 A lot of times, as humans, we're just running on programming. Welcome to the We Are Slam Show where you'll learn marketing agency insights, best practices, and ideas to help your business grow. My name is Tyler Kelly. I'm the co-founder and chief strategist at Slam Agency, a boutique digital first marketing agency designed to help you captivate, motivate, and inspire people to action through advertising. And this show, this show is all about helping you as a marketing director, as a small business owner, or as a director of development working in a nonprofit like Mission First. It's all about helping you level up, all about helping you to take these tactics, these strategies that we share on the show and apply them, like to go apply them right now so that you can achieve the results that you want to achieve so that you can drive results. And over the last couple of weeks, I've been sharing what I believe is the number one most important thing that a marketing professional needs to understand and that's sales, okay? And the best way to understand sales is to get into the minds of two types of individuals. First, you have to get into the mind of the consumer of your prospect. You have to understand what motivates them to buy, the psychology behind that. And you have to understand how to communicate with them, how to craft a message that drives results. And number two, you have to understand your sales process and your sales team. If you're in an organization that has sales people, you can't be siloed. You can't have marketing here and sales here. You have to align marketing in sales and you have to understand when those sales people are on the ground, what are they facing? What are the conversations that they're having? What solutions are they providing? What are the messages that work for them? You have to understand this as well. And in doing so, I think number one, read sales books. If you're a marketing professional, you should be the top sales person in your organization. And I don't necessarily mean like you're going out and making sales, although doing that will definitely help you to absorb this sales process. But really, I think just like being that authority on here's how to do sales. Here's how to take a message, craft it and win with it. That's where you need to be the expert as a marketing professional. Because what happens? What happens when sales are down? Who's to blame? Well, typically, it's marketing. Marketing is always the one that has the finger pointed at them that says, we need more traffic. We need more leads. We need more qualified leads. And I know this is what you do. This is where you earn your salary. But at the same time, even if you're bringing in qualified leads and those deals aren't getting closed, then you're going to be the one to blame. And so that's why it is important to understand where are the weak links? Where are the areas that can be improved in the sales process? What types of collateral? What types of messages need to be communicated to the buyer to improve sales proficiency and to improve your conversion rates? Where does this happen? The best way, obviously, is to understand sales. One way as a marketing professional that you can understand sales is through reading. Leaders are readers. And the books that I recommend reading outside of sales books are copywriting books. The best copywriters understand human psychology. They understand why people buy. They understand how to craft a message that drives results. Your salespeople on the ground, they're doing this in person, live, over a Zoom call, over a phone call. They're having these conversations. But the best copywriters have thought through these conversations, have thought through what messages get people further along in the buying cycle, driving them from attention, interest, desire to action. What are these messages and how do you craft them? And so over the last couple of weeks, I've been sharing some of my favorite copywriting books that can take you from here to here. It can really help you level up your marketing expertise. And this week, I'm going to share another one. This one actually, I think is one that not too many people know about. So this is one of those hidden gems. And it's written by a guy named Joe Vitale. Here it is. Buying trances. A new psychology of sales and marketing. Joe Vitale. Have you heard of Joe Vitale? I had never heard of Joe Vitale until one day I was watching several years ago. The secret, the secret documentary. Now, The Secret by Rhonda Byrne was an amazing book. It's based on this principle. And I believe it's a principle, a universal principle that thoughts attract things. Okay. You know, I tell my children, negative energy, negative thoughts bring negative events. And in the same way, optimistic thoughts bring optimal events into your life. And so that's where I first came across Joe Vitale. He was one of the guests that were interviewed in the documentary for The Secret. And, you know, he's from, I think, like Southwestern United States. He totally just looks like a pretty random guy. But come to find out, he has done a lot in terms of teaching people how to do marketing and advertising, and teaching people how to do copywriting, copywriting from a conscious place. And so when I picked up this book, I was like, wow, this