How to Slay Your Jargon Dragon
Ever catch yourself using phrases like "strategic solutions" or "accelerate innovation" in your pitches and website copy when you never talk like that in real life?
It's tempting to want to sound supes profesh in your written copy, but it doesn't always have that effect. More often, jargon—industry insider language—gets in the way of being understood and makes it harder to sell.
I became a jargon slayer early in my career, spending five years translating software engineer speak into regular human words.
To write case studies, develop white papers, or tidy up the sales team's pitches, I had to
1) figure out what these brainiacs were going on about, and
2) translate their work into language a prospect could understand.
It's not the engineers' fault in this case—it wasn't really their job to make our value prop clear (although that would have helped them upsell more, but I digress).
But when you're selling your own services, especially to someone who probably hasn't bought your thing before, it is your job to translate your value into language they can understand or risk losing them forever (dramatic pause).
Make your message meaningful to them.
As an expert, you have to avoid getting stuck in "the expert's trap"—sometimes called "the curse of knowledge."
That's when you see patterns and higher-level insights from years of experience, so you communicate at a more abstract level instead of meeting your clients where they are with a "beginner's mind."
For example:
While a PR consultant might understand that "owned media" is the solution to the problem, her client is thinking about the problem much more concretely: "How do I stop spending ad money on Mark Zuckerburg's villain factory?"
Consider these transformations from jargon to words someone cares about:
Instead of "non-motorized transportation" → "bicycle"
Instead of "optimize your sales system" → "sell three times faster”
Instead of "winning personality" → "makes everyone laugh"
The more concrete your language, the easier it is for people to understand and remember.
Slay your jargon dragon.
To apply these principles to your own messaging, start with a quick self-audit:
Review your current website and/or LinkedIn headline
Ask yourself if you're using any industry terms your clients wouldn't use
Focus on the immediate pain point that brings clients to you—what's triggering them to take action?
Draft language that is specific and concrete and speaks to the benefit they're after
Test your message with actual clients to ensure it resonates.
Bonus tip: Avoid testing your message with people who are not your ideal clients. To them, you are a genius, but they don't know what they don't know.
Effective messaging isn't about being professional, clever, or comprehensive—it's about being clear and relevant to them, one line at a time.
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