Why Stretching Will Kill Your Sales

I'm a tennis fanatic—my whole family is. I'm a 4.0, my wife is a 3.5, (those are USTA rankings) and my daughter plays on her HS tennis team.

If a tennis match is being broadcast on the Tennis Channel, ESPN or FSN, life comes to an immediate standstill in my house. The dishes are left in the sink, laundry doesn't get done, and the dog doesn't get walked (we just put him out in the backyard).

We play tennis (lessons, matches, tournaments) 3-5 times a week, and we'll rarely schedule a vacation during the "slams" (Australian, French, US Opens and Wimbledon).

And yes, I want to have Roger Federer's baby.

Okay, you get the point.

Now recently it's been promulgated by physical trainers that tennis players, and presumably all athletes and weekend warriors, should not stretch before exercising, playing, competing, etc.

I'm not going to get into all the reasons why, or when you should actually do your stretching. Suffice it to say, stretching is detrimental to your health if it's the first thing you do before exerting yourself in any physical endeavor.

And I find it so interesting that the same prohibition also applies to, yup, marketers!

Stretching before presenting an offer will hurt a marketer's back-end (sales, that is) and...

It'll kill cash flow

Here's why...

Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). The entire developed world has it. And I'm not slighting those who are clinically diagnosed (though there seems to be some debate as to whether it really is a true medical disorder).

Nonetheless, because of technology, ambition, opportunity, cost-of-living and a myriad of other reasons—the most valuable, transitory, easily depleted, irreplaceable resource that can be neither seen, touched, smelled or heard—is time.

No one has a wealth of time, just a constantly growing deficit.

Therefore, as a marketer, if you don't grab your prospect's and customer's attention immediately with a compelling and captivating offer—the odds of making a sale is about the same as me turning off the TV when Roger Federer is playing.

And yet, if there is one affliction most marketers suffer from—it's Speed Deficit Disorder (SDD)

They don't get to the point—quick enough!

Every communication you have with your market, even if it's not sale-related—has to be clearly discernable and understandable, online and off, "above the fold". There's no time to warm-up and stretch.

And I'm not just talking about your headline—which is a whole 'nother topic. But even your headlines have to be clear and direct; they can't be cute or obtuse. A headline must possess all or most of the 4 U's: it has to be Useful, Urgent, Ultra-specific and Unique.

What I'm talking about here though, is your first sentence, your first paragraph—after your headline.

In every promotion, right from the get-go, you've got to tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em, before you tell 'em anything else.

No one's dying to hear from you

So don't go strutting through cyberspace and customer's mailboxes like a peacock with no sense of purpose or direction.

After all, you're asking for someone's time. Many parents will give up their children before they'll sacrifice their time—that's why there's day care centers, latch-key kids, and sociopathic, homicidal, high-school gun-slingers (don't get me started on the lack of quality family time).

Waste your target market's time often enough, and your emails and direct mail will be deleted and discarded before they're opened—same goes for your website.

I don't know how many times I've arrived at a website and wasn't sure I was in the right place—'cause I couldn't immediately see what they do, what service they provide or what products they sell—and I didn’t have the time to find out.

If you could sell time—you'd make a fortune. In the meantime, whatever you're selling will cost time—at the outset.

So don't beat about the bush. Don’t build a warm and fuzzy nest in which to lay an egg—present the bird, already cooked and ready to be eaten.

Then, if you think it will help grease the slide, you can talk about the weather, where you went to college, the boil on your uncle's butt—or whatever you think will float your market's boat.

Learn from my mistake

If this article was a sales letter, I'll bet you a tennis bag and ten tennis racquets that I couldn't give away a Brinks truck filled with 24 karat gold bricks for $1—if that's what I was offering.

Why, because who in their right mind cares about, much less has time to consider, my tennis ranking, my tennis obsession or how I walk my dog. They'd stop reading after two or three sentences—they'd never get to the part where I offer to fill their living room with 10 tons of gold bricks for a measly buck!

But it's not a sales letter... and yet, it's still won't be read by many people—especially those not interested in tennis—because I took too long to make my point.

Sheesh! What a waste of my time!

Barry A. Densa is one of America’s top freelance direct response copywriters. Visit www.WritingWithPersonality.com and see how Barry easily and quickly converts prospects into buyers using “salesmanship in print”. And while there, sign up for his highly regarded FREE ezine: Marketing Wit & Wisdom!