Expert Secrets: The Underground Playbook for Finding Your Message, Building a Tribe, and Changing the World

by Russell Brunson

  THE 16 CLOSES

  When you get to the end of the presentation and start the stack, there are lots of really good closes you can use. But I have 16 favorites that I use repeatedly. I don’t use all of them in all presentations, but I pick a handful of those that help strengthen my argument.

  I already built some of my favorites into the stack for you above. I want to show you all of them though, so you can pick and choose which ones to plug in to your presentations. Some will work better than others for different types of presentations. So just choose the ones that flow naturally and make the most sense.

  For each close below, I will briefly explain the concept then show you how I would use that close in my own presentations.

  Money is Good: The goal is to get people to disassociate their fear about spending money with you. Money is a tool for exchange. You spend money to get something greater in return.

  So I want you to think about something for a minute. What is money? A lot of people have fear about money, and even bigger fears about spending money, but you need to understand that money is good. It’s just a tool that was created for exchange.

  Other than that, there is no real value in money. You can’t use it to stay warm, you can’t eat it, you can only trade it for something else that you want. Just think, everyone who exchanges money for something does it because they feel that what they are getting in exchange is greater than keeping the money or using it for something else. At least that’s what I expect when I buy something. I don’t actually know for sure until I do buy it and try it out, and can see the results.

  But my question for you is this. Would you exchange that money for those results? If the answer is yes, then you need to get started right now. And if you have any fear that it might not be what you expected, or that you might not be able to get those results, just let us know, and we’ll give you your money back.

  Disposable Income: The goal is to help them realize that they are spending the disposable income on things that aren’t serving them well, and by spending that money on things that will help them grow, they will have long-term fulfillment. When you use the Disposable Income close, they get that they DO have the money to invest.’

  Most people in this world live paycheck to paycheck. Every couple of weeks they get paid and they pay their fixed costs like rent and food. Then there’s usually some money left over. We call that disposable income.

  Most people are going to blow that every single month. If they have $1,000 in disposable income, they’re going to spend it until it’s gone. They might spend it on movies or ice cream or travel—all short-term pleasures that are gone in an instant.

  But the cool thing is that money replenishes. Every two weeks—boom! There’s another $1,000 in disposable income they can spend. Most people spend that cash on things that don’t really add value to their lives in a meaningful way. What you’re trying to do is help them spend their money on something valuable that will move you forward toward one of your goals. You should be investing that money into products, programs, and services.

  That’s the power of disposable income—it comes back. Every two weeks—boom! There’s more money.

  Money Replenishes: The goal for this close is to help people realize that while each month money comes back, time does not, and if they’re not careful, they will run out of time.

  Do you think it’s okay to dip into your savings or leverage your credit and spend money you might not have to get started today? This is a serious question. Do you think it’s okay or not? Some people say yes and some say no. Let’s talk about this for a minute.

  Every month, money replenishes, right? But this is the key—time does NOT replenish. It disappears. So you could go out and spend months or years of your valuable time to figure something out—but you will never get that time back. Instead, you could save that time and effort, because I’ve already spent it for you, and work directly with me instead. It will cost you money to get started, but that money will come back, whereas the time away from your family in trial and error is wasted effort and is gone forever.

  Break Old Habits: The goal for this close is to help them realize that if they leave today without investing, nothing in their life will change.

  Habits are really hard to change. I could leave the webinar right now and go enjoy the rest of the afternoon. I’m already successful with __________. This is already working for me. But this is not about me. This is about you. If YOU leave now, you might think you learned a lot of cool stuff, but my guess is that by morning tomorrow you’ll have already slipped back into your normal routines. Right? You’d just do what you’ve always done. That’s what most people do.

  But because I’m your coach, your friend, your mentor, I’m not going to let you go back to your old habits. I’m going to make sure you’re successful by breaking them. If you want real, lasting change, you need repeated exposure to the full system. That’s what you’ll get when you invest today.

  Information Alone: My goal for this close is to help them understand that, while they have gotten some awesome information, they can’t rely on information alone. They need coaching and accountability, too.

  So now I’ve told you how the whole system works. I’ve shown you how you can __________. I’ve shown you that you only need __________ to make this all work. But you know what? To be successful with this, you’re going to need more than information alone.

  I know you can be successful with this system, but you’re going to need coaching. You will have questions that need answering. And you might need help in the accountability department, too. Let me tell you, I take my job as a coach very seriously. I won’t let you quit on yourself. We will get through everything together. I can’t do that with just a few videos and some PDFs. Information alone won’t cut it.

