Did You Say “Dinosaur”? Or, Doing Business in a Way Customers Understand.

In a great old Twilight Zone episode coincidentally named “Wordplay” (the name of my business), a salesman wakes up to find himself in a world where familiar words have suddenly taken on new meanings. In the end, he’s forced to sit down and learn a whole new language, where “dinosaur” means “lunch” and a dog is a “Wednesday.” (Here’s a synopsis.)

This reminds me of what it’s like to work with a new client or start a new job. There’s so much to learn…the players, the lingo, how people interact, the systems and processes — everything that’s familiar to them is new to me. It can feel like everyone is talking jibberish. And it’s easy to see the oddities in the way things are said and done. (Customers have to do what to process an order? What’s this ‘taxonomy’ you keep talking about? You fill out a Z form to get a rebate?)

These early, head-spinning stages  give me the opportunity to help my client see things as the customer might see them. Is some of their language odd or unclear? Is a customer-facing process a little wonky? Did I have a hard time understanding how something was done or why it was done a certain way? I can use my experience as a newbie to help my clients simplify and clarify what they present to the outside world. I try to take note of what seems odd or what I struggled to understand — chances are others less in-the-know struggle with the same thing.

It’s a small window of opportunity, though. Turns out you can teach an old dog new trumpets. Before long, what seemed unclear or odd will be familiar and “the way we’ve always done things” will make  sense. Before that happens, I try to capture my initial impressions and use those insights to improve my work, and ultimately, my client’s work.

What if you’re on the client side of the fence? You have the curse of knowledge, so your challenge is to put yourself in your customers’ shoes. Formal methods like focus groups, surveys, trial runs (just how does someone approach your website for the first time?), and direct marketing tests (half the list gets one version, the other half gets another version) are all good ways to understand your customers. So are informal methods, “Hey Aunt Meg (or Neighbor Sam or Vendor John), what do you think of this? (How would you fill this out? Does this make sense? Where would you start with this?) The answers you get may confirm what you knew all along or throw a bucket of cold reality in your face, but at least you won’t be basing your decisions and actions on assumptions.

Frankly, if you simply recognize that what’s clear to you may not be clear for your customers, you’ll be a lot farther ahead than many businesses. Use the insights of those new to your business — new employees, new customers, new vendors like me — to define a language that everybody can understand.

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His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge.
~ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Does What I Do Matter?

I started reading a new work-related book yesterday on the topic of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The book’s author is highly successful; the book came recommended. Just a few pages into it, though, I was discouraged enough to put it down.

It really started in the third sentence, when the author writes about words, saying : “Spoken effectively, and they can build mighty empires….“

What?

And in the fourth sentence: “Before the ink pen, printing press, typewriter and the Internet came along,….“

What other kind of pen is there? And why the extra “the” before Internet? And how odd the book’s using AP style, with no serial commas (though later, of course, serial commas do occasionally appear).

Why in the next couple paragraphs does it mention “13 billion pages” but spell out “twelve to fourteen years”?

The book’s introduction goes on to explain how the author got involved in SEO and how he just loves writing. In fact, he says, “The one thing I knew I could do and do as well as the best out there, was write.”

Who  am I to disagree? After all, the book is published. People like me are buying it. The author has a successful writing business. And it doesn’t seem to matter one whit that the book is poorly edited and grammatical errors can be found on nearly every page (at least the 15 pages I’ve made it through).

Clearly, what I would have done (dotted every i and crossed every t) and what I bring to the table for my clients (good writing that’s also technically correct) isn’t the key. People are buying this book for the information it imparts about SEO, and maybe the average reader wouldn’t even notice the issues that bother me so much.

So, does what I do really matter?

Does what any “creative professional” does really matter? The graphic designer who brings order and elegance to information? The photographer who fusses over lighting and composition? The layout specialist concerned with kerning and leading and line breaks?

Clearly, creative professionals think it does. But the majority of the world? I’m not so sure.

