How that MBA Gets in the Way of Writing Well
I had only been writing professionally a few years, so this was nearly 30 years ago, when an MBA graduate approached me and argued that a semicolon should always precede the use of the word “however” – always. He had learned that nugget in his business writing class and tucked it away as an axiom to write by. Never mind that the single business writing class he took his senior undergraduate year could be taught by most English majors by the end of their sophomore year. He was confident that he had mastered the craft and would only need to hire writers to distribute workloads. He would be the business manager – and I’ve met a few – who asks a professional writer how fast they type.
With the exception of communications or English majors, nearly everyone I know with an MBA took a single college writing class near the end of their undergraduate studies. They learned “rules” about writing, crammed into one semester of their only formal exposure to the craft. Many left business school believing that they as good at writing as they would ever need to be. After all, they had written papers for their business classes. Those papers, however, were often read by grad students who took the same writing classes and were grading on business acumen and not writing quality. After six years in an eco-chamber of business-focused academia, they entered the world of business ready to gift their content to the world.
These would-be business writers often start by crafting complex messaging designed to distill the value points of the target market. They focus the messaging on precision and differentiation – both to be applauded. This messaging is often highlighted by complex value statements that would both amaze and baffle the reader. They then bestow that messaging on their would-be customers, never realizing that the messaging was an internal exercise for clarity of thought that wasn’t even close to being ready for public consumption. What they have in their messaging are just ingredients for content – not reader-worthy content.
When the aspiring writers hear quips like “tell your value story,” they press on – churning out data-riddled statements just as they saw in business school. They choose and recite stats and metrics meant to impress the reader with value. Unfortunately, just as the reader couldn’t decipher the value in the complex value statements from the messaging, they also cannot build their own meaningful story from the impressive stats and metrics. The reader might not have the business acumen to put the data into context, or even if the reader has that MBA acumen, they don’t yet have a reason to care.
Not to be deterred, business-savvy communicators continue boldly forward at their keyboards bestowing on their still-uninvested readers carefully crafted feature and benefit statements. They go on at length about how their product or service improves, solves, or ameliorates the reader’s business or life challenges. Like the value statements in the messaging, these benefit statements are complex nuggets of precision and differentiation. Unraveling them requires effort – effort only exerted by an invested reader.
To make sure the reader has the opportunity to become a customer, the up-and-coming writers add a boiler plate call to action (CTA). The CTA is usually a request to call a phone number, fill-out a form, or visit a website. Each of these CTAs are designed to hold onto the lead – another metric – while none of them provide the reader with guidance on how to become more prepared to receive a solution.
When all the messaging, metrics, benefits, and CTAs for a good service or product fall flat, the fault lies in the writing. In most content pushed out into the market by people with a focus on business, the arts of writing empathetic situations, putting connection before promotion, or engaging rhetorical patterns of persuasion are completely absent. The writers may have gone to great lengths to check all the boxes for the search engines, which get eyeballs on their content, but they have completely ignored the elements of good writing. Good writing not only keeps people reading; in marketing, it persuades them to do something because of what they’ve read.
Like all complex endeavors, writing is a craft that must be honed. Like golf or skiing or fine cooking, writing isn’t reserved to professionals only. Just because you have great business acumen, doesn’t mean you can’t also have a great golf game. But you need to spend time formally perfecting the craft. Learn about writing. Read books on writing. Find out how writers represent reality and how they draw readers into caring about the outcome of a story. Practice writing well and even get coaching. Looking for help with your writing means you take your relationship with the reader seriously and want to frame your ideas in a meaningful way. Many of the people I’ve worked with are brilliant within their specialty and simply need guidance organizing and framing that brilliance for the reader.
If I could leave business managers and leaders with just one morsel of usable knowledge about writing, it’s this. You don’t know what you don’t know until you start actively working to find out. Even if you hone your writing and still hand off final copywriting and content creation to professional writers, you can know for yourself if what you receive back is well written. And you will have much better questions to ask professional writers than how fast they type.
About
When he isn’t trying to perfect his golf game or ski just a little bit better, Bob Shawgo runs a consulting and coaching business, Shawgo Group. He brings over 30 years of copywriting, content creation, and marketing leadership to his coaching and workshop sessions.