Marketing Lessons From a 74-Year Old Blues Legend
Posted on 22. Mar, 2011 by Daniel Levis in action, Articles, Blog, blues, campaign, creative, fear, Inspiration, legend, lesson, prospect, skepticism, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, strategy, target, testing
I’m having the first barbecue of the season on my back porch. And I’ve got Buddy Guy’s raspy vocals and stinging guitar riffs pumping through the speakers…
The man’s chops are clearly massive, yet oh how he plays… with such exquisite humility. Not the slightest need to show off… preferring to surrender himself totally to the music… allowing his audience to shower him with never before revealed inspiration.
74-year old Guy has been noodling around the same three-chord blues progressions for almost 60 years. Imagine how terribly easy it would be to fall into a million ruts over them kind of eons.
Yet with each new album this guitar legend seems to find an ever-widening expanse of fresh, new and exciting truths to explore.
I think the same can be said for the honest practitioner of sales and marketing. The more experienced we become, the more we should realize we don’t know, and the more there is to discover…
To the genuinely inquisitive, the mysteries of the universe expand in direct proportion to our efforts to unravel them.
Like Buddy Guy, we should be continually murdering the predictable, finding ways to combine things that don’t seem to go together, and discovering the new and exciting hiding within the familiar.
Useful as they may be, the rules of thumb and best practices we live by as marketers should never become lodged in our minds to such a degree they crowd out critical evaluation, simply because they satisfy a desire for certainty.
The list of marketing truism is long and comforting. But the truth is: Long copy doesn’t ALWAYS out pull short copy. Video sales letters don’t ALWAYS out pull text. And the fear of loss does not ALWAYS trump the desire for gain. Insert your favorite doctrine here.
Such dogma – even when arrived at through valid testing and experience in our own private marketing sandboxes – should always be questioned within the context of the situations we find ourselves in. Shop worn theories should be tested against other less accepted ideas. Indeed, we should demand that they prove their validity every time out.
The curse that kills higher response is marketing-on-auto-pilot …
If a given strategy works in one place, there is no guarantee it will work in another. Even within the same context, there is no guarantee that if something has worked in the past that it will work the same way now. The very fact that something works well means it will be overused in the marketplace. Eventually people become resistant. And response drops like a stone.
I say none of this to discourage you or to dissuade you from adopting those things that work in one contest and applying them in another. Just keep an open mind. Accept little as gospel. Experiment tirelessly. And let YOUR market be your guide.
Of course, it is difficult to see things from different perspectives, isn’t it? Bringing new concepts and ideas into your marketing is difficult.
Think back to the process of creating your last campaign. You began with a reasonably blank slate. Your mind was open, actively inviting new ideas. But sooner or later you had to commit to developing one of them. And pretty soon, the forest began obscuring the trees. And you lost your objectivity.
How do you get it back?
The ultimate creative exercise …
Give this a try. Before you finalize your next piece of sales copy, put it in front of somebody whom you know is a good prospect for whatever it is you’re selling. And ask them to read the copy out loud. Don’t email them the link. Go to their house or office and give them the link to type into their computer while you’re sitting there with them. Pay them to do this if you have to.
Now, as they’re reading your copy out loud, sit quietly with a print-out of the page they’re reading. Watch and listen as they read while you make notes on the print-out.
Do they smile here? Sound confused there? Do they add extraneous comments under their breath in different places as they read? Do they ask you questions when they come to a certain point? If so, engage them in dialog about their questions, concerns, and skepticisms? And mark up your printed copy with notes.
Find several more qualified prospects and repeat this process to see if there are common reactions that need to be addressed… that fly in the face of accepted sales and marketing dogma… and that lead you to some new angle or approach.
I promise you this simple little exercise will open your eyes to things you can’t possibly see on your own, either because you’re too close to your own business, or because you’re not part of the target market. In either case, you’re likely to find some popular marketing truisms shattered.
Try it on for size with your next important project. Feed off your audience like the father of screamin’ guitar blues.
Until next time, Good Selling!
