Persuade Masses

Most prospects don't buy on first contact, so systematic follow-up using email newsletters, podcasts, or video series is essential for building relationships over time with prospects at different stages of the buying process.

Eben explains that some house buyers are a year out from purchasing while others need to buy within a week, demonstrating the varying timelines prospects operate on.

Adding an email newsletter follow-up series can increase business results by 10x compared to having no follow-up system in place.

Eben states his business would be 'one tenth the size that it is right now' without his email newsletter series, and millions of people have been on his dating tips newsletter receiving dozens to hundreds of follow-ups.

Create a customer avatar by combining all your customers into one imaginary person with only the traits of your ideal customer, including demographics, income, fears, and desires.

For dating advice, Eben's customer avatar is male, single, with enough disposable income to buy products. He emphasizes defining gender, age, location, income, specific wants, and fears.

Speaking to shared traits of your customer avatar creates 'hypnotic language for the masses' because you're addressing only the aspects all customers have in common.

Eben explains that the more precisely you describe the customer avatar, the more all customers reading your communications will relate because you're speaking to their shared characteristics.

Structure follow-up conversations like visiting a prospect's home multiple times, knowing they won't buy on the first visit, focusing on relationship building and understanding their questions and needs over time.

Eben suggests scripting this like a movie, planning what questions to ask, what answers you'd expect, and what they'd want to know in first, second, and subsequent meetings.

Focus follow-up content on only 5-10 topics that customers care most about, because people can't hear their desires or what they want to avoid too often—you can create 100 newsletters from just a few core topics.

Eben states he's created 100 email newsletters that were 10 pages long using only 5-10 topics, giving the example of house buying with three hot buttons: paying least, avoiding money pits, and ensuring resaleability.

Always connect the appeal of your follow-up content to a specific action at the end, offering more of what they want if they take the suggested action step.

In his dating newsletter about avoiding rejection, Eben connects the content to buying his book by saying it contains 'many more techniques for avoiding rejection and having everything work on dates.'

Follow Jay Abraham's principle: 'Communicate with impact or don't communicate at all'—it's better to send no follow-up than mediocre content that wastes people's time.

Eben cites Jay Abraham's phrase and explains that people are time-poor and won't tolerate content that doesn't grab and keep their attention.

Use the four learning styles framework (why, what, how, what if) to create compelling communications that address all personality types and create persuasive sequences.

Based on David Kolb's Experiential Learning research from Harvard, this framework addresses why learners (emotional/motivational), what learners (theoretical/intellectual), how learners (procedural/action-oriented), and what if learners (experimental/results-oriented).

'Why' learners need motivation and benefits upfront—tell them what outcome they'll get from reading or listening, or they'll click away immediately.

Eben explains why learners are emotional types who need to know the benefit, like 'you're going to learn four action steps to lose the fat that you want to lose' before they'll pay attention.

The most powerful 'why' motivations connect to power, affiliation, and achievement—both toward and away from versions of each.

Eben demonstrates: 'if you use what you're about to learn here, you can have more power, get people to love you more, and achieve results you want. If you don't use it, you're gonna fail, be rejected, and lose power and control.'

'What' learners are theoretical types who need the big picture, scientific proof, system maps, and the history behind concepts before they can learn.

Eben explains that most college textbooks were written by 'what' learning styles, which is why they're full of theory without practical application, and these learners need stories of how things came to be.

'How' learners need specific action steps and procedures—they can't learn from theory and only understand by getting step-by-step recipes they can practice.

Eben notes these people 'don't care about why and don't care about the what' but learn exclusively through getting action steps and practicing them.

'What if' learners solve real-world puzzles by doing and seeing results—motivate them to experiment and discover what happens through action.

Eben describes these learners as not concerned with why, what, or how, but they learn best by 'going and doing things and then seeing what the results are' and 'getting results and then adjusting, trying it again.'