Every communication you have in life is simply all about selling and relationships.
So, when you are writing a sales letter, email or any sort of sales communication there are 5 Great Rules of Selling you need to follow.
1. The Right Audience: Before you take your first step, KNOW who your audience is.
Before communicating – spend time thinking, researching and asking questions of your audience. What do they want? What problems do they need a solution to?
You really want to do your clients or prospects a favor? Ask them questions that help them self-discover the problem they may not even realize they have.
Learn to Ask Smart questions
The most effective time we spend with clients is when we conduct our Question Discovery process guaranteed to give you answers to out-think, out-perform and out-earn your competition.
Seven Things Questions Do:
a. Give you answers you’ve never heard before
b. Stimulate your thinking
c. Give you powerful information
d. Put you in control
e. Get others to open up
f. Teach you how to listen with the intent to understand, rather than simply to respond.
g. Persuades thru self-discovery. The Principle of Inside Out
2. Grab their ATTENTION:
The headline or title is the ad for your ad.
It Sells the message in the body of your letter.
It tells your audience whether this is something worth reading or listening to.
The headline tells the right people what you are selling and why they should want to learn more.
As succinctly and clearly as possible, your headline has to grab the audience’s attention.
3. The Body of the communication is where you educate and arouse your audiences INTEREST regarding the benefits of what you have to offer.
Your audience is always asking: What’s In It For Me? WIIFM
What will the product or service do for me?
Give them a frame-of-reference to make it easy for the reader to grasp what you are selling.
Example, if I want to explain what Facebook re-targeting is I would give the following frame-of-reference:
“Have you ever searched for something on Amazon and the next time you went to your Facebook page, you saw an ad for that very same product? That’s re-targeting.”
You can also “paint word pictures” of them using and benefiting from your product or service.
Be authentic & sincere. They will be interested in you and what you have to offer only when they know you are interested in them.
Put yourself in their shoes and talk about them, their situation, desires, pains, etc.
They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.
Write like YOU speak.
Authenticity and sincerity build trust and credibility. Tell the complete story about what makes you and your product or service unique.
Avoid platitudes and exaggerations like the plague.
You don’t have to just tell the good, tell some bad as well.
Every product or service will not be the right fit for everyone. Admit it right up front. Stating what you can’t do builds trust and alleviates unpleasant problems down the road.
I’d rather lose the sale right up front and build a reputation of integrity than lose a customer and my reputation after the sale due to disappointment.
4. Provide Proof
Testimonials are a great source of proof, but always use specifics instead of generalizations.
Testimonials NEED to be authentic, truthful, and from specific and verifiable sources. A video testimonial from one of your current clients is the strongest kind. Putting a human face behind your product or service gives you credible authority.
Specifics – Does it take several weeks to see results or 19 days?
Explain how – Clearly and carefully explain how your product or service does what it does.
There are dozens of ways to provide proof once we sit down and Ask the Right Questions.
Caveat: Get in the habit of under promise – over deliver; no one will ever ask you to prove an understatement
5. ALWAYS have a Call to Action and/or ask for the close.
Amplify the appeal for the call to action with some sort of Risk Free Guarantee and clarify exactly what the guarantee looks like.
Again, give them a frame-of-reference they can clearly picture in their head.
Every client or prospect wants their needs and desires met and a solution to their problem.
They buy solutions or benefits. They want to be led by someone they trust.
Trust = Competence + Character
