“The obsession with instant gratification blinds us from our long-term potential” – Michael Dooley
What does FAO Schwartz & IKEA have in common?
They are designed to keep their customers in the stores as long as they can.
Why?
The longer they stay, the more they buy.
When you invite sales people home, (Tupperware and Double-glazing etc) they plan to stay there for long.
The longer they stay the more you buy.
30 minute informercials sell more than 30 second adverts.
The point
Your customer’s attention span has nothing to do with your selling.
If you try to cater to the ever-receding attention span of your prospects and customers, you are wasting your efforts.
The lesson we can learn from history is that the longer your prospect is engaged with you they are more likely to buy.
The question you must ask yourself is “how can I (or we) engage our prospects or customers long enough for them to make a purchase decision?”
That means your engagement must be…
… interesting
… engaging
… fascinating
… involving
So stop focusing on your ‘prospects’ attention span and improve YOUR skills to better engage your prospects.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Ravi,
Thought-provoking as always.
We tell our customers that you have around 8 seconds to engage your visitor on the homepage of your website. So we suggest catering for this short attention span by offering one simple question with an obvious invitation to find out more.
However I believe the trick is what comes next. Creating ‘stickyness’ to engage, inform, expand, suggest options or a choice of solutions. Seasoning your content with compelling images, video etc. and of course inviting communication back.
So why am I rambling? I guess you got me thinking that it’s a balancing act to acknowledge and address the short attention span yet persuade people to stay longer with fascinating and informative content.
Kind Regards, Denis O’Regan
Denis you are spot on! A brilliant HEADLINE could be a start. This headline should get them to read the next line, image, video and so on. In this case it demands excellent direct response ‘Copy Writing’ skills.
Thank you for your feedback.
Kind Regards
Ravi