Want to really impress your prospect and give him sales
materials that will make him want to order now? Follow these five
important sales secrets from Bob Bly, an independent copywriter and consultant in
Dumont, New Jersey, who specializes in business-to-business and
direct-response marketing. He is the author of more than 50 books,
including The Copywriter's Handbook.
1. Target your material toward a specific audience. These
days, it's not possible to understand and meet the needs of
every potential customer. Show you are a specialist, Bly urges.
"You have a selling advantage and come across as believable
when your sales materials are tightly targeted to specific
audiences," he explains. "Say you offer 'accounting
services for advertising agencies,' not just 'accounting
services.' "
2. Use testimonials. People might not believe your
product or service can do what you say it will. You can overcome
this disbelief by having a past or present customer praise you and
your company. Testimonials are usually written in the
customer's own words, are surrounded by quotation marks, and
are attributed to the individual. They can be used in sales
letters, brochures and advertisements.
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3. Write from the customer's point of view.
"Start your copy with something that engages the
prospect," Bly suggests, "and what most people are
interested in is themselves." If an insurance agency wanted to
introduce its new employee health-benefit program for
small-business owners, it might be tempted to state the obvious,
using the phrase, "Introducing our Guarda-Health Employee
Benefit Plan." The agency would get better results if it wrote
something that directly interests the prospect: "Are the
skyrocketing costs of your insurance premiums threatening to put
your company out of business?" As Bly explains,
"That's something business owners who provide benefits to
their employees can relate to."
4. Use questions. A great way to engage your prospect is
to pose questions in the headlines of your sales literature.
"Every car-wash owner should know these seven business-success
secrets. Do you?" Or, "Why haven't satellite-dish
owners been told these facts?"
5. Turn a negative into a positive. If you are new in
business and haven't sold many products or signed up many
clients for your services, don't despair. You can phrase your
situation this way: "Not one widget buyer in a thousand has
ever experienced the advantages of this new XYZ widget
design."
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