Does your sales copy “stammer?”

When you’re selling something — especially in print — you’d better be smooth and you’d better make sure you’re giving everything you’ve got. Because you don’t usually get a second chance to make a first impression, and when you’re selling in print, this rule has even less flexibility.

A big problem for most people in this situation, is that they “stammer” in their sales copy. Not literally, but figuratively, meaning… your copy isn’t flowing properly.

See, compelling sales copy reads NO different from how you’d talk. It’s one of the ways you engage your prospect, and remove any sense of “selling” from the equation. By writing the way you speak, you’re able to lull them into a conversation they don’t even realize they’re having.

And once they get to a certain point in that conversation, they become vested in it, and they can’t get out.

Right?

So your job is to get them to that point, using as many different strategies as you possibly can. (Most of which will be discussed in my upcoming book, “Seductive Selling, The NEW Rules Of Selling In Print: 27 Unconventional Strategies To Make An Absolute KILLING In Business!” published by EPIC Press.)

Anyway, one little “glitch” that comes up often, happens when you’re not speaking in print, the same way you’d speak in person. When you do this, you sort of “stammer,” and you wind up reminding your prospect they really ARE just reading a sales letter and not having a conversation.

That’s not good.

“Conversation” is good, “sales letter” is bad.

One DEAD giveaway of this is when you use the word “that.” “That” is one of those words which is often used in print, but almost NEVER used in conversation, the same way. It’s one of those words your 2nd grade grammar teacher taught you to use when you write, but has almost no value at all when you’re selling something in print.

So for example, I might normally see a sales letter with something like this in it:

“I am telling you that this is the real deal.”

Now if you say this out loud, it’s going to sound strange, because if you were talking to someone and making this comment, you’d never say it like this, would you?

Here, say “I am telling you that this is the real deal,” out loud — not “out loud” inside your head, but actually “out loud” as in “sound and words coming out of your mouth.”

Something’s missing, right?

Of course.

That’s because what you’d normally say in this instance, is “I’m telling you, this is the real deal.”

See, when you get rid of the useless “that,” what you’re saying is much more conversational.

Look at another example. Watch how the word “that” makes this sentence stammer:

“We were told that every time we exercised, miracles would happen”… is nowhere near as clean as “We were told, every time we exercised, a miracle would happen.”

Right?

So keep in mind, one of the ways you’re going to be able to smooth out your sales copy and make it read like the proverbial greased slide you want, is by getting rid of all the useless “that’s” lying around.

So get going on this first, and next…

Go sell something, Craig Garber

P.S. Because of MULTIPLE requests for more information like this, I’ve created a new column in my offline newsletter, to discuss specific sales copy issues like this one. It’s called “Little-Known Copywriting Secrets From The King’s Treasure Chest,” and in this month’s column, we talk about making your letters speak directly to your prospect, heart-to-heart. Make SURE you check it out by taking your free 30-day test drive, and claim your 15 free gifts (including free sales copy critiques), right now at: http://www.kingofcopy.com/ssnl

This month’s newsletters are shipping out right now as we’re speaking!

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