Marketing Secrets with Russell Brunson - Marketing Secrets From An Auctioneer

Episode Date: November 15, 2021

Here's a quick breakdown of the cool things I witnessed at a recent fundraiser for my boys' wrestling team and how these salesmanship and marketing strategies can be applied to your business: 1. Building Rapport Quickly:   - The auctioneers started by sharing personal stories and jokes to build rapport with the audience, making them more receptive to the sales process. 2. Training the Audience to Buy:   - The auctioneers used a low-risk offer ($20 for a chance to win $500) to teach the audience how to bid. This technique, which I learned from Bill Glazer, is effective because it makes the audience comfortable with the buying process before asking them for larger purchases. 3. Creating Social Proof:   - The auctioneers had assistants in the audience who made noise and interacted with bidders, creating an energetic atmosphere. This approach heightened the perception of activity and demand, similar to how table rushes work at live events. 4. Identifying and Engaging Key Bidders:   - The assistants identified the most interested bidders and focused on them, encouraging higher bids through personal engagement and social pressure. 5. Leveraging Cross-Industry Strategies:   - By observing successful techniques in other industries, such as network marketing's car incentives, we can adapt and apply these methods to our own businesses. This practice, as taught by Jay Abraham, allows for innovative strategies to enhance sales and marketing efforts. For more insights and updates, follow me on Instagram @russellbrunson, text me at 208-231-3797, or join my newsletter at marketingsecrets.com. You can also connect with me on Clubhouse at ClubHouseWithRussell.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up everybody, this is Russell. I just jumped in the Tesla, I'm driving to the office and I got something cool I wanna share with you. We had a chance to go to a wrestling auction this week and some of the salesmanship and marketing principles that I saw were amazing and so I wanna talk through them and how you can apply them to your business. So the big question is this,

how are entrepreneurs like us, who didn't cheat and take on venture capital, who are spending money from our own pockets, how do we market in a way that lets us get our products and our services and the things that we believe in out to the world and yet still remain profitable? That is the question and this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Russell Brunson and welcome to Marketing Secrets. Hey everybody, welcome back. I hope you guys are excited.

I've had a good week this week. I'm working on some fun projects with the mushifying of Dan Kennedy's company with ClickFunnels and a new offer is coming out and a bunch of stuff. And so I wake up every morning at five this week and I've just been excited and got a lot of work done. It's been good. You know that feeling like when you're excited about something, how much easier it is to wake up and do the thing? every morning at five this week and I've just been excited and got a lot of work done. Um, it's been good. You know, feeling like when you're excited about something, how much easier just to wake up and do the thing. Um, it's been a while since I felt that way. In fact, I was

last night I was thinking like, when was the last time I was this excited about working on something in the business? And if I'm honest with myself, it was when the traffic secret book launched, which is man, almost like two years ago now. That right. A year and a half ago. Anyway. So anyway, it just feels good to be doing something fun. So hopefully all you guys got something fun you're working on because it just makes everything else better. Anyway. Um, okay. So, uh, as you guys know, I'm a wrestler. My ears are all called flowered up and my kids, some of them like wrestling, some hate wrestling, but I've got one stronghold who loves wrestling. And so, um, which is great. And so we went to the wrestling banquet this year where they were

raising money for the wrestling team. And so we were there ready to support and help donate money so that the team can get the stuff we need to be a good team. And I also help coach, so I'm one of the coaches too. But anyway, we go to the wrestling banquet. And in the past, they used to do a spaghetti feed. They'd have spaghetti, everyone would come, wrestling banquet. And in the past, they used to do a spaghetti feed. They'd have spaghetti, everyone would come, the wrestlers would serve the people, and they'd have like a silent auction. And I think they said the best year ever was like $6,000 raised. I think the average year is like $4,000 or $5,000. So that's kind of the context of where we're starting at.

So this time around, they met one of the coaches, the coach's wife, or someone met these guys who do auctions. They were an auction company. And basically they go up there and instead of just having a silent auction where people bid on stuff, they have an auctioneer up top and he's doing the, yeah, can I get five, can I get five?

All that kind of stuff that they do, right? And so it was weird because it was in a bar so they didn't invite kids, it was just the parents. So first we were kind of like, this is weird. I don't know how this is going to work. They still had a silent auction, and we bid on some things, whatever. And then we had dinner, and after dinner, they had the auctioneers get up and start the process. And this is where the marketing gold started happening.

