Subtle Trojan Horse Strategy - Lower Their Defenses Without Them Knowing You Did
Have you ever heard the expression, “Buyers are liars?”
I first heard it in the car biz and it sounded truthful because I had experienced it.
What I discovered was that the rebuttals I got were simply defenses people had to keep themselves, seemingly, safe from possibly getting screwed, making a "permanent" "can't change" choice and getting a bad deal.
I was fortunate to have experience with face to face selling because it helped give me context for selling shit using direct response mechanisms and copywriting stuffs.
I learned to try and see it from the customers side so that I could raise those objections and align myself with them, but only to make it easier for me to close'em.
Now a good sales letter will do that, but in order for it to be as maximally effective, efficient and to have as much impact as possible....
It's got to be jack hammered into your customers brain, without them even knowing it's happening.
When you sell face to face, it's interactive battle (and quite tiring).
When you sell in text, or anything that's not in person, it's still a battle, but you had better be good at speaking on both sides because if you can align yourself with them, it's much easier to get them to "walk with you" to customer / client land.
While closing the fresh lead sale from a cold traffic source is AWESOME and the better you can do that the better you are at selling, period, the truth is it ain't the easiest route.
There are easier paths of that are already lubed up, sales tunnels that are good and greased for no resistance selling.
Learning this next part can make all the difference...
You must:
-permeate
-pervade
-infiltrate
-and saturate
their minds and in the little nooks and cracks of their lives as much as possible without setting off negative alarms.
You don't want to "bother," "pester" or "offend" them, even unintentionally.
If you do it with entertainment value, frequency, and train them to respond, you can pretty much rest assured you'll create a thriving business full of rabid buyers you can market to over and over and over again.
If you want to shortcut your ability to write good copy for clients and charge higher fees, part of the way to do that is to first start with customers that already have some foundational shit in place.
Hell, you don't even have to be the best to get some "best results" if you start with a few advanced ideas in mind.
Shit, I've even had a fellow in a different group try to rag on the email swipe samples I provided as part of my portfolio samples on the job board (he has since is no longer a hater...a convert...maybe?).
You don't even need to sell if you understand the components of presell.
Selling does not need to be adversarial.
Simple things like just talking about the problem and showing empathy for what they're going through, as well as asking them for feedback, and doing this frequently, with multiple touches is all you need to start getting better at this.
Did you know that when you ask a question, you automatically engage the customers internal response mechanism?
You can't help but answer that question in your head, right?
Asking it in person, pretty much does the same thing, which is why I know it works so well in print.
Questions kind of force an action.
A response.
When they respond they are actively engaged in what they're saying (for the most part).
When they are mentally engaged, (seemingly of their own accord), they are more likely to do what you want if you've setup the context of their response to go down paths of choice.
It's the illusion of choice that makes this stuff so powerful.
If the paths all lead to the same place...you win, right?
Do you feel like that's sneaky or manipulative?
You're right...it is, but for me, that's not a bad thing if I'm trying to sell.
Learning how to setup these contextual paths is a skill worth learning (imho, of course).
You can grease the shoots by making it entertaining and emotionally engaging.
Do that over and over and people start looking forward to your stuff.
When you understand you gotta go back and touch them over and over again...you start to understand product launch shit.
You understand why lists are so important.
You understand sideways selling.
The reason I got out of selling face to face in the car business was primarily because I hated the stress of shithead, jaded, sociopathic managers.
The ones that degraded me with condescending threats and didn’t seem to understand their put downs weren’t helping me make the sale.
Not all of my managers were assholes, a lot of them were simply just jaded.
They either never had it or learned to eventually lack empathy.
Some were phenomenally motivating, strategic leaders that I learned a whole bunch of cool shit from, that cared about making deals and making money, but also were good at explaining mindset, “why” we should do it this way.
The patient ones explained why.
Why is important for buy in, by the way.
Why with your sales team and why with the folks you want to close.
You help your team buy into your method, they become your loyal servants, and they eventually do everything as told, without question.
I was basically tired of trying to go head to head in what was essentially a battle that I was stuck in the middle of, or so it felt.
