I was sitting in a pub minding my own business, watching ja pool game the other evening when someone introduced himself to me.
I must point out that this person was known by my friend playing pool at the pub. But my friend didn’t tell me about this person.
As soon as I reciprocated the introduction, this stranger launched into what books I like reading and asked me to name my number one book.
I immediately felt uneasy talking to this stranger. I only mentioned a few books I read that most people will be familiar with anyway. I wasn’t going to tell him what I really like.
Then he asked me what do I do. That inevitable question that people who don’t know you have got to ask but have no right anyway to ask you.
So to make light of the situation I told him I was doing nothing at the moment but was considering joining the Night Watch. I said I would be approaching Commander Vimes soon.
He grudgingly acknowledged knowing about Terry Pratchett.
He quickly went into a whole personal story about himself that was excruciatingly boring and hardly believable.
It’s completely predictable behaviour from the self-centred, narcissistic humanoids who have been nurtured and encouraged by flakebook — and think this is the way to speak and write.
Not once did he ask me any questions or even ask whether his story was interesting to me. No, he had to carry on and on and on boring me to death.
Someone once told me that the height of manners is to speak three sentences and then shut up. That lets the other person talk.
I mean it’s so easy to read the face of the person you are talking to and realise that they are hardly interested in what you’re telling them. It’s even harder with writing because you don’t see the face of the person reading.
Fortunately there was some distraction from someone and he dropped the conversation with me and left.
Haven’t you had the same feeling of dread when reading deadly dull introductions in sales copy, emails, blog post, proposals, reports and even web content?
It’s as if the writers of this drivel all read the same Xspurts on how to write or don’t know any better.
Sure, I’ll read a sales message but as long as it’s interesting and has some value in it – even if it merely alerts me to a service I didn’t know existed.
When I help people with their business writing I help make their introductions interesting and easy to read.
This is no easy task because grabbing people’s attention these days is difficult. Most people are distracted. They have become scanners of screen text. They are bombarded by messages.
I also show them simple ways on how to avoid boring the reader to death.
It’s important to get your message read.
Of course not everyone is going to read your message whether it’s in the form of an email, business report, proposal or web copy.
But you do want to reach those people who can make a difference to your career or business.
Business writing is not something you can learn from a book or Google. As a friend said to me the other day, google can’t fix your burst geezer. You have to get someone who can.
You can get assistance to make your business writing better and more effective (I’ll show you how).
Most writers of business messages never succeed because they don’t understand what’s behind persuasive writing — there are things you must understand to beat the odds.
