The fact is your prospects don't take the time to understand what a great job you do and how well you do it.

Take for example an organization who decided not to hire me to speak to them for the following reasons:
 
- I don’t like that standing on the chair thing
- His speech seems too canned; he’ll just drop our company name in
- I don’t like a man who colors his hair

To come up with these conclusions they could only have watched the first minute or so of my demo video. Agreed, for the first section of my talk I stand on furniture and describe what it's like to ski at 135 mph - which is probably the reason my hair turned white.

But I'm lead to make my own wild assumption they made their mind up in the first 70 seconds of my promotional video. Now it's too late. They'll never know I take a great deal of pride in presentation customization. This prospect didn't take the time to know about the most recent talk I gave where the President of AMX, Rashid Skaf, said:

"Vince went above and beyond and really researched our company, understood what we were trying to achieve and got personally engaged with our story."

I feel as helpless as a teenager with acne standing at a closed door of a cheerleader who changed her mind about that first date.

To find the right company at the right time you've got 70 seconds to not only make a good first impression but leap past your prospect's mystifying assumptions. Know how to increase sales by understanding this occupational hazard of helping your prospects know what a great job you do and how well you do it.

Changing attitudes takes time when your prospects don't have time.

So, what's the solution? Your promotional materials may not be customizable for every situation. But tack on a way to educate managers and eliminate distractions associated with wild assumptions. You'll grab their attention for a bit longer than 70 seconds.

Here's what we do for our prospects. We send a 70-second video message that addresses prospect attitudes one perspective at a time.

It is designed to speak directly to our prospect in a way that makes them feel special (without having to wear a brunette wig and use that old fashioned floor thing to stand on). Here's an example sent to a recent prospect:

Moving forward, think of ways you can make a first impression that skips past wild assumptions and changes attitudes in one efficient stroke of personalized marketing.

Oh, and don't have hair that looks like it's colored, or stand on a chair, or talk in a can.

On the other hand, if you don't mind a white-haired, chair-standing professional presenter then let's talk...