Jim creates Salescopy Algebra and explains useful formulas for building successful salescopy.
Formula #1: -P x -A +S = $ales!
Formula #2: D + (B x B x B) + S = $ales
Watch the short video to see what this means!
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The Transcript
Jim Edwards: Hey guys, Jim Edwards here along with…
Stew Smith: Stew Smith!
Jim Edwards: Welcome back to the Sales Copywriting And Content Marketing Hacks Podcast
And today we’re going to talk about one of Stew’s favorite subjects from school…
And that is Algebra…
Did you like Algebra?
Stew Smith: I wasn’t bad at it…
Jim Edwards: Okay…
Stew Smith: So it wasn’t horrible…
Jim Edwards: I loved Algebra, and I got straight A’s through an Algebra, Algebra two, and all the way up through trigonometry…
And then when we hit math analysis and calculus, that’s where I hit my wall of math in life…
Stew Smith: I originally thought I wanted to be an engineer until I hit those harder maths…
Jim Edwards: Yeah, and I was done
Stew Smith: Calculus one, two, and three kicked my butt…
Jim Edwards: Tell me about this liberal arts stuff…
Stew Smith: Yeah… What is this?
Jim Edwards: So, really what I want to talk about today and what spurred this was I read this book called “The Algebra of Happiness.”
That was actually a pretty good book, but only like the first chapter had Algebra…
And then the rest of it was like this guy’s podcast — slash — all of his blog posts.
It was still interesting, but he could have done more with the formulas and stuff…
So what I want to do is kind of simplify…
…cause that’s what I like to do…
Is simplify some of the ideas around sales copy, and sales copy formulas literally…
And give you some just super short frameworks to understand what’s going on so that you can apply this to everything from a big sales letter to an email teaser and even down to a tweet or a post on Facebook…
Stew Smith: Tell me the X, Y, Zs, then! Let’s do it!
Jim Edwards: Like I gotta have the build-up…
So I’m getting old. I tell long stories now…
So the point of this is that I came up with a whole bunch of different formulas and I’m going to share two of them with you today…
That represent two of the tried and true things that you can use anywhere, anytime…
So with no further ado, now…
Since my ado has been quite long, we are looking at the magic whiteboard…
And I have two formulas here, Stew…
I have negative “p” times negative “a” plus positive “s” equals money…
-P x -A + S = $
And then I have “d” plus “b” cubed equals money…
Now, do you know what these mean?
Stew Smith: Interesting, I like that… multiplying the two negatives together?
Jim Edwards: That’s right…
Stew Smith: That makes sense…
Jim Edwards: Negative makes a positive, right?
Stew Smith: A positive…
Jim Edwards: Exactly… Yeah…
Stew Smith: I have no idea where you’re going with this.
Jim Edwards: Hahaha! Alright, so this first one is like the classic sales copy formula reduced down to literally an Algebraic formula…
It’s Problem, Agitate, Solve = Sales…
Okay…
So no matter what’s going on, if you’re looking for a framework to explain stuff to people, you always start with the problem because most of the time, people are focused on a problem…
When someone comes to you, typically not everybody, but typically when someone comes to you…
Are they focused more on I need to Max my PT or I need to pass my PT test?
Stew Smith: Hmm… Good question, I would say it depends…
Jim Edwards: Okay…
Stew Smith: It depends on the goal because it depends on the job… If you need to Max it or just pass it…
Jim Edwards: Okay…
Stew Smith: So, but yes, I have a two-segment population…
One would be needing to pass it to keep their job…
The other one would need to ace it to advance their career.
Jim Edwards: Okay… So this is like the Ying and Yang right here…
These two things…
This is the negative…
And this formula down here is the positive with the Ying and Yang…
You just express, you just express this, I need to Max…
Or I’m having trouble passing.
Stew Smith: Yeah.
Jim Edwards: So the problem is I need to pass my PT test.
