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Unfortunately is a bad word
By Charles Martin | September 23, 2008
When you’ve got bad news, the best way to keep your audience interested is not to condescend or minimize the pain that they might be feeling after your delivery of that news.
Bankers love the phrase “unfortunately”. If anything goes wrong, isn’t going to go your way, they say something so stupid — it’s “unfortunately that” and “unfortunately this”. I’ve watched friends in banking be trained to use this word as a minimizer and disarmer. It’s overused and in this crisis it’s really sad. If they really thought it was unfortunate, it would be honest, but most of them don’t have an investment in your future.
Now it’s unfortunately we screwed up and need $700 Billion.
Step up bankers and tell the truth. You surely want us to care your butt is in the crack because your institution is on the brink of collapse and you surely don’t give a rat’s butt that mine might go down with you. Just be honest — “dear customer — the credit crunch and all the millions we played roulette with in the past has caught up with us. Let’s just take a breather from our binge and talk a bit later…” They blame bad mortgages which the HH agrees are part and parcel reasons for this problem. But it always takes two to tango.
The poor sap who hasn’t been able to pay his triple-rate variable is as responsible as the bank. But I’m in sales people — it’s very hard not to have your brow sweat with pleasure when a prospect signs the line without reading the fine print and assessing all the what-ifs. I’ve lost sales because I’ve disclosed the truths.
Many bankers did not.
Topics: Big biz | No Comments »