How The Red Pill Strategy Can Help You Scale Your Business

The Red Pill strategy comes from a popular 1999 film. In The Matrix, Morpheus gives Neo a choice between a Blue Pill and a Red Pill.

If Neo took the Blue Pill, he would continue to experience an ordinary life. The Red Pill promised a life-changing truth.

Life-Changing Impacts on Your Business

1. The Red Pill positions you as an authoritative figure with a different perspective.
2. By creating a Red Pill idea, customers will have more confidence and be more likely to sell the idea, leading to business growth and scale.
3. The Red Pill idea becomes ingrained in the customer's identity, leading them naturally to share it with others, improving pipeline velocity and close rate.
4. The Red Pill delivers value to your customers — and for your business.

Red Pills Surround You

One of my uncommon solutions to a common problem is challenging owners to rethink their “get out of the business” strategy. Rather than selling the business and walking away, you can train your team so well that your team doesn’t need you for day-to-day decision-making.

Red Pill brands include Harley Davidson, Apple, and HubSpot. They're not selling a product. They're selling an idea, and their customers sell it for them.

That's how you scale.

Let’s zoom out a bit and list a few examples of how an organization’s mission is a Red Pill.

A Handful of Non-Brand-Specific Examples

1. A personal finance company that educates consumers about the drawbacks of high-interest credit card debt and encourages them to adopt a more frugal lifestyle.
2. A tech company that promotes open-source software and challenges the idea that proprietary software is always the best choice.
3. A mental health organization that advocates for more open and honest discussions about mental health issues and challenges the stigma surrounding them.
4. A consumer advocacy group that exposes deceptive or manipulative marketing practices encourages consumers to be more informed and skeptical when purchasing.
5. An education reform group that challenges traditional approaches to education and promotes alternative methods such as homeschooling or unschooling.

The Secret of the Red Pill Strategy

The strategy works in marketing because people are attracted to contrarian points of view.

Our attention spans are so small that we only pay attention to controversial things. Have you followed our political system recently? What sells? Controversy.

Position your company to scratch a skeptic’s itch.

When they see your solution, they think, “Aha, I knew it, I was skeptical.”  And then, “Everyone's saying this, but these guys are saying why!” You become the guide and authority because you have a different perspective and different point of view.

The Red Pill Formula

Without a Red Pill:

Common problem → common solution = poor outcomes

With a Red Pill:

Common problem → creative & contrarian solution = self—propelled marketing and profitability