How to Win The Sale

By Ben Hart 

The single most persuasive word 

Again, contrary to conventional advertising wisdom, the most persuasive words in selling are not “free” and “new.”

The word “BECAUSE” is far more persuasive.

Why?

BECAUSE this word signals to the reader that you have reasons for making the claims you are asserting

BECAUSE this word instantly lets your reader know that you have facts to back up what you say . .

BECAUSE this word shows your reader that you have put thought into your letter.

BECAUSE is a great word for building credibility. 

The word BECAUSE signals that you have facts to support what you are saying.  “Hire me BECAUSE . . .” is so much stronger than just leaving it as “HIRE ME!”

And adding an exclamation mark does not strengthen the argument one bit.

Facts sell.  And reasons sell . . . BECAUSE facts and reasons persuade.  The word “BECAUSE” tells your reader that the rest of the sentence will be “a reason why” what you claim is true, or a reason why I am asking you to take some action. 

Suppose your 10-year-old child made this request: “Mom, can I come home later tonight and miss dinner?” 

Your response would not be, “Sure, no problem.  Come home whenever you can.”  It would either be to say “No, absolutely not.  Get home right now and start your homework.”  Or, you might come back with a very skeptical, “Why?”—knowing your answer would still be “No.”

Your child would have a far greater chance of getting an immediate “yes” if he asked the same question this way: “Mom, can I come home after dinner tonight BECAUSE I’ve already finished my homework and BECAUSE Jimmy’s mom has invited me to have dinner there with them.”

The word BECAUSE is very disarming BECAUSE this word tells you that your child is about to follow his seemingly out-of-the-ordinary request with a set of reasons and facts that can easily be checked out. 

You might still answer “NO” after hearing his reasons and facts.  You might indeed have a stronger set of facts and reasons for denying his request.  But the conversation is now engaged.  And your son has a far greater chance of getting a “yes” answer from you . . . all BECAUSE he immediately followed his request with the word “BECAUSE.”

The #1 mistake

made by writers of sales letters 

Facts, reasons, logical arguments, fascinating details, and a great story all help you sell. 

The fastest way to guarantee your letter is thrown in the trash is to use the typical empty hype-words amateur writers use all the time in their sales letters.

You know these words well—words like “amazing,” “incredible, “awesome,” the “best ever,” “colossal,” and the “greatest.”

With compelling facts, reasons, and a good story to tell, there’s no reason to use these kinds of meaningless hype words.  But these hype words are used so often that not only are they not attention-getting in the least, they have actually become trigger words that cause a reflex action in readers to stop reading immediately.

Most amateur writers of sales letters think raising the volume and screaming at the reader is the best way to make sure the reader listens—when actually it’s the surest way to cause your prospect to tune out.

Good copywriting does not imitate the approach of street corner huckster.

The best salesmen are those who have a knack for selling without their customers even realizing they are being sold.  The instant your prospect sees that she is being sold, the truth detector machinery in the brain kicks onto full alert and your reader becomes a super skeptic.

Who are you more likely to hire to do a job?

The fellow who is trying to sell you hard, the fellow who seems desperate for work?  Or the fellow who does not need the job because he has plenty of business already, the fellow who must clear a spot in his schedule for you because his services are in such demand?

When Stephen King writes, does he use a lot of hype to generate reader interest?  Does he scream at the reader?  Does he say, “Okay reader, now get ready for the scary part, because this is going to be really, really scary”?

No, he simply tells the story.  Readers are pulled along by the fascinating details, the mystery, the intrigue, the suspense, and the storyline.  This is how Stephen King gets people to stay up all night reading one of his 600-page books. 

Great writers know how to hold the attention of readers without the empty hype.  Study Stephen King and how he holds your attention.  You will then write much better letters.

Remember, Stephen King is a salesman too.  He sells books for a living, and he’s sold a lot of them.  But it does not matter one bit to his customers that Stephen King is selling them books, because we are completely
immersed in the story he’s telling, and the fascinating details.  We want him to keep writing books . . . so we can buy more.

The most important rule in sales

Obviously, we need to be completely honest and candid in all our business and financial dealings simply as a moral imperative, even if honesty did not work.  That should go without saying. 

