---

Guest post by: Mark Satterfield Become an Author

Tweet

---

---

Perhaps it’s just because of the nature of my profession, but I’ve long been fascinated with why one sales letter attracts a swarm of interested clients while another is studiously ignored.

This question motivated me to do some poking around and research what the most successful sales letter of all time was. The first step was to determine how we defined success. Would it be number mailed? That didn’t seem right. Just because a letter is mailed a lot doesn’t necessarily mean it is effective. What about greatest number of responses? That seemed better but simply getting people to say they’d like more information didn’t seem like a high enough bar for a letter deemed the “most successful sales letter of all time”.

No, in order to be crowned with that honor, the letter would need to actually motivate readers to pull out their wallets and spend money. Not just one person who spent $25 million on a Gulfstream but lots of people buying something. Now that would be a letter worth examining for its secrets. Imagine if we could capture that letter’s essence.

Surprisingly it wasn’t all that hard to find. What was surprising was how long ago it was written. I would have thought that with all the new information we have about buying behavior and the sheer number of excellent copywriters working today that the “Greatest Sales Letter” would have been written less than ten years ago. Apparently we don’t know as much as we think we do, since the letter I’m referring to was written over 40 years ago.

According to numerous sources the letter that is credited with selling the most stuff (to put it inelegantly) is a sales letter written for the Wall Street Journal. It’s been used on and off by them for decades and it’s been copied by numerous copywriters and used successfully to sell a wide variety of goods and services. You may actually be familiar with it. Here’s how it starts:

“Take two men. Both graduates of good universities. Both hardworking and ambitious.

Flash forward twenty years and one is in the corner office commanding the attention and respect of hundreds. The other toils amid the legions of middle managers in a largely obscured position. Why did one ascend to great heights and the other plateau so early?”

The letter to goes on to point out that one key point of differentiation was that one person read the Wall Street Journal and the other did not. Regardless of the Journal’s actual ability to elevate you to the corner office, this is one very successful sales letter.

Which raises the next question of, why? What makes this letter so effective. Why did this one, amid all the others that have flooded our mailboxes over the years motivate so many people to take action?

The answer is actually fairly simple. It tells a story. A story that is deceptively simple in the telling. In a mere 57 words we are transported from reading words on a page to visualize two men. One successful, the other considerably less. Not only does the story enable us to visualize the scenario but it also does a masterful job of forcing us to decide which camp we are in. Are we resigned to the plateau? Isn’t there more that we can achieve? What’s the answer? What’s the secret? How can we too, get to whatever level of success we most aspire to?

Unleashing this psychic visualization of desire and limits is the power behind a great sales story. The power is in its simplicity. It’s elegance is in its restraint.

Those of us who offer our services for a living often hear about “selling invisibly”. It’s an appealing concept especially when the concept of “selling” is uncomfortable. However, while selling invisibly seems like a good idea in theory, how exactly is it done?

This letter from the Wall Street Journal offers an answer. The key to selling invisibly is to tell great stories.

Related Articles

  What are the elements of a good sales letter?
  The Most Powerful Marketing Strategy You will Ever Learn
  The Three Components Of A Successful Sales Letter
  Cover Letter Writing for Grant Proposals
  The Job Market is Tough – Does Your Cover Letter Stand Out?
  Should You Use Sales Letters Before You Cold Call
  Do those long-copy sales letters actually work?
  Sales Letter
  8 Copywriting Tips the Pros Use
  Can't Touch dis
  How to write a killer business sales letter
  Using a Pre-Headline and Using a Story
  How to Write A Great Sales Letter by obeying these 4 basic rules
  How to Write a Pre Approach Sales Letter that Delivers More Conversions
  How to Pick the Right PR Firm for Your Company
  What If I Don’t Launch A PR Campaign?
  Should we cold call?
  Producing Excellent Sales Letters
  Writing Letters to the Editor
  Business Marketing - Top 10 Rules: Corresponding With Clients

Related Forum Posts

Important tips for online business
Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional
Re: Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional
Re: What's 1 word to describe what your business will be in 2012
Books for Women Entrepreneurs

Share this article. Fund someone's dream.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Tips for the Novice Traveler

Value, Value Stream, Flow, Pull, Perfection

Exploring NLP-related topics on TV:

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.