Writing is the LAST thing you need to do.

I talked to a lovely woman last week, who wanted to know why her writing wasn’t winning her business. She’s a parenting coach who’s been in business three years.

She was trying to sell a group program by email.

Unfortunately, this woman was working with a coach who told her: “the reason it’s not working is you aren’t sending enough emails. Write more emails!”

So she wrote more emails.

But they didn’t work, either.

I got so mad when she told me that.

Because “more emails” is the wrong strategy for her situation.

(Important fact: this woman has 160 people on her mailing list. It’s too soon for her to spend her time and focus online. Even if she did everything right, she’d end up with maybe 2 new clients. Doesn’t make sense.)

Here’s the thing – selling online is tricky. That’s why a lot of people try it, and it doesn’t work.

Then they blame their writing.

Yes, you need to know how to write persuasively in business. Period.

But the projects you pick are different, depending on where you are in business – and what your goals are.

I know, I know. When you’re starting out, goals can be slippery eels.

(When I was starting out, my goal was, “don’t throw up when I ask someone for money.”)

But I’m seeing too many smart people out there, attempting to defy common sense.

Trying to write their way to clients, when talking to people is actually more effective.

But the reality is, you may not need to write to reach your goals.

Now, maybe you’re worried you’ll get left behind if you don’t do all the fancy online marketing stuff.

Or maybe you’ve done well for yourself offline, but you’re trapped in the land of 1-1 clients, and you are on the prowl for ways to evolve beyond it.

Or maybe you’re committed to a full-blown launch online, but life is throwing its lifebombs all around you, and you have no time to write all the stuff you need to write for it to work. Emails. Sales page. JV packet. Preview call opt in page. Social media.

(One of my clients in the Writing Brigade recently found herself in this boat. She came to session nearly hyperventilating – where would she find the time to write a sales page and do her webinar?

So, we looked into it, and realized she didn’t even need a sales page! Her strategy was to hand sell people into her group program, through sales conversations.

She’s a fantastic sales person, so we just took the sales page off her list of to dos.

We even rehearsed what she would say to people who said, “can you send me something in writing?” (which in many cases is a polite way of them saying they just aren’t that into you, but don’t want to say it to your face.) Done and done. Less work for everyone. Amen and hallelujah.)

My philosophy is: don’t write copy if talking will work just as well – or better.

Picture a pyramid.

It’s divided into 3 sections. The bottom section is your message. Your message is really the basic focus and raison d’etre of your business. We’ll talk more about what’s in your message here soon. But it’s stuff like the group of people you serve, and the problem you help them solve.

The middle section of the pyramid is your strategy. Your strategy answers the questions: what’s my goal here? and what’s the simplest path to get it done? I’m seeing a lot of people really not trusting themselves here.

This is not okay. If you’re running a business, you need to understand strategy. You can’t pay other people to think for you indefinitely. Hire mentors and guides who model how to think.

And always, always, run it through your own common sense. (I am still ticked at the advice that someone could fill 8 spots in a group program by “sending more emails” to a list of 160. That just steams my clams. In what universe is that true?)

Only after you’ve got your message and strategy down, then set to writing.

Sadly, this is not how many people are doing it. They skip to the writing, and then feel horrible about themselves when it doesn’t work.

And then they think they need to learn how to write – which may be true – but really, it’s a strategy or a message problem.

Mighty thanks to aussiejeff flickr photostream for the pyramid.