What’s the fastest way to kill a sales letter?

What I’m about to tell you isn’t the “typical advice” like a bad headline, poor grammar or any of that.

Let me tell you a quick story to illustrate the problem.

I was eating dinner with my parents last night to celebrate my unofficial second birthday (that’s a story for another time).

But something unusual happened.

My Dad was busy looking at a “sales letter.”

Not a traditional one, but more of a shiny tri-fold postcard looking thing.

“FREE <AUTOMATIC PILL DISPENSER> FROM <INSURANCE COMPANY>!”

And naturally — as an owner of both an Alexa and a Google home (literally positioned right next to each other) he wanted it.

Now — I hate Alexa and Google home.

Why the hell do I have to spend time fighting with Alexa about how I decide to pronounce “ALEXA TURN ON THE DAMN LIGHTS” when the clap-on already exists?

Digressions aside — when my dad called the number on the card (which is rare for him) the sale died almost instantly.

He suspected it would be something like…

“Get this doo-dad for FREE when you sign up for this monthly service!”

But it was far worse…

The person on the other end of the line had no clue what my Dad was talking about.

Ball. Dropped.

The representative told him to try calling another number, which he did.

But the next rep was just as clueless.

And that’s the true killer.

A lack of coordination between Marketing and Fulfillment.

It’s not cheap to mail out ads — yet this insurance company opted to basically sett a huge pile of money on fire with their lack of coordination.

But it’s not just big companies either.

Small businesses make the same mistakes and quite frankly — could bring Gary Halbert back from the dead and have him tag team a sales letter with Clayton Makepeace and Gary Bencivenga…

And still see a conversion rate of 0%.

What you write is only a piece of the puzzle and you’d do well to remember that.