Return to 143 articles to start your own home based business opportunity directory Ace Components of Good Direct Marketing Sales Coaching for People Who Don't Like Direct Selling By Hilton Johnson How would you like to give a COMPLETE sales presentation to thousands of prospects from all over the world; give that presentation at the convenience of your prospect; give that presentation while you're awake OR sleeping; know for sure that you will not experience any rejection whatsoever, and then have your ideal customers and clients call you and say, "Sign me up"? Of COURSE you would, and you can, by learning how to write (and implement) good sales letters to your prospect list. Here's my version of the Top Ten Compo nents Of A Good Sales Letter… with some extra goodies: 1. Headlines This is the mother-lode of strategies for writing sales letters, so here are some important points to remember: A. Target your headline to your specific ideal customer or client ("If You Would Like To Get Rid Of Those Ugly Wrinkles, Warts And Zits…") B. Focus the headline on the pain or motivations of your pros pects. ("Don't Make The Seven Mis takes Of…") C. Don't try to be cute, clever, creative or manipulative. D. Forget about the myth of keeping headlines eight words or less. Make it as long as you like in order to attract your ideal client's attention. E. Learn to write good headlines by tweaking and twisting OTHER companies' (past or present) headlines that grab YOUR attention and then make them your own (but don't plagiarize). 2. The Hook If your headline is good enough and if you are reaching a prospect that has an interest in your subject, they will read the beginning of the first paragraph. It's right here that you need a "hook" to keep them reading. One of the best ways to "grab them" in that first sentence is to focus the most newsworthy point of your message in the first sentence. Here's a strategy for doing that: Pretend that you're calling a friend to report some important news and the friend asks you what happened. The answer to that question is your lead: "Our Company Is Offering A Guarantee That Will Change Forever The Way Our Industry Does Business." 3. Subheadings Sprinkle several subheadings throughout your letter when you're going to change the direction of your message. Also keep in mind that what you want to accomplish is to deliver the entire message (presentation) to your prospect by them reading the headline, the subheadings and the P.S. 4. The Complete Story Give your complete sales presentation. Tell the entire story from beginning to end—no matter how many pages it takes. It's true that most people won't read a long letter. The important thing to remember is that you only need and want the perfect prospect to keep reading it anyway. You see, your ideal prospect will see your headline, and if it zeros right in on his/her hot buttons, he/she will be COMPELLED to read the entire story because this person has a strong interest in what you're selling. And when you get THAT kind of prospect, you want to give them your entire pitch. 5. It's Gotta Be Conversational Suppose you were sitting across the table from a qualified prospect and they were not only showing strong interest in your proposal, but they were actually ASKING you to explain the whole program…how would you do it? Write a sales letter like you normally speak. Personalize your talk in a comfortable, conversational manner. Let your natural humor flow spontaneously… are we communicating? That's how you make your sales letters conversational (and persuasive). 6. Underlined Text When you have a key phrase or point you want to make but you don't want to "shout" at them with bold letters or a subheading, the next best thing is to simply underline the important points or key words. When they read the headline, the subheadings, the underlined text, the P.S., and nothing more, you've still given your entire presentation… in a summary fashion. 7. The Guarantee It's almost standard practice to offer "better than risk free" guarantees in sales letters. That is, to offer a total satisfaction guarantee plus a free gift for "just trying the program out" if they should ask for a refund. The problem with offering guarantees is that most people don't know how to take advantage of them. The idea behind guarantees is that you may have to make a refund occasionally, but your guarantee could quadruple your sales overall because there is no risk in doing business with you. If you're going to offer a guarantee or a warranty, you want to play it up. 8. Testimonials It's almost impossible to see a successful marketing company that doesn't use testimonials as a large part of their infomercials, advertising and sales letters. Why? They work! You already know that, but do you know HOW to get testimonials? To get satisfied customers and clients to write testimonial letters, appear on a video or on a cassette, you have to make it incredibly easy for them…or make it worth their while. You have to do things like offer to write the letter for them, stick a camera in their face and ask them your questions or offer them a free gift. If you doubt the power of testimonials, just ask yourself how often do you buy things (especially expensive things) without hearing or seeing other people endorse the product first. Not too often I'll bet. 9. Pain and Pleasure Because direct marketing and a sales letter is really "salesmanship in print," you write it as you would give a verbal presentation. Since it doesn't make sense to do business with you unless your product or service can solve problems, begin your letter by focusing on the pain and end the letter on the pleasure of meeting your clients needs. 10. Steal It When you see headlines, phrases, techniques and especially conversational language that appeals to you, copy it, try it, and if it works, keep it. (There is an expression: "There is nothing new out there…it's just the way it's being presented.") Here is an example of language used in a sales letter promoting the guarantee that has been copied so much that it's almost over used (see it this sounds familiar): "If after 30 days you're not thrilled with (this product) simply return the package for an immediate and full refund… no questions asked… no hard feelings." Special Note #1 NEVER send out sales letters without making it an iron-clad policy to do these three things: 1. Do a small test (say, 200 or so) before the major roll out to make sure it's going to pay off. 2. Track the numbers. Record the costs, number of pieces sent, how many inquiries, how many sales and how much each sale cost per mailing piece. 3. Always back up your mailings with telemarketing. It's not un common to get ZERO responses to the mailings themselves only to experience a flood of sales when you call a few days behind the letter. The direct marketing combination of sales letters and telemarketing for high ticket products and services is absolutely unbeatable. The problem is that most people just won't do it. They might send out the letters but they won't make the calls. And they won't make the calls because they don't know what to say when they do. The solution is to learn good scripts for telemarketing and then hire someone to do it for you. But let's not get ahead of ourselves… HBM ©Copyright 1997 by Sales University. All rights reserved. Hilton Johnson is the founder of Sales University, a sales training firm specializing in "Sales Coaching for People Who Don't Like Selling." Contact Sales University for a free subscription to their monthly email newsletter, "The Sales Coach" and/or to participate in a one-hour training course by teleconference called "Selling By Attraction—No More Cold Calls!" Phone: (954) 491-8996; Fax: (954) 491-7647; E-mail: hilton@salesu.com; Website: http://www.salesu.com.

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