Selling the Invisible: a field Guide to Modern Marketing \(Biz Books to Go\) pdfdrive com

If your mission statement isn’t producing, fire it.
What Really Sells
In the factories we make perfume,” Revlon founder Charles Revson once said.
“But in the stores we sell hope.”
So do we all. Everywhere, people are buying happiness, or the hope of it.
Happiness is so important in our country that its pursuit is considered an
inalienable right—together with the right to life itself—in our Declaration of
Independence.
People want to smile. And will pay handsomely for it.
Sit in on a group of magazine editors reviewing the best-selling covers of the
year. The best-sellers are almost always happier and more hopeful.
Sit in on a review of a test of different direct mail letters for the same service.
The most upbeat letter almost always wins. (This is why one noted direct mail
copywriter advises writers, “Never write when you are worried.”)
My wife once recommended a typically sad Swedish film to a co-worker. Her
co-worker said, “Forget it. If I want to be unhappy, I can just open my
checkbook.”
Samsonite once created a brilliant, award-winning ad showing its luggage

---

being dropped out of an airplane. The luggage survived the fall, an incredible
reminder of its durability. Unfortunately, the commercial also reminded people
of airplane crashes. Sales actually dropped, too.
Bumper stickers now urge people to commit random acts of kindness. Make
people smile, the stickers urge.
We want to smile more.
Read through everything you send to clients and prospects.
How does it feel ?
Does it sell happiness, or the hope of it?
Above all, sell hope.

---

H
OLDING
O
N TO
W
HAT
Y
OU
’
VE
G
OT
: N
URTURING AND
K
EEPING
C
LIENTS

---