Emotion Foremost

Sales and marketing expert Russell Brunson, co-founder of the software company ClickFunnels, sets out to help you turn curious clickers and potential or one-time customers into longtime clients. In this engaging collection of advice and guidance, Brunson offers routes for increasing sales and changing your customers’ lives for the better. He specifically pays attention to using repetition and stickiness to change online searchers and passing shoppers to permanent followers and buyers.

With skill and humor, Brunson discusses why some sales tactics fall flat and other strategies succeed. Hint: His craft secrets rest on a solid foundation of self-awareness, personal growth and grit. In every chapter, Brunson demonstrates and showcases sales tactics designed to motivate audiences and customers, but he makes it clear that you have to do the work.

Brunson is a well-known business coach and author, and his latest advice garnered glowing testimonials. Liz Dunoon, the “Ten Minute Tutor” and author of Helping Children with Dyslexia, said, “Brunson taught me that you need…a colorful character, a cause and to transform people. Webinars as Russell teaches them really transformed my business.” Setema Gali, author of Winning After the Game, said, “Brunson is incredible…[he] takes abstract ideas and packages them neatly into little steps and principles.”

If Brunson’s advice appeals to you, you might also gain from reading his other manuals, Dotcom Secrets: The Underground Playbook for Growing Your Company with Sales Funnels and Traffic Secrets: The Underground Playbook for Filling Your Websites and Funnels with Your Dream Customers.

Personal Tales

Russell Brunson tells of a sales event at which attendees shared personal stories. Many cried onstage, he recalls. Stunned, he realized then that there’s more to sales than peddling products. He suddenly understood that emotion truly drives sales. He advises you to nurture your customers by encouraging their goals and dreams. Your loyalty, he insists, will lead customers to follow you with devotion.

I believe that your business is a calling. You’ve been called to serve a group of people with the products, services and offers that you’ve created.Russell Brunson

Brunson discusses his examination of historical mass movements, which, he found, all share a compelling leader, future prospects and a forward-looking cause. Brunson urges readers to become that leader and to offer an opportunity associated with a nonprofit that hopes to create a better future. 

Frameworks

Brunson’s system for introducing and teaching a framework for your sales efforts begins with giving it a catchy name and writing a pithy description. To teach your framework to clients, he recommends telling customers how you developed it, outlining your tactics for achieving sales goals, giving your audience a point-by-point overview of your approach, and demonstrating how your framework has fueled success for yourself and others.

Overcoming Skepticism

Brunson maintains that some 98% of consumers are skeptical of improvement offers. He urges you to sell innovation, not self-improvement.

Our goal is not to fix what’s not working. Our goal is to replace what’s not working with something altogether different.Russell Brunson

Brunson argues that selling innovation itself evokes a prosperous future. He finds that upgraded innovative products dominate their categories and advises avoiding overcrowded niches that spark pricing wars.

“Epiphany Bridge”

Brunson underscores that rational arguments don’t generate sales. Everything, he preaches, comes down to emotion. He urges you to share your Epiphany Bridge – that aha moment when you became excited about the opportunity, product or framework you are now offering your customers.

Returning to his theme of emotion first, Brunson reminds readers that numbers, jargon and logic won’t inspire customers. He suggests using simple, heartfelt language to share your story. He recommends that you develop a database of inspirational stories to share onstage, in seminars, in webinars and in sales conversations.

Not for Free

Brunson learned a lesson when he saw a keynote speaker sell his take-home materials after delivering his presentation. To do the same, Brunson created content-rich material, but he didn’t garner any post-talk sales. He realized that he had given away his secrets in his presentation, and thus the members of the audience had no reason to buy. 

The entire presentation is designed to get them to believe just one thing: that your new opportunity is the key to them getting the result they desire the most. Russell Brunson

Provide an overview of your strategy, Brunson suggests, and reserve your tactics and tools for paying customers.

Human Nature

Brunson’s message includes a pep talk, self-help counsel, basic sales advice and insights into human nature. He keeps his ideas and language quite simple, which aligns with his advice, in that he eschews anything complex or lofty in favor of a direct emotional approach. Some of his lessons and anecdotes read like filler, but most contain worthwhile sales tactics. Brunson seems to aim his explanations at those starting out in their sales careers who need a basic manual, yet more experienced salespeople or presenters may also find that he offers useful refreshers.