Remember that the people you address are selfish, as we all are. They care nothing about your interest or your profit. They seek service for themselves. Ignoring this fact is a common mistake and a costly mistake in advertising. Ads say in effect, buy my brand. Give me the trade you give to others. Let me have the money.  That is not a popular appeal.

The worst ads ask no one to buy. That is useless. Often they do not quote a price. They do not say that dealers handle the product.

The best are based entirely on service. They offer wanted information. They cite advantages to users. Perhaps they offer a sample, or to buy the first package (with a certain dollar value coupon), or to send something on approval, so the customer may prove the claims without any cost or risk.

Some of these ads seem altruistic. But they are based on a knowledge of human nature. The writers know how people are led to buy.

Here again is salesmanship. The good salesman does not merely cry a name. He doesn't say 'Buy my articles.' He pictures the customer's side of his service until the natural result is to buy. 

I didn't write those 196 words, I wish I had. They were written by Claude Hopkins in 1923. Although he has been dead for many years, Claude Hopkins is still considered, by those in the know, to be one of the world’s leading authorities on direct response.  Interestingly few modern copy writers and advertisers have read his work.

He used the above philosophy to put Bissell Carpet Cleaners on the map and using the same philosophy he helped take Schlitz Beer from number 5 to number 1, in only a few months. Nothing has changed since he wrote Scientific Advertising. His ideas work as well now as they did back then. The book is now out of print, but well worth reading if you can find a copy of it. You can download an electronic version at:

Claude Hopkins -Scientific Advertising

Read the above passage at least 3 times. Use it to guide your letter writing, your advertising, your proposals and your sales presentations. It will have a profound effect on your results.