Jun. 6, 2021
Read time: 92 minutes and 13 seconds.
tags:Let me ask you a question, and be honest: Does your business suffer from the following symptoms? Do you wonder where your next client is going to come from? Are you overwhelmed and overworked with trivial activities? Are you not focussing on high-yielding, revenue-producing activities? Are you trading time for money and not earning your true value? Are you stuck in a state of feast or famine? Are competitors with inferior products and services seeing more success than you and stealing your market share?
- Page 13 (location ~ 177-183)
So, heres the bottom line: Being busy is not the same as being productive. Our lives are full of distractions, and its hard to stay focussed when your world consists of hundreds of tiny tasks and millions of voices screaming for your attention. As the founder of a business that youre looking to scale, your focus needs to move from doing the everyday work to producing revenue for your business and steering the ship. If you dont aspire to scale your business and youre content with simply practising your craft, thats fine; however, this book likely isnt for you. The selling system outlined in this book is for business owners hungry for growth.
- Page 14 (location ~ 193-199)
What I mean is, no matter what industry youre in, once youve got a few team members, and youre looking to scale your business, youre no longer a builder, baker, or business consultant. Youre a marketer. The fate of your business lies not just in having the best product or service but in your ability to market your products or services. While this might be difficult for you to accept, its true. Im not saying you dont want to have the best product or service in your industry, Im saying the money is not in that because if you cant effectively communicate that to your market, it doesnt matter. The market doesnt pay you to have the best products or service. It rewards you for solving problems. A transaction takes places where, in the mind of the consumer, the value of the solution youre selling outweighs the price youre asking.
- Page 14 (location ~ 201-208)
Your focus should be on intimately understanding your market and your prospects deepest desires, pains, fears, hopes, and dreams. You need to know them better than any of your competitors, and then craft marketing messages that effectively communicate how you can solve these problems. This exercise is the single most valuable activity you can do in your business.
- Page 15 (location ~ 211-214)
Let me be brutally clear and not mince my words about what I believe to be the single most important rule in business. It is this: As the owner, your number one responsibility is to sell. Selling is not something you do on the side. Its not something you can outsource or completely delegate. Its the single most important job of any business and consequently any founder or owner. It doesnt matter whether you have a great product or service Your entire existence as an entrepreneur lives and dies by how effective your sales and marketing is at producing new revenue. Your business success is not based on your motivation, your team, your passion, or your desire to help people. If you have a marketing and sales machine that predictably brings in hordes of new customers every day like clockwork, owning a business can be phenomenal.
- Page 20 (location ~ 301-310)
They are in the business of selling those particular products and services. You bake bread. You build homes. You fill cavities. This part of your business, the product or service, is likely the reason you got started in business, and its easy to get wrapped up in this kind of thinking: Im a builder, so I must spend my time building homes. The fact is, most of the business owners time should be spent on the real business that every business owner is in selling. As a business owner, selling should be your number one priority and you must act accordingly. This means spending the bulk of your time on marketing and sales-related activities or as I call them, revenue-producing activities. This doesnt mean you have to be the one on the phone actually doing the selling yourself. Nor does it mean you must write every piece of sales copy on your website. However, you must be very much involved in every step of the sales and marketing process, so you understand the problems intimately and can identify the opportunities.
- Page 22 (location ~ 330-339)
To be a truly effective entrepreneur, you must become your businesss number one expert at selling.
- Page 22 (location ~ 341-342)
Establishing a selling system like the one outlined in this book is up to 90% of the battle in running a wildly successful business. Because if your business is being flooded with profitable sales, there really is no problem you cant solve with the right amount of money. No one you cant hire. No system you cant implement. Selling is not an optional task for an entrepreneur its essential. And if selling is essential, then learning to sell (i.e., developing the knowledge and skills needed to sell) is an obligation, not a choice. In this Phase, I will show you how to become a master at selling. Dont worry if you dont know anything about selling yet. Everything youre about to learn is easy to follow, and Ill teach you the lessons Ive learned from years in the trenches.
- Page 23 (location ~ 357-364)
When I was eight years old, I started waking up early so I could help her set up the caf where she worked before I went to school. I would sweep the floor, take out the tables and chairs, and set them up. When I was finished, she would give me a hot chocolate and some breakfast as my reward. Afterwards, kissing me on the cheek, shed tell me she loved me and send me off to school. Why am I telling you all this? Far out, isnt this meant to be a book about marketing? Yes, but this is an important point. Watching my mother work so hard to provide a great upbringing for my sister and me taught me the most valuable lesson Ive ever learned. And that is this: Nothing in life comes without hard work. Nothing is given to you. You dont get what you deserve. You get what you push, shove, scratch, and work your ass off for. My mother taught me firsthand that having a strong work ethic is the number one determining factor for success. After seeing this, I wanted to pull my own weight to help her. So, still only eight years old, I got my first weekend job making peanut butter at the local health food store for $2.50 per hour. I would give all the money I made to her. However, I soon realised that even if I worked eight hours a day, I would never be able to make a contribution that made my mothers life easier.
- Page 25 (location ~ 387-399)
I coined this quality the single parent mother work ethic. My personal motto was: I dont care how talented you are, how fortunate your upbringing was, or even if you had a better education or opportunities than me. You simply cant outwork me. Ever. And its this principle that continues to serve me. When I started King Kong in 2014 from my bedroom with no money, no venture capital, and no safety net I was entering a market with incredibly established players who had deep pockets and a huge head start. But over the intervening years Ive made many of these competitors wave the white flag and surrender. Ive sent a lot of these companies either out of business or Ive forced their hand to sell, as they simply cant keep up with the fire-breathing marketing machine that is King Kong.
- Page 28 (location ~ 442-449)
Having a single parent mother work ethic means being relentless. It means demanding more of yourself than anyone else could ever demand of you, knowing that every time you get tired, you can still do more. Put. In. The. Work. Every. Day. Do something you dont want to do first thing every morning. Challenge yourself to be uncomfortable and push past the mediocre, the laziness, and the fear.
- Page 29 (location ~ 454-457)
Im not here to sugarcoat life. Im not here to coddle you or tell you what you want to hear. Nor am I here to paint a picture of a lavish laptop lifestyle by the beach, sipping pia coladas as you click refresh on your internet banking account. Is that attainable? Yes. Does it require a crap-load more work than the Instagram famous would have you believe? Yes. But most people dont talk about it. They would rather show you their rented Lamborghini on Instagram. Or how they did a million-dollar week, all through affiliates and joint ventures, hiding all the painstaking work that goes into something like that. Or living their life as a faade on social media, trying to sell you their system on how you can click a button to riches, just like the false reality theyre living.
- Page 29 (location ~ 462-468)
Wherever you are now, however hard youre working, I want you to take it to another level you didnt even know was even possible. Get into that zone where you can shut out all the noise, negativity, fear, distractions, and lies, and achieve all that you want in whatever you do. I want you to light a fire inside yourself so big and so ablaze that no one can deny you. In business and in life, there are a multitude of factors outside of your control: How well funded your competitors are, the size and experience of their team, when they got started in business, their joint venture partners All of these things are outside of your control. The thing that is within your control is how hard you work. In anything you do, to work hard takes no special talent, luck, or exceptional resources. You simply just have to be willing to put in the work and do it. There are no excuses. Its no one elses fault. Its all on you.
- Page 30 (location ~ 474-481)
It may be when your alarm goes off and the voice inside your head says, Youve been working hard and had a late night just hit snooze and take another ten minutes. You need it. You deserve it. Close your eyes and just rest. Thats the Little Bitch whispering in your ear. If your Little Bitch is strong, it probably gets you to hit that snooze button of death several times before getting out of bed. Or maybe your Little Bitch rears its ugly head and tries to convince you to miss a workout, going on to justify and sell you on all the reasons why its ok to skip a session: Youre still sore from yesterdays session, and youve been consistent all week, just take a rest day today its all good. Again thats the Little Bitch. Or how about when youre at the office taking care of business? It might be when youre calling potential candidates to join your team, replying to emails, or writing sales copy for a new offer. Perhaps youre making sales calls and the Little Bitch comes out and whispers, Youve already had a bunch of great calls today with a handful of hopefuls, so dont worry about following up and calling every last proposal you sent last week. Youre doing great. And hey, if theyre really interested in buying, theyll call you. Little Bitch again.
- Page 31 (location ~ 487-497)
You need willpower, which is the control exerted to either do something or restrain impulses and the ability to control your own thoughts. If youre required to exert willpower to do something, it means theres internal conflict. It means, the why is not big enough or the why hasnt overtaken your desire for whatever the alternative is. You want to make your why so big that your how becomes easy. Your self-control is what will distinguish you from all the others. Its what will give you the ability to show up every day, whether its at the gym, at school, building your business, making money, or training in martial arts. Its doing what no one else is willing to do, so you can achieve what they wont. Thats what comes from conquering your Little Bitch and forging your self-control and discipline. You know what Im talking about and you probably cant believe Im talking about it. But I am. You not only need to come to terms with its existence, but also with the fact that you have to get it under control. You must let the Little Bitch know whos in control. Let it know whos the master. Starve it of oxygen and never let it see the light of day. Remove all the fear and inhibition it breeds. You must let your hunger for success, in all areas of your life, out-wrestle your Little Bitch, making it obedient to your hunger for success.
- Page 32 (location ~ 502-513)
Fall in love with the work itself, not just the result. Learn to enjoy the excruciating pain, you must endure to be successful. Success isnt just talent. Talent will help get you started but it wont get you to the Promised Land. You have to create a work ethic that ensures you become successful. Hard work and effort will beat talent 99% of the time. Put in the work to ensure your success. Dont look for shortcuts. Dont make excuses.
- Page 33 (location ~ 517-520)
There is one business owner who wakes up at 8am, has breakfast and gets to work at 9:30am, answers emails, manages some admin, and begins to work on important activities by 11am. One hour of work goes by, and its 12pm time for lunch. He goes to lunch and is back in the office at 1:30pm. There are a few emails that need replying to, and after doing that its now 2:30pm. His focus turns back to the important activities, and it takes fifteen minutes to get back in the zone and start to focus. An hour goes by and its 3:45pm when the phone rings. He gets stuck on a call with a client, vendor, or manager. By the time he finishes, its 4:30pm. A few more emails have come through, along with a handful of messages on office chat. Its now 5:30pm and time to go home and switch off for the day. Add it up: over the entire day, his actual productive time spent creating value for himself and his company was two hours.
- Page 34 (location ~ 532-539)
Remember? I was being yelled at, abused, and I couldnt understand why people were so angry. I asked myself, Why wont anybody listen to me? It was from pondering this question that I had my first breakthrough. While it might seem obvious, I realised that nobody cared about me, my product, or anything else I was babbling about on the phone. They cared only about themselves! I realised then and there that my pitch had to only be about how I could benefit them. I stopped talking about our company, our products, our services, our mission, or even the name of our company. If a prospect asked, What company are you calling from, I missed that? I would simply divert back to the reason for my call and switch the focus entirely onto how we could help them. I quickly found the more the call focused on solving their problem, the more sales I made.
