Meet Jim.
Jim is a salesperson for a company that sells expensive residential fire protection systems. He’s the top salesperson in the firm by far.
The strange thing is that Jim gives the same exact presentation as every other salesperson.
The product he sells is what it is; he makes no special modifications or price concessions.
Plus, Jim is a bit absent-minded. At every single in-home appointment he gives, Jim forgets to bring in the book of materials that demonstrates the superiority of his company’s system.
While the prospects are completing a written fire safety test, Jim remembers he left the book in the car.
“Please excuse me,” Jim says. “I left something important in the car. Please keep going with the quiz, and I’ll be right back.”
Sometimes, this requires the family to give him a key to get back in.
The thing is, Jim isn’t being forgetful. He leaves the book in the car on purpose every time.
He uses this technique to create an association of being someone the family trusts
People don’t generally allow strangers to walk in and out of their houses unescorted. By allowing Jim to do it, an aura of trust is created that changes the frame in which the family perceives Jim, his company’s fire system, and the offer.
It’s not the most ethical technique, for sure. And I definitely don’t recommend it.
Just think if the family found out that this is what Jim was up to. I’m guessing they would feel a sense of betrayal, which is what happens when trust is violated.
But if this simple shady trick can actually boost trust, just imagine how powerful people find valuable free information that mirrors their values, changes their perspectives, and motivates them to pursue meaningful change.
- Great offers are important.
- Great products and services are crucial.
- But how the messages about those products, services, and offerings are received and perceived matters more.
You can’t expect someone to trust you at the point of a request or offer. It has to happen before.
And that’s why top salespeople and other persuasive professionals spend more time perfecting what they do and say before making a request than they do on what most people think is the “persuasive” part.
It’s the same when you’re a Leading Expert.
You take the time to create a psychological frame that makes your audience more receptive to your eventual offer thanks to trust. This is the true power of the right content for the right people at the right time.
So let me take you back to how I did this years ago on the way to building an 8-figure software company. My approach required no trickery or unethical practices at all.
In fact, rather than shady sales techniques, this powerful psychological approach builds true trust while delivering true value in the process.
But contrary to popular belief, “just create more content” is not the answer.
The Real Reason Copyblogger Succeeded
Back in 2005, I saw things shifting in a new direction.
I had just wound up my real estate business after a life-altering near-death experience. And I had resolved that I would start a new business that would allow me to avoid clients and write more.
The blogging movement had been building steam for several years at that point, and I had been paying attention to it since around 2001. I had used blogs in my real estate business for SEO and lead generation, but it wasn’t what would be considered “proper” blogging.
It was interesting to see the practice shifting from a form of personal journaling to a commercial pursuit based on interest-based topics that could generate revenue. People recognized this as a way to “make money online” from writing.
I immediately saw that these early “pro bloggers” were trying to do what I had done with my email newsletter business seven years earlier in 1998. And they were making the same mistakes I made that led to my only business failure.
So, I registered a domain name in December, mapped out an initial strategy, and published my first post on January 9, 2006. Copyblogger was born.
The first three months were a ghost town as I dutifully published two lengthy articles per week.
Finally, I found a way to break through with an innovative free PDF report. Rather than a typical “lead magnet” that is offered in exchange for an email address, I crafted what I call a Unity Magnet and turned it loose into the world.
In a way, this report was like a viral sales letter for Copyblogger, except there was no charge. More importantly, it was designed to strongly connect with a certain type of person.
Things took off from there with a rapid escalation in the size of my audience. This quickly led to other bloggers offering to write for Copyblogger for free to reach that audience later in the year.
And it went on this way for 18 months.
It wasn’t until the fall of 2007 that I released Copyblogger’s first product, an online course that was its own startup company. But what happened before that was truly remarkable.
I intentionally took my time before trying to sell to my audience. For one thing, blogging was transitioning from its highly idealistic origins, and I came along and told writers they needed to sell products and services with their blogs (which later became known as content marketing).
Trust was the essential ingredient as always, but even more so.
I was also figuring out what I wanted that first product to be. I knew generally what the audience was struggling with, but I wasn’t sure of the business model.
“Just Take My Credit Card Already!”
Meanwhile, the audience got impatient with me in the best possible way:
- “Just take my credit card already!”
- “Whatever you decide to sell, I’m buying it!”
- “What’s taking you so long to sell?”
I rev idly member one reader email in particular. He was actually distressed because he couldn’t figure out why I was delivering so much value without asking for anything in return.
Imagine that.
Instead of people dreading the eventual pitch they would get after enjoying my free content, they wanted whatever solution I was offering and were worried something was wrong because it hadn’t arrived.
They were looking forward to the offer and the opportunity to buy from me, not dreading it.
That may be why my first course took Copyblogger from 0 to six figures in revenue in a week and seven figures by the end of the first year in business. And it didn’t stop there.
In 2008 I launched Copyblogger’s first WordPress product. In 2009, its first software as a service (SaaS) product.
The results were the same in each case — both reached seven-figures in revenue in the first year.
And it kept going from there. Yes, my team and I created great products (also thanks to paying close attention to the audience), but the work I did in those first 18 months set the stage for the next ten years of outsized success.
Am I telling you to wait 18 months before selling? No, that was a unique situation – and frankly it only takes a fraction of that time with the right focused content.
What I’m telling you is this: what you do before you start to sell is more important than your skill at “selling.” And therein lies the power of creating and freely distributing Leading Expert content.
In short, I came out of nowhere to become a leader in a movement (blogging) thanks to ideas no one had heard before in that context. Those new ideas later made me a leader in a much larger movement (content marketing), which has since become a massive multi-billion-dollar industry.
And that’s what put me in a position to develop and sell a series of products and services without ever experiencing failure. People were primed to buy, and the only question became, at what levels would they do so?
From Creator to Leader
Here’s your main takeaway: people aren’t looking to follow a content “creator” outside of entertainment.
They’re looking for a leader who will guide them to a solution to their problems and the satisfaction of their desires.
You become that leader by connecting with your ideal prospect in a very specific way. This has been the secret of my success, and it’s also true for everyone with an audience that supports their business in a meaningful way.
And while this “secret” has been the path to successful persuasion throughout human history, it’s never been more important as we enter an age dominated by content generated indiscriminately by artificial intelligence.
You hear over and over that the key to success in the age of A.I. is to be more human. But that also means you also have to understand other humans at a deeper level.
That’s where my background in social psychology and law helped me immensely back in the day, and why it’s even more important now. Even better, it’s a completely ethical and value-driven approach.
We’ll dive in deeper in the next lesson. If you’re not subscribed, join us here.