Do you move your lips when you read?

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

World-class customer service arts advice and training for restaurant and hotel owners and managers plus servers — for over 25 years.  

evelyn waugh

Do your lips move when they read? >> And why does it affect your profits?

 

You may consider that first question – about moving your lips – insulting. You probably think I’m referring to folks who aren’t too smart.

 

If you’re thin-skinned you may even think it’s a crude way of implying YOU’RE not the brightest bulb in the chandelier.

 

But if you write copy – or content online or for your front-line service workers – it really matters. That’s because when we read – whether we are highly educated or totally uneducated – we “play” the words back to ourselves in our minds. And so do our readers and listeners.

 

What does this imply for your writing and your profits?

 

Well, here’s what a great advertising man – Leo Burnett, founder of the giant agency Leo Burnett Company – used to say when a writer showed him copy he didn’t care for:

“Would you say that to someone you know?”

 

And one of the great comic novelists of the 20th century, Evelyn Waugh, said:

“A good letter is like a conversation”

 

So let me ask you: Is your writing conversational? Or is it full of stuffy corporate jargon? Formal and pretentious, striving to be literary?

 

Does it get people to act – or bore them to tears?

 

If your copy is like that – if it isn’t conversational – it won’t be read. And it won’t sell. As Winston Churchill, whose persuasive powers moved an entire nation to beat Hitler said:

“Use simple words everyone knows, then everyone will understand.”

 

And as my old boss Roger Borsink noted:

“You cannot BORE people into buying.”

 

Well: are they buying?
Or are you boring them?

 

It costs no more to run copy that makes them buy – conversational copy – than malarcky that puts them to sleep.

 

How do you do it?
And who am I to talk?

 

You can see more about all of this at EricValdivieso.com

 

Best,

 

Eric

Eric
Latest posts by Eric (see all)

Leave a Replay

About Me

Eric Valdivieso has over 25 years of sales and showmanship experience, including 5 years of film and theatre training and 9 years of table service, in high-paced and competitive environments. 

He helps restaurant and hotel owners and managers cultivate experiences that people talk about, and seek out. 

Recent Posts

Follow Us

Weekly Tutorial

Sign up for our Newsletter

Let me show you and your teams how to AID your customers. 

Appeal to their Affection, Intuition, and Desire

Learn how to shift the aim from the head to their hearts, and go for the gut and groin of your guests…and they will visit you for life as a result! 

JonT​

Jonathan Tisch

CEO Loews Hotels & Co-Owner of the New York Giants

“Over the last few years, my family and I have had the pleasure to watch and enjoy, as Eric Valdivieso, nightly deliver a dining experience that is truly enjoyable. From the moment that we are welcomed by Eric at the door, to sitting at the bar and enjoying the suggestions and company to an amazing dinner, it is always one of our favorite nights. And Eric graciously and seamlessly choreographs this entire experience, without breaking a sweat. Eric truly understands hospitality, and what makes a great restaurant so great.”