Fan Mail
Want your sales letter to get past the gatekeeper? Have a loyal client write it for you.
Imagine if you went to the door of a private club, rapped on the
door three times, and were confronted by a bulldog of a doorman who
demanded proof of membership. You explain that you're really
not a member, but you've got this great cufflink-and-tie-clip
set that you know the members would love, and you only want a few
minutes inside to share your wonderful product with them. Chances
are, like in a Daffy Duck cartoon, the slamming door would smash
you flat in the face.
So you retreat behind a rock to develop a different strategy for
getting inside. The next time you walk up to the door, you're
arm-in-arm with a club member who describes you as a business
associate he would like to introduce to the other members.
You're ushered in, the member introduces you to others and
tells them about your product . . . and you sell quite a few
cufflinks and tie clips.
There's a message in this scenario for the direct mailer who
wants to get solicitations past the "doorman," the
assistant/secretary/receptionist who stands between you and your
prospective buyer. Have the mailing sent from someone totally
separate from your business-a surrogate-so it's not immediately
identifiable as a solicitation. Then, once it's under the nose
of the decision maker, the letter's writer endorses your
product or service.
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Regular readers will remember I brought up this approach in my
March 1996 column, referring to it then as the "Trojan
Horse" that sneaks your promotion through the gates of the
"enemy" (the junk-mail tossing receptionist) to the
intended recipient. Readers responded so well to this approach, I
thought I'd give it another go when an appropriate situation
came up. And, sure enough, Darlene Sturman, a Yardville, New
Jersey, entrepreneur who wrote recently, has just the kind of
marketing problem this technique might solve.
Sturman co-owns Aquariums 'R Us, an aquarium sales and
maintenance company specializing in businesses such as doctors'
and dentists' offices and restaurants or the reception areas of
other companies. She's been sending some low-key sales letters
to promote her services to her prime markets, and results have been
dismal. Judging from Sturman's letter, it's pretty clear
the mailings are getting stopped at the receptionists' desks.
"When I make follow-up calls," writes Sturman, "the
screener usually says, 'He or she will call if interested.'
"
So let's talk about how to get past the screener with a
compelling surrogate sales pitch to the target audience.
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