Marketing Lessons From a 74-Year Old Blues Legend originally appeared on The Michel Fortin Blog. Please visit to subscribe to it, or Tweet This.
Five Ways to Turn No into Yes
Posted on 17. Jul, 2010 by James Chartrand in action, argument, benefit, Blog, confidence, Contributions, Copywriting, Dean Rieck, decision, doubt, objection, offer, purchase, question, resistance, response, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing
No is a very powerful word.
It’s one too easily spoken, as any parent of a small four-year-old will tell you. It’s also detrimental to effective copywriting and sales, because it’s an absolute brick wall of resistance.
The minute a potential customer says no, you’ve either lost the sale, or you have to pull out some pretty convincing arguments to sway them back to a yes. Chances are you’re not going to make it.
It’s much harder to change a person’s mind when it’s already made up.
Here are practical tips on how to turn a potential customer’s no into yes, where you’ll learn specific resistance you’ll face and how to magically turn it into sales.
First, Address the Doubts
To believe that people are going to land on your page and immediately say, “This is exactly what I need,” is a belief best left to amateurs. (Of which you are not one, because only smart people read this blog.)
Everyone has doubts. You have them, I have them, your potential customer has them.
Now, no one enjoys having doubts, because they make us feel worried and uncertain and unsure. That’s not a good place to be, and instinctively, we know it. So we seek reassurance that erases our doubts and takes them away.
We look to be confident. When we feel confident, we feel able to make good decisions that are right for — which include, of course, saying, “Yes, this is exactly what I need.”
So address those doubts in your copywriting. Put them on the table right from the start. Show people that you know their concerns and worries, and give them the appropriate answer that provides reassurance.
This doesn’t mean raising questions that weren’t there to begin with. What it means is acknowledging potential questions and concerns and responding to them appropriately before the potential customer picks his own response.
The Best Example: Your Local Garage
Here’s an example of how you can address a potential customer’s doubts:
Let’s say your garage mechanic tells you that repairing your car will cost you $800. You can bet that you’ll have buyer resistance, and it’s highly unlikely that you’ll say, “This is exactly what I need!”
It’s far more likely you’re already trying to figure out how to get out of paying that amount.
Then your mechanic says, “I’m sure you’re wondering how necessary it is to repair these parts.” And he proceeds to tell you exactly how unsafe your car becomes if you don’t have them repaired — and if you have kids, he points out, their safety means everything.
Then your mechanic says, “Now I know you’re probably wondering whether you can wait a while. But let me explain why that’s a bad idea.” He goes on to show how much more costly repairs will be if you don’t get this fixed soon.
By now, you’re not thinking about how to get out of the repairs. You’re into thinking about where you’ll get the money to pay for it all. You’ve already started moving from no to yes.
The mechanic doesn’t really know what’s going through your mind, but what he’s doing is covering his bases. He’s presuming you might have doubts, he’s assuming which doubts you might have, and he’s addressing them before you even voice them aloud.
If he guesses wrong? No problem — call it extra bonus arguments. You know, just in case. And if he guesses right? Then you haven’t had to say a word, and you have all the answers you need.
Be that proactive in your copywriting. Assume the arguments, address them with confidence, reassure your potential customer and you’ll be turning no into yes before you know it.
How do you feel about addressing doubts in copywriting? Are you great at dismantling arguments? Do you hate forking money over to garages? And how reassured do you feel when your doubts are addressed?
The Copywriter’s World is One Filled With Battle
It’s your copy against the consumer, and his defensive shields are strong — so very strong. Each time you valiantly knock down an argument he’s presented, another flies up, as if the consumer creates them right out of thin air.
Dean Rieck once wrote, “Selling is simply offering the right product to the right people at the right time in the right way. You aren’t forcing your customer to say yes; you’re taking away his reasons to say no.”
The consumer holds all the power, the final decision, the last word. But if you’ve done your job copywriting job well and taken away all his reasons to say no, the only word he’ll have left to say is, “Yes.”
How do you take away his reasons to say no? Here are five ways to do just that:
“I Don’t Need This.”
