When most politicians (regardless of party affiliation) are asked about how they propose to solve a specific problem they rarely give specifics. Case-in-point, each of the presidential candidates acknowledges that we must improve on unemployment. Great, we finally have a consensus of opinion.
Moving on with this discussion, neither candidate is laying down any specifics on how
Sales articles are not far behind this concept of minimum specifics. More succinctly, most sales articles will refer to an aspect of the selling process, discuss the importance of that particular activity and, if the reader is fortunate, the author might enumerate with bullet points the items required.
Nowhere is there enough information for most readers to implement what’s being discussed because the specifics and details are noticeably missing. Like the vague politician, these articles leave more to the imagination than is useful for the reader to make informed decisions and/or effectively implement useful action.
In my professional opinion, and as the author of numerous sales articles and training manuals, details and specifics are M.I.A. for one of two reasons (although more might exist if you drill deeper into content). Many authors of sales articles, and many politicians, might not know how to implement and successfully execute their statement.
The sales author might recognize that a sales person needs to close a sale when given an opportunity by the prospect, but the effective details and specifics (scripts, etc.) are beyond the expertise of the writer. In the case of the politician, they may not know how to accomplish their ideas but they know the importance of these ideas.
The second scenario is more likely; the author of sales articles, as with the consummate politician, will not share details for fear of offering too much information. When I author sales articles, I intentionally omit the mechanics to successfully implement my ideas. Those details and specifics are my stock-in-trade. I encourage the reader to communicate with me and engage my services—this is my business, not my hobby. I’m a professional, don’t you kids try this on your own for fear of failure. Not to mention the length of an article necessary to enumerate and properly explain techniques and implementation. Most politicians will deliberately omit details about the plans to solve an issue for fear of being over analyzed, deemed to be incorrect or taken out of context.
With either of these scenarios, the reader or listener will have enough information to be dangerous, but not enough to completely understand specifics of the topic being discussed.