But that’s not why I’m saying, “Scrupulous honesty is the most important rule in all sales.”

The great news for marketers is that honesty is one of the most powerful and effective sales tools. 

The reason is: the American people have become experts at immediately detecting scams and false claims because they have now seen so many.  An exaggeration, a claim that seems the least bit suspect, will cause your readers to dismiss everything else you have to say. 

In fact, they will just stop reading as soon as they sense they are targets of a snow job.

That’s why I am sure in my sales letters to clearly state, even highlight, my weaknesses and shortcomings right up front.

Why do I do this?

Well, for one thing it’s probably readily apparent to anyone who meets me what my strengths and weaknesses are.  It would be a completely futile exercise to try to present myself as something different than what I am. 

Another reason to admit your weaknesses up front in any sales presentation, is that it establishes your credibility.  It’s disarming.  You will immediately see your listeners’ guard come down. 

And then I will turn my readily admitted weaknesses into strengths.

For example, I usually tell audiences of aspiring entrepreneurs that “I can’t hold down an office job in a big company for long, which is why I had no choice but to go into business for myself.”

Who would ever admit such a thing?

The audience’s ears immediately perk up.  They want to hear more.  After that shocking admission, I then say something like . . .

The truth is, most successful entrepreneurs would be fired instantly from most jobs at big established companies . . . because they like doing things their own way.  They don’t have much patience for bureaucracy and meetings.  They are men and women of action.  They don’t wait for orders from headquarters.  They hear the gunfire and ride to the sound of the guns.  They don’t wait for the committee to decide what needs to be done.  When the entrepreneur sees a problem, he tackles it, instantly. 

The entrepreneur is not worried about covering his rear end.  He just wants to get the job done, and done now.  Unfortunately, this is not a personality that is appreciated in most large corporate bureaucracies.  Corporate bureaucracies can’t act quickly, which is why they always hire consultants like me to do what needs to be done . . . because I can be easily fired.  And I don’t mind one bit.  As a consultant, especially as a marketing consultant, my entire job is to solve a marketing problem and then get fired and move on to solve someone else’s marketing problem.

Admitting your weaknesses up front makes everything else you have to say more believable.  Admitting your weaknesses and shortcomings also helps define who you are and what you do, why you are different from your competitors . . . who will never admit their weaknesses.

We’re not big, established, famous, and prestigious.  But because we’re small and new, we’re more flexible; we’ll work harder for your business; your hard-earned dollar will go a lot further with us; we’ll care more about you; and your account won’t be handled by an inexperienced junior account manager.  You’ll be dealing everyday with the head of this company, who has more than 19 years experience in this industry.

Avis deployed this ad strategy brilliantly against Hertz, which is the bigger car rental company.  Avis admitted in its ad campaign that, “We’re #2, so we’ll try harder.”

What an endearing ad campaign.  Plus, Americans love an underdog.  Avis is unlikely ever to pass Hertz as the biggest car rental company.  But being #2 isn’t bad.  Most of us would take it.

So, not only is honesty a moral imperative; it’s an extremely effective sales strategy. 

Think of this truth this way. 

Your customers and clients are not idiots.  They are intelligent people who hear sales pitches all the time.  They know when they are being conned.  When a salesman walks into their office or when a direct mail pitch arrives in the mail, their immediate reaction is to get rid of the salesman as quickly as possible and to pitch the direct mail piece in the trash.  That’s always your potential customer’s first impulse.

But obvious honesty and candor where you admit weakness instantly diffuses skepticism.  The skeptic’s antennae start to go down.  Your prospective customer starts to like you and believe what you have to say—that is, until you make a claim that appears to be hype. 

The surest path to success in
marketing and in business 

Focus on helping other people achieve success.

The only way to persuade someone to buy is to offer what she needs or what he is looking for.  It’s not about what you want.  Success in business and in sales lies in figuring out what others want and how to solve other people’s problems.

One reason I love marketing, sales, and business generally is that I am always forced to walk in the shoes of others—to put myself in their place when crafting my sales letters and presentations.

I have to figure out, “What can I do to solve their problem?  How can I help them?  How can I be of true service?  How can I be a godsend to them?”

Businesses fail because they focus on their own needs, their own goals, their own wants, their own timetables . . . instead of on what their customer wants.

