Marketing Secrets with Russell Brunson - Planting Seeds Of Doubt

Episode Date: May 25, 2017

A cool underground way to overcome your competitors. On today's episode Russell talks about planting seeds of doubt about his competitors in the minds of potential customers. He explains how he does ...it, and why it makes it not a matter of if they become Clickfunnels customers, but when. Here are some interesting things in this episode: Why it's okay to attack your competitors as long as they are number one and you are number two, but not okay once you become number one. How you can plant seeds of doubt so that eventually you will get the customer. And how all of that is similar to how people compete in sports. So listen below to learn how to plant seeds of doubt about your competitors so you can eventually win over the customer. Transcript - https://marketingsecrets.com/blog/planting-seeds-of-doubt Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:01 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. What's up everybody? This is Russell. Welcome to Marketing Secrets. Today I got a really cool episode for you guys, I think, hopefully. And it's something that, there's a lot of things
Starting point is 00:00:40 that like we're doing that people can see and they're aware of and there's things that are happening that people aren't aware of. And so I just want to lift the curtain a little bit so you guys can get some ideas. So part of the time you're selling to try to sell your products and services, right? You're selling why it's good and why it's amazing, stuff like that. And it's funny, actually on Facebook I saw an interesting thread the other day of someone like, should I attack my competitors or should I not talk about them at all? It's interesting watching the whole conversation because some people are like, don't address your customers.
Starting point is 00:01:14 If you've got the best product, don't talk about them. All these different things and strategies. Obviously, you guys know that I talk about my competitors and we tease them and we poke at them and we have fun with it. In fact, earlier today, Stephen may or may not have launched a new video game where you could actually compete against, well, you have to defeat Confusionsoft to be able to fight against Loki pages and the drip armies. And it's pretty awesome. So why do we do stuff like that? So it's interesting. First off, it's funny. And so that helps me get through the day because there's a lot of stuff we got to do. So might as well make the day fun. But second off, if you look at like marketing as a whole, like marketing strategy, right? Because this is a big deal.
Starting point is 00:01:53 But if you think about it, like, and there's been a bunch of books written on this. And so if you want to study deeper, you should, because it's interesting. But I think Differentiator Die is one of the books that talked about this, I believe. And anyway, but what they talked about is like in your marketplace that number two always needs to attack number one, right? So Coke always attacks, or excuse me, Pepsi always attacks Coke, but number one cannot acknowledge number two or else it jacks up the whole thing. So Coke never talks about how they beat Pepsi. You notice that? But Pepsi's always talking about Coke, okay? Mac versus PC when they first came out, okay? Mac was number two, and they were attacking PC, attacking PC. All the funny commercials we all remember. And as soon as they surpassed them, you notice those commercials disappeared, and we stopped talking about it. So there's
Starting point is 00:02:35 something about that. Like, if you're trying, and maybe it's because they athlete in me. Like, I'm a big believer, like, if I'm going to beat somebody, I need to find that person, identify them, and, like, let the world know, like, this is who we're the world know, this is who we're going after, this is who we're gonna beat, and then after we pass them, we stop talking about them. That's why we don't really talk about low-key pages very often anymore, because we flew past them, as you guys know. But FutureSoft's obviously the next target
Starting point is 00:02:55 that we're trying to get bigger in. We have more customers than them right now. I think their revenues are higher, because they charge more for their confusing software, but that's another story. So that's the thing, and so for me, I don't mind acknowledging number one, because we are gaining on them, but that's another story. So that's like the thing. And so for me, I don't mind acknowledging number one because we are gaining on them and that's the plan,
Starting point is 00:03:09 that's how it works. And so I don't have any problem, I don't think it's, it's just how business is done, it's how sports are done, it's how athletics are done. In fact, if you guys want something fun, so scroll down in the feedback before we change the name of this to Marketing Secrets when it was marketing your car,
Starting point is 00:03:21 I did a whole episode on athletes and competition. Anyway, it was pretty funny, I thought. So you guys should go listen to that one. But talk about the fact that in this business world, who are you competing against? These people you're competing against. I talk about how I was a wrestler growing up, so my whole life was competition.
Starting point is 00:03:41 It was like, who's the person ahead of me? And then literally my junior year, my first match, I lost to the kid who was returning state champ. So I knew that's who it is. And then I studied everything that he did for the next entire season. We practiced against him. We got better and better and better. And I actually made him to state finals. And I beat him.
