Book notes: “Launch” by Jeff Walker

General Ideas

• Don’t practice the “Hope Marketing”: create a product and hope it will sell.

• A new era for how businesses and marketing work: higher speed and lower cost of communication & higher interactivity.

• Use a “squeeze-page” with an “opt-in offer” to join your email list. Building an email list is the foundation of the book ideas.

• Instead of screaming for attention, you attract attention by giving value before there is any hint of asking for the sale.

• At the most basic level, you are either taking away some pain from your client or you’re delivering some pleasure. Doesn’t matter what you’re selling. People aren’t so interested in the actual tool. The tool is just a means to get that result. And that’s what you want to sell them (the result!).

• Giving first and asking for the sale later (e.g. apps with freemium models). You build a relationship as a trusted advisor (or even a friend) before the transaction. You deliver great value, and you do it in a way that makes the sale before you’ve even asked for the order. In many ways, this isn’t much different than what the very best sales people have always done for thousands go years.

Mental Triggers of Action

Make sure you have the higher number of the following mental triggers working in your sales letter or sales process.

• Authority

People tend to follow others in positions of authority, they probably feel at least a little more intimidated to disagree. Following people with authority is a way in which our brain has evolved to make decisions more efficiently. It doesn’t take very much to create authority ( a guy with a flashlight can open up the traffic )

• Reciprocity

If someone gives something to us, we will feel some obligation to give them something back in return

• Trust

Building trust is the ultimate short circuit to becoming influential in someone’s life. You do that with time and repeated interaction with your prospects

• Anticipation

Is closely tied to “events” where you’re circling the date on the calendar and focusing all your attention on that date

• Likability

We are more influenced by people we like than those we don’t like. People generally like to do business with other people more than with a large faceless corporation

• Events and Rituals

When people go through an event together, it becomes something of a ritual. Rituals pull people together and create some of the most powerful experiences we as human beings can have

• Community

We act in accordance with how we think the people in our community are supposed to act. Create a community and dictate your own rules (share, like, spread the word, etc)

• Scarcity

When there is less of something, we want it more. It’s the perception of scarcity that motivates us. There has to be some negative consequence if people don’t take action and buy before the end of the launch ( for instance the price might go up, bonuses might go away )

• Social proof

If we see other people taking action, then we will be inclined to take that action as well

6 Keys to the Business Launch Formula

• Always deliver** high-value pre-launch content** in your launches

• Always be building your list and building your relationship with that list

• Make more than one offer

• Seed to internal join ventures partnerships

• Relaunches and Ever-green launches (clients move through the launch sequence on their on)

• Take care of your clients and launch to them again

Motivational and Self-Help

• Attracting new and better clients is what PLF is all about

• There’s a huge vacuum of leadership in the world right now, and people are looking for leaders to plug into and follow

• Art of War by sun Tzu — Book about strategies, not tactics. The environment will change and so will the techniques that work, but the winning strategy will always be the same.

• Keep a list of things that will pull you up when you’re not in peak state. The more time you spend in your genius zone, the better for you, your business, your clients and the world.