Archive for the ‘Sales Letters’ Category

For you to have a greater chance for consumers to actually believe and accept your product or service, you have to position it properly first before you continue to describe it. Using the following words and phrases will help –
• “designed specifically for your unique situation…”
• Practical
• Street smart
• Nothing theoretical or abstract about it
• Will not put any demands on your time
• Will not strain your resources
Most entrepreneurs get attracted to products and services which they think are specifically designed for their needs. Wise entrepreneurs will not pay attention to products or services that were not one hundred percent designed for their situation, kind of business, application, or competitive environment. Entrepreneurs have this weird idea sometimes that certain products from certain manufacturers are not a good choice, although when asked for their reason of saying so, they could really not concretely tell any difference.
Entrepreneurs have this sort of “belief” because they do not like to make what is known as a conceptual leap. In simpler terms, they are not comfortable with the idea of eagerly making the move from the general to the specific, or from one application to another, or from one industry to another. And they usually resist following a broad concept to their own situations. Entrepreneurs are always suspicious and they are not that open to change – they always have this apprehension at the back of their heads that salespeople are trying to make them force a square peg to a round hole.
And as a result, sales people will hear most entrepreneurs say that their products or services “do not apply to me”, or “my business is different, it is unique” and so on. But the words “specific to his or her situation” will bear different meanings to different businessmen.
Those words are simply a matter of perception. They could simply mean that the product or service was designed for a different type of business from theirs, say for example for an owner-operated business or a small business. If you pay close attention, the decision maker will tell you which one he or she prefers to hear.
When a particular product or service is thought of as practical, street smart and not boring or theoretical, most entrepreneurs will have the idea that:
1. That particular product or service will eliminate the complexities from their lives.
2. That particular product or service will not strain the company’s resources.
3. And that, that particular product or service will not place any additional demands on the owner’s personal time.

Entrepreneurs do not have the time and patience to entertain complications in their transactions because this interferes with their personal independence and is a total waste of time.

Scientific pricing is structuring your prices in such a way that you do not lost track of your customers while at the same time keeping your customers away from the competition. One of the few basic ways to effectively increase price is through Packaging.
Creating Packages
If the concept of a package is unfamiliar to you, let us go back to a basic holiday package. A package where you get your travel, food, sightseeing, insurance and so on bundled all in a single offer. Consequently, you go for either the basic or the more premium package based on how comfortable you want to be during your vacation. Because of this, the travel industry has created various packages for customers to choose from, instead of selling these services individually.
You can find packages everywhere, for everyone. The example above is just one small fraction of the bigger picture, of the different other industries that provide a pre-grouped set of services or products to their customers. You see packages for computers; even iTunes have put packages together for Christmas, Valentine’s Day, or Mother’s Day and so on.
You even see packages when a builder puts together a house – the plumbers, the electricians, the architects, the interior designers – they all work together as a part of one whole package.
So there is no reason for you not to have your products or services be grouped in a certain package. There is also no reason for you not to “un-package” a certain product or services for a client who only wants just a part of an already existing package.
Providing your customers with a pre-selected group of products and services allow them to have more options. Packaging does not only give your customers a sense of freedom in choosing which products and services they like, it is also a good way of increasing your price without being too pricey.
What I am trying to say is that when you have grouped your products or services into little bundles, you will now have two sets of packages to offer your customers – the basic and the premium package. Logically, the basic package will cost less than the premium. But, most people would go for the premium package thinking that it is the “better” choice because it is fully loaded. So instead of having the basic price of let’s say $10 and your premium price say $13, your basic price will now be $13.
What this implies is that we have basically increased the price of products over the years by following this line of thought. The Premium price becomes the basic, and a new Premium price is inserted. This practice is done to increase the price of products and services that we enjoy today and so far, has been very effective.

Abraham Lincoln said, “If I had six hours to chop down a tree, I would spend the first hour sharpening the axe”. In writing a good copy, your headline is what you need to spend most of your time sharpening. However, you should not concentrate all your wits and creativity in making your headline look and sound good. Yes, your headline is the main attraction in your copy but there are other characters that play equally important roles as the headlines. What I am talking about are your supporting actors, the sub-headlines.
Although the headlines always get the main attraction, it does not necessarily follow that the sub-headlines are not doing their part of the work. The headlines and sub-headlines both have the same goal – to attract readers. And your sub-headline can do one of the following:
1. Sub-headlines provide an instant solution.
2. Sub-headlines can worsen the situation.

Sub-headlines work as a follow-up to your headline. They can emphasize a particular point, highlight a pressing issue, give solution to an important concern, or blow up an already urgent problem. All these things, work to your advantage.

To further illustrate what I mean, here are a few examples.

• If you don’t have 10,000+ customers on your mailing list, (like all those internet gurus) how are you supposed to run a profitable website business?

