But first……some fun.  😉

There sure are all types in this world.   Some people are literally Giants

And some people are Giants of their industry.

and some are both

Some people like him – some people don’t.  The point of this blog is giving you useful info.  And Tony DEFINITELY given a lot of good info over the years.   In my opinion, one of the most useful tools comes from his early work.  In “Mastering Influence” he details the “Unit of Persuasion”.

Tony’s Unit of Persuasion is awesome for building sales scripts, writing ad copy, creating your elevator speech to describe what you do, making an impression at cocktail parties, or sending emails you want read.   It’s a fantastic formula for crafting a small chunk of information so that it has maximum impact for the listener/reader.

In fact, there is a good chance that a Unit of Persuasion got you to read this today (i.e.. The beginning of this email and/or social post).

Here is the formula:

Let’s look at it a little closer.   The first line is awesome!   Make a big fat claim.   Hopefully it’s obvious that it needs to be truthful.   Though it should be ‘the best possible truth’.

Here’s the thing though – please take some quiet time to really think about the very end of step 1.   “they really want.”    Let me say that again “THEY……..REALLY……WANT.”

So what they really want.   In the old sales adage of selling Benefits, not the features or even the advantages.   This isn’t about selling the steak or the sizzle.  It’s about selling the fact that your steak house is the customers ‘best chance to get a hearty meal that is savory and delicious!!!’

To me the perfect example comes from the world of auto sales.   Everybody loooooves having a new car.   Eeeeeevvverrrybody hates going to a dealership to get one.    So what do “they really want”??

Lead with that.

Ask yourself, what Facebook ad would be more likely to get your click?

Buy a new car at WTMS auto.   We have a wide selection of vehicles for you.

Or

WTMS Auto will send you down the road in the Perfect car.  We care about your needs and have options to find the right one for you.

People don’t want Refinances.  They want lower payments

People don’t want to buy a house.  It’s a pain in the ass.   They want to live in the perfect house.

People don’t want credit repair, they want their bad credit deleted.

To steal an analogy from Tony:   If the purpose of a car is to reliably get you from point A to point B whenever you need it to – why does Range Rover exist???

Wait!!   Here is where the rubber REALLY hits the road.  PAY ATTENTION TO THIS PART!!!     Want to know where this can REALLY impact your business??!!!

Have you  ever heard of the internet?

With Facebook ads, you can write a series of Persuasion Units that speak almost EXACTLY to the person you are reaching.   I will give you a comically ridiculous example of a big fat claim that you could use in real life -on a Facebook ad- in about 5 minutes:

We find the perfect home for 25-32 year old men in Golden Colorado who like muscle cars, football, needlepoint, and poetry.

If you are a man between 25 and 32 who like muscle cars, football, needlepoint, and poetry, and live in Golden Colorado – that’s a hell of a big fat claim that is important to them.

Does this sound ridiculous to you???   Welp….

That is a real life Facebook ad that you could run.   Yeah, it’s a small audience.   But how targeted is that message?!?   People in Golden Colorado who like football, needlepoint, muscle cars, and poetry will read it.   Major companies (and political campaigns) all over the place hire recent college grads to do 5 of these per hour.   All Day – every day.

But back to the matter at hand.  Step 2 is “Back it up with a fact”.  Use the Because Frame.    This is where you drop a fact that supports your big fat claim.   You use the word “Because”.

Robert Cialdini’s landmark book Influence (previously series on this blog) hit this one home.  Siting clinical field experiments where testers asked a small favor of people waiting in line to use a library copying machine: “Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I’m in a rush?”   The effectiveness of this request-plus-reason was nearly total: Ninety-four percent of those asked let her skip ahead of them in line. Compare this success rate to the results  when she made the request only: “Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine?” Under those circumstances, only 60 percent of those asked complied.

So back it up with some knowledge.   “Because we are committed to the lowest rates possible and highest service.”   or “because I live in the area and have sold 15 homes there.”   or “because we cut our steaks fat and only hire expert chefs with 10+ years of steak house experience.”

In steps 3 and 4 we are just piling on the persuasion:

• What that means to you is
• Which really means to you

On Step 3 you are taking yet another step toward making your offer/claim more important TO THEM.  Once again, getting to the core of what…..they…..really want.

“Which means to you that you don’t have to talk to multiple car salesmen to see cars from multiple companies”

“Which means that I can relate better to what YOU want in a house.”

“Which means that you don’t have to talk to the 10 voicemails you got about refinancing to get the payment you want”.

Then tie it to an emotional trigger.    We buy most things based off emotion, then use logic to justify it.   See the previous statement about Range Rover.    There are way cheaper cell phones than the one in your pocket.  There are cheaper and more reliable cars.

“and that you can feel good showing off your new car knowing you got a great deal, from a friend.”

“So I will find out what you really want and find the house of your dreams, that you will love for years with your family and friends.”

“That way you can go on with your day feeling good knowing that you got a great deal without all of the hastle and pushy sales people.”

And cap it off with Support your claim very quickly with a  “the reason I say that is..”

“we do this because we just feel like people deserve to get what they want.”

” and the reason I say that is because I feel that everyone should love their house.”
“The reason I say that is because all you really want is the lowest possible payment, and get it done quickly”.

Finally, if you are using this at the start of your presentation, end with Get permission to probe.  “My purpose at this time is to get some answers to some questions.  Is that ok with you?”  Say exactly like that.      That way they are agreeing to go on YOUR journey with them.   You will have this their logic and emotional lobes so hard they will happily take your hand.

Let’s put it all together.    If I am ever so lucky as to earn your credit repair referral, I will almost certainly start the call something like this:

It’s not perfect and it works pretty well.   People seem to like it.   I didn’t use the “because” in step 2 because I haven’t found a wording that felt natural yet.    It’s a work in progress that I like using.

You should go and radically improve your sales and relationships using this method.  Because it’s based on science and has been used by thousands of successful people already.   That way you can build better connections with your clients.  Which really means you get less push back and more new business relationships.   And I say this because I know what Tony’s wisdom can do and I have seen it work in my business and life.