I admit, I have a bit of a problem. Well, more than one, but the one I’m referring to today is what I do when I’m out and about, living life, travelling from here to there.
I obsessively analyze the messages bombarding me, and mentally analyze their effectiveness. After all, it’s what I’ve been trained to do, and it’s hard to turn it off.
I doubt a lot of people take the time to do this mental exercise. Most just ignore 90% of the messages, or let themselves be subtly nudged or persuaded to do/try/buy whatever the call to action is asking them to do. Without giving these compulsions a second thought.
This constant analyzing can be tiring, but I do learn a lot. Especially when I see a bad attempt.
So where am I going with this story? I have a very recent messaging experience that I think every businessperson, and especially sales execs, will find helpful…
Plane Filled with Prospects
I recently flew in the southern States, on American Airlines. The plane was filled with college students. Prime prospects to become new credit card owners, right?
You know how at the end of most flights, a flight attendant speaks over the intercom and tries to get passengers to apply for some type of credit card? I’ve always suspected the success rate is really low.
But on this recent flight, the flight attendant really upped her game. She blasted out a whole bunch of benefits… and focused on what I think young adults really want: free travel to cool places. She was very specific about her promised benefits. And ended with the (usually) effective “Imagine being on a beach…” technique.
Was the Pitch Effective?
Unfortunately, her pitch ended up on deaf ears. Why? Because she forgot the first part of the AIDA formula for messaging… ATTRACT. (Attract, Interest, Desire, Action). If you don’t get your prospects attention FIRST, she won’t be listening to your wonderful list of benefits that are designed to build interest, fire up desire, and respond to the action request (signing up for a credit card).
How did I determine this misstep? I questioned the young people around me. They were nice enough to allow me to survey what they thought of the message. Know what they said? They weren’t really paying attention!
So all you businesspeople out there… make sure you get your target audience’s attention first, before going into your pitch. Whether you’re selling something, motivating employees, or trying to engage with your suppliers.
A Better Method…
So what should the flight attendant have done differently? How about starting with “Okay people, I know you’re all hung over from your spring break trip [that establishes empathy], but if you’re interested in getting free travel to your next hot beach party place, listen up. [casual tone and voice, make a promise they clearly want, and mention it’s free because they’ve all just spent every cent they have on a trip]. THEN go into the benefits. The attendant missed a few other key pitch techniques, but I’ll cover off on those in a future post.
So remember… get your audience’s attention first… then pitch them. Otherwise you’re probably just wasting your time. And thanks, American Airlines, for giving me a reminder on sales enablement messaging techniques.
If you liked this blog, you can access more of my helpful content