And as a marketing nerd that I am, I was just freaking out, watching the process and how they did it and how they were able to get the room excited about giving up money and um spoiler alert when it all said and done they raised almost forty thousand dollars for wrestling so yeah like yeah a lot um and that's not counting we gave extra donations on top it's just like the rest of the people right which was really really cool and so um a couple of things the first thing they did the auctioneers got up got up there first thing they had to do is they had to build a rapport with the audience because by default, you're like, oh, these guys are going to sell me something

and so there's no rapport. So they get up there and they start telling their stories and who they are and how their family business and how they get into this and they just kind of told these stories and jokes really quickly to try to build rapport

as quick as they could. So that was the first thing. Second thing is they had to train everybody how to buy. And this was really fascinating. What they did initially is they said, okay, we're going to get this auction process started. We I'm gonna teach you guys how it works. And they held a $500 cash. We're going to start with $500 cash. And, uh, the way that you can win this $500 cash is, uh, if you buy a $20 thing, like you bid $20 or you pay $20 and you, um, you get a chance to,

to win this $500. Right. So who would pay your $20 for a chance to win this $500, right? So who would pay $20 for a chance to win $500? And all the money goes to wrestling, so it's going to be good, right? They started doing this and I don't know how many people did it, but most of the audience put in their $20 to win this thing and they had a lot of energy and it was fun, it was exciting. At the end of it, they drew somebody and someone won the $500, they got $500 and the person like gave the $500 back to, you know, just to put it in towards wrestling. And so for that one little exercise, they raised $1,500 for wrestling, right? The $500 came back and then, um, the $20 bills, like there's five, there's a thousand dollars worth of, of $20 orders that went through really quickly. And so they made $1,500. But that first thing, it was interesting because you're paying $20

for a chance to win 500. So it's like a no brainer, like I'll just try it. Um, but what they were really doing, if you look at the strategies, they were teaching people how to bid, right? For something like me who'd never been in auction before, I didn't know how to hold the paddle or how it worked and you know, all those kinds of things. And so this gave us the ability to learn at a very low risk thing where the worst case you lose 20 bucks, right? Um, best case you win 500. So it's like a really, you know, risk reward thing was, was very, very, um, very, very easy to say yes to. And it's interesting because, um, best case you win 500. So it's like a really, you know, risk reward thing was, was very, very, um, very, very easy to say yes to. And it's interesting cause, um, training the audience is so important in everything you're doing. In fact, um, I remember I learned this originally from Bill Glazer at their super conferences, uh, day number one,

they would do a charity offer where he had this whole swipe file book. He's like, Hey, you pay a hundred dollars to charity. You get the book and everyone ran back and, and they closed like most of the room. In fact, I remember running back and had a $100 bill and giving the $100 bill, getting this book. And it was like the first time I had seen that happen. I didn't understand it until my next match, my meeting, when Bill Glazer got up and explained his strategy. He said, day number one, my biggest goal in the event

is to train the audience how to buy. Because I don't want them trying to figure out how to buy when I'm doing my high ticket $25,000 sale, right? I want them to know how to buy on something that's low risk, that's not scary. And so he's like, day number one, I always do a charity thing because number one, it builds rapport because you're helping people. Number two, you're actually helping people, which is awesome. And number three, though, it trains the audience on how to buy. And so they learn how to stand up. They learn where to go. They learn how to go where the forms are at. They go through the whole process once. And then when you ask them to buy

two days later, they already know how to do it. They're not confused. Right. And so you're training the audience how to buy it. So, um, again, the auctioneers did that. They trained us how to buy it. Something that was super low risk. Um, we do it at our fun hiking live events, Bill Glazer did their events where we're training people how to stand up, go to the back of the room, give money on something that's very low risk. That's how we've done it at events, but how could you do it during your webinars? How could you do it during... There's so many things that you could leverage that idea. It's like how to train the audience how to buy something small before you're asking them for the big purchase. That's the first thing.

Next thing, they go out there and they start auctioning off these different packages. I wish I would have had a pad of paper notes. The that it happened. I was just like freaking out about everything, but I kind of just remember the core, the core things that stuck out. So next thing is it wasn't just one dude on stage doing the auction, right? That's how I would have thought it was going to be. But the auctioneer had like four or five people in the audience walking around. So people in the audience are doing a couple of things. Number one is they're making noise. So it felt like, even though there wasn't a lot of people bidding, it felt like there was because you could hear the people out in the audience talking and, you know, their seeds out in the audience talking and creating energy and creating momentum and social proof

that people were bidding. And so they were walking around and as they were doing that, they started figuring out like, who are the people that want this offer, right? And so the people in the audience would see like, okay, this person bid 50, this person bid 100, this person bid 150. So they started looking at the people that want this offer, right? And so the people in the audience would see, and like, okay, this person bid 50, this person bid 100, this person bid 150. So they start looking at the people who are bidding. So then it starts isolating from the entire audience, like here's the five or six people that are bidding.

And as you get closer and closer, the people in the audience walking around, the auctioneers, the partners, or whatever you call them, they start identifying, okay, these are the three people that want this. And so then they hone in on those people, and as the auction's happening, they're like, he's the 250, I'll do three, to want this and so then they hone in on those people and as the auction's happening they're like like he's 250 under three three three and then like they're

kind of like um helping nerd you know uh push and like urge them to bid up and so the person bids up next person goes back and so now it's all these auctioneers are standing side by side with the with the two or three you know whales in the audience who are going to buy and using that as a way to up the bid like get a movement higher higher higher higher to where, you know, these things that probably would have sold for 50 bucks at a silent auction were selling for 1500 or $2,000 because of the way the process worked. It was really, really fascinating. Um, and so I started seeing that. And so, um, you know, how could you replicate that? You could replicate that in a lot of ways, right? Like in an event, you could replicate that when you, um, you know, it's creating social proof. Like you think about,

