The other day I went to rent a car. The person asked me, “Do you want LDW, PAI, and SLP?” It sounded like I was attacked by the alphabet. I've rented cars before and I've never heard of those things so I asked what they were.
The person behind the counter blinked for a minute then had to dissect in his mind what each one stood for. He did eventually tell me. One was loss damage waiver, I don't remember what the other ones were (and it doesn't matter)… basically the insurances on the car.
Unfortunately, because I didn't understand what LDW/PAI/SLP were, I had to cut him off in the middle of his sales pitch to find out. (After all, I didn't want to buy them without knowing what they were). My cutting him off in the middle of his pitch threw him off his stride. He did try to regain it but couldn't get back into the swing.
Listen carefully to your pitch and to your employees' pitches. Make sure they aren't peppered with industry jargon no one understands. Identify the areas where they are and find ways to rephrase them. This rental counter agent could have kept in stride by just referring to it as “insurance.”
