Capture & Maintain Client Attention
Good morning,
Picture this: Your client is on the edge of their seat. Their head nods rhythmically as you speak. Their eyes are fixated on you because nothing matters more than this conversation.
Congrats! You captured their attention. How’d you do it? Let’s dive in.
Your goal is to keep your audience hooked for as much of your pitch as possible. The best way to do this is to create tension by balancing two simple concepts: Talk about what they want, peppered with a reminder that they may not get it. But why get a stakeholder to discuss their dreams just to remind them they may miss out?
The neuroscience agrees: this dreaming + fear of missing out combo sets off a dopamine and norepinephrine reward in their brain to keep things exciting.
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter (think: chemical messenger) in charge of your brain’s rewards & pleasure system. A way to trigger dopamine in your audience is to introduce something new and relevant to your client. I’ll discuss effectively bringing insights to client meetings in a future newsletter.
Norepinephrine, another neurotransmitter, is a key player in your brain’s fight or flight mechanism. This chemical creates tension in your audience as their alertness increases. When they feel like there's something important on the line, their brains will pump out norepinephrine.
You’re trying to maintain attention and create tension with a push-pull strategy. Keep in mind most conventional sales pitches are 100% “pull.” This typically looks like sharing the benefits of your product/service/idea. It’s what you’ve always done. And this approach is susceptible to falling flat since it’s what customers expect from you. Scarcity is a powerful “push” strategy. Some examples:
Limited Time Offers: “This [product/service/discount] won’t be available after this year.”
Limited Quantity: “We have space for small handful customers this quarter.”
Encroaching Competitors: “I’m not sure it’ll be possible to become a market leader before your competitors do.”
Show Quantities Left: “We’ve got five spots left for this pilot and it’s first-come-first-serve.”
Most importantly, you and your time are a limited resource:
“Our team prioritizes and allocates more resources to customers ready to grow now.”
“I’m finalizing my strategic account list for the year and am still determining if our teams are a good partnership fit.”
It’s worth noting this isn’t a sales gimmick. All of this exists in your relentless pursuit of creating value to customers. There’s nothing wrong with letting your client know of any real “push” factors that exist. I guarantee at least one of the examples I provided above— your time— is truthfully scarce.
Customize your own “push” tactic in your next meeting. Don’t overdo it to the point you’re perceived as offensive, but also don’t gloss over the push tactic as it may mute the impact.
60% of shoppers say that FOMO has influenced their buying decisions, according to a survey by Adlucent (source). It’s safe to say this doesn’t only apply to Stanley tumblers or that super chic new restaurant that everyone who’s anyone has been to.