I see this all the time when I read sales copies, posts and tweets from a lot of you here.
And this isn’t meant to criticise, but to draw your attention to something we are all missing.
Joe Karbo once wrote a sales letter where he promised to show his prospects how to make up to 1 million dollars in a few months.
How many people responded?
Not much.
So, what did he do?
He rewrote the letter.
But instead of rewriting the letter as a whole, he simply changed the BIG PROMISE.
From how to make up to $1 million to how to make up to $50,000+ in a few months.
And what happened next?
That letter sold like crazy.
But one thing I didn’t add was he also had to add things like:
“You don’t even need experience”
“You don’t have to quit your job”
“It doesn’t require talent”
“It doesn’t require education”
And why was that so?
Because It’s easier to tell Dangote you can scale up his business and get him up to a million dollars a day.
But how do you sell that same line to a poor guy looking for his next available meal?
For someone just starting out, all you need to help them get at the beginning is EASY wins.
Say he makes just 25,000 naira a month.
Can you help him get an extra 10k?
An extra 20k?
Can you double it for him by getting him up to 50k?
These are all easy and look achievable.
Especially for someone at his level of success.
Because even the Bible says everyone has been given a measure of faith.
Not the same amount, but different measures – meaning not everyone has the same level of risk taking in them.
Everyone isn’t trying to be a billionaire.
Some people just want to be comfortable, even though it sounds vague.
Most people just want to be able to pay bills, take care of their families, send their kids to private schools, own 2 cars and be able to send money to their parents at least once a month.
Which is why some people say things like I started an extra business because I just wanted to make an extra 10,000 or 100,000 naira every month.
It’s not a lack of ambition.
It’s someone operating from their level of knowledge and belief.
Work from there.
This is extremely important when selling to Nigerians too.
Most of us have been blinded to what’s possible because of struggle.
Most of us have been in survival mode our whole lives.
It sounds absurd when you tell someone they can make $200,000 a year legally.
Na jazz?
So, there’s no need promising them a million naira a week.
Rather show them how they can make an extra N20,000 in a week or month.
And also how they can do it CONSISTENTLY.
N20,000 every week for 52 weeks is an extra 1 million naira in a year.
Their whole mental model will shift once they begin to understand what’s possible.
That’s how you unlock someone’s ability to make more.
Not by making a thousand promises.
But by showing them what’s possible at their current level.
Around the 0:45 mark where the referee says, “Do you want me to come and have a look to sell it? I think I better. Because the players are expecting it.”
That phrase “to sell it” in this context simply means convincing the other team it’s a goal.
So, if you needed any confirmation that virtually every transaction or social interaction between people is an act of buying and selling, then this is it.
And why is it so?
It’s because, at every point, you’re trying to prove something (value) to who you are with, whether deliberately or not.
You’re working hard trying to prove to your parents, peers, family and yourself you are not a failure.
You’re trying to prove to the woman you’re trying to be with how much of a great guy you are, and how much fun and happiness she’d get from being with you.
You’re trying to prove to your employer you’re a great fit for the job, or you can at least improve. Proving this ensures you get a raise or you retain your job.
Your high follower count on Twitter proves your tweets are valuable (even if this is debatable), so people get to follow you easily.
Now see the reaction of the captain of the opposing team after the referee checks VAR and gives his verdict.
He accepts it without much debate.
But the referee had to use the VAR screen to demonstrate that authority.
Just like how women sexually respond to dominant men, men with some authority or men they see as capable of leading them.
“Women are attracted to the professor and not the junior lecturer. Women are attracted to the doctor and not the lab tech. Women are attracted to the quarterback and not the kicker. Women are attracted to the CEO and not the pizza delivery guy. Women are attracted to the leading man and not the comic relief.” – Athol Kay
You can see the response to authority, but since we are not talking about women today, let’s not digress. Focus!
In this case, the referee is the leader and everything he says is the law.
But there’s a catch.
If his body language demonstrates any kind of doubt, the players will react negatively to him. He’s likely going to end up disrespected and his actions questioned.
Just like a certain country whose President has been criticized for his body language and the result has been increasing insecurity.
