Sales & Pitch Letters for Busy People

Time-Saving, Money-Making, Ready-to-Use Letters for Any Prospects

George Sheldon

• Publisher: Career Press
• Year: 2007
• Print ISBN: 9781564149527
• eBook ISBN: 9781601638014
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

Sales and marketing is a fast-paced environment, and there is never enough time to write good letters—letters that will communicate, convince, and close. Sales & Pitch Letters for Busy People will help salespeople at every level save time and avoid having to produce sales and pitch letters from scratch. Sales & Pitch Letters for Busy People is a handy, quick-reference guide that not only tells you how to write virtually any kind of sales pitch letters, but includes a wide range of samples that you can easily and quickly adapt and use right now.This book includes concise, easy-to-use writing tips and resources that get attention—and results! Packed with solid writing advice and useful techniques, this guide will cut the time you spend on writing sales, marketing, and pitch letters by half—and will help you get the results you want and need. Don't worry about finding the "right" word or phrase, or even the "right" format of your sales correspondence—the work has been done for you.

Some example letters presented are:

• * Sales letters offering special discounts
• * Pitch letters introducing a new product or service
• * Letters that request referrals
• * Referral marketing campaigns
• * Pitch letters to the media
• * Cold call sales letters
• * Marketing campaigns for service businesses
• * E-mail pitch and sales letters
• * Letters for selling more to existing customers

The letters can be copied, modified, and customized to fit your requirements. Creating and writing compelling and effective sales and pitch letters have never been so easy!

PART I

Getting Started

1

What Are Sales and Pitch Letters?

Life is a pitch; that’s especially true in marketing and sales. You have to pitch ideas, concepts, products, and services to prospects, clients, customers, and others. Communicating by the written word is part of the daily grind for those in sales and marketing.

Often, creating a sales or pitch letter is a time-consuming chore. For some, it is an excruciatingly slow process. Usually when someone is having a lot of problems with creating a proper letter, it is because:

> the message is not clear—the letter writer has not determined what message they really want to send to the reader.

> too much is being jammed into the letter. Rather than make a message clear and succinct, the writer is trying to say many different things all at the same time.

> the purpose of the letter (what you want to accomplish) has not been determined.

Writing the sales or pitch letter will be easier after reading the tips, advice, and information in this book. By using the sample letters, you can quickly save time and money when you create a letter.

Your letters will be better if you decide, beforehand, what you want to accomplish. Also, the goal of your letters should be clearly defined and thought out. The more you know about the purpose of the letter, the easier it will be to create an effective letter and, therefore, achieve the desired result.

Why Write Them?

The reason you write sales or pitch letters is simple: You have a message you want to deliver to the letter reader. In today’s electronic world, you may deliver the written word in a format other than ink on paper. Your letter might be delivered via e-mail, or as an open letter on a Website. Some letters are still delivered via fax (facsimile), but those seem to be dwindling in many different industries.

The more you know and understand the reader of your sales and pitch letters, the easier it will be to get your message across. Some letters will be for the masses, where the audience is not clearly defined. Other letters will be for specific audiences, such as your customers who have already bought a specific product or service from you.

You should not be writing sales or pitch letters just because it’s the norm or because “everyone else does it.” Your letter writing should serve a purpose, and be part of your overall sales and marketing goals.

Writing letters costs money and takes time. For that reason, alone, they should not be used as a shotgun approach, hoping to hit some customers or potential clients. Rather, they should be used to develop relationships, build trust, offer special products or services, pitch ideas and concepts, or deliver other important messages that are important to you and your organization.

What Is the Purpose?

As you begin the process of preparing a letter, always start with the answer to the question, “What is the letter’s purpose?” Ask yourself, “What do you want from the reader of the letter?” You might want the reader of the letter to meet with you, or to place an order for a specific product. You might ask for a donation, or offer tickets to a special event. As you can see, there are a variety reasons why you might be sending a sales or pitch letter to a potential client or customer. A letter to a prospect would need to be crafted differently than a letter to an existing customer.

As you define the true purpose of the sales or pitch letter, it will be easier to create a letter that will deliver the message that you want. The job of any sales letter is to sell, not to tell.

