Step One: Credentializer

The next section of your sales letter is your credentializer.

What does that mean?

Basically, it rules out all the other alternatives to buying your product. For example, this subhead is a great way to implement this strategy:

"WARNING! Don't Buy Any (X TOPIC)-Related Product
Unless They Meet The Following Criteria:"

Then you credentialize the purchase to where only YOUR product meets all the criteria.

You can also word it another way. I did this on my actiongrid.com sales letter. It goes something like this:

"Why I Have The Right To Teach You How To X"

Here's an excerpt from the Action Grid letter's credentializer:

Why I Have The Right To Teach You How To Create, Promote and Deliver Your Own Info Products and Multi-CD Packages

Who else has produced and sold as many info products as I have on the Internet and been involved since the pre-www days, and has the videos, checklists, tools, templates and the forums to support you and any questions you may have as you follow the instructions in the course?

No one. Period.

Fact: I have created and sold 35 products online.

Fact: I’m known around the industry

Fact: This product was an enormous undertaking in order to make everything as close to brain-dead simple as I could make it.

Why did I create this course? Because the devil is in the details. And if you don’t know the details, it can drive you almost insane.

I not only have worked out all the details for you, I’ve made it almost brain-dead simple to follow my steps and procedures using my trademarked Action Grid System.

The Action Grid is totally and completely unique. No one else has anything remotely resembling it. What I’ve done is broken the process down into discrete units and built action sequences around those units using steps you follow.

 
Step Two: Learn many different TYPES of dramatic offers

How To Use A Dramatic Offer
To Get People To Take Action

  • You can offer a free gift with purchase
  • You can offer no interest payments or financing
  • You can offer 12 months of payments with interest
  • You can offer a free sweepstakes entry to win a prize
  • You can offer a free initial consultation
  • You can offer the first one for 1 penny, dollar or pound
  • You can offer a free conference call
  • You can offer a two-fer – two for one
  • You can offer free bonuses if you buy before the deadline
  • You can offer a discount on another item when you buy one
  • You can offer free shipping
  • You can offer a free gift to everyone who comes in
  • You can offer a contest with purchase
  • You can offer a free examination
  • You can offer free delivery
  • You can offer a free 7 day or 30 day trial
  • You can offer a big discount when you commit to a monthly agreement
  • You can offer a big package of bonuses when you commit to a monthly contract
  • You can offer a free book, video, tape or report with or without a purchase
  • You can offer a “send no money now” trial
  • You can offer to invoice the customer
  • The offer of a free service
  • The offer of a free service with purchase
  • You can offer to send a product with an invoice
  • You can offer guaranteed approval credit

I go back to the highly effective offer Jim Wolverton and Joe Polish teach carpet cleaners: 

You get the most thorough cleaning ever or it’s free.

In my business, I often include several bonuses for immediate ordering. In the newsletter business, it’s common to offer a whole slew of free reports to get people to order right now.

The OFFER is often part and parcel with the big, bold promise. Little things like OFFERING PAYMENTS, the name of the free bonus you offer, the name of the product, the free bonuses given with purchase, the discounts, the incentives, the premiums, the offer of a free examination, a free trial, first one free, two-fer – ALL these methods can have a dramatic effect on your sales.

Here's a way you can use the
offer to boost profits

Use a dramatic free offer just to get people to try your service

A MAID SERVICE could offer: 

  • You get one room cleaned FREE!
  • Your second cleaning is FREE!
  • Your house cleaned – FREE!
  • (Special one-time only offer to new customers)
  • FREE window washing with 3 cleanings
  • Buy 3 get 1 room free

An AUTO TINT company could offer:

  • Free auto tint idea book
  • Buy 3 windows get 1 free
  • Do 1 car, get 1 free
  • Free car alarm with window tint
  • Free window tint with car alarm
  • Your driver’s side window tinted – FREE!
  • Free unique cup holder with window tint
  • Your car tinted with no payments for 30 days

A COMPUTER NETWORKING company could offer:

  • Free networking analysis
  • Free cable with appointment
  • Free installation
  • Free cable with every job
  • Your first computer networked FREE!
  • Free keyboard with every call
  • Free service call to new customers

An AIR CONDITIONING SERVICE company could offer:

  • 12 months no interest financing
  • Free indoor air quality testing
  • Free mold sample testing with any air conditioning service
  • NO payments for 30 days
  • Get your air conditioning fixed AND win a chance to putt for $100,000 in our summer sweepstakes. (See the chapter on sweepstakes for data on how to pull this off)
  • Free space saver heater with service call
  • Your heating fixed right the first time or our service is FREE!
  • You get a nice, warm, toasty house – guaranteed!
  • You get a warm, toasty house – or our service is free!
  • You get a warm house, no hassles, on time service and no surprises – guaranteed!
  • If we can’t fix it, you get a new one for our wholesale price.

Note: If you purchased the Turbo Booster Add On Pack, there are a bunch of customizable "guarantee" background graphics you can use in section #2. Just drop your text right on them. It'll save you lots of time cause they're done for you. In section #4, there are also customizable, multi-purpose buttons you can use. "Click here to order", "Click here to download"... you can use them any way you want. If you didn't get the Turbo Booster Add On Pack, you can order it here.