So if we were going to do any kind of a sales job on these people…
…again, whether it was 20 pages long or it was three sentences…
“Are you having a problem passing your PT tests?
Well, it gets worse…
Because if you don’t pass your PT test, you could miss out on an opportunity…
You could lose a slot to the school that you want…
You could not get hired…
You could lose your job.”
Again, depending on the person.
All right?
Stew Smith: Yeah.
Jim Edwards: “Luckily for you, there’s a solution because we’ve got the [inaudible] pass your PT test in two weeks guide from Stew Smith…
Which is going to help you to at least pass your tests and then show you how to move on to the next level…
When you’re not talking about passing, but you’re talking about trying to Max your results.”
Stew Smith: Excellent!
Jim Edwards: This formula is typically used when someone is focused on the problem, and they may not even be aware that there’s a solution out there.
This is typically cold traffic.
People who don’t know you…
Don’t know your process…
Don’t know your books…
Don’t know anything about you…
Now, and it can also be warm, and it can also be hot…
“Hey Stew Smith here…
I know you’ve been following me for years…
If you’re one of those people that’s still struggling to pass your PT test, here’s the thing.
Here’s the problem…
You’re not passing…
What happens if you don’t pass?
I mean, this is the formula in a nutshell…
Here’s the problem that you got…
Here’s what’s going to happen…
If you don’t solve the problem, you agitate the problem, and you introduced the solution, which is whatever it is you’ve got.
So that’s the formula.
Again, this works…
…30 pages, three sentences…
Now the other one, “D+B3=$.”
“D” stands for “desire.”
Whatever it is, the desire or the payoff or the outcome.
Okay, I guess I could do this DPO, but DP sounds kind of, that’s a different kind of whatever…
Desire, pay off, outcome…
The problem is that just stating the desire or the payoff or the outcome isn’t enough…
Because what are we doing here?
In this first phase, all we’re doing is just stating the obvious.
We’re stating where they are.
But the problem is that where they are is not emotional.
It is not enough to get them off their ass to actually do something.
Because if it was, they would have already bought, they would have already found the solution, they would have already purchased something.
So this is where they are…
The next step in both of these formulas is all about emotion.
We want to make them sadder.
In fact, we want them crying their asses off.
We want them screaming at the top of their lungs, or we want them to go,
“Yeah, that would be amazing!”
Okay, so in the next step, you have to crank the emotion…
Either crank the emotion negatively…
Or this B3 stands for “benefit three times over.”
Okay, so…
What am I talking about?
“If you want to max the PT test…
Or if your goal is to Max a PT test…
So you can get the job of your dreams…
Be an elite operator and join the most exclusive teams in the world…
Then this is exactly what you’re looking for.”
Whatever it is, tactical fitness.
Stew Smith: Sure.
Jim Edwards: So if we were going to refine this even a little bit more, we can even add this in the solution.
Again, the solution is desire, payoff, outcome, then you magnify it…
You magnify it with benefits times three.
So I’ll give you a real estate example…
So if you want to sell your house yourself so you can avoid paying the real estate commission…
Keep more money in your pocket…
Have more money to put down on your next house to keep your house payment lower…
Then FSBO Help is exactly what you’ve been looking for.
Do you see that?
Stew Smith: Oh yeah…
Jim Edwards: So this is a positive emotion.
This is a positive play.
This is a negative play, but you’re starting where they are to get in sync…
Then you’re jacking up the emotion, and then you’re introducing the solution.
A lot of the way that this one gets used is…
“If you really want to join the world’s greatest and most elite operators…
So you can be a member of an exclusive team…
Make a difference in the world…
And serve your country at the highest level…
Then this is the most important letter you’re going to read all year…
This is the most important book you’re going to read all year…
This is the most important video you’re going to watch all year.”
This formula is used frequently to actually set the stage for them to absorb additional information, like a sales letter or a sales page or getting them to click…
“If you want to sell your house without paying expensive broker commission…
So you can keep more money in your pocket…
Put down a bigger hit payment on your next house…
Or just plain keep more of your hard-earned money in your own pocket instead of handing it over to a real estate agent…
Then click this link to see the tool that has helped thousands of people across the country do exactly that.”
