Chapter Forty-Five

Verbs Help You Sell

By Ben Hart

There was a famous study by the advertising pioneer Leo Burnett.

Burnett’s agency created some of the world’s most famous ad campaigns, including the Marlboro Man, the Jolly Green Giant and Charlie the Tuna.

Burnett once conducted a study of his failed ads to find out what they had in common.

What he found was that his failed ads used many more adjectives than his successful ads.

He found that his failed ads were using an average of 24.1% adjectives.

What is an adjective?

An adjective is a word that describes the noun. It describes the thing.

Take this sentence: “I want you to read this amazing book”

The word “amazing” is the adjective.  The thing or noun is the “book.”

But the most important word in this statement is the verb.  In this case the verb is “read.”

That’s the “call to action.”  Notice that the sentence is stronger without the adjective.

“Read this book” is stronger than “read this amazing book.”

Let’s look at some of the most famous speeches and writings – ones you know and have probably read.

Take Abraham Linclon’s Gettysburg address. It’s only 285 words long. And just 13.1% of the words adjectives.

Winston Chrchill’s “Fight them on the Beaches” speech contains just 12.7% adjectives.

Let’s look at some of the famous lines from Churchill’s speech.  He delivered this speech a few days before Hitler’s attack on Great Britain.

Churchill told his nation:

“We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”

That’s what Churchill told his people they were in for, days before the Nazi air assault on Britain.  A few days later, the Battle of Britain began and Britain survived.

When you are in a life and death struggle, you use verbs to inspire action and you strip out adjectives. 

Then there was Thomas Jefferson’s “Declaration of Independence,”  which contains just 11.7% adjectives:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by the Creator with certain unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

And then Jefferson launched into a description of the facts that led America’s Founding Fathers to decide to separate from Great Britain. 

Try reading the “Declaration of Independence” out loud.  It reads like a speech.

So what are these speeches and documents?

They are sales presentations, designed to persuade.  They aimed to rally their people to make great sacrifice. They all used verbs and nouns – not many adjectives. They were “calls to action.”

Think of John F. Kennedy’s most famous line:

“Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for  your country.”

Not “ask what you can do for your big country, or your great country, or your beautiful country.

Can you see how adding an adjective would have just killed this line – would have taken all the power out of it?

Or take one of Reagan’s most famous lines: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”

Now that’s a call to action.  But what if Reagan had inserted the word “awful” or “terrible” before the word wall? 

What if Reagan had said instead: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this awful wall.”

Adding the word “awful” would have killed the line completely, would have sapped it’s power.  We don’t need to be told the wall is awful.  The facts speak for themselves.  Adjectives weaken your statements.

You make an argument with facts.  And then, based on fact, you then make a call to action.”  You say what you must do based on this set of facts.

Facts and verbs persuade and sell.  Strike just about ever adjective from your letters and sales copy, and your sales letters and ads will be far more powerful.

Now, clearly you need some adjectives.

People want to know the color is of the car they are buying.  But the phrase the “car is red” is far stronger than the phrase “this red car.”

Can you see why?

Especially get rid of all your meaningless hype word  adjectives like “great, and amazing and tremendous and enormous.”

You build emotion not with adjectives, but with facts and verbs.

The Ten Commandments contain just 10.4% adjectives.  And the 10 Commandments are still read today – thousands of years later.

The Ten Commandments is the most famous text in human history.  Hardly any adjectives at all. The Ten Commandments are packed with verbs and nouns.

“Thou Shalt Not Steal.”  Not much fluff there.  No gilding the lily in that phrase.

How to Overcome Writers Block

The great British writer Rudyard Kipling had a formula for writing.

He said this formula helped him overcome writer’s block.  You can use this same formula.

Kipling’s formula is just six words. The words are:  Who, What, Where, When, Why and How.

These words will give you the roadmap for all your sales copy.  Tape these words to your computer. Have them in front of you when you sit down to write.  Memorize these six words.

Everything you write and say to your audience, to your prospect, to your customer must address “WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN WHY and HOW.”

It’s the skillful choreographing of facts and detail that inspire action.  But never leave it up to the reader or the listener to figure out what action you want them to take.  You must tell them.  You must spell it out, as Churchill did:

“We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”

Now that’s a call-to-action.  That’s verbal power.  That’s copy that is full of verbs and very few adjectives.  Churchill’s speech was just about the best sales copy anyone could ever write.

So strip out as many adjectives as you can from your copy, and put in verbs. If you do this, your sales letters and ads will pull many more orders, many more “yes” answers.

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