January 9th, 2014 | Bret Thomson

Why Most New Year’s Resolutions and Sales Letters Fail

Here’s why most New Year’s resolutions fizzle out early like a soggy firecracker (The SAME reason most sales letters fail too)

I started writing a gnarly New Year’s REV-UP email for you… then I scrapped it.

Don’t worry… I’ve salvaged the most important tip for you as a bumper-guard, to keep you in the right lane.

… But you know what’s funny?

The reason most New Year’s resolutions fizzle out early like a soggy firecracker is the SAME reason most sales letters fail.

Fix this one area in your life and marketing and expect an avalanche of results…

Let me demonstrate…

Enter, Bob.

Bob’s FIRED-UP about his new year’s resolution. Followed the goal-setting ritual to the tee.

– Wrote his goals down as if they’d already happened

– Read them out daily

– Even spent time visualising

– Told his friends and made it public

– Started daily tasks to make it happen

Way to go Bob. Off to a flying start…

Press the fast forward button to mid February.

“Real life” has caught up and sucked Bob back into his old routines.

He’s missed quite a few days… now stretching into a week with no goal-activity…

It’s okay but… He’s justified in his mind that “Life” got waaaaay too busy to maintain his new daily tasks.

No one is asking how he’s going, so he doesn’t mention it either.

To top it off… He satisfies his ego with a paperweight promise that he’ll start again when things slow down…

Hmmm. We all know how that one plays out, don’t we?

Here’s the main problem.

He was running on logic not emotion.

Logic alone won’t keep the engines burning. You’ve gotta fill your tanks with emotion.

Logic isn’t going to get you out of your warm, snug, cosy bed at 5am on a chilly morning to exercise or to study…

It’s only the high-voltage emotional reasons that’ll spring you out of your comfortable state and into action.

It’s your heart-felt emotional reason that’ll keep you in the fight when life’s comforts and routines back you into a corner…

“The true test of a man’s character is to carry through a resolution long after the mood in which it was made has passed”

Emotion is the key.

And it’s the same powerful emotional reasoning that’ll compel YOUR prospects to take action and buy from you.

Are you trying to logically convince your prospects why they should buy from you?

It’s not enough.

Logic might get their attention…

Logic might stir their interest…

Logic might get them thinking about buying from you…

But logic alone will rarely (if ever) pull them over the line to take action.

Can you convince a hardcore Apple iPhone user that the new Samsung is better?

Logic rarely works… The emotional connection is often too strong.

Each logical point must be backed up with powerful emotional reasoning…

Can a QLD State-of-Origin supporter logically convince a NSW supporter that their team is better?

Even after 8 straight wins?

Nope. Cos they’d be lying anyway (wink).

If you saw two unknown tennis players battling it out on TV… Two elite athletes both as deserving of the win as each other…

But one of the players has a story.

Their father/coach sadly died one week earlier… and now the player is trying to win in their father’s honour.

Who are you going for now?

You see, when people buy weight loss pills, face creams or exercise programs… their reason is not simply because they feel they need them or even like them…

… It’s because their emotion of vanity compels them.

Successful marketers don’t appeal to people’s intellect… They appeal to EMOTION.

The world’s most popular religions attract the masses by emotion.

You, me, your prospect, and every other humanoid… we all carry, consciously and unconsciously, a dominant emotional desire that occupies our mind every minute of every day.

Tune into that emotional desire with your sales copy and you’ll get their immediate attention. Tie it up with what you’re offering and you’ll be closer to getting the sale.

Here’s one of my favourite examples.

A classic old headline with an emotional appeal for a National Cash Register company,

“If someone were to make your son a thief… Feeling as you do about your own boy, is it right to put temptation in the way of other men’s boys?”

I love that.

So what’s the dominant emotion for your prospects?

If you need help nailing the emotional appeal with your marketing, let us find it for you and put it to work…

That’s what my “Project-Success” team does…

Go here to see how we can work together on your next project www.BretThomson.com/project_success

Think big. Be different

Bret Thomson

P.S. Let me know your thoughts with a comment below or freely share… Talk soon…

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