So, to dispel any notion of a doubt, he consults the VAR screen and uses it as a tool to demonstrate his authority and final decision.
Why am I using this video to explain this?
It’s because your prospect has doubts in their hearts already.
They are insecure. They are sceptical. They are afraid. So, how do you reverse all that?
Positioning.
Do you make them see your offer as a Ponzi scheme, a scam, a network marketing or MLM biz or a genuine offer that is guaranteed to change their lives? An offer anyone in their right mind would not refuse.
This is why it’s important to avoid instances where you stutter, can’t defend your words, or where your authority can be called into question and you can’t back it up.
But how do you do this?
Research.
Understand your audience.
Understand your product.
Understand your competition.
What does your audience see you as? How do you position yourself? How do you position your product?
Are you just another snake oil salesman? Or a genuine person who wants to help them with a genuine solution to their problems?
In one of Ronald Nzimora’s emails about the Sidney Sheldon-Jose Iturbi love triangle, he said, “There’s an advantage at being first, being unique, having something others don’t have, you can employ it and using it in the right positioning makes it easy to beat the competition.“
That’s how you win.
Selah.
If you’re interested in increasing your sales and conversions, attract more customers, improve your sales and marketing knowledge, then click on the link below.
I knew Toyin Omotoso from when I attended Akin Alabi’s YECO event while serving in Ibadan in early 2019.
Started following him, Ronald Nzimora, Biola Kazeem and most of the people who spoke at YECO. Turned on notifications too.
But it wasn’t until late 2019 when he put out this tweet talking about learning Spanish did I get to finally interact with him.
I started with teaching him Spanish 2hrs a day 2 or 3x a week, but by sheer divine providence he took it upon himself to teach me copywriting, sales, advertising and the entire marketing caboodle.
In 2020, I ended up becoming his protege, became the in-house copywriter and Digital Content Manager for 7Star Support Systems Nigeria, and collaborated on several projects too.
All this might not sound like much to most of you but going from teaching Spanish for 2k/hour to working with one of the greatest marketing minds in the whole of Africa, and still making money off of it for me is something you only get to see in movies.
It’s been a crazy ride this past 1 year but below are the 19 things I learned from working with @toyinomotoso in 2020.
1. Everything Is For Sale.
Pet rocks. Sparkling water. Small e-books with all kinds of information. Waist trainers. Diet plans. Exercise routines. People will buy anything, as long as it’s important to them and they can afford it.
That little piece of knowledge you have that seems common to you could be the difference between poverty and massive wealth for you. Someone somewhere needs it. And they’ll pay you for it if you can make it available to them.
2. The Offer Is King.
“I’ll make him an offer he cannot refuse.” – Don Vito Corleone (The Godfather)
Lots of salesman and marketers talk about different tactics and strategies for making a sale, but nothing beats an irresistible offer.
Your customers want to believe your product or service is the best offer (or at least the second-best) they are getting from the market.
Your irresistible offer is how you get the customer and also how you crush your competition.
3. There’s A Marketing Angle In Almost Every Story, It’s Your Job To Find It.
Everything has become an opportunity for me to learn since I started working in marketing over the last year. Books, movies, conversations, experiences etc.
These days I’ve learned to find a marketing angle even in the most mundane stories. This helps with creating powerful leads and story arcs.
People also love it when you share a story with them about an experience they can relate to.
4. Principles Are Everything.
To achieve anything worthwhile in any endeavour, it’s important to understand the principles and roots first.
Those principles form the foundation and everything is built on them. Which is why as a salesman, it’s important to always have it at the back of your mind that even if everything changes, human nature never does.
Human nature is what drives every emotion, which drives every single sale and purchase. You’re making a mistake if you don’t pay attention to how people behave.
5. Focus.
a. Focus on what’s important and ignore every other thing. There are all distractions towards your end goal.
Instead of doing 20 low-quality things, how about you just focus on 2 and make them the highest quality possible?
b. Focus on your strengths, outsource every other thing if you can afford it. This will free up time and energy for you to focus on what’s important. If you can’t afford it, then keep working till you can.
c. Most people are lazy and distracted today. You can become a god in your chosen field if you just ‘outfocus’ them.
