The guy was standing at a takeaway shop at the airport. He was clearly wanting to order some food… and clearly taking his time to do it.

Eventually he asked, “Do you have a physical menu I can read?”

“No, we don’t. Our full menu is up on the board behind me.”

“Yes, I can see that, but the writing is too small, and the information keeps changing too quickly. I can’t tell what I’ve read and what I haven’t. It’s too hard to take in.”

“I’m sorry sir. That’s all we have.”

And so, he walked away. And took the sale along with him.

I wondered how many customers had walked away from this store because it was just ‘too hard’ to read the menu?

In the search for fancy and fresh communication, we sometimes forget about functional and foundational. We skip the basics of good communication.

The question we always need to come back to is this:

“How does the customer need to hear this?”

Rather than, “What do I need to say?”

If we are not adjusting our style, our channel, our phrasing, to suit our listener, we are making it hard to be heard. And that’s more than a lost sale; it’s the beginning of many lost sales. A sale of ideas, of products, of buy-in, of reputation.

So next time you open your mouth to share a message, persuade a colleague, or convince a customer, ask yourself, “Is this the best way for them to hear this message?”