So be a problem solver.  More on point, be a solver of other people’s problems.

If you focus on helping others, most of your problems will fix themselves along the way.

Forgetting this seemingly obvious principle is the #1 reason for failure in marketing, in business, and in life.

Raise the level of your guarantee 

It’s no longer sufficient simply to include a money-back guarantee with your offers.  There is nothing remarkable about a money-back guarantee, since all marketers include it.

Dullsville.

The challenge is showing your reader that your guarantee means something, that it’s real.  This reminds me of the Chris Farley line from the movie “Tommy Boy”: “Look, if you want me to take a dump in a box and mark it guaranteed, I will.”

That’s about how much credence your readers place in the word “guaranteed” today.

How do you make your guarantee mean something?  How do you make your readers pay attention to your guarantee?

What’s required today is a super-charged guarantee—a guarantee, frankly, that requires brass balls (if you’re a guy).

Nordstrom’s guarantee is one of the most famous.

Nordstrom promises that you can return a Nordstrom product anytime and get a full refund, no matter how long you’ve had it, no matter how much you’ve worn it. 

There’s a story (probably an urban legend) about a guy who brought in a set of tires to Nordstrom, asking for a refund.  Nordstrom gave the refund even though Nordstrom has never sold tires.  Though this story is probably myth, the fact that this story is so well known just underscores the legendary fame the Nordstrom guarantee has achieved.

Everyone knows about the Nordstrom eye-popping guarantee.  The Nordstrom guarantee is so famous that it’s now part of the Nordstrom brand.  This extraordinary guarantee is what people think of when they think of Nordstrom.

The Nordstrom guarantee communicates far more than just that the purchase is “risk-free” to the customer.  This super-charged guarantee communicates that Nordstrom has confidence in the quality of its merchandise, and also that Nordstrom trusts its customers to treat Nordstrom fairly.  A relationship of trust is established.

Nordstrom is telling customers that the store is staking its entire business on the quality of its products and on customer satisfaction.  In a sense, Nordstrom has built its business and reputation on the attention-getting strength of its guarantee.

And what a brilliant marketing strategy this is, because without this memorable guarantee, Nordstrom would not stand out in people’s minds as any different from Nieman Marcus, Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, Fields, Saks Fifth Avenue, or a dozen other department stores that offer the same merchandise.  The stunning Nordstrom guarantee is what makes Nordstrom different.

I know an accountant who promises his customers that if they ever feel he has failed to save them at least double the cost of his fee on their income taxes versus what they would have paid if they had done their own taxes, he will refund his entire fee. 

This accountant has no shortage of clients.  As far as I know, he has never been asked for a refund.

One of the biggest challenges we sales letter writers have is to get our readers to read our entire letter—to hear the entire pitch.  One way to generate interest in your letter is to build your letter around a stunning guarantee that might read like this: 

This Letter Is Guaranteed

You might wonder: “How can a letter be guaranteed?”  It’s free anyway!

I don’t believe this guarantee has ever been made before.  So here’s how it works:

If you read my entire letter and if you feel, at the end, that it’s been a waste of your time, just let me know by writing a note on the back of this certificate and I will send you $20, or donate $40 to the Salvation Army, whichever you prefer.

   I am making this guarantee because I know you are very busy running your dry cleaning business. 

I also know that I am asking you to take a few minutes of your valuable time to consider what the program I’ve outlined here can do to help improve the marketing of your dry cleaning business.

Since I’m sending out about 400 of these invitations, this potentially puts me at risk for having to pay out $16,000.  But I’m not overly concerned because I’m confident you’ll agree that my letter was well worth reading, and because I trust that you have integrity and honor.

I also know that you are a fellow entrepreneur who almost certainly wants to improve the marketing side of your business.

                             Sincerely,

                             Ben Hart

Sure, there will be a few jerks out there who will request the $20.  But most people (98 percent or more) truly are people of honor and integrity.  Nordstrom would have gone out of business long ago if the average consumer had any interest in cheating the store.

Contrary to the impression we might have from the nightly newscasts, the wonderful truth is that the vast majority of people are decent honest hardworking folks who won’t take advantage of you and won’t try to cash in on your super-charged guarantee . . . unless you really are putting out a shoddy product.