In your opinion, how important do you think B2B sales letters are?

Hi Dan,
I’ve been marketing software (currently at Fiserv) for many years now. Like you, I work in the IT industry and work with sales people to craft the words in B2B sales letters.

As you know, in the B2B buying cycle where the sales cycle is long, it’s more about relationship than presentation. Your prospects carry out a lot of product research, including crawling your website for information – and so they should, given the investment they usually need to make.

The typical result is that a prospect company will round up a row of vendors, often involving an RFI submission, and a spend a significant amount of time (often in committee meetings) ensuring they are making the right choice in the money they are about to spend on the project they want to complete, of which your software is a part.

The challenge of sales letters, and other promotional materials, is that they blend with all the other letters they receive – especially if its email. Frankly, I get solicited with B2B sales letters every day (don’t we all?), and they are indistinguishable from all the rest. Sales letters by post are getting fewer and fewer, and therefore stand out more, but they can be costly and generate no real interest.

Given this, if you are going for email sales letters, it is important that you get them right – but this really is an “art” and difficult to do right each time. The letter really has to address a core pain or need that triggers them to read more. The author’s ability to capture the attention of the reader, to convey trust in your company, and to explain your product fit all goes a long way in convincing them that you are the one to talk to.

I am in the lucky position of being a B2B buyer too, and therefore see it from the other side. As a buyer, it is not the receiving of sales letters, demos, and presentations that persuades me, but the personality, trust, and confidence portrayed by the seller from the sales letter to the actual manner and the words expressed in a phone call.

So it’s very much about the “emotional” 'impression' you leave on me, in what you write and in what you say and do. Late responses and “broken promises” can equally leave me with a bad impression, so be careful what what you say in a sales letter. It’s an old adage, but it really is true: it’s all about trust. People will spend money with people they trust – so make that sales letter convey that trust.

if you think/know that most of the leads come from this sort of campaign then you will need to refine it. Make B2B letters even more personalised.

From time to time, my company sends B2B letter that are generic and in most cases don’t bring that much as some other activities.
I always try to make personalized letters that contain valuable information to my customer along with information that we share about current situation. In addition, before contacting new prospect I try to find as much information as possible to find key information. That key information, if you used it right, can lead to response to B2B letter and possible opportunity.

B2B sales letters can be an excellent arsenal to your overall sales.

One of the challenges is actually getting the letter into the right person, and getting past the gatekeeper.

After you have overcome that part, you then need to keep the prospect reading your message.

Here is where most B2B sale letters fall down. This is why Direct Response Copywriters can make a huge difference in your response rate, and also why they do not come terribly cheap.

A good formula for writing a sales letter is

ATTENTION GETTING HEADLINE

Problem, Aggitate and amplify the pain, and then solve the problem.

Here is an example of a headline I wrote for a Microsoft Partner who was selling a POS system for Wine and Beer Retailers.

This was a Postcard- which drove the prospect to a website or an 800 # where they could request the free report.

The partner would then follow up in a couple days to make sure they got the report ok.

Attention Wine and Beer Retailers:

Free Report Reveals...

5 Simple Ways to DOUBLE your Wine and Beer Sales. GUARANTEED!

The body of the postcard then had a few bullets for some challenges that they faced, with a call to action to request their free report.

Courtney Kostelecky
Director of Marketing
MyFishnetMarketing.com

I too am in B2B sales. I have a letter that I use, but if I were to mail it alone it would not get read. The average person probably received 3lbs of mail a week.

So you are a decision maker, if I have the best written letter in the world what are my odds of you OPENING my letter to actually read it. 1%, 2% 5% tops right?

So, what I do, is I have a creative imprinted item in the package and mail it. Now let me assure you, when the mail person brings you the mail and you have letter after letter, and then on top is a mailing tube, a box, a paper bag etc, something DIFFERENT that is dimensional or lumpy, your curiosity is going to get you to open that mail.

I have been most recently doing a knock off on the Staples button, but mine says "WOW THAT'S A GREAT IDEA", and it says Great idea on it.

So when I call my list to whom I mail, I say this is Derek Miller and I am the one who sent you the GREAT IDEA BUTTON

Who has better recall a GREAT IDEA BUTTON, that you know got looked at or I am the guy who sent you the boring flat envelope that probably didn't get read.

Derek, this is very good strategy on how to be spotted. Unfortunately, last two years I receive only emails and classic snail mail is almost dead because of financial situation and less innovative approaches to current and potential customers.
My company has switched from regular one B2B letter quarterly to only one per year and this will be reduced. Now we use email for sending one email monthly with poor result. We need to change strategy immediately if we want to survive on market.
The interesting part is that on west mailings are common thing, in Croatia is almost dead. Everybody is switching to email, and I have good 'spam' filter that remove unwanted emails.
My previous employer spends fortune on mailings and personalized B2B letter. We had very good response and sale increase. But in time of crisis marketing cost was too high and company was terminated.
Now, I would love to receive any kind of letter using good old fashioned mail.
Have a good and successful week.

Writing a great letter is a dying art. With the overuse of email and social media, I think a well written sales letter would actually stand out. Do create such a letter it should be:

Very concise
Original
All about the prospect and not what you want
Have a compelling offer