Ben Settle

Behold a semi-cautionary tale:

Recently, my friend Greg sent me an email illustrating the #1 thing that (if you’re a guy, at least) will kill other peoples’ desire to befriend you, get romantically involved with you, or want to do business with you.

It’s a mistake waaaay too many people make.

(Including people in business, where it’s a huge turn off.)

And, well, why so serious?

Anyway, here’s what happened:

Greg (and I’ve had other friends say similar stuff, and I’ve noticed similar stuff about friends of mine who I tend to want to hang out with more than others) was telling me about how he’d been getting phone calls from friends needing to “have lunch” or “come visit” or asking him “WHY do I never get time with you?”… and so on. And, it got him to thinking about why he never goes out of his way to visit them or grant them his valuable time and attention.

Yes, he loves his friends and family.

Yes, he respects them.

And yes, he would do anything for them.

But, he doesn’t go out of his way to talk to them, hang out with them, or visit them. If anything, he thinks of excuses not to want to be around them.

Now, contrast that to my friendship with Greg.

We have known each other for 12 years.

We have never once met in person.

And, we have only spoken by phone a few times, and primarily communicate by email.

Yet, here is what he said:

“I like all these friends, a lot, but really, the only one I really would ON MY OWN make any effort to see if we lived closer is BEN. I just don’t have enough in common with ALL THESE MEN to make an effort any more. Strange since we’ve never talked in person isn’t it? But I consider you TOPS on my friend list, and even then you’re light years ahead of whoever is #2.”

Why would Greg have this attitude?

Why does he hold me in so much more esteem and respect than he does people he lives closer to, has known longer, and has broken bread with?

Why do I have the exact same opinion of him?

And… even more importantly:

How can this help you make lots more sales, attract higher quality people into your life (customers, clients, friends, JV partners, people of the opposite sex, etc)?

Good question!

The answer:

Is on tomorrow’s “Ben Settle Show” podcast.

This may very well be the most info-packed episode yet.

And, for now, it’s still free.

(That may change this year, heads up…)

Anyway, I’ll let you know when it’s up tomorrow.

To download past episodes, go here:

www.BenSettleShow.com/antipreneur

Ben Settle

Here’s a story for the egg shell-walking snowflakes…

Last year while at our Oceans 4 mastermind workshop (we are going to be doing one more it appears this May, details forthcoming), one of our clients Russell Brunson (if you don’t know who he is, you might be a noob) and I got to talking at dinner.

And the first thing he told me was:

“I used to hate you, Ben.”

Ah yes!

Those might not have been his exact words.

But, that was the gist of it.

When I asked him why, he didn’t really have an answer.

But he stayed subscribed, anyway.

And, he told me that meeting me was one of the main reasons he attended our Oceans 4 mastermind in Vegas (which is like the One Testimonial To Rule Them All as far as I’m concerned — he’s one of my marketing “heroes”).

Which got me to thinking:

Why do so many of these guys & gals who hate me stick around?

And, why do they end up liking me later?

As if a sign from the Almighty Himself, I got an email just before the plane ride home from website reader Brandon Yanofsky saying he was (and I quote) “turned off at first”, too, but (and I quote again): “your don’t give a fuck attitude really got me intrigued.”

When I asked him:

“What turned you off?”

He answered with:

“I’ll explain using the same context you use in your emails: women. My last girlfriend would always give me a hard time about things I’d say. And it annoyed me. But then, I started realizing she was just calling me out on my bullshit. It’s kind of like with you. The stuff you say at first is like getting a blow to the face. Part of me is offended. But then I realize I’m offended because you are calling me on my bullshit. So it took me a while to realize why I was turned off. And then realized why.”

Inteeeeeresting, eh?

That obviously isn’t the case with everyone.

But, I suspect it IS the case with many website readers.

And you know what?

This should inspire you to do the same:

Speak the troof in your emails.

Don’t give a rat’s bootay what anyone thinks.

And, call people out on their BS.

I mean, really, what’s the alternative? To let other people dictate what you say? To “orbit” around others’ opinions? To stifle yourself?

If that floats your boat go ye ahead.

Me?

I like to give it raw.

