The Order Form

The order form is a critical component of the selling process. Mine is in continuous improvement and tweaking mode—based on experiences with it—but here’s what I know:

·       The order form brings structure to the ordering process. Your sales presentation is quite detailed—with a volume of information to remember, like value/benefits, price and package options, and payment methods. The order form helps your audience keep everything straight.

·       The order form is a tool for onsite sales only. It’s designed to get people to buy right after your speech. Few people will purchase your materials after they leave your speech. If you allow your audience to think they can just get your materials later, they will leave thinking they will order later—but they don’t. Knowing this, you might as well concentrate on making your order form as effective as possible for on-site sales. If you allow your audience to think they can get your materials later, they will leave thinking they will order later—but they don’t!

My order forms have had my address, phone number and website address on them. In 2½ years of selling my manuals, I’ve only had 3-4 orders after I’ve left the presentation. For that reason, I plan to leave off my contact information from my order forms. Even with the contact information on the forms, I’m selling to 25%-35% of my audiences, but I wonder if I can increase that percentage by giving the impression “buy now or never.” I’d rather lose one sale every few months after the fact and increase my on-site sales by a few more!

·       The order form speeds the sales process at the front of the room. When you have 20, 30, 100 people coming at you all at once, a properly filled-out order form will help you move people quickly through the line. You can’t let ANYTHING delay the buying process or you will lose customers who can’t or won’t wait.

·       The order form gives you a permanent record of who bought what and if you ever plan on selling to them again, you’ll need this information—plus their email address and phone number.

Over time, you will find your own style for developing your order form but here are the must haves:

§          A long detailed list of everything your buyers will get—in the form of benefits. Write the list in the smallest detail. Don’t list chapter titles—list every benefit that’s in each chapter or section—one after the other—as many as you can fit on the page. When someone’s about to give you a lot of money, they want to get a lot in return. Make your list specific. If you have a section that includes seven ways to do something, describe it as “7 secrets to _____ “ or “7 reasons to _____.” Use the smallest font necessary to make your list as long as possible.

§          Testimonials Let satisfied customers help you sell to new customers. Load up the extra white space on the benefits list page of your order form with testimonials. Put them in boxes for highlighting. Use a different font and put them in a different color for emphasis. Use only testimonials that demonstrate a return on investment. Don’t use one that says, “Your manual was great. I learned a lot.” Use one like this instead: “In 10 minutes Ed gave me a couple marketing ideas that’ll make me $4,000 at the Odd Couple seminar and about $20,000 in the first few months of 2001!” Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE, Cavett Award or “How lucky you are to be actively marketing your speaking, training, consulting business today. If the 4ProfitSpeaking System by Ed Peters had been available to me 20 or even 10 years ago, I would have more than doubled my successes both financially and in terms of client satisfaction (leading to more repeat business).” George Morrisey, CSP, CPAE, Cavett Award or “I calculated the value and ROI from 2 of Ed's brilliant & proven marketing ideas. Each word from each idea is worth approximately $1,000.” Terri Kabachnick, CSP

§          List and briefly describe every item in the educational package. Make it easy for your buyers to see what they are getting.

§          Show retail price/price per item. If you offer a discount for buying multiple items, show the price of each item. Compare the total value of everything in the package against the selling price.

§          List and describe all the add-ons (air) and show the retail value of each add-on. If the value of your free, one-hour consultation is $200, show the actual value. Total up all the free or reduced price add-ons and show it.

§          Show the payment options and make them easy to understand. I use graphic icons of VISA and Mastercard to make it easier to see that I accept credit cards.

§          Make the order form easy to read. While it is not mandatory to use color on your forms, I do because they look professional. I don’t have any experience using black & white forms so I can’t report on how they might work. I’m pretty happy with my results so far so I’m not willing to tinker with what works.

I used to print my order forms on 8½” x 14” paper so I could make everything fit, especially the benefits list. But I found them cumbersome to use, harder to print and transport, and harder to file. I reduced the font size and make everything fit the 8½” x 11” format.

Sell manuals upfront vs. post-speech 

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