I once wrote an email trying to figure out who the most famous copywriter of all time is.
(I used the number of Google search results as a proxy.)
It turns out several very famous fiction authors previously worked as copywriters. But in terms of people who actually got famous for being copywriters, it was no contest. There was only one option:
David Ogilvy.
Today, I want to write about Ogilvy again, but not as the most famous copywriter, but as the most famous door-to-door salesman.
Ogilvy of course didn’t become famous because he sold door-to-door. Still, I’m giving him preference over other famous people with door-to-door sales experience (Johnny Cash, Mark Cuban) because Ogilvy was actually a star door-to-door salesman, and because he lasted in the profession for years.
At age 21, Ogilvy came back from France where he had worked as a kitchen hand at the Hotel Majestic in Paris. He took a job in Scotland, going door to door and selling the AGA Cooker, a kind of stove + oven + toaster + heater.
Ogilvy was so successful selling this kitchen contraption that three years later, the company had asked him to write a new sales manual for other door-to-door salesman inside the AGA empire.
The result was a 15-page document, The Theory And Practice of Selling The AGA Cooker, which Fortune magazine has called “probably the best sales manual ever written.”
Since a part of my craft is to search within the deep caverns of persuasion and influence, I of course tracked down and read Ogilvy’s manual.
Today, I want to share just one insightful line with you. It comes in the second section of the manual, which is titled “Defence.”
The first section of the manual is “Attack,” which Ogilvy devotes most of his time to, and which he says should be “so thorough that the enemy is incapable of counter-attack.”
Still, in war as in sales, sometimes you gotta defend. And on the topic of defense, Ogilvy says:
“To show that you are completely stumped on any point is fatal, for it stimulates the prospect to attack, puts you on the defensive, and, worst of all, gives the impression that you do not know your job.”
Like I said, it’s an insightful line.
Because if a prospect asks a question or raises an objection, maybe they genuinely care about that point.
Or maybe they don’t. Maybe they’re just asking because they haven’t fully made up their minds, and are prodding, hoping to have something external make up their mind for them.
The worst thing you can do is to leave that question unanswered, or that objection hanging in the air.
Yes, you allow the prospect a specific line of attack. But it’s much more than that.
As Ogilvy says, worst of all, you put your entire credibility on the line, and you put everything else you have said or might say under suspicion.
Point being:
It’s never really the facts of the case that are the problem. It’s always the interpretation of it. And if you can’t control the facts — or even if you can — you’d better control the interpretation.
You might think I’m telling you to be polite and to politely answer your prospect’s questions or address their objections once they’re raised. And yes, that’s much better than not doing so.
But like Ogilvy says, there’s a better still approach.
But that’s really the topic for another email, or more likely, for an entire book.
For now, let me just remind you of my Daily Email Habit service. You can find more information about it at the link below.
And if you have any questions about it, send me an email and ask away. I’ll answer your questions thoroughly and honestly, because I’d rather have you not sign up, than sign up if Daily Email Habit is not right for you.
Here’s the link: