So you’ve finally done it … created your amazing new offer!

Maybe its a product. Maybe it’s a workshop. All you know is that it’s awesome, and a perfect expression of what makes you unique.

The challenge is … no one else seems to notice.

You’ve run into the core problem standing between you and a successful business: It doesn’t matter how great your thing is, if no one knows it’s great.

If you’ve ever been there (or you’re there now), you may find yourself asking, “What do I have to do to MAKE THIS WORK?”

The key is attention. And I’m not talking about “cat video” attention.

I’m talking about:

• Capturing their attention
• Holding it.
• Expanding it.
• And building it to a fever pitch so your prospect sees YOU as their way out.

So how do you do this?

A catchy title is only the start. The real key to attention, interest AND profits (without all the hypey crazy stuff) is you must:

Meet them in the middle of their drama

People pay you when you meet them in the middle of one of their most painful problems. And offer them a powerful, believable path to take them beyond the problem to the solution.

So … why does this work?

Well … have you ever lost your smart phone? Or the remote? And have you ever tried telling yourself “Just let it go. It will turn up.”

Doesn’t work, does it?

The reason is: Humans are completion craving, resolution-obsessed machines. Loose ends, open loops and unsolved mysteries drive us nuts.

Especially when they’re causing us pain, or preventing us from getting what we want.

When you meet them in the middle of their drama, you are using this instinctual yearning for resolution to drive them willingly and happily towards your products and programs.

Hollywood has used this for years to capture, keep and profit from our attention. With story lines that hook us by instantly plunging us into an ongoing story line.

Remember 24? The amazing series with Kiefer Sutherland? Here is the first minute of the first episode of the first season:

Conflict! Mystery! In the first 26 seconds! Something is amiss between Jack Bauer and his wife. And while it’s only one of the plot twists in the series, wanting to know why hooks us long enough for the other ones can develop.

Not a 24 fan? Certainly you’ve seen the original Star Wars. Here’s the opening of the movie

The very first words of the famous “Star Wars Crawl” are “It is a period of civil war.” Boom! From the word go we are immersed in an ongoing drama.

In both cases, we are hooked because we are immediately plunged into a slew of unresolved issues and mysteries:

• What’s the problem with Jack and his wife?
• Why is it so important that they introduced it to us in the first 26 seconds?
• Who is fighting who in this intergalactic war? And why is that so important that they introduced it to us in the very first line of the movie?

Something is haywire.
Nasty stuff is already hitting the fan.

And not only do we want to know what’s going on. We want to know how its going to be resolved.

Your ideal clients are the same!

Their life is filled with ongoing problems, challenges and crises, some of which they are urgently seeking solutions for.

And when you meet them in the middle of that drama, and offer a resolution that takes them beyond it (instead of talking about “what you do”) you skyrocket the chances they become a grateful client.

So … how exactly do you meet them in the middle of their Drama?

#1 – You have to know what their drama is.

I was working with a mentor who once said, “It’s not as important to your prospects that you have their solution, as you understand their problem.”

In other words:  When you get the problem, you get the client.

So … what pressing specific situations or problems are your prospects currently immersed in that you help them resolve?

Fortunately, there are quite a few places to find out:

Facebook Groups:  Facebook Groups filled with your ideal clients are also filled with comments containing the challenges, complaints and problems that are bedeviling them.

As the great sage Yogi Berra once said, “You can observe a lot just by watching.” So resist them temptation to jump in and offer your opinions in Facebook groups. Just observe and see what the biggest challenges your ideal clients have.

You can also do the same with online forums.

Another great interesting site to investigate is Quora.com, where you can discover the most pressing problems your ideal clients are posting questions on.

Your current clients, with their complaints, problems and crises, are another great source for discovering specific dramas you can resolve.

Fact is, I could create an entire blog post on exactly where and how to do this. But these few will get you started.

#2 – Make sure they are Priority Problems.

Wealth Coach Robin Young asks, “Is it a ‘wake up in the morning’ problem? First problems get first dollars.“

You can’t just enter any drama. You have to enter a Priority Problem that is front and center in their lives. That they are willing to pay to solve.

It cannot be something they are only casually interested in. Or something that “might be nice to figure out someday.”

It’s best if its a consequential problem, where there is a steep financial or emotional cost to not solving it. And a payoff if they get it right.

Because when there is a substantial cost / payoff dynamic at play, there is an urgent pre-existing momentum towards rewarding their business to the first person who arrives in the midst of this drama with a solution.

#3 – Make the prospect the priority

This can be the toughest one, especially when you really want or need the sale, for emotional or financial reasons.

But very often the more you want the sale, the harder it is to close the sale.

• Your neediness can drive prospects away.
• Your urgency can prompt you to move to the sale too soon, making them feel pressured.
• Popping the offer without creating an awareness of the cost of not solving the problem, can make your offer seem like an abstract thing. Something they have to buy. Instead of something they’ve been hoping for.

When you make the client the priority you:

• Connect with them by listening to their drama. (Wow, she understands! She gets me!).
• Build trust by understanding the problem and not making them wrong for it. (I’m not a dweeb!)
• Build desire by creating an emotional awareness of what they would rather have instead. (There’s hope!)

So when you drop the offer as the bridge from the drama to the dream, (instead of a thing you are selling) you have created fertile emotional soil for it to take root. And made it easier for them to decide to become your client.

But one of the biggest benefits of meeting them in the midst of their drama is that it dissolves the things you fear most about selling:

• You can do it with respect.
• You can do it without hype.
• You replace external pressure to buy with the prospects own internal yearning for a solution.
• You can do it by making the prospect and what they want the focus.

And when you do it effectively, it’s one of the most powerful ways to “sell without selling”.

Every ideal prospect comes to you with a hidden gift:  An urgent ongoing drama, perpetually seeking resolution.  Whether aware of it not, they are also relentlessly scanning for the thing that breaks them through.

And when you meet them in the midst of that drama and with an offer that takes them beyond it, they are much more likely to choose you to guide them on that journey.