6. Listen.
Has someone ever told you you’re easy to talk to?
Well, the truth is you might not even be easy to talk to in the actual sense, but once people notice you listen to them, they believe you’re easy to talk to.
Plus, you pick up more from listening than from talking. People naturally open up to you when they know you’re willing to listen to them talk about their problems. Sometimes, they don’t even want a solution or an answer to their problem, they just want to vent. Most people eventually figure it out themselves.
Listening is also how you become a better copywriter and salesman. You learn about your prospect’s problems by listening and paying attention.
7. Just Do It.
Start first. Make mistakes. Correct them. Keep going. Learn along the way. You never what it’s going to be like until you take risks.
I think I should do this more 😁
8. Stay Curious: You Start Dying The Day You Stop Learning.
Your job as a copywriter/salesman means you have to keep learning till the day you die. You are required to know about a lot of things and how they work.
That’s how you create winning ads. That’s how you create better presentations. That’s how you create powerful leads. That’s how you get better clients. That’s how you do great work.
Read books. Research different topics. Watch instructional videos. Listen to podcasts. Try new things and new experiences. Always be looking to learn something new every day.
9. Quality Over Quantity, But Quantity Begets Quality.
Every day in this digital marketing world, we hear a story about someone who has made hundreds of millions of dollars from putting together an incredible offer. But nobody asks how many times they had to try or how many different things they had to do or how many projects they failed at or how many duds they had put out before or how many years it took them to get to that level.
The truth is to get to the level where you consistently put out quality work, you might have to put out a lot of mediocre work at the beginning. But consistently improving on them and getting better is how you eventually win. Which leads me to the next lesson.
10. Practice, Practice, Practice.
Ask Ronaldo, Ask Kobe Bryant, Ask Michael Jordan. Consistency is how you win. Which is why you have to keep practising every day.
11. Just One Good Offer + One Good Sales Copy Can Change Your Life.
“Just one good sales letter is what will change your life as a copywriter. It changed my life. It changed Ronald’s life. It changed Akin Alabi’s life.” – Toyin Omotoso
12. Garbage In, Garbage Out/What You Sow, You Reap.
What you consume is what you give out. Consume quality and you give out quality. Consume garbage and you give out the garbage.
13. There’s Money Everywhere.
But first, you need to understand the difference between you and the guy who has money is value. And then when you do, add value too. That’s how you make money.
14. Attention Is Scarce But Money Is Plenty.
People will pay through their nose for what they are interested in, but first, you need to find out what is this thing they are interested in and then figure out how to get their attention.
If you can get their attention, manage to hold their interest and then give them an irresistible offer, they’ll chase you down with their wallets open.
15. Strive For More.
Toyin Omotoso once sent out an email where he said he gave himself a target to be one of the best guys doing marketing in Nigeria when he first started. Years later, he feels he should have set his goals higher. I’ve never forgotten. This has stuck with me ever since.
16. Research Is Everything.
Know your market. Know your product. Know your competition. But you can only know all this through research.
Everything required to sell depends on excellent research and it’s on you to do it.
17. The Road To Success/Greatness Is Long, But A Mentor Takes You There In Twice The Time And Probably Half The Effort.
There are a lot of great people on here and in real life I see as mentors and learn from. Some of them I’ve never met physically and will never meet. But that’s not a barrier because the Internet has made it easier to access their knowledge through their books, articles, posts, and materials they put out.
Which is why it’s important to study for the masters or anyone who has succeeded in something you’re interested in.
There’s a reason why they succeeded. If you are humble enough to learn from their experiences and implement, someday you might become a master too.
18. Invest In Yourself.
People get to a certain level, make some good money or get some fame and decide to relax, but Toyin Omotoso has spent around N2million (that I’m aware of) between January and now on new materials just to continually upgrade himself.
If someone at that level keeps adding to themselves, then who am I to stay stagnant?
He once told me the reason why I give you all these books is that I know you’ll read them. That’s my inspiration.
19. Positioning Is Everything.
Everything about your approach to life changes the day you discover this.
There’s a reason why someone would see you and think you’re too cheap and not want to work with you or buy what you’re selling because they think it’s not worth it.
