Every atom of motivation–every spark of desire–comes from self interest.

The Netflix survival-drama show “Squid Game” provides some lessons on how you can use your prospects’ self-interest to your (and their) advantage.

The show centers around the unlucky middle aged Seong Gi-hun who lives with his elderly mom in South Korea.

Gi-hun is divorced, drinks too much, has a krapy job, and has run up a bunch of gambling debts that are so high, he’s starting to get threatened by sadistic loan sharks.

But then, a mysterious man- representing a mysterious organization -comes along and gives him the chance to play in a series of games with the promise of becoming a millionaire if Gi-hun wins the competition.

Our desperate hero accepts the offer and soon finds himself shipped away to a remote island facility along with over 455 other people.

There’s everyone from violent gangsters, to immigrants, to stock traders, and math teachers.

But regardless of background, all these players had one thing uniting them: They all have unpayable debts and are all desperate enough to risk their lives for a chance to make millions.

And when I say “risk their lives”, I mean it. Contestants who lose a game are killed off.

The story is great and I recommend you watch it. But the show is also instructive because there are lessons in here for the entrepreneur.

Here’s a list of sales-boosting nuggets from Squid Game :

1.) Target the Right People To Sell To 

The shadowy organization running the Squid Game isn’t just “marketing” to anybody.

It’s deliberately keeping tabs on people who are in enough financial trouble to want to opt-in to a game that requires players to risk their lives and kill other players.

Once the organization determines a prospect is ripe for recruitment, they move on to the next step…

2.) Pitch Your Product/Service With a Demonstration 

The organization sends a mysterious clean-cut and well-dressed operative to approach the prospect.

The man offers Gi-hun the Korean equivalent of around $85 if he wins a children’s game where players try to flip each other’s folded pieces of paper.

The catch? If Gi-hun loses a round, he has to let the mysterious man slap him across the face.

Gi-hun opts into the game and gets smacked on the face every time he loses.

He finally wins after enduring several humiliating slapping sessions and the man then gives Gi-hun a card and invites him to play similar games with much more money stake.

Gi-hun accepts the offer, is knocked out by sleeping gas, and is taken to the facility where the organization cleverly….

3.) Visualizes The Rewards to the Prospect 

Once Gi-hun and the other players awaken in the facility, a huge piggy bank hanging over their heads is the first thing they see. This piggy bank keeps filling with money as players are killed off and the game progresses. It’s made clear to the players that the winner of the contest will have this money all to themselves.

This piggy bank concept is applicable to marketing. Make sure that whatever visual design you use in your marketing is created in a way to get prospects salivating.

4.) Keep Your Most Loyal Buyers… By Filtering Out Flaky Buyers 

After the first game (a particularly bloody round of Red Light, Green Light), the players invoke their right to leave the game at any time by majority vote.

Here’s the interesting part: The majority choose to come back and continue playing because they hate their normal lives so much more–either because of financial troubles or being on the run from the police.

They see the game as a shot to win big and rid themselves of their problems.

This means that the players who came back to play the game were far more committed.

Use this principle in your marketing. Set up your business in a way that repels flaky, wishy-washy buyers and retains your most fanatical customers.

I could go on more about the business lessons to be learned from Squid Game.

But I’ll end it here for now.

P.S. My book shows business owners and entrepreneurs the exact steps for using creativity to make lots of money. It costs around $30 everywhere else, but if you join my daily email list by clicking the link below, you can have a digital copy for free.

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