How to hire thugs to force prospects to buy from you
At the beginning of the Star Wars series:
Luke Skywalker goes about his daily life as usual. Until one day he gets a call to action from Old Wise Man Kenobi. Of course, he rejects the invitation and goes back to his aunt and uncle. Until he finds that they were turned into fertilizer by Imperial forces. Thus forcing him to take up the call to action first presented to him.
In story-telling circles, this is called the 1st Act in the Hero's Journey.
Hero lives a normal life...
... discovers something new...
... gets called to action...
... refuses...
... something happens that forces him to take action (the catalyst)...
... and so it begins!
But the power of the "catalyst" story structure isn't just limited to storytelling and copywriting.
You can use the same principle as a catalyst to "force" your prospects to take action when all else fails.
Case in point:
When the legendary Dan Kennedy was selling burglar alarms back in the day, he was finding it a tough sell.
He would tell people about why they should have one...
... put forward a call to action...
... and get flatly refused.
But where most people stop right here, he moved forward with initiating the catalyst which "forces" the hero to take action. Namely...
... he hired some guys to pretend to be thugs...
... and they would go around the neighborhood at night, play cards in people's yards, drop bottles of alcohol, syringes and pornography books, and basically leave people in the neighborhood feeling restless.
Sales of burglar alarms shot up!
But creating your own "catalyst" for action isn't the only way to do things.
You can also rely on or forecast existing market forces that may compel prospects to take action.
Look at Amazon for example.
People were going about their everyday lives.
Perhaps they were asked to buy more stuff online instead in store. But they were too lazy to make the transition.
Countries got locked down.
And... boom... people were forced to take up the call to action to buy more stuff online.
You can either create a catalyst.
Or take advantage of one that's already been put into action.
And this is perhaps the best time in history to take advantage of the catalyst which is forcing almost everyone in the world to buy more online...
Luke Skywalker goes about his daily life as usual. Until one day he gets a call to action from Old Wise Man Kenobi. Of course, he rejects the invitation and goes back to his aunt and uncle. Until he finds that they were turned into fertilizer by Imperial forces. Thus forcing him to take up the call to action first presented to him.
In story-telling circles, this is called the 1st Act in the Hero's Journey.
Hero lives a normal life...
... discovers something new...
... gets called to action...
... refuses...
... something happens that forces him to take action (the catalyst)...
... and so it begins!
But the power of the "catalyst" story structure isn't just limited to storytelling and copywriting.
You can use the same principle as a catalyst to "force" your prospects to take action when all else fails.
Case in point:
When the legendary Dan Kennedy was selling burglar alarms back in the day, he was finding it a tough sell.
He would tell people about why they should have one...
... put forward a call to action...
... and get flatly refused.
But where most people stop right here, he moved forward with initiating the catalyst which "forces" the hero to take action. Namely...
... he hired some guys to pretend to be thugs...
... and they would go around the neighborhood at night, play cards in people's yards, drop bottles of alcohol, syringes and pornography books, and basically leave people in the neighborhood feeling restless.
Sales of burglar alarms shot up!
But creating your own "catalyst" for action isn't the only way to do things.
You can also rely on or forecast existing market forces that may compel prospects to take action.
Look at Amazon for example.
People were going about their everyday lives.
Perhaps they were asked to buy more stuff online instead in store. But they were too lazy to make the transition.
Countries got locked down.
And... boom... people were forced to take up the call to action to buy more stuff online.
You can either create a catalyst.
Or take advantage of one that's already been put into action.
And this is perhaps the best time in history to take advantage of the catalyst which is forcing almost everyone in the world to buy more online...
Ever lie awake worrying that you might be the only person who doesn't know what FOMO means?
Lightin' fuses is for blowin' stuff togethah.