Selling words What's Gove got to do with it ? Mind your language

The *research published by the social mobility and child poverty commission recently found that old-fashioned snobbery about accents and mannerisms was being used by the top 13 elite law, accountancy and financial companies who between them appoint 45,000 of the best jobs in the country to filter out working-class candidates and favour the privileged.

 It found that 70% of jobs offered by those firms in 2014 went to applicants from private or selective schools, even though such schools only educate around 11% of the population.

Salespeople have to be pragmatic -to deal with and  deal in the world as it is.

 What we know as salespeople, is everyday we can be "filtered out" in the early stages of our in our bids to be appointed as a supplier:-

•  by the way we look ,
•  the way we sound
•  and the way we express ourselves.

How we care to communicate and how a customer wishes us to communicate are seldom  aligned.

We know first impressions count. This is not restricted to face time.

Often in Selling it is in the written copy of an ad, a letter or an email we can be filtered out by  the buyer. 

The new Lord Chancellor –Michael Gove was asked recently by his civil servants his preferences in communication. 

He then sent out a reply ( directive)  which has not been overwhelmingly well received

“It’s slightly patronising,” said a one Whitehall source. “It does feel like the sort of thing someone would do when they have too much time on their hands.” 

This source clearly did not appreciate the feedback from his boss. Be that as it may , we must work in the world as it is set by the buyer.

English  is constantly changing and developing but there are rules and some folk like Mr Gove are sticklers for well written English.

 He was a journalist and sometime editor of the London Times. At Lady Margaret Hall College he read ( studied) English.  He held the position of Minister for Education and now heads up the Ministry for Justice.

Well what are his requirements for written communication ?

 If you had to sell to  Michael Gove or his ilk , what do they look for ?  Here are his requirements:-

The Lord Chancellor has also told officials that they must not start a sentence with “However”

The phrases best-placed and high-quality are joined with a dash, very few others are.

“Unnecessary” capitalisations and the word “ensure”, which his civil servants must always replace with “make sure”.

“If in doubt, cut it out”

“In letters, adjectives add little, adverbs even less”;

Gove's golden rules

In correspondence, civil servants must make sure they have:

1.     Don’t write  “I am sorry to hear”, but “I am sorry to read” instead.

2.     Not written “however” at the beginning of a sentence (or any words such as “therefore”, “yet”, “also”, “although”), but put it after the verb: “There are, however, many options”.

3.     Don’t use  “doesn’t”, “don’t”, “aren’t”, and so on, but spelt out both words.

4.     Taken a warm tone and been very gracious in thanking people for their letters.

5.     Used the active voice and the present tense as much as possible: e.g., “We are doing this”; “My department provides guidance”; “The evidence shows that…”.

6.     Even if the view is an opposing one, acknowledged the arguments while not yielding on the substance.

7.     Avoided “this” and “it” on their own, trying to write exactly what they are referring to in correspondence.

8.     Avoid being repetitive.

9.     Not used anything too pompous.

10.   Not written that they “met with” someone (just “met”)

Good selling to those who have to sell to the Grammar Sticklers. I hope the  tips above help you from being filtered out !

Good selling

Related Links:-

Selling the comma down the river

Phonics Phonies and sales jargon

Grammar rapping and like modern business communication


*A qualitative evaluation of non-educational barriers to the elite professions (Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission)  pdf