I'm a tennis fanatic—my whole family is. I'm a 4.0, my wife is a 3.5, (those are USTA rankings) and my daughter plays on her HS tennis team.

If a tennis match is being broadcast on the Tennis Channel, ESPN or FSN, life comes to an immediate standstill in my house. The dishes are left in the sink, laundry doesn't get done, and the dog doesn't get walked (we just put him out in the backyard).

We play tennis (lessons, matches, tournaments) 3-5 times a week, and we'll rarely schedule a vacation during the "slams" (Australian, French, US Opens and Wimbledon).

And yes, I want to have Roger Federer's baby.

Okay, you get the point.

Now recently it's been promulgated by physical trainers that tennis players, and presumably all athletes and weekend warriors, should not stretch before exercising, playing, competing, etc.

I'm not going to get into all the reasons why, or when you should actually do your stretching. Suffice it to say, stretching is detrimental to your health if it's the first thing you do before exerting yourself in any physical endeavor.

And I find it so interesting that the same prohibition also applies to, yup, marketers!

Stretching before presenting an offer will hurt a marketer's back-end (sales, that is) and...

It'll kill cash flow

Here's why...

Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). The entire developed world has it. And I'm not slighting those who are clinically diagnosed (though there seems to be some debate as to whether it really is a true medical disorder).

Nonetheless, because of technology, ambition, opportunity, cost-of-living and a myriad of other reasons—the most valuable, transitory, easily depleted, irreplaceable resource that can be neither seen, touched, smelled or heard—is time.

No one has a wealth of time, just a constantly growing deficit.

Therefore, as a marketer, if you don't grab your prospect's and customer's attention immediately with a compelling and captivating offer—the odds of making a sale is about the same as me turning off the TV when Roger Federer is playing.

And yet, if there is one affliction most marketers suffer from—it's Speed Deficit Disorder (SDD)

They don't get to the point—quick enough!

Every communication you have with your market, even if it's not sale-related—has to be clearly discernable and understandable, online and off, "above the fold". There's no time to warm-up and stretch.

And I'm not just talking about your headline—which is a whole 'nother topic. But even your headlines have to be clear and direct; they can't be cute or obtuse. A headline must possess all or most of the 4 U's: it has to be Useful, Urgent, Ultra-specific and Unique.

What I'm talking about here though, is your first sentence, your first paragraph—after your headline.

In every promotion, right from the get-go, you've got to tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em, before you tell 'em anything else.

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