is an amazing book. And this is actually one of those books that sit on my desk. And I refer to it pretty regularly. Okay. A new psychology of sales and marketing. I want to highlight a few things here. Now, obviously, this is called buying trances. Okay. And it's based on the premise that as human beings, we go through life in certain types of trances. And there's been a lot of studies and research in psychology that really point to the fact that a lot of times, as humans, we're just running on programming. Okay. And so we understand this through cognitive biases and heuristics and things like this, that the brain really is just most of the time running on programs. Okay. And so as we talked about in our show on cognitive biases, in order to break through some of these programs and to be more effective in your life, you have to, number one, be aware of them. And once you're aware of them, you can notice them. And so most people, though, they're not aware of what's actually going on up here. And they aren't noticing these things when they happen. And so as a result, for most human beings, we kind of go through life in a trance like state. Okay. And so Joe Vitale in this book shows you how to break through that programming to connect with people on a heart level, and really to use this state that many of us are in to your advantage as a marketer. And with everything, and Joe will tell you this, you have to use it ethically, because this is some pretty powerful stuff. For instance, the power of suggestion. Now, we've heard about this many times. Matter of fact, when we think of cognitive biases, we could refer to this as the anchoring effect, the idea that as individuals, we usually rely on that first piece of information that we receive, there's also the halo effect, which is that that first interaction with the brand with a message with a suggestion will color or taint or tint all future interactions with that brand. And so the anchoring effect, the halo effect, the power of suggestion, and here he says, how you frame position or explain your product or service will determine how people perceive it, how they perceive it will determine what they do. So the idea here, the takeaway here is that because of the power of suggestion, because people are going to be in tune with the frame that you suggest, with the result that you suggest, you always want to, in your copywriting in your messaging in your commercial, you always want to suggest the outcome that your product or service provides, they will pick up on it. And that suggestion will determine the actions that they'll take from that point onward. If you don't at the beginning of your copy of your pitch, if you don't provide a suggestion, then what's happening is you are, you're going into that campaign into that commercial with one arm tied behind your back, determine what it is that you want your customers to do and suggest that that's what they'll do in your copywriting, okay, and believe it. Now the other thing I want to point out a little bit later on, and this is really powerful stuff, but he talks about some really practical ways to capture attention. Now remember, the premise is that we're all going through life in a trance-like state, okay, and if that's the case, then we have to capture attention. Now we know as marketers that attention is the new currency. Just think about it, you could be watching a show on Hulu, you could be on your laptop, it could go to a commercial, you're checking your Instagram stories, and you know, what really matters to the marketer and what should matter to you is where is my attention? If my attention isn't on the Hulu commercial, then why are you advertising on Hulu? If my attention is on the phone during the commercial break, then maybe that's where the ad needs to be, or maybe it's a short commercial break, just a 15-second quick hitter, in that case you probably need to advertise on Hulu, or maybe your target audience are people that are paying for premium, they're not necessarily watching commercials. If that's the case, then why are you advertising at all, right? And so you have to think about where is your target market's attention. Remember, attention is the new currency. It's a currency because as Thales Textura, and trust me, I didn't pronounce that name right, but he's a PhD at Harvard University. What he says is that the cost of acquiring consumer attention has increased over nine times over the last two decades, and it continues to increase. And because of this, attention is a currency. We are dealing in attention effect. One of my favorite quotes from Pete Cashmere at Mashable, we're living at a time when attention is the new currency. With hundreds of TV channels, billions of websites, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, our attention is more fragmented than ever before. Just like I said, you have lots of options. And so as a marketer, you really have to think about what's the best option in terms of the best place, what's the right time. And then when you have those two elements, what's the right message that's going to capture my person, my right person? What's that message? Well, Joe Vitale in this book provides some practical ways that you can actually begin to capture attention. And so here's a few of them. He says, ask open-ended