Selling to Hi-tech Prospects with Direct Mail.

High technology prospects are different. They don't respond like consumers and they don't respond like other businesses. What works with them is often the opposite of what works with consumers. Here's a primer on how to sell high-tech products to businesses using direct mail. Mail to people who won't buy High-tech buying decisions are often made by a committee, not an individual. To win the sale, your direct-mail program must address the needs of everyone around the table, whether the president, purchasing agent, technical specialist or end user. So find out who wields the greatest influence in buying decisions (often it's the end users), and target these influential prospects in your mailings, along with the people who sign the purchase orders. Go cheap on design and printing Consumer direct-mail gimmicks sell sweepstakes, but not servers. Don't ask a senior verification engineer to "AFFIX FREE BUYING GUIDE SEAL HERE." Don't expect a network operations analyst to "PLACE TAB A INTO TAB B." The same goes for fake handwriting and fake underlining. They're genuine mistakes. High-tech business readers are sophisticated. They want a letter, a brochure and a business reply card. That's it. The more inserts, lift letters, coupons, free-gift slips and other stuff you put in the envelope, the more likely the busy executive is to fling your package in the circular file. Here's one caveat. Fancy folds, die cuts and 3D objects work well when you tie them into your offer. This is especially true of trade-show mailers, where a unique and relevant gimmick often draws more prospects to your booth than a traditional mailer does. Assume your reader has a split personality Your reader is a business person, in that order. As a business buyer, your prospect wants to save money, raise productivity, increase efficiency. So your mailer must address those issues. But your business buyer is also a person. A person who is unlikely to buy your product