Will a Web page get more hits if its beautifully designed and edited, or does it only matter that it has a big button “Click Here for Something Free!” or some metatags somewhere?

Painful though it will be, I plan to plow through my SEO book and see. In my head though, and maybe even with my “ink pen,” I’ll be proofreading and editing every step of the way. Because, paycheck aside, what I do at least has to matter to me.

Same for you?

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The books I haven’t written are better than the books other people have.
~ Cyril Connolly

Why Experience Matters…and Doesn’t

Anyone in business knows what it means to compete for customers. You’ve had to put your goods, services, or know-how up against a competitor’s and strive to emerge the winner — the one the customer buys from or the client chooses to work with. Many times, prospects are looking for a vendor with experience doing the same type of project as theirs. But is that really the best evaluation method?

My take is, it’s one evaluation method, but not necessarily the best.

I recently talked with a woman looking to hire a writer to “fix” the copy for a Web site describing her newly organized and unconventional non-profit organization. She found me via a writer colleague of mine, who was too busy to take on this project for her, his longtime client, and recommended me instead.

The potential client wasn’t happy with the copy as it stood. I agreed — I found it not only didn’t clearly explain the new organization, it actually gave me the wrong idea. As I listened to her describe the organization, I asked many questions, trying to zero in on how I would describe it so it would make sense and convey the unique, creative nature of the organization.

The client, gun-shy over having been burned once on the copy, kept expressing her desire to make sure the site had the right voice. That she hired the right writer who “got it.” She seemed uncomfortable with my probing questions, actually saying that many people she described it to just immediately understood what it was all about. (But obviously not the person who wrote the initial copy.) Along the way, she asked to see samples of my work (more than what’s on my Web site) and reiterated that the site needed the “right” writer.

In the end, she decided to let the agency who had designed the site handle the selection of a writer. By that time, I was a bit relieved — the project seemed to be more trouble than the 10 or so hours it would consume.

But it made me think, again, about the value of experience and the importance of “fit” when hiring a writer.  Here’s my take.

1. Ask for recommendations — and believe the people you ask.
   Certainly, you should ask people whose opinions you value whom they would recommend and why they think that person is a good choice.  I believe any writer who comes recommended in such a way could do the job, particularly if both recommender and recommendee have been in business awhile.
2. Ask if the writer has done just what you’re looking for — but don’t be afraid if he or she hasn’t.
   In many ways, commercial writing is a process. The writer studies the subject in advance, asks probing questions, gauges the appropriate tone and feel of the finished piece, produces a draft, and refines it based on feedback from subject matter experts and other reviewers. Whether the topic is product packaging or hedge fund fraud or why-my-law-firm-is-better-than-yours doesn’t matter. When it may matter is if your subject is highly technical or highly industry-specific; then it may make sense to hire a specialist in that area to avoid a steep learning curve. But even then, your subject matter experts can often inject the “insider” perspective your writer may lack, and a good writer will quickly learn the industry and lingo.
3. Most importantly, trust your gut.
   Do you get a good feeling when you talk with the writer? Does he put you at ease that he understands what you’re looking for? Does she come recommended by someone you trust? Is she willing to meet your budget and schedule constraints? Does he ask smart questions that make you think? All of these are likely more important than seeing “your project” reflected in the writer’s portfolio.

My potential client, who decided to let someone else choose her Web site writer for her, probably didn’t get the gut feeling that I was right for the job. And that’s OK. Our interactions also convinced me we weren’t a good fit. Working together may have changed both our minds, or it may have been an exercise in frustration. More than I trust my 20 years of writing experience telling me I could do the job, I trust my40+-year-old  gut telling me it wasn’t meant to be. My advice is to trust yours, too — more important than whether your prospective writer’s experience matches your needs is your gut feeling that he or she is right for the job.

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There is no need for the writer to eat a whole sheep
to be able to tell what mutton tastes like.
It is enough if he eats a cutlet.
~ W. Somerset Maugham