Yesterday, in part one of the series on “selling to men” we talked about anger.
Anger is one of the emotions men are most in touch with…
And if you’re selling in survival, dating, health, financial or business, tapping into the things guys are angry about is one of the best ways to bond with them.
So understanding anger is super important.
Cause it’s a great way to get your foot in the door.
But if you want to really stir up their emotions…
And hit them on a deep level…
Then you need to target their shame.
Cause shame cuts the deepest.
It gets to the core of “I’m not good enough”
And when you’re trying to persuade a guy to buy a book on making more money…
Or building muscle…
Or how to hit a golf ball further…
Then you want him feeling like he’s defective in that area.
Let’s look at an example with the biz-op niche…
Good biz-op copy will usually dig into the shame a guy feels about how much money he makes.
So if our buyer makes $60k a year…
We can make him feel some shame about…
– barely scraping by with his bills
– his wife still having to work
– all the times he has to say “no” to his wife or his kids because they can’t afford it
– if he’s single, he might not be able to take women on expensive trips or out to nice dinners (like other guys can)
This is all about shame.
And when you bring this stuff up, it makes most guys feel like they’re not enough.
Which is incredibly powerful.
Cause men are always sizing other guys up…
We’re always figuring out where we rank in the social hierarchy compared to other guys.
So if you stir-up feelings of not being good enough in your copy…
You’re talking to them on a deep, deep level.
Let’s look at another example…
One of the most famous ads of all time is the old Charles Atlas fitness ad that used to run in comic books.
Basically the ad is a story of a skinny kid who’s at the beach and a bully is picking on him.
The bully kicks sand in his face…
And the bully tells him he’d knock him out if he wasn’t so worried he’d “dry up and blow away” (this was a reference to how skinny the kid was)
So the skinny kid is feeling like a loser.
Everyone saw it happen…
So he vows to get revenge.
And his revenge comes in the form of ordering the Charles Atlas fitness program, and turning himself into a strong, beefy dude.
And at the end of the ad, the formerly skinny twig now has a barrel chest…
Round shoulders…
And biceps that pop off the page…
No one’s gonna pick on him…
Cause now he’s the “the man”.
And this ad is a perfect example of targeting the shame a lot of guys feel about their bodies.
Most guys feel like they’re not strong enough…
Or they’d be helpless in a fight…
Or they don’t have the kind of body that women want.
This is all about shame.
And when you’re selling to men…
Targeting those feelings of “I’m not good enough” cuts deep.
It gets to the core of who we are as providers and protectors.
So if we feel inadequate in that regard…
It pushes us to take action.
Make sense?
I hope so.
Cause that’s all I got for ya today.
I’ll be back tomorrow with Part 3.
We’ll dive into what really motivates men (hint: it’s usually women and sex).
Enjoy your Tuesday,
– Justin
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