Delivering Sales Letter Personally

I haven't read your sales copy.

But, as with all marketing material, you have to define what its purpose is.
You also have to make sure it generates interest.

Doing what you said, it's like sending a salesmen to prospect and when he gets there he just hands them. a brochure. Doesn't say a word.

Why are you even considering this approach? What is the big deal with the report?
Why can't you go there to pitch? Go there to get a check?
Why are you making the effort of going to a restaurant, meeting with the decision maker (who is the only one the report should go to) and just handing a report?

Use the report as a follow up for deals you don't close.

Definitely recommend the walk-in approach if you are developing a demo app - that way you aren't wasting your/developer's time creating apps that don't even get seen by a decision maker.

On that note, I wouldn't focus as much of your efforts on the report when you have the owners attention in person. Pitch your product (mobile app), show it to them in a creative way (ex: give them the link on their phone so they experience it themselves), and tell them how it will benefit their business. Leave them sales letters/reports to review after you have communicated with them. My point is don't focus so much of your efforts on perfecting your report, your first impression while pitching is what I would be getting ready for the most.

I also think your biggest problem you're going to run into is finding restaurant owners available to talk. Have you considered what time of day you will be doing walk-ins?

"Drop Offs", as they are traditionally are called, are minimally effective.

Sorry guy, along the road to success many of our bubbles are busted. Looks like this is one for you.

This whole approach is anti ergonomic, and you may wear out your outsourcer really fast.

I've been in marketing for a long time, and this method is not very good.

You have some savvy sales people like Ken, Irish and John giving you a better perspective. good luck with it.


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Unlike some of the others in this thread, I think dropping off your reports is a solid idea. I think some people are misinterpreting what you plan on doing. He is not walking in and pitching a product. He is going into local businesses to introduce himself and his business and to give them something for free. Placing the dollar in there is something to make them remember him. I say go for it. At my old job, the sales people who walked in to actually meet us and tell us about there business and themselves got a lot further than those who cold called. And I worked for a huge corporation with managers, district managers, divisional managers etc. so we actually had to pass things up the ladder for people offering us services. I can tell you that we ignored all cold callers, threw all flyers/postcards in the trash, but kept the materials dropped off by people who came into the office and ran the ideas by our Direct Managers.

Hey there Abel, I agree with meeting in person, many of these businesses want to look you in the eye and shake your hand. Let's talk soon my friend. Skype me...

"Dear Owner or To Whom It May Concern,"

Not a good way to get my attention. If you walked in and gave me a letter that started that way, I'd say, Sorry, no time.

For what you do, and there are only 10 of them, you should know the name of the owner or whoever decides.

The letter is weak. The title is weak.

"I have attached a free marketing report, titled "How Local Businesses Can Use Mobile Applications to Attract and Retain More Customers". It is about the benefits of using mobile applications, which can be used in a number of ways to attract and retain customers. The report includes:"

It takes you several lines to get to what's in it for me. In addition, if you're going to restaurants, why say 'local businesses' and not restaurants.... Better yet, have each report named for the type of restaurant you're approaching. For the Italian restaurant, change 'local businesses' to 'local Italian restaurants,' that kind of thing.

But what's the purpose of the letter?

If you're walking in, why do you need a letter to introduce the report? Why not introduce the report verbally?

If you start with either the letter or the report, I'm going to say, 'Leave them with me. I'll look at them later." I'm telling you this because I've done it before. 9 out of 10 times, I didn't look at them later, except as they were going from my desk to the trash can.

If you're starting with talking about aps, showing me one and, if I'm not interested or don't have enough time for you to give it all you've got, leaving a report is a good idea... 1 in 10, I look at.

Selling is a sequence of steps, where each steps introduces/leads into the next.

Yours are
You introduce yourself.
You hand over a letter.
Owner reads the letter.
Owner reads the report.
You show the ap?

You introduce yourself.
You show the ap.
You give owner the letter.
Owner reads letter.
You hand owner the report.
Owner reads report.
You do what while all that reading is happening?

Here's the deal abel:

you need to choose.

either you will be dropping off the dollar bill letter and getting calls for appointments

or

you're going to go in the business and start pitching them on the spot and showing them the sample you created.

Heres what I think. You should go to the ten businesses you already created mock-ups for and pitch it to them right then and there..

But DO NOT drop off any dollar bill letters to these guys.

The dollar bill letter is best used as a prospecting tool to set appointments and see who is interested in what you have to offer.

I learned about the dollar bill letter months ago after studying copywriting..

I figured out that it is most successful if I put sent it in a Fed-ex envelope-- problem was I couldn't afford to pay $70 just to mail out ten letters and not know if i would make a good return on investment.

SO i picked up some free envelopes from the Fed-Ex store placed my dollar bill letters in them and made a plan to hand deliver them.

And, to my surprise, it worked!! I dropped off one letter, got a call back within the hour, and set an appointment for two days later..

So I went out and dropped off nine more the next day. I got calls from 6 or 7, and set appointments with 3 of them. (it could have been a lot better but I got nervous and sucked at explaining myself over the phone.)

I have never mailed dollar bill letters. I do exactly what you suggested. I drive them directly to the business and drop it off with the owner or the first person I see it doesn't matter because it always gets to them. I don't pitch them or ask to speak with a specific person.

I just say "Hey, I was about to put this letter in the mail for _______, but I realized I was passing right by here today. Can you see that he gets it?"

I continue to do this and it works.. Whenever they call they always leave a message that says "Hey you dropped a letter off here earlier today with a dollar bill on it; I read it and was really interested in what you had to say so give me a call back when you can."

Once I raise my closing ratio a little more, I'll be unstoppable with this method..

Dear restaurant owner,

Mabel and George are sitting on their sofa.

George says 'what's for dinner honey?' and Mabel says 'Oh I'm so sorry George but the cat got caught in the mangle today and I had to take it to the vet and then the bus broke down on the way back and we had to walk half a mile to get on another one and well.....I just ran out of time'

'Not to worry' says George...'let's eat out instead.'

'Great' says Mabel...'where should we go?'

'Well I've got some sort of "eating out app" on my mobile...let me see.
Oh yes look at this. They're local and the menu looks delicious.
They've got a special deal for users of the app if we call them....and it's not too far away.'

'Great' says Mabel...'let's get ready give them a call and go'

ATTENTION DEAR RESTAURANT OWNER.
DO you have any idea what just happened there?

If I could show you an extremely successful way to get more diners by using a mobile app like the one in the story....and if it didn't cost an arm and a leg....would you be interested in seeing a live demo...OF YOUR ACTUAL restaurant?

It'll take me 5 minutes to show you how it works, and another 2 days 'til you start getting new customers? Interested? Of course you are....call me now on xxx xxx xxx

Just sayin'

Just read the letter and the report.

I can't imagine a restaurant owner bothering to read either of them unfortunately.

Make the intangible...tangible.....

Talk about floods of customers, gallons of wine, heaps of food and tons of profit.
They are NOT going to look at graphs and read statistics....you would just be wasting their ...(and your) time.

Oh....and it'll cost you an extra dollar a time.

Why don't you just demo the app while you're there? Or better yet, get 3 college kids to hit restaurants and demo apps for you all day long.