If you could get your prospective customers nodding their heads in agreement with every major point in your sales copy, that would be likely to increase your sales, wouldn't it?

If you could get people saying "yes" to almost any marketing statement of your choosing - long before they even get to close - that would be valuable to you, right?

Did you find yourself agreeing with last two questions? You've just experienced a sales technique called "tie-downs." One very old direct sales principle is to get people to say yes to multiple little questions. This gets them agreeing with you and also gets them used to saying yes. Psychologically, they will then be more likely to say yes when you ask for sale. One sales technique for achieving that is tie-down.

Why use a technique from direct sales in direct marketing? In a famous advertising and marketing story, Albert Lasker was a junior partner at Lord and Thomas advertising agency in 1905 when he read a note from John E. Kennedy declaring that Kennedy knew secret of what advertising is. Kennedy, a former Canadian mounted policeman, was new to copywriting and not yet known in advertising circles. But by an interesting quirk of fate, this was question Lasker had been trying to figure out. Lasker met Kennedy, and Kennedy declared that secret is, "Advertising is salesmanship in print." Lasker and Kennedy went on to revolutionize advertising and marketing forever with those words, and Lord and Thomas became one of most famous advertising agencies of day.

No matter how many people are visiting your website and reading your marketing material, you are still talking to only one person at a time. You are still selling one person. This sounds like a simple concept, but many advertising and marketing people still don't get this secret. That means that if you understand this, you have an advantage in Internet marketing. You understand that advertising is salesmanship in print. And you know that you just need to talk with this one person and get their agreement to purchase your product. And with power of Internet, you can do this with dozens, hundreds, even thousands per day.

Tie-downs are one of first tools to add to your new salesmanship toolbox. A tie-down is a short phrase that can be added to a statement to turn it into a question. You use a tie-down to turn a point that you want to make into a question that your prospect will agree with. It's one way of getting your prospective customer to start saying yes long before you go for close.

The FTC has issues directives spelling out ground rules for making promises about shipments, notifying consumers about unexpected delays, and refunding consumers' money. Enforced by FTC, Mail or Telephone Order Rule applies to orders placed by phone, fax or Internet.

Complying With The Rule

By law, you must have a reasonable basis for stating that a product can be shipped within a certain time. If your advertising doesn't clearly and prominently state shipment period, you must have a reasonable basis for believing that you can ship within 30 days.

If you can't ship within promised time (or within 30 days if you made no promise), you must notify customer of delay, provide a revised shipment date and explain their right to cancel and get a full and prompt refund.