How To Grab Someone’s Attention For Fun And Profit

Years ago, a speech coach said to me:

"Steve, when you walk out on stage you need to grab the audience by the balls and squeeze hard."

To make an impression on anyone, at any time, you must first do whatever it takes to seize their attention. I trust the opening sentence grabbed yours!

Attention is a universal currency and, as Thomas Davenport and John Beck point out in "The Attention Economy," it’s a much scarcer resource than talent or technology.

Before you can persuade people to your way of thinking, sell them your wonderful product or even make them laugh, you must gain their attention. Here is a principle you can apply to grab someone’s attention in any situation.

Your Brain Frame
One of the central principles packing the punch behind Perspective Power is the Brain Frame. The Brain Frame isn’t an anatomical structure within your central nervous system. It’s simply a useful metaphor to help you understand how your brain recognizes patterns, manages information and limits your outlook. Your Brain Frame is the "mental picture frame" through which you see your world. It’s the lens that controls your attention.

You have an intuitive sense of your Brain Frames that’s revealed when you make comments like:

• "I was in the wrong frame of mind."
• "You need a different frame of reference."
• "We need to reframe this problem."

Enclosed within your Brain Frame are your expectations about every situation you encounter. Regardless of whether you’re reading a book, talking with a prospect or negotiating a mortgage, your expectations about that situation are enclosed within your frame. For example, if you were arranging a mortgage, expecting a tough negotiation and the mortgage broker began by saying:

"How would you like us to pay every cent of your closing costs and buy down your mortgage rate by two points?"

Would that capture your attention? I’m going to assume that you’re nodding.

The Three Action Steps To Grabbing Someone’s Attention
Step 1: Don’t under any circumstances make your pitch until you have someone’s full attention. It’s tempting to believe that, just because what you have to say or sell is truly interesting, people will listen. Nothing could be further from the truth. The funniest joke in the world won’t make someone laugh if they’re not listening. In the same way, the strength of your idea or benefits of your product will only be appreciated after you’ve grabbed someone’’s attention.

Step 2: Appreciate that, just like you, other people go through life looking through a Brain Frame.

Step 3: Ask yourself the question: How can I shatter this person’s current Brain Frame? Your point of leverage is to remember that a person’s Brain Frame encloses their expectations. You can shatter someone’s Brain Frame by saying or doing something unexpected.

For example, if you were a meeting planner taking a sales call from Krystal - my National Coordinator - it would go something like this:

"Hi, I’m Krystal Simpkins, National Coordinator for keynote speaker, Dr. Steve Bedwell. I have a question for you. Have you ever felt that, even though you’re good at what you do and work really hard, you haven’t achieved the success you deserve?"

Bam! Meeting planners are, quite naturally expecting a question like: Do you hire professional speakers? Would this question grab their attention? Unlikely, they’ve heard it a million times or more. Does Krystal’s question hook their attention? You bet!

"But Steve, this approach seems terribly abrupt." Absolutely, it seems abrupt because it’s unexpected and so has the power to shatter another person’s Brain Frame. It’s also 100% relevant to the content of my speech. Note also that, before asking the question, Krystal begins by clearly introducing herself. Without the introduction the question would cross the line from unexpected to weird.

Your Own "Shattering" Question
What question could you ask about your product, service or idea that would shatter a Brain Frame? Here are four tips to help you find your own "shattering" question:

• Keep in mind the question needs to be both unexpected and 100% relevant. If your objective is to sell to particular individuals within an organization, and you can find a "shattering" question that both hits them on a personal level and relates to their function within the organization - bingo!
• Consider the features and benefits of your product, service or idea from another person’s point of view. How does it solve their problems? Can you think of a way to link a key benefit with a prospect’s highest priority problem? How could you package this benefit-problem association in an unexpected question?
• Don’t settle for the first "shattering" question you come up with. Your second, third and fourth questions are less likely to reflect your habitual way of thinking.
• Don’t be afraid to be outrageous, you can always tone down your question before using it "under fire".

Final point: Once you create your "Shattering" question, don’t be afraid to try it out. It’s bound to feel awkward at first. Give it a go and you’ll be amazed at your new found ability to grab attention for fun and profit.

I would love to hear how you get on,

Steve