The classic sales letter formula is AIDA, for all you opera lovers: attention, interest, desire, and action. Here are three secrets I ’ve developed for writing sales letters that really sell.

Secret 1: WHOA

This is my “ whoa ” formula. I got used to saying that around our farm—“Whoa!”

The W stands for people who Want What you ’ ve got. That ’s the big secret, folks. If you get your message out in front of people who already want what you ’ ve got, you ’ re almost there. The problem is you spend most of your time trying to pitch to people who don ’t want what you ’ve got. Don’t even try.

The second element is the Headline That ’ s going to get their attention. The third thing is the Offer And the last thing is the call to Action— WHOA. You can do this on a postcard. You can do it on a web page. You can do it in a sales letter. You can do it in video or audio.

Here ’ s the format: I put in front of somebody who cares a headline to get their attention. I create an offer. “Here’s what I’m offering to let you buy, and all of the reasons why. ” Then I tell them to buy it now.

That ’ s the simple version. Now, let ’ s expand this, starting with headlines. Here ’ s an easy ways to make headlines: Fill in the blanks. Take any headline that gets your attention and take out the operative words, leaving a skeleton that can be fi lled out in numerous ways.

Let ’ s look at the a familiar one. “How to ______________________

And_________________ .” What’s a classic book that used this? How

To Win Friends and Infl uence People By Dale Carnegie. That ’ s the head

line — how to_________________ and__________________ . In other

Words, the two benefi ts: Win friends, infl uence people.

Secret 2: The Five P ’ s

In your offer, you want to include these five P’s:

1. The Promise. This is a description of your three biggest benefi ts.

2. Your Product. Give a detailed description.

3. The Package. This comprises everything that is part of your offer, including some bonuses. The bonuses should relate to the original product or at least complement it in some way.

4. The Price. If it ’ s special pricing, make sure you let them know it.

5. The Penalty. Here ’ s what happens if you don ’ t act right now, whether there is a time limit, a quantity limit, or some other kind of scarcity factor built into it.

Secret 3: Seventeen Psychological Steps

Here is my 17 - step formula for successful sales letters, web sites, and ads. I don ’ t always follow this formula, but I always use it as a template to keep myself on track.

Then I’ll just make the thing fl ow. I kind of do it subconsciously nowadays. If you get this, you ’ re going to be able to write a sales letter that makes sense, every time.

Somebody called me up the other day and said, “You know, I’ve seen you do that 17 - step thing and I was going through one of your sales letters. By the time I got done reading, you had answered all of my questions in the sales letter. ”

I said, “Well, that’s what it’s supposed to do.” In a sales presentation, you want to be revealing information to the prospect when it needs to be revealed. Not before, and not too late. You want to bring up the next question and then answer it, all the way through the process.

Steps 1, 2, and 3 are Preheadline, headline, And Subheadline. Headlines are designed to get people ’ s attention. A preheadline is something that happens prior to the main headline. The subheadline is the little stuff that happens underneath that.

Step 4 is to State the problem. You got your visitor ’ s attention with the headline, and now you want to capture the imagination. You want

To state their problem or the goal that they want to achieve. You also want to establish yourself as the authority in your fi eld. Let them know what makes you an expert, so they know they can trust you.

Step 5 is to Give the solution. Offer some solution options. You may even want to bring up alternatives to your product. How bold is that, if you actually bring up your competition? Present yours as the best solution. You ’ re going to let them know that you do know the marketplace. You ’ re not trying to hide. “Here are my competitors. They’re all good—but here’s the best solution.”

In step 6 you Give them a sample or tell them a story. By giving them a free sample, you ’ ve immediately got the principle of reciprocation at work — they feel they owe you something, at least their willingness to listen. And why would you want to tell people a story? A story evokes emotion and keeps their attention. It ’ s how humans relate to one another. It also opens the mind so that people will believe you.

