14.5 Acronyms you need to know
At Salesforce, where I work, there is a dictionary of sorts with 457 frequently used acronyms… the vast majority of them unique to the Salesforce ecosystem. Let’s be honest - that’s crazy.
Over the years, I’ve had a love/hate relationship with acronyms in both academic in professional contexts. Acronyms can make communications more efficient, helping us express our thoughts in a much more concise and accelerated manner.
However, there are times when it can slow down cognition, consistently leaving listeners a few steps behind in understanding as they try to decode.
The acronyms I’ve collected below are “need to know” because :
- They are not industry-specific: any organization or communication of any kind may use them
- They can be used as strategic communication “levers". Put another way, they are actually useful and not just shortened for the heck of it (yes, I'm looking at you, people who type "TY" instead of writing out "thank you")...
NOTE: In these examples, I refer to “the customer”, which really just means the person with whom you are engaged in communication. It can be an individual or a team (our old pals CC and BCC!) and it can be either internal or external (meaning, it can be someone in your own organization or a true external customer).
Email etiquette
COB / EOD. COB = Close of business. This means you gotta get it done before the customer’s office shuts down for the day. Remember… time zones matter! EOD = End of day. This means you gotta get it done before the customer logs in first thing the next morning. Know the difference!
NRN = No reply needed. Use this in email subjects, texts, or even in your email closing. I sometimes spell it out more clearly when communicating with executive level customers - “No action is needed at this time”.
EOM = End of message. I put this in my short email subjects so people do not need to open the actual email. Example subject lines - “We got the deal! EOM” or “Running 10 mins late, train delay, EOM”
Meetings
WIIFM? = What’s In It For Me? This is a customer or audience acronym, used when the presenter is getting into way too much detail (i.e., “in the weeds”) and not communicating the business message effectively to his/her audience. Very loosely related to “TMI”, it’s a way of saying “hey, cut the details, what’s the bottom line”?
SUMO = Shut Up, Move On. A personal favorite of mine! This acronym is used in meetings when tangents have been over-discussed OR when agreements have been made yet the controversial subject keeps finding its way back into the conversation.
KPI = Key Performance Indicator(s). In short, what are we really measuring? What does success look like? Don't go into a meeting without thinking this through.
Business 101
POC = Proof of Concept OR Point of Contact. This one can be tricky, so make sure you know which one you’re dealing with. Proof of Concept is something that is shown to prove out it’s a viable idea before dumping a bunch of money and resources into it. Similar to a prototype, it shows that it can be done and there is a reason to do it. A point of contact, is, well you know that already. And remember, you can have a POC for the POC. ;)
ROI = Return on Investment. Come on guys! Know this and use this in your executive presentations, even if you don’t have hard numbers.
BD = Business Development. Almost universally shortened to “biz dev”, these are the guys and gals who keep the pipeline full. Every deliverable, every positive piece of content, every relationship is an opportunity to develop new business. Keep your biz dev team happy and share information with them on the regular.
The fuzzier stuff
STEEP = Societal, Technological, Environmental, Economic, Political. Formerly known as PEST, STEP, or PESTLE. This acronym framework is used for analyzing the external factors that may affect your project or plan. Using this framework is incredibly helpful as a decision-making input.
VUCA = Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous. Ohhh VUCA, you ‘get' me. Similar to STEEP, VUCA is a framework that was actually coined in the military to represent the ever-changing organizational environment. It’s no surprise that we live in an unstable, rapidly-changing world. This acronym is all about adaptability and agility. How are we adapting our business model to respond to a VUCA environment? How might we be better leaders in a VUCA-filled organization? Are we flexible enough to successfully respond to VUCA?
UX, CX, XD = User Experience, Customer Experience, Experience Design. Sometimes called Service Design too. All used interchangeably (whether correctly or not, that’s another article). This is all about how users experience your products and services. Users can be customers, employees, or strangers coming into contact with your brand for the first time. What experience are you taking the user on? What are they thinking, feeling, and doing? How might we design a better experience? Digital (think of how and where buttons on a webpage are placed), physical (think of the traffic flow in a busy baseball stadium), emotional (think of how you felt when you read that company communication), these are all intentionally designed experiences (again, whether they’re successful or not is a whole other article, or likely book!).
What are some acronyms that are actually helpful to you?
///
Photo provided by Shutterstock
