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The 9 Sales You Must Make

by Daniel Moncur-Sime, 06-07-2008

A proven marketing sequence that you MUST have in place before the phone rings or the order button gets clicked.

Any marketing communication has a purpose. The sales letter, infomercial, internet websites and landing pages, brochures, emails, editorial styles advertisements,  text adverts all have their different places and differing reasons for use. However, unless you are doing brand marketing using little text but big photography, within any direct response marketing literature the textual copy is king to convincing your prospect to buy (or whatever action you want from them.)

From studying the great masters of cop writing, David Ogilvy, Drayton Byrd, Clayton Makepeace, Frank Kern and others, whether in print or online, the top writers and marketers know the prospect has to be taken through a series of objection demolishing sales steps.

I have taken the following summarised elements from a presentation given by Tony Flores at the Copywriters Conspiracy Blog (www.makepeacetotalpackage.com/copywriting-coach/). He accurately breaks apart and gives us the knowledge needed to get the prospect into a state where there is nothing he should be doing other than following our well directed lead to act. In short, Attention, Interest, Desire, Action.

1. The Attention Sale

All first communications (whether is an email, a video, or anything else) has to do 2 simple things:

1. Seize the prospects attention, stop him in his tracks, grab hie by the eyeballs, and
2. Leave him dying to see what you’re going to say next.

If you accomplish these two tasks, congratulations., You can take care of benefits, USP, credibility etc and everything else later.

For example, see Frank Kern's Mass Control squeeze page Headline:
     ‘How Mass Control Brought In $23.8 million Dollars In 24 Hours
           - could that really happen? Sounds like a stretch.’

2. The Readership Sale

After grabbing attention you have a few short seconds to convince him that your message is worth reading RIGHT NOW. This is the second purpose of your initial contact – it not only needs to grab his attention, it also needs to quickly sell him on reading the very next line of copy.
            Different ways to keep him reading are:

• Offer desirable benefits.
• Present an intriguing idea.
• Tell a riveting story.
• Make a daring proposition.
• Share interesting news.
• And more…

3. The Benefits Sale

Once you start selling in any vocal way and especially any transaction that involves the colour green, ‘the what’s in it for me?’ question will always dominate. Get to the core big benefits quickly and first.

It’s also imperative you’re offering benefits your prospect deeply wants and dreams of at night. Clayton Makepeace has what he calls the ‘forehead slap’ test. It’s a fantastic way of instantly telling whether you’re presenting a real benefit your prospect cares about or a faux benefits that he’ll easily dismiss.

• This can vary widely from market to market.
• You have to thoroughly know your product and prospect before you can be clear on exactly which benefits to present.
• Of all the sales you’ll make this one is often the longest.
• And the one you’ll spend the most time on.
• The vast majority of your copy will be introducing benefits and proving you can deliver them…

The longer the prospect has to wait the sooner he’ll jump to another web page.

Cleaning out a colon is not a benefit the prospect wakes up thinking of in the middle of the night, ‘I need to clean my colon’ he thinks ‘I want to have a night that I don’t wake up in with upset guts’

4. The Credibility Sale

Fundamentally your credibility is the reason why your prospect should be listening to you at all. Sure, you may be promising him valuable information, you may even ofer great benefits.
                        …. But, who the hell are YOU, anyway?!

Why should he give you even one second of his time? Remember the fact that he’s receiving 650 advertising impression a day. A good percentage of these advertisers are making bigger and bigger claims to stand out, but they’ve lost credibility with the prospect. And the sales process cannot move forward without this – no matter hwo great or valuable your product, it won’t matter if he doesn’t believe you.

• Get to some form of credibility FAST. Sometimes as uick as your pre-head title. It lets the reader know that the message is coming from a source that is trustworthy and believable.
• This is highly fundamental. He simply won’t read it if he feels you are not credible or untrustworthy.
• Proof can seem dry and mechanical but it’s very valuable in the marketing and sales process.
• Some ideas of credibility include
  • Strong examples.
  • Experience and accreditations.
  • Testimonials and case studies.
  • Celebrity endorsement.
  • Expert associations.
  • Track record.
  • Personal guarantee.
  • Vivid, story telling pictures.
  • Scientific language.
  • Media appearances.

5. The Uniqueness Sale

If your market is saturated and your prospect has lots of options, you’ll need to quickly sell him on why you’re offering something different from all the rest. Because in these types of situations it won’t matter how great all of the other elements of your copy are. If your prospect doesn’t feel he’s getting something truly unique and superior, he won’t pull the trigger!

