Why business people speak like idiots

Obviously not ALL business people speak like idiots. But at a recent The Business Marketing Club (BMC) event I got chatting with some other marketers about why so much B2B writing is stuffed with jargon that people wouldn’t use in everyday life.

My theory is it mainly comes down to two things. 

One is a misplaced sense of professionalism. (“People won’t take me seriously if I say ‘do’ instead of ‘deploy’.”) 

The other is deflection – making up for a lack of genuine understanding of a topic by glossing over it with fancy words. After all, who can disagree with a sentence if they have no clue what it means?

I posted about it on LinkedIn and got some interesting takes in the comments from other B2Bers.

In the meantime, I'm looking forward to dipping into this book which was recommended by one of my fellow BMC members.