“Why cant I get your attention?’ I ask my 10 year old son as he ignores me for the 3rd time I ask him to take out the over filled trash can in the kitchen. It nearly takes an eruption of volcanic proportions to get him to react and finally haul the trash can a mere 65 feet from the kitchen to the trash bin in the garage.

Why cant I get your attention?

This may be the most asked question on the planet today.  I ask it of my children, they ask it of me, as does my wife, as do I ask it about my customers. Everyone who owns and operates a business asks of his potential customers “why can’t I get your attention?”

Attention is the most critical aspect of our lives next to time. Both are limited and where your attention lies, determines the use of your time. Our world is overwhelmed with information and content. We have great tools at our disposal to access and manage it, blackberries, iphones, cell phones,organizer software, CRM systems, etc., unfortunately, most of it flies right past us.  Leads that we spend hundreds of dollars on often go untouched after the first cnnetion becase we cant maintain a connection with the customer. So how do we attract and more importantly maintain attention from those we need so we can monetize their attention?

The answer is simple. The Attention Connection™

“You get attention by giving focused attention” is what I like to say.

I have developed the concept of that I call “The Attention Connection”. Its about piercing through the noise, overcoming the haystack of information that is dumped on us and our customers each day and be able to maintain the attention of our customers for the life cycle of our business relationship. For some products and services, this may be one and done, for others this might be a lifetime of customer loyalty.

I wrote in a previous post, “A needle in a Haystack” about the haystack  of information that is dumped upon us each day. Its overwhelming and most of us have become numb to amount of information and have learned to filter it out.

So just like my lack of connection with my 10 year old son, it took me 4 touches to connect to him, (the last being a threat of no soccer) to pierce through the noise in his brain to make him finally react. In our information overloaded world, it may take us in business 6 to 12 touches to finally get a customer to buy.  You can’t create more time or more attention, and if your sales are not what you want them to be,  how do you manage your attention and your clients attention? So let’s break this down,

The Attention Connection has four elements;

1. Strategy
2. Process
3. Content
4. Technology

Each of these elements are chapters in themselves but to introduce the concepts lets take a high level view.

Strategy. If you don’t know where you are going, you will never get there. Your organization must develop a strategy and plan to be able to rise up above the noise. Attacking and maintaining the attention of your customers is not an accident and without a plan, you will forever find yourself sifting through the haystack looking for the needle that is your customer. Keep in mind, the customers who need your product or service are also looking for you, the trouble is, most of them have no strategy to find you, so this compounds the problem by a doubling effect.

Once you have a strategy, you will need to document, map out or flow chart the processes that it takes for your customers to buy your products or services. Buy is a key word. The successful companies analyze what information, education  and steps your customer needs to complete their process of acquiring your product or services and map them back to steps and processes you are going to do to keep them in the funnel, keep their attention. Follow up and touches are key.

After you have a road map of the process, you then need to analyze the content you are providing your prospective clients. Well written content will draw the customer into a conversation with your firm, both literal and figurative. Once you have the attention through tapping into the reticular activators we all have, you then need to keep them engaged and educated through the buying process and retain them. Bored or uninformed customers fall out of your attention connection funnel.

To attract and maintain attention of your clients, you will need the proper  technology to do so. This is not a manual process. If you are not embracing all the tools of handheld devices, social media, email, text, twitter, drip systems, ebooks, buyers guides, and Customer Relationship Management software, you are toast. Put down your rocks, hammers, direct mail and adapt the technologies.

Keep in mind, if you are not taking the steps to attract and maintain your customer’s attention, someone else is. Its that simple.

Stay tuned, we will break this out in detail.

All of us have heard the phrase, “that is like finding a needle in a haystack.” Well truth be told, how many of us have really been on or even near a haystack? I have to admit, I have.

As a youth, my grandfather, Leo Nollett, had a ranch in the northern Sand Hills just outside of Valentine, Nebraska. Our family used to go there all the time to visit my grandparents. The Spring Creek Ranch was a bit of heaven on earth for a city boy like myself. I have all kinds of stories and memories from my time on the ranch. I was taught many lessons at the side of my grandfather and father as we worked the ranch.

My sister Rita and I often would climb on top of the haystacks in the feed yard. The haystacks were all staged in the feed yard next to the feed lot for proximity sake for feeding the cattle in the winter. From the vantage point of the top of the haystacks, we could survey the area and watch my grandfather operate the tractor as he fed the cattle hay and milo.

I never had a needle with me, but once I did lose a set of keys. A set of keys is nearly impossible to find in a 10 foot tall haystack. My sister and I searched and searched in near panic for the keys because we feared the wrath of my father if we had lost them.

It was a simple mistake on my part as a 8 year old boy, I was not paying attention and let the keys slip out of my pocket and spent hours searching for them. This brings me to my point today of paying attention and being able to find our customers and more importantly having our customers find us.

Not many of us live on or near haystacks anymore but they have been replaced with information haystacks. Each day a couple tons of digital hay is thrown at me and as a business owner or one who is responsible for revenue generation, and just like it was back on the day when I lost a set of keys in a real haystack, I struggle to pay attention through the storm to not only locate but keep the attention of my customers and potential customers.

The trouble is, my customers are faced with the same overwhelming amount of digital hay and this more than doubles the challenge of attention connection between the customer and the company. As much as I am looking to connect with my customers, they too are looking for me. Both parties are lost in the information haystack. So how do I maintain the attention connection long enough to make a prospect a customer and then maintain them?

The answer is simple, stay connected. You get attention by paying attention.

Our society is more connected (and some may argue over connected) than at anytime in the history of mankind, yet I argue we are even the most disconnected people because of information over load. Cell phones, blackberries, ipods, email, text messaging, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc. are all tools to keep us connected but also at the same time contribute to the information overload.

In order to maintain the two way connection with our customers, we must use these technologies combined with the right content, to have meaningful connection and conversation. Its not about selling, its about educating and staying connected.

The companies who stay connected to their prospects and clients will come out on top. If your firm or organization has not implemented a automated drip system or what I have coined as a “Attention Connection System” that utilizes email, text messaging, social media, and blogs, and a smaller foot print of traditional media of print and broadcast, you wont survive. The sheer volume of information and noise created each day will make your communications become lost. Just like the keys I dropped out of my pocket into the haystack on my grandfather’s ranch, you will spend hours searching for your customers and may never find them. the question is, can you stay in business during the search for the lost keys?

Stay tuned over the coming days and post as I walk you through “Attention Connection Systems”. There is a new science on how to leverage Internet focal points in the community and turn them into attention connections that result in sales and success. The “keys in the hay stack” will not be lost if you implement the strategy and technology.