  My success rate when people go at this by themselves is almost 0%. But my success rate for those who work with me is closer to __________%. If information were enough, then you could have just turned to Google. You need a guide who has been there before, who can take you there right now.

  Money or Excuses: The goal of this close is to get them to quit making excuses about why they can’t buy.

  I’ve been in this business a long time. And I’ve found there are only two kinds of people. Those who are good at (making money, losing weight, etc.) and those who are good at making excuses. You can’t be both. If you’re the one making excuses…I hate to say it, but I think you’re going to have a really hard time __________.

  The good news is that you get to choose. In this moment, you can choose which type of person you’re going to be. Don’t be someone who makes excuses, be someone who actually __________.

  Your Two Choices: The goal of this close is for them to understand why you are charging so much money, and to make sure they are okay with that.

  When we were deciding how to price this, we had two choices. The first was to go as cheap as possible and sell as many as we could. Now the problem with that is we would have no real incentive to pile on the value. It would cost us more for those bonuses than the whole course would be worth. Our second choice was to raise the price a little, and give you absolutely everything you need to succeed.

  Their Two Choices: The goal for this close is to help them realize they are crazy if they don’t invest with you today.

  The way I see it, you’ve got two choices. Your first option is to do nothing and not take this leap of faith (which is 100% risk free).

  Your second option is to pony up this tiny investment today (compared to all the value you’ll get in return) and just give it a shot. See if it’ll work for you. If it doesn’t—for whatever reason—you get your money back. There’s no risk. You have nothing to lose but the stress and headaches.

  Us vs. Them The goal for this close is to call out people as either do-ers or dabblers.

  I’m guessing there are two kinds of people listening to me right now. You’re either a do-er or a dabbler. The dabblers love to sit and listen and le
arn, but they rarely ever do anything and often look for any excuse not to move forward.

  Some of you are do-ers. You’re not sure how this is going to work for you, but you see how it’s worked for me and for other people, so you have faith that it will work for you as well. And what I’ve found is that it’s the do-ers who get ahead in life, while the dabblers don’t ever really seem to progress.

  The Hand Hold: This close is where you actually walk them through the sign-up process.

  When you are ready to change your life, this is what you need to start doing. First, open up a browser window—I don’t care if it’s Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari. I’m going to open Chrome right now and show you how this works.

  Type in www.__________.com. On this page, you’re going to see __________. Then you’re going to click here and fill out this form. After that, you’ll be taken to this page, where you can create your account. If you have any issues, this link will connect you to my support desk, where __________ can answer any of your questions.

  Say Goodbye: In this close I want to show them all the pain that will instantly disappear after they invest.

  Once you’ve been through this training and have everything set up, you can say goodbye to the stress of __________. You’ll never have to worry about __________ again. Can you imagine what life will be like when those things have instantly disappeared from your life? What will you do with all the extra (time, energy, money, etc.)?

  Now & Later: In this close, I want to paint a picture of their life now compared to what it could become if they invest.

  So I want to paint a picture of where I was before I started with (the new opportunity). I struggled with __________. I wasn’t able to __________. Things were hard because __________. Does that sound familiar?

  But now I want you to get a vision of what life could be like. Ever since (new opportunity), I’ve been able to __________. Now I’m able to __________, and things are amazing. Can you imagine what that would be like?

  Only Excuses: The goal of this close is to call out any excuses that might be keeping them back, and then diffuse them.

  If you didn’t sign up immediately, you’re probably thinking one of two things. First, you might be thinking __________. Don’t worry. We spend the whole first module showing you __________. I’m also going to show you how we figured out __________. I’m going to give you templates to help you figure it out. I promise you, by the end of Week 1, you’ll know exactly how to __________.

  Second, you’re probably a little nervous about setting it all up. I get that. But I promise you, it’s not hard. On Week 2, we’re going to walk step-by-step through the whole setup process. I know __________ can be scary, but we’ll be there for you.

  The third reason might be that you think it’s too expensive. If that’s your reason, I don’t know how I can help you. This is an investment and a decision you need to make for yourself. When I invested in learning this process, I paid $__________, but I got back __________ within __________.

  Reluctant Hero: The goal of this close is to help them believe they can actually do it.

