How do we communicate what we do clearly, without jargon?

Jargon is usually a decision not yet made

The marketing essay in the newer book describes where most boutique firms go wrong. They copy the language of their category. They mirror the promises of their competitors. They market features instead of beliefs. They try to be credible without being distinct. It says a point of view is not a slogan, not a tagline and not a claim to be experts, but a belief the market can feel: what you know that others do not, and why it is valuable to the client.

As an inference, jargon fills the space where those decisions should be. A firm that has not decided exactly who it serves writes for everyone, and words like solutions, transformation and partner are the ones that fit everyone. The positioning answer on this site covers the decisions; this page covers the words that follow from them.

Say three things, in this order

The go-to-market chapter of the 2020 book asks whether it is obvious to prospects who you serve and how you serve them, and whether it is obvious why you are the best at what you do. It defines value proposition messaging as explaining how a client moves from the problematic status quo to an opportunity-filled future. The marketing essay lists the questions a value proposition must answer: what outcomes matter most to your ideal client, what it costs not to solve the problem, and why now is the moment to act.

As an inference, a plain description of a boutique has three parts. Who you help, named as a role in a kind of organization rather than as businesses. The problem they have, in the words they would use. What is different for them after working with you, ideally with a number. Anything that does not serve one of those three can usually go.

Use the words your clients use

The account executive essay says buyer conversations are now recorded and transcribed, and that the actual voice of the buyer can be captured at scale for the first time. The marketing essay lists, among the work AI should do, detecting recurring buyer language, objections, trigger events and decision criteria, and exploring and testing message variations for clarity.

As an inference, the best source of plain language is your own recordings. Collect how clients describe their problem before they hire you, and how they describe the result afterward. Their phrases are usually shorter and more concrete than yours, and they are already the words the next buyer will search for.

Cut what a competitor could say

The marketing essay says boutiques win by being different in a way that matters and by being able to explain that difference clearly, and that in a world where AI lets everyone produce content, the market will not reward more, it will reward different. It warns that a firm that is not distinct will only use AI to produce generic faster.

As an inference, a simple test works well: read each sentence and ask whether your closest competitor could put it on their website unchanged. If they could, it is not telling the buyer anything. Replace it with something only you can say, such as a specific client type, a method with a name, a result with a number, or a belief your competitors do not share.

Replace adjectives with evidence

The marketing essay lists evidence strategy among the core tasks: in a high-trust sale, proof matters, and the firm should design credibility through what it shows, what it measures, what it publishes and what signals it sends that it is the safe choice. As an inference, most jargon is adjectives standing in for evidence: leading, innovative, proven, strategic. Each one can usually be replaced by something a buyer can check, such as the number of firms like theirs you have served, a typical result, a short example of an engagement, or the name of your method and what it does. Evidence is clearer than any description of yourself.

Make it easy to repeat

The referral essay says referrers often fail to refer not because they are unwilling but because they are unclear, and that the firm should give them concise, credible success stories, outcomes translated into language they can use, and ready-to-use descriptions of what the firm does best. The marketing essay says positioning should clarify what makes the firm different in a way buyers can repeat.

As an inference, the real test of clarity is not whether a prospect understands you on your website. It is whether a client can explain you in one sentence to a peer at dinner, and get it right. If they cannot, simplify until they can.

Tell one story across the firm

The marketing essay calls for one story told consistently by everyone: founder, sellers, delivery leaders and even clients. It lists internal alignment among the core marketing tasks, so that everyone can tell the same story, defend the same point of view and explain the same value without improvising, and it gives AI the job of enforcing consistency so the language of the firm does not drift as different people say it their own way.

As an inference, write the three-part description down, test it with a few clients, and give it to everyone who talks to buyers. Check new proposals and pages against it.

Plain is not the same as simple-minded

The account executive essay says buyers of services are purchasing expertise they cannot fully evaluate in advance and must be able to justify the decision internally. As an inference, plain language helps on both counts: it shows you understand their problem, and it gives your contact words they can use with their own leadership. Technical terms are fine where the buyer uses them too; the problem is language the buyer has to translate.

What we do not prescribe

Collective 54 publishes no messaging template, word list or reading level target. The published positions are firms copying category language and marketing features instead of beliefs, a point of view as more than a slogan or a claim to be experts, messaging as a language system rather than copywriting, one story told consistently, the value proposition questions, the go-to-market tests of who you serve and why you are best, AI detecting buyer language and testing clarity, referrers held back by unclarity, and the market rewarding different rather than more.

When this answer flips

If your buyers are technical specialists, as an inference, their own technical terms are plain language to them; use their vocabulary, not a simplified one.

If you cannot describe who you serve in a sentence, the problem is positioning, not wording; start there.

And if you sell several unrelated services, one description will not cover them all, which may be a sign the portfolio needs focus.

The short answer

Say who you help, the problem they have and what changes for them, in that order, in the words your clients use. The marketing essay says most boutiques copy their category, mirror competitors and claim to be experts instead of saying what they believe, and that messaging is a shared language, not copywriting. Pull client language from recorded calls, cut any sentence a competitor could use unchanged, and test whether a client can explain you to a peer in one sentence. Then make it the one story everyone in the firm tells.