ASA 67 | Who To Lose

 

When asked the question, “How do you target your audience?” Roy H. Williams answered, “choose who to lose.” This principle is further explained by a Monday Morning Memo he wrote on May 30, 2005, bringing to us the three key insights for this episode. To start, Alex Mandossian explains why declaring who you don’t want to sell first clarifies who you do want to sell. He talks about why candor in messaging has the surprising power to grab attention. Lastly, he discusses why your message is far more effective as a targeting tool than the media you utilize. Aside from Roy’s ad, Alex uses his own ad as an example to drive the point home.

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Listen to the podcast here:

Choose Who To Lose!

This is the show devoted to coaches, consultants, and other service professionals who want to get more premium clients but don’t enjoy the selling process. We believe that seeding through storytelling is the new selling and no matter what you believe, nothing happens in your business until something is sold. It doesn’t matter if you like to sell and what business you’re in. If you hate to sell, then this show is for you.

After you read a few episodes, you’ll find out that selling can be fun as long as you know what to say, when to say it, and how to say it. If that’s what you’ve been looking for, then you’re in the right place because this show teaches you how to sell by obliterating the objections in advance that typically can lead to personal objections and rejection that people are terrified of. If that sounds interesting to you, then all you need to do is lean forward and read carefully.

Although ethical influence is central to our discussions, you and I will also explore other fascinating and important topics such as getting more exposure for your business. You’ll learn about attracting new joint venture partners and how to create an Amazon bestseller with less than seven hours of work. You’ll learn podcast SEO tactics, get higher-end clients, creating irresistible offers, curriculum design, productivity habits, storytelling formulas and even ninja marketing tips to name a few.

In this episode, Choosing Who To Lose, you’ll learn three key insights that are critical to making you a highly skilled ethical influencer. You’ll discover, number one, why declaring who you don’t want to sell first clarifies who you do want to sell. Number two, you’ll learn why candor in messaging has the surprising power to grab attention.

Number three, you’ll learn why your message is far more effective as a targeting tool than the media you utilize. Read carefully because this episode could have a significant impact on how you can win the hearts of others with total and absolute certainty.

If English is your second language, because over 50% of our readers are from outside of North America, I hope that you read this and all the other episodes not once, not twice but three times because nothing empowers fluency of any language more than learning the art and science of ethical influence.

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Monday Morning Memo

In 2011, I remember asking my marketing mentor, Roy H. Williams, how he targets his audiences. I want to know how he gets higher conversion rates. He’s the highest-paid copywriter in the world and many people haven’t even heard of him. Over 50% of all the Rolex watches are sold as a result of his influence, and billions of dollars’ worth of jewelry.

He and his wife, Pennie, started Wizard Academy at the turn of the 21st century. We were there at an event, which I host every year since 2011 called the Pathfinder Mastermind. He gave me his answer in four words. Remember, my question is, “How do you target your audience?” He answered it in four words. He said, “Choose who to lose.”

[bctt tweet=”You can’t know who you’re targeting until you can name who you’re not targeting. Inclusion is tied to exclusion. ” username=”AlexMandossian”]

Roy is smart. He has elegant responses. He’s clever and creative. Creativity is the truth made fascinating. That’s an Alexism. It’s not the Alexism for this episode, but I thought that you might enjoy that early on. I asked him if he’d be a bit more specific than four words because I wanted to gain some value from his advice and that takeaway.

He didn’t give me an answer that required rote learning. You can look rote up on Google or Dictionary.com. Rote learning is boring. It’s not experiential. That’s the learning through memorization. That’s what we do at school. That’s why people fall asleep at school. That’s why my kids hated school. That’s not what I do. I’m an experiential teacher. Hopefully, you enjoy the storytelling and the seeding that we do here.

He asked me to look up a Monday Morning Memo. I recommend that you go to MondayMorningMemo.com. I hope you keep coming back to the show because after you listen to Roy, what I’m learning, he’s already forgotten. Let’s put it that way. This one was recorded on May 30, 2005. I did, I’m thinking about the leverage. He said, “Go back to May 30, 2005.”