And, “uncircumcised.”

And you know what?

It’s worked out pretty good so far.

Go here to get the next “Email Players” issue before it mails:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Once again, I’m behooved to prove something.

Whenever someone asks me “can I use email to sell such-and-such a service?” I usually tell them yes, and I argue it works even better for service deals because so few people in those worlds use email the way I teach.

Case in point:

“Email Players” subscriber Guy Webb.

He’s in the IT market.

(A tough cookie to crack…)

And, he sayseths:

I’ve had some really good success in the last couple of weeks and my close rate of new clients (physical new clients) has gone up by 50% easy and thats tough in the IT market, so I thank you for that.

In fact I closed deal today before I left the customers office and even before I sent the proposal, the prospect was like “when can we sign up” almost begging me to get the proposal over so they could sign on the dotted line, dam if only I knew I would of been bold and taken a proposal with me, it is almost unheard of to sign a deal in this manner in our industry.

Of course i’d had a couple of emails back and forth which again a attribute to your teachings….prior to the meeting.

Not only has the close rate gone up but as I mentioned above the time frame to get a new client onboard is somewhere between 2 and 12 months or more, this latest deal was just 21 days from first telephone contact.

So all in all great success, anyone out there that thinks this is just for online should take note as it applies to all sales and all kind of business and I don’t even send daily email yet…. I study and send precision targeted email.

How about them mangos?

Using nothing but “lowly” little emails the way I teach, he cut his closing time from months to mere days.

Next “Email Players” issue makes it even easier to score.

(Sales, that is…)

How so?

Because one of the things inside are 3 copyright-free emails you can use and abuse however you want. They are designed to take advantage of some upcoming holidays, and you can use them word-for-word, or alter them however you want, without paying me anything.

I honestly don’t know how to make this easier.

I’m doing 99% of the work for you.

All you do is type in your info then copy & paste.

Easy peasy.

Subscribe in time here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Sunday my pal Tim Allen and I played some golf, and on the 3rd hole I dropped some info that, if implemented, will likely bring him an extra 4-figures (and 5 over time) per month in revenue.

His business?

He’s in equipment.

(Renting and selling equipment for contractors, home improvement, yard maintenance, and everything in between.)

And, he just hired a new guy to run the front counter.

(Register, answer the phone, that sort of stuff.)

Anyway, here was my advice:

(Hat tip to Dan Kennedy, read this in one of his books…)

• Have your new counter guy get the name and address of *everyone* who calls in for any reason. Tell callers they will be entered into a drawing or something of that nature as a carrot for doing so

• Give the counter guy a couple bucks for each name/address he captures (as an incentive so he is eager to do it — 20 names per day, for example, would be an extra $40 per day, not too shabby for a counter worker…)

• At the end of each day, have him email the list to a mailing/printer/fulfillment company where they will shoot out a post card immediately for you

• Have the post card offer the person $20 “Allen Bux” — money good for anything in the store — equipment sales, rental, etc, with a deadline attached to it

More:

Keep the names in a database.

And, mail them various offers each month with a reason to come in the store right away. Of course, when the come in the store capture their email address on a note pad computer or laptop so you can bless them with your offers, opinions, commentary, etc via email, too.

“Tim,” I said.

“Yes?”

“Then there will be peace.”

And, I meant it.

Then, I sent him here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Sometimes a website reader will ask why I don’t sell a one-shot product on email marketing.

Something easily pimped out via affiliates.

Easily accessible.

And, easily downloaded in pdf.

I’ve rapped about this many times before.

But, there’s one reason I’ve never revealed:

I have to teach month-to-month because it is, in many ways, like a professional monthly period. What I mean by that is, it’s uncomfortable making sure I don’t phone anything in. (I’ve rewritten entire issues from scratch because they didn’t meet my standards.) It cramps my fingers on the keyboard writing it. (Ask any subscriber… each 16-page issue is wall-to wall text, very little white space and zero filler). I get irritating hot flashes of ideas for other emails, products, ad copy, etc I have to constantly pause to write down before continuing, which slows my momentum while writing it. I become moody and lash out at anyone bothers me while writing it. My conscious gets bloated with anxiety in making absolutely SURE I’m delivering information that, for someone who implements, will *easily* make back their monthly investment (many times over in the short term, and hundreds and thousands of times over, over time…) And, it cleans out my mind of all the lessons and ideas always hatching in my mind.