I figured there had to be a better way.
Once I discovered the entire world of direct response style selling, influence, persuasion, and copywriting....I learned that there was a better way for me.
A way that could scale.
A way I can control.
The 3 things I'm gonna share with you I learned i the car business, but it was entirely reinforced and rethought when I started learning how to write copy and help clients make very large paydays.
The secret was 3 fold:
1. Starting closer to the finish line, with clients and customers much further along in the sales process.
Learning how to find your ideal target clients will get you closer to gold.
Learning how to help you ideal target clients get to their ideal target clients is even better.
Who are they and where are they?
Define these folks and go after them.
There are signs.
Look for them.
2. Asking about and then catering to a shit ton of THEIR “needs.”
In the car world it went something like this:
“Hi there, my name’s [name], welcome to [dealership], have you been here before?”
“Who’s the car for, you or your wife?,”
"What are you comparing us to?"
“Is this a work commuter or the weeked warrior?,”
“How many miles you average a year?”
These might sound very basic, perhaps, even trivial like “duh” style questions but this gives you a LOT of foundational stuff to work with in order to do some cool priming and other ninja assassin style trojan selling shit.
A lot of the face to face sales guys don't fully appreciate just how powerful this stuff is.
What you’re doing here is allowing them to imagine and think of use.
When they do that you are starting to paint a world in their head and placing them in the picture, living the experience.
It’s also something you will revisit LATER on when you present the whatever it is you sell, and or start closing.
You do this shit right and you’ve completely set afire their desire and emotional response mechanisms.
This is how you start slipping past enemy lines, stealthily without fighting anyone.
Sure, ya gonna have folks that are worried and concerned about price, up front, that’s normal, and expected.
Don’t run from that.
Just side step for now.
When you do it "sideways" you don't even need to deal with this.
But in person and at the dealership this is how it goes:
“Price? Oh, well, these things start at around 25 - 9 (say it just like that, don’t say dollars or the word thousand, assume they get it), and it all depends on how you get it configured, etc.”
“Speaking of price, did you lease your last vehicle, paid cash or were you still making payments?”
That’s a reframe, control pattern interrupt.
If you get good at this, you can do this shit left and right and completely control the process (which you should damn well learn how to do).
3. Always, always, always get followup info.
Quid pro quo.
This might should be number one, especially in the world of direct response and trust funnel based selling.
Give me your email address and I give you my thing that will help you somehow with your problem.
In the car world, it's a test drive.
You want a test drive...give me your email, phone and address.
Get in the habit of getting this up front, as often as possible.
When you get this stuff in advance you are doing 2 things….
1) You’re doing a mini close, which is getting them to ascend one stepper closer to the sale.
2) You’re getting info you’ll need to infiltrate, pervade and saturate their lives via followup.
This is how you get folks to signup for your webinars.
If you're a face to face salesman....
If you think follow up doesn’t work, you’re probably not the top salesman wherever you’re at.
How do I know?
I was consistently a top salesman at every dealership I’ve ever worked at, quickly climbed the ladders the fastest, amassed the most haters (very rapidly) and could care less.
My best clients, as a copywriter, already had some sort of established list.
They had an audience already in place.
They had a relationship.
Every top salesman I’ve ever known, especially in the car biz, always did massive, massive followup.
They transpose themselves and stay ever present in their customers minds.
It's sort of how I slowly have grown my own group on Facebook.
Anyways, how does this transfer to other industries?
Follow up, emails, postcards and so forth are subtle yet powerful ways to subconsciously permeate the minds of your clients and customers.
When you’re consistently in their lives, frequently, you AUTOMAGICALLY increase your know, like, and trust with new customers, reinforce it with past customers, and can become the biggest, baddest, top seller at your company….GUARANTEED.
Perception is reality and when you're always "there" in their lives, some how, some way, if even for a moment, you stay top of mind.
If you incorporate this stuff with entertainment value, and emotional triggers you can, literally, create a permanent place in your clients minds.
If you think I'm lying, and you've never heard of the "Trojan Horse" story, see if you can't get me out of your head once you look it up and learn what it's all about it (come on...you know this story, right?)
