Transcript

Selling #1227 · From Chad

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Nobody hears the rest until the 1st sentence earns it.
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There's a story behind that. This is your daily message from
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Chad #12127 to upgrade your mental game today by telling
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yourself a better story. Because the most important story
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you hear is the story you tell yourself.
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This message is dedicated to Debbie Gardner on her birthday.
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Here's the upgrade. You don't get a second chance at
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the first sentence, but upgraded thinking knows the first
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sentence is a promise. Here's the story.
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In 1958, David Ogilvy wrote an ad for the Rolls Royce car.
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Ads of that era talked about horsepower, craftsmanship and
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how the car made you feel. Ogilvy didn't think anyone
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stopped for that. So we read the engineering
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reports, the details nobody outside the cat factory cared
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about. Buried in there was a fact.
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At 60 miles an hour, the loudest noise in the car was the
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electric clock. He made it the headline quote.
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At 60 miles an hour, the loudest noise in this new Rolls Royce
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comes from the electric clock. In quote, 17 words, plain and
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full of news. Ogilvy's rule was that every
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headline has to promise the reader a benefit.
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Now Fast forward to October 23rd, 2001.
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Yesterday was the 25th anniversary of Apple launching
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the iPod and the ad said one thing. 1000 songs in your
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pocket. You knew why you should care.
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Before you finish the line, notice who those ads were
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written for, though. Strangers.
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A stranger flipping a magazine has no reason to give you a
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second look, so the headline has to earn attention in a second
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and promise something worth it. Now walk into your kitchen.
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The person across from you at dinner isn't a stranger.
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They already trust you, and that changes what the first sentence
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does. Lead with the benefit at home,
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and it can sound like a pitch. Here's what you're going to get
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out of this conversation. Your kid doesn't want to pitch.
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Your spouse doesn't want a headline?
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Here's the version. Most of us reach for a home,
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though. We need to talk about the car.
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Did you call the dentist? I need you to handle something
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before tomorrow. Each one leads with your need.
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Your ask, your problem. It's the inverse of Ogilvy's ad
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rule, and it's how a lot of us actually open when we're tired.
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So here's the tension. Ogilvy's rule fits the boss and
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the person across the table at home.
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It's the most dangerous place to lead with.
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A promise is a debt, and if every first sentence promises
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something to the first people you love the most, you'll either
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over promise or train yourself to open with performance instead
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of presence. Sometimes the best first
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sentence isn't a promise at all. It's a question.
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Like, how are you really feeling?
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It promises nothing, and it earns everything.
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It tells the person you're more interested in them than in what
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you want to say. So the question for today isn't
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what your headline is, it's this.
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At home, which first sentence do you reach for?
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The one that asks for something, the one that sells something, or
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the one that asks how they're doing?
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The better story to tell yourself is this.
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I make my first sentence an invitation, not a headline.
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Tell me about a first line that changed A room.
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Send it to from chadsmith@gmail.com.
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You can get a free copy of my book, The Most Powerful Story in
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the World, at from chad.gumroad.com.
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The transcript of this message and hundreds of others are
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always available at www.fromchad.com.