When people tell you they don’t need something, what they’re really saying is that they don’t want something. There’s a huge difference between need and want.
Take the lowly car, for example. We don’t need more than a basic box with wheels that gets us from A to B, but we consistently buy vehicles that offer far more luxury, bells and whistles — and we pay dearly for them too.
Turn needs into wants. Tell people why they want this. Get down and dirty in desire, play up how much their life will change for the better and let them visualize how fantastic their future will be. You’ll be changing “I don’t need this” into “I want it so bad I can taste it” in no time.
“I Can’t Afford This.”
Let’s face it. When people want something — really, really want something — they find a way to make it happen. They stretch their budgets or go without for a few weeks or tighten the bootstraps until they’re straining. They’ll even go into debt, all just to get what they want.
But you need to make sure they want it, and then you need to make this purchase a priority above other wants they have. Show them the benefits of buying, and convey that the value of what you’re selling is worth the price.
Make the offer too good to pass up. Make it unmistakably clear that turning away now means losing out in the long run. And make it a priority — they can’t afford not to buy.
“Mmm… Maybe Tomorrow.”
If someone’s not feeling the need to check out your offer today, there’s been a misfire on the urgency front. You can guarantee they won’t be back, because out of sight is out of mind. Or, maybe they actually want to think over their decision to be sure it’s the right one for them (which is fine), but leave them thinking too long without following up, and the result is that they just plain forget.
Or something more important comes up. And there’s no money left for you.
Convey the need to consider the offer today. Set a deadline or create scarcity with limited offers. Give rewards for fast action with a special price or an extra-value bonus. And if you can’t do that, drive home what happens to people if they wait — prolonged pain, extended misery and longer unhappiness. Who wants that?!
“I Don’t Really Know Who You Are.”
This really means, “Why should I buy… from YOU?” And this baby is a big one these days, with all sorts of unknown people cropping up as overnight experts without the backup to prove their cocky claims. No one wants to risk wasting money on something that’s not very good or useful.
Show people you’re trustworthy by showing them the credentials, skills, background, history and testimonials they need to believe you know what you’re doing. Downplay the wing and a prayer that got you where you are today, talk up what qualifies you, even if it’s your first sale, and hush up with the expert claims.
Experts don’t need to tell people they’re experts; it shows.
The Value of No
If you don’t get the sales you hoped for and your copy converts horribly, don’t despair. There’s a positive in every negative, which means there’s a yes in every no.
There’s a learning experience in why your potential customer didn’t buy, and you can take the opportunity to climb into your prospect’s head and find out what went wrong. That lets you improve your copywriting, your offer, your business and your sales.
Which means less people say no next time.
So go ahead and find out why people didn’t buy. Send out a survey or even personal emails that say you’d like help so you can improve and offer better products or services. Their feedback is valuable to you, so ask for it. Open your mind to what people tell you, and receive the feedback with a willingness to learn from it.
Be objective, and be respectful of the person’s decision not to buy. You’re not going to change their mind; they’ve said no already, and this isn’t about pushing a sale. It’s simply about learning what didn’t work, and how to make it work better the next time.
Ask people what might have swayed their vote, too. By knowing what might have tipped the scales of sale in your favor, you’ll have a good idea of what to add to your next piece of copy — and you’ll just get better and better.
Five Ways to Turn No into Yes originally appeared on The Michel Fortin Blog. Please visit to subscribe to it, or Tweet This.
The Real Problem With The Flaw of Attraction
Posted on 19. Feb, 2010 by Michel Fortin in abuse, action, Blog, drug, guru, health, law-of-attraction, metaphysical, Motivation, Opinions, responsibility, secret, selling, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, wealth
Last night while watching TV, my wife and I had an interesting debate on the whole “The Secret” phenomena. And we came to the very same conclusions.
I believe in the law of attraction. I also like the premise behind the book, which is largely influenced by Wally Wattles’ 1910 book, The Science of Getting Rich.