- Page 41 (location ~ 648-656)
The bottom line is, no matter what business youre in and no matter what youre selling, your pursuit for wealth and success will always and forever be served by your ability to craft a killer sales pitch. You can make great money selling one-to-one. But theres a limit. As we know, there are only so many hours in a day, only so many calls you can make, only so many doors you can knock. And, if you limit yourself to one-on-one selling, youll never really make big money. To truly make big money, youve got to use an automated selling system to get your sales message in front of huge numbers of people all at the same time. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. I look at my sales message as being my salesman soldier. I look at Google Ads, Facebook ads, and radio and YouTube ads as the delivery vehicles I use to deploy that salesman soldier and deliver my message automatically without me having to exert more effort the more times I deliver
- Page 42 (location ~ 673-681)
The bottom line is, no matter what business youre in and no matter what youre selling, your pursuit for wealth and success will always and forever be served by your ability to craft a killer sales pitch. You can make great money selling one-to-one. But theres a limit. As we know, there are only so many hours in a day, only so many calls you can make, only so many doors you can knock. And, if you limit yourself to one-on-one selling, youll never really make big money. To truly make big money, youve got to use an automated selling system to get your sales message in front of huge numbers of people all at the same time. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. I look at my sales message as being my salesman soldier. I look at Google Ads, Facebook ads, and radio and YouTube ads as the delivery vehicles I use to deploy that salesman soldier and deliver my message automatically without me having to exert more effort the more times I deliver it.
- Page 42 (location ~ 673-681)
A good example of this sort of heres-my-stuff-come-buy-from-us advertising can be found on any Google search results page. Just do a search on financial planners. Heres what most say: Financial Planning Services, Friendly & Trusted Experts, Tailor-Made Advice, Trusted Advisors, 30+ Years of Experience, blah blah blah…. Every single ad basically says the same thing. Its impossible for a prospect to make an intelligent decision about whom to call based on any criteria other than whos got the prettiest website. The prospect cant determine if any of the products or services are any better or any worse or different than those offered by the sea of competitors. This situation is true for any medium. Your ads should make a red-hot pitch for your product or service in the same way as a salesperson would in a face-to-face selling situation. Look at your ads. If you were talking live to a hot prospect, your dream buyer, would you say the same thing your current advertising says to convince them to buy from you? If youd say something different, then you need to light those ads on fire and rethink your whole advertising strategy.
- Page 44 (location ~ 703-713)
Get this: On Google, people make 3.5 billion searches per day. As for Facebook, there are over 16 million active users in Australia alone. You can have a Google Ads account set up and running in under 30 minutes, giving you access to literally millions or billions of people within hours. Or you could set up a Facebook Ad campaign in a couple of hours and have access to the 1.8 million Aussies who log on every day! Were living in an age where you have access to millions of prospects within hours. Its incredible, and I could go on about this for hours, but heres my point: If there is so much traffic available at your fingertips, and you can literally go and buy as much as you want at any time, then why do businesses say they have a traffic problem? The truth is this: They dont have a traffic problem! They have a conversion problem. When you really think about it, this traffic complaint makes zero sense. How can you have a traffic problem when digital marketing has made traffic more abundant then its ever been? The real issue here is not in buying traffic. Anyone with an internet connection and a credit card can do that.
- Page 46 (location ~ 735-744)
If you want to land those high-value clients like clockwork and grow your business to $1,000,000 a month in revenue or beyond without spending 70 or 80 hours a week in your business, then you need an automated lead generation and client conversion system that turns advertising into profit. You need a system you can put $1 in which generates $2, $5, $10, $50 or even $200 back. You see, the most dependable and predictable way to grow sales and generate wealth is to turn advertising into profit. And if you cant pay money to acquire a new customer, then you dont have a business. Let me say that again: If you cant pay money to acquire a new customer, you do not have a business.
- Page 47 (location ~ 747-753)
If you want to land those high-value clients like clockwork and grow your business to $1,000,000 a month in revenue or beyond without spending 70 or 80 hours a week in your business, then you need an automated lead generation and client conversion system that turns advertising into profit. You need a system you can put $1 in which generates $2, $5, $10, $50 or even $200 back. You see, the most dependable and predictable way to grow sales and generate wealth is to turn advertising into profit. And if you cant pay money to acquire a new customer, then you dont have a business. Let me say that again: If you cant pay money to acquire a new customer, you do not have a business. If youre solely relying on free traffic, referrals, joint ventures, or other channels like these, then you dont have a predictable and dependable way to grow your business. Youre simply at the whim of whatever fate drops in your lap. However, generating a return on investment from paid advertising is like pulling a lever and having cash drop into your account. Its predictable, repeatable, and scalable.
- Page 47 (location ~ 747-757)
Yet despite this reliable, lucrative return, many businesses brag that they dont spend money on advertising. They almost wear it as a badge of honour. And usually they dont advertise because they think of it as an expense. However, thats a huge tell-tale sign that youre playing too small. You see Advertising is an investment that makes more money than anything else. Period. But its not your typical investment, where you stick a bunch of money into something and hope you end up rich when youre old. Because when done properly, advertising can make you money almost immediately. Just like billionaires who leverage money to make more money, you can also multiply your money by attracting high- value clients through smart investing in paid advertising.
- Page 51 (location ~ 809-815)
Lets start at the top of the pyramid. In any given market at any given time, 3% of people are in buying mode. If you pick up the newspaper, watch TV, or do a Google search, youll see ads shouting, We have the biggest range and the best prices! These ads are directed at that 3%, and the conversation goes something like this: Im thirsty right now. Would you like this crisp glass of fresh water? Yes please! Thats not hard. A high percentage of the 3% will buy. You might get a few objections like, I dont want room temperature water. Can you give it to me chilled? Not hard to rectify. The problem is, your competitors are going hard after that top 3%. If you split up that 3% of easy customers between you and your competitors, youre never going to make much money. The real money is in the 37% of people who are saying, Im kinda thirsty what should I drink? They are either gathering information (17%) or problem aware (20%).
- Page 54 (location ~ 852-861)
To reach the 97% who arent ready to buy now (but could be very soon), you have to educate them. When a prospect isnt informed or knowledgeable on a subject, theyre in a state of uncertainty and people dont buy in this state. But the more they know, the more likely they are to buy. The bonus here is, if you are the one educating them, youre also making sure that when they hit the buy now stage, theyll be likely to buy from you. To do this, your message must be powerful, insightful, and education-based, and not simply a promotional piece about your company.
- Page 55 (location ~ 869-873)
To reach the 97% who arent ready to buy now (but could be very soon), you have to educate them. When a prospect isnt informed or knowledgeable on a subject, theyre in a state of uncertainty and people dont buy in this state. But the more they know, the more likely they are to buy. The bonus here is, if you are the one educating them, youre also making sure that when they hit the buy now stage, theyll be likely to buy from you. To do this, your message must be powerful, insightful, and education-based, and not simply a promotional piece about your company. Whats also happening is that youre changing the dynamics and psychology of the relationship between your business and your potential customers. Its a technique that means youre no longer chasing clients. Instead, theyre putting their hands up and requesting to speak to you. They want you to help them. They start pursuing you or calling you to enquire about your products and services. Its a game changer, and its hands down the best way to attract business online.
- Page 55 (location ~ 869-877)
The key is to install a system that: Attracts Educates Nurtures Gets prospects to act! This is vitally important for any business looking to grow rapidly and consistently. Because when you have a system that takes cold traffic from Google, Facebook, or any other channel and warms it up, youre only talking to interested prospects, not time-wasters.
- Page 56 (location ~ 879-884)
Heres what you need to do: Educate your prospects so they know more about the process of solving their problem, and theyre empowered to make a better buying decision. (Do this using a High-Value Content Offer, i.e. free reports, videos, cheat sheets, or other value-based materials. Youll learn how to do this in Phase 2.) Take your best sales pitch or frequently asked questions and turn them into assets that nurture prospects on autopilot. At the same time as giving them information, youre also moving them up the pyramid. (Do this using the Magic Lantern Technique, which youll learn in Phase 6.) Position your solution as the obvious choice. Make them an irresistible offer using The Godfather Strategy. (Youll learn how to do this in Phase 4.) If you can actively and skilfully move people up the pyramid, you can shift many of the 97% of prospects from not buying right now or not even thinking about it to becoming your customer right away.
- Page 56 (location ~ 888-898)
When it comes to acquiring new customers, the most basic starting point is understanding who they are. When you understand this, you can tailor your marketing message directly for your audience. Many businesses fall into the trap of believing they know who their customers are. They acquire rudimentary data such as their gender, age, and perhaps even their location, and stop right there. This is a big mistake, because knowing them intimately can make the difference between winning and losing. Here are two important points: Understanding someones age and gender is not enough to really know them. Anyway, your competition is already doing this, so with this minimalist approach, the best you can do is match their data. For your message to stand out from the crowd and really win customers, you must go deeper. Much deeper.
- Page 57 (location ~ 908-916)
You must know your customer intimately! When it comes to acquiring new customers, the most basic starting point is understanding who they are. When you understand this, you can tailor your marketing message directly for your audience. Many businesses fall into the trap of believing they know who their customers are. They acquire rudimentary data such as their gender, age, and perhaps even their location, and stop right there. This is a big mistake, because knowing them intimately can make the difference between winning and losing. Here are two important points: Understanding someones age and gender is not enough to really know them. Anyway, your competition is already doing this, so with this minimalist approach, the best you can do is match their data. For your message to stand out from the crowd and really win customers, you must go deeper. Much deeper. You need to uncover your customers deepest and most primal desires. You must delve into their fears, hopes, wishes, and dreams. This is the stuff theyre thinking but dont tell anyone. You need to move beyond the obvious and work out how your audience thinks, feels, and acts. As Robert Collier said Enter the conversation already taking place in the customers mind. So how do you really identify your dream buyer? Your dream buyer can be identified through Paretos principle of the 80/20 rule. How?
- Page 57 (location ~ 907-923)
I call these customers your Power 4%. Why? Because they have the power to make you filthy rich! Once you identify your Power 4%, you want to learn all about them. Not just the usual stuff like age, gender, location, what products or services they enquired about, and how they found you or what channel they came in from (although you want to know that too). You need to know them much more intimately. You need to read your prospects mind. You must be obsessed with their passions, dreams, fears, and desires. Getting to know all this crucial detail is what we call The Halo Strategy. Its the most powerful strategy of them all and the most important to get right as none of the other stuff matters if you cant nail this.
- Page 58 (location ~ 929-935)
Once you identify your Power 4%, you want to look at what characteristics they share. Start with the obvious data including age, location, and education level. In addition to this, you then need to look at what products or services they enquired about and how they found you or what channel they came in from. This gives you incredibly valuable information you can use with a variety of marketing tools to find the same type of customers out there who dont know about your business yet.
- Page 59 (location ~ 935-939)
Search on Google for popular blogs, LinkedIn forums, YouTube comment sections, Amazon reviews, Reddit, Quora, and social media platforms. Go wherever your audience hangs out and congregates. Look at what your audience is saying and feeling. What are they happy with? What are they unhappy with? Look at their concerns and questions. Notice any themes? Are they banging their head against the wall on the same issue over and over? Pay close attention to the language theyre using when it comes to the existing products and services already on the market. Once youve collected all your information, organise your findings into categories of comments or concerns that appear the most, noting what feelings were most dominant.
