Saturday, September 8, 2023

Sabri Suby's book Sell Like Crazy opens with an inspiring story of his earliest money-making venture: busking with a harmonica at age twelve to help his single mom pay for groceries. His impoverished beginnings fostered a strong work ethic that led him to owning one of the fastest growing ad agencies in Australia. After the motivational story-telling, he dives into a detailed five-phase explanation of how he "sells like crazy" — making billions for his clients.

Going back to the roots of direct-response advertising (versus branding), Suby presents a time-tested approach to selling just about anything of value. No, you won't have to spend your time documenting your life on Instagram, blogging yourself to oblivion or Xing yourself on Twitter. Instead, he shows you how to use paid advertising and multi-step sales funnels to scale your business through value-added marketing. I know his methods work, as I've used them with clients for over a decade.

My only disappointment with the book was the sales writing advice. Much of it seemed lame, hyped up and filled with cringe-worthy clichés. He even suggests that the email subject line "hey" is an example of world-class copy (apparently it worked for Barack Obama). Despite the painful copy examples, the book itself is a delight to read and presents a system of selling that harnesses psychology, economics and creativity to ensure you can grow a business with predictable results.

You can order Sell Like Crazy through your local bookstore or online.

John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona: A Dystopian Love Story, the forthcoming All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of speculative fiction. Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber at: https://blazingpinecone.com/subscribe/