Stew Smith: Nice! Oh yeah, like this is just, I mean this is Sales Copy 101…
Placed in a formula that is a great little tool to just check yourself…
Go into your sales copy and see if you’re meeting all of these little criteria,
Jim Edwards: Right, so really it’s not even the solution…
It’s really next action.
Stew Smith: Yeah…
Jim Edwards: It’s the benefit, benefit…
And then, “this is the most important book you’ll buy all year.”
I mean, you’re either tell them to go read, to watch, or to buy…
So anyway, I’m playing around with this, and I’m thinking that this might be a way to explain a whole lot of things that people get very confused about…
They get nervous about…
But then if you look at it…
Does it follow the formula?
Or I need to do something, what formula should I use?
Stew Smith: Yeah! And that’s a great idea…
We should come up with a whole list of formulas for sales copy…
Jim Edwards: Right.
Stew Smith: Right… I mean, it changes nothing about the method of making sales copy…
It just organizes it in a way so people can…
One, remember, have a little tool too…
You don’t remember the steps and actually, go through them…
I love it…
I think that’s great…
Jim Edwards: It removes the mystery too…
So it’s a work in progress, but it’s, you can see right there, it’s like,
“Oh, am I taking a negative, or am I taking a positive??
If I want to take the positive thing…
Then I got to start with a desire, pay off, outcome, and then…
“How can I build emotion?”
I build emotion in this case by…
But you know, there’s other stuff you could do.
You could start with the desire, payoff, outcome, and then you could build emotion…
If it’s emotional enough, you could do a takeaway…
“The problem is that most people are never gonna get there…”
“Most people will never become an elite operator…”
“Most people will never be able to Max the PT test…”
“Now, why is that?”
“Well, most people aren’t willing to do this and this…”
“Or they make mistakes with their training…”
They end up getting hurt, and they just say, okay, I must not be physically capable of this.”
Stew Smith: Right.
Jim Edwards: So anyway, there are all kinds of stuff that you could do, and I’m gonna play around with that, and definitely we’ll keep messing around with that…
So my big question would be, those of you who see this,
Is this something you would like for us to develop further and to really explore and exploit and expand?
Hey, look at me with the alliteration explore, expand and exploit…
Stew Smith: I like it!
Jim Edwards: And if so, you need to let us know…
So there you go…
Dang, man…
I’m going to literate, I’m a-literate and rhyming all in one…
Stew Smith: hahaha!
Jim Edwards: I’m an alliteration…
Stew Smith: hahaha!
Jim Edwards: Yeah, that’s illegal in 15 states…
Stew Smith: So that’s funny…
Jim Edwards: Anyway, that’s what I got for today…
Stew Smith: That’s a fun little thing too…
Like I said, what I would suggest doing with this one is just writing a little sticky note…
Put it at the top of your computer…
And then go through your sales copy and just see if it has all the little checkmarks in it.
Jim Edwards: Yeah, yeah, absolutely… That’s what I got today…
Stew Smith: I love it…
Jim Edwards: So if you guys enjoyed it, if you’re not a member of the sales comp reign content marketing hacks group on Facebook, you should be…
You’re wrong if you’re not…
And you can head on over to TheJimEdwardsMethod.com, and we’ve got tons of information…
And you can also get the link if you go to TheJimEdwardsMethod.com/podcast we have a link to the group…
You can join it there as well…
Check us out on Youtube, Spotify…
Stew Smith: iTunes, Google play…
Jim Edwards: Yeah, anywhere that podcasts are shown
Stew Smith: This was number 28
Jim Edwards: Wow… That’s awesome…
Stew Smith: So we’re moving…
Jim Edwards: Cool… All right, guys…
Well, have a great day, and we’ll talk to you soon!
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