Some years ago, I was mailing a large amount of direct-mail advertising letters˳ I did a test mailing with 5,000 copies of a new sales letter, and to my surprise received a rather rude shock as a result˳
I wrote the letter with a writing style similar to that used by the late Gary Halbert, who billed himself as the world’s greatest copywriter˳ Gary was actually a heck of a nice guy, although in his sales letters he showed no degree of humility˳ Gary wrote his letters with a flippant, arrogant style that always told an interesting story, and held readers’ attention˳
At the time, the Internet was not yet a viable sales medium, so I sent the letters by snail mail˳ I rented 5,000 names, had letters, envelopes, and order forms printed, then I gave these to a letter shop to address, stamp, and send them off˳ Next it was just a matter to wait for the orders to come in to determine if the sales letter actually worked˳
About a week later I started to receive some of the return envelopes˳ “Oh boy, it worked!” I thought˳ But the first order-return envelope I opened didn’t have a check in it˳ Instead it had letter, a scathing letter from someone who received my test sale letter, and she just spit her venom at me˳
“How dare you send me a letter like that˳ It’s a piece of junk that shows me what you think of me˳ What an insult! I have been in business a long time, and you want to sell me beginner advice, and blah blah blah,” on she went˳ I wondered what her problem was˳ Did she get up on the wrong side of the bed? Is she having a really bad day?
Her letter to me was the first I opened that morning, and after reading it I was not feeling at all good about my sales letter˳ What if I had insulted several thousand other people?
A few hours later, actually about four o’clock that afternoon, the phone rang, and when I answered, the fellow on the other end said in a demanding voice, “Who wrote that letter?” And I thought, “Oh no here we go again˳”
So rather hesitantly I said, “I, I, uh, uhm I did,” and then braced myself for another blast of venom, one that would soon be coming over the phone˳ But the guy on the other end of the line said, “Oh darn˳ I was hoping it was written by an advertising agency because I wanted to hire them˳ I love the letter˳ That letter is great!” He ordered my product, but I certainly wasn’t the agency˳
He and the venom lady each received the same sales letter˳ The same message, but two different responses˳ The point is, not everyone is going to be your customer˳ Nor should you want everyone as your customer˳ In fact, there are some people you don’t want because they are more trouble than they’re worth˳ And there are a few screwballs out there who feel low about themselves, so they take it out on the rest of the world, because they want everyone else to feel as low as they do˳
Interestingly, a couple of months later, I mailed to that same list again, all 5,000, because I had purchased rights to multiple mailings of the list˳ In direct mail, “nixies” are the advertising mail pieces that get returned to sender, and do so because the address is wrong, or the intended recipient is no longer that address, and didn’t leave a forwarding address˳
About two weeks after the second mailing I started receiving the nixies˳ And guess what? There was a nixie from that lady who sent me the scathing letter˳ It was marked, “Gone˳ No Forwarding Address On File˳”
She was out of business! Somehow I am not surprised˳ Her attitude was that of one who is not successful, one who is feeling fear, and because of this was raging to other people who are more successful than she˳
Some people you don’t want as customers˳ It is time to fire them if they don’t leave on their own˳
Source by https://ezinearticles˳com/?Customer-From-Hell&id=4070198
