These five applications of Intimidation Technique are part of a broader context I teach as Takeaway Selling. It does what its name suggests: show the… - Dan S. Kennedy

My sales trainer friend, the famous (late) Cavett Robert, said to sell life insurance or cemetery plots, you have to make your customer see the hearse backed up to the door. That may sound a little grisly, but it's true.

Collier understood and preached this swim-with-current-rather-than-against strategy. Do not arrive as an interruption or disruption, attempting to divert your reader's attention from the object it is focused on, fighting to interest him in something different from what he is already, at this moment, interested in. Instead, align yourself with the subjects already possessing his attention, the matters already garnering his interest, the self-talk conversation already occurring in his mind, and the conversations he is already having around the water-cooler at work or at the kitchen table at home with peers, friends, and family. About this, Collier wrote: “Study your reader first — your product second…. The reader of your letter wants certain things and the desire for them is, consciously or unconsciously, the dominant idea in his mind all the time. He is also engaged by the news or events or public conversations of the day. Put yourself in his place. If you were deep in discussion with a friend over some matter and a stranger came up and said: ‘Mister, I have a fine coat I want to sell you!’ — what would you do? The same thing happens when you approach a man by mail. He is in discussion with himself. If you just butt in, will you be welcome? How would you do it if approaching him and his friend in person? You'd listen and get the trend of the conversation. Then, when you chimed in, it would be with a remark on a related subject. Then you could gradually bring the talk around logically to the point you wanted to discuss. Study your reader. Know what interests him. Listen to the conversation he is already having with himself. Enter where he already is.” There are some obvious, perennially occurring attention dominators, such as seasons and holidays, and linking to these — regardless of whether your business naturally links or not — can be extremely helpful. You need not be a florist, jeweler, or restaurant to utilize Valentine's Day, for example. Beyond that, and deeper

Exhibit #2 ________ Director of Marketing Dear ________: Special, highly effective TV exposure at half the ordinary cost, even a smaller fraction of the ordinary cost — even free! Yes, it is possible. Our annual ARTHRITIS FOUNDATION TELETHON has moved to CHANNEL 10 (Phoenix' CBS affiliate), and we are offering an expanded, more flexible, more creative range of Sponsor Opportunities to businesses of all sizes in the valley. Many corporate sponsors last year actually participated spending little or no money — the funds were raised through fundraising events or promotions involving their employees or customers. For example, one major corporation used several Employee Promotions, and raised over $50,000.00. A small company used a Bowl-A-Thon with their employees, employees' family members, and friends, and raised $5,000.00. Both received excellent exposure on the Telethon. AND THIS YEAR, THE OPPORTUNITIES ARE EVEN GREATER.