Any Tips On Doing "Sales Detective Work?"

picklebreath · **Any Tips On Doing "Sales Detective Work?" -** 06-27-2008, 05:16 PM

What kind of sales detective work do you do before writing your copy?

thanks

Andy Catsimanes · **Re: Any Tips On Doing "Sales Detective Work?" -** 06-27-2008, 05:34 PM

Here's two things I've heard the original "sales detective" say that I think I've frequently overlooked.

Talk to sales and customer support people, and...

Talk to customers.

Too often, we just have the client fill out a questionnaire, lurk on a few forums, then think we know why people buy.

But there's no substitute for speaking with real people, live if you can, or at least over the phone or even email if that's all that's possible.

Find out what complaints people have when they ask for a refund. If there are real sales people, find out where in the pitch, they know they've got a sale. It's not always what your client thinks.

If you can't do those things, conduct a survey.

Now that's not always possible, but if you can access those resources, you'll be doing the copy and your client a great service.

Phil Spinelli · **Re: Any Tips On Doing "Sales Detective Work?" -** 06-27-2008, 05:44 PM

Also, you can even call the company selling the product, and act like a customer, maybe even give them a hard time.

Travis_Lee · **Re: Any Tips On Doing "Sales Detective Work?" -** 06-27-2008, 07:19 PM

Here's a 'trick' I sometimes use. I go to the companies best salesperson, and have them give me their pitch on their product/service as if I was their ideal prospect. I record it, then have it transcribed. You'll get some awesome blocks of copy from this. Copywriting is just salesmanship in print, so use their best sales person to write a ton of the copy for you.

Ricky Breslin · 08:04 PM

If you take what you do seriously you can do what we do...

Attached you'll see survey we did for our new wig making product.

On the initial survey to our main list we got 1,143 in-depth replies. Here's the 6 questions we asked...

1. How likely are you to purchase my Wig Training System?

2. What is the single most important factor in your decision to buy our Wig Training System?

3. There are two ways I can make the Lace Front Wig Training System. I can create the 5 DVD's with 5 Workbooks and show you the entire process. Or, I can give you the DVD's, workbooks, and all the tools you need... but this will increase the price. How would you like my Wig Training System delivered?

4. Are you interested in learning how to make a lace front wig from start to finish with no shortcuts?

5. At what price would you question the value of my Wig Training System?

6. After you buy my Lace Front Wig Training system, what will you do with your new skill?

If you look at the other JPG I attached, you'll see the results from the survey. You think we got good information from this survey? You bet.

I didn't know 50% of the people didn't even really KNOW what Lace Wigs were. So now with this information we know that we'll need to somewhat educate our audience which will be easy.

Then, once we got them on our sub-list specifically for Lace Wig, we sent an even MORE detailed survey. And as you can see in the JPG 572 people filled that out.

You wouldn't believe the information we got in these surveys. It's so important to do this. And not just for the money, but to make SURE you're able to create what the customer wants.

We're obsessed with making our customers happy and we don't care what we like. We make what they WANT. And we don't sit around wondering what they want, we ask them DIRECTLY.

A few of the ways we have a constant flow of products to make without thinking...

1. We place a thank you call the day after an order is placed. We do this for 2 reasons. The first is to let them know it shipped and thank them. The second is to ask them 2 questions. What hair style would you like filmed next and WHY did you buy. We straight up ask em'.

2. We have an autoresponder e-mail that focuses JUST on asking the soft-lead what they want filmed.

With just those two things we have so much data it's crazy. Bottom line, you need to constantly ask direct questions and have a steady flow of information flowing at all times that makes questions like this a non-issue.

If you click on the in-depth screen shot I attached and zoom in you can see the %'s. Now you tell me, you think you'd be able to make intelligent decisions with that data?

Yyyyyyyyyyyyyyuuuuuup.

Travis_Lee · 08:39 PM

Who's not taking what they do seriously??? You've got resources, use them. There is absolutely no need to recreate the wheel.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ricky Breslin

If you take what you do seriously you can do what we do...

Attached you'll see survey we did for our new wig making product.

On the initial survey to our main list we got 1,143 in-depth replies. Here's the 6 questions we asked...

1. How likely are you to purchase my Wig Training System?

2. What is the single most important factor in your decision to buy our Wig Training System?

3. There are two ways I can make the Lace Front Wig Training System. I can create the 5 DVD's with 5 Workbooks and show you the entire process. Or, I can give you the DVD's, workbooks, and all the tools you need... but this will increase the price. How would you like my Lace Front Wig Training System delivered?

