Finding Out What Customers Will Believe
Buying from an average retail store makes selling look like a simple transaction. A person goes into your store presupposing they will buy something. If they see an item they like or need, if the price is right, they will buy it. Most have already decided to make a purchase and they let you know this decision by walking in your door. Sometimes they aren’t even sure if you have something they want, but they come in anyway. They’re only disappointed if they don’t find anything that suits their fancy. Seems simple, doesn’t it?
Do you get the significance of that situation? Your only job is to anticipate what a customer may want and make sure you have it on a shelf to buy. If you have the right items in stock, you make a sale.
Compare that with the challenge you face with a direct mail piece. You will be offering your prospect something they are likely not interested in, aren’t looking for, don’t care about or have no need or desire for to acquire. And, you have to divert their attention from something they’re already doing and that they’re already interested in. That makes the challenge of selling by mail far greater than your average sales proposition.
How do you sell by mail successfully? First, you must have a product that will interest your prospect. That means you have something you can easily divert their attention onto, create a desire for, prove they have a need for and show there is a real advantage to owning it. And, you must create a desire to own it right now. Just a bit more complicated than an in-store retail sale.
Writing is the tool that will present your product and create a desire and a need for what you are offering. What you say in your letter or mail piece has to interest your prospect enough to keep them reading through to the close of the sale.
The secret to direct mail sales is the offer. That is what will cause people to act now.
Offers can be anything from cash incentives, a special price, a 2 for 1 offer, a free trial, a bill me later option, a free gift offer, a mystery gift for buying — anything you can add to sweeten the deal. The combination of product, price and special offer should create a deal the prospect would be crazy to walk away from.
Whatever offer you are making, it has to have an air of legitimacy to it. You have to present an offer that is believable. Offer too much and people will not trust the deal. It’s true that people love to feel they got a good deal and they might even enjoy taking advantage of someone, but they don’t trust someone who is offering too much. That sets off warning bells.
Here’s an example I experienced several years ago. A store bought a “lot” of dress shirts for 79 cents each, and offered them for $1 apiece to their customers. A great deal, but they did not sell. At $2, they didn’t sell. When they offered those same shirts at $5 each, they sold out immediately. It doesn’t matter that most shirts, even the expensive ones, can be made for pennies. Customers have the expectation that they’d never get such a deal unless something is wrong with the product. Whatever offer you present, it has to seem legitimate.
Make sure you give your prospects an offer they can believe. They will let you know when you’ve got it right.
Albert Saxon is president of Saxon Marketing, Springfield, MA.
