Hot Irons & Attention Spans

Not surprisingly, research indicates that people have limited attention spans. Some research indicates that it averages out at 27 seconds during which, unless the listener hears something of interest to them, the millions of cerebral synapse connections have delivered something more interesting or pressing to their attention. And whilst it may appear to you that the lights are on - there's actually no one home to your message!

What's worse, according to research, is that once the listeners attention has been lost your chances of regaining it to your advantage are less than 10%.

There are at least two clues here.

One, you have got to get the vital essence of your message across QUICKLY. And two, you have to be speaking to someone who has at least a possible chance of being interested.

I’ll bet you have stood listening to someone rattle on about how brilliant what they do is - in excruciating detail – and you don’t even want to use what they have. Sometimes, when maybe you could use what they have, their drone makes you feel like you just want to disappear through a hole in the floor.

Other times you will have walked away from a conversation with someone and if anyone asked you what they do, you’d have a problem explaining it.

Two of the keys to marketing success are;

1. Knowing exactly what your product is and
2. Getting the best return on your valuable investment of time by explaining it to people who are most likely to want it.

Sound easy? Yes of course it is and yet very few business people actually do it.

If you were going to brand a bull, would you do it with a cold iron; slowly?