Was this rant useful or trivial?
Thanks for your feedback.
I first heard it in the car biz and it sounded truthful because I had experienced it.
What I discovered was that the rebuttals I got were simply defenses people had to keep themselves, seemingly, safe from possibly getting screwed, making a "permanent" "can't change" choice and getting a bad deal.
I was fortunate to have experience with face to face selling because it helped give me context for selling shit using direct response mechanisms and copywriting stuffs.
I learned to try and see it from the customers side so that I could raise those objections and align myself with them, but only to make it easier for me to close'em.
Now a good sales letter will do that, but in order for it to be as maximally effective, efficient and to have as much impact as possible....
It's got to be jack hammered into your customers brain, without them even knowing it's happening.
When you sell face to face, it's interactive battle (and quite tiring).
When you sell in text, or anything that's not in person, it's still a battle, but you had better be good at speaking on both sides because if you can align yourself with them, it's much easier to get them to "walk with you" to customer / client land.
While closing the fresh lead sale from a cold traffic source is AWESOME and the better you can do that the better you are at selling, period, the truth is it ain't the easiest route.
There are easier paths of that are already lubed up, sales tunnels that are good and greased for no resistance selling.
Learning this next part can make all the difference...
You must:
-permeate
-pervade
-infiltrate
-and saturate
their minds and in the little nooks and cracks of their lives as much as possible without setting off negative alarms.
You don't want to "bother," "pester" or "offend" them, even unintentionally.
If you do it with entertainment value, frequency, and train them to respond, you can pretty much rest assured you'll create a thriving business full of rabid buyers you can market to over and over and over again.
If you want to shortcut your ability to write good copy for clients and charge higher fees, part of the way to do that is to first start with customers that already have some foundational shit in place.
Hell, you don't even have to be the best to get some "best results" if you start with a few advanced ideas in mind.
Shit, I've even had a fellow in a different group try to rag on the email swipe samples I provided as part of my portfolio samples on the job board (he has since is no longer a hater...a convert...maybe?).
You don't even need to sell if you understand the components of presell.
Selling does not need to be adversarial.
Simple things like just talking about the problem and showing empathy for what they're going through, as well as asking them for feedback, and doing this frequently, with multiple touches is all you need to start getting better at this.
Did you know that when you ask a question, you automatically engage the customers internal response mechanism?
You can't help but answer that question in your head, right?
Asking it in person, pretty much does the same thing, which is why I know it works so well in print.
Questions kind of force an action.
A response.
When they respond they are actively engaged in what they're saying (for the most part).
When they are mentally engaged, (seemingly of their own accord), they are more likely to do what you want if you've setup the context of their response to go down paths of choice.
It's the illusion of choice that makes this stuff so powerful.
If the paths all lead to the same place...you win, right?
Do you feel like that's sneaky or manipulative?
You're right...it is, but for me, that's not a bad thing if I'm trying to sell.
Learning how to setup these contextual paths is a skill worth learning (imho, of course).
You can grease the shoots by making it entertaining and emotionally engaging.
Do that over and over and people start looking forward to your stuff.
When you understand you gotta go back and touch them over and over again...you start to understand product launch shit.
You understand why lists are so important.
You understand sideways selling.
The reason I got out of selling face to face in the car business was primarily because I hated the stress of shithead, jaded, sociopathic managers.
The ones that degraded me with condescending threats and didn’t seem to understand their put downs weren’t helping me make the sale.
Not all of my managers were assholes, a lot of them were simply just jaded.
They either never had it or learned to eventually lack empathy.
Some were phenomenally motivating, strategic leaders that I learned a whole bunch of cool shit from, that cared about making deals and making money, but also were good at explaining mindset, “why” we should do it this way.
The patient ones explained why.
Why is important for buy in, by the way.
Why with your sales team and why with the folks you want to close.
You help your team buy into your method, they become your loyal servants, and they eventually do everything as told, without question.
I was basically tired of trying to go head to head in what was essentially a battle that I was stuck in the middle of, or so it felt.
I figured there had to be a better way.