Positioning affects your relationships, your product and service offerings, how people see you and even how they regard you.
People like Toyin Omotoso entirely changed the game for young people.
Aside from opening our eyes to how enormously profitable the sales and marketing industry is, you have to think about the different roads he’s helped pave: Consulting, Advertising, Media Buying, Affiliate Marketing, E-Commerce, Persuasion, Personal Development etc.
I mean, you look at young copywriting geniuses like Andy Mukolo or affiliate marketing mavericks like Bruno Nwogu, or kings like Emmanuel Adiotu & Yusuf Adedeji crushing it in E-Commerce and how much he’s influenced them and then you’d understand.
Lupe Fiasco once said, “Hip-Hop saved me.” Well, Toyin Omotoso saved my life.
So, thank you for the opportunity to drink from your fountain of unending knowledge and learning at your feet. Thank you for everything, Baba mi. Every day I feel like I won the lottery.
And here’s to many more years, Maestro’s Maestro. 🥂
Also, I think I was lucky enough to be in this position. Many people reading this would wish they could. But not to worry, you too can learn from the master himself when you click on the link below 👇🏿
There are five stages of awareness in your prospective customer’s mind which determines whether or not they buy what you’re selling to them.
In order not to waste your time, money and effort, it’s important to know these stages before trying to convince them to buy what you sell.
They include:
1. Completely Unaware.
2. Problem Aware.
3. Solution Aware.
4. Product Aware.
5. Most Aware.
• Completely Unaware
At this stage, the prospect has no idea how your product can help them, but it’s even worse because he/she doesn’t even know this problem exists.
So, how do you help someone who doesn’t even know they have a problem?
This is why this stage is the hardest because you’re dealing with cold traffic who aside from being unaware might not know you also. So, you have to educate them first, then convince second and then sell to them by proving the usefulness of your solution.
Imagine selling sanitary pads to a 10-year-old who hasn’t even hit puberty yet, talk more about having a menstrual cycle. They know nothing yet.
The only reason they might even know anything about menstruation is if they have older siblings or female relatives who teach them about it or they’ve been exposed to external sources of information like friends, neighbours, schoolmates, social media or Integrated Science class.
Can you see it still boils down to education first?
This is how the Devil was able to convince Eve in the Garden of Eden.
He had to tell her about a problem, then tell her the solution and then convince her to try it out.
The blow at this stage is your prospect might never be your customer. Probably because you no longer sell sanitary pads by the time she’s mature enough to use them.
So, as a sanitary pad salesman, you can only teach her enough to be able to understand, and then hope she buys your brand of sanitary pads when she’s old enough. That is if you’re still in business.
But if you’re able to convert your prospects in this stage to customers, then this is the most profitable stage of all.
And why is because when you educate someone and then sell to them, you make them a customer for life. That is unless you or your competition fucks it up.
Because asides from educating them, you also sow in them the seeds of brand loyalty.
Which is why this is usually the starting point of the customer’s lifetime value (ie their age, how long they’ll keep buying from you and how much you can make from them over that time).
• Problem-Aware
Your prospect is aware of their problem, but they don’t know there’s a solution out there.
You become their messiah by showing them a solution.
Take a typical poor village girl in a deeply rural community who uses rags to stem her blood flow during her cycle.
She knows about her cycle and the time of the month, but does she know there’s a better, cleaner and more hygienic option out there than dealing with the messiness the rags cause her every month?
This part has to deal more with convincing and a bit of education. Although the only education you do here is how your product works and how it solves their problems.
• Solution-Aware
Your prospect in this instance knows they have a problem and there are solutions out there.
But either they don’t have access to these solutions because they don’t know what products can give them the solutions they want or they can’t afford it or it isn’t accessible to them.
Here, your job is easy because you just have to sell a solution to someone who is in dire need of it.
The only resistance you might have here is pricing (if you’re serving a market without lots of money). And this isn’t easy to overcome because even if people are willing to pay through their nose for something important to them, not being able to afford it becomes a major barrier.
Think of health care and how many people are just one chronic ailment away from financial devastation.
