Over 70 years ago, one man had the answer to increasing almost
any product's sales and literally crushing the competition.

His name?

Claude Hopkins. And today his advice is even more valuable
than it was during the 1920s.

Hopkins was one of the most famous ad men and really the
Father of modern advertising. His two books "My Life in
Advertising" and "Scientific Advertising" are worth
reading and re-reading.

If you read on, I'll share with you one of Hopkins' greatest
secrets for attracting more business.

Listen closely - the secret is *EDUCATION*.

By educating a prospect about how things are done in your
business, even it's the same exact thing any one of your
competitors could tell, will produce a tremendous selling
advantage.

Don't believe me?

Look around at nearly all the advertising being done based on
the plea: "Buy my brand", "Come to my store",
"Give me the money which you give to others". Typically this falls in the
category of boasting and bragging advertising. Frankly,
consumers don't care one lick about you or your company, they
care about the benefits they'll get from dealing with you.

Let me share with you how Hopkins used this advertising secret
to rocket a so-so beer brand from 5th place into a tie for 1st
place in just a matter of months. Listen to this:

Schlitz Beer hired Hopkins to increase their falling market
share. Every beer manufacturer at this time was screaming
"PURE" in their ads. In fact, companies were spending a fortune just
advertising this 4 letter word as big and as bold as they could.
They even took out double pages ads to put that word in even
bigger letters. All this shouting and no explaining was making
zero impressions on the buying public. Nobody ever explained
what 'pure' really meant until Hopkins came in.

The first thing Hopkins did was take a factory tour. On this
tour he was shown plate-glass rooms where beer was dripping over
pipes. Inquiring the reason for this, Hopkins was told that
those rooms were filled with filtered air, so the beer could be
cooled without any impurities.

Next, he was shown huge expensive filters filled with white-
wood pulp that provided a superior filtering process. The
manufacturer then went on to explain how they cleaned every
pump and pipe, twice daily to assure purity. And also how each
bottle was sterilized not once or twice, but four times before
being filled with beer.

Then, Hopkins was shown the 4,000 foot deep artesian wells dug
to provide the cleanest and purest water available, even though
the factory was right on the shore of Lake Michigan. (At this
time Lake Michigan was not polluted and could provide clean
water.)

Finally, Hopkins was lead into a laboratory and was shown the
mother yeast cell, that was a product of 1,200 experiments to
bring out the robust flavor. And he was told all the yeast used
in making Schlitz beer was developed from that original yeast
cell.

After his tour Hopkins exclaimed, "Why don't you tell people
these things?"

The manufacturer's response was because every beer
manufacturer does it the same way.

And to that Hopkins replied, "But, others have never told this
story..." And he went off to create an advertising campaign
explaining to people what makes Schlitz beer pure. Once again
he told the same story any brewer could have but he gave a
meaning to purity. And this is what took Schlitz from 5th
place to a tie for 1st place in market share.

Really, this whole process is just educating.

Educating prospects about the how's, the why's, the good,
the bad and the ugly. You simply cannot over educate people.

Now maybe you're thinking anything from the 1920's can't
possibly work today -- WRONG!

Murray Raphel, a retail direct marketing consultant, tells the
story of how he was visiting one of his clients, Ethan Allen
Furniture, and he noticed carpenters in the back room repairing
furniture. He asked, "Do you make furniture here?"

The reply from the manager of this store was, "No, those are
carpenters doing work on Ethan Allen wood furniture." He went on
to explain how every customer is given a lifetime guarantee on
all their wood pieces. And he quickly added, "But all Ethan
Allen stores do this."

But of course no other store advertises this fact.

Soon Raphel ran an ad stating *Every Piece of Ethan Allen
Wooden Furniture is Guaranteed For Your Lifetime!*

And wouldn't you know it, a competitor soon ran the same
guarantee in their ad. But guess who got the credit for the
guarantee?

That's right -- the original store.

So here's the bottom line: Take the time right now to
write down exactly what you do in your business (even if it's
the exact same as any other competitor). Write down absolutely
everything and tell people everything. Don't suffer from the
curse of assumption - let people know and they'll knock down
your door to order!