The Russell Brunson Show - 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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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 that 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 wanted 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. 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 one of those things that, it's interesting watching the whole conversation

because some people are like, don't address your customers. 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 can actually compete against. Well, you have to defeat Confusionsoft to be able to fight against Loki pageski pages and uh the drip armies um and it's like pretty awesome so why don't we do stuff like that so it's interesting um first off it's funny and so that helps me get through the day because a lot of stuff we got to do so might as well make

the day fun um but second off if you look at like marketing as a whole like marketing strategy right um because this is the this is a big deal but 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 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 gonna beat somebody, I need to find that person, identify them, and like let the world know, like this is who we're going

after, this is who we're gonna beat, and then after we pass them, then we stop talking about them. So we don't really talk about low key pages very often anymore because we flew past them, as you guys know. But if you just obviously the next target that we're trying to get bigger, then we have more customers than right now. I think the revenues are higher

because they charge more for their confusing software. 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. 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 are done in fact if you guys want something fun so scroll down the feedback before we change the name of this to marketing secrets when it was marketing your car I did a whole episode on um on athletes and competition and and anyway it was pretty funny I thought so you guys should go listen that one but talk about the fact that like that in this business world like who are you competing against like these to that one. But I 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.

It was like, who's the person ahead of me? And then literally my junior year, my first match, I lost to a 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. And we practiced against. I got better and better and better. And I actually made him to state finals and I beat him. Right. Like, and, and like, that's, that's the, that's the athletic mentality, right? 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 but it's different right and so a lot of times like we get in this playground and we're now competing in business and you've got people that excuse me were banned and they were acquired 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 that that's who you're competing against so 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 who his whole entire life, that's all he's cared about. Like, of course, that's going to be my goal. Like, that's how I'm going to go. And anyway, there's a whole podcast about it. You should listen to if you scroll down to the iTunes feed. Um, but, uh, anyway, so there's some, 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 in the competitors. Because I know a lot of times I'm going to talk about something and I know that somebody is using Conf soft or they're using lead page 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 all stuff over here. I can't shift over. And so I understand that. So instead of me just like trying to convince them in a hard sell them, I'm going to, I'm going to place a whole bunch of seeds of doubt so that from that time, 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? Okay, 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, that's where we're going and 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. And even if you love those systems, also 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 like, what if they did shut me down oh man now that seat of doubt is there and 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 like it's not that i'm doing this like maliciously like it's the truth it's truth happened to me over and over and over again but i'm placing that seat of doubt so people are aware of it right i just purchased a product from somebody who was using an infusion soft order form. I filled my whole credit card information and it 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, but it took seven more clicks

to actually give them money. I was annoyed by that, but instead of just being annoyed by it, when I talked about it, I'm talking about it right now, by the way, I'm talking about it through different platforms I'm on. I'm just mentioning, like, I tried to buy this thing for somebody using a Fusionsoft order form. Seven clicks. Most people would have left. If I didn't want the products, I would have left. And, like, 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? So I just said, I placed a seed of doubt. Cause now you're like, well, how many clicks are my order form? Crap. Well, that's like the standard. Like you have to have many if I'm using that system. Like, huh. And then you start wondering like this whole time, you start wondering this whole time, what if I'm losing sales and money? That thought will just keep pecking away at your mind and keep thinking and keep sitting there and seeded out.

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. That's my whole goal because I know that not everyone's going to sign up today, but they're going to sign up eventually. I always tell people, it's not a matter of if you're going to become a member of ClickFunnels, it's when. So my goal is like if it'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 going to happen and how's it going to happen and things like that. So that's kind of the concept of seeds of doubt.

So as you're doing your marketing, it's not just like, I know some of you guys are like, Russell, where do I place my seed of doubt? It's like, no, it's not like, it's like you're sprinkling that in as you're doing stuff, as you're doing Snapchat or Instagram or 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. And it 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. And it's a really good thing. In fact, in wrestling, we would do the same kind of things with our opponents, right? We'd go to a tournament.

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, oh my gosh, that guy looks bigger than me. All these kind of things. So it's like how you place seeds of doubt like a lot of has to do with your confidence sometimes you like how you shake the person's hand like all those kind of things because um in sports and business and most things honestly it's um it's a lot less of like the uh the physical and a lot more of the mental it's funny uh when i started doing jiu-jitsu

i'm not a jiu-jitsu guy i'm a wrestler wrestler. But I started doing jujitsu 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. These guys are big dudes that I'm going against. And most of them have been in jujitsu for a couple of years. Like they're blue belts and I think it's brown after that and whatever. And I just, 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. 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, like everyone's sitting close 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 gotta, like, I gotta scare this first guy, so I came out, instead of, like, coming in and doing, like, the jiu-jitsu thing, where they, I came out like a wrestler, and Kenny just started running

down, started pounding 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, and he walks back in the circle. And at that point it was like, everything shifted. His whole countenance, he was like nervous and 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 is that all the other guys sitting around the mat, they saw that as well. And, uh, and they were looking in and they're like, oh my gosh. So then I wrestled each of the, or when I did, I wrestled, I rolled with, that's what they call them, Jiu-jitsu and i rolled the other guys um i came out there and it was

funny 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 that i was bringing and you could see in their eyes and then i spurred me more but that seeded out was set it was just like all these guys who were bigger stronger faster and better at jiu-jitsu who probably should have beat me if they would have had the mental belief that they could. They didn't because they had to see the doubt, 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 can do that in your communication with your audience. And I 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 so if you go to funnelhacker.tv, 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 gonna call it yet, full documentary or whatever. And then some other cool things. When you go there, go to funnelhacker.tv, check that out. And then you'll notice at the top there's some cool tabs. One takes you to Marketing Secrets, which is this podcast.

And one 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. So that's all I got you guys. Thanks so much for everything. And I'll talk to you soon. Bye. Want more Marketing Secrets?

If so, then go get your copies of my two best-selling books. Book number one is called Expert Secrets. And you can get a free copy at expertsecrets.com. And book number two is called Dotcom Secrets, and you can get your free copy at dotcomsecrets.com. Inside these two books, you'll find my top 35 secrets that we've used to become the fastest growing non-VC backed SaaS startup company in the world.