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Have you ever been out in a public place, maybe enjoying coffee with a friend, when all of a sudden your ears perk up? You hear a familiar voice, and you can’t help listening to it? Or you hear a word or phrase that trips off your own tongue on a regular basis?

It’s human nature to be drawn to voices that feel familiar. The National Academy of Sciences did a fascinating study about how infants respond to people speaking in different languages. The study suggests that even as young as 5 months, infants recognize the tones and patterns of their native language and respond accordingly.

Customers are really just big babies. No, I don’t mean fussy. I mean, just like the 5-month-olds, they respond to their native tongue. But all too often we don’t write that way.

Look through your own communication pieces and see if you can spot one or more of the following:

Sales speak: “You can drive it home today!” OK, yours probably aren’t that blatant. But if it sounds like a slick salesman, it isn’t going to fly.

Insider jargon: Do your materials look like an eye chart with all their abbreviations? Are you sure your audience uses those same shortcuts?

Vague buzzwords: You know the words I’m talking about. Empower. Paradigm. Value added. It’s not that these concepts are bad or irrelevant to your customers. But the words are so overused that we assign very little meaning to them anymore. Don’t talk in generalities. Be specific.

Listen to your customers for a while. Then read your materials out loud. If they don’t sound like your customers talk, rewrite them. It really is that simple. Be sure you’re speaking in their native tongue.

Drew McLellan is Top Dog at McLellan Marketing Group and blogs at www.drewsmarketingminute.com. He can be reached at Drew@MclellanMarketing.com. © 2010 Drew McLellan