We’ve all heard of AIDA right?

As in….

  • Attention
  • Interest
  • Desire
  • Action

It’s one the of the basic fundamental concepts in sales.

We’ve all been taught that we first need to grab the attention of our prospect and then to make them interested and curious in what we are selling.

We then move on to create the desire to purchase the product or service by tapping into their emotions and by building value and social proof and then ultimately which leads to them taking some kind of action.

But here’s the challenge with this model…

We are so information rich and time poor that grabbing our attention is becoming increasingly difficult and will continue to get harder and harder.

Indeed there is a whole process to go work through just like AIDA to even remotely grab the attention the of your prospect because we’re constantly being bombarded with sales and marketing messages, social media posts, emails, phone calls, whitepapers, webinars, blogs, texts – you name it!

So to get anything through our attention filter is going to be difficult and that’s why I recommend reversing the AIDA model and then using the AIDA model again!

So here’s what I recommend that you look to do.

First, let’s reverse the AIDA model:

  • Action
  • Desire
  • Interest
  • Attention

First you need to jolt the system of the prospect. You’ve got to take massive action to stand out from the sea of mediocrity out there. What can you do that is radically different? Can you send a prospecting video instead of a cold call? Can you send something funky through the post to disrupt what the prospect is doing?

After taking action the end result is to create a desire and then an interest for the prospect to say “I’m going to give this a quick look”

And that’s all it takes – a quick look. Remember you have not got their full attention yet, after all you’ve only got, as Jessie Eisenberg said in The Social Network movie  “You have part of my attention – you have the minimum amount”

It’s only when they get involved fully that you have their full attention and only when you have their full attention can you then move on to phase 2 which is normal AIDA.

So, the bottom line?

Take action! You need to disrupt the pattern of the prospect to sit up and take notice. Remember if you don’t create the attention you will never get to the close – indeed opening is the new closing.

Think of ways in how you can be different. Reverse the AIDA model and brainstorm ideas.

It’s not about how to get the prospect into some kind of buying trance. It’s all about getting them out of the current trance that they are in so that they notice of you!

Only then will they have and I quote “My full attention!”

(Image by MTD Sales Training)