- Page 59 (location ~ 944-950)
To read the mind of your prospects and know exactly the questions theyre asking during the research and buying cycle, the auto-suggest results provided by Google and Bing are a goldmine of insights.
- Page 60 (location ~ 953-955)
The next best thing to actually reading your customers mind is AnswerThePublic.com. This tool is one of the best-kept secrets in the sales and marketing industry, and it will give you invaluable insight into what your customers are thinking. At AnswerThePublic, you type in your keyword or search phrase and the tool generates a diagram of related searches. Depending on your search term, you can get hundreds of results that give you direct insight into what your audience is thinking, the kind of questions theyre asking, and the hot-button issues theyre struggling with. And once you know their questions and issues, you can provide the solution.
- Page 60 (location ~ 958-963)
Other great places to look are Facebook Groups and pages around your market and niche. These are goldmines for valuable information. These are what you want to look through: All posts by the page owner All posts by visitors to a fan page Count of engagements for a post by page owner Count of engagements by post type
- Page 61 (location ~ 977-982)
No one can afford to address everyones problems, especially in todays market conditions where the media we use to reach our customers is so highly fragmented. If your business is going to compete with the big guys, you have to zero in on your dream buyer. A lot of business owners simply say, Im targeting whoever is interested in my services. Some say that their target is business owners, homeowners, property investors, or mothers. Its a good start, but these targets are much too general to go after. Specificity is key. And while defining your dream buyer might seem like you are excluding other audiences who might buy from you, keep in mind that targeting a specific dream buyer doesnt mean you have to exclude anyone who doesnt fit that criteria.
- Page 62 (location ~ 991-997)
And look, while you might be thinking that creating a dream buyer persona isnt the sexiest thing, let me tell you this: Advertising channels change. Landing page builder software changes. Algorithms change. Tactics change. But the fundamentals of learning what people want, understanding exactly where you can help them, and then telling the right people about it in the most persuasive way are timeless strategies that worked 100 years ago and will work 1,000 years from now. This chapter is about getting to know the right people your dream buyers who will benefit the most and pay you most for your products and services.
- Page 63 (location ~ 1001-1006)
1. Where does your dream buyer hang out and congregate? Name both online and offline places where your dream buyers hang out and congregate. The more detailed and specific, the better. Hangs out on Facebook is too general. Hangs out in the Mothers of Melbourne Facebook group is more precise and actionable. Likes the outdoors is too general to mean anything insightful and actionable. Likes going to the park every Saturday morning with her two kids shows habits and values and is specific. Reads blogs isnt targeted enough. Obsessively reads Rockin Mama, Mamavation, and Reddit is defined and revealing. Knowing exactly where your dream buyers are hanging out influences a lot of things including where you should advertise, what you should advertise, the tone of your copy, and vernacular to use.
- Page 63 (location ~ 1009-1018)
2. Where does your dream buyer get their information? When your dream buyer is in research mode, where do they go to find the answers they seek? Is it Google? A particular blog? Books? Magazines? YouTube? Write your findings as a simple sentence: When Sally is curious about a topic, the first place she goes is Google search on her iPhone.
- Page 64 (location ~ 1019-1022)
Here are a few examples to get your creative juices flowing: I wish someone would just write this sales copy for me. I need to lose ten kilos before my wedding. Ugh. I wish I could just have someone run my Facebook ads for me. Your dream buyers frustrations and challenges are integral to the products and services you offer. Whatever it is you are selling has to solve a problem large enough that your dream buyer will happily part with their hard-earned money for you to solve it for them.
- Page 64 (location ~ 1026-1031)
When your dream buyer sees a testimonial from a customer who solved their biggest frustrations and challenges with your product or service, then they are more likely to buy from you. They can see this positive transformation take place in someone else.
- Page 65 (location ~ 1036-1037)
4. What are their hopes, dreams, and desires? Knowing your dream buyers hopes, dreams and desires helps you paint a vivid picture of what life could be like after using your products and services. Think of it as selling the dream and painting a picture of the Promised Land. When your products or services help your dream buyer attain their hopes, dreams, and desires, it becomes much easier to write copy for your landing pages, website, ads, and other assets you leverage to sell more goods and services.
- Page 65 (location ~ 1038-1042)
What are your dream buyers deepest fears? What keeps them up at night, tossing and turning, unable to sleep? What do they worry about in their mind but never tell anyone? Fully understanding your markets deepest and most primal fears is an often overlooked component to crafting a customer avatar. However, in my opinion, its equally as important, if not more, than understanding their hopes, dreams, and desires. Why? People are motivated more by pain than they are by pleasure. They are more motivated by fear of loss than they are by the desire to gain something.
- Page 66 (location ~ 1058-1062)
6. What is their preferred form of communication? Email? Text? Chat? Facebook Live? Or do they prefer physical mail? This is a matter of where your audience wants you to communicate with them. The fundamental lesson here is to communicate with your customers where they already are. Dont try and move them onto something that is more convenient for you rather than where they already are.
- Page 67 (location ~ 1069-1072)
7. What phrases, exact language, and vernacular do they use? As previously mentioned, Robert Collier has this fantastic quote: Enter the conversation already taking place in the customers mind. You see, there is already language and niche-specific terms being used in your customers mind for their hopes, dreams, pain, fears, and desires.
- Page 67 (location ~ 1073-1076)
7. What phrases, exact language, and vernacular do they use? As previously mentioned, Robert Collier has this fantastic quote: Enter the conversation already taking place in the customers mind. You see, there is already language and niche-specific terms being used in your customers mind for their hopes, dreams, pain, fears, and desires. Your job is to listen and write them down.
- Page 67 (location ~ 1073-1076)
When using The Halo Strategy to conduct research on where your buyers are hanging out and congregating, you must document the exact phrases and terminology they use and store them in a spreadsheet to spark ideas for website copy, landing pages, and ads. Take specific comments from Reddit, Facebook Group, or YouTube, and document your audiences word-for-word responses.
- Page 68 (location ~ 1077-1080)
Your dream buyer is a completely different person at 8am on a Monday morning than at 6:30pm on a Friday. Be aware of this and use it in your marketing. 9. What makes them happy?
- Page 69 (location ~ 1102-1103)
Identify the 20% of customers who account for 80% of your sales volume and profits, and your Power 4% of customers. Using The Halo Strategy, identify what they struggle with. Organise your findings. Create your dream buyer customer.
- Page 70 (location ~ 1124-1127)
Now imagine the ad began with this headline: WARNING: Do Not Buy A New House Before Reading This Shocking Free Report What You Dont Know About Building A New House That Could Cost You Tens-Of-Thousands Of Dollars And Threaten The Financial Livelihood Of Your Family 11 Things No Homebuilder Would Dare Tell You Before Taking A Deposit (Number 5 Could Cost You $100,000S) 6 Fatal Traps Of Buying A New Home Exposed! The Dirty Little Lies No Real Estate Agent, Builder, Or Even A Buyers Advocate Would Dare Tell You! So many more people would be compelled to read your ad and get in touch with you for your free report, right? If you present information that reads like a public service announcement, youre guaranteed to stand out from the crowd in a huge way. Ads like this incentivise prospects, drawing them towards you with the promise of value and, importantly, no sales pitch. The valuable information youre offering here is called a High-Value Content Offer (HVCO), and it draws leads to you like moths to a flame.
- Page 72 (location ~ 1142-1153)
Now imagine the ad began with this headline: WARNING: Do Not Buy A New House Before Reading This Shocking Free Report What You Dont Know About Building A New House That Could Cost You Tens-Of-Thousands Of Dollars And Threaten The Financial Livelihood Of Your Family 11 Things No Homebuilder Would Dare Tell You Before Taking A Deposit (Number 5 Could Cost You $100,000S) 6 Fatal Traps Of Buying A New Home Exposed! The Dirty Little Lies No Real Estate Agent, Builder, Or Even A Buyers Advocate Would Dare Tell You! So many more people would be compelled to read your ad and get in touch with you for your free report, right? If you present information that reads like a public service announcement, youre guaranteed to stand out from the crowd in a huge way. Ads like this incentivise prospects, drawing them towards you with the promise of value and, importantly, no sales pitch. The valuable information youre offering here is called a High-Value Content Offer (HVCO), and it draws leads to you like moths to a flame. HVCOs come in multiple forms free reports, ebooks, videos, cheat sheets but the goal is always the same: to offer your prospects incredible value, typically in the form of the solution to a problem theyre struggling with, without asking them to purchase anything in return. In return for all the value youre providing, all you ask for is their name and email address.
- Page 72 (location ~ 1142-1156)
Built on the simple premise of giving before asking, value-based marketing is about offering value to your customers without asking for a sale in return. In my business, we use this in everything we do to create goodwill in the marketplace. Because when you deliver massive value to your prospects, you score a double whammy: First, your prospects thank you for the materials. Second, you position yourself as the trusted expert. So while everyone else is just screaming, Buy, buy, buy! youre building goodwill by showing people you could help them by actually helping them!
- Page 73 (location ~ 1171-1177)
It begins with a brilliantly-written headline that you could model for your own business, beginning with What everybody ought to know about. This is a great headline because it presupposes that everybody wants to know about the stock and bond business and also assumes there are things you dont know. (Personally, Id like to split test with the use of numbers The 11 things that everybody ought to know about) But this is where it gets really powerful. Because while your competitors are pretending they dont want to sell anything or theyre just screaming Buy! Buy! Buy!, this ad straight out of the gate addresses reader scepticism by having a box that reads, Why are we publishing this information? The This is why strategy is brilliant and you should model it for your business to increase trust in your marketplace and ultimately your sales.
- Page 76 (location ~ 1210-1217)
By todays standards, the copy isnt spectacular; its more the overall approach thats so brilliant the way they phrase the call to action, which of course is, Let us know if you want more information. The call to action (CTA) goes on to say, We cant cover everything here as it would take several volumes and naturally you probably have further questions, wed be glad to send you a copy of this ad in pamphlet form, at no charge, no obligation just write or phone us. This whole approach worked incredibly well and helped make Merrill Lynch a household name far beyond Wall Street. Now at this stage you might be thinking, yeah this all sounds great Sabri But no one reads all that copy these days. People have short attention spans.
- Page 77 (location ~ 1229-1235)
Ive spent $30 million dollars on generating traffic and running thousands of scientific split tests, and I can tell you without a shadow of doubt that long-form copy works. With one caveat: The copy must be entertaining and engaging. You cant simply write long copy and think that its going to make your prospect buy. With that said, when your copy is entertaining, people wont care how long it is.
- Page 78 (location ~ 1239-1242)
Why this approach is so much more effective than what everyone else is doing There are three ways we can influence people: Talk about how good we are. Have others talk about how good we are. Demonstrate how good we are. In sales and marketing, #3 is the most effective. Demonstrating how good you are doesnt only help with influencing them, but it creates heaps of goodwill and helps you reach a much larger segment of your market, like it did with Merrill Lynch. And lets not forget, people are 10 times more likely to come to you to learn something than they are to be sold to.
- Page 79 (location ~ 1256-1263)
HVCO Rule #1: Create an Attention-Grabbing Headline HVCO Rule #2: Make sure every point touches a burning issue. HVCO Rule #3: Keep it simple. Now, theyre all important, and well come to rules #2 & #3 in a moment; but first, the single most critical part of this process is having an attention-grabbing headline that stops your prospects in their tracks, grabs them by the throat, and creates so much intrigue that it practically forces them to give you their contact details.