Yeah, yeah, I know.

“Ben that’s such a crude analogy!!!”

Meh.

Imagine me rubbing my fingers together.

You know what this is?

It’s the word’s smallest violin.

Save the complaining for someone who cares.

It may be crude, but it’s accurate.

In fact:

I can tell right now, just by own tone in writing this (as I read it over) it’s time to start writing another issue.

I’ll even give you a “sneak preview” of what’s in March’s issue:

One thing I cover is how to sell in virtually ANY market you want… even if you know zilch about that market now… using plain old, “retro” email, and in just 60-minutes or less.

I’ve used this secret several times.

And, each time I made out like a bandit.

Methinks you will, too.

That is, if you’re a subscriber.

And, if you implement the info.

(Which is very “newbie friendly, good jumping-on issue.)

Subscription details here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Okay, so here’s the scoop:

If you sell or buy anything in the dating niche… or even have half an ear dialed into the popular culture these days… sooner or later you will hear a term called:

“The Friend Zone”

What that means is this:

A guy likes a girl.

Girl decides said guy is not worthy of her affections for whatever reason, so she places him in the friend zone: She’s happy to be “friends” with him, but she finds him as sexually attractive as a garden slug.

Sure, she’ll let him give her his attention.

She’ll let him do stuff for her.

She’ll let him pick her (or her friends) up from the airport, let him help her move, let him listen to her cry on his shoulder about yet another doo-bag that broke her heart, let him listen to all her drama, and the list goes on.

But, she won’t date him.

Won’t kiss him.

Won’t even hold his sweaty little hand.

That’s the friend zone.

And, unless a dude understands what’s going on (most never do), once you get in there you have a better chance of escaping Alcatraz than the friend zone.

Anyway, we have a bit of this online, too.

Except it’s not called the friend zone.

It’s called the free line zone.

The “free line” is the idea where you give lots and lots and lots of free stuff away (often during a launch) so that people think, “zowie! if this is what he’s giving away free, just imagine what’s in the PAID product!”

This creates *some* customers, true.

But mostly, it creates entitled freebie seekers.

(And refunders, but that’s another email…)

People who place you square in the free line zone.

(i.e. they will gladly partake of all your free stuff, but have no intention of buying from you, and why should they if you are foolish enough to give away all your best stuff free?)

More:

Some people think there’s some so-called “law of reciprocity” action going on there, too. Where, because they gave the little freebie seekers on their list something free, they will somehow magically transform into responsible, paying customers who actually want to do something about their problems, pains, desires (whatever it is your product grants), instead of continuously wandering the goo-roo casino raking in all the FREE!!! stuff they can find.

I won’t say this free line stuff never works.

Or, that you won’t make sales with it.

But, compared to selling?

’tain’t even close.

Being a give-away artist is not selling.

And, while certain gurus with huge lists and rabid fans who treat them like the proverbial rockstar (and would buy their grocery list — no sales pitch needed — if offered) can get away with being give-away artists, most blokes I know simply can’t.

That’s why I get so many testimonials that talk about this.

People used to give away hard content in their emails.

They got poor, maybe even decent, results.

Then they use my system and sales explode. Clicks explode. And, yes, the number of people eagerly opening your emails explode.

That’s what happens when you write emails people enjoy reading.

Enjoy responding to.

And, yes, enjoy *buying* from.

It’s what I teach each month in the “Email Players” newsletter.

And, I can teach you, too.

But, only if you’re an investor-minded person. (Not an opportunity-minded person like 99% of people online.) And, only if you’re willing to work.

This ain’t fantasy land.

If you subscribe I expect you to work.

I expect you to write emails every day.

And, I expect you to implement.

Otherwise, you’ll fail.

And, then, what would be the point?

All right.

If’n you want more info, go here:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle

Here’s what’s in today’s “Ben Settle Show” podcast:

• 3 ways to make haters look dumb when they comment on your posts.

• The power of bringing a bazooka to a knife fight.

