The 51-second answer about offers

I love these posts.

Somebody spends $20 on ads and already has two sales.

(This one’s real. His name’s Fred.)

And the comments section does exactly what you’d expect:

What niche?

What targeting?

What’s the offer?

These are all natural questions...

Because when somebody finds an offer that works, we all want the secret to what finally made the difference.

But after 10 years of creating offers and writing ads... I think there’s a better question worth asking.

One that took me years to ask... and 51 seconds to answer.

Years ago, I sent Russell Brunson a message on Facebook.

We live close to each other here in Idaho, and he’s always been very cool to me.

So one day, I got up the gumption to ask for a little help.

“Hey buddy, can I ask you a question about your ClickFunnels offer?”

He responded almost immediately.

I was kinda shocked, honestly.

Crap! I only have one chance to get the special sauce. What should I ask?

I’d studied his webinar funnel like a mad scientist.

His headline was about a weird niche funnel that generated $17K a day... and how you could ethically knock it off in an hour.

Got it. Had that thing memorized.

His webinar framework? Knew the three beliefs by heart.

His stack? Knew it.

His trial closes? Knew them all.

I could practically mouth the words along with him.

But I didn’t want to copy his webinar.

I wanted to understand what made that offer work so well that it could help build a company like ClickFunnels.

So I asked:

“Yeah, hey buddy, I was wondering... when you created that offer, how did you position ClickFunnels?”

“Position” was my fancy way of asking:

Why did people want YOUR thing so badly?

His answer took just 51 seconds.

And it helped me understand why one person can make an offer that sells like crazy... while somebody else offers practically the same thing and gets... nada.

Look at the idea his headline was selling.

A funnel generating sales. Something you wanted.

One you could model. Something you might actually be able to do.

And in an hour? Now you’re picturing yourself giving it a shot.

Before you ever looked at the software, you had a reason to want it.

He sold an idea that sold his offer.

And THAT is what I’d want to ask Fred about.

While everyone was asking about his targeting, I jumped into the comments for a little teaching moment.

Because Fred had done something more important than find an audience setting.

He understood what was happening in his buyers’ minds... and his message spoke to it.

Fred agreed.

Then he shared the part you wouldn’t have guessed from his victory post.

He’d been scared to run the ads.

He’d tried before, dumped money into the ad machine, and gotten absolutely nothing from it.

So it took him a long time to try again.

This time, he had a message that addressed his buyers’ pain points.

He finally clicked “publish.”

And after less than $20... two sales.

But if all we take from his story is “use this targeting,” we miss the question worth asking:

What idea do you need to sell first, so people actually want what you offer?

That’s where I’d start.

With your market. What people want but aren’t getting. And an idea that helps them see why your offer could finally get them there.

Because copying somebody’s ad might give you something to launch.

But understanding why people buy gives you a reason to believe you can get the next client, too.

Fred had a failed campaign behind him when he clicked “publish” again.

If you do too, that’s the part of his story I’d remember.

And if you want help figuring out the idea that sells YOUR offer...

Sam