I read recently that a study has found that we don’t see things all the time. Brain activity has peaks and troughs (about ten per second) and when it’s in a trough we don’t see.

Then there is inattentional blindness.

You know, the thing that happens when a man in a monkey suit walks across a two-ball basketball counting game (it happens all the time, but people fail to see monkey-man because they’re so busy counting the number of passes).

And then there’s the problem that my wife can’t find her keys or her phone or her address book (often her address book).

Because I understand the psychology of looking at stuff I know that her strategy is a reckless one. It’s no good putting stuff down any old place and relying on your eyes to find it when you start looking. You might momentarily have your attention elsewhere, or be in one of those brain activity dips when you happen to walk past it.

Then you get cross because you can’t find it and, when someone else points out where it is, you get even more cross because you’d looked there.

So I always put the things I might lose in the same place. I always know where they are. [One other option is to attach everything you own to a piece of string; that way you always know where it is… on the string.]

What has all this got to do with consumers? Well, when we do something in our business we see it. We know it’s there because we thought about it.

But that’s no guarantee that your customers will see it.

So one of the most important skills in understanding consumers is to recognise that they don’t see your world and your products in the way you do. If you have a physical shop it is really useful to stand back and watch where they look and, in particular, where there attention lingers.

If you only sell on-line there are only two things you can do:

  1. Learn how consumers’ minds work and what influences them (I wrote my EBook The Secret of Selling to help with this).
  2. Trial different approaches to how you present your information and measure the response.

Now, if I could only find my keys, I’d go to the bank like I’ve been meaning to for three days.

Philip Graves

23 Comments

  1. Don Shepherd

    I agree with what you are saying. In my business it is obvious to me that i’m doing everything i need to do to make my customers happy and to attract new customers. at least thats how i see it. in the past i have done surveys to find how my customers see things, and i’m always surprised if a customer only thinks i’m average in some respect. then i have to decide if i need to make a change,or do i need to refer the customer to someone else.

    Don Shepherd
    Central Oregon Expert

    reply to comment→
  14. Duane Cunningham

    Hi Phil,

    Yes i so know what your talking about! Its those pathways the brain creates and of course is familiar with repeated patterns or habits so if you do something the same way numerous times then of course you train the mind to ‘see’ where your keys or whatever are

    Great post!!

    Duane

    Discover Secret Persuasion
    Techniques that Work Like Magic by Tapping Into the Psychology of
    the Mind with The Persuasion Expert Duane Cunningham!

    reply to comment→
  21. mark mallen

    Philip, I figured out many of my posts are not showing up because I put have put 2 links after my name. Sorry about that. I have commented on all your posts but I am not sure how many showed. anyway, I watch a customers eyes when they sample a new flavor. If they just say good then I know it needs improvement. If they say, “Oh my God’ and their eyes roll back in their head then I know I have a winner.. Mark

    Marketingscoops

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