“Because there are three classes of intellects: one which comprehends by itself; another which appreciates what others comprehended; and a third which neither comprehends by itself nor by the showing of others; the first is the most excellent, the second is good, the third is useless.”
— Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince
As Machiavelli says in the quote above, there are three classes of prospect.
The first will seek out your offer and figure out for themselves that this is just what they need.
The second will see the light with a bit of help from you.
The third really aren’t your prospects at all, and no amount of clever persuasion will get them to buy.
The trouble is that many marketers only speak to the first group. They present features and benefits of their offer as they themselves imagine them.
But expert persuaders take it one level further.
They connect the dots for people. They provide imagination and logic that the prospect himself won’t bother with — and they create a problem where the prospect doesn’t see one yet.
Copywriter Victor Schwab said this connecting the dots is “usually either completely ignored or underestimated by the preceptors of advertising and its practitioners.”
Don’t be among these lazy practitioners of marketing. Connect the dots for your readers, and do the work for them, because large rewards await you if you do.
But perhaps I’m not connecting the dots for you on how to do that. In that case, you might like to sign up for my daily email newsletter.