Do this when your program isn’t attracting an enthusiastic audience.

Buyers bring stories. They’re looking for you to give them a happy ending.

Photo by CardMapr.nl on Unsplash.

A few years ago I got a brilliant idea for a summit program, the kind where you invite well-known people in your field to join you. The idea was so good, I had no trouble enlisting people to join. I ended up with a star-studded lineup (well, stars of the world of digital marketing).

A couple of days after I’d signed up the last speaker, I decided to write the sales letter. That meant I had to figure out what people wanted to learn about.

That’s when I realized that writing the sales letter for a program was the first step, not the last.

A few hours (or days, in some cases) spent on listing features and benefits, recognizing the big benefit for the headline, and figuring out the word pictures that turn into compelling bullet points.

And to get this done, you don’t stare at a blank page. You look outside for backstories, not inside for inspiration.

So let’s say you want to create a program to help business owners develop courses. You might…