Attention PR people: Please speak like human beings

I recently had an exchange with an agency PR person pitching me about their client: Esker. The PR person wanted me to write a profile of an Esker employee for one of my EContent Magazine columns.

As much as I tried, I just couldn't figure out what Esker does.

So I ask: Is it just me? Am I thickheaded? I've included parts of the conversation here:

Agency PR person: "In case you're not familiar, Esker is the global business document delivery company. Their flagship products are DeliveryWare, a comprehensive electronic document management platform that automates information delivery quickly and accurately, and FlyDoc, a web-based, hosted document delivery service."

Huh?

Me: "Can you please tell me what 'comprehensive electronic document management platform that automates information delivery' means?? What problems does Esker solve for clients and how do they use technology to do it?"

Agency PR person: "In response to your question, in a nutshell, Esker helps organizations simplify their business processes. Their customers save time and money-- by keeping documents electronic, companies are able to streamline processes, simplify their IT infrastructure, and increase productivity. The need to run back and forth from your desk to a printer, stand by the fax machine or stuff and label envelopes is eliminated. Other common problems that organizations experience related to their business communication — manual handling errors, increasing IT complexity, slow processes, high postage costs and competitive pressures are handled."

I still wasn’t sure exactly what Esker does or what problems they solve for clients.

I went to the Esker site and found this: "Esker enables organizations to realize all the business advantages and financial benefits of effective document management through intelligent delivery of vital business information. Esker’s customers benefit from streamlined business processes, reduced costs, simplified IT infrastructure, enhanced customer satisfaction, and quality assurance."

Ugh.

I actually agreed to an interview with someone from Esker, partly because I wanted to get to the bottom of this mystery. The PR person was also on the call. Guess what? After a half hour on the telephone, I still don’t know what the company does!

Yikes.

Attention PR people: Please eliminate the gobbledygook and try to speak like human beings. If your mother doesn't know what the company does, neither will the media that you are trying to pitch.

Note: It will be interesting to see if a representative from Esker's PR agency jumps in and comments to let us know what the company does (in English).

Comments

[Eric Eggertson]

Most administration managers or IT managers know what a document management system is, so I don't think the jargon will get in the way of communicating with their target market.

But companies like this should realize that they benefit from having a clear message that people outside the inner circle can understand.

Most major sales decisions have to also pass through a senior management team. The clearer your language, the better that group understands the value of investing in your products and services.

[David Meerman Scott]

Thank you for the comment Eric. I agree with you that many IT people will understand the market category of product. And I also agree with you that for big IT purchases other departments and the management team gets involved.

Consider this. The wikipedia entry for "document management system" is 890 words. This is not a simple category so merely saying that the company is a document management system supplier doesn't explain what the product does effectively or detail what the specialization aspects are.

It is also important for companies to remember their other constituencies -- media, analysts, employees, partners, suppliers, and so on. These groups should not have to dry to decipher gobbledygook.

[Eric Eggertson]

Jargon is like cocaine. It makes the user feel smart and unbeatable. It's a hard crutch to give up.

Once you get people to buy into using language that people can understand, they're grateful for any suggestions on language changes. Until then, I've found they are very defensive about their jargon. Just look at how the social media enthusiasts refer to RSS feeds and so on...

[Dee Rambeau]

I love that Eric! Jargon is like cocaine...never quite heard it put like that.

I've been on a few demos of our software recently where I've had the super-smarty-pants-I'm-the-smartest-guy-in-the-room say, "well what would the advantage of your platform be over our turwiddlydoo proprietary meat-powered mansuit solution?"

And I want to respond very succintly and say, "because yours fucking sucks and our fucking rocks!"