It sings. It sells. And it flops!

What happened? You dribbled away your close. You whispered instead of shouting. You hung nice instead of tough. It never pays.

So, today, let's learn how to ‘kick-butt' when you close an Imcom to your boss or anyone else up command chain.

WHAT ACTION DO YOU WANT YOUR TARGET TO TAKE?

Forgive me. This seems almost too elementary to mention. But I'm convinced that 90% of people who write an Imcom don't give this question much serious thought.

It's a question you should ask yourself before writing first word of your Imcom. What EXACTLY do you want target to do? Call you? Bounce your idea further up command chain? Give you go-ahead on a project?

Don't assume target will know what you want. I learned this years ago when writing sales copy. I would tell prospect to fill out reply card or order form. I would tell him to use postage-free reply envelope. But so help me, if I didn't mention putting envelope in mail...response dropped.

The only thing I can figure is that we are not routine thinkers. So you have to be target's routine thinker if you want a timely response.

BE DIRECT, BE FORCEFUL AND SUGGEST URGENCY

Most people don't close effectively because they're afraid of offending someone. Trust me. This is not a problem.

Let's say you are writing a proposal for your boss to get approval for a new research program. You've gone through all why's and where's. It's time for a kick-butt close.

To come up with an effective series of autoresponders without boring your prospects can be difficult. To help you, here are a few general tips.

1) In my line of work, I see a lot autoresponders. Most of these are one to three pages long, which is generally appropriate for a sales letter. In an autoresponder series, however, keep in mind that your prospects are going to be reading multiple messages from you. Try to keep them each down to about a page and spread juicy details around a bit. Don't tell them everything at once.