The ‘Secret Sauce’ of Product Launches

Every time Jeff Walker does a launch of his “Product Launch Formula” course, another round of intense discussion begins about the topic. Mixed in with all the ‘is it worth the money‘ arguments, there are also hundreds of conversations going on about what makes event-style product launches work in the first place.

You are about to learn the super-secret psychological triggers that are the rocket fuel that blast product launches through the stratosphere.

What Do I Know About Selling

Before I reveal the secrets, let me tell you a little bit about myself and how I came to discover them.

My marketing business began December of 2005 and has generated many thousands of dollars in revenue since then. Much of that income has been re-invested in educating myself through the study of programs like “Product Launch Formula“, “Mass Control”, “Butterfly Marketing”, and dozens of other lesser known programs. I’ve also amassed a large collection of books and seminar DVD’s on the psychology of persuasion and direct response marketing.

In addition to selling online, I continue to hone my persuasion skills through in-home direct sales work for a fortune 500 company selling home improvements.

Nothing in my professional career has been more challenging than leading a total stranger through the process of deciding to make a $30,000 investment in their home after spending just a few hours with me. It’s hard to imagine that anyone would be willing to make a 5-figure purchasing decision with a total stranger, but it happens to me on a regular basis.

I am not a mega-wealthy Internet marketer and there are many sales people with better closing rates than mine, but I have learned a lot about persuading others to take action. Of course, I still struggle trying to convince my 3 year old to clean up her toys.

Super-Secret Psychological Triggers

When you study enough programs like Jeff Walker’s “Product Launch Formula”, you start to recognize patterns. Eventually, no matter who you choose to mentor you, you will stumble across the work of Dr. Robert Cialdini – specifically his book titled “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.” There is a very good reason for that.

Dr. Cialdini researched and wrote about 6 powerful psychological behaviors that guide the decision making processes of people from all cultures around the world. He explained how compliance professionals (his term for folks whose job it is to persuade others to do/buy things) tap into these shortcuts to radically increase their persuasive power.

Systems like Product Launch Formula and others from Frank Kern, Mike Filsaime, Mark Joyner, and others strategically build marketing sequences that tap into as many of the 6 triggers as possible to maximize their ability to persuade others to take action (which means buying something in the world of sales.)

So, what are the 6 psychological triggers?

The 6 Universal Secrets of Persuasion

There is no way a single blog post will do justice to explaining how to apply the 6 secrets of persuasion to your marketing efforts. Below I list them all and give a brief explanation as to what they mean. If you want to study them in more depth, sign-up for my free e-course using the form on the right side of this web page or at the end of the article.

1. Reciprocity – Simply put, do something nice for someone and they will feel obligated to return the favor.
2. Commitment and Consistency – Once you decide to do something you will tend to continue to make choices that support that decision.
3. Scarcity – If something is in limited supply, you will want it more.
4. Authority – People listen to the opinions of experts and other authority figures.
5. Liking – Everyone prefers to do business with people they like when possible.
6. Social Proof – If everyone else is doing it, it must be correct.

None of these triggers should come as a surprise, because we all use them to persuade others on a daily basis. Whenever we bring the boss a cup of coffee before asking for a day off we are putting one of the triggers into action. The distinction is, most of us are not aware of what we are doing and have not built a persuasion strategy that taps into all 6 triggers when we are trying to be persuasive.

Putting the 6 Secrets of Persuasion Into Action

Conscious awareness of the 6 secrets of persuasion is the first step in benefiting from them. You will begin to notice how others are using them and model the work of successful marketers. But, the key to explosive transformation in your business is to find someone who has laid out a marketing system that is built around the effective use of the 6 secrets of persuasion. Then, you can ‘plug-in’ your details into the system and implement the process quickly.

Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula lays out several specific promotional strategies for different business circumstances (new product launches, product relaunches, affiliate promotions, etc.) and gives you sample materials you can model for your own projects. Plus, you get lots of examples and additional help as you prepare your own product launch.

With a system like “Product Launch Formula” the 6 secrets of persuasion are ‘baked-in’ to the process and you do not have to figure out how and when to invoke each one. The strategic planning is done for you. This is the fastest way to implement the 6 secrets.

Jeff Walker is not the only person to implement 6 secrets of persuasion (the marketing team at Apple is brilliant with this stuff and Hollywood has been using them to promote movies for decades). But, his training materials are excellent. I’ve learned a lot from my own studies of the “Product Launch Formula” course. I also recommend (when you have the time) going back to the source and studying the work of Dr. Cialdini and others.

The Bottom Line

Learning and using the 6 secrets of persuasion with make you more effective in any situation where you find yourself needing to convince others to take action. It will also help you to detect when others are trying to persuade you.

If you would like to learn the secrets that marketing gurus use to run their massively profitable promotions, check out this video: How To Engineer a Buying Frenzy.