by Author and Sales Speaker Dean Lindsay

Sales letters can be a great tool for building a successful business.  In a sales letter you can give a complete sales presentation to thousands at the convenience of your prospect. 

But will they read it?  Big question.

Will they DO anything once they have read it?  Even bigger question. 

I have been worked with several clients on sales letter campaigns and have done lengthy research on designing powerful sales letters that get results.

 Successful sales letters appeal to a need or desire and describe how "good" the prospect is going to feel after he or she has purchased your product or service.  The key is to make your sales letter so interesting, so attractive and packed with the PROGRESS you're offering, that the prospect can't resist reading it all the

  way through.

Get the reader’s ATTENTION

Build INTEREST in how you provide progress

Arouse DESIRE for the benefits of your product or service

Initiate ACTION from the reader.

Here are nineteen tips for getting the most out of a sales letters campaign.

1.  Always, always, always back up your mailings with phone calls to the prospects you sent the mailing to.

2.  Know your customers needs. 

What pain are they experiencing? You must know your prospects to write an effective sales letter to them. Poll your customers.  Know their general age, their dreams, their fears, and anything that relates somehow to your product.

3.  Collect the good sales letters you find and create a file.

When you write a sales letter, flip through some different sales letters until an idea forms in your head about what to write for your project. 

4.  Don't rush through the writing process. 

The first draft of a sales letter is rarely the best it could be. Keep improving it through test marketing.  Send it out to a 50 to 200 prospects and see how it pulls.  Keep editing until you have the letter that consistently gets action from the prospect.

5.  Your sales letter needs an attention grabbing, targeted headline.  Focus the headline on the pain or motivations of your prospects.  The length of the headline is not important. 

6.  Put the most newsworthy point of your message in the first sentence after the headline to sell the concept that reading this letter will be progress for the prospect.

7.  Write a sales letter like you normally speak.

Personalize your talk in a conversational and comfortable, manner.

8.  Sales letters that pull in the most sales are almost always two pages with a 1 1/2 space between the lines.

9.  Sales letter should always be on your letterhead paper and include your logo and business motto or slogan.

10.  Any quality brochure or circular you include will reinforce what you say in the sales letter.

But, if the brochures look cheap, they won’t complement your sales letter and you shouldn't be using them. 

11.  Longer sales letters pull better than the shorter ones.

12.  Break up the "work" of reading by using short, punchy sentences, underlining important points, with the use of sub-headlines, indentations and even the use of a second color.

13.  Sprinkle several subheadings throughout your letter when you need to change the direction of your message.

14.  Attempt to deliver the entire message to your prospect by them reading the headline, the subheadings, the bold print, the underlined phrases and the P.S.

15.  Offer a free report. 

'The Ten Most Important This' or 'The Seven Way to Whatever' or 'How to Avoid the Eight Biggest Mistakes of ...' It must be good stuff that educates, something that will benefit the reader.

16.  Include some sort of ordering coupon.

This coupon has to be simple and as easy for the prospect to fill out and return

to you. 

17.  A return reply envelope will increase your response. Try it both ways- pre-stamp and not or better yet talk to the post office about creating a customized business reply card.

18.  Offer a total satisfaction guarantee plus a free gift       for "just trying the program out" if they should ask for a refund. Yes, you may have to make an occasional refund, but your guarantee could sky rocket your sales overall because there is no risk in doing business with you.  Make the guarantee a major part of your sales pitch or even make it part of your headline.

19.  Include testimonials.  Get satisfied customers and clients to write testimonial letters.  Offer to write the letter for them or offer them a free gift for their efforts.

If I can be more help, let me know.

Be Progress.

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About the Author:

Dean Lindsay is the author of The Progress Challenge : Working and Winning in a World of Change and Cracking the Networking CODE (available at www.DeanLindsay.com). An authority on harnessing human potential and creating authentic business growth, Dean Lindsay is an engaging and highly sought-after business consultant and speaker. He is an active member of the Viktor Frankl Institute of Logotherapy and the American Society of Training and Development.

Dean has served as Guest Lecturer to International Customer Management Institute as well as both the UCLA and University of Dallas MBA programs. He is a Cum laude graduate of the University of North Texas and serves on the Executive Advisory Board for UNT’s Department of Marketing and Logistics and the Board of Directors of the UNT Alumni Association.

Dean’s first book, Cracking the Networking CODE: 4 Steps to Priceless Business Relationships is Recommended Reading by United Professional Sales Association and Profit magazine. Watch Video Clips of Dean in action and sign up for Dean's Progress Report newsletter at www.DeanLindsay.com