Why Status Sells

A couple days ago I had a call with Zacharia and we talked about how he could position himself to get more clients and charge more.

While we were having the call, Hurricane Helene was about 100 miles away from my house…

We’re fine here where I live…

But several of my friends and acquaintances in Tampa and in St. Pete had their houses and cars flooded.

Glad we still got to have our call because I thought for sure our power was going to go out.

There were a couple things we talked about on the call that I’m going to share with you in this article today.

And every time I do a business review call with someone from our community, my goal is to blow them away.

Hurricane style.

One of the things we talked about was how to get your audience’s attention and make them respect you and see you as an expert or an authority when they don’t know you at all.

You’ve probably experienced this yourself at one point or another.

And in previous articles I’ve explained how to build trust so that you can sell…

I’ve talked about some of the tricks to position yourself as an expert and what not to do…

But here’s another strategy we talked about on the call:

You don’t always have to convince people that you yourself are an authority…

Because you can leverage other people or things they believe communicate expert-level authority instead.

This is also called leveraging status.

I could speak for days about how status is typically leveraged to trick people into believing something that…

Let’s not say that it’s not true…

But is greatly exaggerated.

For example…

I know a guy who sold over $4M of courses just because Tony Robbins talked about him for 5 seconds and took a picture with him.

He leveraged that photo to communicate to others that he himself was an expert…

When in actuality he had just paid to be there.

Those who view Tony Robbins as an authority figure…

They bought into the idea that standing next to Tony was a sign that this other guy was also an authority figure.

You see…

Status is the easiest way to manipulate and trick people.

You never know the full story behind it…

And if you did, well, you wouldn’t see the person as an authority anymore.

Another example…

Two guys started a business saying they would help content creators sell online courses…

Nothing special, right? There are tons of businesses like that.

But they wanted 50% of the business…

And they wanted the content creators to do 90% of the work.

Plus, they wanted to monetize the existing audience the content creators had already built.

Why would any content creator agree to that?

Well, these two guys leveraged the authority of Google and Facebook.

They had worked at those companies in customer support roles…

But they told content creators that because they had worked at those companies they knew things others didn’t and were able to get results that others couldn’t.

And now they’ve got over 100 content creators in different niches giving up 50% of their business and doing all the work for them.

Status is like a veil placed over your eyes…

It changes how you see the world, like a filter, giving the truth a different lighting, a different color.

It’s why when they see someone driving a Ferrari or a Lamborghini…

So many people assume the driver is successful or rich.

How many TV shows, YouTube videos, Instagram reels have parodied this situation over the years?

And yet…

People still fall for the same old status tricks.

People still take pictures next to parked sports cars they don’t own.

They still pay for access to famous people just to take a picture with them and show their friends.

Because those status items and figures actually change how people see the world.

People are blinded by status.

People will go into debt to attain status items.

People will lie, cheat, and steal for status items.

And it’s all because they expect others to respect them more for having those status items.

Respect and status are linked to perceived value by those who witness or observe those with respect or status…

But, more importantly, they are linked to self-worth by those who possess them.

And the value perceived by those who do not have them is wrapped up in the feeling that they might experience increased self-worth by obtaining those things for themselves.

That’s why…

When people see someone driving a fancy car…

And they say, “Wow - that person must be rich and successful.”

What they are really saying is, “I believe that in order to have that car I would have to be rich and successful.”

And their internal dialogue of, “I want to be rich and successful.”

Becomes a story they tell themselves, “I need to be like that person to become rich and successful.”

This story then justifies some truly horrific decisions…

It allows them to give themselves permission to violate their own moral code…

Or more accurately, to adapt their moral code so that some immoral behaviors become acceptable ones.

All in the name of money, fame, respect…

And an immature understanding of what success is.

So…

On one hand, I’m repulsed and disgusted by status games.

Humans are so easily fooled by status that it makes it unenjoyable to deploy those tactics in marketing…

But that’s just my personal view on the matter.

On the other hand…

In marketing…

In business…

Status is one of the most addictive drugs you can feed your audience.

It gets them hooked and coming back for more like nothing else.

