21 SALES LETTER TACTICSWritten by Peter Sharpe
1. Write as if you had 5 minutes to stand face to face and sell your product or service to customer. 2. Write down all issues important to your market. 3. Avoid anything that would offend anybody like specific religious reference or curse words. 4. Always place customer first (a guy actually tried to sell me a vacuum cleaner once emphasizing that if I bought it, HE would get a trip to Florida - not smart). 5. Sell benefits, tell success stories, mention your associations with big shots. 6. Don't sell multiple products in a letter. 7. Do not confuse people in any way. 8. Display a picture of product if possible. Show a "screen shot" of a web site, disk or CD-Rom if possible. 9. Show someone enjoying product. 10. Don't mention possibility that they might now buy. 11. Be refreshingly honest. 12. Don't overdo technical information unless it's at level of your specific market. 13. Learn any necessary "lingo" to speak to your market. 14. Don't bombard people with exaggerated benefits, lies or even cliches. 15. Include a very long guarantee - 10 years or even lifetime. 16. Offer a free bonus, pile on bonuses and benefits. 17. Make your letter long enough to get reader to spend time with it instead of making it look and feel like a garage sale or flea market flyer. 18. Always mention price (I hate it when people don't do this). Mention price up front if it is focal point of letter, but hold off until later if it is a costly item. 19. Offer rush delivery, remember that product is star, not you! 20. Cleverness kills sales (you want people buying, not laughing). 21. E-mail to your prospect six times, vary letter on repeat mailings, make follow up letters flow together.
| | Power Your Profits With Price And PerceptionWritten by Noel Peebles
People don't always buy based on lowest price, but they do like to feel they're getting a good deal. If your aim is to give your customers value for their money... then your asking PRICE should represent VALUE customers place on your product or service. If price asked for doesn't feel right, in relation to value delivered, customers are not going to buy.If customer thinks that what you are offering them isn't worth much, then how can you ever hope to charge a high price? You can't! The key is to communicate VALUE message. And, you must communicate it so strongly that price seems reasonable in relation to product or service you're offering. What really matters is your pricing policy and how you communicate price to your potential market. Should you offer a discount? Should you feature price boldly? Should you introduce price early in offer? These are important questions because without realizing ...you may be educating your customers to give price their primary consideration. That may not be your intention, but like it or not, that's what often happens. The customer becomes price sensitive and then ...SURPRISE! SURPRISE! ... a competitor comes along with an even lower price and you lose a customer. Perception is everything! A case in point - A week or so ago, I was exploring a suburban shopping center when I decided to get a loaf of bread for lunch. As I walked along street I came to a supermarket. Then across road, I spotted a little bakery. So, off I trundled to bakery, "A wholegrain loaf please." I had committed to buying loaf just by walking in door. Price was not important in my buying decision, something else was. That 'something else' was perception. Your customers' perception of you can be more important than your price.
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