Often, sales letters alone don’t do the entire selling (or persuading) job. You will rely on other pieces of literature that provide the selling points, illustrate the product or service, or provide technical information that the reader may need to make a buying decision. It is always best to supplement the sales letter with a support brochure or product sheet. The reason is simple: you want to keep the message delivered in the letter simple and short. The more specific, and the more concise, the more likely your letter will be read and considered.

When you include support sales material with a sales letter, mention that you have done so in the body of the letter. Say something such as, “I am enclosing a product brochure for your review” or, “As the enclosed product sheet demonstrates....”

As you consider the purpose of a sales letter, consider a specific reason for the letter. Of course, the general reason for sending any sales letter is to sell your produce, service, or cause. But drill further and get closer to the real reason of the letter, which might be to introduce your company or organization, then in another letter, a specific product, or a service.

Planning your sales letters always makes sense. Having multiple letters—ones that you can use or modify for specific purposes—is a logical way to approach the creation and use of sales letters. Anyone responsible for the creation and mailing of sales and pitch letters should have multiple templates and versions available. This allows more specific and meaningful letters to be created.

How Long Should You Make Your Letter?

Give careful consideration to the length of your sales letters. It is usually best to keep your letter to a single page whenever possible. There are some exceptions to this simple guideline, but not many.

If the letters are longer than one page, ask yourself if your sales process should be broken into several more steps. Don’t fall into the trap of creating multi-purpose sales letters. If your goal is to set up a face-to-face meeting, then don’t stray from that purpose. In your letter, focus just on the meeting, and don’t include other reasons as to why you are writing. Consider writing a series of letters instead of writing one “catch-all” letter.

Always consider your audience. Who will be the reader of your sales letters? If your reader is a recent high school graduate, you’re approach, style, and message would certainly be different than if your reader was a new retiree. Once you define your reader, determine what he or she is likely to know about the subject already. What are those things the reader likely needs to know?

Another consideration is to determine how you want (or expect) your reader to respond to your letter. You can give multiple response options (phone, fax, Website, or a postage-paid response card). Often, it is best to give only one option; when given a choice, some people cannot decide. So rather than make the decision, they do the simplest thing possible: They do nothing. This is another reason why you need to know who your audience is. The more you know about your reader, the better you can craft your message, and get the response you want.

Mail campaigns target specific markets, potential clients, or customers. You can send information, coupons, tickets, special advertising offers, messages, and other assorted things to a specific group of potential customers or clients.

What Are Your Goals Beyond “Sell More” or “Get More Business”?

As you consider your sales and pitch letter creation, consider the long-term goals of the letters. It is too easy to say you just want to sell more of your product or service.

Focus on what the overall goals really are. For example, your management may have challenged you to build a sales route in a specific area. Today, you have a major customer at the end of the route, but little substantial business on the way to that customer. To improve profitability and service, your management wants additional customers along the route. This is a specific goal, and one in which your sales letters can be modified, in order to address your particular goal. Because your company’s delivery truck can easily handle a specific product, your pitch letters would draw attention from the prospects you have developed along that delivery route. Your letter-writing campaign would specifically target potential customers who likely need that product.

As that goal is developed, you could develop multiple letters, all for the purpose of selling that product. You might present samples, special pricing, guarantees, or other offers that would turn prospects into customers. Of course, you are selling more, but you are also answering management’s call for more sales along the specified delivery route.

Always consider carefully what the true goal of creating your sales and pitch letters is. The clearer that goal, the more likely you can build a campaign that will get the results you desire.

Become your potential customer or client before you begin writing your letters. You know about your company or organization. You know the service or product you offer. But what does your potential customer or client know? What do they need to know? How do they think? Why should they become your customer? Write what the customer wants to know, and not what you want to say.

Why Sales and Pitch Letters Are Important

Pitch letters are the most customized form of direct-mail marketing; they allow you to hit the mark. Glossy brochures or fliers tend to be impersonal, and they are often dismissed as “junk mail” by the recipient. In c...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Dedication
• PART I - Getting Started
• PART II - Elements of Good Written Communications
• PART III - Sample Sales and Pitch Letters
• PART IV - Incorporating Technology
• About the Author