Weaponize Anxiety

Unconventional B2B Strategy #10

Author

Nate Wright
December 18, 2024

In 1220, the world's wealthiest trading city stood defiant. Located on the Silk Road in modern-day Uzbekistan, Samarkand, the crown jewel of the Khwarazmian Empire, boasted massive double walls, 110,000 soldiers, and provisions to outlast any siege.

But Ghengis Khan’s Mongols were coming, armed with a deadly weapon.

Fear.

After destroying nearby Bukhara, the Mongols left enough survivors to tell the story.

The Mongols …

… used civilians as human shields.
… made the Great Mosque at Bukhara into a horse stable
… piled the dead so high, bones were confused with ‘white mountains’

When Ghengis reached Samarkand’s outskirts, his army lit hundreds of extra fires, doubling their perceived size.

Samarkand surrendered before the battle began.

Robert Greene's 10th Strategy of War states:

❝

“The best way to fight off aggressors is to keep them from attacking you in the first place … create the impression of being more powerful than you are. Build up a reputation: You're a little crazy. Fighting you is not worth it … Create this reputation and make it credible with a few impressive … acts. Uncertainty is sometimes better than overt threat … Play on people's natural fears and anxieties to make them think twice.”

Robert Greene

Adapt this to your #B2B battlefield: 👇

MAKE A BOLD MOVE

Fear and uncertainty keep competitors on edge, boldly disrupting expectations.

  • Offer an overnight delivery guarantee smack dab during a competitor’s busy season.

  • Buy out a nearby bar for an ‘invite only’ party during a competitor’s keynote presentation.

  • Run ads with screenshots of a competitor's negative reviews.

Bold moves may not trigger fear, but it can generate anxiety.

TRIGGER THE FLINCH

In UFC 91, Barboza hammered Melendez with brutal leg kicks.

“[Melendez] cannot continue to take those kicks. When someone hits you that hard, you have to either check them or you have to move.”

Joe Rogan

Melendez began respecting the leg. Barboza exploited the flinching and won by unanimous decision.

Bold moves must be powerful enough to trigger the flinch.

A price gouging campaign? They won’t care enough to flinch.

Ads calling out competitor's price? They flinch.

HACK YOUR STATUS

In Pitch Anything, Oren Klaff explains frame control as a tool to become the “dominant force in any interaction.”

Making a bold move can (temporarily) allow you to grab the #PowerFrame in a negotiation or pitch. Here are my three favorite tactics:

  1. Control the Clock - “If you’re ready to rock, I can only meet next Tuesday for 30-minutes, hard stop.”

  2. Break the Pattern - “I’m skipping the regular presentation. Let’s dig into the hard stuff now.”

  3. Pre-Mortem - “Here’s what will nuke this partnership.”

⚠️WARNING: The strategy calls for “a few impressive acts,” not forging a legacy of fear.

Be bold, then get back to business.

~ The B2B Bandits ~

NOTE: This is the 10th weekly installment of our latest series - the B2B Bandits’ practical interpretation of Robert Greene’s 33 Strategies of War. Read the back catalog on LinkedIn.

Christmas Gift

Nate’s cracking open his calendar the week after Christmas for no-cost, no-bull, no-pitch b2b strategy sessions. If you want a 1:1 twenty-minute brainstorm to sanity check your battle plan for 2025, or some tailored unconventional approaches to test, grab a time slot. Calendar’s open December 30th - January 3rd. 👇