But with all the “new-wage” gurus out there giving it a bad rap, the law of attraction is getting an undeserved reputation. Some people even call it the “flaw of attraction.” However, the real flaw isn’t with the secret in itself, as some suggested.
It’s with how some people have bastardized it for their own selfish greed.
Here’s the problem…
Your chances of getting what you want is higher when you’re focused on it. Absolutely. And it’s not just some metaphysical, woo-woo thing. Quantum physics aside, which is something else I also believe in, let’s take a more practical look at the law.
You become what you think about. It’s true. But the twist is, you already are what you thought about all your life. So how can some book magically switch your state when your mindset is still on that which made you who you are in the first place?
A mindset that took years to acquire?
Simply, if you think you’re a loser, then chances are you’re a loser. If you truly believe you deserve wealth, then you’ll get wealth if you’re not already wealthy. But it isn’t as automatic as so many of the new-wage gurus want you to believe.
And there lies the rub. And it ain’t some genie lamp, either.
When you focus on something hard enough and long enough, you will eventually change your belief system. And once your belief system has changed, then your consciousness will open itself to notice all the possibilities and opportunities related to it.
Doors that previously seemed closed will open for you. Were they really closed before? No. You were simply oblivious to them. Now, they just jump out at you. As if by miracle.
But it’s no miracle.
Has this ever happened to you? You buy a brand-new car, and you think to yourself that not a lot of people have that same car, much less in that same paint color.
So you buy it, and wouldn’t you know it? As you drive it home, you start to notice that exact same car all over the place. Everybody seems to own one, now. In the same color, too! As if it was some conspiracy to follow you around and copy you.
Funny, isn’t?
That’s the real secret behind the law of attraction.
Here’s the problem with the way this law has been abused of late. People who are vulnerable, gullible, and desperate are seeking a magic pill. A quick-fix solution.
So their mindset is now focused on getting help. They are thinking about getting rid of their financial pains. Once they see a course, program, training, or seminar that purports to teach them on how to cure their money ills, they jump on it like bees to honey.
(Or better said, like flies to excrement.)
Greedy new-wage gurus know this all too well. So they package their rehashed, embellished version of the secret, overprice it, and sell it to the unsuspecting masses.
And guess what? Most of the people who will buy it are those very people who don’t need it. These naive hopefuls will spend the remaining cash in their bank accounts just for some magic pill — and the gurus walk away with their money.
Sure, sell a book or course on how to use the secret. It’s your take on the law. Like an opinion piece of commentary. In it, you perhaps even share some of your observations on how well it’s worked in your own life and those of others around you. No problem.
But when people buy it, they are — better said, they should be — buying it for the educational or entertainment value, just like someone’s book of theories on TV’s Lost.
But don’t promise that this book is the panacea they were looking for, especially when they’re in a vulnerable state. That’s misleading, unethical, nonsensical bullshit.
The best line I’ve heard on the secret came from another movie called “What the Bleep?” I liked the movie because it explained the secret in less philosophical but more scientific terms — such as neuroscience, quantum physics, quantum mechanics, etc.
(Although, some of the people on the show were a little too “out there” for my taste.)
The line came from an interview with a University professor, who said that you can’t overcome years upon years of negativity with just a thin veneer of positive thinking shoved on top of it. You still have this huge underbelly of negativity that’s still there.
It’s the same as weight loss. You can’t lose overnight what often took years to gain. In the same way, you can’t change your thinking overnight, because it took years to build and condition, be it through experience, education, expectations, etc. Even genetics.
Focus on the positive, yes. But you must take action. And that’s the point. People expect the secret to be a magic pill. And they take no action believing the secret will magically save them. They look at the law of attraction as a cure rather than as a tool.
Those types of people are scary, if you ask me. Because the moment something good happens to them, which might have happened anyway either by pure happenstance or as the result of their hard work, they will have a tendency to blame it on the secret.
When the secret had nothing to do with it.
There’s nothing much you can do about these folk, unfortunately. But there’s a second, more sinister category of people who are “attracted” to the law of attraction.
