How to create a BOOMERANG for your product

How to create a BOOMERANG for your product with the incredible Ben Mack

Ben Mack and Kim Burney at Unseminar5

 

During Unseminar5 (check it out here http://patobryan.com/blog/?p=262 ) I enjoyed hearing Ben Mack talk about a boomerang.  He explained that a boomerang is a phrase that you give someone that you want to get back.  The live example he gave was, “the most amazing card trick I have ever seen in my entire life!”  After seeing the card trick I had to agree that it was, “the most amazing card trick I have ever seen in my entire life!”  This idea of a boomerang intrigued me so much that I kept thinking of it through the week. 

 

 

I have a product that I am getting ready to launch, My Computer Maintenance Guide, and I wanted to create a boomerang to help me market it.  I tried different phrases, but could not come up with anything that I thought was quite right. 

When I heard that Ben Mack was having an open call on Wednesday evening that I could get on and ask a question, I knew this was my opportunity to find out more about how to create a boomerang.  You can listen to his call here www.42cb.com

I did get on the call and I would like to share with you what I learned from Ben Mack about how to create a boomerang.

Ben explained that a boomerang was a term that he coined to describe a type of phrase that you give a customer or prospect with the specific intent of them sharing it with someone else and that that sharing compels that person to come and give you their business.

Ben’s boomerang about the magic trick allowed him to get $1,000 magic shows when he was 19 years old in 1987.  Not every show was $1,000 – his regular rate was $375 for the first hour and $275 for each additional hour, so $650 for a 2 hour show.  And Ben would charge $1,000 per show when someone would call up and say, “Ben I need you at my party.  You showed my friend, Kim the most amazing card trick she has ever seen in her entire life.”  It was based on a phrase that he said 8 or 12 times during the process of a magic show. 

Ben and I did some role playing and he helped me and his listeners to see how you create a boomerang.  I will attempt to give you some bullet points to help you create your own, using Ben’s card trick as an example:

·         Ask your listeners if they would like to see the most amazing card trick you have ever seen in your entire life!

·         I answered, “oh yes I would,” very quickly and so Ben took the opportunity to make sure that I was not just saying yes and that I would sincerely let him know if it really was the most amazing card trick you have ever seen in your entire life!  (So he repeated the phrase three more times, during this exchange) He asked me if I would really be candid.

·         Then he would do the trick and people would regularly say that was the most amazing card trick I have ever seen in my entire life!

·         A few dynamics happened with this boomerang:

o   First – Ben gave them the framing for the event, he gave them a lens to see it through.  He told them that the possibility of the experience they were about to have was going to likely be the most amazing card trick they have ever seen in their entire life.

o   Performed the trick with confidence.  Having the confidence and how you are framing yourself is as good as it gets.

·         How to craft one of these boomerangs for yourself – the way to craft it is write something or to be speaking from superiority.   

From here we switched to creating a boomerang for my book.  So as not to miss anything important, I will just give you the transcription:

Ben:       What line of work are you in?

Kim:       I do computers, a IT person, but specific product I am in the process of launching in the next few weeks is a Computer Maintenance Guide and its really  awesome you can take a ninety year old woman and hand her this book and she can do things that her teenage granddaughter can’t do. 

Ben:       Are you open to coaching?

Kim:       Yeah, go ahead.

Ben:       Awesome, so thinking about this computer guide, do you think of yourself as the publisher of it or the writer of it, what do you think of as your function with this. 

Kim:       I am actually all of the above, but I can be any of the above.  I am actually the creator.  I created this book, I’ve been using it for years and I have just had people so many people ask me for it that I decided that I should just go ahead and publish it.

Ben:       Cool, so since you decided you should go ahead and publish it would it be okay for the sake of this conversation that I refer to you as a publisher?

Kim:       Yes

Ben:       Awesome what line of work are you in?

Kim:       I’m an IT consultant and a newly formed internet marketer.

Ben:       Okay, we are going to try this again Kim.

Kim:       Oh I’m sorry.

Ben:       Is it okay that I refer to you as a publisher?

Kim:       I got it, yes I am a publisher.

