How to create sheer and utter “chaos” in your prospect’s mind:

I received a number of enthusiastic comments on my blog, about my last tip — which had to do with some technical copywriting issues — so let me spend some more time on pure sales copy dogma.

(Oh, and this afternoon I’m going to have a quick bit about social networking, so if you’re interested in stuff like this, keep your eyes opened for it.)

A big problem I see when reviewing copy, is that people are trying to accomplish more than one thing at a time. This is bad, because when you do this, you create confusion and chaos, and when you create confusion and chaos, your prospects disconnect from whatever they’re doing — which in this case, is reading your sales copy.

And I don’t need to tell you, when your prospects disconnect, you have lost your sale and wasted all your time and effort, and then it’s back to frustration and anxiety.

Here’s how to avoid this from happening: you make one decision at a time, and you only ask your prospects to make one decision at a time. See, there are so many variables and moving parts to selling and communication, tossing two or more of them into the mix, usually makes things utterly confusing.

Here are some examples of questions to ask yourself BEFORE you sit down at your keyboard and start writing as if you had a fire in your fingertips that you need to put out:

For each paragraph, section, sales letter, order form or whatever you are writing, ask yourself, “What is the ONE thing you want to accomplish?”

For instance, is it to…

• Introduce yourself…
• Create credibility…
• Show testimonials…
• Generate leads…
• Make a sale…
• Get a referral…
• Upsell a product…
• Make them buy a higher level…
• Get them to complete a survey…
• Sell them on the idea of an in-person appointment…
• Explain a concept about how your product works…
• Show them why they should buy from you and not someone else…
• Explain and show them (one) guarantee at a time…
• Push an emotional buy-button…
• Evoke empathy…
• Talk about a case study or example where your doo-hickey worked…
• Show scientific proof…
• Eliminate your competition…
• Whatever.

The point is, you should ONLY do one thing at a time. This eliminates any kind of chaos or disconnect you would otherwise cause, and dramatically increases your chances of actually accomplishing whatever it is you’re looking to do.

(And by the way, this is why disagreements between spouses often don’t get resolved — or worse — sometimes escalate! Trying to deal with multiple issues at the same time, instead of dealing with one issue at a time. This is often what happens when emotions run high.)

This also makes your job much simpler and more clearly defined (and more likely to successfully accomplish), since you are only trying to do one thing at a time as well.

Now go sell something, Craig Garber

P.S. Find this valuable? Check out “11 Questions You MUST Ask Yourself BEFORE You Write Your Next Salesletter!” on page 4 of this month’s Seductive Selling Newsletter. Check it out and take your free 30-day test drive, and claim your 15 free gifts (including 2 free sales copy critiques), right now at: http://www.kingofcopy.com/ssnl

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