Once I discovered the entire world of direct response style selling, influence, persuasion, and copywriting....I learned that there was a better way for me.
A way that could scale.
A way I can control.
The 3 things I'm gonna share with you I learned i the car business, but it was entirely reinforced and rethought when I started learning how to write copy and help clients make very large paydays.
The secret was 3 fold:
1. Starting closer to the finish line, with clients and customers much further along in the sales process.
Learning how to find your ideal target clients will get you closer to gold.
Learning how to help you ideal target clients get to their ideal target clients is even better.
Who are they and where are they?
Define these folks and go after them.
There are signs.
Look for them.
2. Asking about and then catering to a shit ton of THEIR “needs.”
In the car world it went something like this:
“Hi there, my name’s [name], welcome to [dealership], have you been here before?”
“Who’s the car for, you or your wife?,”
"What are you comparing us to?"
“Is this a work commuter or the weeked warrior?,”
“How many miles you average a year?”
These might sound very basic, perhaps, even trivial like “duh” style questions but this gives you a LOT of foundational stuff to work with in order to do some cool priming and other ninja assassin style trojan selling shit.
A lot of the face to face sales guys don't fully appreciate just how powerful this stuff is.
What you’re doing here is allowing them to imagine and think of use.
When they do that you are starting to paint a world in their head and placing them in the picture, living the experience.
It’s also something you will revisit LATER on when you present the whatever it is you sell, and or start closing.
You do this shit right and you’ve completely set afire their desire and emotional response mechanisms.
This is how you start slipping past enemy lines, stealthily without fighting anyone.
Sure, ya gonna have folks that are worried and concerned about price, up front, that’s normal, and expected.
Don’t run from that.
Just side step for now.
When you do it "sideways" you don't even need to deal with this.
But in person and at the dealership this is how it goes:
“Price? Oh, well, these things start at around 25 - 9 (say it just like that, don’t say dollars or the word thousand, assume they get it), and it all depends on how you get it configured, etc.”
“Speaking of price, did you lease your last vehicle, paid cash or were you still making payments?”
That’s a reframe, control pattern interrupt.
If you get good at this, you can do this shit left and right and completely control the process (which you should damn well learn how to do).
3. Always, always, always get followup info.
Quid pro quo.
This might should be number one, especially in the world of direct response and trust funnel based selling.
Give me your email address and I give you my thing that will help you somehow with your problem.
In the car world, it's a test drive.
You want a test drive...give me your email, phone and address.
Get in the habit of getting this up front, as often as possible.
When you get this stuff in advance you are doing 2 things….
1) You’re doing a mini close, which is getting them to ascend one stepper closer to the sale.
2) You’re getting info you’ll need to infiltrate, pervade and saturate their lives via followup.
This is how you get folks to signup for your webinars.
If you're a face to face salesman....
If you think follow up doesn’t work, you’re probably not the top salesman wherever you’re at.
How do I know?
I was consistently a top salesman at every dealership I’ve ever worked at, quickly climbed the ladders the fastest, amassed the most haters (very rapidly) and could care less.
My best clients, as a copywriter, already had some sort of established list.
They had an audience already in place.
They had a relationship.
Every top salesman I’ve ever known, especially in the car biz, always did massive, massive followup.
They transpose themselves and stay ever present in their customers minds.
It's sort of how I slowly have grown my own group on Facebook.
Anyways, how does this transfer to other industries?
Follow up, emails, postcards and so forth are subtle yet powerful ways to subconsciously permeate the minds of your clients and customers.
When you’re consistently in their lives, frequently, you AUTOMAGICALLY increase your know, like, and trust with new customers, reinforce it with past customers, and can become the biggest, baddest, top seller at your company….GUARANTEED.
Perception is reality and when you're always "there" in their lives, some how, some way, if even for a moment, you stay top of mind.
If you incorporate this stuff with entertainment value, and emotional triggers you can, literally, create a permanent place in your clients minds.
If you think I'm lying, and you've never heard of the "Trojan Horse" story, see if you can't get me out of your head once you look it up and learn what it's all about it (come on...you know this story, right?)
Was this rant useful or trivial?
Thanks for your feedback.