By Jacqui Tillyard



The key to success for any sales situation is to know who you are aiming your message at. If you are preparing written marketing/sales materials you need to speak the language of your ideal client and let them know you understand their situation and can help them solve their challenges with your product or service.

To ensure instant rapport, you have to think like they do! What are they thinking, what words do they use? Are they technical, informal, slang, street? Show you can help them solve their challenge with your product and service?

Remember selling is an emotional process and the more you can subtly appeal to prospective buyer's emotions, the better the chance of the sale. People buy based on what the product can do for them, the emotional benefit.

'Written rapport' is having the knack of getting the benefit message across on paper, saying the right thing to the right people in the right way to ensure the sale is completed. Great long term customer relationships can be created if you get this right. Emotions are evoked with benefits so you need to establish exactly what the benefits are of your product or service. People buy for pleasure or to avoid pain! Are you solving a problem or enhancing pleasure for the customer with your product or service.

Get this inner understanding and your sales and belief will increase hugely:

Your company Your products and services Your customers Yourself

Whenever you address a prospective client whether face to face, at a meeting or via a sales letter or online, you have to create an emotional desire which sparks their interest to read or listen further.

Rapport can be built by showing understanding. It can be created by knowing exactly what to say, how to say it (convincingly and confidently)

It can become easier if you are face to face as you can read their body language, encourage eye contact, smile without looking like a killer crocodile and remain sincere. However you no longer have the physical impact if selling off a page so need to encompass elements into your writing which show empathy with a prospect's feelings, needs and wants.

Get this right and the prospect can pay attention to your message like and trust you.

Within the sales letter you might ask them questions to tap into their situation, then as it progresses, offer a solution based on this with your product or service.

When you are referring to the solution always talk features and benefit of your service or product.

Good phrases: State Feature.... which means that.... And the real benefit to you is....... State benefit based on what they have told you is the problem And remember to be honest and tell the truth, never make unsubstantiated claims about what you can do, it will catch you out and you will lose out long term.

Copyright (c) 2008 Jacqui Tillyard