13th Nov 2007
Letter to the seller
When I first started studying the techniques of the great copywriters I came across a poem written by Victor O. Schwab in 1942; ‘Tell Me Quick and Tell Me True‘. It completely encapsulates the prospect’s point of view about any marketing material we send out. Here’s a few lines from this famous verse (which is pinned to the wall in my office):
So tell me quick and tell me true
(Or else my love to hell with you!)
Less - “how this product came to be”;
More - “what the damn thing does for me!”
And then I found a modern take on this in Jill Konrath’s letter to a seller.
It certainly struck a chord with me.
One of the tricks of copywriting is to imagine the person you are writing to. Understand what interests them; what sort of person they are; what problems they have; what dreams they have.
In fact some expert copywriters give their prospect a name and write specifically to that person; it makes the letter more personal and conversational.
And Jill’s letter adds an extra dimension to this visualisation of your prospect. Because if you can tell what sort of day your prospect is probably experiencing, what pressures they’re under then your letter, email or telephone call is more likely to stay focused and on track.
And that’s good news for you, because you get a clear message across, and it’s good news for your prospect because they get to understand more quickly how you can make life a little easier for them.
And if you don’t know what the day-to-day pressures of your prospective customers are - why not ask some of your existing customers? If nothing else it will show you take an interest in their welfare and will help cement your business relationship with them even more. (If you’d like to tell me what your working day is like I’m a good ‘listener’ :). Use my blog contact form or leave a comment below).
By the way if your target market is big companies I highly recommend Jill’s book: Selling To Big Companies
. I have a copy in my reference library and give copies away to my clients who target the corporates.
~ Carol Bentley
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