(And how do you create a website that not only attracts more customers, but actually gets customers to keep coming back and spending larger sums of money each time?)

The sub-head above is not only doing a great job in aggravating the problem, it also maintains the sense of pressure within the statement,

• Wouldn’t you like to write a copy that turns tentative prospects into red-hot clients?
(Learn the step by step system to increase your profit and get your products and services selling faster than ever before!)

This particular sub-headline provides a solution to a problem. So instead of leaving all the work to your headline, why not let a strong sub-head such as this share the burden of attracting customers. Like they say, two heads are always better than one.

• Have you seen a customer back out of a deal at the very last minute?
(Don’t you feel like tearing your hair out when they do that?)

Writing sub-headlines are just as tricky as writing the headlines themselves. You should know how to properly attack a certain topic. The key to making your sub-headlines very effective is to connect with the emotion that the headline is trying to draw out. Your sub-head should magnify the situation presented in the headline. It should intensify the problem or the need and not merely support or follow-up what the headline says.

Up selling is a sales strategy designed to increase sales. It is a very essential business concept because it requires the sales personnel no just to be order takers, but to be active sellers as well. Up selling involves promoting upgrades or add-ons to customers that are usually extra purchases and items. When you up sell, you offer the customer another product to buy on top of what he or she already has.

Up selling is a classic in business giants like McDonalds and Starbucks. Ever heard of the classic “Would like to have fries with that?” statement or the legendary, “How about a donut for that latte?”? Before you knew it, you are nodding affirmatively. This very simple question has lead to trillions of dollars for these establishments, yet it is a mystery why others do not use this technique.

The concept of up selling involves different levels and some of them are:

1. Up sell at the point of the sale.
This is the most effective way to up sell. However, simply putting an up sell at the point of purchase is not enough. You have to stack up the up sell with bonuses, because it is the bonuses that cause the customers to say yes to an up sell.

2. Up sell after the sale using the Thank You Note.
You may have noticed in newsletters that after the main content, there is a brief article or a section below that asks you to check out something else – a different product, a new membership program, etc. but without adding any pressure to the customer. This is a very effective up sell strategy if you want your customers to avail more of your products.

3. Up sell through newsletter and education.
Newsletters have one thing in common – they have an up sell that is based solely on the product that you bought in the past. So if you already have Product A, they will no longer ask you buy Product A again, instead they will ask you to buy the product that is next in line of what you already have.

4. Up sell via bonuses given randomly.
Although it is the best time, an up sell does not have to be made at the point of the sale. If you already have your main product laid out, you can offer other related products once the customer buys your main product.

The secret of this up sell success is the factor of giving away bonuses. But if you decide to make an up sell at the point of sale, make sure that the up sell has a very, very strong incentive right there and then so that the customers will have no room to refuse the offer.

Imagine an airport with a couple of planes waiting to land. Logically, the first plane which arrived first should land first. But let us say that along with those planes, one was on fire but was unfortunately not the first one to arrive. Will the airport have that plane on hold because there is a queue? No. This change in protocol is brought about by urgency. The sense of urgency created by the burning engine will give the control tower enough reason to bypass the traditional landing procedures while giving the resources that the burning plane needs – fire trucks, ambulances, etc.

You can do the same with your customers.

No, not have them on fire. But you can create an urgency in their head. And when you do, you also create the following:

You get the customer’s attention.

You bypass the traditional pattern that they have (they will tend to choose your product or service over something else)

The customer will dig into their resources just to make sure they get your offer

If you do not create a sense of urgency to your customers, everything will just go back to normal which means that they will only buy your product or service only when they feel like it. You do not have a good hold of their attention and they will certainly not go into great pains in looking for resources just to have what you are offering.

However, there is one problem in creating urgency. When you create something urgent every day, sooner or later that urgent thing will become something normal. The key to getting and keeping your customer’s attention is by making sure that the urgent factor that you inject is evenly spaced out.

Having a proper space between urgency factors varies across situations. Here are the three basic ways to create an urgency factor without spoiling it right away.
1. Buy now or you lose out on the bonuses.
Take note that I used bonuses, and not discounts. Discounts pertain to real money, and when you give a discount, you are cutting off a portion of your profit. But when you give a bonus, you are giving a perceived value.

2. Buy now or your lose on profits.
Not all urgency is created by bonuses. You can generate a great deal of urgency by emphasizing the problem. The statement, “Can you really wait another month and watch your sales slide even lower? How would you like to increase your sales right away?” create drama and urgency because it relates to an existing problem of the customer. You don’t even have to make any offer.

3. Buy now while stocks last.
By implying a limited capacity, you create an urgency. When a customer realizes that there is a limited stock, they are very likely to act right away.