The poor guy who knows he should go to the hospital, but opts for over the counter drugs or self-medication because going to the hospital would be more expensive.
Another issue here would be accessibility and distribution.
Think of Mo Ibrahim’s Celtel and how they built a wireless cellphone market in Africa (a post for another day).
If someone knows they have a problem, they know there’s a solution and they can’t have access to it, then there’s going to be a huge loss of money, time, effort and manpower. Even intangibles like self-esteem come into play here.
Your second job is to get the solution (which is your product) to them by any means necessary.
• Product-Aware
Here, your prospect knows their problems, knows there’s a solution, knows there’s a product or products that offers the solution. But there’s a problem.
They don’t know if this product is the right fit for them.
Your biggest job here is convincing them on why your product is the best option for them or at least the second-best option in their current situation.
• Most Aware
Here, your prospect is sophisticated.
They know about their problems, they know about the solution and the products on the market that can solve their problems.
They even know the differences between these products – price range, hierarchy (what’s better), the different options, cheaper alternatives and all.
They’ve probably used some of these products already and are disillusioned with the results they got or are lowkey looking for something better. Or even if they aren’t particularly looking, they might be swayed if something better comes along.
Here, what drives the sale is the OFFER.
How do you make them an offer they can’t refuse?
How do you make them an offer that speaks to their specific needs?
How do you make them an offer that appeals to their sentiments or the depth of their pockets?
This is where you have to dig into your inner Don Corleone to close the deal.
It’s important to know the different stages of awareness before sitting down to write a sales copy or crafting a marketing campaign so you don’t waste your time and money on duds.
A common theme in writing copy and in persuasion is the importance of authority and how people respond to authority figures (professionals, experts etc.)
Some of the greatest scams and cons have been pulled by con artists by strategically using authority figures.
There’s a story about how a split test for advertising a certain product on television was done.
In one of the adverts, the spokesperson wore a T-shirt and jeans. In the second one, the spokesperson wore a doctor’s lab coat with a stethoscope hanging on their neck.
Results showed the second advert converted better than the first bringing in more leads, more sales, more revenue and more profits.
And it wasn’t because the second person didn’t speak well or clearly enough.
It was simply because people believed the doctor more. After all, aside from speaking the part, he also looked the part.
The age-old advice of dress how you want to be addressed comes to the fore.
But communicating authority doesn’t necessarily have to be wearing a doctor’s lab coat with a stethoscope around your neck or introducing yourself as an expert or professional.
Authority can also be expressed in how you communicate your ideas and the conviction with which you communicate them.
How much do you know about your topic of choice? Do you speak your knowledge with ‘authority’? Can you communicate it without sounding ambiguous? Is it simple? Is it understandable? Is it clear? Is it concise and straight to the point? How much proof can you show?
Although this isn’t entirely easy because you don’t expect me to listen to a guy dressed as a janitor when I turn up at a hospital after getting bitten by a snake.
But in scenarios where you’ve been able to grab attention and hold your audience’s interest, how you deliver your expertise becomes everything.
The authority you communicate your ideas with is a reflection of how much you know what you’re talking about.
Which is why it’s super important to understand your subject of choice from back to front.
But even if you don’t understand everything about it, you must at least understand the roots and foundation well enough to be able to communicate them clearly.
People respect ‘experts’ who truly know their onions.
But in certain cases where this isn’t possible, you can use an authority prop.
But how do you do this?
First, ask yourself if your ideas are true, and if they work.
Can they stand the pressure when they are put to the test?
Do you have proof?
Then the simple thing to do is to get a professional who can either cosign (legally of course) what you’re saying, or say it themselves on your behalf.
This might cost you money or some form of equity or even your pride or all three of them. But that’s the price to pay for not being a professional 😁
Not easy, I can assure you. But there’s nothing easy about this thing of ours 😁
Spent the better part of last night and this morning binge-watching Lupin and it’s clear two things are paramount when it comes to persuading people:
1. Proof
Whether engineered or framed (I advise you not to lie though), people are constantly searching for what to believe in. Despite how much they might deny it even. And that’s despite how low trust is nowadays.
