Already you’re either offended, disgusted, or shocked, and we’ve only just begun.

But what are you going to do?  Call up the owner of CharTec and demand this blog be amended. IMMEDIATELY!

Or maybe, you’d like to applaud this written work.  CharTec refuses to fall prey to a society pressured by the movement of political correctness!  …you got all that from the title?  Impressive.  Maybe you’re the one that needs to be applauded. 

Either way, there really is no point.  The damage is done, and you’ve already been subjected to the immense psychological damage brought upon by a seven-letter curse word.  CharTec has forever stained your soul.

But why is this?  Take away those seven letters and all you have is a very weak sentence that reads, “That sofa is comfortable.”  Does this sentence still make you want to run for the pitchforks and torches?  Probably not.  Or have you stopped really reading this blog because you’re still hung up on the title?

However, for the rest of you actually reading and not entirely offended, let’s continue…

Steven Pinker, author, scientist, psychologist, and linguist, calls this phenomenon the language of swearing, and it’s just one way language is used and experienced as a window into human nature.

We, as humans, use language to give space to our prepositions, matter to our nouns, time to our tenses, and causality to our verbs, which is all drastically different from what space, matter, time, and causality actually are with regards to the true theory of physics.

What we say and write is confusing, jumbled, and disorienting, which is why Pinker says we can claim to be filling out a form by filling it in or that a house is burning up as it burns down or that we say it’s after dark although, in all actuality, it’s really after light.  None of it makes sense (like why a curse word is considered a curse word or why they invoke such dramatic reactions), but every piece of it has a definite and pointed impact on the person saying it and the person hearing it.

So how does this apply to you as a business owner or as an MSP provider?

When marketing your business or selling your solutions, you can use the power of human language to your advantage—to evoke emotion, to force people to remember you, and to persuade people to buy from you.  But this doesn’t mean you should throw an F-bomb into everything you do—it also means there’s no reason you shouldn’t occasionally include a well-placed curse word.

A great majority of companies we come into contact with are so afraid to invoke the wrong reaction that they settle for something very unremarkable.  As a result, their efforts are unsuccessful.  They waste money and time and for what?  To look wishy-washy and weak to their potential prospects?  To come across as insipid and bland?  You don’t want that.

So, here’s what we recommend whenever writing or selling:

Be strategic.

Like a political candidate make sure that everything you say and write ties in with each other.  You should always have the same message even if the tone changes.

Be mindful.

Know who your target audience is and use this as an indicator of tone, style, and sophistication.

Be interesting.

Invoke some sort of reaction.  This is where you should be ‘interesting’ as compared to ‘interested’.  Make sure whatever you say or do does something to whoever it is you’re communicating with.

Be smart enough.

No matter who it is, no one likes to read work that is grammatically incorrect or listen to someone who sounds like they snorted Honey Nut Cheerios for breakfast.  But only be smart enough—equal to or one step above your intended target audience.

Be nice.

Don’t unintentionally insult or belittle your leads, which is surprisingly easy to do when you want to aggressively sell your solutions.  This doesn’t mean you have to be nice about everything, though…

Be strong.

This is probably one of the most important tips.  If you don’t come across with a strong message, you’ll come across as a weak company.  People will naturally relate your weak company to a weak product.  Something like this is hard to overcome.