Starting point is 00:03:56 Right? Like, and, like, that's the athletic mentality. We're all about competition. And then in the business world, they're like, half the people in the business don't have athletic background. Like they, they were in band or choir and things like that, which there's nothing wrong with that. But when you're in the choir, there's no competition. Like you're just kind of hanging out and singing with each other. Maybe there's competition to be first seat, second seat, a little bit, but it's different, right? And so a lot of times, like we get in this playground and we're now competing in business
Starting point is 00:04:20 and you've got people that, excuse me, were banned and they were in choir and all sorts of things. And you got someone like me, whose entire life was about finding your competitor and destroying him publicly in front of everybody so you get your hand raised and everybody cheers for you so it's like that's who like you have to be aware like that's who you're competing against so you can't be all mad like oh they're calling me out by name oh they're competing with me it's like dude you're you're you're competing against a wrestler whose whole entire life that's all he's cared about like of course that's going to be my goal like that's how's how I'm going to go. And anyway, there's a whole podcast about that you should listen to if you scroll down to the iTunes feed. But anyway, so there's
Starting point is 00:04:51 some background kind of what we're talking about. But what I wanted to talk to you guys about is this concept that we call seeds of doubt. Okay. And so what are seeds of doubt? These are things that if you watch what I do, you'll see me placing all the time, these little seeds of doubt? These are things that if you watch what I do, you'll see me placing all the time. These little seeds of doubt in the competitors. Because I know a lot of times I'm going to talk about something and I know that somebody is using Confusionsoft or they're using Leadpages or whatever that thing is, right? They're using something else. And I'm coming in and looking at me and they're like, oh, you know, we have all this stuff over here I can't shift over. And so I understand that.
Starting point is 00:05:24 So instead of me just like trying to convince them and hard sell them, I'm going to place a whole bunch of seeds of doubt. So that from that moment forward, for the rest of their waking hours, and hopefully their sleeping hours too if I do it right, they're going to be thinking about that thing, that seed of doubt, about the thing that they're using. And it's always kind of running in their head like, oh, what if, what if, what if? If you were at Funnel Hacking Live, I did a whole presentation. In fact, if you go to followupfunnels.com, you can see that presentation. But I talked about like action action,
Starting point is 00:05:50 where we're going and things, stuff like that. And throughout that presentation, I'm placing a whole bunch of seeds and doubt of our competitors. Like I talk about, if you're using email marketing, I talk about how many times I got shut down by Aweber, iContact, MailChimp, Infusion and stuff, like all those things.
Starting point is 00:06:04 And even if you love those stuff, all those things. Even if you love those systems, all of a sudden now you're like, wow, Russell's been shut down nine times by AWeber, 11 times, all these different things I got shut down by, and now there's a seed of doubt. You're like, everything's good, but what if they did shut me down? Oh man, now that seed of doubt is there,
Starting point is 00:06:18 now you're paranoid, and so then the whole time you're using your thing, you're like, what if I get shut down, what if I get shut down, and most of you probably will eventually, so it's not that I'm doing this like maliciously. Like it's the truth. It's the truth happened to me over and over and over again. But I'm placing that seed of doubt so that people are aware of it, right? I just purchased a product from somebody who was using an infusion soft order form.
Starting point is 00:06:37 I filled my whole credit card information and took me seven steps. Seven steps after the credit card was in, seven clicks, sorry, seven clicks to give them the money. I wanted them to take my money. It took seven more clicks to actually give them money okay i was annoyed by that but instead of just being annoyed by it when i talked about i'm talking about right now by the way i'm talking about it um through different platforms i'm on i'm just mentioning i try to buy this thing for somebody using a fusion soft order form seven clicks like i would most people would have left if i didn't want the products about i would have left and like you're like every click in your sales process you lose a percentage of people right so my whole mind's order form, seven clicks. Most people would have left. If I didn't want the product to sell, I would have left.
Starting point is 00:07:08 Every click in your sales process, you lose a percentage of people, right? So my whole mind is always like, how do we shorten the distance? I want to make sure that there's as few clicks as possible to get somebody from where they're starting to where I want them to end. Because every click, you lose somebody. But just after, between me getting the credit card, typing it, and submitting, there's seven clicks. Okay? So that's what you're getting when you're using Infusionsoft, right?
Starting point is 00:07:25 So I just did it. I placed a seed of doubt because now you're like, well, how many clicks are in my order form? Crap. Well, that's like the standard, like you have to admit if I'm using that system, like, huh, and then you start wondering like this whole time, like,
Starting point is 00:07:35 what if I'm losing sales and money and like that thought will just keep pecking away at your mind and keep thinking and keep sitting there and it's seeded down. Eventually, it'll sprout to the point where you're like, I'm losing a lot of money. It's time to make the shift. It's time to do the right thing and that's my whole goal because I know that not everyone's gonna sign up today but they're gonna sign up eventually I was
Starting point is 00:07:52 so people it's not a matter of if you're gonna become a member of clickfunnels this when so my goal is like there's not right now I need to place the seeds of doubt so that throughout your system you're always thinking about like me coming and doing that thing and when's it gonna happen and how's it gonna happen and things like that so that's kind of concept sees it out so, you're always thinking about like me coming and doing that thing and when's it going to happen and how's it going to happen and things like that. So, um, that's kind of the concept of seeds of doubt. So as you're doing your marketing and it's not just like, I know some of you guys are like, Russ, where do I place my seed of doubt? And it's like, no, it's not like, it's, it's like you're, you're, you're sprinkling that in as you're doing stuff
Starting point is 00:08:18 as you're doing Snapchat or Instagram is your podcast or your videos or your whatever it is, like wherever you're at, like you're just sprinkling those seeds of doubt against your competitors and making those things known so people are aware of like, wow, I didn't realize that that was even a thing. I want to make sure those things are out there and that people are aware of them. So that's kind of the concept.
