“…So we sent out this sales letter and nothing, I mean
NOTHING happened,” Michael whined over lunch. Our e-mail experience was the same but it didn’t cost as much!”

We asked him for a copy of the letter. Bill, a direct mail
guru, read it first and handed it to Anna. Anna, our resident copywriter
scanned it and handed it to me. I glanced at it and then set it aside as Bill
began giving Michael tips.

• “You have to go with the percentages,” Bill said. “ Whether it is e-mail or a real letter the odds are
  that out of every 100 business to business sales letters you send out 50 of
  them won’t get through the gatekeeper to the boss and of those, if you don’t
  follow up via phone the day after your letter arrives the chances are that only
  one person out of the hundred may respond. Here’s what you can do to increase
  the odds with a letter:”

• Make sure
  it gets opened. Look professional. Don’t try using pre-packaged “beautiful
  border” letterhead and envelopes. Too many business people have seen it.
  

• Use an
  odd-sized envelope. We’ve found over the years that bigger is better. A 6”
  x 9” envelope gets better response than your regular number 10 envelope. A 9”x
  12” does even better.

• Make it
  look personal. Screeners judge mailings on three criteria: credibility…of
  the offer and the person/company making it, relevance to the boss and the
  company and most importantly, whether or not it’s personal.

Anna jumped in right about there saying, “Don’t forget that
what you say and how you say it is just as important. If you want to get
results you have to think like customers and write in terms that grab ‘em. Try
to:

• Start
  with a hook. Make the reader want to read on by telling them that your
  offer is going to solve a nagging problem. Try to frame your offer in terms of
  what is most important to them. Solve their problem and you’ll get their
  attention.

• Talk
  benefits, not features. Don’t tell people what’s in it. Tell ‘em what’s in
  it for them. Folks buy your product or service based on what it will do for
  them. Everything else is secondary. Word things from their viewpoint, not
  yours. Do not start your letter with “I…” or “We of the (company name)” or
  “Because of (situation)”.

• Write as
  long as is needed. Short letters are not better. I’m sure Bill can tell you
  statistically what the difference is but I’ve found that you should make the
  letter long enough to make your offer in a clear concise manner. If it takes
  multiple pages, okay. Fact is, if the interest is there, it will get read.

There are a couple of tricks that
make it easy for people to keep reading. Separate paragraphs with at least two
lines. Short sentences and paragraphs will pull people through the letter. Use
bullets to give some rhythm and set off important points. Generally small dots
are best but you can use numbers, small graphics or even a logo if you like.

“You’re up,” said Anna, with a chuckle.

“See why I don’t like being in last position with these two
around? I said to Mike. In any case, there are a couple of things that have
worked for me.”

• Have a
  customer send the letter. Don’t get me wrong, you still have to write it
  and mail it and all that but if it looks like it’s coming from an officer of
  one company to one at another it will get opened, through the gatekeeper and
  acted on. One easy way to handle this is to put your offer in the form of the
  second page of a letter and then have the customer do a simple transmittal like
  “ Thought you might be interested in this deal….take a look and call
  (salesman’s name) over at (company name) if you’d like to hear more.”

• Never,
  ever send a letter without a PS. The single most important message in a
  letter belongs there. The hook that Anna spoke of belongs there. The offer that
  gets someone to take action belongs there. The PS is so important because of
  how people read letters. The first thing they look at is the inside address.
  Next they look at the signature to see if they recognize the person or the
  title. And then they look at the PS. If they are going to read your letter they
  will go back to the salutation. But if the PS is sufficient, they will take
  action based on the PS alone.

• Make it
  easy for the reader to take action. One approach that works well with
  senior executives is to allow them to initial on the letter and fax it back to
  you for details or an appointment date.

Let me know if you like sitting in on these conversations.

Jerry Fletcher, Networking Ninja