Filter Hacking
For the most part, most people do not choose what they think about at any given moment.
You should- it will make you more successful. But you probably don’t.
And your prospects definitely don’t.
And that’s probably good for you.
People are mostly reactive. Given the choice, they may choose not to react, not to buy, not to engage- but when the moment comes, they simply react to whatever stimulus is acting on them. That’s why people who buy from telemarketers put themselves on the DO NOT CALL list. That’s why people get so annoyed about junkmail, when it’s pretty easy to just throw it away.
That’s why people use all sorts of filters- they don’t want to be acted upon, because they know they will react in some way: join, buy, give, volunteer, change, or grow in some way.
Your job is to make it past the filters so that you can move them to action. Join your community. Volunteer for your cause. Buy your stuff. Check into your rehab program. Get baptized. Whatever.
A lot of people spend a lot of energy overcoming objections. Objections are weak filters. You should spend your time and energy on the harder ones.
There are typically three strategies for making it through the filters:
- Throw enough crap at it that something is bound to get through.
- Pretend to be the thing that’s supposed to get through.
- Be the thing that’s supposed to get through.
Item 1 is traditional advertising.
Some people channel surf during commercial breaks. Some people get up and go to the bathroom. But if the commercial is loud enough, and is played enough times during a single episode, some of the people will hear it.
Item 2 is traditional sales.
Pretend to be a friend (networking marketing and direct sales). Pretend to be helpful (consultative selling). Pretend to be curious (SPIN selling). Pretend to be the lowest price (Wal-Mart). Pretend to be the most useful (Billy Mays, God rest his soul).
Item 3 is Thought Leadership.
People really are looking for useful information. You can use paid search ads (option 1) or try to game SEO (option 2), but in the long run, the real love- and the real money- will come from actually being an expert and actually providing the useful information that people are looking for.
Engagement they want.
People should be engaged when, where, and how they want to be engaged. People seek out information, inspiration, entertainment, and help ALL the time. If you are there when they are looking, you can engage them. Otherwise, one of their filters will kick in, and you’ll be kicked out.
Process they want.
If someone is interested enough after engagement that they want to learn more about what you do, make, or sell, the process shouldn’t activate any filters. Self-serving sales-speak activates filters. Overly complicated shopping cart systems do too. Upselling usually doesn’t, unless you’re obnoxious or the upsell seems unrelated (would you like fries with that cell phone?).
Product they want.
Otherwise, they’ll use you for information- and then take the info to the competitor and buy from them. “That’s not what I’m looking for” is the ultimate filter.
If you consistently are the friend, the consultant, the expert, and the best, the most convenient, the most useful, then you’ll get through the filters, because you’ll be what your future client is looking for.
