10 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}
10 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}

The Best Sales/Marketing Gurus

by jmferret
7 replies
Wonder what warriors think about it...

Recently I read another book written by "great" salesman who claimed he manipulates his customers by hypnosis, NLP or plain bluff. Had a feeling that, as my mom liked to say "you can't hide sticking ears under the cap".

The guy ranted about how great he is at selling and how he sells to more than 90% of people he talks with. But if you read with attention, you notice that somehow the world's best salesperson ever drives an old car and flies in economy class... yes, I know Warren Buffet does fly economy class too, but as we all know: Quod licet Jovi, non licet bovi.

The moral is: pay attention to details to spot the truth. It helps in business and it helps avoid learning something you better not learn. You should be careful to choose what kind of people to follow as your success model. I think Tony Robbins said something like that more than once...
#guru #gurus #marketing #sales #sales or marketing #scam
  • Profile picture of the author heavysm
    Curious that this is in the mind part of the forum...but I'll bite anyway.

    Your post is why i like to reverse engineer the big marketers, gurus, or whatever you want to label them. I put their products, sales pitches, funnels, and whatever else they have to offer under a microscope to see what they're really doing.

    My friends and I like to pick apart funnels and point out various tactics each marketer uses that tends to be unique to them which reveals their particular nuance to age old marketing tactics. It's pretty fun, if I'm being honest lol

    I tend to follow programs that sell like crazy. This way when you pick apart the sales pitches and funnels you get to see what's selling right now rather than what people think is selling. And if you think about it, that's all that really matter. Skip all the theory and shoot for whatever works right this second rather than debate with others endlessly about things that may or may not work.

    Split testing is fun, but deconstructing a funnel someone else has put in hundreds of hours of work and learning to create can be just as enlightening, and has massively influenced my own marketing.

    One key point that would likely help a lot of you starting out: try to be as open minded and set aside emotion when looking at marketing from a reverse engineering perspective.

    When you get disagree with different forms of marketing and get emotional, it clouds your judgement and prevents you from seeing the bigger picture. Just take a step back and see how that type of marketing fits into the grander marketing scheme, take note, then move on.
    Signature
    The Dirty Little Secret I Use To Boost My Businesses (not what you expect)
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10089110].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author iam8iam
      Originally Posted by heavysm View Post

      Your post is why i like to reverse engineer the big marketers, gurus, or whatever you want to label them. I put their products, sales pitches, funnels, and whatever else they have to offer under a microscope to see what they're really doing
      When you say you reverse engineer the big marketers, how you go about it? One way is to actually purchase their products and see what the actual funnel is. What is your way of reverse engineering?
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10114657].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author heavysm
        Originally Posted by iam8iam View Post

        When you say you reverse engineer the big marketers, how you go about it? One way is to actually purchase their products and see what the actual funnel is. What is your way of reverse engineering?
        You don't have to buy a product to see how a marketer presents their products.

        Sometimes I'll buy the base product, or giveaway, and see what other products are in the funnel.

        In this sense, though, everything matters. If it's a video sales page, the colors, sound and video length are all important. The layout around the video, and the timer (if there is one) that pops up with the buy now button or email opt-in are all significant.

        I have also bought several large courses from big marketers (Dan Kennedy, Eben Pagan etc) and there you get an even bigger glimpse into what marketers do. Many times they even reverse engineer other marketing systems as examples to prove their points, and that can be tremendously enlightening.

        But, no, you don't have to actually buy the products to pick it apart to see what they're doing. The instant you see a sales page, or anywhere a marketer wants you to take action in some way, I look at that and start deconstructing.
        Signature
        The Dirty Little Secret I Use To Boost My Businesses (not what you expect)
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10219649].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author jmferret
    You definitely have a point here, Heavysm.

    Obviously many buy the real product sold by people mentioned.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10089239].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author tobyjensen
    I was thinking, in a way, that SOME of the best are found over on Salty Droid being made fun of.
    Signature

    Toby Jensen - Invest in what works this time

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10113989].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Ben West
    For some strange reason, your post made me think of the WSO sub forum. Wonder why?
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10114302].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Jason Kanigan
    Originally Posted by jmferret View Post

    Wonder what warriors think about it...

    Recently I read another book written by "great" salesman who claimed he manipulates his customers by hypnosis, NLP or plain bluff. Had a feeling that, as my mom liked to say "you can't hide sticking ears under the cap".

    The guy ranted about how great he is at selling and how he sells to more than 90% of people he talks with. But if you read with attention, you notice that somehow the world's best salesperson ever drives an old car and flies in economy class... yes, I know Warren Buffet does fly economy class too, but as we all know: Quod licet Jovi, non licet bovi.

    The moral is: pay attention to details to spot the truth. It helps in business and it helps avoid learning something you better not learn. You should be careful to choose what kind of people to follow as your success model. I think Tony Robbins said something like that more than once...
    From what you describe, this person's behavior is repulsive.

    Probably self-confidence, more than anything, results in his sales. But I doubt his stats are 90%. Also not discussed is the amount of qualifying done by his funnel before he ever talks to the prospects. If they're all warmed up, excited about the chance to work with him, or get what he has to offer, then yes conversions could be very good.

    But this business of bragging about hypnosis and NLP and bamboozling people into buying is the kind of thing that reinforces the public's point of view that salespeople are all lying scumbags who will do and say anything to get the order.
    Signature
    >> Executive advisory: Unstick sales, strategy & growth problems fast → jasonkanigan.com

    >> Selling? Then this is the FREE YouTube series you need RIGHT NOW
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10114811].message }}

Trending Topics