confidence instilled by technitions talking in jargon (many, strangely, dont actually really want a deep understanding of the ins and outs of insurance/ torts law and just want to feel they have the best person representing their interests)

As with all communications, one size does not fit all - the skill isnt the ability to speak in plain english or in jargon but to quickly work out which is going to be best in each situation - ie tailor your communication to your audience.

[Dawg]

Astaroth,
CCJ?
Clearly Cr*p Junk?

[Gillie]

Yes Astaroth, I do belive you just reinforced by last point .... pitch at the clients level, not yours! Adaptation is a wonderful thing ...

[Dawg]

Speaking of jargon..
BTW it is all BS so WTF to do? LOL
Dawg

[Astaroth]

Yes Astaroth, I do belive you just reinforced by last point .... pitch at the clients level, not yours! Adaptation is a wonderful thing ...

I guess it depends what you mean "the clients level" - if you mean their level of understanding then I would disagree - there are some people that are more impressed/ confidence instilled by jargon even if they dont understand it. The classic example is TVs which always have a long list of "technologies" which people buy it for (thought they have no idea what they actually do) and will cite to their friends as the best thing ever (even though they still dont know what they are or what they do).

If you mean to pitch to the clients prefered level then absolutally - the skill of the sales person is to say the right thing at the right time

[Gillie]

In my particular field, I need to know that my client has fully understood what it is I am offering them, therefore whilst I can blind them with science and quote figures as them, they need to be aware what they are committing to .... so yes pitch at their level of understanding, to do otherwise is simply a waste of their and my time ....

[TechFox]

A classic example of this is the term 'Redundancy', which most non-techy's associate with loss of employment.

I have phrased it, for the non-techy's as the following:

If any component of the network fails, service is continued unaffected by backup components. These backup components add to the cost of hosting but also add to the reliability of service.

[multilingual]

I don't mind people using a bit of jargon, as I am more than happy to learn new things, so long as people explain what it means rather than just expecting me to know.

There is an ad on another forum...

"Web hosting with html, php and mysql"

er......

OK, but what does it mean?

Do I need it, is it important, and what the hell is it anyway?

Educate me by all means, just don't assume that I know it already. Very annoying!

JB

[Astaroth]

But then you have target markets to consider - most webhosts (who do not also offer web development) do not provide support in debugging your PHP/ MySQL pages. You could put these into plain english, talking about creating pages with dynamic content and how great this is but if you get jo blogs off the street all fired up with ideas on what they can achieve with this webhost they will be sorely disappointed when they discover it isnt "easy" to do and the people who have sold them the product will not support them (in 1-2-1 format) in achieving this.

There is obviously an arguement that they are missing a trick by not offering this sort of support but assuming that this is the model they want to go down prehaps the idea of advertising to people who already have the tech no how of what PHP etc is is the better route as you dont appeal to people who will most likely end up ultimately being disatisfied.

[Richard Conyard]

There is obviously an arguement that they are missing a trick by not offering this sort of support but assuming that this is the model they want to go down prehaps the idea of advertising to people who already have the tech no how of what PHP etc is is the better route as you dont appeal to people who will most likely end up ultimately being disatisfied.

You need to remember that the model for most hosting is a game of numbers, get them in cheep and have as little to do with them as possible for most of the time.

[Sandy]

Forget the Techno Jargon! I'm having trouble understanding the normal talk on here!

Fresh in business (used to be a deputy head for my sins)

Just read some interesting postings about website optimisation......what's a sandbox?

[Enigma121]

Humm,

To me technical info has it's place, it shouldn't be blurted at the customer, but forms a key part of operating a technically focused business.

From the point of view of websites, as an example is my customer searching for

"VOIP solutions"

or is he / she searching for

"The phone voice headset thingie that lets you make calls really cheap"

I suspect that the first one will get more sales and more of those will be business focused customers.

20 years ago, most people didn't know what a CD was either. I dare say those same folks can buy their favourite music these days, it's all a learning curve.

I understand what you're gunning for and a term such as "voice over internet" also has a target market too.