- Page 81 (location ~ 1282-1287)
So Hayden sold the rest of her books to discount book stores and flea marketers who sell books for 99 cents. It was there that a New York publisher stumbled across the book, bought it, read it, and thought, This is a great book about how to seduce women. He called Naura Hayden and bought the rights to the book and republished it. He didnt change one word inside the book. Exact same book The product was the same. But he changed the title to this: How to Satisfy a Woman Every Time and Have Her Beg for More!
- Page 81 (location ~ 1294-1299)
And that was an offer that someone actually wanted. The take-away for you is simple and clear: Identify your Dream Buyers single most pervasive and persistent hair-on-fire problem and then offer them the single most valuable and immediate solution. Once youre clear on this, really labour over figuring out the best possible title for your free report.
- Page 82 (location ~ 1305-1309)
Consider an HVCO that King Kong put together: 22 Money Murdering Mistakes That No Web Designer Would Dare Tell You. Its a lot more compelling than Five Things You Should Know When Building Your Website. We dialled up the volume, using strong imagery that provoked a visceral response. You want to make your title burn with intrigue and be absolutely irresistible If the title of your HVCO isnt enticing and doesnt stop people in their tracks, then nobodys going to download it. And if nobody downloads it, youll have nobody entering the top of your funnel and youll have nobody to call. Youll have no leads and youll make no sales. Having a really good title to your HVCO literally pulls everybody into the top of the funnel.
- Page 83 (location ~ 1313-1319)
HEADLINE ESSENTIAL #1 YOU NEED A HEADLINE THAT GRABS THEM AND PRACTICALLY FORCES THEM TO READ YOUR MATERIAL On average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When youve written your headline, youve spent eighty cents out of your dollar. - David Ogilvy
- Page 83 (location ~ 1321-1324)
Look at the wording: Exposed! Revealed! Confession! Horror! Secret! Torture! These are all emotional trigger words that strike up very visceral emotions. Now at this stage you might be thinking, I could never position my business as these trashy mags do! Slow down. Be patient and stay with me.
- Page 85 (location ~ 1339-1342)
HEADLINE ESSENTIAL #2: NUMBERS Numbers give your prospects a tangible object or logical idea to wrap their head around. They also lay out a structure the reader instantly knows will be easy to follow (not forgetting it makes it easier for you to write). Would you rather read 5 things you must know before hiring a wedding planner or Some helpful information about hiring a wedding planner? The answer should be obvious.
- Page 85 (location ~ 1349-1352)
A great way to create irresistible intrigue is by using words such as Must, Alarming, Shocking, Wont Tell You, Exposed! Revealed Confession! Horror Secret.You can download an additional list of power words to help you get started at https://resources.selllikecrazy.co/
- Page 87 (location ~ 1368-1371)
HEADLINE ESSENTIAL #4: SHOW THEM WHATS IN IT FOR THEM Your HVCO should ultimately be about them and their desired outcome. Your prospect needs (and wants) an immediate benefit and the key is to write about them not you. Show them how theyll learn simple tips that will help solve their problem.
- Page 87 (location ~ 1374-1378)
You must add as many specific and vivid details as possible. Lets look at one of the titles for a free report we looked at earlier: 7 Things You Must Know Before Hiring a Financial Planner Thats already better than most. Most people would generally go with something very vague like: 7 Things to Know About Financial Planning How can we juice this up and make it more irresistible? Lets add in some power words. 7 Alarming Things You Must Know Before Hiring A Financial Planner 7 Shocking Things You Must Know Before Hiring A Financial Planner 7 Horrors You Must Know Before Hiring A Financial Planner Thats a bit better, but what else can we do to really get these singing? Well, one more thing we can do to take these titles to the next level is to make them as specific and bursting with intrigue as possible. 7 Horrors You Must Know Before Hiring a Financial Planner (Not knowing these could cost you $10,000s!)
- Page 87 (location ~ 1379-1392)
You must add as many specific and vivid details as possible. Lets look at one of the titles for a free report we looked at earlier: 7 Things You Must Know Before Hiring a Financial Planner Thats already better than most. Most people would generally go with something very vague like: 7 Things to Know About Financial Planning How can we juice this up and make it more irresistible? Lets add in some power words. 7 Alarming Things You Must Know Before Hiring A Financial Planner 7 Shocking Things You Must Know Before Hiring A Financial Planner 7 Horrors You Must Know Before Hiring A Financial Planner Thats a bit better, but what else can we do to really get these singing? Well, one more thing we can do to take these titles to the next level is to make them as specific and bursting with intrigue as possible. 7 Horrors You Must Know Before Hiring a Financial Planner (Not knowing these could cost you $10,000s!) 7 Alarming Things You Must Know Before Hiring A Financial Planner (#3 Will Blow Your Mind!)
- Page 87 (location ~ 1379-1393)
Timeless Formulas For Your HVCO Titles Timeless Formula #1 X ways to achieve [Desirable Thing] without doing [Undesirable Thing] Example: 6 Ways to Get Washboard Abs Without Doing a Single Sit -Up Timeless Formula #2 [Do Difficult Thing] in [Specific Period of Time] Even if [Shortcomings] Example: Pay Off Your Mortgage in 7 Years Even if You Have a Modest Income Timeless Formula #3 Achieve [Desirable Thing] like [An Expert] Even Without [Something Expected] Example: Paint Masterpieces Like Picasso Without Ever Having a Single Lesson! Timeless Formula #4 How to Eliminate [Biggest Problem] without doing [The Thing They Hate] Within [Specific Timeframe] Example: How to Eliminate Your Muffin Top Without Giving Up the Foods You Love Within 21 Days or Less!
- Page 90 (location ~ 1413-1428)
For example, if your headline is this: 5 Shocking Ways Internet Thieves Are Stealing Your Private Data And the Secrets to Protecting Your Family! Every point or subhead in the text needs to support this assertion. For example, a subhead could be: #1 Think Your Password Keeps You Safe? Think Again! And, #2 Destructive Malware Will Fry Your Computer! The point is that if you make an assertion in your title or headline, you must back it up in the text. Keep up the pressure!
- Page 91 (location ~ 1435-1442)
Start by writing a free report or ebook. There are lots of different types of HVCOs (see below for a list), but reports and ebooks are easy to create, and you can have one up and sucking in leads in no time. All you have to do is write a short report (5-6 pages is plenty) and convert it into a PDF. (Dont let the simplicity fool you into thinking theyre not effective. Some of the most popular HVCOs Ive ever deployed were only eight pages.) You dont even have to write your report from scratch. You could compile your most popular blog posts into one easy-to-digest guide, jazz it up with basic styling, and convert it into a PDF.
- Page 92 (location ~ 1443-1448)
HVCO Types FREE Consultation Coupons Checklists Cheat sheets Quizzes Videos Video course Toolkit Calendar Podcast Interview Live demo Tickets Email course Physical product Swipe file Infographic Custom pricing White paper Ebook T-Shirt Industry statistics Case study How-to guide PDF download Webinar E Course Phone call Assessment
- Page 92 (location ~ 1451-1473)
Using the comments and concerns you discovered in Phase 1, brainstorm a HVCO you can produce to answer the questions keeping your ideal customer up at night. Choose your best idea and create a solid High-Value Content Offer (a free report, video or cheat sheet, etc.) that gets your dream buyer to raise their hands and identify themselves as being interested in what youre selling. The content and title of this HVCO should address the #1 most common hair on fire question or concern your market is having and that kept coming up from your research. The HVCO should be positioned to solve that problem or answer that question.
- Page 94 (location ~ 1474-1479)
When building your opt-in page, you should include these elements: A headline that grabs your reader by the throat. A subheadline that restates your offer and what theyre getting. Ultra-compelling fascination bullets: Short and punchy explanation of how the content is going to help your prospect and make sure theyre oozing with intrigue. A visual representation of what theyre getting a free report, cheat sheet, etc. A basic form for people to enter their name and email to access the content.
- Page 96 (location ~ 1511-1518)
When youre writing opt-in copy, youve got to have energy behind it. Turn up the volume and take it to the extreme. Why? People browsing online are basically sleepwalking zombies. They roam from site to site until they find something that strikes them. Your copy must be like a thundering bolt of lightning that shoots through their bodies and shocks them awake from their slumber. To do this you must turn up the volume full blast. Headline Formula: Finally! How to Get [DESIRED RESULT] Without [THING THEY FEAR MOST] in [SPECIFIC TIME FRAME] - Guaranteed. [PROBLEM]? Get My [SOLUTION] and [RESULT] If youre struggling to come up with a unique headline, this little puppy works a treat, every, single, time. Guaranteed.
- Page 97 (location ~ 1522-1530)
Curiosity, said the legendary American advertising pioneer Claude Hopkins, is among the strongest of human incentives. So instead of barraging prospects with blatant benefits, you want to craft bullet copy that teases, tantalises, and tempts prospects intensifying their curiosity to almost unbearable levels, and then inviting them to satisfy that curiosity for free, simply by opting in. Writing great fascinations is an art form demanding a great eye, well-developed skill, and tremendous creativity. Its an endeavour that can take years to master. To circumvent this arduous task, Ive included my fascination bullet copy formulas for writing compelling bullet copy in minutes.
- Page 98 (location ~ 1541-1547)
Fascination Bullet Copy Formulas How to X without Y: How to get washboard abs without doing a single sit-up. How to meet single men without speed dating or hanging out in bars. How to invest in real estate with no money down. You need X, right? Wrong! Address a common belief and then create massive curiosity by talking against it. Drinking 3 litres of water a day is healthy, right? WRONG! Discover the number one thing you can do to stay 20 times more hydrated than drinking water. This creates massive intrigue. X ways to Y: This is the most classic of all, Five ways to meet single women in Melbourne. Classic, straight forward copy. Where to find Y: Where to find the most ravenous hyperactive buyers online. How to eliminate X: How to stop joint pain forever. How to never pay another cent in tax. What you should never: This is a great one, as people are more compelled to know what they shouldnt do than what they should. Fear of loss (pain) is greater than fear of attainment (joy). What you should never say to a woman on your first date. What you should never do when trying to win over a prospect. Say goodbye to X [frustration]: Say goodbye to calorie counting and hour-long cardio sessions. The truth about Y: The dirty truth about fish oil revealed. The truth about flossing only after youve brushed your teeth.
- Page 98 (location ~ 1547-1562)
Dont ask them, tell them where to put their contact details to get the mouth-watering content youre offering in exchange. The less information you ask for, the higher the conversion rate on your opt-in page. I suggest collecting just two pieces of data: their name and email address. All were trying to get our prospects to do is raise their hand and identify themselves as being interested in what were selling. Well then use email automation to nurture these prospects over time.
- Page 100 (location ~ 1572-1576)
They ask, What would I like to buy? What is convenient for me to sell? What do I think is a cool gizmo or service? They dont ask, What is the market starving for? Once youve done your research using the Halo Strategy and have discovered what people really want in your market, then sell it to them! Keep in mind that sometimes you can have the right crowd at the wrong time. You could be offering the best hamburgers in the world, but if youre trying to sell those hamburgers to a crowd that has just finished a seven-course gourmet meal, you wont have many customers. If, through this process, you uncover that what youre selling isnt indeed what your market is starving for, dont try and put lipstick on a pig. That is, dont try and dress up what youre selling as being what they want and try and fool yourself or your market.
