Stop trying to convince people. Just tell the TRUTH and watch what happens.
In the summer of 1996, I learned one of the most important lessons of my career.
The most exciting thing you can do in marketing is tell the truth.
That sounds obvious, but it's surprisingly rare. Most marketing tries to manufacture excitement. Great marketing uncovers the excitement that's already there.
Thirty years later, I'm amazed how clearly I can remember discovering this idea.
The catalyst was a book by legendary trial lawyer Gerry Spence called How to Argue and Win Every Time.
Spence understood something that every great marketer eventually learns: People don't respond to arguments. They respond to stories.
At the same time, I was reading Cash Copy and Robert Cialdini's Influence.
Looking back, it wasn't any one book that changed me. It was the combination. Those ideas, layered onto real-world experience, became a toolkit I've been using ever since.
The first real test came with a real estate developer in Toronto.
He had six lots left in a beautiful Muskoka development after Labor Day. His ads looked exactly like everyone else's: "33% Off!" "Blowout Sale!" He assumed cottage season was over and he'd have to wait until spring.
Instead of asking how we could write a better ad, I asked a different question:
"What's the truth?"
That question has become one of the most valuable questions I know.
The truth wasn't that the lots were discounted.
The truth was that he needed to sell them within thirty days because he had another development opportunity that required a balloon payment.
That was the story.
Then we strengthened it with another truth. Instead of simply claiming the lots were 33% off, we had them independently appraised. Now they weren't 33% below our price—they were 33% below their current appraised value.
The headline practically wrote itself:
The ad looked like a newspaper article, not an advertisement.
And inside it was my favorite line:
"Here's my dilemma..."
Those three words change everything.
Most advertising comes at people with a raised sword—trying to persuade them.
Most advertising comes at people with a raised sword—trying to persuade them.
But when someone says, "Here's my dilemma," they put the sword down.
People stop resisting.
They lean in.
They're curious.
That one ad sold all six lots over the next two weekends.
More importantly, it gave me a new way of thinking.
Since then, I've used the same approach to sell houses, market businesses, write emails, create books, and launch countless campaigns.
The specifics change. The principle never does.
Find the truth and tell the story.
Let the customer see themselves winning.
Years later, my friend Joe Polish wrote a wonderful book called What's in It for Them?. I think that question perfectly captures what great marketing is all about.
When you stop trying to impose your will on people and instead understand what they truly want, the story almost writes itself.
Thirty years later, I'm still using the same playbook.
Because people haven't changed.
Stories still beat arguments.
Truth still beats hype.
And the most exciting thing you can do in marketing is still the simplest:
Tell the truth well.
I've started a new YouTube channel. I'm going through 30 years of journals and posting a daily video on the most interesting insights I find. Watch here →