• A weird thing some girls do when they flirt with guys. (It makes no sense, but if a girl ever does this to you, there’s a good chance it’s her goofy way of flirting.)

• A counter intuitive action to take when someone paints you as a “villain” in social media (or in any other situation).

• One of the best Hollywood movies to watch if you are a man and sell in an all-female market. (The advice one of the characters gives in this movie was worth a lot of sales to me when selling in a female market.)

• What never to say in your copy if you sell to women.

• What happens in someone’s brain when you ignore them.

• When you should treat someone as just a sheep.

• How to (righteously) use mockery to deal with haters. (Old Testament prophets did this all the time, here’s how to use the same method on Facebook.)

• And a ho’ bunch mo’…

Download your lovin’ here:

www.BenSettleShow.com/itunes

Ben Settle

True story:

A while back I posted a bit of advice in a private Facebook group open only to paying customers.

Most of us in there are dudes.

And someone was talking about selling to women.

Specifically, how guys sell to women (something like that, I don’t fully remember the conversation). What I do remember is, one of the comments I made about how I used a line from a movie to make a lot of sales when selling in an all-female market.

The advice, I suppose, would offend mush cookies.

(mush cookies gonna mush)

And, was worth a bunch of sales to me.

So, I posted it.

Then, I decided to post it on my main timelines for S&G’s.

The result?

A chick I know farted out some dumb comment that made no sense about me having “hate speech”, and it turned into an 80 some comment thread (not a single one agreeing with her) before it died off.

Anyway, the point?

Tomorrow’s Ben Settle Show is about this.

Specifically how to deal with Facebook idiots — people who do nothing but whine, complain, argue, take cheap shots, hate, etc. I also talk about the movie that inspired the above advice. And, some other politically incorrect stuff that can put more of the green stuff in your hot little hand.

It’ll be posted tomorrow.

In the meantime, check out past episodes here:

www.BenSettleShow.com/antipreneur

Ben Settle

In which the inevitable question is axed:

“Your books and newsletter and products are all black on white text. Have you ever thought of doing a more designed look and feel? With pictures, colors, maybe the odd video even.”

My answer:

No, and I’ll tell you why.

Whether any of us like it or not, whether it makes sense or not, the more pretty something is generally the less value its given because it looks mass market — like something that belongs in a book store. And bookstore products usually don’t command much of the green stuff, even if the info is worth hundreds or thousands.

Example?

Nightingale-Conant.

I once read Dan Kennedy talk about how they sold some expensive course on success (something like that) and it was all prettied-up, slick, and “valuable” looking.

The result?

Lots and lots and lots of refunds.

So they decided to make the product ugly — photocopied pages in a binder. No bells. No whistles. The kind of format that’d make a designer weep and gnash her teeth.

What happened?

Refunds dropped like a politician’s pants at a brothel.

Same with ebooks.

They’re digital “air” — with no tangible value.

Many of them are even more plain Jane than my stuff. Yet, they often command $27, $37, $47 or more… while in a book store that same information, all dolled up and designed, would not get even $15, most likely.

There are exceptions to this, of course.

Like, for example, Gary Bencivenga’s DVD course.

But even then, we all would have devoured it even if it was black & white and ugly (wouldn’t have mattered to me or anyone else I know who possesses it).

Anyway, so that’s one reason.

Another?

I’m lazy.

Especially when it comes to video. (It took me about 2 weeks to get around to shooting a 24-second video testimonial for a friend recently, that’s how much I despise video).

Another reason:

My stuff is readable and presentable as is.

So, anyone who would not buy or consume one of my products because the sales letter or product is not dolled up would not be a good customer for me, anyway.

Anyway, that’s why my stuff is ugly.

Plane Jane.

And, not going to win any design contests.

If someone doesn’t like it, they don’t have to buy.

For everyone else:

My flagship product is “Email Players”. It’s a print (black & white) newsletter. It’s 16-pages long. And, each issue is packed from stem to stern with my best ideas for making more sales with email.

It ain’t pretty.

And, it ain’t cheap.

But, it is profitable for people who use it.

Details at:

www.EmailPlayers.com

Ben Settle