The other day, I made a post on the Warrior Forum stating that I am over the “It’s not your fault” sales techniques. You know, where a marketer tells you, “You’ve been lied to by the ‘gurus’ and if you stop listening to them and start listening to me, you will finally succeed.” Barf!
I get the concept. Nobody wants to take responsibility for their own failures, so you lure them in by giving them a scapegoat. I also get that it works. It uses the number one rule of copywriting, which is to yank on the emotional strings of the reader, but there are a lot of ways to yank those strings. Scapegoat marketing is not one that I like to use.
There’s no doubt the method works. You can sell a lot of product to newbies using this method, but I prefer selling products that help people build a business the right way and then remarket to those customers with solutions that will streamline their business even more. Scapegoat marketing usually targets the rotating door of newbies entering the marketplace each month. “Next in line, please!”
I prefer the truth.
The truth can be harsh at times and it can hurt people’s feelings, but ultimately the truth is the wake up call that many folks need to see what has really been going on in their lives.
The post I made on Warrior Forum read:
I am sooo sick of seeing the “It’s not your fault” line in sales copy and email.
It’s always such a negative message… i.e. “The gurus lied to you. It’s not your fault.”
How about saying something truthful, like, “You’re too lazy to build a real business and too busy searching for a magic button that makes you rich. It IS your fault!”
Quite the response that got.
There were some that hit the thanks button and posted how they agree, others that stated it works and that’s that. One even got a little irate. (Getting irate on a chat forum was something that never made sense to me.) In one of his posts, he wrote:
Tell it to Kennedy, Carlton, Bly, and a few others. They obviously had it wrong all these years. Might explain why they are all broke and washing dishes for a living.
Obviously, a sarcastic remark telling me that all the successful marketers are using this scapegoat marketing tactic.
I decided to check it out. I Googled Mr. Carlton. The first thing I found was a page about making 2012 a better year. How did Mr. Carlton start that message? With this:
If you tried, really really hard, and weren’t successful last year…
… it was probably mostly your own damn fault.
I guess that means he must be washing dishes now ; )
Two points to this blog post
Point 1. While scapegoat marketing may work, it is not the only tactic that works. When choosing a selling technique that is right for you, make sure there is a good balance of what converts well and what makes you feel good. If you can’t sleep at night, all the money in the world won’t make you happy.
Point 2. Carlton is right. If you are following bad advice or consistently looking for a magic product that will make your rich on autopilot, it IS your fault that you have not succeeded in Internet marketing. You need to lose the dream of Internet marketing being a lazy man’s way to riches and start realizing that it takes hard work and discipline to build a business.
This brings me back to what I have been saying for years, “Do what the gurus do, not what they teach.” You will find that most gurus that teach all that magic bullet stuff actually work very hard marketing it.
Now, go ahead and post your thoughts below.
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Hey EBR, I’ll let you have this: I wish I wrote that article of yours. Everything in it is 100% spot on. Every time I am pitched a product with a sales page that has that “it’s not your fault” element in it, I start shutting down. I lose respect for the person whose list I’m on, who pitched me that crap and I lose respect for the “Guru” who created the sales page. There, double-wammy! Weed out the money-grubbers twice as fast (enema).
Lately I’ve been unsubscribing from marketers lists who are clearly only trying to make money from me without providing value. I am all for buying through other affiliates’ links, as long as I am learning from them. It’s true the marketing scene really needs a clean-up. I wish everyone could read this post and stop patronizing the marketers who use this approach.
This tactic is like ambushing the newbie. They don’t see it coming and fall for it. Cha ching for the sleeze-ball marketer.
I think the whole discussion about “whose fault it is” misses the point of establishing how newbies can become successful in IM. Laying blame for failure at the feet of the newbie or the guru doesn’t bring anyone closer to a solution.
Newbies will be successful when they apply the right product to the right market at the right time in the right way.
A very few learn what “right” is early on, some learn it after much experience of trial and error, and most never learn it. Gurus, for the most part, are just newbies that have had a few successes.
I totally agree with you post EBR. And to the person that got defensive on the forum thread, you probably made them feel guilty.
Along the same lines…I hate getting email from product owners that are nothing but affiliate sales linked to other totally unrelated products. They should at least try to sell me something related to what I bought from them in the first place instead of thinking I’ll just buy anything. Just my 2 cents anyway. thanks for the post.
This is true in many areas where the customers new to the arena fall for the old emotional pitch. We have lost our responsibility to ourselves and our fellow man which is to get all in our lives to ‘Know, Like and Trust’ us first then the rest follows. It is hard work to develop a relationship but those that do not work at that miss the boat on long term ROI from customers. Mr. Rose I thank you for bringing this topic into the forefront for discussion!
If you start a business and it doesn’t work, then it always is your fault. If it wasn’t my fault then it wouldn’t be my business. What most folks in IM don’t understand is that it’s a business that has to be built. One that includes everything from strategy, financing, work, tears, sweat, successes, disappointments, frustrations, …
However, I have the feeling that when I look at forums like the WF and other places, there’s always the thought that everybody can succeed (which is true) with not putting any effort in (which is usually not true).
What many fail to realize is that all those shiny and beautiful WSO’s are marketing instruments. If everybody on the WF would realize that they are marketed to the same way that the commercial on TV promises you to take a pill a day and look like you’re 18 again. The irony is that everybody wants to be a marketer without realizing that they are marketed to.
However, it’s fun to read the stories how they were down, got themselves up and now tell the truth and how much they don’t like those ‘Gurus’. It seems that a lot of them went bankrupt or were even in prison. Maybe that’s what we all should do to ensure we become successful…
And then we could develop a magic tool that at the push of a button will do some ‘Guru-bashing’…
Life is short, enjoy it.
Hi,
Darn, you just took away my last excuse.
Ok I’ve discovered you can’t build a business
whitout work, hard work, and I’m beginning to
ignore all the pushbuttons software they are trying
to sell, and if you are on a site that sell these things, you have to close the page 3 ore more times before you can escape, really annoying.
Cheers
Gunnar
This post is so true. Once of my friends ask me today how he could get his business going. I told him to take action! Period.
I’ve already given him a ton of advice and coaching for free. He complains that he has too much alone time at home lol.