Recently, I decided to test this out…

Because I truly wanted to find a way not to use status to communicate value and still be able to sell and do deals.

But I was sadly disappointed.

My test went like this:

I had sales calls and partnership calls with about 25 different people over a 60-day timeframe.

With half of those people I started the call by using authority and status references.

I told them how my past clients were Coca-Cola, Unilever, BMW, Mitsubishi, Danone, Nestle, KPMG, Citibank, etc.

I told them about growing social media accounts…

Hundreds of thousands of followers on YouTube and Facebook.

I told them how I’ve made millions of dollars selling courses and online education products.

I told them about celebrity connections, conversations with billionaires.

I told them about properties I’ve purchased.

You know… all the stereotypical status stuff.

With the other half of those people I completely avoided any mention of those authority and status references.

I focused on delivering actual value on our call.

Proving my skills, knowledge, and abilities.

Demonstrating results through actions.

Nothing about the stereotypical status stuff.

And the results…

I definitely felt better as a human being when I didn’t throw around status…

Because I know those external events, purchases, achievements, etc. etc. have no bearing on who I am, my identity, my self-worth.

But the people I got on calls with…

They didn’t feel the same.

They felt that they were on a call with a regular guy (which is absolutely true)…

And to them, there was nothing special or significant about it.

I could have given them the cure to cancer and they would’ve shrugged it off.

Because most people do not actually consider the information presented to them…

They do not think about the facts in front of them…

They don’t reason about the logic of the statements spoken to them.

Instead, the rely on feelings and associations.

So the best results came from the calls where I used stereotypical status and authority references.

Because by elevating my status in their eyes…

The person on the call with me felt that their own status had been elevated.

In their mind, if they believed that I was someone to be respected and looked up to…

Then it meant that they were good enough to be on a call with someone like that.

Even though all of the status I presented was itself status by association…

They also felt that the association applied to them.

And that association increase their perception of value from both the call itself and from me personally.

And then, again by association, it elevated their own self-worth.

Now, here’s the most important part…

Because if you can make someone experience the feeling that their self-worth has been elevated…

That they are now more respected, more successful, etc…

Sure - that’s a great accomplishment in itself.

But once you’ve experienced it…

You don’t want to lose it.

So now you’ll fight harder and be that much more motivated to do whatever it takes not to lose your newly attained status…

Your new, more elevated sense of self-worth…

Losing it would feel terrible…

People do crazy things not to lose perceived status…

And not to lose their own sense of self-worth.

They’ll do pretty much anything.

So the calls where I used status associations resulted in much better outcomes for both myself and the person on the call with me.

It motivated them and reinforced the idea that they were good enough to work with someone like me…

Their perceived status and self-worth were elevated…

And they absolutely did not want to lose that.

So on the call with Zacharia we talked about how to implement this in his business and in his marketing.

First, we looked at who and what his audience already attributes authority and status to.

We need to know which illusions people believe before we can feed those illusions back to them.

Then, we talked about tactics and maneuvers for creating status associations between ourselves and those illusions that the audience already believes in.

Sometimes it’s as easy as getting a photo with a celebrity…

And that celebrity doesn’t even have to be relevant to your area of expertise…

In many cases, people don’t even have to like that celebrity…

You can still leverage their notoriety or infamy as a form of status.

Other times it’s not about celebrities and it’s more about well-known organizations or companies.

And then sometimes it’s more about objects people associate with status.

But most importantly…

It’s never the person, or company, or thing itself that solidifies the association into a useful asset for your marketing…

It’s the story behind those things.

The story of how the picture was taken or why it was taken or when or where it was taken…

The story of how you worked with the company, or where or when or in what capacity or what results you got for them.

The story of why you were standing next to that Ferrari…

That’s the most important element.

So if you’re struggling to get the respect of your audience…

If they don’t see you as an expert or an authority…

You need to tell a different story.

Sure, pictures with celebrities and articles in Forbes and a brand new sports car help you establish status too…

But the story behind those things is more important.

And please remember…

Status is a very VERY powerful drug…

Use it ethically.