Where Will The People Come From
If You're A Local Business ? 

This is the thing everyone gets hung up on with Internet marketing.

They want to use the Internet to get new customers. Now, don’t get me wrong. It can happen. However, if you’re a local business, chances are people won’t be searching for your business online.

That means you use your web site as a sales vehicle and a follow-up machine. Not as a traffic generator. Where will the people come from?

1 - From your Yellow Page ads when you list your URL there
2 - From your newspaper ads when you list your URL there
3 - From your business cards when you list your URL there
4 - From your Val Pak or Money Mailer blasts when you list your URL there
5 - From your Welcome Wagon distribution when you list your URL there
6 - From postcard mailings to customers when you list your URL there
7 - From small classifieds designed to send people to your web site
8 - From the follow up emails you send to customers

Step Three: 8 killer ways to create URGENCY and prevent potential customers from sitting there doing nothing

To snag the most sales you can, you need to create an unquenchable sense of urgency.

You must give your customers a reason to act NOW! Discounted prices, extra bonuses… but always have a good, valid reason for what you are doing or you will lose credibility.

If you give a discount to the first 7 people just because you feel like it, you will lose credibility and it won’t be as effective.

I once wrote a sales letter offering a huge discount to anyone who bought in the next 72 hours. What was the reasoning behind that? Well my CPA didn’t communicate to me that I had franchise taxes due until three days before hand!

So that’s the reason I used. I owed a huge amount of taxes and didn’t want to pull the money out of savings. So I raised some extra cash by giving the discount. And it worked like a charm.

Think about that: if you offer digitally-delivered information products, you can discount the price pretty substantially and still raise good money. There are no production costs. (Or they're at least extremely low)

8 Killer Ways To Create A Sense Of Urgency And Generate
A Surge Of Excited Customers Anxious And Ready To
Jump On The Opportunity To Buy Your Product

1) “Limited run” – If for some reason you are only manufacturing
a certain amount of products, say so. And let your customers in on the reason why. This can create a frenzy of people who are fighting for that last spot.

This is good for packages where you wouldn't want to distribute too many so the market doesn't become saturated too fast. Reprint rights packages for example.

Just say that you only manufactured X number of products for Y reason, and they will be sold on a first come, first serve basis.

2) “Time deadline” – You could offer a discounted price or a special
bonus to all people who order before a certain time period.

“…and if you order before midnight tonight,
you also get __________.”

Now you need to always be true to the exact time or date of the deadline that you give. If you don’t, you’ll lose credibility.

3) “Your time” – You could offer a free 15 minute consultation, a free critique of your customer’s work, a free email voucher -- something FREE that includes an opportunity to work one-on-one with you -- to the first X number of people to buy.

As a reason for doing so, you could say something like “I don’t have the capacity to work with any more than 10 people. I’m just one person. More would be too much… etc…”

That's a true statement. You can't do 1,000 15 minute consultations!

4) “Damaged merchandise” – A successful way to kill two birds with one stone is to offer any returned or damaged merchandise for sale at a discounted price.

Of course make sure the products are still fully usable, but just be sure to say that there may be minor imperfections (bent pages, highlighted passages, etc…).

You clear out your damaged inventory and they get your product at a discount. It’s a win-win situation.

5) “Intro class” – I’ve always personally liked the idea of an intro course to show me the ropes of a new product. You could offer a free intro conference call if you order before X date

6) “Stack on the bonuses!” – This is pretty much the same as the time deadline method, but it’s way more dramatic.

A man named Wright Thurston is one of the top platform speakers in the world. And I saw him give the most incredible sales pitch. It was awe-inspiring! He just kept stacking more and more bonuses on top and lowering the price.

By the end he was so frantic, talking so fast, so out of breath, and had so many products in his arms I thought he was going to pass out and fall over!

Just keep stacking on the bonuses and dropping the price but only give the incredible deal to the people who order by X date or X time. Make them act IMMEDIATELY!

7) “Multi-Pay” – This is really effective, especially for the bigger
ticket products. Say something like “If you order by midnight tonight,
you can pay the $1,500 price in three installments of $500 per month!” And then add, “And if you decide to pay the whole price up front, we will knock off $203 and you’ll only pay $1,297!”

So offer the multi-pay for a limited time, but give them an incentive to pay for it all up front by discounting the price even more.

Many people have financial troubles as well, so it also helps to offer charging multiple credit cards. Many people have $300 remaining credit

on one card, only $70 on another, etc... If you allow them to separate your product cost between multiple cards, it will boost sales.

8) “Price Increase” – Most people love to save a buck or two. And a way to capitalize on this is to up the price at stated time intervals.

Maybe increase the price by a dollar every hour for 2 days. Or every 2 days the price goes up a hundred bucks (on a big ticket).

No one wants to pay more for a product than they have to. This can really encourage people to buy sooner rather than later. It can also knock the fence sitters onto your side.

Urgency can be really effective if the limited offer is just for ONE, specific group of people. For example - your customers only. Or the offer could be for JUST members of your private site. Don’t give the same offer to everybody all the time. Periodically create offers just for individual groups.

Finishing Up Your
Sales Letter

Click here for sales letter worksheet #4 - FINISH IT UP