4. Are you interested in learning how to make a lace front wig from start to finish with no shortcuts?

5. At what price would you question the value of my Lace Front Wig Training System?

6. After you buy my Lace Front Wig Training system, what will you do with your new skill?

If you look at the other JPG I attached, you'll see the results from the survey. You think we got good information from this survey? You bet.

I didn't know 50% of the people didn't even really KNOW what Lace Wigs were. So now with this information we know that we'll need to somewhat educate our audience which will be easy.

Then, once we got them on our sub-list specifically for Lace Wig, we sent an even MORE detailed survey. And as you can see in the JPG 572 people filled that out.

You wouldn't believe the information we got in these surveys. It's so important to do this. And not just for the money, but to make SURE you're able to create what the customer wants.

We're obsessed with making our customers happy and we don't care what we like. We make what they WANT. And we don't sit around wondering what they want, we ask them DIRECTLY.

A few of the ways we have a constant flow of products to make without thinking...

1. We place a thank you call the day after an order is placed. We do this for 2 reasons. The first is to let them know it shipped and thank them. The second is to ask them 2 questions. What hair style would you like filmed next and WHY did you buy. We straight up ask em'.

2. We have an autoresponder e-mail that focuses JUST on asking the soft-lead what they want filmed.

With just those two things we have so much data it's crazy. Bottom line, you need to constantly ask direct questions and have a steady flow of information flowing at all times that makes questions like this a non-issue.

If you click on the in-depth screen shot I attached and zoom in you can see the %'s. Now you tell me, you think you'd be able to make intelligent decisions with that data?

Yyyyyyyyyyyyyyuuuuuup.

Andy Catsimanes · **Re: Any Tips On Doing "Sales Detective Work?" -** 06-27-2008, 07:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Travis_Lee

Who's not taking what they do seriously??? You've got resources, use them. There is absolutely no need to recreate the wheel.

You obviously take things seriously, Travis, even if they're not aimed at you...

Cartoonman · **Re: Any Tips On Doing "Sales Detective Work?" -** 06-27-2008, 08:51 PM

Before I ever consider writing a sales letter I want to know there's a hungry market there who will buy the product.

From there my first research is getting to know my prospect.

Who are they?

How old?

What kind of problems do they have?

What are their deepest fears and desires?

What have they bought recently?

Why did they buy it?

What did they like about the sales process?

What did they dislike about the sales process?

You can get all this information by calling half a dozen prospects on the telephone or by talking to them in person.

I want to get into the minds of my prospects as much as possible.

I also research the product (usually information products).

I'll read every written word in the product and listen to every minute of every audio.

(I write bullets as I go).

Often I'll start talking to prospects and trying to sell them on buying this product as I'm learning about it.

What I'm looking for is the way to express benefits in the products that gets people's attention.

What makes them stop and say "Really...how does that work?" or

"Really...how much does it cost?" or

"Wow...that's what I need!" or something along those lines.

Once I can talk to a real live prospect and have them begging to buy the product from me I know I've done enough basic research to write the sales letter.

Ultimately this process is based on getting an intimate knowledge of the product and of your prospect.

Obviously the more you understand the real live sales process for selling a product or service the more likely you are to be able to sell it in print.

There's nothing new about going through this process of course.

J Walter Thompson wrote about getting to know your prospect in this ad in 1924.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh

MusicCityCopy · **Re: Any Tips On Doing "Sales Detective Work?" -** 06-27-2008, 10:06 PM

Ricky's post is so good.

I can't believe he takes (or has) the time to walk us through this stuff with his own specific examples and data.

Some people say "talk to your customers" and then they give some good advice.

Ricky says, "here's how we talk to our customers, here's our data, here's what we learned, here's how you can do it step by step."

Man, Ricky, if you put out that "Confessions of an Internet Marketer" product (or whatever you choose to call it) I will do everything I can...I will wedge that thing into my budget with a crowbar if I have to.

The man is a marketing samurai.

You da man, Ricky.

(Oh, and Andrew C. is also quite the ninja himself when it comes to great usable tips.)

vdmp · **Re: Any Tips On Doing "Sales Detective Work?" -** 06-27-2008, 10:42 PM

I want to know so much about my client's customers that they feel like family or at least good friends. It starts by drilling my client to extract as much as I can out of them. It does us no good to keep it bottled up in their heads.

I usually end up being at least partially familiar with their market so I can find out where their customers frequent. I read what they read. I watch what they watch. I go where they go.

That may be basic stuff and the best practices usually are because they become habits. When it comes to what influences their customers, I just want to be the ball.

"Just be the ball, be the ball, be the ball. You're not being the ball Danny." -- Ty Webb (Chevy Chase), Caddyshack.

Cheers