This is why religion, politics and relationships sit on top of the conversation every day.
People want to believe in a god, a messiah, a leader, a Moses who’d take them out of Egypt, a Joshua who’d take them into the promised land, a product or service which alleviates their suffering, helps them save money, or puts money in their pockets, a person who says they’ll love them unconditionally whether sun or rain (Lori iro 😁).
As a persuader, proof is your bridge over muddied waters.
Waters muddied by low-quality copywriters, direct response marketers who don’t know their scruples, liars and scumbags littered all across the Internet.
Proof is your bridge from obscurity and poverty to crazy money.
Proof is why I almost stole $497 from my mother’s handbag to buy David Deutsch’s course this morning.
Proof is everything.
So, as a wise man told me once, “show, don’t tell.”
2. Speak Their Language.
You see Assane Diop glide effortlessly through conversations with different people (Fabienne Beriot, Claire, Raoul etc.) because of his ability to speak ‘their language’.
Not languages as per dialects, no! But language as per needs, emotions, wants and desires.
When you understand people at the base level, it’s easy to ‘manipulate’ them. It’s easy to convince them. It’s easy to persuade them. It’s easy to sell to them.
Speaking their language helps you create irresistible offers they can’t refuse. Because you know who they are, what they want, what rattles them, what pushes their needles, what they need, even if they lie to your face they don’t.
Hello, Don Corleone 😁
Also, don’t forget to adapt.
This ties in together with speaking people’s languages too.
A 25-year-old and a 50-year-old don’t want the same thing. Neither does a married couple and a perennial bachelor want the same thing either.
When you can adapt to people and situations, it’s easier to speak their language.
I’m sorry this post started with why you shouldn’t watch Lupin and then goes on to make you want to watch it. But that’s the truth. The world doesn’t need more manipulators like you 😁
Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was known as the “Prince of Tunnels” “King of Drains” “Master of Tunnels” “King of Tunnels”. But how did he come by these nicknames?
A short story.
You see, after the US Drug Task Force clamped down heavily on the Caribbean drug trafficking routes into the United States, it had become harder to get drugs in. Border security was also tightened. And so, there was a need for alternatives.
So, what to do?
Enter Joaquin Guzman, leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, popularly known as “El Chapo”.
El Chapo understood the US was the biggest market for the cartel’s drugs and if they wanted to remain in business, they had to find a way to surpass all the security measures already imposed. They needed solid shipping, logistics, and handling.
So, to do this, he contracted an architect and tasked him with the job of building tunnels.
But from where to where?
From Mexico to the US, you dummy 😁
Sounds impossible, yeah?
But not to a resolute mastermind like El Chapo.
He’d eventually go on to build an estimated 100 tunnels on the US-Mexico border. Some of them would take as much as 16 months and cost up to 5 million dollars.
Sounds like a lot of money to you, I know.
But for someone who was ranked by Forbes as the 1,140th richest man in the world in 2011, with a net worth of around US$1 billion, 5 million dollars was just operating expenses. He was even named in Forbes magazine’s annual list of billionaires four times.
These tunnels weren’t just crude holes in the ground like underground coal mines, they were so sophisticated that they were lit by an electrical system, dug so deep that ground-penetrating radar couldn’t detect them and one even had an entrance covered by a pool table that lifted from the concrete floor by a hydraulic system.
Stuff of genius!
El Chapo would go on to become the most powerful drug trafficker in the world and the biggest drug lord of all time. He brought in more drugs into the United States than any other trafficker in history.
Although not as prominent in popular culture as Pablo Escobar, the U.S. DEA strongly believes he even surpassed the influence and reach of Pablo Escobar.
But we all know what happens to drug dealers. El Chapo eventually met his fate when he got caught and sentenced to prison.
And so we’d have thought this would be the end of his tunnels, but no hombre.
In 2015, he escaped from his jail cell through a TUNNEL in his bathroom.
Another tunnel, Mr. Guzman? 😁
Aside from his legendary tunnels, he also moved drugs through trains and canned food.
I’ve seen it somewhere before that druglords and gangsters can teach us more about business than college or business school professors and I think that’s true.
