• The Eight Second Ride…

The Eight Second Ride…

I was raised in Wyoming where they have a lot of… yes, you guessed it – Rodeos!  Every summer they have the fair and all the associated events, including the rodeo – about which my friends have recently been making a lot of Facebook posts. 

Walking the Shiatsu this morning, wondering why it took her so long to get through her daily, I started thinking about time management and how important each second is…

Then my mind drifted to the eight seconds that are allowed for those brave cowboys to make one of the toughest rides in the world; a qualified professional bull ride.  Can you imagine how strong, focused and compelling they must be in order to make that ride successful? 

Thoughts then flowed to some of the reading I’ve been doing lately about the brain, finding that eight seconds is also the maximum amount of time the “average” person can fully focus on something and not lose his concentration… 

More mind drifting – to what it must take, when we are communicating with someone else, to deliver a message that is strong, focused and compelling enough that we are heard?

Ok… by now, you know that my mind sometimes rambles in this creative flow of thought.  However, I do tend to “bring it all home” to something cohesive… and today it was the fact that I plan to go to a networking event tonight and I may actually have only 8 seconds to get a 30-second “commercial” communicated!  Well, actually, that 8 seconds is probably the time I need to make my “hook” happen and I have to hold on as a mean, tough animal (prospect) tries to throw me off.  How tight must my message be to hang on and be strong, focused and compelling?

Sometimes, that “hook’ is all you need – it is not necessary, at a networking event to close the deal!  You can use those eight seconds to “hold on” to the relationship you just started and take the meat of the conversation to a more personal level over breakfast or lunch.  I had a friend recently tell me that her “social” questions include: “Are you an early morning person or an afternoon person?” Once she has determined that – she discovers what they prefer to eat, which allows her to either offer to drop bagels and coffee by, or meet them somewhere for lunch.  No selling – just the perfect amount of interest in “who” the other person is to get her foot through the door – emotionally and literally!

I have never been a proponent of the “30-second commercial” or the “elevator pitch”… they are both outdated ideas from when that elevator ride really was three to five minutes long and you actually could engage in some meaningful conversation.  Technology has made everything move faster, including elevators and the need to make our marketing pitches more immediately relevant.   Like it or not, however, these succinct marketing messages (hooks) are necessary, and must sell more than your product or service and why you are unique or stand above your competition.  They are essential to building your brand, conveying who you are, what you offer and what promise you will be able to deliver on!   All that in SUCH a short span of time.

There is a ton of buzz about branding, but the short eight second take on that is that your brand is… the promises you make and keep to your customers.  If as a business you fail to focus on and meet those promises, your chance of staying on for the long ride is zero!  You are conveying to anyone who listens what he/she will get from your business and you must be able to deliver.

Eight-second short ride… simple message:  Clearly and concisely convey what you offer – knowing you can stand behind that offer. I know how difficult this process is… it pains even me!  So, research person that I am, I found a few goodies I could throw your way.

“I was riding up the Gherkin elevator with Will Harris, the marketing director at Nokia. I asked, ‘What if you could get dozens of user-generated videos for less than $1,000 each with www.mofilm.com?” He signed up before we reached the top floor and then Nokia went on to win the Cannes UGC competition with one of those videos.” – Jeffrey Merrihue, CEO, Accenture Marketing Sciences (London)

“The worst elevator pitch is one I hear frequently. It goes like this:  Prospect: ‘What is it that you do?’ Salesperson: ‘I represent XYZ Company.’ Stop! What does that do to help build the relationship we all need in sales? Describe not whom you represent but what you do to help people solve the problems they have. Why not answer with, ‘I help people solve the problems of living too long, becoming disabled, or dying too soon.’” – Robert D. Lowrey, Managing Partner, Northwestern Mutual

“The Best: We make print clickable. The Worst: We do anything and everything a company needs us to do as cheaply as possible.” – Andy and Julie Plata, Co-CEOs, OutputLinks, Inc., Graphic Communications World

Ok… I am going to go get ready for my eight second ride(s) tonight.  How about you?   I would love to have you share your “hook.”  Go ahead; hit me with your best shot and let’s see some comments here!

Contributing author:

Anna Weber

4-Dimensional Success

Always… encouraging to you take positive, life-altering actions that will provide you with long-term, sustainable benefit.

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Jan Vitale

Vital Enterprises, LLC

Providing the tools to accelerate your growth in Network Marketing…