- Page 105 (location ~ 1649-1657)
Enduring short-term hardship, loss, or discomfort will save you a lot of extreme long-term pain. Most business owners and entrepreneurs spend tens of thousands of dollars developing a product or service before theyve done deep market research or put together their offer or sales message.
- Page 106 (location ~ 1661-1663)
The right way to approach this is to write your sales message before ever creating the product and service. Make the biggest claims, give the market what theyre starving for, create the dream-come-true experience for your market. And then, and only then, start to develop the product or service to deliver on it. Moving on: Once you know what your market is starving for, then you take your product or service and craft it into a compelling pitch an offer they cant refuse. Heres how you do
- Page 106 (location ~ 1666-1670)
The right way to approach this is to write your sales message before ever creating the product and service. Make the biggest claims, give the market what theyre starving for, create the dream-come-true experience for your market. And then, and only then, start to develop the product or service to deliver on it. Moving on: Once you know what your market is starving for, then you take your product or service and craft it into a compelling pitch an offer they cant refuse. Heres how you do it.
- Page 106 (location ~ 1666-1670)
Create A Detail Sheet: Features And Benefits First, create a Detail Sheet about the product or services you want to sell. On this sheet you should have two columns, column one should be titled Features and this is where you list the full list of the features of what you are selling. The second column should be titled Benefits. This column is where you convert all the features into corresponding benefits. Dont discount the importance of this just because it sounds simple. While this might sound very simple, if you do this exercise correctly and do a good job on your research, your offers will almost write themselves.
- Page 107 (location ~ 1671-1677)
A benefit is what your product will do for the buyer. Lets say the mattress on your bed is made from high-grade natural certified latex. Thats a feature. That fact could translate to benefits including it moulds itself to your body for perfect comfort, and it absorbs the movements of a fidgety partner and makes for more undisturbed sleep. But there could be even more benefits! Thanks to the high-grade natural certified latex, you will sleep more soundly, awaken refreshed, perform better during the day at work, get the promotion you wanted, make more money, and move into a bigger house in a nicer neighbourhood.
- Page 107 (location ~ 1685-1690)
Create Your Offer Next, start thinking about your offer. Your offer is your basic business proposition, and is by far the most important element in your entire sales message. Offer Basics What are you selling? _______ How much does it cost? _______
- Page 109 (location ~ 1707-1711)
Create Your Offer Next, start thinking about your offer. Your offer is your basic business proposition, and is by far the most important element in your entire sales message. Offer Basics What are you selling? _______ How much does it cost? _______ Who will take immediate action on this offer? ________ How do you claim/buy it? ________ First up, forget about your lawyer.
- Page 109 (location ~ 1707-1713)
I want you to come up with the most powerful offer you can put down in writing. It should be no more than a few lines. When youre doing this, its really important to remember that no one is going to see this piece of paper except for you at the beginning. This really gives you an opportunity to go over the top and go all out. We want that. Make it outrageous.
- Page 109 (location ~ 1717-1720)
Heres the offer I found: Buy your mattress online. Fast and free delivery. There was also this restatement of the offer: American-made with free delivery. Buy your mattress online today for better quality. If we reduce that down to this: Buy an American-made mattress online with free and fast delivery, then most people looking at that would think its okay. But when you know a thing or two about creating winning offers, you understand that this is an incredibly boring offer. Lets compare this vague and watered down offer to a winning offer in this space. Take Casper a mattress in a box start-up. This is their offer: Get Americas best-reviewed mattress, delivered to your door for free, for a 120-night trial. This is an irresistible offer that helped Casper shake up a stale $29 billion mattress industry, taking them from zero dollars as a small start-up to over $600 million in sales in their first 4 years of business. Thats the power of an irresistible offer.
- Page 110 (location ~ 1727-1737)
Home Builders Melbourne. Explore our latest designs. Designing luxury homes from a range of elegant designs. Enquire Now! Thats their offer. When we reduce it down to a straight headline it turns out its this: Designing luxury homes from a range of elegant designs. For most people that sounds pretty good. Thats what they do. They design luxury homes. Theyve got a whole range of elegant designs you can choose from. However, again, this is incredibly vague. Its gutless, and it will be ignored in a sea of other lame, impotent offers that provoke zero action. As a consumer, I dont even know what they want me to do from this. But it certainly doesnt get me excited. Compare this to an offer we created for home building start-up Enso Homes: Well build your new home in just 30 weeks or give you $5,000 in cash. We didnt just create this offer out of thin air. We found from our research (during the Halo Strategy) that the biggest pain point for consumers commissioning boutique luxury homes was that builders often drag out projects and constantly miss deadlines.
- Page 111 (location ~ 1744-1754)
Lets do one more exercise a little bit closer to home. Lets jump onto Google and look at SEO agencies. This is an offer I found: Best SEO management. Digital marketing experts. Theres no offer here. Its more of a statement, right? Theres no specificity, no risk reversal, no timeframes, no end benefit to me. This dull-as-dishwater copy will never awaken your prospects from their sleepy state, shoot an electric thunderbolt through them, nor provoke them to take action. This doesnt get you excited in any way. And this from a company who apparently are digital marketing experts! Now lets take a look at what a winning offer in this space looks like. This is one from yours truly: Guaranteed Google rankings in 90 days or we work for free. Woo-ee! Now that is an offer. Its bold. Its specific. And its got risk reversal all over it. Obviously, if we couldnt deliver on that, wed be quickly going out of business.
- Page 112 (location ~ 1760-1769)
Your Offer Is The Tip Of The Spear Of Your Sales Message In most cases, a strong offer will succeed in spite of weak copy, but strong copy wont overcome a weak offer. The best laser-targeted traffic in the world cant save an ordinary good enough offer. In other words, you can have the latest landing page building software, the most advanced sales funnel possible with contingency campaigns up the wazoo, the best Google Ads or Facebook ads guru running the most advanced traffic campaigns, heat mapping software installed on your website but if you dont have an irresistible offer for your market, then none of that matters. It really is the offer that makes the heart beat and blood pump in your marketing.
- Page 113 (location ~ 1777-1782)
Dont Use These Weak Offers Even if they happen to be valid reasons why people should do business with you, the items listed below are not irresistible offers that motivate people to do business with you: Great customer service Outstanding quality Being innovative Having a great team Being responsive to your customers needs Having a great reputation. I have a saying: If the offer and the guarantee dont keep the founder up at night, then theyre not strong enough.
- Page 114 (location ~ 1786-1795)
Whatever your reasoning and rationale for the amazing, truly spectacular and almost unbelievable offer youre making, put it up in lights and make it abundantly clear to ensure your offer is believable.
- Page 115 (location ~ 1809-1810)
2. Build Value First things first: You want to build the value of your offer based on the usual everyday price this can be what you normally charge or even what your competition is charging. Its important to establish your regular price and make it seem like really good value.
- Page 115 (location ~ 1811-1814)
Tell your prospect where your product has been offered or sold at full price or even how many thousands of people have paid the full price for the product or service. Show, dont tell: Where possible, its very important to include screenshots of other websites and catalogues. This makes it even more believable to the everyday sceptic that this is indeed true and you arent building superficial value or hype.
- Page 115 (location ~ 1815-1818)
Quantify the monetary benefits the product will deliver and compare it with the almost insignificant price youre asking in return. Reduce it down to the ridiculous. Breaking the regular price down to a daily or weekly figure and compare it with something far more trivial that they spend more on without even thinking about the expense: A cup of coffee or protein smoothie thats just $1.33 per day, week, month; or cheaper than a cup of coffee to get [insert huge benefits].
- Page 116 (location ~ 1821-1824)
The key here is to avoid presenting prospects with too many choices on the front end, and leave that to the upsell process. Your chances of losing the initial sale increase with every extra option to purchase theyre offered. Any additional time your prospect spends trying to decide which offer to go for kills the sale. Now if youre generating leads, your offer might be a free consultation. If thats the case, you still need to attach a dollar amount to the consultation and you still need to sell hard to get people to take you up on your offer, even if its free.
- Page 117 (location ~ 1836-1841)
6. Power Guarantee The stronger your guarantee, the better. The role of the guarantee is to reverse the risk for the prospect and place it on you, the business, thus removing some of the friction before making the sale. Twelve-month guarantees tend to be the most common. However, its much better to be very specific and if the guarantee is attached to the performance of what youre selling: If you follow the program and dont lose 10kg in your first 180 days, just let us know and well refund every cent youve paid.
- Page 119 (location ~ 1872-1876)
Examples of scarcity include: Putting an expiration date on your offer. Countdown clocks. Only X left at this price. Buy before X to avoid a price hike. We only have so many hours in a day/employees to service you/products left in the warehouse. Scarcity has been shown time and time again to dramatically increase the pulling power of offers.
- Page 119 (location ~ 1880-1886)
After youve mapped out your offer, you now want to ask yourself what objections a sceptical prospect might have in taking you up on your offer. Spend some time thinking about the objections your prospects would have and write them down below. What are the main objections to the offer? 1. 2. 3. How will you overcome these objections? 1.
- Page 120 (location ~ 1889-1895)
I cant stress the importance of labouring over your offer. Once you know what your market wants and you package it all up in the most irresistible offer possible, everything else becomes a lot easier. And once you experience a taste of what a Godfather Offer brings to your bottom line, youll never look at it the same way again.
- Page 121 (location ~ 1901-1903)
Im going to take you by the hand and show you how to take your ordinary guarantee and pump it up with steroids. Youll discover how to soothe even the most sceptical prospects and make your guarantee so compelling it cripples the competition and brings them to their knees, pleading for mercy. WAIT A MINUTE! What in the world am I hearing? You say you dont already have a guarantee? Are you trying to tell me you thought all you had to do was tell your prospects how great you are and they would line up waiting to throw their money at you? Well, unfortunately, thats not quite how it works. So, before we get to work, let me address some of the biggest concerns around having a guarantee and what your inner pessimist might be thinking right now. I dont want to offer a guarantee Listen: If youre not willing to guarantee your products and services in some way, shape or form, why should any of your prospects trust you? Think about that for a moment.
- Page 121 (location ~ 1911-1920)
You want to lead with the Godfather Strategy, which is to make them an offer thats so good they cant refuse. And then you want to back that up with the whole you cant lose guarantee, and reverse all that risk. If youre confident with what youre selling, why wouldnt you make it as easy as possible for as many people to buy your products and services? To do otherwise just doesnt make any sense. If youre still not quite on the same page, let me ask you this question: What would you do if the customer bought from you, and then, for one reason or another, they werent satisfied with what they bought? How would you make it right? Would you tell them, bad luck? Would you say, Look, youve bought it, its your problem now? Or would you work with them to ensure theyre happy, and add even more equity to your brand name by really helping them? The answer should be obvious. However, if its not, let me bring something else to your attention. By law in most countries, if someone buys from your business, and something is defective or doesnt perform as advertised, or could be perceived as not being truthfully advertised, the consumer is entitled to compensation with either repair or replaced goods, or part of them; resupply or fixing a problem with services, or a part of them; or providing compensation to the consumer or end-user. In Australia, consumer protections are enforced by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, so you already have a guarantee.
