You can use a sales letter to turn a business problem into profits. Just about any problem can be flipped around to get more customers in the door and to get current customers to buy more products and services from you.
I have a real life example to share with you. We used to own tanning and spa businesses with spray tanning machines. The machines we owned were called MyMyst by Mystic Tan.
We had a massive problem with our MyMyst Booths. They were not working properly. Sometimes they worked, and sometimes they didn’t. It got so bad that customers were actually calling in before their appointments to be sure they were working properly.
So after we finally got some good news from Mystic Tan (see the letter), we turned it around to benefit ourselves and our customers.
Every business has it’s problems. And there is almost always a way to turn the tables on a problem and turn it into an advantage.
Problems Into Profits Sales Letter Example!
This letter was formatted a bit differently but it’s fairly close. For example, we used a real signature, the font was different, and the headline, image, and subheadlines were sized differently. The 200 was crossed out and make to look like it was done by hand (small details like this make a big difference). Also, the address information was printed in the footer area of the actual letter.
“Oh Lordy I Thought We Were Stuck With A Lemon!”
Why Mystic Tan Freaked Out and Sent Us 200 198 Mystic Tan Cartridges At No Charge… And Why We Want You To Get In On The Gift!
Dear Name,
If you have been to either of our (name of city) salons to use the MyMyst Booth (Mystic Tan), then you know it has been hit or miss if the booth was working properly.
It’s been a massive thorn in my side for a long long time. Calling tech support week after week, having parts shipped to us and trying to talk our employees through complicated procedures, and having to apologize to customers like you became routine and embarrassing.
It got to the point where I told the tech support people that I thought we had a ‘lemon’, but they simply brushed me off and said that the problem was ‘easy to fix’. It never was…
The Big Shock!
So, I was at my computer late at night after putting my son down, and I received one of the monthly email newsletters from Mystic Tan. I said to myself, “What the heck, I’ll just reply to the email address and tell the story of our massive problems”. I really didn’t expect anything.
The very next morning, the head guy from tech support for Mystic Tan called to tell me they were overnighting basically two brand new MyMyst Booths and jetting over a technical guy to put every- thing together the very next day! Plus, they were sending us 200 cartridges of MyMyst at no charge for all of our troubles.
The Top Dogs Never Knew!
He went on to explain that they pulled our service record on both Santa Rosa MyMyst booths and forwarded them to his boss, the CEO of Mystic Tan. The CEO Freaked! He couldn’t believe the number of problems that we were dealing with, and so they wanted to make things right.
He promised that the problems were with the older technology and something to do with their manufacturing process and that this would resolve most — if not all — of the problems we were having. I used two of the cartridges to test it out and it works better than ever. So I want to spread the good will… along to you!
Buy 1 Mystic Tan
Get The Second for just $1.00!
I want you to have the gift that Mystic Tan sent me. I mean, chances are pretty good that you had to deal with a malfunctioning booth, and that must have been really frustrating.
So use the coupon at the bottom to buy one MyMyst Tan and get another one for just $1.00. I can’t promise how long these MyMyst cartridges will last (there’s only 198 of them) so come to our salon right now. First come first served!
Thanks for being a very patient customer!
Sincerely,
Name
PS: The deadline date is set at June 2nd, but if the 200 198 cartridges run out before then you’ll miss out. So come today.
P.P.S.: I put an extra coupon below and put some in this envelope so you can give them to your friends and family to use…
More Creative Ideas and Examples!
Here are some ideas that are designed to get you thinking outside of the box when it comes to problems and turning them into opportunities.
- Save My Marriage! My wife says all the (name of products) have to go or I’m in hot water…
- Damaged Inventory! A pipe broke in our supply room and 122 widgets were exposed. They are all fine and work great but we can’t sell them as new…
- Truck Broke! I can’t believe I’m telling you this but our company truck broke down and it’s going to cost $8000 dollars to fix. It has to be fixed right away. So I decided to mark everything down by 51% for the weekend so that we can (hopefully) pay for the truck…
- Accountant! My accountant says we have to sell at least 45% of our inventory before the end of the year in order to qualify for (name of) tax break…
- The In laws are coming! Hey, I need a reason to be away from home for a while because, well, the in laws are coming into town. So I’m having a special sale just to give myself a reason to be gone. So, spend $X and get X for 26% off…
- The owners are gone! Hi, I’m the manager over hear at Name of Business, and I need a favor. See, the owners are leaving for a month and they are keeping me in charge of everything. I want to surprise them with a surge in traffic and sales the month they are gone to prove myself to them, and to simply make them happy…
- Double Order! My manager and I both ordered from our supplier and this resulted in a double order of our widgets. So now we have too much to store in our supply room. Our problem is your opportunity! Blah, blah, blah.
- Wrong Delivery! Our supplier sent us the wrong order! Now we have a bunch of wing dings that we weren’t ready to market and sell. Since our supplier made up for the mistake by slashing the wholesale price, we are going to pass this savings on to you.
- Printing Problem! I wrote a book titled, ‘101 Costly Mistakes Contractors Make That Cost Homeowners Millions!’ The problem is that the printing company made a small but expensive mistake on the back cover. So, instead of selling them at the regular price I’m going to send one to you for free. I only have 125 of them on hand so it’s first come first serve.
#5 is a little iffy but, like I said, it’s there to keep your creative juices going. But you never know. I’ve seen very courages promotions similar to that as well. Heck, you might even get free publicity out of it. As a matter of fact, just checking, you are sending a press release out one per month aren’t you?
Send in your ideas or ask a question below. I’ll answer it as best I can.