I consider business jargon an infectious disease spreading unchecked through business communications, making many Web sites, presentations, brochures and customer proposals weak and sickly.

What is business jargon? Words and expressions that have no meaning because they are exaggerations, unsubstantiated claims, or tired cliches. They’re often associated with a particular industry or technology; any normal person running across them will say “huh?”

Scott Berkun wrote an article called “Why Jargon Feeds on Lazy Minds.” It includes a list of words he says should be banned:

• Breakthrough
• Transformative
• Next-generation
• Seamless
• Game-changing
• Ideation
• Disruptive
• Incentivize
• Innovation Infrastructure
• Customer-centric
• Radical

There are dozens of others that could be added to the list: scalable, comprehensive control, unparalleled productivity, world-class, paradigm shift . . . but why go on giving vocabulary ideas to lazy writers?

The Jargon Safety Net

Berkun says that marketers and managers use jargon because it’s safe. No one challenges them on what these words and expressions mean. That’s because either 1) no one knows what they mean, or 2) they’re so embedded in business communication that everyone expects to see them and becomes uncomfortable if they don’t appear. You mean your product isn’t scalable? It’s not breakthrough? You don’t offer seamless service? Forget it. Let me find a vendor that can meet my needs. As if.

The Way to Beat Jargon

It’s easy to condemn jargon, to poke fun at buzzwords. What’s more challenging is getting rid of it and replacing those words and phrases with real meaning. Try coming up with an alternative way to say ’seamless’ or ’scalable.’ No, don’t look  in the Thesaurus — most of them won’t have an entry for those two words. Not so easy, is it?

The way to beat jargon is to understand the benefit you’re trying to promote and finding a straightforward way of articulating it. For example, organizations can “enjoy unparalleled productivity” and “exercise comprehensive control” by using Salesforce.com, a popular software for managing your customer and prospect database. I’m not picking on Salesforce.com, but I happened to be on their Web site recently. I could have been on almost any other site and found plenty of other examples.

Wouldn’t customers and prospects of Salesforce.com be better served by clearer marketing messages? Instead of enjoying unparalleled productivity is it okay to ”make more calls to customers and prospects every day”? Instead of exercising comprehensive control, is it enough just to ‘control’? And of course each of those benefits would be tied to a reason. For example, (I’m making this part up) you can make more calls because your call list is prioritized automatically and all previous call information is right in front of you.

Not fancy enough? Hah! Ask your customers and prospects who are trying to decipher your fancy marketing writing to figure out if your products and services are a good fit for their needs.

Fight the Bull

For years, I’ve been recommending this great weapon in the battled against jargon. It’s called Bullfighter. You can download it for free and install it in Microsoft Word or PowerPoint and it will check your work for jargon in an irreverent and helpful way. Get it and use it. Or contact Klein Marketing and ask for the “Former English and Writing Teacher Now Turned Maniacal Marketing Expert Waging a Noble Battle to Improve Marketing Communication.”