- Page 123 (location ~ 1931-1944)
In an age where so many false promises are made and scepticism is so rampant, prospects must be very careful about accepting anything you tell them. Unfortunately, in every market there are people out to make a quick buck by promising a diamond and delivering a hunk of cheap glass. Even if you have plenty of proof, testimonials, and other credibility elements to showcase, your guarantee is one of the most important credibility elements in your offer. You should go beyond thinking of it as a simple risk reversal, designed to push fence-sitting prospects over into taking action on your offer. Instead, think about your guarantee as a proof element to your overall offer proof of how confident you are about delivering on every promise your offer makes.
- Page 124 (location ~ 1955-1960)
1. Study the competition Do a Google search for other businesses in your industry and the word guarantee. Then take it one step further and have someone call and ask them about their guarantee. Look outside of your industry or geography for solid guarantees. Write them down. Go deep in your search. What trends do you see? Do many companies in your industry offer guarantees? What type of guarantees did you find?
- Page 125 (location ~ 1969-1972)
What good things happen when a client uses your products or services? Better sleep? More money? Lose weight? Reduced stress? Write down the answer in detail and then guarantee that outcome. Do not simply guarantee satisfaction. Guarantee in detail what that satisfaction will look like to your customer and make it measurable.
- Page 126 (location ~ 1981-1984)
7. Give your guarantee a name While this isnt mandatory, giving your guarantee a unique name can dramatise it and heighten its impact. Here are just a handful of examples to get your creative juices flowing: 100% Money-Back Guarantee My 100% Money-Back Triple-Protection Guarantee Take it to the Bank! Better than Risk Free You Cant Lose Unconditional, Money-Back Guarantee Your Money-Back, No Questions Asked I Personally Guarantee No Way You Can Lose 30-Day Free Examination No-Questions, No-Quibbles, Money-Back Guarantee Iron-Clad Money-Back Guarantee
- Page 127 (location ~ 1998-2009)
Follow these steps and do them well… then craft an irresistible Godfather Offer and throw that on top… and youve got a money-multiplying formula for wealth in virtually any industry. Now get to it! Action Points You create a FEATURE LIST. You create a BENEFIT LIST. You reduce your OFFER to writing. You offer a POWER GUARANTEE.
- Page 128 (location ~ 2029-2034)
If youre a coach, consultant, freelancer, or run a professional services business and your goal is to generate leads, your Godfather Offer should be about making an offer for a free 30, 45, or 60 minute phone consultation, analysis, strategy session, or roadmap. Why? If youre selling professional services, this typically involves you getting on the phone and speaking with people in order to convert a prospect into a paying client. Therefore, we want to make an offer to get as many of the people who raised their hand and identified themselves as being interested in what youre selling by downloading your HVCO to book in a call and speak to you.
- Page 129 (location ~ 2036-2041)
Here are some free phone consultation offer examples: Example #1: Free No Obligation 45-minute Property Tycoon Investment Strategy Consultation (Valued at $1,000) During your call youll discover 5 most profitable property hot spots for your budget and ideal location.
- Page 129 (location ~ 2046-2050)
Example #2: Claim Your Free Bulletproof Business Protection Consultation + 24-Point Business Security Checklist (Value $347) Have our senior security specialist with over 20 years experience, analyse your businesss hotspots at risk for robbery. Hell then provide you with the exact system you need to keep your business safe and secure so youre not lying awake at night worrying about the safety of your business. Heres what youll get at your 100% free consultation: A 360-degree vulnerability analysis where we identify the hidden areas through which burglars and gangs could attack your business. Plus, well show you how to keep your weak spots protected and secure 24/7. Tips and strategies that shield your propertys blind spots from vandalism, graffiti, and intruders. (There have been 380,150 incidents in Melbourne this year alone dont add your business to the list!) Think if youve been robbed once, now youre safe? Wrong! When thieves know a business is vulnerable, theyll come back, targeting it two, three, or even four times, costing the owners $10,000s in stolen goods, repairs, and lost work!
- Page 130 (location ~ 2058-2069)
4. Create irresistible intrigue After youve crafted a headline that demands attention and a subheadline which positions your big promise, its now time to dial up the intrigue with some bullet points. Write out 10 to 20 additional headlines and trim down to your best six. Each bullet should call out the difference pains, fears, hopes, and dreams of your target market and add an element of intrigue such as, The Little-Known Secret to _____ that ________ Dont Want You to Know.
- Page 132 (location ~ 2096-2100)
7. Show your credentials Prove to them you can be trusted, establish your credibility, and demonstrate your expertise. At this stage, your readers scepticism is high and must be quietened. Theyre telling themselves, Sure he says he can fix my problem. Thats what they all say. Ive been told this a hundred times. So, prove to them you can be trusted by showing them your credentials. For example: Results youve achieved. Successful case studies. Prestigious companies (or people) youve done business with. The number of customers youve served.
- Page 133 (location ~ 2109-2116)
10. Make your godfather offer In order to convert, your offer must be: Clear and easy to understand: There should be no question as to what your audience is getting in return for their email/purchase/registration. Value-based: Your offer copy should be focused on how it will fill a need or solve a problem. Concise: Keeping it short and to the point will drive more conversions. Persuasive: If there ever was a place to bust out your salesperson chops, your offer is it. Irresistible: It must be such a good offer that its a no-brainer for your prospect and even leaves them asking themselves, How can they possibly offer so much value? Make it so compelling that only a lunatic would refuse!
- Page 134 (location ~ 2125-2133)
13. Reveal your price Add prices together to calculate value, then reveal a price thats much cheaper. Explain why the price is what it is and why its such great value. If your goal is lead generation and youre pitching a free consult, its important that you put a dollar value on what the consult is worth. This is not to be confused with the price of your services; you can cover that on the call. 14. Inject scarcity Offers without scarcity dont sell as well, but it needs to be genuine or youll destroy your reputation. Think about it: If you dont need to take action now, when will you take it? Never. Examples of scarcity include: Putting an expiration date on your offer Countdown clocks Doors are closing Only X left at this price
- Page 134 (location ~ 2139-2149)
16. Call to action (CTA) The call to action is a command. Be specific and tell them exactly what to do. Keep it clear and direct your audience shouldnt have to play 21 Questions to figure out what you want them to do. Ask them to do just one thing, because the more hoops you ask them to jump through, the more likely theyll be to say screw this and leave. 17. Close with a P.S. that includes a warning and a reminder Always include a closing point or P.S. Its the third most read element of your letter. Remind them of your irresistible Godfather Offer. Warn them against the consequence of what will happen if they dont buy. Include your call to action and remind them of the limited time or quantity.
- Page 135 (location ~ 2156-2162)
The Critical Importance Of Unit Economics In order to determine the health of your business and whether you can scale and grow, you need to have a keen understanding of unit economics. Unit economics is simply defined as: The direct revenues and costs associated with a particular business action, expressed on a per-unit basis. You may have also heard them referred to as key performance indicators. Here are some examples of unit economics that are crucial for you to understand: Cost per lead (CPL): You can calculate your CPL by dividing the cost of your advertising by the number of leads received for a particular campaign or marketing activity. Cost per acquisition (CPA): This is what it costs you in advertising to acquire a new customer. In any business, this is the most important metric to understand. Its the only way to understand if the marketing youre doing is profitable. Lifetime value (LTV): This is the projected net profit that a customer will generate during his or her life as a customer of your business.
- Page 137 (location ~ 2179-2189)
Many businesses made this mistake and suffered catastrophically in early 2016. But not all, and certainly none of the businesses I was helping to grow at that time. Why? Simply because the most successful businesses build multiple flows of traffic to maintain their flow of leads. This is how you do it: Start with one channel (SEO, Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc.). It depends on your budget as to which one you should choose first. Once you establish an offer that converts profitably and youre making more than youre spending, get clear on your cost per lead (CPL) and cost per acquisition (CPA) of getting a new client on this channel. Assuming your goal is to scale your business, keep adding as many channels as possible, stacking one on top of the other: SEO Google Ads Facebook Ads YouTube Ads Retargeting
- Page 140 (location ~ 2229-2238)
As I mentioned in the introduction, most people dont have a traffic problem, they have an offer problem. Traffic is out there. More traffic than you know what to do with. And accessing it is the key to aggressively marketing and growing your business, rather than just hoping for the best. But there are different types of traffic. You need to make your offer extremely enticing if you want them to click. Understanding where they are in the buying cycle and what channel is best to reach them is critical if you want to tailor a message to fit. Make sure your message matches the temperature of your audience! In Phase 1, I introduced The Larger Market Formula and the fact there are three different types of prospects you can attract into your business.
- Page 142 (location ~ 2256-2263)
Cold: Tinder Traffic Tinder Traffic (as I like to call cold traffic) consists of people who have no idea who you are. Just like a Tinder profile, youre a complete stranger, and what they see on your ad or landing page will determine if they want to swipe right and know more. Warm: Second Date Traffic Second Date Traffic (warm traffic) is you guessed it just like a second date. Theyve met you, they know you, but theyre certainly not sold on you. Theyre trying you out to see if its a fit, but one wrong move and youre history. Hot: Netflix and Chill Traffic Netflix and Chill Traffic (hot traffic) are the audience equivalent of a long-term relationship. Theyve worked with you in the past, they know all about you, and theyd spend all their time with you if they could. Now, if you serve a Netflix and Chill message to Tinder Traffic, their reaction is going to be, I have no idea who you are, so. Yeah, this is just too personal. But if you serve a Tinder message to your Netflix and Chill audience, theyre going to think, Im offended its like they dont even know me!
- Page 144 (location ~ 2285-2295)
While targeting prospects in the awareness stage can be done using a whole bunch of platforms including Google, LinkedIn, Instagram Ads, Facebook or YouTube, I recommend the only two to consider are Google and Facebook. Theyre the only grown-ups in the room. These guys have the duopoly on traffic online because they have the lions share of the data. This means they can offer incredible targeting features that help you identify prospects who show buyer intent, matching all types of laser-targeted criteria from household income to purchase activity, and a ton of other unbelievable targeting options for your ads. When it comes to advertising online, this is where the opportunity is right now.
- Page 148 (location ~ 2345-2349)
Cold prospects represent the largest segment of your market and can be accessed through Google, LinkedIn, Instagram Ads, Facebook, or YouTube. Targeting these prospects is ultimately where the biggest potential lies long term, but to warm them up youll need a clever sales funnel with education-based content, such as what youll learn in this book. Sounds complex, but trust me, itll be worth the payoff when you start dominating your competition. I know its easy to start feeling overwhelmed at this point, so lets take a breather. Just imagine that Google and Facebook are raging rivers, full of your best kind of prospects.