To take action, you need to want to do it. You need motivation. Or desperation, in some cases. Sure, the secret can help you find the motivation you need to take action. It can inspire you. But it’s not and should never be a substitute for action.
Motivation can take time, too. Sometimes, years or even decades.
But the problem is that it’s not sold as a motivational tool. It’s sold as a solution.
And the people who sell the secret as such are the worse of the bunch, in my opinion. Those greedy vultures are masters in the art of repackaging material in a way that caters to a specific market in need of the package — and not the thing being packaged.
Why do you think credit repair products, particularly credit repair scams, are so rampant, especially during tough economic times? Because there’s a market for it!
The secret is just the same. The reason so many people are buying it is because there’s a market for what it promises — not for its educational or motivational value.
First, you shouldn’t be in a position where you would need credit repair if you had the right mindset to begin with and took action on it earlier. It’s about planning, taking responsibility, and most of all, taking action. Before it’s too late.
Of course, accidents happen. Stuff happens over which you have no control. So I’m not talking about people who have no control over their financial dilemmas. I’m talking about those who didn’t take control over their finances before their finances went out of it.
In short, the secret would have been best used before you decided on doing the things that had negative consequences. Consequences that would have put you in a situation where you would need any solution, much less a secret one.
The secret is not remedial. It may be palliative, at best.
Sure, it may be used as a remedial tool. It can motivate you into taking action to remedy your situation, just as you took action that put you in the bad spot you’re in now.
But it is best used as a preventative tool, particularly when you took actions with negative consequences. Or better said, when you had the wrong mindset that led you to making the wrong decisions and taking the wrong actions in the first place.
Or at the very least, the secret can help change your mindset to avoid the negative things that, if unchanged, may keep you in constant need to seek out quick-fix solutions.
Self-help is exactly what it means. The law of attraction can help you to help yourself. But too many people buy into it thinking it’s going to save them. So they fail to take action.
For example, why is it that books on how to make money are more popular than those on how to save it? Because saving money is a sacrifice. It’s work! You need to take action.
But trying to sell a preventative to vulnerable people who are desperately hurting — such as people who are suffering from terminal illnesses or facing bankruptcies — is like trying to sell them a course on how to save money when there is none to save.
Using the weightloss example, you can learn how to change the way you think about food to stop gaining weight, instead of buying a book on how to lose it when it’s too late.
The law of attraction can help steer you in the right direction, and motivate you to make the right decisions and take the right actions, that will prevent you from going to a place where you would need to lose the weight you shouldn’t have gained, anyhow.
(By the way, my apologies to those who are battling weight problems. My intent is not to denigrate people in tough situations but to focus on those who take advantage of them.)
My wife said it best on her breast cancer blog. She said that she wouldn’t focus on battling her breast cancer because it would be very difficult to “fight darkness.”
I mean, how do you conquer darkness?
Do you stab it? Do you pull out your gun and try to shoot it? Do you meditate, pray, and positively think that it will simply go away through some miracle? Of course not.
Really, the only way to fight the darkness is to turn on the light.
You must take action. Do you need a self-help book for that? Maybe, if the self-help book shows you where the lightswitch is, or how to build a lightsource, or how to make money to buy a flashlight, or cheers you up as you patiently wait for the sun to come up.
So is there really a “flaw of attraction?” Not with the law itself. The real flaw is in the way it’s unscrupulously pushed onto innocent souls who don’t know any better.
It’s like pushing drugs onto addicts.
Some of these new-wage gurus are no different than drug dealers, in my opinion.
The issue I have is with those who prey on vulnerable people by selling a preventative as a cure — and worse yet, to mislead them into thinking a preventative is the cure — and to give them false hope only to line their own pockets. Drug pushers, indeed.
Self-help is self-help. You actually need to help yourself to make any “self-help” work.
But to help yourself, you need to act. Because if you buy a book on self-help thinking it will save you miraculously, you might as well leave the book on the shelf-help.
The Real Problem With The Flaw of Attraction originally appeared on The Michel Fortin Blog. Please visit to subscribe to it, or Tweet This.
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