Jargon is insider language. Every market or niche has some. Many salespeople mistakenly think that if they just master the jargon they can sound smart and that will mark them as someone in the know. However, that is not necessarily true. There are certain pieces of information it is important to know. And not to know the basics would be a mistake. But knowing the basics is far different from intentionally littering your speech with buzz words and acronyms which the prospect may or may not understand. Overuse of buzz words marks you as someone who is trying too hard and more importantly it can make the prospect feel not ok if they do not understand what you are talking about. You lose them as they try to decipher what you meant by that last statement you made. Once they feel not ok, the easiest remedy is to disengage from the conversation or to end the meeting prematurely. At the very least it detracts from your ability to develop a deeper relationship. So the lesson here is to speak simply and use terms common to most people in the industry. Don’t add acronyms and buzz words whose only purpose is to make you appear smarter than you are. Prospects can see through that anyway and it does more harm than good.
