There are basic rules for writing successful sales letters. If your sales copy isn’t converting visitors into buyers, it’s time to work on the fundamentals.

Here’s a checklist of problems to watch out for in your sales letters:

• Your sales letter lacks focus: Instead of sales copy, you’ve written Swiss cheese. It never gets to the point. Nobody reads it. I don’t know who is telling Internet marketers that this is the way to write effective sales copy. Go shopping on the Internet. Look at it from the customer’s point of view. Does this kind of sales copy turn you on or off? I thought so.
• You don’t have a sales page: Your strategy as an Internet marketer is to drive traffic to your sales page—this is the whole purpose of your online presence. Without a sales page, you have nothing to link to and no home for your product.
• You forgot to write about the emotional benefits: This is the real reason people buy things. Connect to your customer—put yourself in the customer’s shoes. The best product or service in the world will fail to engage readers if they don’t immediately see how it can solve a problem in their life.
• Your copy is too long: Cut, cut, and keep cutting until your copy is trimmed down to a few points that tell customers how their life will be better, easier, or more satisfying after buying your product or service.
• Your sales letter is full of noise: Your sales page is not the place to put links to other sites—or to your own website. Zero distractions. Stay on target by focusing on value for customers. Talk less about features and more about results. A sales letter that makes readers scroll down the page before getting to the point causes the majority of visitors to abandon the site without buying.

How to disarm customers’ conscious defenses? Storytelling is the key. Stories help to overcome fear, and words have the power to transform customer passivity into action.

A single story can communicate a personal meaning to everyone who hears it. When this rapport exists, a salesperson can guide customers through the process of finding the correct solution. Successful sales people know that stories have the power to create changes in attitudes and actions.

A speaker or writer that wins our trust understands the difference between how our conscious minds hear words and how our subconscious minds personalize those words. Great storytelling holds the customer’s attention. Storytelling is a fundamental tool for the Worldwide Web, because it communicates a personal message to every individual customer.

Offer testimony about your own experience with your product to build rapport. You have to provide product information and proof of the product’s benefits in language customers can relate to. Salespeople are used to talking about features, but they often forget how important it is to be entertaining. To separate yourself from the competition, you have to grab the reader’s attention and hold it until the end. Most sales letters throw too many distractions in the way of the message.

Stories are the best way to get complex ideas across in a way that people will remember. When you talk the language of your customers, your stories connect your message to the cpersonal experience in unforgettable ways. Listeners interpstory in their own way, according to their own life experiences and psychological makeup. This is how your message becomepersonalized.

As an Internet marketer, you must convince a complete stranger to think in a new way. You must change the customer before you can convince him to buy something from you. You don’t reason with customers in an attempt to convince their logical mind to buy your product. That never works. And you don’t use scare tactics, telling customers all the bad things that may happen if they don’t buy.

How do you do it? You start by building trust and rapport with prospects—then you can lead them to receive your ideas. Storytelling is the most effective way to build rapport with customers. It doesn’t threaten and doesn’t offend. It engages.

A sales letter on your website must grab the visitor’s attention from the first line. If visitors are distracted or frustrated in the first 5 to 10 seconds after arriving at your sales page, the vast majority will abandon your site with no intention of returning.

That’s why your sales letter must focus on benefit selling. Start your letter by talking about the benefits customers will get by buying your product or service. Control the urge to demonstrate your expert knowledge of the product’s features and advantages in every line of your sales copy. Your sales letter is not the place to do this. It’s not about you—it’s all about the customer. Your customers only want to know how your product is going to solve their problem.

Make sure your copy focuses on how your product is going to improve the lives of your customers. The only reason to go into detail about features and advantages in a sales letter is when it helps customers get a clearer picture of how your product is going to make their lives better.

The easiest way to shift your focus away from what you say and do—and onto what customers want—is by shifting the focus of the words you use. Instead of talking about I and mine, talk about you and yours. By consciously focusing on the words you use, you’ll be able to write more powerful, customer-oriented sales copy that immediately engages visitors in the sales dialogue.

Converting prospects into buyers is the key to business success, whether you make your sales presentation in a conference room or over the Internet. When you make a sales presentation on the Web, your sales letter is your salesperson. Improving your sales letter is the first step to increasing your Internet sales. A sales letter that turns visitors into buyers must do the following:

• Captivate the visitor’s attention with a dynamic headline.
• Guide visitors through the sales process by showing them how your solution is connected to their problem.
• Raise their desire to a peak by showing them how your product will improve their lives.
• Make it easy for visitors to take action and satisfy their desire by buying your product or service.

Writing is not something you do in addition to selling. Writing is selling. Every letter that goes out over your name is a potential sales letter. Successful sales people are like hypnotists. They use the power of suggestion to persuade customers to buy.

I don’t believe that hypnotism exists, but I know that a sales message is more convincing when it speaks to our emotions—to our hopes and desires for a better life. Here are 5 ways to put the power of persuasion to work in all your sales copy:

• Deliver your message with conviction.
• When you explain the benefits of your product or service, use different languages to reach different types of customers.
• Establish and maintain rapport. Always be positive.
• Guide your customers’ thought processes. Anticipate objections.
• Use compelling stories to get your message across and convince customers.