Chet Holmes’ (RIP) excellent book, “The Ultimate Sales Machine” is a must read for anyone involved in selling.  Whether you are an aspiring entrepreneur, CEO, Sales Manager or Sales Person, Chet’s book will add value to your business life.  I highly recommend it.

What caught my attention recently was a radio ad I heard for Insperity, the Houston-based outsourced HR & Workforce Optimization company (www.insperity.com).  Insperity is taking the “The Seven Musts of Marketing” chapter right out of Ultimate Sales Machine, and I wanted to highlight it.

Rule1: It must be distinctive.  Insperity hired Jim Nance, a famous sports announcer to do the voice-over for the advertising campaign.  Anyone who has listened to television or radio sports in the last 20 years in America instantly recognizes the voice.  As a recognizable voice, it get’s peoples attention immediately.

Rule 2: Capture Attention with A Screaming Headline.  Here is where Insperity excels.  The commercials create an immediate focus for business owners by noting the challenges associated with the new healthcare laws.  Business owner takes notice, and many individuals will do so as well.  The audio does not need to “scream”, but the topic sentence has to scream a topic of importance.

Rule 3: After your Headline Hooks Them, Your Body copy Has To Keep Them Reading.  Insperity does this by asking questions like, “Did you know that your business can be…..”.  The focus of each question is to force a prospective to think about the negative consequences of not engaging Insperity.

Rule 4: Include a Call To Action.  Insperity ends their commercials by stating that the solution to any of the myriad of problems they have just listed can easily be found by calling one of Insperity’s Business Solutions Specialists (not “our hotline”, or “our Sales Team”), for an “Executive Briefing” (not for a “sales pitch”)

It is great to see a live (and large) example of Chet’s guidance being used successfully.  Insperity had $1.6 Billion in revenues in 2007, and is on target to hit $2.6 Billion in 2014.  Chet Holmes has passed away but his guidance continues on.