That's damned brilliant and I'm not kidding, Jay.

No, there's absolutely nothing about a sales page that's intrinsically contrary to a long term, positive, productive, satisfying relationship with a customer - from both sides.

Everything that Michel and some others stand by has better than 100 years of history behind it and is recently, almost daily validated.

Most of the 'players' in marketing, the big ones, are in it for the long haul. They aren't stupid people. They know what works to move product, minimize returns and establish a rep for delivering quality to their markets.

"You are not your market".

An example of what I'm talking about is the Rohletters business, More, Inc. They sell in excess of a million dollars a year in get rich quick information. Some of their customers have been with them for over ten years. Some outsiders think very little of them for the product they put out, but their market loves them. If not, they get their money back. Their price points range from around $20.00 to over $8,000.00.

We're not talking a few thousand dollars in this business of direct response or, more specifically, Web response. People don't generally succeed by accident. The direct response industry topped two Trillion dollars last year and it is projected that it will grow at a rate of 9% through 2004. That includes infomercials, direct mail etc. and the figure comes from the Direct Marketing Association.

My business partner and I have a bunch of Web sites. I don't make that number or our URL's public. Six of those sites are used for testing.

This is not a business of logic. It's a business built on what works, not what makes sense. It's built on what the market does and not on what the market says it will do. It's built on results. It's built on testing. It's built on small moves - tweaking more so than on radical shifts of paradigm. It's built on following the money. It's built by imitating genius rather than inventing mediocrity to paraphrase. This business comes to us from generations and generations ago.

I started selling in my teens, over 30 years ago. A turning point for me was when I sold fire extinguishers later in my sales career, door-to-door. The demonstration was this. I would walk in with a catalog case - pregnant briefcase. I would pull out a frying pan, a can of lighter fluid and a box of wooden matches. I would remove one match from the box, hand the box and the match to the prospect and while I was talking, squirt lighter fluid in the pan. It just took a few seconds. Then, I would tell the customer to light the match and throw it in the pan. They would. Then I would just tap the button on the fire extinguisher and the fire was out. Demo over and time for the pitch.

Now, does any of that make so much as a modicum of common sense to anybody? First, they would let me, a total stranger in their house. Then they would follow my direction to throw a match in the pan knowing fully that if they did that, there would be an open fire in the middle of their living room floor.

Do you think that if I interviewed any of those prospects or if I acted on reason I would have ever made a sale? No. If I had acted in accordance with what the market would have reported, I wouldn't have taken the job. Let's see what a survey might look like.

Would you, under any circumstances, let a total stranger into your home?
How about a stranger carrying a big case?
What would you do if there were a stranger in your living room who told you it was ok to have an open fire in a frying pan, on the floor? And that you should light a match to start that fire, so it was totally under your control - would you follow that stranger's instruction? Would you then give him your credit card?

You know where this is going. You know they bought. You know it isn't logical. But it worked.


Peter Stone

Jay,

I didn't say that my clients would like it - I said they would find it acceptable.

And no, screaming-in-yer-face copy will not work in a UK market of consultants selling to other businesses where it is longish sales process, and where there may be a number of influencers and decision makers contributing to the decision to buy.

What's more important in this scenario, in my humble opinion, is to list-build, rather than try and sell off-the-page. The conversion comes from educating the market about what you do and how that helps them, plus making them aware of all your offers, not just one. The ezine has to be instrinsically valuable.

In this equation, persuasive copy is still necessary, but it has to be weighed against credibility in a culture that is averse to anything overly salesy.

That's my feeling about it. If you want the likes of Whitbread, Comet, The Royal Mail and so on to buy from you, then I don't think a salesletter style site is going to do it somehow.

First of all, I really liked the letter. Very motivating. But, there wasn't enough in there to combat the "too good to be true" feeling.

You document Michael's results, but a system like this should be duplicatable. Where's the endless list of people documenting their own success with the system?

I didn't feel there was enough there to assure me that this system is different from other option systems out there.

Finally, a 27 day guarantee seems awfully short and weak. A 6 guarantee that says "Try it. Trade (for real or on paper) and if your results aren't at least 5 times greater than the cost of the system, I'll buy it back from you."

Finally, I got a bit confused about his illness and his trip to (China?) and the bookstore. Was this before he was sick or after he was getting better? But, that's probably due to my quick read.

Just my .02.

-Keith Price
Developer of The Magic Bullet Software
Your Sales Copy Ammunition

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Peter --

Your post made me think of this snippet from John Caples:

• The following two life insurance headlines were judged by an advertising jury:[list:c41d75e881]What would become of your wife if
  something happened to you?
  
  Get rid of money worries for good!

The jury favored the first headline because it seemed to be the more logical for life insurance. Also because it is more altruistic and higher toned. Yet actual sales results showed that the second headline was more effective.[/list:u:c41d75e881]Tested Advertising Methods (4th ed. 1974) at p. 32.

This vividly illustrates your point: We need to look at what generates sales activity, and not what pleases us (or our wives or whomever).

Caples added: "[T]here is little sales value in fine writing. It is what you say that counts, not how you say it. A valid argument presented in blunt language will sway the reader more than a less valid argument beautifully presented." (pp. 32-33.)

GLB

Society votes with it's dollars. The more litterary value to a body of work, so much less the monetary value.


Peter

Peter,

What a strange comment, and clearly untrue in the broader context. At least, I don't think Shakespeare would have agreed with you. And he was a prolific playwright who introduced about 1500 new expressions into the English language. And got paid for doing so.

But before I get yet another brow beating, yes, I do appreciate that copy needs to be presented in plain language.

I'm not even sure why this was brought up as an issue, because I'm sure everyone here appreciates that copy must be delivered in plain language.

Jay

I am from India. We have a relatively more conservative society here, as compared to the more materialistic one in America.

I took to the direct sales letter approach like a fish in the water, because of my exposure to this type of sites and my awareness of the success that people are achieving with this. However I always struggle to convince my web designing clients about going with this approach. They have only seen and known about "looks great" web sites and hate me for the look of my web sites

How I solved this dilemma for myself is by adopting the sales letter approach with a go-soft attitude on making extreme comments (which smell of hyperbole). But I remain doubtful - may be I could get even more success with that element also thrown in

But one thing I can tell you. It is a wonderful feeling to study the face of my conservative friends when they see my web site for the first time