Communicate value clearly

"Bruno, what do you think about our value proposition?"

I clicked on the link that was included with a request. It opened a nice looking web page. Cool design, pleasant colours, nice typography. Visually, the text look all right—benefits in bullets points, accentuated problems, a little bit of technical speak.

But it all fell apart once I started reading.

"What does this mean?"

I wondered at least seven times. Abbreviations and acronyms were littered all over the place. I looked all over the web page, desperately seeking their meaning. Sure, for some of them I could reasonably deduce what they mean from the context, but for others I was stupefied.

When I failed to find what these mean on the product's web site, I began searching online. Finally, I found all acronyms on Wikipedia. Wow. Now, since I am not a target customer, I thought that perhaps these short form expressions might be something so mundane that everyone in the field knows them.

I called a friend of mine, who actually is in that field, and asked him to look over.

"Bruno, I have no idea what half of these mean. Really."

It doesn't matter how great the value we can provide is if no one understands it. Two easiest, and quickest, ways to achieve that is to use plain language and customers' own words.