Voice Guide

Category: voice Sources: trace-summary-services-icp-competitors-background.md, live-service-sop-summaries.md, Glen tone direction (2026-08-04) Confidence: high Last Updated: 2026-08-04

Tone

• Direct and precise — says what something is and what it is not, without hedging or overselling
• Technically confident — uses correct terminology naturally, not to impress
• Honest about boundaries — repeatedly clarifies what Trace does and does not control
• Practical over theoretical — focuses on what happens next, not abstract principles
• Calm authority — no hype, no inflated claims
• Operationally disciplined — scope, responsibility and unknowns are stated, not implied

Scope note (2026-08-01): the tone above governs direct client communication, service descriptions, SOPs, and delivery documentation — where boundaries and underclaiming still matter most. It no longer bans urgency/pain-agitation tactics outright; see the Public Copywriting Process Rule below for where and how persuasion techniques apply to public marketing copy specifically.

Public Page Voice: Glen Talking (locked 2026-08-04)

This governs every public page on tracetechnical.co.uk. The test: Glen talking, not a company writing. Plain, specific, occasionally dry, and willing to say what it cannot do.

1. Open on the visitor's own sentence, not the service name. The first thing on a page is what they would actually say out loud.

"The samples went in weeks ago and nobody can tell us where they are." "We cannot say which report belongs to which product any more." "Our new starter has never seen a technical file before."

2. Name consequences honestly, without inflating them. The quiet version is more believable than the dramatic one.

"The launch date moves, quietly. Nothing has failed. It is simply nobody's job to chase, so a week becomes a month and the season it was built for goes past." "It reads fine until a distributor reads it properly."

3. Refuse to invent numbers. Say so out loud rather than reaching for a statistic.

"I am not going to invent a figure for what a second test round or a missed season costs you. You already know it."

4. State boundaries as credibility, not disclaimer. The limit is the proof.

"I am not a test house and not a certification body, which is exactly why I can tell you what they are going to say before they say it." "If it turns out you do not need me, I will say so. It happens more than you would think."

5. First person, with credibility carried by story rather than claim.

"Hi, I am Glen. I am the one your team used to chase for test results, or certificates." "For most of my career I was on the other side of your emails, which means I have been the bottleneck."

6. Dry rather than jokey, and only in the margins. Never the main event.

"Do not get in touch if you genuinely enjoy: chasing a test house for an update you were promised last week... I do not mind any of it, which is either useful or a bit sad." "Better me, on a quiet Tuesday, than a distributor on a deadline." "This page does not exist. At least it is honest about it."

7. Lower the effort of getting in touch. Ask for less, and say so.

"Two or three sentences is plenty." "Send the product, not a tidy version of it." "Now the boring bit" — the label above the name and email fields, which come after the actual problem.

8. Never ask people to self-qualify. No "a strong fit when" lists. Each page states who it is for at the top ("For a product with a defined route that has stopped moving"), and the Services page says outright not to sit and work out which one applies.

Person: I, Trace, and we

"We" meaning the business is the single fastest way back into company-writing, and a one-person consultancy saying it invites the question of who else is there. The positioning depends on it being Glen. The footer strapline "You build protection. We clear the route." is the one sanctioned exception: a strapline may speak as the brand.

Communication Patterns

• Defines scope clearly: "Trace prepares and coordinates the route. It does not issue certificates or control the independent certification decision."
• States limitations honestly: "Route Finder is not a certificate, test result or guarantee of certification."
• Uses concrete deliverables over vague promises: "The client receives a clear, costed route and decision plan."
• Distinguishes between what is usable, what is missing and what creates risk
• Marks unknowns explicitly rather than smoothing over gaps: TBC convention
• Uses one consolidated request rather than drip-fed asks
• Records external decisions accurately — never strengthens their wording
• Prefers structured output: action plans, ordered priorities, defined responsibility

Signature Phrases

• "clear, costed route"
• "defined responsibility"
• "organised evidence"
• "practical help"
• "what is usable, what is missing, what creates the greatest risk"
• "a practical view of the range rather than another unprioritised spreadsheet"
• "fixed-fee" (recurring emphasis on cost certainty)
• "the connection between product, evidence, certification and claims"
• "TBC" — for anything unknown, unverified or low-confidence
• "separately scoped" / "separately quoted" — for work beyond the defined engagement
• "verified sources" — technical decisions backed by approved standards
• "do not discount; reduce scope if necessary"

Banned Phrases

These hold everywhere, including public marketing copy — none of them are overridden by the Public Copywriting Process Rule below:

• "Guaranteed certification" or any language implying outcome certainty
• Hype words: "revolutionary", "game-changing", "world-class"
• Vague promises: "we'll take care of everything", "leave it to us"
• "Unlimited" (retainers are defined responsibility, not unlimited access)
• Strengthened external decisions (never overstate what a certification body said)
• "Gear" — use "apparel" (e.g. "motorcycle apparel", not "motorcycle gear")
• "Paperwork" — use "documentation"
• "Lab" — use "test house"
• Em dashes (—) — use a full stop, comma, colon, or parentheses instead
• "File" when referring generally to Trace's work or deliverables — use "documentation". Use "technical file" only when explicitly referring to the formal technical record for a product.
• "Protective products" — use "PPE products"
• Invented facts: fake statistics, fabricated scarcity/countdowns, false certification claims (see Ppe Claims And Product Information Risk)

"Overselling" is no longer a blanket ban for public copy — see the Public Copywriting Process Rule below. Direct client communication, service descriptions, and delivery documentation still underclaim and over-clarify boundaries as before.

How Complex Ideas Are Explained

The pattern is: state what it is, then state what it is not, then describe the practical output. Complexity is resolved by specificity, not simplification.

Example: Route Finder is described by listing exactly what the client learns (9 specific items), then explicitly stating what it is not (not a certificate, test result or guarantee).

The SOPs follow the same pattern: purpose → what's included → what's excluded → delivery stages → output → stop conditions. Every service has explicit boundaries.

Public Copywriting Process Rule

Any copy intended for public/external use (landing pages, ads, emails, social copy) must be run through Skills/dark-psychology-copywriter-v2.md before it's finished — confirmed as a standing requirement 2026-08-01.

Resolved 2026-08-01: the earlier "do not sell through fear" rule has been removed. Persuasion techniques from the dark-arts skill — pain agitation, consequence/loss framing, benefit-forward copy — are approved for public body copy. Two things still hold regardless: (1) the specific "problem" hooks/headlines a visitor self-selects into (e.g. "We don't know what applies to this product") stay as direct, factual situation statements, not agitated further — only the supporting body copy underneath gets the dark-arts treatment; (2) never invent or exaggerate a fact (fake certification claims, invented statistics, guaranteed outcomes) — every consequence used in copy (recall, delisting, certification delay, etc.) must be a real, documented possibility per Ppe Buyer And Enforcement Context and Ppe Enforcement And Recall Playbook, not manufactured scarcity or a fabricated stat.

Related Articles

• Origin Story
• Values
• Primary Icp
• Content Strategy
• Delivery Methodology
• Ppe Claims And Product Information Risk
• Banned Words