Trolls grunting "principles vs tactics!"
Published: Mon, 11/18/19
...grunted a troll at me.
And it was as amazingly glorious as it was useful.
Here's why:
Ever since I have been one of the few direct response marketing voices in the wilderness talking about the late, great master of negotiation Jim Camp, and about his “principles vs tactics” mindset, there's been no shortage of contemptible goo-roo fanboys and marketing hobbyists who can’t think deeper than a sound byte trying to “call me out” on things they think I do or teach as “tactics!"
For example:
The promo I am doing this week with Jon Buchan about cold emails.
In the bonus Jon is offering, he describes his method for using cold LinkedIn messages to get new business as a… a… a… (oh noes!!!!) *tactic.* And, right on schedule, I got a handful of emails asking me about how I could “DARE!!!” promote a tactic.
Most of these comments were a tad foolish (assumptive), but not malicious.
(i.e. they did not ask for clarification, and simply made assumptions — something Jim Camp was 100% against, and even does an entire teaching about the neuroscience of assumptions… the irony of goo-roo fanboys with a superficial level of knowledge on the man they are trying to quote truly writes itself...and never ceases to amuse me...)
But others, like with the bloke quoted above, were straight up troll.
So I figure now is a good time to help these fellows stop embarrassing themselves every time they knee jerkily squawk about the subject without even knowing the context of what they’re quoting.
Here’s how it breaks down:
A tactic, by how Jim Camp defined it (since that’s who these blokes are mindlessly quoting) is doing something that takes advantage of an enemy’s weakness.
That was *his* definition.
(Not the same, necessarily, as what’s in your dictionary.)
In marketing, you can liken it to dirty tricks.
Like, for example:
A company that once sent my woman (who does not even own a car, since she lives in a big city and doesn’t need one) a very legitimate-looking piece of mail, that looks like it came from the DMV, to send them money to renew her registration.
A truly low down trick.
And, probably something that works on a certain number of people…
Once.
If you have to use chicanery and deceit to get someone to send you money, that would be a tactic. i.e. taking advantage of someone’s weakness. In the above case, taking advantage of someone’s weakness of being naive, or in a hurry, or their lack of discernment, or just plain stupidity.
Now, contrast that to Gary Halbert’s “A Pile” teaching.
On the face of it, it’s somewhat similar:
You make your envelope and sales pitch look — at a glance — like it *could* be personal or from some kind of place the recipient would not dare throw out without reading it first, but not misleading or trying to trick someone into sending money, or talking about something completely different, etc. The great Gary Bencivenga teaches a variation of this in his Farewell Seminar. It is intended to get the promo read, and get it read in a way that gets the person primed and ready to take the letter seriously — but it’s also in perfect harmony with the laws of human behavior and sound, principled thought. Jim Camp was a big fan of not spilling all your beans too early in a negotiation. Or, as Mr. Bencivenga refers to it in his seminar, “spilling your candy in the lobby.”
Another example:
Click bait that is designed to trick you into clicking to God-knows-where. Nobody likes that. And, it may work once, but will never again work from that same company.
Contrast that with using simple curiosity.
If you use a subject line like, for example, one I used:
“Why I think about you in the shower”
…. and the email is *about* how I get ideas for content for my customers while in the shower, with the hot water stimulating the right side (creative side) of my brain, it’s not a trick. It’s in harmony with the unbending law and rule of “curiosity always overpowers programming” (hat tip to the late Stan Billue for that quote). In fact, that subject line is what originally got me on the radar of the great Clayton Makepeace. I have heard him even use it as an example when talking about email — which always makes my day.
I think what is giving people heartburn is the word “tactic.”
A word that was used by a man from the UK, where it may very well mean something completely different even from our dictionary in the US for all I know.
Anyway, so that’s that.
I suspect this won’t stop the Jim Camp wannabe ex-spurts from squawking.
But, now they know the full context.
All of which brings me back to Mr. Jon Buchan and his cold email teachings:
I am not (as I have said) an expert at cold emails, nor do I use them. Thus, I cannot “vouch” for anything he’s going to teach you, and you will have to let his knowledge speak for itself. And there’s always Google if you want to further research him. But, I have obviously seen his answers to the questions I have been asking him and that I am going to be sharing all week. And, as I think will become very apparent over the next few days as I share more of these answers… what he teaches is done out of mixing curiosity with being blatantly (even ruthlessly) honest, open, and transparent.
It’s the opposite of tricking anyone or whatever.
The opposite of "tactics."
Unless you want to call being completely transparent a trick, I suppose.
Whatever the case, you can see for yourself if ye be skeptical.
And, either accept or reject what he teaches at your leisure.
All right, that’s it for now.
If you want to check out Jon Buchan’s cold emailing templates at half off what they usually cost, along with his bonus for using cold Linkedin messages which he describes as (oh noes again!) a “tactic” go here before Friday, 11/22 at midnight EST:
http://www.charm-offensive.co.uk/settle/
Or, to learn more about them, see tomorrow’s email.
(Showing actual messages Jon uses with Linkedin.)
Until then…
Ben Settle