The companies that lose on price are usually not worse. They are usually harder to understand.
That sounds like a small problem. It is not, and here is where it actually costs money.
The person who decides is not the person you talk to
On a plant floor, in a shop, on a job site, you are talking to people who know the work. Everybody in the room shares a vocabulary and the conversation is efficient.
Then the decision goes somewhere else.
A CFO. A procurement lead. A facilities director. On institutional and healthcare work, a selection committee that includes somebody who has never built anything in their life.
That person still gets a vote. And if they cannot follow what makes you different, they default to the number, because the number is the one thing on the page they understand completely.
What this looks like in practice
A warehouse automation company we worked with could describe what they do perfectly to another engineer. In a conference room with a client's leadership team, it did not land.
The problem was not the technology. It was that the explanation required knowing things the audience did not know.
We made a case study video about a five times output increase for one of their clients. There is not a word of industry jargon in it. It works because somebody who has never set foot in a distribution center can follow the whole thing.
The question that fixes it
We ask people to explain it the way they would to a fifth grader.
Not because the buyer is simple. Because a busy person who cannot follow something stops listening, and they will not tell you that is what happened.
The question does something specific. It gets somebody out of the language they use at work and into the language they would use at a dinner table.
That second version is almost always clearer, and it is almost always more interesting. It is also why we do not hand anyone a script.
What people get wrong about this
It is not dumbing it down. The fifth grader version is usually more accurate, not less. Jargon lets people be vague. Plain language does not.
It is not for the customer's benefit. It is for yours. A buyer who understands you can advocate for you internally. A buyer who does not, cannot.
Your competitors have the same problem. That is the opportunity. Everybody in your industry sounds like your industry. Being the one company a non expert can follow is a real advantage and almost nobody takes it.
Where it shows up
A proposal that reads like a spec sheet.
A website that lists capabilities instead of explaining what they mean.
A sales conversation that goes well with the technical contact and dies when it moves up.
A trade show booth where people nod and walk away.
All the same problem.
Short version
You lose to people who explain it worse, not people who do it worse.
The person who decides is often not the person who understands the work.
If they cannot follow it, they default to price.
Explain it like you would to a fifth grader. That version is usually more accurate, not less.
Everybody in your industry has this problem, which is exactly why fixing it separates you.
We make documentary style video for manufacturing and construction companies across Greensboro and the Triad. Happy to come to you.
Dylan Smith is the owner of With A Twist Media in Greensboro, NC. He has been making documentary style video for manufacturing and construction companies across the Triad since 2019.