um, you know, when you get a table rush, if you don't get a table rush it's hard because nobody moves right but if you get people to stand up and run to the back of the room as soon as a couple people run back and people see that it creates social proof like i remember um uh during my funnel hockey live presentation and i was speaking a lot on stages and doing the whole process like that um i remember i would usually the very first time I dropped the price, it's weird. Cause usually like one or two people would get up. And at first I would just like, I was like, Oh, like feeling all awkward. Like, Oh man, like when two people got up, I don't want to say things. I kept going through the rest of my pitch and going through things, you know, and, and

over the pitch, more people would go, more people would go. And I remember just one time I was doing the pitch and I got up and I was, I got the point where I showed the price and the two, or three people that jumped up and I don't remember why, but some reason it startled me. I was like, oh wow. And I kind of stopped and I said, whoa, I'm like those, those people right there, they get it. They've already started moving.

And I pointed to the people that were walking towards the back of the, you know, like jogging towards the back of the room to buy and everyone else stopped and looked back and they saw like 30 people running and all of a sudden they're like, oh my gosh, this is legit and i don't want me to back the line also next version popped up next from pop and also like it was this like sprint to the back and it created this table rush and it's kind of a similar process it's like it's like if you get one or two people who are in who are going to buy right they're starting to walk the back of the room don't just like be secret about i call that like oh my gosh like i haven't got the pitch yet look at these guys are already in the back room buying um dude you know the price don't know the prices yet. You're

already in. And they're like, yeah, I'm already in like, Oh my gosh. Like they get it. If you guys get this, you know, this is the way I just like you, you have my permission to stand up and go right now. Right. And we create this thing and they start moving. It was just really cool to be able to, to see these marketing and sales principles that we use in different places used here inside of, uh, this, this auction to raise money for wrestling. And so I started thinking, um, one of my first mentors, I've had a lot of really good mentors in life, but one of them was Jay Abraham. What Jay Abraham taught me really well was to look at things happening in other industries and how do you model them for yours. And so really like my goal with this was to kind

of share with you guys a couple of just quick examples from the auction, but hopefully open up your eyes so you start seeing all the sales and marketing happening around you, right? You look at ClickFunnels, We launched our dream car contest. People are like, how did you come up with that? I'm like, because I looked over at this other industry, the network marketing industry, and they give away cars to people and it gets people to go crazy to build up their companies. I was like, we're going to take that concept from this industry and move it over, right? From the auction industry, like I saw what they did over here.

Next time we do our fundraiser for Fun Like It Live, I'm going to do things differently because of what I learned over here, right? So it's looking at other industries besides drone, looking what they are doing how are they marketing how are they doing sales how can you replicate that and pull that into your business um and i hope that's the principle i kind of got to today is just uh understanding that like there's amazing marketing sales happening in so many places there's businesses industries that have proven stuff right this auction industry these guys have been doing this for a decade they have all their whole family does they test it they tweak i'm sure that they've done 1,000 auctions a year.

They test all these things and how to say it and when to say it and all the different subtleties, how do you say that word, of how to make it work. You can come look at that and see the process. It's like sitting there at school learning how to increase your sales online. Keep your eyes open. Watch other industries. See what they're doing. Click on every ad you see because you have no idea what rabbit hole it's going can take you down, what you're going to learn, what you're going to discover for your own business as well. And I hope that helps. One other side tangent,

I did this recently. I had my wife's phone. I thought it was mine. I grabbed it, opened up Facebook and I was like, this is not my Facebook because she follows different ads, different people. So the ads she's retargeted with are completely different than mine. And I was like fascinated. I started clicking on her ads. Started taking me on this magical wonderland of offers and products and funnels I'd never seen before. All because I looked from a different lens. So same thing. Go to Facebook, create a profile and like things that are the opposite of what you normally look. And start seeing what ads show up and what things you can learn from different industries.

And it gets really powerful. So hope it helps. Thanks so much for everything. And I'll talk to you guys all again soon. Bye everybody. Hey everybody, this is Russell again. And really quick, I just opened up a texting community, which means you can text me your questions. And right now I'm spending anywhere between 10 and 30 minutes every single day answering questions through text message to people who are on the podcast. And so I wanted you to stop everything you're doing, pull your phone out and actually text me a message, okay?

And the phone number you need to text is 208-231-3797. Once again, it's 208-231-3797. When you text me, just say hello. And then what's going to happen is I'll add you to my phone and then they'll send you back a message where you can add me to your phone. And then we can start having conversations. On top of that, through this texting community is where I'm going to be giving out free swag,

giving away free copies of my book, let you know about book signings, about times I'm coming to your local area, and a whole bunch more. So I want to make sure you are on this list. On top of that, every single day I'm sending out my favorite quotes, my favorite frameworks, and things you can get for free only through my texting platform. So what you need to do right now is pull out your phone and text me at area code 208-231-3797. One more time. That's 208-231-3797. I can't wait to hear from you right now.