21 Step Sales Letter Outline

While I’d love to take credit for the below, it’s me standing on the shoulders of giants – specifically, Ryan Deiss, Perry Belcher, Dan Kennedy, indirectly Joe Sugarman, and a few others. I ripped it off, then tweaked and noted and rehashed, like any marketer does.

Use this as a template for sales letters,
videos, and/or webinars.

In this case, two of ’em – Perry Belcher (one of the top PPC experts in the world and definitely an all-around good marketer) and David Frey, another great marketer who has done a lot with postcards, and lives a cool semi-nomadic life to boot it seems.

Anyway, here’s Perry Belcher’s 21-step sales letter process, but this is really a great model for persuasion and definitely great for webinars, video sales letters, and good old tried-and-still-true long-form sales copy. Also, for the record, this has gone around the block… all the greats have their recipes, Dan Kennedy and Dr. Robert Cialdini both have theirs, and most of the ingredients are the same.

Which, is because it works. Here’s Perry’s:
(on his blog at http://perrybelcher.com/21-step-salesletter-formula/)

21 part Sales Letter Formula

(the comments after the “//” are mine, to help clarify for clients)

1. Call out to your audience  // step into the conversation in their head. Sometimes this gets clipped out because it’s implied in the headlines below.
2. Get their attention   // I love cold hard “I didn’t know that + this guy/gal’s an expert” facts, cited. Spells expertise while making ’em listen up.
3. Backup the big promise headline with an quick explanation (SUB)   // benefits, not features here…. like a subheadline.
4. Identify the problem   //  We’re going to make their headache worse, then sell ’em aspirin. Call out the problem we’re about to solve.
5. Provide the solution   // Let them know you have aspirin for their headache. Note this is “repulsion marketing” i.e. getting away from something (i.e. cattle prod) (going to the gym because one is getting fat vs. “attraction motivation” which is seeking an outcome, i.e. getting six-pack-abs).
6. Show pain of and cost of development   // how much work it is if you do this yourself…
7. Explain ease-of-use   // how your product solves this quickly and easily
8. Show Speed to Results  // people want instant gratification!
9. Future Cast   // “imagine how much better life will be after you’ve solved problem X”. This is “attraction marketing” (i.e. carrot on a stick) – selling the dream, making the possible outcome glossy, beautiful.
10. Show your Credentials  // help them trust you. Why are you the expert?
11. Detail the Benefits   // polish the gloss…
12. Get Social Proof    // Others, like them in the audience, have already bought and are happy. Testimonials.
13. Make your Offer   // Talk turkey here, but don’t yet show the price – what, exactly, will they get if they buy this kit / hire you / buy X from you? And selling on implication, what does that mean?
14. Add Bonuses   //   Someone was on the fence before, simply because of mental adjustment. They want the benefits, or they wouldn’t be on the webinar. Now you’re making it that much more irresistable.
15. Build up your Value   // Personally, I like to re-sell life after you own this again, and pour a bit more lemon juice on their pain point i.e. the problem we’re solving is actually worse, because it’s eating your time and money.. it’s almost always a time or money issue being solved but could be health, comfort, etc.
16. Reveal your Price  // Tip: Using our Video Marketing Plugin (recorded webinar tool), you can popup a buy-now button OR a lead-capture / info-capture form right over the webinar itself. For you internet marketers, that button can even be click-bankable or contain affiliate tracking (i.e. do to JV webinars).
17. Inject Scarcity (if any)   // limited number? Price going up soon? Mercury going into retrograde? If there’s a reason they should buy now, tell us here.
18. Guarantee / Risk Removal   // Reassure us this is going to work, and that if it doesn’t, they can get their money back (if you offer that).
19. Call To Action  (“CTA”) // I always have a few calls-to-action but that’s a bit clubbing them over the head… a sophisticated audience you can be more soft-sell with.
20. Give a Warning   // What will happen if they do nothing? Personally, I hate fear-of-loss, usually it’s insulting to the viewer’s intelligence – so rather than try to make the viewer believe I’m suddenly going to stop wanting money, I point out what will happen to _their_ business if they don’t take action – just another form of future-casting.
21. Close with a Reminder   // I think this is another push on benefits, another drop of lemon juice to amplify pain. Sometimes it takes work to get people off their current momentum – so if it seems a bit heavy handed for you, test it.

This series has made guys like Perry very financially comfortable (I’m guessing millions in profit and tens or hundreds of millions in total sales) – and now it’s yours to adapt into your own projects. Wasn’t that nice? But let’s go on…

Last here’s more of Perry’s gems – his 8-step QC Quality Control process.

1. Did you grab your readers by the throat your readers with your headline?
2. Did you clearly explain that you understand the problem?
3. Did you show them so much proof that they can’t possibly doubt what you had to say?
4. Did you show features and benefits to your offer that included the word so in each line?
5. Did you ensure your prospects that your product will be very very easy to use?
6. Did you ensure to your prospects that your product would work very quickly to solve the problem?
7. Did you clearly explain the pain of the experience by not accepting your offer?
8. Did you demonstrate incredible value in your offer so much so that your prospect would feel stupid by not buying your product?

Happy Hunting!