Your Prospect’s Worldview. 

In his book, Thinking: The New Science of Decision Making, author Gary Klein tells the story of Doug, a Navy fighter pilot.

Doug was an expert F4 pilot and flight instructor.

But the Navy wanted him to learn how to fly a new, more sophisticated aircraft—the A6.

Doug had no problem learning how to fly the A6. 

But in order to pass the final test, he needed to “certify” by landing his A6 on an aircraft carrier—which is significantly harder than landing at an airforce or navy base. The runway is shorter, thinner, and the carrier moves up and down in the water—sometimes as much as 20 or 30 feet.

But Doug had been landing on carriers for years. So no problem.

On his first approach, Doug lined up the nose of the plane with the middle of the runway and started his approach—like he had hundreds of times before.

But the Landing Signal Officer radioed Doug to “Come right.”

Doug can see that he’s perfectly lined up, so he ignores the Signal Officer and keeps going.

The Signal Officer repeats again “Come right, come right,” and Doug ignores him because he can see he is exactly on target. Finally, the Signal Officer waves him off and Doug has to pull up and go around for another try.

On the second approach, he again lines up perfectly.

Again, the signal officer tells him to “Come right.”

And again he ignores the advice and is waved off.

The third time Doug is worried about running out of fuel so he finally listens to the Signal Officer and completes the landing. But it’s not a good landing.

Doug does six more landings that day, but none of them are good enough to certify.

What’s worse, after seeing what’s happening, the commanding officer tells Doug he’ll get a last chance to certify the next day, but if he doesn’t get the landing right, his career is over.

Now imagine Doug’s shock. Yesterday he was one of the best pilots in the Navy. Tomorrow his career may be over.

Later that night, the Signal Officer dropped by Doug’s quarters to talk.

Rather than tell Doug what he was doing wrong or what he should do instead, the Signal Officer asked Doug, “What are you trying to do?”

Doug told him, “I had the aircraft perfectly lined up and you keep telling me to come right.”

Then the Signal Officer asked, “What aircraft have you been flying before the A6?”

“An F4,” Doug answers.

“Oh,” the Signal Officer says, “in an A6, the seats are side by side, not front and back. So there’s a difference.”

Doug answered, “It’s just a foot and a half. That’s not enough to make a difference.”

So the Signal Officer says, “Let’s try something. Extend your arm straight out and stick up your thumb. Imagine that’s the nose of the airplane. Close one eye and align your thumb with a line on the wall. Pretend that’s the nose of the plane lined up with the runway. Now move your head a foot and a half over. Pull your thumb over to the new line.”

That’s all it took. Doug immediately saw what was wrong.

Just a foot and a half completely changed the alignment of the whole aircraft. There was a parallax effect that the pilot can’t see while he’s in the air. But now it was obvious.

Doug understood the problem. The next day he completed his landings perfectly and kept his job.

—

Now, why share a story about a Navy pilot in a copywriting course? Simple. The purpose of your research is to understand your prospective customer and their world view.

The signal officer was telling Doug exactly what he needed to do in order to fix his problem. But Doug couldn’t see it. His world view was established by his experience flying an A4 aircraft. The signal officer was giving him the right information, but it didn’t matter… it didn’t make sense… because it didn’t fit Doug’s worldview.

But once the Signal Officer understood what Doug was experiencing, he could tailor the information he shared with Doug and help him change his belief system. And as a result, Doug gets what he needs—certification and a continued career which is another way of saying… a better version of himself. 

That’s exactly your job as a copywriter. You have information or a product or a service that can change your customer’s life. But if it doesn’t fit in their worldview, it doesn’t matter. What you write won’t make sense to them and they’ll ignore it. 

Your research will help you tap into your prospect’s worldview so your copy will be more effective.