Nobody buys a product - they buy a new version of themselves.
Principle: The dream sells
Our gear isn’t trendy. It isn’t seasonal.
It isn’t meant to be folded.
It’s meant to be stuffed into backpacks, sweated in, slept in, rained on, washed in hotel sinks, and worn again.
We design for the long way. The bumpy road. The detour. The unmarked path with no cell signal and no return flight.
Can you guess what this^ brand sells?
If these words speak to your soul, it almost doesn’t matter - you’ll have whatever they’re making.
It’s pants. Western Rise, $128 pants.
In my opinion they look and feel just like 700 other brands of pants, but this company is killing it because they’re not selling pants. They’re selling the dream.
Tactics
If people are buying your product(s), you’ve already sold the dream - maybe without knowing it.
Nobody bought your sunglasses because they slip off the nose bridge 13% less. They bought them because the glasses make them feel like they don’t have low T.
The trick to finding out what your ideal customer’s dream is, and how to sell them on it, is talking to them. You need a real relationship.
Sort your customers by total order value, and call up the top 20, asking these key questions (10 mins max):
What problem were you trying to solve when you bought?
What famous person do you think would best represent [product]?
Here they’ll describe what traits or characteristics they most value in your brand and paint you a picture of who they hope to be.
Important: most people will be too bashful to tell you exactly who they hope to become by using your product, so you’ll have to read between the lines.
Habits
Just make and record one phone call per week. Use the transcript like your marketing bible.
Take 20 mins on each of the rest of the days that week to write a landing page, an email or an ad that you could guarantee would sell that person again, 100%.
You’ll wind up with some pretty unique, pretty powerful ad copy.
God speed,
Mike
Today’s inspiration: The 7 Human Hijacks