Starting point is 00:08:36 And it's a really good thing. In fact, in wrestling, we would do the same kind of things with our opponents, right? We go to a tournament and and during weigh-ins, you'd see who were in your weight class and stuff and it's always kind of like a mental game because you're just like,
Starting point is 00:08:51 oh my gosh, that guy looks bigger than me. You know, all these kind of things. So it's like how you place seeds of doubt. A lot of it has to do with your confidence. Some of it has to do with how you shake the person's hand. All those kind of things because in sports, in business, in most things, honestly, it's a lot less of
Starting point is 00:09:06 like the physical and a lot more of the mental. It's funny, when I started doing jiu-jitsu, I'm not a jiu-jitsu guy, I'm a wrestler, but I started doing jiu-jitsu and it was funny because I think it was my second or my third tournament I went to, I went out and I'm up a weight class because I was kind of overweight at the time. So I'm up at like almost heavy weights. You guys are big dudes that I'm going against. class because I was kind of overweight at the time, so I'm up at like almost heavy weights. These guys are big dudes that I'm going against. And most of them have been in Jiu-Jitsu for a couple years. Like they're blue belts and I think it's brown after that
Starting point is 00:09:30 and whatever and I just came in, I don't have any belt at all. I just do no Gi so you don't have to actually have a belt. So I came out there and as soon as I went out there I was like these guys are going to kill me. I don't know what I'm doing. But I was like because of that I have to place seeds of doubt in their mind that they are going to be able to beat me fast.
Starting point is 00:09:46 Otherwise, I'm going to be choked out and tapped out really quick. So what I did is my very first match, because everyone's like, your weight class, everyone's sitting close
Starting point is 00:09:54 to each other in the match. So I came out and I'm like, okay, I'm a jiu-jitsu guy but I'm a wrestler. I got to scare this first guy. So I came out.
Starting point is 00:10:01 Instead of coming in and doing the jiu-jitsu thing where they, I came out like a wrestler and came in and started running and started pounding start running after bound on his head boom boom boom push him push him knock the dude over and the guy falls out of bounds and he gets up and you see like i placed the seat of doubt and his eyes were just like oh crap he walks back in the circle and that point it was like everything shifted his whole countenance he was like nervous and
Starting point is 00:10:20 awkward and like i thought he was easy it was like wrestling like a little soft puppy it was so easy after that right what was cool was that all the soft puppy. It was so easy after that, right? But what was cool was that all the other guys sitting around the mat, they saw that as well and they were looking in and they're like, oh my gosh, each of the, when I did, I wrestled, I rolled with, that's what they call them, Jiu Jitsu, and I rolled with the other guys.
Starting point is 00:10:36 I came out there and it was funny because as soon as I came out there, I could see it in their eyes. And all of them started backing up and they were just like, because they didn't want me to rush, they didn't want that pressure that I was bringing. And you could see in their eyes. And then that spurred me more.
Starting point is 00:10:48 But that seeded out was set. And it was just like all these guys who were bigger, stronger, faster, and better at jujitsu who probably should have beat me if they would have had the mental belief that they could. They didn't because they had the seeded out. And they were like, I don't know what to do. And that's like, that's all it takes. So hope that helps you guys. It's kind of fun. Think about how you could do that in your communication with it takes. So, hope that helps you guys. It's kind of fun.
Starting point is 00:11:05 Think about how you can do that in your communication with your audience, and hope that helps. And that's all I got for you guys today. Thanks so much for everything, you guys. And tonight we're actually launching Funnel Hacker TV, the TV show, and all, so if you go to funnelhacker.tv,
Starting point is 00:11:17 you can see the behind the scenes show. We've got eight episodes of that right now, and tonight we're having the first full, I'm not sure what we're going to call it yet full documentary or whatever and then some other cool things when you go to funnelhacker.tv check that out
Starting point is 00:11:31 and then you'll notice at the top there's some cool tabs one that takes you to Marketing Secrets which is this podcast and one that takes you to the blog and anyway I'll share with you guys the strategy behind that in the near future but I think it's pretty cool
Starting point is 00:11:42 so that's all I got you guys thanks so much for everything and I'll talk to you soon bye want more Marketing Sec secrets? If so, then go get your copies of my two bestselling books. Book number one is called expert secrets and you can get a free copy at expertsecrets.com. And book number two is called.com secrets and you can get your free copy at.comsecrets.com. Inside these two books, you'll find my top 35 secrets that we've used to become the fastest growing
Starting point is 00:12:06 non VC backed SaaS startup company in the world.

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