Martin Conroy and The Seven Deadly Sins

The man who wrote the most successful sales letter of all time, the famous Wall Street Journal ad, which ran for decades and sold over one BILLION dollars worth of subscriptions, died just before Christmas, aged 84. His letter stood as the 'control' against a multitude of pretenders and as an example of the black arts of persuasive marketing.

Martin Conroy and his Wall Street Journal letter became legendary. Words of wisdom from the great man are probably worth more than a hundred quotes and newsletters from lesser mortals, so I make no apology for reproducing the following passage.

It relates to the motivating factors that govern us all. A book called 'Seven Ways to Persuade Your Prospects to Buy' (there's an idea...) might almost be renamed 'The Seven Deadly Sins.' But I'll let Martin Conroy explain:

"If you're trying to find out what makes people tick, you might take a look at the Seven Deadly Sins from the old Baltimore Catechism. Remember them? Pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy and sloth. Of course, the deadly sins are all bad and all extreme and all no-nos.

"But there's an unsinful, unextreme side to every one of them where you can see how good and honest people act and react. On the sunny side of sinful pride, for example, nice people still take normal, unsinful satisfaction in what they are and what they have.

"Short of deadly covetousness, people have an understandable desire to possess some of the good things in life. Instead of sinful lust, there's good old love that makes the world go 'round. Without raging in anger, good people can still feel a reasonable annoyance with bad people and bad things. Without getting into gross gluttony, normal men and women can have a normal appetite for good food and drink. Short of envy, there's a very human yen to do as well as the next guy. And as for sloth, who isn't happy to learn an easier way to do things?

"The Seven Deadly Sins. If you want to know what makes people act like people, they're worth a look."

I told you he was good.

Roy