• This is most closely related to the profit of the sale. That’s because any worthwhile benefit presentation shows the prospect how these benefits are unique and difficult (or impossible) to obtain elsewhere.
• This is where your research on the competition pays off.
• You’ll be looking out into your industry and clearly trumpeting powerful features/benefits ONLY your company can deliver.
• In effect, you’re saying “If you want a certain result in you life, this is the ONLY (or at least the best) place to get it.
• The process is a blend of science and intuition.

6. The Value Sale

This is how you build up your product, and then present and cost justify your offer. Its got to seem like a screaming hot deal – ridiculously generous and way too good to pass up.

To do this you’ll need to spend time creating a powerful contrast in your prospects’ mind – all that he stands to gain versus the meagre sum of money he’ll have to give up in exchange for it.

Remember:

• Use conviction to impress it’s better value than any competitive option he has access to.
• It’s not just at the end of your copy, it starts with the very first thing you write.
• The higher the perceived value – the more sales you make and you make them at a greater price.

7. The Safety Sale

You already know about the safet sale – it’s your garrantee. The guarantee communications the fact that your prospect is safe and secure in his purchase. You are letting him know that he bears absolutely no risk to deciding to buy your product.

This is where it pays big time to make your gquarrentee as strong as possible and your guearrantee copy even stronger. Doing a killer job here is about much more then your rospect can quickly and easily get his money back if he’s dissatisfied.

Remember:

• It’s rare that a person buying your product has the intention of getting his money back.
• What he really wants are your benefits of everything you’ve promised. That’s what ultimately compels him to make the purchase decision.
• Guarrentee copy ensures receipt of every benefit.
• And it shows you understand the most vital part of the transaction: the customer. Your prospect is forking over his hard-earned cash for your product. He’s more valueable than that – he’s giving you his time, monbey, trust, and hope in exchange for your product.
• You can use legal copy here, saying want consumer laws he’s protected by and how you do your utmost to respect trading regulations.

8. The Convenience Sale

This is where you show your prospect that ordering the product is the easiest thing that he does. Essentially what you are saying is “Sending for this product is a cinch! It’s quick and esay – just do this one simple thing and before you know it… the product will be sitting in you hands.”

Why is this so important? It’s absolutely essential because your prospect hates long and drawn out sales processes. Just think of getting a new car – the hours of haggling, negotiating, paperwork and pain you have to endure to make the purchase.

• Communicate to the prospect that the buying experience will be quick, easy and simple.
• Curiously, it’s also likely that making this sale helps quiet the objections as he doesn’t have enough time
• The convenience sale is also a big reason why offers work so well
• This is another reason why it’s good to offer and 0800 number as some people find it easier to speak out details rather than fill in forms.

9. The Now Sale

This is the final sale – it is all or nothing. Get it right and all the previous eight sales you’ve made are now worth their weight in gold. But miss the mark and nothing else matters.

• This ‘NOW’ sale is your closing section – it’s where you sell your prospect on why acting now is the most important thing he could ever do. And why failing to act is possibly the dumbest, costliest thing he could ever do. There are many techniques for making him feel the urgency and impulse to take action.
• Notice the word ‘’impulse’. Nearly every purchase through direct response is an impulse sale. It’s based on an urgent and direct desire for a product that’s completely unnecessary for survival. Because your prospect will never really need what you’re selling it’s imperative to bring him to that intense feeling of urgency today, not tomorrow. Not two weeks from today. But NOW.

So there you have the 9 ‘Sales’ you must go through to get your prospect to buy. Short advert space requires almost headline type style, where as a series of interne ales pages or a multiple page sales letter can go in to some serious depth. You’ll what to include, but like a painter weaves his viewer’s eye around the painting, you’ll take your prospect on a journey of words.

Let me know what you think, because if it works for them it must work for us. Repeating time and tested techniques that bring success can only mean one thing – repeated success!

Happy selling

Daniel Moncur-Sime
Photographer, designer and entrepreneur

Written by Daniel Moncur-Sime, for your business success. To contact me at your convenience, email me dan@studio33red.com or call 01432 341800.

Feel free to copy and distribute, but where you do please use this attribution statement, keeping the links intact.

Attribution Statement: This article was written by Daniel Moncur-Sime, entrepreneur and expert photographer, first published at www.studio33red.com. To sign-up to receive your own FREE subscription to the Red Alert e-zine and claim FREE money making e-books go to www.studio33red.com.