Why You Must Become More Fascinating

Too often, exhibitors fail to see results simply because they don’t stand out from everyone else on the show floor.

We’re not talking gimmicky or wild attractions. Those may generate traffic, but not results. It’s not about simply getting noticed, but about delivering value and having a signature difference that sets you apart from all the noise. No matter how great your message, if you fail to connect with your audience, no one will listen. You have to fascinate them.

Sally Hogshead, author of How the World Sees You (debuting this week), shares a startling statistic: the amount of time you have to engage your audience is down to a mere nine seconds – roughly the same as the attention span of goldfish! “You will not win by being invisible,” she says. “Today, you will win by being seen and remembered.”

Her answer is to become more fascinating, which is the focus of her book.

When you’re un-fascinating, your messages are ignored, your e-mails go unread, and people view you as interchangeable with the competition. But when you discover how to truly fascinate your audience, all distractions melt away and you become impossible to ignore. (Think about the last time you got lost in a novel or swept away by a movie.)

The key is that there’s no one right way to fascinate – it needs to be in line with who you are.

While the book is geared toward your ability to fascinate as an individual, many of the same principles apply to companies as well. In fact, Hogshead spent much of her career helping companies craft their brand message as a top advertising professional. But over the past few years, she’s turned her attention to the science of fascination and has conducted research with more than 250,000 participants, including Fortune 500 teams, small businesses, and C-level executives. The result? She’s developed seven core “Advantages” that are key to communication and marketing:

• Power: the obvious leader who communicates with confidence and authority
• Passion: the natural connector who communicates with energy, emotion and enthusiasm
• Mystique: the analytic listener who communicates with facts and evidence
• Prestige: always strives to improve by communicating high standards of excellence
• Alert: focuses on results and structure and communicates in a detailed, precise way
• Innovation: the creative visionary who communicates by re-imagining things with a taste of adventure
• Trust: the dependable rock who communicates with stability and a sense of the familiar

So what does all this have to do with trade show marketing? By exploring the Seven Fascination Advantages you can discover what makes you distinctly valuable, not only as an individual for your career and relationships, but also as a company who better relates to ideal clients. Research has shown that people will pay up to four times more for a fascinating version of the same product. As a bonus, if you help others feel more fascinating they’ll pay handsomely for that benefit, too!

Want to discover your own personal Fascination Advantage®?

As part of the book launch, Sally Hogshead has given me a special VIP code to share with you. The first 100 people who use it will be able to take their Fascination Advantage® assessment online for free ($37 value)!
(This offer expires July 25, 2014, or when all codes have been redeemed.)

So how do you take the assessment? It’s simple and only takes five minutes or less (you can even do it on your phone).
1. Go to HowTheWorldSeesYou.com/YOU and use this code: BL-Marlys 
2. Once you’ve taken the assessment, go to ProjectFascination.com to request codes of your own to hand out.

So have you discovered what makes you fascinating? Please share your insights in the comments below.

If you want ideas for how to be more fascinating in your trade show promotions, join us for the Strategy of the Month in the Exhibit Marketers Café during July. We’ll share ideas for how to create more effective pre-show promotions and use special events to connect and engage.

© 2014 Marlys K. Arnold (from the June 2014 TradeShowTips Online. To receive tips like this in your inbox every month, please take a moment to fill out this request.)

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