7/16/2006
Marketing Expert Says ‘Small’ Writing Errors Can Cost Corporations ‘Big’
| Up to 10% of a business’s annual sales are lost due to miscommunications from bad writing, says Allison Nazarian, President of Get It In Writing, Inc. “At my company, our slogan is ‘Words mean business.’ It’s never been more profound. Bad writing is more than ugly; it’s so costly and bad for business,” Nazarian explains. In the public sector, as well, nearly a quarter of a billion dollars is spent annually on remedial writing instruction for employees, meaning that sloppy writing costs taxpayers as well. According to Nazarian, most executives don’t stop to think about the many ways in which bad writing costs corporations and the public sector big dollars. She outlines some of them here:
How does Nazarian recommend workers improve their writing? “When writing something, mentally give yourself the ‘elevator speech.’ In other words, practice what you want to say in 60 seconds or less, then write it down just as succinctly. In business communications, employees from all parts of a company need to create tighter copy. The business world doesn’t have time for unnecessarily bloated writing.” Nazarian also recommends on-site training to improve employee writing. “There are many writing coaches out there who will spend a couple of hours training your employees the right way to communicate in writing. No matter what you’re spending on that training, it will be less than the impact on your company’s bottom line from writing errors.”
|