- Page 149 (location ~ 2353-2358)
So if you cant possibly sell somebody directly from the ad, why try doing it in the first place? Its just setting you up for a fail. And it comes down to this your ad has one job, and its not to try to sell something, its to sell the click. The job of an ad is not to sell the product; its to sell the click. Your ad has one purpose to get people to click. Your ads should demand attention and compel readers to click, not buy. Imagine the advertising channel youre employing as a raging river full of prospects and your sole purpose is to get the attention of your dream buyer as they race past. So that begs the question how do you get their attention and what drives a click? The answer is primal desire that can be provoked in a number of ways: CURIOSITY & INTRIGUE SHOCK DIRECT BENEFIT IMPLIED BENEFIT FEAR VANITY
- Page 149 (location ~ 2368-2379)
Not a bad effort, I say. This is a simple ad I whipped up which 1) Sells the click by dialling up the intrigue with Secret checklist finally revealed. Everybody wants to know secrets, and Ive partnered this with Top Divorce Lawyer to define what the checklist is going to be all about. I then tease whats on the opt-in page and the reward for them to click, with: 22 Tipoffs Your Husband May Be Cheating On You Free Report Reveals All. Nothing about this ad is selling anything. No one is ever going to buy off the ad, so why try to sell them? Instead, offer something thats so irresistible, something that has so much intrigue that people cant help but click. I then go on to build the social proof 100,000 Downloads and add urgency Ends Soon, Act Now! Now lets see how this ad shapes up in the environment where it has to compete for attention.
- Page 151 (location ~ 2396-2403)
My Google Ads Checklist These are the nine key questions you should be asking yourself when it comes to Google Ads or PPC campaigns: Am I getting more money back than Im putting in? Do my keywords match search terms my market is using? Are my conversions increasing every month? Is my cost per conversion decreasing? Are my visitors needs aligned with what Im offering? Does my copy demand attention and sell the click? Is my PPC strategy geared for sales? Is my tracking in place so I can determine which keywords are generating sales? Is my focus on EPC (earnings per click) and sales volumes? Look
- Page 155 (location ~ 2435-2446)
Lets drill down into this one so its super clear. If youre spending $1,000 on Google Ads per month, and youre paying $2 per click, and from those ads youre selling $3,000 worth of consultancy services, youre earning three dollars for every one dollar you put into that campaign. In fact, it may be a lot higher because $3,000 per month might be a retainer, and the average client may be with you for a 6- or 12-month contract. So you might find the average client is ultimately worth $24,000, and youre spending $1,000 (or less) to acquire a client who provides $24,000 in revenues over the lifetime value of that client. Looking at it this way, youre putting one dollar into your advertising, and your earnings per click are essentially $12. Meaning that, when youre running Google Ads, if you can get clicks for anything less than $12, youre making money straight out the gate.
- Page 155 (location ~ 2447-2453)
How To Write Facebook Ads That Force Buyers To Read Every Word Of Your Ads Up until a few years ago, Google had the monopoly on traffic. However, theres been a dark knight rising, and that is Facebook. As this book goes to print, there are over 2.2 billion monthly active Facebook users world-wide. Whats particularly interesting is that 1.74 billion of those monthly active Facebook users are coming from mobile. This means that 94% of Facebooks monthly active audience are accessing the app through their mobile device.
- Page 156 (location ~ 2464-2469)
BuzzSumo is a powerful online research tool that shows us the kind of content that gets shared the most. On Facebook in 2017, BuzzSumo shows us that breaking news articles and exclusives made up the largest and most popular category in terms of shares and engagement.
- Page 157 (location ~ 2480-2482)
Heres one of my ads that appears as news: Digital Marketing Expert Breaks His Silence. Youll Never Understand Just How Wrong Advertising Agencies Have It, Until You Read This Shocking Expose By Australias Top Digital Marketing Mogul and Agency Owner of Australias Fastest Growing Digital Marketing Agency. It looks like news, and its not misleading because it is news. These are all real things Im talking about here! Im lifting the hood on all these things that advertising agencies dont typically want you to know.
- Page 162 (location ~ 2543-2547)
Heres another ad thats going for the same breaking news angle. This ones for Secret Facebook Ad Targeting Revealed. Weve got a picture of Mark Zuckerberg. It appears to look like news, and on the back of this you click it, and it takes you to our High-Value-Content Offer. However, what you can see here in the ad is that its just staying true to exactly the job of that ad, which is to get clicked. Im not trying to get people to opt in or to do anything right now. All I want them to do is click this ad. Im just channelling their desire to know what the news is and bringing them through to the next stage in that simple four-step funnel.
- Page 162 (location ~ 2548-2553)
In our Pilates example, theres a shot of people on Pilates machinery, yet theres nothing that shows its an ad straight from the get-go. You should remember that Facebook doesnt like ad images with text. In fact, until recently, Facebook advertisers were allowed to cover their ad images with no more than 20% text. This rule has since been relaxed, but Facebook is right: Ad images with no text which look more like news or general-interest images get a much better response than images containing text.
- Page 165 (location ~ 2592-2596)
The Link Description The content below the headline, the link description, fleshes out your headline and gives readers a little bit more detail around whats going to be behind that click. The Call to Action Button There are a number of different alternatives you can use including Enquire now, Learn more, or Download, for example. Weve found that Learn more is the least threatening and converts best at the moment. So thats where I recommend you start. Everythings up for split testing. However, Learn more is a safe bet.
- Page 166 (location ~ 2606-2611)
If you liked this content and youre committed to getting X outcome, Ive got a really great offer for you. Ive put some time aside in my calendar to help you solve this problem or get your desired outcome. And you can go ahead and book in some time with me here. This may seem complicated, but the result of this video sequence is that you turn a good chunk of that disinterested 97% into genuine, eager buyers. Youll still get your standard 3% of itchy-to-buy prospects from the first step of this funnel, but this next chunk is a far bigger volume of buyers and is like gravy on top. Its what will let you spend more on acquiring a customer, make more money from your ad spend, and put you miles ahead of your competition.
- Page 170 (location ~ 2654-2660)
In this instance, lets create a checklist that our dream buyer can use to audit their own social media presence. They can use it to make sure that from the point of view of a social media presence, their affairs are in order. In this way, if a journalist or influencer were to check them out and do a bit of digging around, theyd be sure that everything looked just the way it should, and they came across as a credible business deserving of attention. So, thats what were going to give them! This will allow them to go ahead and implement it, and then start seeing some results; or at the very least, theyll start feeling good about themselves because theyre now moving towards where they want to be.
- Page 173 (location ~ 2715-2720)
Understand that once your prospect has downloaded your High-Value Content Offer, theyll still have a high level of scepticism at this point. It would have lowered a little bit, because youve provided them some value, but its still high. Throughout this process were trying to lower that scepticism whilst simultaneously increasing our status as an authority in this space and building trust, so they believe what were saying. When we start this process, you can see that the scepticism is high, and as we provide value at each step along the way, were lowering their scepticism and at the same time increasing their trust and desire to do business with us. Now weve moved this person one step closer to their desired outcome. Once theyve done the audit theyll be saying, Oh, wow, this is awesome. This is really cool. Whats the next step? What do I do next? And this is exactly what we want their reaction to be. Well be using an email sequence to drip feed this information to them after they download the HVCO.
- Page 174 (location ~ 2725-2732)
Throughout my sales career I have read over a thousand books and made over one million sales calls - so Ive learned a lot from my work in the trenches. But the biggest breakthrough I had about selling came from the most unsuspecting place of all Doctors! Thats right, it was only after I learned to sell like a doctor that my sales truly exploded beyond all belief! What do I mean by sell like a doctor? Ive found that 90% of salespeople get it wrong. They basically vomit every feature and benefit of their service during their sales presentation in the hope that something hits a nerve that will make the prospect buy. This is the equivalent of having an appointment with a doctor where they poke all your body parts while asking, Does that hurt? and How about here? Instead, a good doctor begins by asking, Where is the pain? Remember that in the medical profession A prescription without a diagnosis is malpractice And its the same in sales.
- Page 183 (location ~ 2860-2871)
Dont go into great detail about your service/program/training: thats what your prospect is buying. Your objective is to give them an idea of how their life could be better by working with you. For most of us, its very tempting to talk about our services, our coaching, or our expertise, but the problem is this only translates into you talking more about you than about solving their problems. And they didnt book in this call to hear about how great you are. They booked the call because they have a problem they are motivated to solve. They couldnt care less about you. Everyones favourite person is themselves, and their motivation to schedule a call, like it or not, is completely self-serving.
- Page 186 (location ~ 2912-2917)
One way we do this is by saying: Mike, if we were having this conversation twelve months from today and you were looking back at the past twelve months, what would have needed to happen for you to be happy with your results? I learned that question, by the way, from a book called The Dan Sullivan Question. Here are some variations: Mike, what are you looking to achieve in the next 12 months? What would that do for you? Where do you want to be? What do you want to achieve? What revenue do you want your business to be doing? What would that do for your lifestyle? How much do you want to weigh? (If youre selling a weight loss programme) How much money do you want to be making? (Financial advice) What would you like your relationship with your spouse look like?(Relationship advice)
- Page 187 (location ~ 2942-2953)
I understand and what is your motivation for achieving X?<U+2028> How would these change things for your business/life if you achieved X?<U+2028> Okay, so when you make more money/lose more weight/connect on a deeper level with your spouse/have more time… what difference is that going to make in your life? Whats the reason you want to do this? Its important you get a temperature check on exactly what they want to achieve and why. Then help them to paint a vivid picture of what this exactly would feel like.
- Page 188 (location ~ 2956-2962)
Why is this important for you to figure out and get it working? Okay, on a scale of one to ten one being not really important and ten being extremely important how important is this for you to do? What does it mean if it doesnt get done… what does that represent/what does that look like?
- Page 189 (location ~ 2967-2970)
Remember this: If its not important to them, then politely end the call. If they dont have a burning desire to solve this problem, it doesnt matter what youre offering or what youre charging, they wont buy.
- Page 189 (location ~ 2972-2974)
A way to kill this scepticism is to prove to them that you can help them by actually helping them. Remember, no one likes to be sold, but everyone likes to buy. You want to get your prospects excited by solving a part of their problem on the call, or at least making it very clear you can help them solve it and leave them begging for more. Its like when you go to a fancy restaurant, and the waiter brings you a delicious hors doeuvre you know, one of those little appetisers or small starter dishes. You eat it, its incredibly tasty, and then your digestive juices start going crazy and you order half the menu! Its the same principle here. You want to leave your prospect starving for the main course, which is your core offer. Ultimately, you want to leave your prospects better than when you found them. Meaning, regardless of whether or not they choose to buy, you want to deliver massive value and create goodwill.
- Page 190 (location ~ 2990-2999)
EXAMPLE: If youre a PR consultant, you could show them a site like HARO (Help A Reporter Out) that helps them connect with hundreds of journalists who are actively looking for experts and businesses to feature and weigh in on articles. Also, let them know there is a lot that goes into managing this and how to get the best traction. EXAMPLE: You might be a digital marketing consultant. If so, you could show them how much search traffic certain keywords are getting on Google, or where their competitors are getting traffic from, and for how much, using sites like SEMrush or SimilarWeb. EXAMPLE: If youre a financial planner, you could show them how to offset their income tax by setting up a family trust. Or use a credit check service/software on the call to see if they could get a better mortgage rate on their home.
- Page 191 (location ~ 3003-3010)
EXAMPLE: Youll have predictability in your business, more time, more money, less stress, greater freedom, increased security. EXAMPLE: Youll have more energy, feel great, and be able to fit into that old pair of jeans you love.