Because while the rest of the world (internet marketers 😜) was focused on funnel building, El Chapo was focused on tunnel building. And can you blame him?
A wiseman once told me “The way up is down,” and looking at El Chapo’s story, I believe him.
In 2007, after spending an estimated $150 million developing the iPhone in secret, Steve Jobs was concerned about how to market it.
Steve Jobs knew that just creating a great product was one thing, but promotion and distribution were also key. This was why he had always been very bullish on advertising because he understood just how powerful it was.
He also understood how much publicity paid advertising could give a product. But he knew the best kind of advertising was always word of mouth.
So, what to do?
As a student of psychology, he’d spent his time continually studying people and their actions.
By doing so, he’d come to understand the importance of having people standing in long lines scrambling to get your products. Those long lines communicated three things:
1. Scarcity & Social Proof
People are hardwired to want the things they can’t have.
Just like how women are attracted to men who other women are attracted to, people are intrigued by something or someone in high demand.
A long line of people waiting for something or someone indicates one thing – VALUE.
The question people not on the line would ask themselves is “why is everyone gathering to get it?” And “if everyone is on that line, then why am I not on it?”
2. Publicity
The media would see those long lines and write articles and stories about it. News channels would send their reporters to cover it. People would see their friends and family members on TV standing in those lines. And then they’d eventually come out to join them too because what the heck? Lol
3. Promotion
Strong publicity would eventually lead to strong promotion as everyone starts talking about it.
Even your competitors who would jump on this to try to make fun of you would end up spreading the gospel of your business unconsciously. And we all know what they say about publicity, whether good or bad.
This is a bit of an urban legend, but rumours are that before the first iPhone went on sale on June 29, 2007, Steve Jobs would go ahead and hire scores of people to stand in strategic positions on the lines in front of Apple stores.
Thousands of people were pictured lining up outside Apple and AT&T retail stores days before the launch date.
The iPhone was released and was a massive success.
Apple sold one million units 74 days after its release. Many stores reported stock shortages within an hour of availability.
Apple would go on to sell 6.1 million units before they discontinued its production the following year.
But this was not going to be the last time Apple would use the power of long lines to sell their products.
Before releasing the iPad 2, Apple knew they needed long lines – even longer than those who queued for the original iPad.
So, what to do?
Apple deliberately masterminded those long lines by refusing to allow pre-orders.
Not allowing pre-orders meant one thing – people would rush out to get them.
And the result?
In its first month, the iPad 2 sold 2.4–2.6 million units, and an estimated 11.12 million units by the third quarter of 2011.
Steve Jobs might have started it, but nowadays some die-hard Apple customers even go ahead and hire others and pay them to hold their place in Apple store lines.
In the early ’60s, The Beatles were one of the hottest bands in the UK.
But just like today, the biggest music market was the US. And breaking into the US music market was super hard. Almost impossible for foreign artistes who were virtual unknowns at the time.
So, what to do?
Enter Brian Epstein. The manager of The Beatles.
Brian Epstein knew they needed to make a big splash if they wanted to be taken seriously in the US.
And from his experience with elaborate stage setups, he knew he needed to plan something big.
So, before they left the UK, the first thing he did was to hire hundreds of young girls. Teenagers mostly.
Then he hired amateur and mostly unknown actors who were instructed to dress up as police officers, paramedics and ambulance drivers.
He then went ahead to rent police cars and ambulances like moviemakers do.
Combining all of this, he created one of the greatest stage setups of all time.
On the day The Beatles left the UK to the US, around 4,000 “screaming fans” gathered to say goodbye.
Out of these 4,000 fans, most of them were the hired teenage girls.
The instruction given to the girls was pure hysteria – lose your minds once you see The Beatles.
They were told to just scream and go gaga.
How hard is that for teenage girls? Lol
The instructions given to some of the girls were to faint. And then at this point, the paramedics would dash in with first aid boxes, medical toolkits and stretchers to carry them off into the ambulances. Lmao 😁
In photographs of some of these stage setups, The Beatles would be on stage with fans screaming. In other photos, they’d be stepping off a plane with fans waving.