If you tell stories, there is a useful concept in theater called Willing suspension of disbelief. That ’ s kind of an odd way of saying that for the time being, I ’ m going to pretend what you ’ re telling me is true. So when you ’ re telling a story (I don ’ t mean a lie) or spinning a yarn or whatever you want to call it, that lets people relax so their defenses come down and they will at least be receptive to hear your story.

Step 7 is to name the Benefi ts. Tell your readers how they benefi t from your product, using a list of benefi t bullets. These are like mini - headlines. They go bang, bang, bang, bang.

In your headlines, you probably want to give your three best benefi ts to get people ’ s attention and lead them into your letter. In your benefi t bullets, where you go boom, boom, boom, down the list, you want to give all the secondary benefi ts. So if people don ’ t get it the fi rst time, in this whole laundry list of benefi ts, there is going to be something to get them excited enough to keep them going with you.

Have you ever been presented something and you ’re kind of interested, and all of a sudden you get to a point on a benefi t bullet list and you go, “ Oh, it does That, Too? ” You catch yourself thinking, “ Oh, yeah, I need that, too. ” Those kinds of things are what help get people over the top and into the buying mode.

Step 8 is to offer Social proof. Use testimonials to let people know that other people have bought your product and benefi ted from it.

Step 9 is the Offer . Make them an offer they can ’ t refuse. Construct an irresistible offer. In other words, make it so good that people would be crazy not to take you up on it if they are a true prospect for what you ’ ve got. (If they ’ re not a prospect for what you ’ve got, it doesn ’ t matter what you offer them —they’re not going to buy.)

In step 10 you Answer the unasked question. Give them the reason why you can make them such an irresistible offer. Have you ever been in that position as a buyer where, “ Boy, this really sounds good; what a really good deal. ” Then your fi nal brakes come up, don ’ t they? The red fl ags are going, “ Wait a second. This sounds like it ’s too good.”

Then you need to answer the question: “Here’s how we can do it. ” You kind of let them in on your business so they know why you can make such a good deal.

Step 11 is all about Bonuses . Sweeten the deal. Pile on just a little bit and add some more bonuses. Don ’ t go outrageous with it, though. Have you ever seen situations where people pile on so many bonuses that the deal is worth ten times what the product was worth to begin with? It becomes unbelievable at that time, doesn ’ t it? But do sweeten the deal. It should relate to or somehow complement the original product.

Step 12 is to offer the Guarantee. Take away the risks. Give them the strongest guarantee possible — the longer the guarantee, the better. If you give somebody a three - day guarantee, guess what they ’ re going to be doing for the next three days? Trying to break your product or show that it doesn ’t work. They’ re going to spend all their time focusing on that. If you give them seven days, they will spend time trying to fi gure it out.

If you give them 30 days, chances are they don ’t remember what they did 14 days ago. I ’ m not saying that you ’ re trying to trick anybody out of money. I ’ m just telling you that human nature is such that if you give people a short fuse to work with, they will spend all their waking hours and some of their sleeping hours trying to see if they want to keep your product.

So, the longer your guarantee — 60 days, 90 days, one year — the better. Can you remember what you bought a year ago? It just falls into the “ a lot of stuff ” category, right?

Step 13 is about creating Scarcity. If it ’ s limited in supply, tell them. They ’ ll want it even more.

Step 14 is to Ask for the order, And step 15 is to State the consequences Of not ordering. Tell them exactly how to order. Tell them exactly what happens if they don ’ t order now. Where I learned this was from going to the doctor. You don ’ t think of doctors as being salespeople, do you? Believe me, they are.

Now I ’ m sure doctors are typically looking out for your best interests. If you go in and there ’s something seemingly wrong (I ’m not talking about the sniffl es), they want to do tests. The tests come back, and you come back into the offi ce. It wasn ’ t one of those things where they call up and say, “ Everything is okay. Don ’t worry about it. ” It ’ s “ When you come back in. . .”

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