A Cautionary Marketing Tale
The Fearless Trade Show Warrior
And the the Enchanted Perfect Sales Letter
“The Industry trade show was really worth the expense, the customer response was great; but I can’t follow up on these leads yet because my sales letter isn’t ready.”
OK this statement rates a double “WHAT??”
I sometimes refer to this as “Spanky and the Gang” marketing. “Hey kids, lets do a show.”
Enough people have famously pulled this off this gambit, to make it an almost irresistible lure.
Entrepreneurs see an annual Industry Show as the perfect way to show case the Marvelous WIZBANG-2009.
Sometimes the gamble is worth it — IF you follow up.
In April of 1977, Jobs and Wozniak did not have the perfect sales letter to follow up the debut of the first personal computer at West Coast Computer Faire. But they followed up every sales lead that trade show floor generated, by phone and in person…an started an industry or two.
The Enchanted, Perfect Sales Letter
The quest for the enchanted perfect sales letter often finishes the mighty entrepreneurial enterprise before it really starts. The lack of this fabled marketing tool stops many of us from reaching out to prospective clients.
IS there such a thing as the Enchanted Perfect Sales Letter –the one that results in eager clients clamoring for your product; filling your email, voice mail and inbox with orders as soon as they receive it? That would be a no.
Forget marketing’s holy grail — the Enchanted Perfect Sales Letter
Just contact your leads before they grow stale. Time is never on the side of small business.
When Joe Vitale says money loves speed, he is not using a metaphor. He is being perfectly serious. The faster small business owners move, the more money they make.
So instead of focusing so much on the content of your sales letters, put your emphasis on repeat contacts using multiple channels over time. Place a call, then send a note, call again, and then send an e-mail. You could make contact with a prospect four times over a two-week span in less time than it takes you to write and rewrite one “perfect” letter. A series of action steps like this will have much more likelihood of resulting in a live conversation than almost any letter you could write.
The Next Cautionary Tale from my small business marketing case studies continues with,
“I can’t start marketing; my website isn’t done yet.”
I’m a very capable marketing technician. I’ve been trained to know what to do, and why, to what probable result. Over the years, as both a content developer for Pleiades’ clients and as a SBDC counselor, I’ve had lots of practice and plenty of lessons learned. Joe Vitale, however is a “Guru status, marketing maven. He knows all of the above and executes with panache. Any marketing book by Joe is a good business investment.
As a retired SBDC counselor, I know where to find business-related information — both online and IRL. In this case my marketing source Is years and years as a business counselor and mentor. For individual business support with any aspect of your business contact the nearest SBA-sponsored Small Business Development Center.
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