Your Sales And My Humiliating Pornstache

How can my pornstache, circa 1982, grow your sales in 2024?

I'll explain in a moment.

First, you should know something.

I was a geek in high school. A bookworm.

But I managed to win 5 varsity letters in cross country and track ...

Maybe you can identify with some of that?

Since then, I've studied German, Greek, Irish, Japanese, Latin, Russian, and Spanish.

Maybe you can identify with some of that?

I've also worked as a baseball groundskeeper, cashier, dishwasher, English teacher, guitar player, landscaper, newspaper columnist, paper boy, record store manager, resume writer, songwriter, textbook writer, track coach, warehouse worker, and webmaster.

Maybe you can identify with some of that?

Wait, why am I telling you this?

To prove a point: The more you know about me, the more you can identify with me.

When that happens, you and I can build an affinity.

Affinity builds trust.

Trust leads to sales.

You want more sales, don't you?

Good. Then do whatever you can to build trust with your prospects via affinity.

It's the easiest thing in the world. Profitable, too.

At his "Mind Hijacking Copywriting" event in 2016, Dan Kennedy said that a proven way to build affinity is talk or write to prospects about:

Family: places/life/pictures ... like geeky me from 1982.

Occupation: like all those jobs I've had.

Recreation: hobbies/interests ... like running, reading, and learning languages.

Money: about which I write every day :-)

Dan went on to say that including personal affinity statements in a sales letter is important. You should try inserting it early, right after the opening.

By the way, Dan Kennedy included two of my sales letters in his book, No BS Brand-Building By Direct Response. They're on pages 119 and 120:

Anyway, affinity is the secret to the most successful sales letter I ever wrote.

It began this way:

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Dear Dog Parent,

You and I have never met ... but unless I miss my guess, we have a few things in common: You're a dog owner.

---

Results: That letter helped grow a business from $15 million to $102 million in sales.

Another example: Here's an affinity-building paragraph from page 1 of a sales letter I wrote for another client. Note that is says nothing about features or benefits:

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It’s not just how difficult our work is, but how it affects us and our families personally. It’s tough when the long work hours take us away from our loved ones at home. On top of that, conducting up to 45 in-person training sessions a twice a year means we’re away from home even more! That’s not good for our relationships or our health.

---

Results: That letter put over $300,000 in my client's sales pipeline in 60 days.

Final example: Here are two affinity-building paragraphs from page 1 of a sales letter for another client. Again, nothing about features or benefits:

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Like you, perhaps, I struggled in the early years of my practice. The long hours, the headaches, the missed meals at home. I bought every training available, I tried every consultant, but I still felt hopeless ... trapped in my practice, struggling to pay the bills. Overhead ate up everything. My staff sabotaged me. My schedule fell apart on a daily basis.

I dreaded going into work. (Sound familiar?)

---

Results: That letter helped my client sell $639,992 of a new service in 21 days.

Bottom line: Affinity "changes everything, so time and space must be devoted to it," said Dan Kennedy.

I agree.

You too? Great. That's another thing we have in common.

See how easy this is? :-)

And one last thing ...

My biggest offer of 2024 is coming Black Friday.

Hint: You can save 80% and get access to my most powerful training.

It includes my AI hack for building affinity -- and sales -- by letting your clients do the selling for you, in their own words. Then delivering those words to prospects online and offline, in ways your competitors can't match.

But only if you're one of the first 10 people. After that, the doors slam shut.

To get early access, like this post and follow me, Kevin Donlin