wants to buy, but he doesn’t want to be sold.

Do they know the name of your product? Yes. Do they know the benefits you claim? It’s pretty likely. But, making up their minds whether to buy, that’s a different story. First, you’ll need to win their trust. And, because they’re not completely decided, they’re skittish.

By far the easiest way to figure out if you should come at a sales lead idea head on or sidle up to it indirectly, is to figure out where your prospect falls on this scale of awareness. The more aware he is, usually the more direct sales lead works best.

knowing how aware your prospect is will change the conversation. And, it will especially change those first key moments of the conversation, which in advertising we call the headline and the lead.

When you’re working with a less aware or skeptical customer, the great power of an indirect lead is it can open — or re-open — the door on that relationship before the customer has the chance to get confused or sock your offer away in a pigeon-hole of “heard that, done that before.”

persuading someone doesn’t have to feel like brain surgery. All it really means is that as copywriters, we must recognize our first job is to win over the prospect’s heart. Once we do that, then the rest of our job — winning over his mind — is relatively easy.

The less your customer knows about you, what you’re selling, or his own needs, the less effective a direct lead is likely to be.

“The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think.” — Edwin Schlossberg

the lead is strongest that promotes one compelling idea by supporting that idea with all the appropriate techniques ... stories, predictions, statements, promises, and so on … but all unified by that single idea and by a single emotion that drives the sale.