  I want you to know something about me. I’m no one special. I don’t have any supernatural gifts or anything. I actually really struggle with __________. And that’s what I love about this system—I don’t have to worry about that anymore!

  If You Only Got: The goal of this close is to show them what they already got for free, and what they can possibly achieve when they invest with you.

  Okay, so I could stop right here. If I stopped right here and you only got __________, it would still be worth the investment, right? But you’re also getting __________ and __________. But you’re also going to get __________ and __________ and __________. I want to make sure that nothing is standing in the way of your success.

  Close Close: This close is the final push to get them over the edge. I typically do this one several times during the question and answer section at the end of the webinar.

  If you’re still on the fence, now is the time to open a new browser window, go to www.__________.com, and get started. Remember there is no risk, and we have a 100% money-back guarantee. But the only way for you to know if this is right for you is to get started right now. You can get your account at __________.com.

  There you go—16 closes you can use throughout the stack to help sell your offer. I like to use a close right before I introduce a new element in the stack. Sometimes I’ll even use two or three closes in between elements. They just flow naturally one into the other.

  At this point, you know how to deliver a Perfect Presentation. Now it’s time to look at the different funnels you’ll use and how you’ll work this system week after week.

  SECTION FOUR

  THE FUNNELS

  As we move into Section Four, let’s look at how far you’ve come. You’ve started your own mass movement by identifying your attractive character, creating your future-based cause, and creating your new opportunity. You’ve learned how to create belief by telling stories the right way. You’ve built out a sales presentation that tells your stories in a way that will create intense desire for people to buy in to your new opportunity. And you’ve learned to create a stack that will cause them to take action.

  The next step is getting the right people to come into a selling environment where you can deliver your message and encourage people to follow you into your new opportunity. You do that by creating sales funnels using a software tool called ClickFunnels and then filling those funnels with qualified prospects. That’s what this next section is all about. It’s the fuel for your fire. When you master this piece, you’ll have a constant stream of people to share your message with.

  SECRET #17

  THE PERFECT WEBINAR MODEL

  For those who have been in this information business for a while, this next section will be counterintuitive. You will fight me on it, because in the past you’ve made money by creating an offer, selling it to your audience, then creating another product the next month to sell to those same people. When I tell you that you need to do the EXACT same webinar every week for the next 12 months (minimum), you’re going to think I’m crazy. Yet this model took my company from $0 to $10 million within 12 months, and then to $30 million just 12 months later.

  For the first 10 years of my business, I focused on building a cult-ure of people who loved what I did. Then I stopped bringing in new people. I had my following and I would sell them something new each month. A percentage of the people would buy and the rest would say no. The only way I could make more money the following month was to create a new product and sell it to this same list of people. So we’d create a new product, launch it, get paid, then start all over again for the next month. This is how most experts run their businesses these days.

  For me, this was a horrible cycle, which forced me to create new things every month. I had no leverage, and my company always maxed out at about $1–3 million a year.

  Then one day I had a chance to talk to one of my friends MaryEllen Tribby. MaryEllen has a unique ability to take companies that are doing well and quickly scale them to much higher profitability. One of her successes was with a company called Weiss Research. She took them from $11 million in sales to $67 million in just 12 months. She had similar results with several other companies. I asked her to share her secret. How could she possibly grow a company that fast?

  She said, “Internet marketers like you are so smart and so dumb at the same time.”

  I was a little shocked, but she had my interest. “What do you mean?”

  She went on to say that what we do each month is the equivalent of creating a Broadway show. “You hire the best screenwriters in the world. You hire the best actors. You practice for months, then you open the show in downtown Boise, Idaho. (Because that’s where you happen to live and you spend a month promoting it.) You open the show to a sold-out crowd and they give you a standing ovation. That night after the show is done, you pull everything down and start writing your next p
lay to open next month in the same auditorium in Boise.”

  I kinda laughed nervously, then asked, “Okay, then what should I be doing? What would you do differently?”

  “I take companies like yours that have an awesome show in Boise—I take them on the road. I take that show to Chicago, to New York, to LA, and I keep running it until it stops making money.”

  I realized then and there what I was doing wrong. I needed to learn how to take my show on the road. In other words, learn how to drive more traffic to the same webinar every week. After I understood that principle, I sketched out a model, and told my team I was going to stick to this model for the next 12 months. This is what it looked like.

  This model is based on a live event schedule. My favorite day to do webinars is Thursday, because then I have adequate time to promote it during the week.