Who is Sharliza?

Looking Sideways - An eccentric look at sales and marketing - Who is Sharliza?

I was paging through abou Time (Vol 5 No 2), the 1Time inflight magazine on a flight to Cape Town, recently. An article by PR Worx, First Female Pilot For 1time Airline, caught my eye.

1time Airline recently announced the addition of the first female pilot to its ranks. Sharliza van Heerden is the first woman in 1time history to pilot one of the airline's aircraft.

The article was disappointing in many respects, besides the fact that there still have to be 'firsts for women' in this emancipated day and age. However, it taught me a big lesson about one of the top influencing strategies used by master persuaders. More about that later.

I'm curious to find out more about Sharliza (unfortunately, the author didn't even get the basics of a good PR/news article right - what, when, where, why, who and how. Ok, there was a "who" and a "what" in it. I wanted to know a lot of things about Sharliza - what did she look like (no photo), how long had she been flying, how old was she, was she hot or not, was she single or married, is she Afrikaans or married to an Afrikaner, which plane will she be flying and so on.

I thought that the author of this article really blew it. Until I realised that the author had (by chance) tapped into a great persuasion strategy - curiosity. It is one of the things that really makes us human. Most of us have a curious nature and need to slake it regularly.

1Time had me. I needed to find out what Sharliza looked like and find out more about her. By making your audience curious and leaving them with a typical soap opera cliffhanger, you get them wanting more. The next day I start my search. First stop www.1time.co.za - nothing. Second stop www.aboutime.co.za - niks. By the way, check out the website and see how the magazine is presented - it's pretty cool. Third stop, type Sharliza van Heerden into www.google.co.za - nada. It had an opportunity to get me more involved in the human drama that makes up a company like 1Time. It had a chance to turn me into part of its family. Unfortunately, in this instance it really did blow it.

But, the learning for me was how quickly the article piqued my interest and aroused my curiosity. Enough to spend 15 minutes searching for Sharliza. Savvy marketers and sales professionals tell stories that arouse intereset and curiosity - each step of the story leading the audience to a final conclusion - Discovery.

Anyone got a photo of Sharliza?

Jacques de Villiers is a sales training and influencing expert

 

Comments

[Eric]

My first stop when trying to find someone is always the social network sites - facebook & linkedin

But checked for you and this method wouldn't have worked this time either.