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"Just a few words..."
Hello
It must be at least 17 years ago since I
attended a seminar given by the then famous sales presenter – John Fenton.
In the course of his presentation - which I
thoroughly enjoyed not only for the content but the showmanship with which it
was delivered – he brought up a slide with a picture on it of a small piece of
paper.
The writing...
On the paper was very familiar to me. Mind you
it should have been - it was my writing!
You see...
I’d been doing a fair amount of marketing
including direct mail and had used an idea to massively increase responses.
What I’d written on the piece of paper was...
And I’d pinned it to the top right hand corner
of the letter.
I’d seen...
Other mailings with a similar message –
however all of those notes didn’t have a signature – they simply had an initial
– either ‘J’ or ‘R’.
And:
The reason this was done was – most people
will know someone whose name begins with either ‘J’ or ‘R’ and simply assume it
was their friend Joanna or Robert who’d sent on the information for them to
read.
I felt it was far better to put my name on it
– and as the signature on the note matched the signature on the letter then it
was obvious the note was from me.
The uplift...
In response made a profit over and above the
cost of the note and attaching it to the mailing.
John; that’s to say John Fenton made the
comment about the note – that it was one of the best ideas he’d seen.
In fact...
He didn’t know I was in the audience and so in
the break I went up to him and said “John; you know that note you showed ‘I’m
certain this will be of interest – Peter’ – well I’m that Peter”
He replied: “You must be Peter Thomson”
And so...
Can you use this idea – on your letters, your
memos, your presentation slides (I’ve done this too), your web pages – in fact
any communication?
I would have thought so – wouldn’t you?
Go on then...
Peter Thomson
Editor and
Noted Publisher
tgiMondays
PS: comments, thoughts, ideas, puzzles or
laughter to:
peter@tgimondays.com |
