We all know that the technology industry is a jargon-heavy business. Everyone would agree on this statement, no matter whether if you are on the sales side or the buyer side. How many times have you seen a prospective buyer glaze over when you discuss your product? How many times have you listened to a sales person run off on a tangent that makes absolutely no since to you? Countless, right?
This creates a almost lost in translation aspect when it comes to buying and selling technology. While some techies are probably reading this and saying well buyers need to learn more. But the reality is that buyers don’t want to learn more. They have enough to learn with their own careers that what technology they use is not on their priority list. But we are getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s take a step back and take a look at the statistics behind why jargon is effecting the technology industry in a negative way.
The following research was conducted by VoIP and telecom review resource Software Advice and focused on the impact jargon has taken on the VoIP market. The team of researchers conducting this project asking 3,901 participants two questions. One of the questions was asked in technical jargon, while the second was the same question but in plain English. See how the participants changed their responses to each of the questions.
Starter Question
Have you ever sent an email? 77% answered yes.
Have you ever used an application based on the SMTP standard to transmit ASCII characters over a data connection to another IP endpoint? 11% answered yes.
So to start with a very basic technology service almost everyone uses, 66% were unsure of the technical lingo.
Onto the next one
Have you ever used Skype or similar software to make a phone or video call over the internet? 49% responded yes.
Have you ever used client based on the SIP standard to initiate communications session with streaming audio/or video between IP endpoints? 7 % responded yes.
Still not looking good for jargon.
Now they ask about monetary value of a product.
Would you ever replace your business landline with a special internet-based phone service to make local and long distance calls at lower rates?
Would you ever replace your business’s PRI trunks with a SIP trunk to originate and terminate local and long-distance calls at lower rates?
While this question was more technical in general, the responses still showed something about the jargon. 35% responded “I don’t know” when it came to the jargon question. While only 18% responded “I don’t know” to the plain English version. This shows a 17% increase in a completely misunderstanding of the question due to the language used.
So with just those three questions and their results we can already see how much language effects buyers thoughts on technology. The overall findings of the experiment found that respondents were 13% less likely to consider purchasing a solution described in technical language than one described in plain english.
This study proves that it is important for technology solution providers to explain their technology and the benefits in language that is easily processed by the buyer. By speaking without the jargon you make it easier to follow the conversation and allow the buyer to understand the solution to make a better decision. Stop the jargon and simplify your technology.
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