Secret recipe + Open method.

Related Terms:

What it is

A secret recipe presents the method of one seller as the exclusive route to success, usually with the suggestion that ordinary advice failed because the decisive knowledge has been hidden. It is the exact system, the one framework, the formula experts will not share or the shortcut available only inside a course, book or community. Expertise can be real and some methods are proprietary, but neither makes one approach inevitable for everyone. Certainty and privileged access do the persuading without the evidence to support them. Successes are shown without the much larger number of people for whom the method did not work, while time, money, prior skill, timing and luck disappear behind the recipe.

Our sources

These are the sources we have read, verified and can account for, drawn from real cases, scientific research and journalistic reportage. They are not exhaustive.
If you know of one that belongs here, reach out.

Sources list.

Your move.

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Other tactics + flips

The tactic

Ethics-washing

Ethical and progressive values appropriated to lift image and sales, while behind closed doors the actions do not match, as when a brand donates to BLM while exploiting BIPOC in its supply chain. It rides on our need to be seen well by our peers, since we buy from companies that make us look good by extension.

The flip

Authentic values

Taking ownership of our organisation’s role in creating positive change. Being transparent about what we are already doing and what we are still working on, as well as how it runs through values, communications, products and operations. When we talk about our values, our ethical stances and our actions, we do it in a way that is truthful and substantiated.

The tactic

Bait and switch

We are led to expect something of value and what arrives does not match, as when a webinar turns into a sales pitch. The bait primes us to receive, so when the value is pulled away we are anxious to fill the gap with almost anything, and quick to feel we owe something back.

The flip

Stated intent

When a pitch is attached to something of value, say so in the invitation and again at the start, so people arrive knowing. Keeping it under about five percent of the time, or moving it into a separate conversation entirely, leaves the value you promised intact.

The tactic

False “free”

Calling something free when it is paid for with information, time and attention. Free is hard to resist, and an email address is a low-bar agreement that makes saying no harder next time. Once we have handed something over, we are more receptive to whatever arrives.

The flip

Honest exchange

The offering available without signing up to anything else, and the list as its own invitation with a plain account of what it is for. Where the two cannot be separated, the sign-up box should say that emails are coming, unsubscribing should be easy, and what arrives should stay on the subject people signed up for.

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Secret recipe + Open method.

What it is

Our sources

Sources list.

Your move.

Other tactics + flips

Follow our moves.