Today I was reading a company’s description of the services they provide, and I found that I had no idea what they were talking about. Now that might be OK if they were providing something to do with, say, theoretical physics, in which case I’d be interested but would have to just nod my head politely and hope they said a word or two I could hang on to. But these guys, once I dug further to find out what they were about, were in business to help other businesses get clients. They existed to help your marketing department. My business also exists to help your marketing department, but I hope when I tell people what I can offer they get it, and fast.

What this company was doing was talking to themselves. They had a lot of jargon on their web site; jargon that I had to look up elsewhere to figure out what they were getting at. Maybe they were also talking to people who already knew all about what they offered and why they needed it, and if that’s true, then fair play to them. I will, however, humbly suggest that if they hope to attract new clients themselves, they might want to reconsider their approach. If you tell somebody what you can do for them, and it takes more than 30 seconds, you’d better be offering something no one can refuse. If not, they’ll just nod politely and move on.