questions. That's a great way to capture attention with your target market. Ask which, not what. For instance, in sales, they teach you, ask the question, not, do you want to have a call with me, but say, would you rather chat on Wednesday or Friday? Which one works for you? Not what. Another way you can grab attention is by making an unusual claim. As a matter of fact, if you read any sort of article online and you see the ads at the bottom of the article or the blog, then what you're going to find out is there's a lot of crazy, unusual claims. This is the BuzzFeed format, the BuzzFeed model. And what happens? Sometimes you end up clicking on them and you end up going down that rabbit hole. And in regards to asking questions, you can ask a question which is not a question that can be answered. And finally, he says, state something that's impossible to believe. Very similar to this, make an unusual claim. But if you state something that is impossible to believe, and he gives you examples in the book, then you're really going to capture your user's attention. The last thing I want to point out is what he calls the hypnotic power of agreement. This is a super effective approach to developing copy. And I want you to be aware of it because a lot of times traditional marketing, traditional sales, if you're familiar with sales, it's all about getting people into that yes mindset. The power of agreement. Get them to say yes. The reason why we have multiple step forms, why? Is so that you can say yes multiple times. The more you can get people nodding in agreement, the more likely they are to continue to agree with you. This is the power of agreement. And you can do this online. You can do this in your advertising copy. You can do this in person, in a sales call situation. And so while getting people to say yes is something that we've used traditionally, there's a much more powerful way to do that. And that is the hypnotic power of agreement. And the way he describes it is this. Instead of getting them to say yes to you, you say yes to them. You agree with them. This is powerful. What you're doing is you're getting alignment. You're getting in line with their beliefs, their worldview, their mindsets. And you approach the situation, you approach the sales call, you approach the copywriting, the messaging, the storytelling from that perspective. This is the power of agreement. I always say that if I'm in a situation where I'm trying to sell something to somebody that doesn't believe in it, then that's a losing proposition. I've learned in business, in sales, in marketing that it's not my place to convince you that you need fill in the blank, whatever that may be. If you don't believe in it, then there's no point in me trying to sell it to you. What I need to do as a marketing professional, as a sales professional, is I need to figure out what's important to you and then determine if I can find alignment there, if we can find alignment there. And if you understand your audience, if you understand your target market, if you understand their pain points, if you understand where they're trying to survive and thrive and where they need to go, in this whole thing, like where they are now, but where they need to end up, then you're able to come in and be the solution in a way that's non-confrontational. The idea here is you never want to fight, you never want to disagree with your prospect, whether that's in writing in a television or audio commercial, or whether that's in person. Anytime you disagree, then what you do is you introduce in your prospect the fight or flight response. So you never want to disagree. You want to be the first to agree. You want to be the first to make concessions. And when you do this, you invoke the power of agreement. Now, like I said, I'm going to put this in show notes so that you can access it. And I'll be honest with you, I don't even know if this is in print right now. But if it is, we'll put an Amazon link there so that you can order it. This is one of my favorite books, and there's a lot in here. I was only able to scratch the surface, Joe Vitale, Buying Trances. Now, if this is your first time tuning in to the We Are Slam show, first of all, thank you. Thank you for checking us out. I hope that we were able to bring value to help you kind of take something away from this moment that you can use in your marketing today. And if that were the case, do me a favor, subscribe, rate, and review. These things are important to help us introduce this show to new audiences. And this show really is for the marketing professional, whether that's a small business owner or a VP of marketing at a corporation or something like that. But really, you're the one that's in the business. You're the one that's doing the hard work of marketing, trying to drive results. That's what we're here for. We want to help you drive those results. So subscribe, rate, and review. And if you can, share with a friend. Always a great way to get the word out. I appreciate the fact that you've tuned in today, and I will see you next week. Thanks for watching. If you like what you saw, subscribe, and hit that bell. You'll be the first to be notified when new content goes live. After that, you can watch more videos from Slam Agency. We picked something we think you'll love.