logged
Turn your flaws into features
The trench on the Death Star wasn’t supposed to be there.
You know the one Luke flies down to fire the shot that blows the whole thing up?
When the artist, Colin Cantwell, was working with the mold… he noticed the two halves had shrunk at the point where they met across the middle. And to avoid weeks of work sanding and filling and sanding and filling to make it right, he went to George and suggested a trench.
He liked the idea so much, it became one of the most important parts of the film.
Which brings me to famous sales trainer Barry Maher. In his book Truth Is The Ultimate Sales tool he calls it “making the skeleton dance”.
Something he borrowed from George Bernard Shaw:
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"If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance."
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Maher's whole philosophy is that every product, every business, every offer has skeletons. The flaws, the negatives, the awkward stuff most salespeople pray the customer never notices. And his radical idea is that you don't have to hide them. You bring them out into the open and you make them dance.
Take price.
If you're the most expensive option on the table, the instinct is to bury it.
Maher says do the opposite. Don't whisper the price, say it proudly. "Yes, we're the most expensive. And here's exactly why." Because the moment you stop treating your price like something to be ashamed of, it stops sounding like a weakness. Expensive becomes proof. It becomes a reason to trust you, not a reason to walk away.
The skeleton starts to dance.
So what's something about your business you keep trying to hide?
The price that feels too high? You refuse to get on calls? You're a team of one? You're newer than the big names? You only take on a handful of people at a time?
What if that's not the flaw you think it is? What if, like that trench, it's actually the most interesting thing about you but you just haven't seen it dance yet?
I'll give you an example from my own business.
I’m changing the focus of my Skool community from “threads and email” to just “email”. And there’s people who’ve been kicking and screaming, saying things like, “Keep the Threads stuff, you’re good at it!” And while that may or may not be true.
There edges aren’t fitting together, so I’m adding a trench and making it primarily about email.
Focus will be the new feature.
Email is the place where I spend most of my time. It’s where the majority of your writing will actually turn into sales. And it’s the highest leverage skill I can possibly teach you, regardless of how you build your list. However, I’ll still share my favorite list growth methods too, because almost no one does that (and Threads will be included).
So here’s the deal:
Right now, you can still get in for free.
But before long, I'm switching the community to paid access only. New memberships will require a monthly subscription, and the premium tier price will go up. If you're already inside and staying active, you'll get grandfathered in and keep your spot.
So if you've been meaning to hop in, or waiting for a reason… now’s the time. Get in while "free" is still on the table.
Here's the link:
Talk soon,
Kevin Hood