Rainmaking Secrets

In Write to Sell: The Ultimate Guide to Great Writing, expert copywriter Andy Maslen provides a guide to the practice of great sales writing, not just theory.

In the chapter, Editing Your Work, Maslen answers the question, how many drafts do you need to go through before a great copy emerges? He defines “rewriting” as “zero-ing in on your target, using progressively sensitive tools.”

For a three-quarters decent attempt, Maslen aims for five drafts:

One Initial attempt, warts and all.

Two Broad assessment against plan.

Three Checks for structure and unnecessary sections, paragraphs, words.

Four Review for tone of voice, metaphors, fresh expressions, style, punctuation.

Five Printed out, spell-checked and proof-read.

And you need to be bold. Taking your first draft and tinkering around the edges isn’t enough. Here’s a table of tools you should use on your drafts:

Draft      Cutting Tool
1           Chainsaw
2           Hedge trimmer
3           Shears
4           Scissors
5           Scalpel

I love Maslen’s tool descriptions. It’s no wonder he is such a superb copywriter.

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A Tibetan Lama was speaking to a group of monks and to make a point, pulled out a large jar, set it on the table in front of him, produced a few fist-sized rocks, and placed them, one by one, into the jar.

When no more rocks would fit inside, he asked: “Is this jar full?” Everyone said: “Yes.” He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel, dumped some in and shook the jar, the gravels worked between the rocks. Again, he asked: “Is this jar full?” The monks were catching on. “Probably not,” one answered.

“Good!” he replied and reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He dumped the sand into the jar until it filled all the crevices. Once more he asked: Is this jar full?”

“No!” the monks shouted. “Good!” he said and grabbed a pitcher of water and poured it until the jar was filled to the brim. Then he asked, “What is the point of this illustration?” One monk responded, “The point is, no matter how full your day you can always fit some more things in.”

“No,” the speaker replied, “the point is that if you don’t put the big rocks in first, you’ll never get them in at all.”

In other words, success starts with establishing priorities. If you are serious about achieving fast growth, the first priority is to start building your base of high-value Crown Jewel clients.

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I’ve spent most of my writing life trying to gain insight into what motivates people.

The most practical insights for me come from B. J. Fogg - the head of the Persuasive Technology Lab at Stanford University.

B. J. Fogg has designed a behaviour model for use with persuasive technologies such as Facebook or text messaging on mobile phones.

B. J. Fogg’s motivation framework has three core motivators, each with two sides:

1. Pleasure/Pain
2. Hope/Fear
3. Social Acceptance/Rejection

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Do you recognise the following lines of poetry?

To be or not to be, aye, there’s the point
To die, to, to sleep; is that all? Aye, all.
No, to sleep, to dream, aye marry, there it goes,
For in that dream of death, when we awake,
And borne before an everlasting judge,
From whence no passenger ever returned,
The undiscovered country, at whose sight
The happy smile, and the accursed damned…

Do any of the phrases sound familiar? Probably. Is this memorable writing? Probably not!

Yet, what you have just read is version one of a speech which some english professors call the greatest speech ever written in a play.

Now read the final version:

To be, or not be: that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d.

This is the speech immortalised by Shakespeare’s Hamlet. By contrast, the first version you read comes from an earlier version of the play known as the First Quarto, sometimes called ‘the bad quarto’.

Shakespeare knew that perfection takes time. Perfection comes from relentless attention to detail. If your first draft of any persuasive message doesn’t flow or ring true, or lacks punch: keep revising until the message sings.

The effort will be worth it.

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In Under the Radar: Talking to today’s cynical consumer, authors Jonathon Bond and Richard Kirshenbaum argue:

Persuasive marketing should be invisible, with the consumer feeling the benefit rather than having to uncomfortably digest its overt mesage… The real threat [to the advertiser] is the consumers’ mntal machine guns, their very own personal defense departments that can shoot down messages at any given point.

And there are only a handful of techniques that are sophisticated enough to act as stealth bombers, dropping new messages behind the wall - escaping detection by consumers’ ever present radar!

I disagree. The smart marketeers I work with are using information from neuro-scientists, psychologists and brain imaging to regain the advantage they have traditionally held in the battle for customers.

The insights into how and why customers buy is revolutionising the way companies shape and deliver their messages.

The research is showing that much of what we believe about why people buy is wrong.

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Each day, alcoholics and drug addicts on 12 step recovery programs across the globe, utter 33 memorable words.

“God give us the grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.”

These words known as the Serenity Prayer were coined in 1943 by the American theologian Rienhold Neibuhr.

I can’t think of a more profound piece of timeless wisdom to guide us as we tackle the challenges of business and life.

Set aside 5 minutes each day, to recite and contemplate what the Serenity Prayer means for you — at home, at work, and in your community.

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