With the volumes of email I get from vendors (especially at this time of year) making claims of various sorts it tends to all get a little blurry. It´s like standing in the room full of Robots in the film iRobot (Will Smith movie from about 2 years ago...great video rental if you haven´t seen it and like sci-fi action movies) and trying to pick one out of the crowd. (Note: Will Smith eventually has to resort to blowing the head off of two of the robots to get the attention of the perpetrator robot he´s looking for)

While my inclination is not to resort to violence it´s tempting from time to time to get the attention of the vendors in order to sort the contenders from the pretenders. They all claim to have the best this and the most aggressive that or the most complete whatever.

Yet when you strip everything away some compelling business model must emerge. Some indispensable value must be present for the end user otherwise you´re just another ´me too´ vendor. If that´s the case you´re not likely to get much attention at all.

Do something completely different yet compelling enough with real business value and then you should have at least taken the time to test the market and get some meaningful testimonials that you can publicize and that just might get my attention.

I certainly don´t start out with the intent to make you work for some attention. Every company should get a chance to extol their products virtues to the media at some point. However, when my inbox gets jammed with requests for meetings/briefings at an upcoming show and your first attempt to reach me is two weeks before the show when my schedule is already booked it´s not likely that you´ll get my attention.

Planning (months) ahead and something completely different in you messaging might just get you the attention you´re looking for.