For 18 blissful years, I’ve been a member of the “Heartbreak Hiking Fools.” This is a group of over-55-year-old fitness enthusiasts based in Thousand Oaks, California. Every Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday, we meet at a trailhead and go on a 6-mile roundtrip hike to one of many peaks in the Santa Monica Mountains.
Our regimen is more like a Marine boot camp than a hike. We go for a personal best time to the top and push ourselves in every kind of weather: cold, hot, rain, wind, whatever. We think we’re tuff, and so do most people who join us for a once-only hike. Guests often expect a leisurely nature walk, “Sierra Club” style. But that’s not us. We’re more like a team in training. If we aren’t exhausted at the top of the mountain, we didn’t push hard enough. On the way down, we’ll chat and stroll, but we push it on the way up.
With all that in mind, you’d expect people to understand that our name comes from our signature trail, “Heartbreak Hill.” It’s a truly challenging trek with 21 hills and some steep inclines – a real heartbreaker.
But recently, I had a BFO, a blinding flash of the obvious. I discovered that our name doesn’t mean the same thing to others that it does to us. From my unaware point of view, it turns out that for many, our name implies that we’re a group of broken hearts, a sad “recovery” group, so to speak. Dang! I never realized that. All these years, I’ve proudly proclaimed our tuff-guy name, blindingly associating it with “Heartbreak Hill.” Now I’m embarrassed that I didn’t get it.
That caused me to think about the importance of the name of any organization. Could it be misinterpreted? What about the name of your business? What does it imply to others? What’s your job title? What does it suggest to outsiders as well as associates? How do you talk about yourself and your business? Do others get the same impression that you do? Maybe there’s a BFO awaiting you like there was for me.
INTENT, CONTENT, AND INTERPRETATION
What we mean must be clearly communicated by our choice of words and examples so the receiver will get the message as intended. How often are you and your team guilty of using “shoptalk” instead of common language when speaking with customers and other outsiders? When you explain a procedure or describe a symptom to a customer, do they know what you mean? If you say, “It’s a flow control valve issue,” do they get it? How much worse it must be for them when we slip into using acronyms like TPS, PCV, and others.
The use of industry-specific jargon and acronyms is standard – every industry has its own. This is good because it allows us to speak in a type of shorthand. We all know what it means, but your customers usually don’t.
I remember as a teenager, my family doctor informed me that I had a case of “pityriasis rosea.” I was alarmed! That sounded awful, and I didn’t know if it would kill me or what. But the translation is simply “red rash.” The condition is mild; they don’t know what causes it, and it usually goes away on its own without treatment. But it sure didn’t sound that way!
I suggest that you step outside of your own point of view this week. Take a look at how you’re communicating with your customers. What words, images, and examples are you using without considering how others might interpret them? Do your ads convey the impression you intend? Who are you trying to impress? Is it working?
There may be a Blinding Flash of the Obvious waiting for you.
Jim Cathcart is a Mentor who helps businesses grow their people and their profits. As the author of 20 books and an Executive MBA professor, he is known worldwide. His TEDx video has over 2.25 million views, and he’s been inducted into the Sales & Marketing Hall of Fame. Maybe he can help you grow your business this year. Contact him at info@cathcart.com.
