A few days ago, a new reader and Copy Riddles member named Tim wrote me an email with the subject line, “a billionaire’s bullet idea.” Tim’s email said:
“This guy, Jason Cohen, founded a few billion dollar companies. Anyways, he wrote an article you might like and seems relevant to Copy Riddles.”
Tim linked to Cohen’s article, “The Opposite Test,” the gist of which was the following:
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So here’s my Opposite Test: For each feature/benefit bullet point, construct its negative and see if that statement is ridiculous. Would anyone be able to construct a rational strategy with that negative? Perhaps a competitor already has! If the negative is indeed ridiculous, if it would be impossible to have a product or positioning or strategy that included the negative, it means this bullet point is trivial, obvious, mandatory, or at least undifferentiating from the competition.
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This one of those ideas that is not 100% true but is 100% useful. Try it yourself and see. Take any well-established promise or positioning idea in your industry, even one that seems unassailable, and turn it around:
“Get rich quickly” => “Get rich slowly” [worked for Gary Bencivenga]
“How to Win Friends and Influence People” => “Winning Through Intimidation” [worked for Robert Ringer]
“Getting to Yes” => “Start with No” [worked for Jim Camp]
The underlying psychology here is that we don’t just align ourselves to certain people and ideas. Just as often, or probably more often, we align ourselves in opposition to certain people and ideas. The devil you know is better than the devil you don’t… unless you’ve really grown to hate the devil you know, in which, case any other devil, no matter how bad, will do.
I’m telling you this because I’m thinking of the next book I want to write, about personal positioning, and I’m testing out ideas for that.
In the meantime, I can point you to my new 10 Commandments book in case you still haven’t read that. My book has been on sale since May and has slowly accumulated 26 reviews, all of them 5 star. Here’s one from the same Tim who wrote me about the Opposite Test:
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“A new favorite”
You know, I’ve read a lot of books in this space and this is one of my favorites. He skips over the common knowledge and dives into really eye opening insights.
He condenses lots of research into a really fun book. I’ll be rereading this one soon.
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If you want to read probably the best thing I’ve written to date, in a fun and small package, for just $4.99: