How to make $5000 in two days: the complete guide from a con artist.

Closing sales is not what you are made to believe: telling tall tales or elaborate lies to manipulate prospects into giving you money. Nor is it about deploying "secret hacks" like looking into your prospect's eyes or discussing the price of tea in China. Closing is much more than this. Closing, is about the fundamentals: and one key basics is understanding human nature.

In this Revue Newsletter issue I analyse how a con artist uses simple sales fundamentals to close Al Capone, seasoned gangster and most wanted criminal back then. It may have been a long time but again fundamentals do not change. This proves efficient even today, and the issue discusses how.

Want to make $5000 in two days? Pffft! To this salesman it's just another day of taking candy from toddlers. And he shows us how:

"1926. A dapperly dressed man pays a visit to the most feared gangster of the time: Al Capone. Speaking with an elegant continental accent the man introduces himself as Count Victor Lustig. Looking at a hard-faced bodyguard in fear, he promises Capone he could double an investment of $50000 in 2 months. Capone has more than enough funds to cover the "investment", but he wasn't in the habit of entrusting large amounts to total strangers. Looking the Count over, he notices something about the man was fishy- his classy style, his manner. He knows this was a con. But Capone decided to play along. He counts out the bills personally and hands them to Lustig.

"Okay, Count. Double it in sixty days like you said."

Lustig leaves with the money, puts it in a safe deposit box in Chicago then heads to New York where he has several other money making schemes in progress. The $50000 remained untouched, and he certainly made no effort to double it.

Two months later he pays the gangster another visit. This time looking at the stony-faced bodyguard he smiles, apologetically:

"Please accept my profound regrets, Mr Capone. I'm sorry to report that the plan failed..."

Capone immediately stands up, staring down at the Count and wondering which part of the river to feed the fish. But just before he is about to give the signal Lustig reaches into his coat pocket and brings out $50000 and places it on the desk:

"Here sir, is your money. To the penny. Again my deepest apologies. This is most embarrassing. Things did not work out as I planned. I would have loved to double your money for you and myself- Lord knows I need it. But the plan just did not materialise."

Wearing confused confusion all over his face, the gangster slowly sits back in his chair. Scrutiny filled his eyes as he watched the man:

"I know you are a con, Count. I knew it the moment you walked in here." Looking down at the money, "I expected either $100000 or nothing. But this... well."

"Again sir, my apologies." Lustig said as he rose to leave.

"My God," Capone exclaimed, "you're really honest! If you really need it then here's five to help you along."

And the gangster counts out $5000 out of the $50000 a gives them to Lustig. Again. Seeming shocked, Count Victor Lustig bows deeply, mumbles his thanks and leaves with $5000."

That con is still remembered as one of the smartest ever pulled off in history: the $5000 is what the Count had been after all along.

Breakdown:

Despite the popularity of such tricks, many people fell for them anyway. There is a reason they are called con men: short for confidence men, what they did was to win the trust of total strangers in the space of few minutes to a maximum of 3 days, only to exploit that trust and make money. This art required more than just audacity: despite the bad rap this was professional salesmanship, and more than anything else they had to understand human nature and how to influence it. And that is what Lustig was good at: identifying suckers. He was so good that he did not even have to tell tall stories or outright lies.

And like all of his cons this one followed the fundamentals of successful sales:

1. Who is the audience?

Any normal con artist would know better than choose the wrong client. So did Lustig. He had sold to worst candidates before. And he knew his clientèle all had one painpoint in common:

greed.

And Al Capone sure had lots of it.

2. What do you have to offer?

The single most powerful solution to greed, was more. This is basic human nature: we are never satisfied with what we have. The more we get, the more we want. And Lustig understood this part of the basics: emotion is what drives a sale. Not a product.

What he offered was indulgence and a solution to the gangster's pain. Which happened to be even more greed.

3. What makes you the best fit?

Look, Al Capone was a gangster. If he wanted more money, he could simply resort to his "ways". Yet he chose to buy into Count Lustig's idea. What made Count Lustig different from the sea of competition?

Trust.

It wasn't the clothes, it wasn't wasn't accent. The Count knew a gangster like Al Capone was surrounded by people he distrusted: they wouldn't miss a chance to steal from him or bring him down should things go south. And Capone knew this. For this reason he craved someone that would at least show true honesty with no strings attached. And Lustig gave just that: returning the money, the bewildered looks, the apologies... this salesman was a seasoned actor.

And he won a seasoned gangster's trust in just two appearances.

And tax-free $5000, of course.

4. What now?

You know what makes this the one of the most powerful sales encounter in history? There was no call to action. Well at least not directly: the Count had placed his CTA earlier in his sales copy where it was least expected. Can you guess which sentence that was? How did the Count get $5000 without asking for it even though this was a con?

(Find out in the next issue on Revue!)

Hint??: suggestions are the BEST forms of CTAs as they do not intrude in a prospect's decision but subtly nudge into action after value is delivered. People are more likely to act if they think the idea is theirs than they would if you actually asked them to do something.

Conclusion:

Understanding fundamentals is the key to successfully closing your sales. No one is totally immune to a salesman's influence. Not even hard wired criminals. Because deep down, every single person is fundamentally a human and has a problem you can solve. Your job as programmer, Youtuber, writer or even con artist is to solve their problem. Do that right, and you can be sure to cash in an extra $5k in two days like a con extraordinaire. What are those fundamentals? Read the previous issue if you haven't.

And that's it for today's Newsletter issue!

Twice a week we analyse simple to complex sales processes to find out how you can leverage knowledge on your prospects and close more sales for a successful business. If this is something you're interested in be sure to subscribe to the Newsletter on Twitter if you're not already so you don't miss out on any new issues.

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