10th July 2008 |

TIUOA - The Indiscriminate Use of Acronyms

People love to use acronyms. Id like to think its because we think so fast we need to condense our speech to compensate, so we use acronyms to speed things up; but I could be wrong. Acronyms are especially rampant in Chat Rooms. If youve been to one, you know how hard it is to understand what people are saying if you dont know acronyms like LOL or BRB.

Fortunatelyor unfortunately, as the case maybethe technical professions are full of them. Maybe its because theyre easier to use or theyre just plain faster to say. Or, maybe its because they help the person using them establish his or her mental superiority. Whatever the reason, our jobs are replete with them and they serve their purposes.

But technical acronyms have a downside as well. Those on the business side of the ledger dont always know what they mean. One company I worked for, had an incredible collection of acronyms, which employees used freely, too freely. They became so ingrained in the organizations culture; they sometimes interfered with customer communications, costing the company business.

If youre in sales, you need to be wary of acronyms. While they have their upsides, they can cost you, if youre not careful when and how you use them.

Lets look at a simple example. A sales engineer delivering a presentation explains how a certain protocol works and how the companys equipment functions with regard to it. He or she understands these acronyms and leverages them in the presentation to speed communication. Thats great, if the sales engineer is talking to the right people. If not, he or she may be cutting his or her own throat.

If your audience is composed of business decision-makers, chances are they may not know what the acronyms represent. More importantly, they may not care. Their main concern during the presentation is finding out whether your product or service solves their problem, whether they knew they had one or not.

So what happens when you use a strange acronym? Theyre either going to ask you what it means or theyre going to try to decipher it. If they ask for its meaning, you may sound smart telling them, but youve interrupted the presentation. If they decide to decipher it, theyre going to stop paying attention while their processors decipher the code. Either way, its not good.

Heres another example. Often, customers refrain from asking about an acronym because theyre intimidated or embarrassed. Theyre not familiar with it but since they didnt ask about it and theyre sitting in the presentation, you automatically assume they know what it means. Communication is blocked. Thats also not good either.

Then theres the question of ambiguity. If you use an acronym and dont explain its meaning, your audience may not be clear about what youre saying.

Take the acronym TLA. It could stand for Three-Letter Acronym or it could stand for Two-Letter Acronym. It could also stand for other things as well. Some of my favorites are

Tax Lien Association
Temporary Living Allowance
Territorial Local Authority
Texas Lawyers Association
Tadpole Liberation Army (my personal favorite)
and many more...

OK, Im exaggerating. Chances are these terms wont come up in a technical sales presentation. But I think you get the idea. So how do you handle acronyms if youre making a technical sales presentation?

Here are my tips

  1. If youre providing a handout, create a section for acronyms.
  2. If youre doing a PowerPoint presentation, explain the acronyms when they come up.
  3. Try gaging your audiences technical knowledge. (If you think your audience has a high level of technical knowledge, avoid explaining the acronym. You dont want to be seen as a babysitter explaining TCP/IP to a more advanced audience.)
  4. If its a company-related acronym or it represents some obscure industry standard, feel free to explain its meaning when it comes up.
  5. Acronyms are a fact of life. Theyre here to stay and we are going to be using them until we start using telepathy to communicate. In the mean time, be careful with acronyms when giving a technical sales presentation. They can cost you.
Now, go sell and remember to keep it light!

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