Here’s what I learned about choosing who to lose. Roy wrote the following, “For years, advertisers have attempted to target the right customers through carefully selected media vehicles. Mailing lists aimed at a specific demographic, geographic, and psychographic profile has fallen short so often that a 3% conversion rate is considered a big success. Carefully selected TV shows and radio formats have failed to deliver equally as often.

Email opt-in lists are disappointing. A whole new generation of advertisers is failing. Surprisingly, it is media salespeople who are largely responsible for an overemphasis on reaching the right customer. After all, if they told you the truth that business reputations and advertising results are built on saying the right thing rather than reaching the right person, they would no longer have the leverage to convince you that you need to reach exactly who they’re trying to sell you.

In your next ad, try targeting through the content of your message.” If you’re selling 100 candle wicks at a time, you’re not selling to a hobbyist, you’re selling to a wholesaler. That’s what my friend, Perry Belcher, does. Your message is important.

Back to the memo. “Try targeting through the content of your message rather than the demographic profile. There are four simple steps to create sharply targeted messages. One, choose who to lose.” Why declaring who you don’t want to sell first clarifies who you do want to sell. Let’s go back to the memo. Choose who to lose. “You can’t know who you’re targeting until you can name who you’re not targeting. Inclusion is tied to exclusion.

The Law of Magnetism is that attraction can be stronger than repulsion. In the following example, I’m choosing to lose bargain hunters and posers. Not that there’s anything wrong with a bargain hunter or a poser. In another campaign, I might target them with great success. When you’re saying the right thing, you’ll be surprised at how many people suddenly become the customers you needed to reach.

ASA 67 | Who To Lose

Who To Lose: Never assume that people will be paying attention to your ad. Assume instead that you must wrestle their thoughts away from powerful images and distractions that are tugging at their minds.

 

Number two, gain their attention. If the reader, listener, viewer isn’t with you, you’re toast. We live in an over-communicated, over-marketed society whose attention has been fractured by too much media. Never assume that people will be paying attention to your ad. Assume instead that you must wrestle their thoughts away from powerful images and distractions that are tugging at their minds. If the lowest price is all you’re after, this isn’t the camera for you.”

Do you see how he’s declaring who you don’t want to sell first clarifies who you do want? That’s for a non-bargain hunter. “If the lowest price is what you’re after, then this camera isn’t for you.” That headline or opening statement attracts the quality conscious consumer to the same degree that it repels the bargain hunter. “The only task remaining is for us to explain precisely why your camera is worth the premium price we ask.”

Number three is surprise them with candor. Remember, you’ll learn why candor in messaging has a surprising power to grab attention. You don’t have to be obnoxious, just candid. Fascinate them with candor. Back to the memo. “Traditional hype and ad speak make customers deaf and blind,” also mute. They smell hype and phony promises and they’re turning away from them in great numbers every single day. Be blunt in telling the truth. Confess the negative or they won’t believe the positive.

Another downside of this camera is that it’s not the sleekest, the prettiest one in its price class. No one is going to tell you how cool your camera looks. The upside is that it takes far superior pictures.” Let me, Alex Mandossian, put it together. If the lowest price is what you’re after, this camera isn’t for you. Another downside of this camera is that it’s not the sleekest, prettiest one in its price class and no one is going to tell you how cool your camera looks, but the upside is that it takes far superior pictures.

So far, we have choose who to lose. That’s number one. Number two, gain their attention. Number three, surprise them with candor. Here we go with number four, the final tip from Roy H. Williams, “Make it make sense. Believability is the key. Tell them how and why your product can deliver what it promises.” Read this ad Roy wrote.

“The prettiest camera in this price class has a shutter speed of 1/15th of a second, but the shutter speed of the ugly Canon PowerShot S500 is a super-fast 1/60th of a second, allowing you to make fabulous photos in low light situations. Your indoor photos will look rich and vibrant when all the others look dark and grainy. Your nighttime photos will make people’s eyes bug out. Beautiful contrast and luminance even without the flash, the camera can see in the dark.

Take a picture of your lover in the moonlight. It will become your favorite photo ever. That super-fast shutter speed is also forgiving of movement. That’s why no one ever replaces their PowerShot S500. Go to your local pawn shop and see if you can find one. We’re betting you cannot, but you will see several of those prettier cameras available cheaper than dirt.”

