TIUOA - The Indiscriminate Use of Acronyms

Persons adore to use acronyms. I'd prefer to believe it's mainly because we think so rapid we have to have to condense our speech to compensate, so we use acronyms to speed points up; but I may very well be incorrect. acronym are especially rampant in Chat Rooms. If you have been to a single, you understand how challenging it really is to know what people are saying when you never know acronyms like LOL or BRB.

Fortunately--or sadly, because the case maybe--the technical professions are filled with them. Maybe it is since they are less difficult to work with or they're just plain faster to say. Or, perhaps it is due to the fact they support the individual utilizing them establish his or her mental superiority. What ever the cause, our jobs are replete with them and they serve their purposes.

But technical acronyms possess a downside at the same time. Those on the small business side with the ledger do not constantly know what they mean. A single enterprise I worked for, had an extraordinary collection of acronyms, which workers applied freely, also freely. They became so ingrained in the organization's culture; they sometimes interfered with buyer communications, costing the company organization.

If you're in sales, you must be wary of acronyms. When they've their upsides, they can expense you, if you're not cautious when and how you use them.

Let's look at a easy example. A sales engineer delivering a presentation explains how a particular protocol functions and how the company's equipment functions with regard to it. He or she understands these acronyms and leverages them within the presentation to speed communication. That is excellent, when the sales engineer is speaking for the right individuals. If not, he or she could possibly be cutting their personal throat.

In case your audience is composed of small business decision-makers, chances are they may not know what the acronyms represent. Much more importantly, they may not care. Their primary concern during the presentation is finding out whether your item or service solves their issue, irrespective of whether they knew they had a single or not.

So what occurs once you use a strange acronym? They are either going to ask you what it implies or they're going to endeavor to decipher it. If they ask for its meaning, you could sound wise telling them, but you have interrupted the presentation. If they choose to decipher it, they're going to stop paying focus although their processors decipher "the code." Either way, it is not very good.

Here's yet another example. Normally, customers refrain from asking about an acronym simply because they are intimidated or embarrassed. They are not acquainted with it but considering that they didn't ask about it and they are sitting in the presentation, you automatically assume they know what it implies. Communication is blocked. That's also not great either.

Then there is the question of ambiguity. In the event you use an acronym and do not explain its which means, your audience may not be clear about what you happen to be 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 items also. Some of my favorites are

o Tax Lien Association

o Short-term Living Allowance

o Territorial Regional Authority

o Texas Lawyers Association

o Tadpole Liberation Army (my private favored)

and a lot of extra...

OK, I am exaggerating. Odds are these terms will not come up within a technical sales presentation. But I assume you get the concept. So how do you deal with acronyms if you are making a technical sales presentation?

Listed below are my recommendations...

If you are delivering a handout, develop a section for acronyms.
If you're carrying out a PowerPoint presentation, explain the stand for once they come up.
Attempt gaging your audience's technical knowledge. (When you believe your audience has a higher degree of technical knowledge, avoid explaining the acronym. You do not choose to be noticed as a babysitter explaining TCP/IP to a far more sophisticated audience.)
If it's a company-related acronym or it represents some obscure sector regular, feel absolutely free to clarify its which means when it comes up.
Acronyms are a truth of life. They are here to remain and we are going to become applying them until we start making use of telepathy to communicate. Inside the mean time, be careful with acronyms when giving a technical sales presentation. They could expense you.