While in some others, they would be coming off a bus to thousands of adoring fans holding signs or wearing stickers like “I Love John” or “I Love Paul” or “I’m A Beatles Fan.”
As the cameras were rolling and the girls were fainting, the police officers were instructed to try to control the crowd. But not so much so it would look like the crowd overwhelmed them.
Remember, none of this was real.
But the packaged videos were so damn convincing that several weeks before the Beatles would arrive America they were sent to every major broadcast studio and the anticipation was fever crazy.
The raw genius of this man 😁
The result?
When the Beatles arrived in America, over 3,000 fans welcomed them at the airport.
And two days later, when they made their television debut on The Ed Sullivan Show, it is estimated that 73 million Americans in 23 million households watched them live. About 34 per cent of the American population at that time.
Biographer Jonathan Gould writes that, according to the Nielsen rating service, it was “the largest audience that had ever been recorded for an American television program”.
Even though the first girls who fainted for them were acting, eventually thousands of young American girls and girls all over the world would go crazy and faint over and over again for them
The Beatles would go on to become the best-selling music act of all time, with estimated sales of 600 million album units worldwide.
They also held the first-ever stadium rock concert – 55,000 tickets sold out within hours.
Over the last year, I had the good fortune of learning and working in sales and marketing with some of the most brilliant people I’ve ever met in my life.
It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, but I learned so much from there that I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.
I’ll be sharing 6 of the things I learned within a year, and I’m hoping they help you build your business, increase your sales and revenue and also improve your life.
1. Selling Is Like Having Sex.
The same way women give up the cookie to men they feel comfortable with or men who inspire adventure, excitement or danger in them is the same way your customers will react to you.
It’s either they trust you enough to buy from you, or you inspire so much excitement in them that they are willing to buy whatever you’re selling even if it looks like a rash decision.
If they trust you and you also inspire them, a double win for you.
2. Sales and Marketing Opens Your Eyes.
I have no idea if the forbidden fruit Adam and Eve ate in the Garden of Eden was an apple, or if it was sex (as many people have argued over the years), but the one thing I’ve noticed is that sales and marketing is the real-life forbidden fruit.
No one spends some time in sales and marketing and stays the same. It’s like taking the red pill and unplugging from the matrix.
It goes as far as affecting your speech pattern, body language, and even your social interactions.
Sales and Marketing completely changes your thinking as you slowly begin to understand how every single sales process is simply human interaction. And at the root of this interaction and what ultimately powers it is emotions and human nature.
3. Human Nature Hasn’t Changed.
Faster Internet Speed. Faster servers. Smartphones. Computers. Electric cars. But human nature hasn’t changed since the time of Jesus.
Whatever emotions Julius Caesar or Martin Luther King felt when they were alive was felt by cavemen too. Those emotions are also being felt today too. Know this and know peace.
4. Everyone Wants Something And So Appeals Have To Be Personal.
Appeals are crucial to every sales process. A married 30-year-old will be more inclined to get insurance for his family, whereas a 25-year-old bachelor who’d rather a Ferrari.
Understand this & simplify your sales processes.
PS: I’m the 30-year-old who wants the Ferrari though 😁
5. Words Are Everything.
As you sell, you begin to understand the nuances of communication and the raw power of words.
Words will build people and nations up. Words will start wars. Words will get you laid. Words will put money in your wallet and bank accounts. But words will also kill you.
Like fire and water, play with words at your peril.
6. Everything Is For Sale.
People usually say everything has a price. But I think the proper thing to say is everything is for sale.
Gary Dahl selling over a million pieces of pet rocks for $4 each? A tissue for $5,300? Hair for $1 million? Waist trainers? A domain name for $16 million? Mess for $4 million? A glass of water for $455? More than 100 million units of the hula hoop for $1.98?
If you don’t believe me, you can go to the link below to see some of the weirdest things people have bought for money.
Which is why I’m still wondering why you haven’t launched that your brilliant idea because you think it might fail.
But there’s a caveat though. Just like having sex, the timing, delivery and emotions have to be right.
PS: Maybe sales and marketing open your eyes, or maybe it gives you a third eye. Or maybe it just opens the third eye you’ve always had, but I just know you begin to see things differently.