If you’re looking for a great price on a sleek-looking camera, that’s probably where you should go, your local pawn shop, but not for the Canon PowerShot S500. Do you see what we’re saying? You have to choose who to lose. Are you beginning to understand the power of candor? Targeting through copy works or through the spoken word or the visual word, but you have to have guts. Learn to target through market messaging, not just the market as in the avatar.

[bctt tweet=”The more narrowly you define your ideal customer, the easier it is to speak to them.” username=”AlexMandossian”]

Riches In The Niches

Thanks to Roy H. Williams, MondayMorningMemo.com, May 30, 2005. What did you think? I believe this is back to Alex Mandossian, that the riches are in niches. The more narrowly you define your ideal customer, the easier it is to speak to them. Like every other lesson in life, it’s about starting wide and ending up narrow. You do this on Facebook with Facebook Ads when you target your audiences. You don’t want to confuse the algorithm.

You don’t want to put someone in personal development like Jack Canfield and then oppose an audience like Ryan Deiss of Digital Marketer. You’ll confuse the Facebook algorithm. You want to have separate audiences. A tip of the hat goes to Tammy Lane, a friend of mine who is a Facebook ad expert and she taught me that which makes perfect sense, but I didn’t bother to think about it. The riches are in the niches. When you know your niche, you want to choose who to lose.

Examples are single moms, military veteran entrepreneurs, people who hate to sell. It just so happens I have a lot of veteran entrepreneurs on my list and single moms. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because of the way I message from the heart. This podcast is for people who hate to sell. How many podcasts do you know who focus on that, through the messaging? Remember, seeding through storytelling is the new selling. I’m choosing who to lose. If you love to sell, this podcast is not for you.

Choosing Who To Lose

Let me give you an example of how I chose who to lose or choosing who to lose. Whom to lose is proper English, but forget about proper English. Mrs. Williams would not be happy with me, my third-grade teacher, but it does not matter because I make more money than she does. That’s getting back because she was a tough teacher.

Let me read to you an ad that I wrote. As a result of this ad, over $22 million was generated in three years. This is with my good friend and partner T. Harv Eker. I wrote this ad with a picture. The picture was over 300 people on a laptop, in the year 2010, connected to the internet when we didn’t even have the Cloud. It was amazing. We had a data center there in the room. I was mortified because I never knew if we could connect, but we did and after five days, it was called the Ultimate Internet Bootcamp.

Everyone monetized, which means make money starting from scratch, starting from nothing. Here’s the case study, choosing who to lose. “If you’re a marketing perfectionist or internet professional, this private invitation is not for you, but if you’re an extreme beginner to the internet marketing world and want to learn how to turn your life’s purpose into profits, then the five-day Ultimate Internet Bootcamp, UIBC, could be your opportunity of a lifetime.

There’s no tech speak. No programming. No webmasters who hold your website hostage and all self-appointed marketing gurus who pitch you from the stage are forbidden to attend. Bring your laptop or rent one from us, and you will discover how to publish, promote and produce cash profits before you leave the room.” What do you think? You can go back and listen to it but that ad works.

Alexism: Truth Made Fascinating

The Alexism for this episode is this. Creativity in marketing is the truth made fascinating. I don’t believe I teach you anything new on these 25 years of sales and marketing know-how delivered to you in 25-minute chunks every single week. I don’t think I teach you anything new. I teach it to you or share it with you from a new point of view, and that’s interesting. It’s fascinating.

ASA 67 | Who To Lose

Who To Lose: Believability is the key. Tell your audience how and why your product can deliver what it promises.

 

Because when your message is effective as a targeting tool, then you’ll see that media becomes less relevant. It’s not about Facebook or Instagram. It’s not about direct mail or radio or television. It’s about your message. The message is the message. The media is the media. The market is the market.

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Remember the three insights that we covered. Here’s a quick review of this episode. They only work if you apply them. Number one, you learned why declaring who you don’t want to sell first clarifies who you do want to sell. Let me go back to my ad, “If you’re a marketing perfectionist or internet professional, this private invitation is not for you.”

