Like Rudy Giuliani, I make an effort to be direct and to the point. It saves time and I think you should let colleagues know where you stand. I know it sometimes makes people uncomfortable, but I believe in being up front and honest rather than hiding behind niceties and not speaking my mind. It certainly cuts down on miscommunication. I prefer working with people who are direct, and it is a personality trait of a good marketer. Being able to express yourself clearly and persuasively is what marketing is all about anyway.
I have a group of friends and former colleagues in marketing who I bounce ideas off when I am looking for input. They always give me good feedback, and the best marketing people I have known are frank, honest and not always looking to spare feelings. If you want to be successful in marketing, you better have a thick skin. The bad marketers I have known are mealy mouth corporate survivors, who rarely say anything of substance. They are also masters at repeating other’s ideas as their own. As a service to Think Tank readers here is a guide for translating business weasel phrases during those painful conference calls and meetings.
Term - “ThinkTank Translation”
1. We can divide and conquer - “Please do my work for me”
2. We need an off-site meeting - ”Let’s stick our head in the sand somewhere else and have a dinner on the company”
3. Special Projects - “It’s cheaper to keep him around for a while, also see #15″
4. He’s not Strategic - “He’s not smart”
5. She’s more Strategic - “She can’t get things done”
6. I don’t have the bandwidth - “I don’t feel like doing it”
7. Let’s take it off line - “Pipe down until we are off this call”
8. Please take ownership of this - “Take it off my plate, it’s not of interest to the boss anymore”
9. Let’s form a task force - “I need some ideas I can steal”
10. We don’t have enough marketing suppot - “Need a scapegoat for bad sales”
11. Revenue is down year over year - “We have a product no one wants”
12. It’s a good thing - “Someone got screwed and it’s not me”
13. We need a new branding campaign - “I can blame the last guy for a while”
14. It needs more white space - “It’s mess, take it down a notch”
15. “Strategic” or “Strategy” in job title - “No longer useful, but friends with the boss”
16. I am working on it - “Have not even started it”
17. Town Hall Meeting - “Propaganda for the masses”
18. Realigning assets - “Swingin’ the ol’ axe”
19. Let’s get back to what we know worked in the past - “I have no new ideas”
20. We need to be entrepreneurial - “No more car service, free drinks or room service”
21. I need you to be a team player - “Sorry, no raise this year”
22. Nice to put a face to the name - “I thought you would be better looking”
23. She presents herself very well - “Babe”
24. My bad - “I screwed up, but using street language makes me cool”
25. It’s not about the money - “It’s always about the money”
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September 30, 2007 at 10:24 pm
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September 27, 2007 at 6:27 pm
Tracey Passuello
You forgot a few:
1) Let me frame it out - “By the blank stare you are giving me I figured out that you didn’t understand a word I said so maybe I need to stop throwing every buzz word I know out and actually speak english”
2) What’s our play? - “I have no idea what to do in this area so you better figure it out”
3) It goes in the bucket - “I have no idea how to do this task so I will put it into a file and pray it goes away”
4) It’s time to flip the model - “damn if I know what to do”
xoxo
September 27, 2007 at 7:58 pm
Laura Mastroberti
Some other faves are:
“we need to think economies of scale” = less money, more work
“This is going to be so much fun” = fun for me because I don’t have to do it, you do.
“I think you’re on the right track” = you missed it by a mile; try again.