One of the things that surprises people most about my career is that I've sold live on a home shopping TV channel.
It's one of the best training grounds I've ever had. A crash course in presenting and direct sales, live, with the numbers coming in while you talk. And it taught me something about attention that I still use every week.
You have to earn your place on air
Something most people don't know: the channels are really protective of who they let on air. Even guests have to complete and pass a training course before they're allowed anywhere near a show. Whenever I watch the TV selling task on The Apprentice, I always wonder whether the candidates have to qualify first too.
That training changed how I think about every audience I've stood in front of since.
Six shows, back to back
A one-hour show is really six ten-minute shows, back to back.
At any given moment, someone is landing on your channel for the first time. Someone else is about to reach for the remote. And someone in the middle is half watching while they make a cup of tea.
Telling your story once, beautifully, from beginning to end, only works for the handful of people who happened to be there for all of it.
Your job is to make sure that wherever someone joins, they get the full picture:
The problem you solve. What's wrong, and who it's wrong for.
The proof it works. Something they can see or believe.
The reason to act now. Why today beats someday.
So you say it again. You repeat the key messages and vary how you say them, because you never assume they heard you the first time. The person who joined two minutes ago didn't.
Think about your website. Your emails. Your social posts. Your sales conversations.
People don't start at page one. They don't read every word. They tune in and out, exactly like the viewer with the remote in one hand and the kettle on. Someone finds your third post before your first. Someone opens your email on the train, gets to the second paragraph and gets off. Someone drifts off during the call while you explain the backstory.
Most business owners write as if their audience will arrive at the start and stay to the end. Very few do.
Attention is borrowed. You have to keep earning it back.
So pick one piece of your marketing. A sales page, a talk, your last email. Now drop in at a random point, like a viewer flicking through the channels, and read ten minutes' worth, or even thirty seconds' worth.
Check three things. Is it clear what problem this person solves? Is there some proof in view? Is there a reason to do something today?
If any of those are missing, the fix is usually simple. Say the important things more often, in more ways, in more places. It can feel repetitive to you. That's because you're the only one who saw every minute of the show.
It's the same idea as marketing starts the conversation. It can only start one with someone who's actually tuned in. And on a shopping channel, that's whoever happens to land on you in the next ten minutes.
