How do you catch and hold customer attention?

Imagine yourself from any of your past meetings. Now, remember the man or woman who was fiddling with the phone or just plain looking into the laptop.This is a scenario that the best of us encounter and it is more common than you think. In today’s day and age, especially the time since the pandemic started, the corporate world has been bombarded with meetings galore. So much so that there is hardly much time left during the day to get some work done. This has gone on so much, mental health breaks are a mandate in a lot of the companies. Considering this trend, it can become quite easy to understand the challenge a salesperson can encounter when the most essential commodity for them, the ‘customer facing time’ is so sparsely available. And on top of that to get the required attention during these meetings can seem like an uphill task!

Let’s take a break here to understand the term ‘Customer facing time’ also referred to as CFT. This metric is quite often used in sales organizations. CFT as the full form suggests is the time a sales professional spends in front of their customer or prospect. As you’d realize, the most valuable time for a salesperson is not when he/she is strategizing about the next product to launch, or when they are curating which prospects to reach out to and researching them, or when they are responding to emails, but it’s the time they are in front of their customer (this can also mean a video or phone call) understanding the environment the prospect is facing or just building a rapport with the person on the other side of the table.

As mentioned a little earlier, these metrics form KPPs (Key Performance Parameter) for sales professionals, wherein a target time is fixed that counts as ‘Customer Facing TIme’. While there are debates on whether this is the right KPP to be setting or not, in my personal opinion and experience, the amount of quality time that you get with your customer or prospect can change the way you do business. It’s no secret that every business that is doing well is because they understand their customer better than others. And what better way to understand the customer than by spending time with them. The problem statements, stories, anecdotes or just organizational updates are critical to gauge the requirement of the customer. And when you know what the customer wants or needs, your job as a salesperson is to act on it and get it done.

Back to the blog topic now. 

With CFT being so important, it’s no secret that every salesperson is trying to get face-time with their clients. But then you get into a meeting and you are faced with the proposition of some people being there physically but not mentally. In this case, you are technically getting CFT but that is of no use as the quality conversation or attention you expect from your prospect is missing. 

To figure out why this is happening in the first place is to understand how human psychology works. To do this, transport yourself back in time to your school days. How easy was it to be attentive in class all the time? Or for that matter, just remember yourself from today: how is that phone usage taking you away from the tasks that you have to accomplish. There are studies done that point out that an average American looks at his/her phone more than 300 times in a day. That’s an average of once every 3 minutes of their waking time. 

The reason it’s called ‘pay’ attention is due to the fact that it takes some effort to get it done. When humankind and you yourself are affected with the lack of concentration, it is a bit harsh to assume that your prospect will be unaffected within the same environment. 

So what can you do to get some of that attention from your prospect, so that the time you spend with your customer is not wasted in them being disconnected?

The best part of a sales job is that the answers you are looking for are not in some complicated book or thesis but basic human tendencies. So to explain how you can get back some of that precious quality time from your customer is to self-evaluate how you would yourself want to pay attention. Human brain, much like animals, is attentive over short periods of time. Ever seen a cat happily playing around is suddenly attentive when there is a loud noise somewhere, and after a few moments of looking around and being alert is back to the usual playful stuff. The same way the human brain is wired to pay attention in short spurts. So to expect that someone would be attentive throughout the whole hour of your conversation is ‘humanly’ impossible. Taking that into consideration, you should in turn blend your information in these short spans of time that are available. 

How you do that can be in multiple ways:

Give breaks: Instead of running your meeting continuously, offer breaks to the participants

Share light hearted moments: Jokes and anecdotes that don’t require all your brain cells, can ensure that the prospect can relax for a while in between

Getting their attention when needed can be done in the following ways:

Ask a question: This usually brings back the lost attention fairly quickly

Change your tonality: Instead of the monotony of one person talking continuously, change your voice modulation in places where you want the participants to focus

Throw out some startling facts: This is what proficient speakers do most of the times. Just ensure that these facts are tied into the product/solution you are there for.

Offer some rewards: This is usually for larger crowds. A reward (or even a quiz with winners) at the end of the discussion can keep people motivated to pay attention to the content.

These are just some pointers on how to bring in the attention where most required. With experience and practice you’ll be able to use your own setting, to gauge the best way that works for your situation.

CONCLUSION

Getting the meeting is a good step, but what use is it if your prospect is disconnected during the meeting? Use techniques stated above which blend in with human psychology to ensure best results. Rember, your prospect/customer needn’t be attentive during the full time period you have with them, instead a few impactful moments will ensure that you have the best chance of putting your thoughts across. After all, effective communication is the backbone of the profession you are in.