Ben:       Very cool, let me ask you the question again, what line of work are you in?

Kim:       I’m in publishing.

Ben:       I’m a publisher.

Kim:       I’m a publisher.

Ben:       Fantastic Kim, cool, so you’re a publisher.  Now you want to create a boomerang for this book that you are publishing which is an IT manual that makes stuff so easy I could give it to my 90 yr old great aunt and she is going to be able to fix her computer on her own.

Kim:       That’s correct.

Ben:       Cool, now did I get that story correct.

Kim:       Yes, The WOW factor I see with a grandparent or an older person is that they would know more than their teenage granddaughter or nephew or niece or whatever.

Ben:       We want to make it real specific and we want to make it short. 

Kim:       Okay; that’s what I’m struggling with, how do you do that? Yours was real specific and it was short and I remembered it many times over.

Ben:       What did I say a moment ago about your book?

Kim:       That it was, I’m sorry, I’m kind of excited that I got through on the call so I’m missing half of it.  I’m trying to take notes and get this.

Ben:       It’s all good and here’s a little secret.  When you come back to 42CB.com through Friday you are going to be able to hear a replay of the call.

Kim:       Great, I’ll remember that.

Ben:       And I don’t know the exact phrase I said a moment ago, but it’s something to the extent of: What line of work are you in?  I’m Kim and I am a publisher of an IT manual that makes computers so easy that you can give it to your ninety year old grand aunt and she is going to be able to fix your computer.

Kim:       I got it.

Ben:       Now that’s wordy.

Kim:       It is wordy.

Ben:       What it is, is something that is impressive and memorable and you are going to want to take those words and write it down and take out the extra words. Because ‘the most amazing card trick you’ve ever seen in your entire life’, that’s wordy, but somehow that’s memorable.  Right?

Kim:       Yes.

Ben:       Part of what makes it memorable is that I say it eight times. And I say it eight times verbatim. How many words is that? ‘The most amazing card trick you’ve ever seen in your entire life’. That’s ten words.  ‘The most amazing card trick you’ve ever seen in your entire life’. That’s 12 words. But I say it the exact same way each time.  So, one of the keys for the boomerang is to have something that is outstanding; and to say that outstanding phrase a bunch of times.  What you are going to need to do is to identify, the 10-15 words or 7-15 words that say something that’s outstanding. That you can say verbatim.  Preferably something that if you say to somebody once they may be able to repeat back to you.

Kim:       I got it

Ben:       Now along those lines there is a test I created called the telephone test.

Kim:       Yes

Ben:       And the telephone test comes from the children’s game, telephone game, did you ever play that as a kid?

Kim:       I think I did, but I can’t remember for sure.

Ben:       The game was you have a group of kids sitting in a circle and somebody would choose a phrase and they would whisperer it to their friend, and they would whisper it to the friend next to them. And that kid would whisper it to the friend next to them and he would whisper to the friend next to them and he would whisper it to the friend next to them and it would go all the way around that circle and when it would come back the original person it would be really funny.  Do you know why?

Kim:       Because it usually wasn’t even close to what you started with.

Ben:       Exactly. And that’s really fun in elementary school. In marketing it’s not fun. When people at seminars will come up to me, and so many times people have different crazy ideas about what a brand is and many people will think that the name of their domain is a brand.  And they will say to me Ben, what do you think of my brand name, and they will say a domain name.  And I’ve gotten better at how to interface with those people and the questions I’ve been asked, it’s a bit confusing.  But one of the things I’ve learned is I’ve created the telephone test because people would say to me what do you think of the name of this domain and they would tell me something that was extraordinarily clever and I could see the intelligence, the wit that they put into the name. But the function of the name, or the function of a phrase, if you want something you want something to go viral, if you want to create a boomerang, it got to be repeatable. So the telephone test is when somebody is thinking of a domain name, what I suggest that they do is to go out to a mall or go to out to some place where there’s a flow of traffic a flow of people coming by and grab a clipboard. Because somehow if someone has a clipboard, it entitles them to approach strangers and ask questions. So you grab a clipboard, put a blank piece of paper on there or something that has some text on it. It doesn’t matter, but usually like just one or two pieces of paper and you got a pen in your hand and you go up to somebody and you say, ‘Hi, my name is Kim and I’d like to take less than 20 seconds of your time and ask you a single question and it will really help me and one of my best friends.  Could you give me 20 seconds, could you give me 15 more seconds of your time?  And people will regularly say ’sure’. And you say to them, ‘fantastic, I’m going to say phrase to you and what I’d simply like you to do is after I say the phrase, just repeat the phrase back to me. Would that be okay?’  So here we go, let me go ahead and try it.  Kim do you want to play it now?

