I’m a great admirer of Jeremy Waite’s Ten Words. If you don’t know what this is, it is a book written by Jeremy that pledges to communicate ‘big ideas’ in ‘small words and short sentences’. We cannot escape it, we hear more and more about how people’s attention spans are getting shorter and shorter – meaning we need to be more concise, clear and sharp if we want to grab someone’s attention.

The reason I start with this, is because I often think about this when I am working with clients on their telemarketing strategies.

We know that attention spans on the telephone during a cold call are even shorter than the average. We’ve all been there, you are right in the middle of something, the phone rings and it’s a cold caller wanting to engage with you. Now they could be calling to offer you a service or a product that is exactly what you are looking for, but your attention span is already short because you know it is a cold call and you have been disrupted.

This is why a strategy for me is the most important part of the process. We have to understand what makes you special? What is your real value to a prospect? How does it solve the pain that the prospect will be feeling? How does it go above and beyond what else is available on the market?

There are so many questions that we cover and so many answers that we discuss – but then it is up to me to create that small magic opening that is going to win your prospect’s attention span and allow me to divulge a little more information than when they first picked up the phone.

I think it’s a great exercise for anyone to try, the idea of 10 words to describe your role? Your business? Your personal goals? Your career goals? What makes you special?

Sure, we may not get it right the very first time, but if we have all the information from the strategy and we test the opening, we are going to be able to sense how this is landing with your prospects giving us opportunities to tweak and sharpen the message as we learn and test.

I’m Richard, I open up your target market to generate you leads. What do you do?

Opinion piece by Richard Street, Account Manager, Air Marketing Group