The Client Letter
May 30, 2013
The Northland
Fainy (A proprietary midwestern blend of fog and rain)
43 Degrees
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I first experienced the magic of selling in print about 11 years ago when I wrote my first salesletter for a product I was selling online.
I had a secret ace in the hole when I was putting the letter together:
My wife was THE ideal customer. So I was writing the letter to sell a product to people just like her.
I really don’t remember just how many questions I asked her as I was writing that letter. What I do remember is that she was gracious enough to answer them. Even though, for all she knew, her crazy husband was just going on another one of those wild goose chases in search of riches. (Yesterday was our 14th Anniversary, so apparently, her super human patience has endured.)
Luckily, this “wild goose chase” worked 😉 And that first letter led, in part, to right where I am today.
So what was so good about that first salesletter that it quickly turned into thousands of dollars… then tens of thousands… then hundreds of thousands in sales over the years?
It wasn’t that long.
And the offer wasn’t really that great.
It was a pretty straightforward offer really. You send us $X and we’ll send you what you asked for.
There were no bonuses, or discounts or anything.
So what made it work?
At the time, I didn’t fully understand the answer. These days, it’s become my bread and butter.
The letter was really good. Not because of the words I used but because of another secret that I had chanced upon by accident.
Take a look at the average service provider promoting his service you find a few similarities.
- He’s usually talking all about himself.
- He’s usually talking all about what he has to sell.
- He’s usually talking all about how his prospect can get what he has to sell.
He views things from the wrong perspective, takes the wrong approach, focuses on the wrong things.
Doing all of that makes it extremely difficult to attract clients.
And it’s a great way to make sure you’re never in danger of actually selling anything to anyone.
Especially someone who wants something other than cheap and fast.
You know how much of a turnoff it is when you get cornered by “that person” at a party that can’t stop talking about themselves?
Ahh… those folks make your eyes glaze over and they force you to come up with creative ways of yawing in their face without being too obvious.
Yeah, that’s kind of what prospects are feeling when service providers blab on and on about themselves.
I was lucky to learn fairly early on that going about things like this is a great way to repel people.
When you’re selling (especially when you’re selling YOU), you have to approach things differently.
If you want to learn how to do that in print, it’s spelled out here. That link will lead you to an opportunity to discover the real secret I chanced upon all those years ago to make selling in print WORK.