Why Spelling Matters in Sales

When my daughter attended a local school in Pune, India, we heard from several of her teachers that they were concerned that her “writing is poor.”  Eventually we figured out that what they really meant was that her handwriting was poor – it didn’t live up to the standards for beautiful, flowing, precise handwriting that are expected of every Indian student who seeks to pass the Indian board exams.  Since we intended to return to the US and our daughter would not be taking the Indian boards, this was not a concern for us.  But that didn’t mean her teachers weren’t influenced by her handwriting; good handwriting is a key requirement for Indian students, so it’s one sign that Indian teachers use to evaluate the quality and commitment of their students, and it was clear that their perception of her as a student was influenced by her American scribble.

Why am I bringing this up? There’s an analogy here with spelling and grammatical errors in business emails and presentations for American clients.  One element in how prospective clients form an opinion of individuals and the companies they represent is the quality of their written communications.  If English is not your first language or if, like Indians, your English usage is different than American English usage, your written communications are likely to have more spelling and grammatical errors than those of your peers who grew up in the United States.  It’s neither logical nor fair to evaluate the quality of your business offerings on the basis of your spelling, but it still influences how your American clients perceive you, even when they don’t think it should.  A recent Wall Street Journal article noted that “Spelling and grammatical errors indicate a lack of professionalism that can get in the way of your success.”

How do spelling and grammatical errors influence your American prospects?  Unfortunately, it gives them exactly the kind of message you don’t want them to get.   Like the individual in the WSJ article, you and your company may “risk being perceived by senior leaders as immature, illiterate or lacking attention to detail.”  If you are selling offshore services, you need to build confidence in your prospects that their business will be in good hands, that it will receive your highest attention, and that you will be able to communicate effectively in writing, particularly via email, the most common global communication mode.

Ask an American friend or colleague who is a business professional to review some of your written materials such as  introductory emails or presentations.  What do they see?  Do they pick up on small errors you miss?  How does it affect their overall impression?  Ask them to be honest!

The good news is that this is relatively simple to fix: Get all of your standard materials reviewed and corrected by one of your American colleagues who notices these errors (not everyone does).  If you’re in a larger company, make this part of someone’s job description, to provide QA on all marketing and sales materials prior to sending them out (most big consulting companies make it a standard practice for all presentations to go through a department dedicated to this QA).  Develop standard templates and messaging that can be pre-reviewed, and use these when developing new materials.  Turn on the spell-check in your email program, and don’t let anything go out without using it.