The Art of Preselling Your Suspects

A Suspect is someone you think might be interested in your products and services, but your not sure.

A common mistake many small business owners make when they mail out to a group of suspects is to attempt to sell them immediately.

The goal of a suspect mailing is not to sell. The goal is to build enough trust and confidence to convert that suspect into a prospect. Once a suspect converts to a prospect, you'll stand a much better chance of selling them something.

Here's an effective way to convert your rented suspect list into a qualified set of prospects.

Converting Suspects to Prospects

Instead of trying to sell a solution to this problem, you offer a free downloadable report, a product sample or a trial service. It is important that you actually provide something of value at no cost that helps solve this particular problem.

So how does giving away something actually convert suspects into prospects? The key with this offer is that the suspect must give you permission to market to them in the future. This means that you must have a mechanism in place to collect contact information.

If you are giving away a free report download on your website, you can simply require the suspect's first name and email in order for them to actually download the report. In addition, you can have a checkbox whereby they can sign up for your free monthly informational newsletter.

Designing a direct mail piece in this manner accomplishes several important things.

1. You're building trust and confidence by offering something of value for free.
2. You're making it easy for the suspect to obtain the free information, product or service.
3. You are building a proprietary list of new prospect emails (or, depending on your offer, address information.)

I also recommend you work to dovetail your direct mail programs with your business website. Suspects, especially, will appreciate the ability to simply go to your website and request whatever product sample or information they need by filling out a simple form.

This idea of building trust before attempting to sell is known as Preselling. Preselling your suspects is a necessity. You simply must presell before you stand a chance of selling.

Marketing to Your Customer Types

Each customer type requires a different approach. You Presell your suspects, you sell your prospects and you cross-sell (or upsell) your 1st-time buyers.

For more information on marketing to suspects, prospects and buyers, read Marketing to Your Customer Types.