I’m getting rid of the perfectionist and the professionals. I don’t want perfectionists because they’re a pain. I remind them, “Are you a perfectionist?” By the way, I should have said procrastinator as well, but people take offense to that so I didn’t in the ad.

Number two, you learned why candor in messaging has the surprising power of grabbing attention, such as, “The prettiest camera in this price class has a shutter speed of 1/15th of a second but the shutter speed of the ugly Canon PowerShot S500 is a fast 1/60th of a second, allowing you to take fabulous photos in low light situations.” That was Roy’s ad.

Number three, you learned why your message is far more effective as a marketing tool than the media you use. Remember, these insights will only work for you if you work them. Please make sure you execute what you’ve learned because it’s not for me. I already know this. This is for you. In this episode, if you do execute, your future will be bigger. I can practically promise you that. It will be brighter and most importantly, you will live it on your terms.

That’s the point of this podcast, to have a brighter, bigger future, living it on your own terms. Speaking of reviews, if you have already given me a review on iTunes, then write down your biggest takeaway or a-ha moment, some people call it pack-my-bag moments, on an index card and save it so you can go back and revisit it, a keyword or an anchor of some kind so you remember what you learned. It may be to choose who to lose or who you don’t want to sell first clarifies who you do want.

If you haven’t given me a review, then please go to AllSellingAside.com/iTunes. Write your biggest a-ha moment in the review section. I don’t want a review of the podcast. I’m going to be candid with you. I want a specific takeaway from this episode or any other episode that is worthy of five stars. Don’t review the podcast, put an a-ha moment. The next thing is to rate it because that’s what iTunes asks you to do.

I hope I’ve earned five stars from you. Will you rate it? Will you review it? Will you subscribe to it? You don’t have to subscribe to me, just to iTunes and then you get it every single week, week after week, 25 years of sales and marketing know-how. You can sidestep the mistakes I’ve made. I’ve lost tens of millions of dollars in my own money and probably hundreds of millions of my clients’ money. You can sidestep that for free, 25 minutes at a time.

[bctt tweet=”Creativity is the truth made fascinating. ” username=”AlexMandossian”]

If you want to read more than one episode a week, be my guest. Writing a review takes about three minutes out of your day but what you declare could provide you and others reading it a valuable lesson. When you write something down, you edify that lesson and you cement it into your mind and heart. Go to AllSellingAside.com/iTunes and give me a review, please, and rate it and subscribe.

I have one final gift in honor of this episode and that’s a physical copy of my Amazon bestselling book, Alexisms. I wrote it in less than seven days. It took me 25 years of research and it’ll take you 25 minutes to read. That’s according to my mom, Carol Mandossian. To get free access to the book, go to MarketingOnline.com/book.

I’ll also give you a bonus gift, which is the most reliable marketing funnel that can triple the sales of any physical free offer. You’ll be paying for shipping and handling, less than $8 domestically if you’re in North America and about $15 if you’re overseas. I lose money on that for the cost of the book, the fulfillment and everything else, but that’s okay because there’s a bunch of one time offers along the way and most people say yes.

If you want to see what that funnel looks like, along with a video tutorial of that funnel, then go to MarketingOnline.com/book. After you opt-in, you’ll get it via email. That does it for this episode. I hope you don’t choose to lose me. I hope our paths cross again next episode for the All Selling Aside which is the show dedicated to making you an ethical influencer, ethical being the operative word.

My goal is to bring more certainty into your life, not just confidence, but a certainty. When you’re certain you’re happy. Please do whatever it takes to join me next episode because our topic is called the F.I.T. Networking Formula. I invented this in 2014.

It has worked for people who have never done social media and some of them have met thought leaders, experts, celebrities in less than 90 days utilizing the F.I.T. The F as in Follow, I as an Invite, and T is Tell.

That’ll be episode number 68. It’s going to be fun. If you invite a colleague or a friend or maybe a study buddy, you’ll see that it’s a lot more fun learning with someone. I can’t wait to connect with you then. Please invite a study buddy to All Selling Aside. They can read other episodes. You can read an episode and it’s a great way to resurrect the dead time in your life or even in your car.

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