If You Have Ever Wondered Whether A Teleseminar Could Be Spoken-Word Sales Copy, You Need To Find Out More About Michael Cage

This weekend I spent three electrifying days at Michael Cage's small, intimate and cutting-edge powerful seminar on how to use teleseminars and webinars to make maximum marketing profits.

Michael is an old friend of mine and has really stayed under the radar as far as most of the people who would like to hear what he has to say are concerned.  Until now, that is.  He is emerging as, well, the "go-to guy" when it comes to money-making on-phone/online seminars.

I stole that label for Michael, by the way, from Bill Glazer (Dan Kennedy's partner), who said it first and was one of many big guns in the audience at the seminar. Other attendees who are forces in their own right included Steve and Bill Harrison (National Publicity Summit), voiceover maven Susan Berkley, and commercial real estate investment guru Sherman Ragland, to name a few.

I have been pleading with Michael since last summer to do a teleseminar for my subscribers, since the information he has is unique and can be turned into solid and legitimate cash very quickly for anyone who has a business, and even for many people who want to start one.

Here's a quick example: Michael's the only guy I've ever heard who insists that you have one or more "sales stories" at the ready for a presentation AND tells you exactly how to put one together.

He goes further:

"If you try to go into a competitive market with no sales story, you have no chance," Michael said this weekend.  "If you're not in a competitive market, it doesn't mean you don't have to do this. But if you're the only one in your market with a sales story, you will dominate your market."

To show us the power of this kind of story, Michael brought one of his clients, Kevin Thompson, to the front of the room.  Kevin had seasoned, hardened, cynical marketers who had heard it all before hanging on his every word as he described in lurid detail how he had almost lost his life as a commercial fisherman in Alaska... and then lost his wife (to divorce) when he decided to start a business of his own, rather than take another life-threatening blue-collar job.

In case you're wondering what's the point of all this, it's money.  Kevin reported to the group that he routinely brings in five figures in sales when he tells that personal sales story on a live teleseminar.

After hearing the story myself, I can understand why.

I spoke with Michael privately after the seminar, asking him to do a teleseminar (about teleseminars) for my subscribers.  He finally said yes.  That's one commitment down, two to go. 

I still need to get a specific date from him, and I'm going to give it everything I've got to convince him to talk more about sales stories on the call.

Being in Northern Virginia brought back fond and melancholy memories of my old friend Mac Ross, who used to live there.  He passed away two years ago.

Michael and I both recalled hearing Mac's "Four W's" formula for the little-discussed but vitally important NEGATIVE side of a prospect's self-talk as they are reading your sales copy.

Mac apparently only uttered the formula once in public, at the Jay Abraham seminar where he was speaking.  Michael and I both heard a recording of that seminar.  The Four W's are questions that you need to answer in order to get the grumpy side of most every prospect to actually take the action you want them to take.

Here are the questions, which your copy needs to answer, maybe not directly, but by providing content and reasons that allow the prospect to come up with the answers themselves (answers favorable to you) as they read your copy:

1. Why are you bothering me?

2. Who cares?

3. Why should I believe you?

4. Why should I do anything about it NOW?

Those may seem like innocuous or even overly aggressive questions... until, that is,  you've actually tried to make copy produce results in a competitive marketplace environment.

Once you've been through that harrowing experience, you realize why those who knew him recognized Mac as the understated, world-class genius he was.

David Garfinkel
World Copywriting Newsletter

Comments

[James Van Wyck]

Here's the sentence that electrified me .....

"Here's a quick example: Michael's the only guy I've ever heard who insists that you have one or more "sales stories" at the ready for a presentation AND tells you exactly how to put one together....."

Stories!

Human brains are wired to love stories.

Stories fascinate and intrigue.

We all let down our "cynical guard' when we hear a story.

We ALL create meaning from stories.

Human brains are wired to LEARN from stories.

Human brains are wired to TAKE ACTION (indirectly) as a result of stories.

Thanks for the GREAT reminder David!

Jim VanStoryteller!

PS, I am 100% down for Gage's teleseminar..... lemme know whre 'n when, I'll be the first to sign up.

[michael webster]

Stories are the bane of our existence.

Instead of thinking, we use our "stories" to "explain" where we have already moved to.

Bah, humbug!

[Daegan Smith]

David,

I just picked up your breakthrough copy course. Great stuff. Also it's funny you bring up Kevin he and are doing a call tomorrow night, so it's nice to know he had the room captivated and he had some live practice this weekend.

To the top,

Daegan

[Daegan Smith]

David,

I just picked up your breakthrough copy course. Great stuff. Also it's funny you bring up Kevin he and I are doing a call tomorrow night, so it's nice to know he had the room captivated and he had some live practice this weekend.

To the top,

Daegan

[Kevin Francis]

David,

Echo all Jim's comments, particularly about the power of stories. I still remember one of the stories he told at "Breakthrough Copywriting" (the one about his weird trip to China years ago!).

Re Mac Ross, well I never had the good fortune to see him in person but I do have that recording of the Jay Abraham seminar you mention. I remember thinking when I first heard Mac, this guy is incredible.

Concerning those 4 questions, I believe Mac referred to an old McGraw Hill ad to illustrate his point. There's a picture of a grumpy looking business guy and the copy goes...

"I don't know who you are.
I don't know your company.
I don't know your company's product.
I don't know what your company stands for.
I don't know your company's customers.
I don't know your company's record.
I don't know your company's reputation.
Now - what was it you wanted to sell me?"

(The tagline for the ad was "MORAL: Sales start before your salesman calls - with business publication advertising.)

We'll leave aside the question of the effectiveness of "Business publication advertising" but the point is pretty clear, I think.

BTW the ad is in "Ogilvy On Advertising".

Look forward to the Michael Cage call.

[Devon White]

I was at the workshop David's talking about with Michael and will firmly attest to the value Mike brings.

You can sell the cold hard facts all day but without the emotional charge that a story brings you're going to miss a lot of your audience.

When you take the facts and tell them INSIDE of a powerful and riveting story you've got something that entertains as it sells. It also stimulates the whole brain rather than just the left hemisphere and makes people much more ready to buy.

And if anyone can structure a teleseminar story so that it sells - it's Mike.

[Carolyn Permentier]

Hello,

As a copywriter, I know that everyone luvs a good story!

It really does break down barriers, doesn't it? It allows everyone to see you as a real, living, breathing human being ...

just like them.

And, when you boil it all away, that really IS the truth, methinks:

We're all the same. We think, we reason and we feel. So, appealing to the commonalities we all share is the way to 'touch' people in a very human way.

And, also as a CW, I totally concur with the 4 questions our copy MUST answer! :)

Good stuff.

Carolyn