- Page 193 (location ~ 3039-3041)
Fast Action Bonus Going back and forth costs you time, energy, and money. Let them know you can drop the set-up fee if they make a decision now. As a backup you, can give them 24 hours if they truly need to speak with their partner. Well, Mike, as I mentioned, theres normally a $1,000 set-up fee. However, Ive found that people who are able to make decisions quickly always turn out to be my best clients. This is because theyre decisive and can take action. Also, going back and forth costs me time, energy, and money. So for that reason, if we can get this all sorted for you on the call today, Ill waive the $1,000 set-up cost off your investment, making it just the $___. How does this sound Mike? Can we go ahead and get this set up for you? THEN, YOU DONT SAY ANOTHER WORD.
- Page 194 (location ~ 3061-3068)
Recap: When selling coaching, consulting, or professional services, its important to weed out people quickly if they arent going to be a good fit. You do this by using surveys and applications. That way, it frees up more time for you to spend with people who are a good fit and that you can actually help.
- Page 196 (location ~ 3082-3085)
Then when you hire people, they can follow your proven script, leaving little to chance. But what happens to the people who go through our funnel and dont take the desired action we want them to? Which, I will add, will always be the majority of people, because in marketing, we only ever count on a very small percentage of people actually doing what we want them to do. Do we just accept this and move on to simply just generating more traffic? No! We nurture these people over time. We provide value and build a relationship by using email. In the following pages Ill go in-depth on the topic of email marketing and how Ive used it to generate tens of millions of dollars in sales.
- Page 196 (location ~ 3089-3095)
If you had to strip me down naked, take everything Ive got, and leave me with nothing except for one marketing weapon of choice, what do you think it would it be? My contacts? JV partnerships? Google rankings? My ability to turn ice-cold traffic on Facebook into profit? Nope! I would choose email! Why? Email outperforms every other marketing channel. Period. And one of the biggest mistakes I see businesses make is not building an email list from day one.
- Page 197 (location ~ 3100-3104)
Dont make the mistake of not building this incredible asset for your own business. Email delivers more leads than any other marketing channel, and 42% of businesses have listed email marketing as the top digital marketing channel for lead generation. So if youre serious about business growth, an email list is critical. I get asked all the time about why am I so bullish on email? Aside from the obvious case as seen in the statistics above, my reason is simple: its a huge risk to build a business on a platform owned by somebody else. While everyones freaking out about Facebook messenger bots and screaming from the rooftops, email is dead, Facebook can change its policies overnight which they do all the time.
- Page 198 (location ~ 3112-3118)
When most people think about email marketing, they think, All I have to do is get an email service provider, upload my list to a piece of email marketing software, click the send button, and theyll handle the rest. It really doesnt work that way. You have to really work to ensure your emails get delivered. Considering the smart filtering systems of todays mailboxes and email providers, achieving a high inbox deliverability rate is not easy. In todays day and age, email deliverability is determined by three things: Sender reputation. Bounce and complaint rates. Recipient engagement.
- Page 200 (location ~ 3144-3151)
Sender Reputation Just like a credit score, your IP address (the unique string of numbers that identify your computer) has a reputation called a sender score. If youre like me, your eager little brain is probably saying, I wonder what my sender score is? Well, you can go to www.senderscore.org and find out for yourself. This website is run by a company called Return Path, and it will tell you what your reputation and sender score is. Anything above 90 is good, anything above 95 is great, and you shouldnt be having any deliverability issues. However, it is something you need to frequently check, as you want to uncover any issues sooner rather than later.
- Page 202 (location ~ 3176-3183)
Formatting and Styling Contrary to popular advice, your email shouldnt look beautiful, with heavy images and sexy graphics. Why not? Firstly, who do you think send these types of heavy emails with lots of images individuals or businesses with commercial intent? Businesses! These types of emails send a signal to email providers that the nature of your email isnt personal, and therefore it hurts deliverability. And if it doesnt get delivered, nobodys opening it, and if nobodys opening it you guessed it nobody will be buying!
- Page 204 (location ~ 3207-3212)
A P group and a C group. The P group contains emails that are, or appear to be personal. Like emails from friends, relatives, colleagues, business associates, and so on. On the other hand, the C group contains those emails that obviously contain a promotional or commercial message. Now, heres the way it works: Everybody always opens all of their P group emails.
- Page 207 (location ~ 3252-3257)
Dont add to this by writing limp, boring and dull emails that put your readers to sleep. Be that person in their life who brings them some spice, some entertainment and excitement to their dull vanilla lives. Do not be boring. Make it so every time your readers see your name pop up in their inbox, they get a tiny little hit of dopamine in their brain that makes them want to read your emails. Do this and they will be hanging out for your next email, looking forward to receiving it; and when they do see your name appear in their inbox, theyll almost stumble over themselves in a rush to see what you have to say and to get a hit of that dopamine.
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If you master this, like really master this, you will create an email selling machine that drags in not thousands or hundreds of thousands or millions or even tens of millions of dollars; but rather, email copy that has the potential of increasing sales for you (or your clients) that can add up to hundreds of millions of dollars. But this doesnt happen by accident. It takes effort, and most people have no idea how to secure this kind of relationship and friend-like bond. The takeaway being, nothing will increase the amount of sales your emails bring in more than writing exciting and entertaining copy that spices up the dull life of your readers. Well cover more of how exactly to do just that later.
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Here are the subject lines of a few personal and work-related emails in my inbox: crazy check this out can I chat to you about this in morning? lets buy this for Melia Fridays playgroup Bali accommodation options approval needed What do those subject lines all have in common? They: Use lower-case or sentence case not Title Case or, even worse, ALL CAPS. Lack almost all punctuation. Keep it to four or five words, max. Ask questions. Tell you enough to want to open them, but not the whole story.
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If you still cant come up with anything, then there are templates and formulas. However, as a general rule Im not a fan because everyone uses them and they can come across as generic if youre not careful. I mean how many times have you seen 7 secrets to losing weight or 10 ways to make more money? Subject lines like this work a few times, but after a while, seeing the same old recycled subject line formulas just gets old. It trains your readers not to engage with them and causes email blindness. Thats why I personally try to avoid formulaic subject lines. But lets get real. Sometimes you need a template or formula to fall back on when your creative juices arent flowing. They can help you get unstuck or help you get you started with some fresh ideas. So, as a last resort you can swipe and deploy this list of email subject line formulas or use them to get your creative juices flowing: how to make {subject} that will {benefit} 21+ ways to grow your {subject} do you think you can {benefit}? The only way to achieve {desirable thing} without doing {undesirable thing} 5 reasons why you should {subject} {benefit} while you sleep [template] 10 best {subject} how {name/company} does {subject} {name/company} can afford any {subject}, he uses {solution} how {name/company} got {number/desirable outcome} in {number of days} real {audience} use {solution} discover the {solution} {subject}, {subject}, and {unrelated subject}? stop {undesirable current state} now copy and paste these {subject} [last chance] discover the {solution} that will change your life today
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Assess the Terrain Inboxes are busy and crowded places. Most of your audience is on multiple lists. Your direct competitors. Non-direct competitors. The works. In order to write emails that get opened, you should know how your emails stack up and stand out against those youre battling against for your readers attention. Sign up for every email and/or newsletter from people in your industry. See what these people are sending out, how frequently theyre emailing, what their subject lines are, what type of content and CTAs theyre using in their emails. Thats right: You need to see every email your competitors are sending. Then start whats called an email swipe file, which I recommend you divide into folders in Gmail, Outlook, or whatever you use. This allows you to take a panoramic view of the market and the landscape youre fighting for attention in. Look, even though the subject line is one of the shortest elements of your email, its the one part you should be willing to spend the most time on. Its the key to sucking people into your email. Get it wrong and almost everything else doesnt matter. Get it right and watch sales go through the roof.
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can prioritise your send times based on data: 10 am: While late-morning send times were the most popular in general, several concluded the best time to send emails is at 10am Another notable time is 11am. 8 pm-midnight: I bet you didnt expect that one. It looks like emails generally receive more opens and clicks later in the evening. This is likely due to people checking their email before going to bed.
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can prioritise your send times based on data: 10 am: While late-morning send times were the most popular in general, several concluded the best time to send emails is at 10am Another notable time is 11am. 8 pm-midnight: I bet you didnt expect that one. It looks like emails generally receive more opens and clicks later in the evening. This is likely due to people checking their email before going to bed. 2 pm: It looks like you might be successful by sending your emails later in the day as people are checking out of work mode or looking for distractions. 6 am: This makes complete sense given that research from the Center for Creative Leadership shows that 50% of you begin your day by emailing in bed. Bingo! Before you even stand up, youre opening emails. Good morning!
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Your reader starts at the top of the slope, reading the subject line, and then immediately slipping down to the preheader text, and then they open your email and slide into the opening line of your copy and then immediately slip down to the next line, slipping to the next line and so on and so forth. In this sequence: Subject line/Preheader: Grabs your reader by the throat and forces them to keep reading. After reading your subject line, their brain should be burning with intrigue to find out more. Lead: Drag them into your copy by captivating them with an interesting statement or pattern interrupt that jolts them to attention. Body: Fascinate them with a gripping or unusual story or example. Call To Action: Get them to click, share, buy or do whatever the primary call to action of your email is.
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2. Talk to them like a friend So, how do you cut through, get noticed, and eventually sell to your list? First up, write conversationally and dont try to sell them straight out of the gate. Instead, just get your message read first. The only way to do that is to get your emails in the cherished P group by being more personal. Just write like you would to a friend. Its just fine to start an email with Hey there. Let people into your lives a bit, show them your personality, as quirky as it might be. This is the opposite to how most companies write emails. Their writing screams, Im trying to sell you!
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A good test is to read everything you write aloud. Make sure everything reads smoothly. Great emails feel like a conversation between you and your best friend. While you want to give your readers a glimpse into your life, remember, ultimately your readers dont care about you or what you do. They only care about themselves and what you can do for them. The tone, your stories, and everything is else must be geared to make the content engaging and entertaining.
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A good test is to read everything you write aloud. Make sure everything reads smoothly. Great emails feel like a conversation between you and your best friend. While you want to give your readers a glimpse into your life, remember, ultimately your readers dont care about you or what you do. They only care about themselves and what you can do for them. The tone, your stories, and everything is else must be geared to make the content engaging and entertaining. The bottom line is, all of your email copy should focus on your readers needs and wants.
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Your Breakthrough Email Checklist: Make sure you use a personal sender name. Send your emails on Tuesdays at 10 am. Make your subject lines are either two to four words or super long in length. Nothing in between. Write preheader text that burns with intrigue Above all, write emails that entertain, excite, and engage your readers. Ask yourself when sending every email: Will this email get into the P group or die in the C group? Make your emails plain text instead of visual masterpieces. Talk to readers as you would your best friend. Make your emails about your readers not just about yourself. Study the herd and do the opposite. Make it visceral and bring your email copy to life with specifics. Dont ask them to buy, click or act. Tell them!
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If theres one thing I want to impress upon you, its the importance of taking action. I want you to sit down right now and write down your action items for the next 30 days and for the next 3, 6, and 12 months. If you dont, something else will grab your attention and youll be off looking for the next strategy, tactic, or silver bullet for your business. I urge you to put the blinders on and execute the information in this book and if you do, I can assure you, you will reap the rewards. Building a successful business allows you to manifest your craziest dreams. You deserve this success and can truly have it all, despite the naysayers. I invite you on this journey and look forward to hearing of your success and how transforming your business has transformed your life.
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