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HOW TO WRITE COPY THAT CLOSES THE DEAL

Closing the deal.

Writing copy that closes the sale.

It’s not the exact same thing as in selling face-to-face, although it does serve the same purpose... and that is to ask for the sale.

There are a bunch of things that happen in the close that you may not be aware of or may not realize are part of your closing copy.

First, recap the offer.

Retell the story of what you’re selling. Maybe this is the only part of the copy they read. Maybe they just need to be reminded of the benefits. You want to be sure to forge the chain of logic you use to make it reasonable to them that they should buy your offer.

Don’t take forever. Don’t take the same amount of time that you took to write out the chain of logic in your body copy, but you do want to recap the logical series of decisions they would need to make in order to make the decision to buy.

And certainly, in your closing copy, drive home the benefits and the “big reason why,” that would make them buy this thing to begin with. You want to reconnect to the outcome that had them interested in the beginning.

Remind them of the guarantee and the bonuses. You don’t have to go into great detail, but do mention them.

Your job is only to elicit a decision. “Yes” is a valid answer, and so is “no.” You don’t want them to be in decision purgatory, which is called “maybe.” Maybe is the worst place for them to be. You don’t want them in “no man’s land.” You want them to either say yes or no.

Finally, the most important thing in your closing copy is that you must ask for the sale.

This is the biggest failure in face-to-face sales, believe it or not. People will spend hours prospecting, setting an appointment up with someone and making a sales presentation, preparing it and presenting, and then not even ask for the sale in the face-to-face sales encounter.

Why? Well, the number one answer is probably because we’re afraid of rejection. However, if you want to succeed in selling face-to-face, you have to learn to ask for the sale. You have to overcome that fear and the same is true in online sales, although the funny thing is it’s not nearly as scary, because you’re not looking them in the eye, so I’m not sure why people hesitate. But they do.

Don’t fail to ask for the sale

Also, this is the biggest failure in most advertising. How many ads have you seen that never really ask you to come into the store or make a purchase?

It’s certainly the biggest failure in sales copy. For some reason people take a step back when it’s time to ask for the sale. I don’t know why, other than the innate fear of rejection. Like I said, if you’re writing sales copy you’re not there in person for the rejection — so what does it matter, just ask for the sale!

Don’t fail to ask for the sale. That’s the key to remember about closing sales copy.

5 CLOSING TEMPLATES THAT GET THE JOB DONE

Your closing copy doesn’t have to be long or complicated, but it does need to be effective. I have found that metaphors seem to work best. You’ll see what I mean as I walk you through these five closing templates.

These are the five templates I use most often when writing copy and they work the best for me, so I go back to them time and time again, because they never fail.

You’ll see how easily you can adapt these templates to your own usage as we go through them.

Your transitional copy moves the reader out of the main sales copy and into the close. It comes after the guarantee, the bonuses, the pricing, etc. and rolls into the final closing paragraphs or sentences of the sales page. Here’s an example:

TRANSITIONAL CLOSING COPY (USE WITH EACH OF THE 5 CLOSING TEMPLATES)

You can see that I’ve reconnected to the benefits. I’ve restated the big idea. I’ve reminded them of the guarantee... and then I move on to the closing metaphor.

1. “You Will Certainly Arrive” Close

Then you simply end your sales letter. This is a template for using a metaphor that helps people understand the need to go ahead and make a decision right now.

The metaphor is, we both know you’re going to arrive, the question is where? I purposefully leave that question open for them to answer. It’s more powerful that way.

2. The “Different Results” Close

I have the same transition copy as before, followed by...

Then you can either put a buy button here, or close out your copy and whatever language is appropriate for your offer.

3. The “Crossroads” Close

The same transition copy, again, leading into...

Now, this template is powerful because it plays on some famous language that’s deeply embedded in our subconscious, which is from the poem by Robert Frost called The Road Not Taken.

I don’t actually quote that, but I use language that is evocative of it and also, I chose to make the right road also happen to be the correct road. Choosing the right road makes all the difference. Choose the right road and join us today. While that’s not very subtle, it is indicative of the direction that we want them to go, and that in fact they themselves want to go – or else they wouldn’t still be reading.

4. The “Decision Time” Close

This is much more straightforward. Again, we have the transition copy and then we simply say...

…or whatever the name of your club, training or program is.

5. The “Handholding” Close

Again, using the transition copy followed by...

You might even want to spell out the details of how you do that, whether it’s on a weekly group coaching calls, one-on-one email coaching, or through the recorded materials and checklists and you’re metaphorically holding their hand.

Whatever the case may be you want to describe exactly what form the handholding is going to take so they feel reassured, and also so they don’t have any false expectations.