Kim:       Yeah, go ahead. I’d like to.

Ben:       All right, here’s the phrase. Marketing and promoting your own seminars and workshops.

Kim:       Marketing and promoting my own seminars and workshops.

Ben:       Fantastic.  I was just looking down and there was a Fred Gleek book that was on my floor and what I said would not be a good domain, because it’s the title of his book, because I said marketing and promoting ‘your’ own seminars and workshops.

Kim:       And I said ‘my’

Ben:       Exactly. And those types of differences are what you want to be sensitive to. When it comes to a boomerang that’s often okay for something like the most amazing card trick you’ve ever seen in your entire life.  Turning that “you” into “my” is perfect there, because I’m not trying to give people a web domain. It’s like telling them to have my first list and your first list in case people inverted it.

Kim:       Oh, Okay

Ben:       But with the boomerang you want to test that people are going to be able to repeat the phrase back to you so when you take that line about an IT manual or a computer manual, a manual that makes computer maintenance so simple your ninety year old aunt is going to be able to fix her own computer.  I don’t know if that is the exact phrase.

Kim:       No but it was very close.  So you said it pretty close, like three times, but it is long.

Ben:       I’m okay with it being long when you get to the point of being able to say it verbatim each time and you are able, when someone is asking you about your book you say that phrase 3 or 4 times it doesn’t matter that it’s like 12 or 15 words. How many words do we have, “A manual that makes computer maintenance so simple your 90 year old aunt can fix her own computer?”  A manual that makes computer maintenance so simple your 90 year old aunt can fix her own computer.” That’s a lot, that’s like twenty-three words. So you’re right, 23 words is a lot. And maybe you got it at 23 words.

Kim:       I could probably find a phrase though.  I mean, you are really helping because I can see how you developed it and how you test it so that was extremely helpful.

Ben:       Awesome.  Kim, I’m grateful for your coming on tonight.  Do you have a blog?

Kim:       I do, but it doesn’t really apply, it’s for miracles coaching so, of my website where I will be placing more information about this book it kind of tells what I do It’s www.moblepc.us

Ben:       The reason why I ask if you have a blog.

Kim:       Yes

Ben:       Is that I was hoping you would blog a testimonial for me.

Kim:       I will absolutely blog a testimonial for you. I so twittered you today. Some of the people on your call because I kept passing on the twitter that you gave me about this call.

Ben:       Awesome Kim, thank you much, I haven’t been on twitter for like 3 hours because had back to back calls tonight, but that is angelic gifts you gave me.  Thank you.

Kim:       I will make sure it gets twittered and blogged tonight.

Ben:       You are fantastic thanks so much Kim.

Kim:       And thank you for the boomerang it was a really incredible piece of information.  I got and passed it on.  I could see the value in it.  So thank you.

Ben:       Cool.  The important part here is that we share this technology with other people so that other entrepreneurs can figure out how to do this stuff for themselves.  So the important part in your blogging testimonial if you can do it if you are up to challenge is to teach other people what the boomerang is and how to create their own boomerangs.

Kim:       Based off of what I got from you.

Ben:       Yep

Kim:       Okay, I got it.  That’s also is going to help me create mine.

Ben:       Exactly.

Kim:       Okay thank you so much it was good to talk with you.

Ben:       You’re welcome Kim. I’m glad you’re a bad ass of our community. Thank you very much. 

 Thanks again Ben Mack – you are incredible and I love you! Kim

My Computer Maintenance Guide is coming soon – you will be able to find it here www.computermaintenanceguide.com Thanks!