21 Steps Sales Letter – A Sales Presentation Formula by Perry Belcher
Perry Belcher is a well-known Internet marketing speaker, author of several books, and a recognized sales guru. He was a guest speaker in the Traffic and Conversion Summit held earlier this year where he shared his famous 21 Steps Sales Letter originally based on David Frey’s 12-step foolproof sales letter formula. Below is the list of secrets shared during the conference. Perry recommends that these steps be followed in sequence because sequence is critical.
According to Perry, “poor copy in sequence is better than good copy out of sequence”.
The 21 Steps Sales Letter Formula:
1. Call out to your audience
Address your audience (Attention: insert your audience here) at the top of your sales letter.
2. Get their attention
Grab the attention of your reader with a big promise headline. (example: Everything You’ve Learned About ____ is a Lie!)
3. Backup the big promise headline with a quick explanation (sub-headline).
Support the headline to give it believability. Write out 100 or more headlines and trim it down to your best 5. (example: How To + insert benefit here)
4. Identify the problem.
Identify the audience (who they are, how they feel) or tell a story about a problem, a struggle, or a challenge.
5. Provide the solution
Reveal a solution to their problem and prove that this solution is the best option out there.
6. Show pain of and cost of development
Let your audience know the pain and cost you and others went through to develop the solution to the problem. Establish empathy and affinity with your audience.
7. Explain ease-of-use
Let them know how easy the solution is to use.
8. Show speed to results
Give them an idea how fast it is to achieve results.
9. Futurecast
Explain how their life will improve or be better because of your solution.
10. Show your credentials
Establish your credibility and demonstrate your expertise.
11. Detail the benefits
Use bullet points to enumerate benefits. Tip: Describe the feature, then use the words “…so that” to describe and emphasize the benefit.
12. Get social proof
Use outside authority or third party validation (example: research statistics, quotes from credible or authoritative sources, etc.)
13. Make your offer
Tell them exactly what they are getting.
14. Add bonuses
Bonuses need not be relevant to the offer. People only need to want them.
15. Build up your value
Build up the value of your offer. Tell them how much everything is worth.
16. Reveal your price (pop by button)
Add prices together to calculate value, then reveal price that’s much cheaper. Explain why the price is what it is and why it is such a great value.
17. Inject scarcity (if any)
Offers that don’t have scarcity don’t sell as well, but it needs to be genuine or you’ll destroy your business. (example: change the price, limited time, take away a bonus, etc.)
18. Give guarantee
Remove, eliminate, reverse, take out perceived risks. Longer guarantee = less returns.
19. Call to action
The call to action is a command. Be specific and tell them exactly what to do. Use visuals, screenshots, and other tools to guide them to do the next steps until completed.
20. Give a warning
Warn them against the consequence or what’s going to happen if they don’t buy.
21. Close with a reminder
Recap the whole offer and remind them what they are getting. Summarize the problem, the solution, the offer, the guarantee, and the benefits and consequences they will be experiencing.
If you’re stumped as to how to begin writing your own sales letter, try these simple steps, apply them, and give them a try. It’s a great way to jumpstart your writing technique. If you do, let us know whatever the results are. We’d love to hear from you.
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