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A scary thought! But chances are, it's true. Think of a time when you clicked on a link to a website you thought you might be interested in, and soon clicked the “back” button. Or glanced at a brochure for a product you might have benefited from, then for some reason tossed it away. Or invited someone in for a sales presentation, then crossed them off your list. I'll bet that little exercise wasn't too hard! If you're like most of us, you do these things all the time. And every time you do, some company loses a sale. But do they know it? Do you tell them? Of course, you may tell the salesperson later that they lost the sale, but do you tell them the real reason why? Many of these companies could have sold you their product or service, if their website, marketing literature or sales presentation hadn't let them down. You had a need, and you thought this company might offer something that could meet that need. You were interested in what they had. You were a real prospect. But they lost the sale. Is it because their actual product or service was deficient? Or did you really find a better deal elsewhere? Perhaps. But I'll bet that much of the time, it wasn't the product, service or deal that turned you off. It was the presentation. Isn't that right? These companies, then, are letting sales slip through their fingers because of deficient sales and marketing materials (including websites and in-person presentations). And I'm sure they can't afford these daily losses. Why do they let it happen, then? Because they don't know. Even if they know their sales are poor, they don't know where to place the blame, or how to stop the bleeding. We can feel sorry for these marketers — innocent victims of their own ignorance. And in this economy, chances are they're really hurting. Poor fools. But how do you know you're not one of them? 
And if you are, what can you do about it?
How I learned the secret That's where I come in. My name is David Walker. As I mentioned in my email, I've been a business writer for over a quarter of a century. One way I landed copywriting assignments, early on, was to write a free critique of a prospect's literature. (No, I don't do that any more — don't ask!) This forced me to critically examine all kinds of sales and marketing materials, looking for flaws which I could then offer to fix.Fortunately for me, in the materials I reviewed the bad far outweighed the good. What the books say is true — much marketing material is truly awful, most of the rest is mediocre, a small portion is good, and the few really great pieces stand out like sparkling gems in a huge stinking pile of . . . oops, keep it clean, Walker! This made it easy for me to get copywriting jobs. And it's good news for you, too, because the chances are overwhelming that your own marketing materials offer vast opportunities for improvement. If you know how to improve them. And improvements in the effectiveness of your sales and marketing materials will translate directly to your bottom line. Isn't that right? As I read, reviewed and wrote countless marketing pieces, a pattern slowly fell into place. All the myriad flaws I encountered could be placed in a relatively small number of categories. How many? Well, I could lump them into fewer, or split them into more, but I finally settled on ten. This was not arbitrary. The flaws really fit quite neatly into ten categories. I'm saying there are basically ten types of ways a marketing piece can fail. Or, to turn that around, there are ten things it may have to do right to succeed. Ten tasks it may have to accomplish. Ten things it may have to sell, in order to do its job of selling whatever it is you're trying to market. These are what I call the Ten Selling Tasks. Notice that I said "may?" several times here — may have to accomplish, may have to sell. Not every piece has to accomplish all ten tasks. In fact, few do. But every piece has to accomplish some of these tasks. If it fails to accomplish any of those tasks which it should, it fails to do its job as effectively as it could.
My book will teach you . . .
These principles can be applied to . . .
The next step It's simple. Just click on the “Buy Now!” button. You'll be on your way to astonishing new insights into why your sales and marketing materials are letting you down . . . and how to fix them.But I want you to feel comfortable with this purchase. Even though the sum is only $44.95, I wouldn't want you to take the plunge until you've satisfied yourself that it's going to be worth your while. So please take your time. Read excerpts from the book. Read the testimonials, to see what other marketers have had to say about it. Crunch the numbers in your budget spreadsheet to see if you can afford the $45 investment outlay. Make some assumptions about the percentage increase in revenue you might achieve, and calculate the ROI. Go further! It's a pretty big step. So ask yourself whether you really need better sales, or whether you can get by just fine with what you have. Discuss the issue with your colleagues. Bring it up at the next board meeting. After all, many companies continue with mediocre sales throughout their entire existence, however long or short that may prove to be. Why shouldn't you? And if all these deliberations take you so long that you wind up losing even more sales before you come back here and buy the book . . . well, that's okay too. I won't mind a bit. I'll still be here, helping those who are a bit quicker to realize what they need. Trust me on that. David Walker Author, The Ten Selling Tasks of Sales and Markeitng Materials |
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| Copyright © 2003-2006 Download Press. All Rights Reserved. http://sellingtasks.com Credits: book publisher: Download Press, web site design: WebGrow, copywriting: Write for Business |
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