A couple of years ago a policeman in South Africa visited my parents in law’s house to take a statement about a burglary they’d reported on a property they owned.

On arrival at their house the policeman parked his car on the grass outside the lounge window, rang the bell and then moved towards the window to see if there was anyone at home.

Now, as anbody who has ever visited my parents in law’s house can tell you, the one thing you NEVER do when you visit is ring the bell…

You see, they have a Bull Terrier dog who is the most gentle, loving animal in the world… Until she hears that bell!

Well, on this particular day there she was, sprawled flat on her back, legs pointing to the heavens, eyes exploring the inside of her eyelids as she happily slept upon my sister in law’s bed and dreamt about chasing rabbits or whatever it is that dogs dream about.

That was until some @#*$&@! fool decided to disturb her slumber…

Sure enough the sound of the bell was like a hair trigger on a starters pistol and she was off like a hundred yard sprinter with a nest of angry hornets stuffed down the back of his trousers, only madder and meaner!

Now picture this…

The lounge is over thirty metres long and it is another twenty metres or so from the bedroom to the lounge so she had plenty of time to reach warp speed…

Pieter, my father in law, was watching TV at the time and thought “OH NO!” as he heard the bell ring and quickly went outside to warn the stranger.

He’d just got outside and was saying hello to the policeman when the lounge window exploded into a thousand tiny pieces as 25Kg of furious, power packed muscle came to greet the person who’d dared to intrude upon her siesta!

To make matters worse the window is at head height above the ground and this white ball of fury straight from hell, was suddenly hurtling at great speed right towards the face of the policeman – only a metre or so away.

Well I can tell you, there isn’t an Olympic sprinter or high jumper who is faster than that policeman was on that day…

His car was about 10 metres away and he covered that distance and was on the roof of his car before the first piece of glass was halfway to the ground!

Pieter just stood there in speechless amazement as he took in the scene – the glass exploding and the tiny, glinting pieces scattering lazily in the sun, the hurtling white missile and the ‘Olympic Gold Medalist’ making a herculean leap for the safety of his car roof!

Fortunately no one was hurt and Pieter soon had things under control, he helped the policeman to get shakily off of the roof and the dog, now that she’d made her point, was as happy and friendly as ever and trundled merrily off to resume her slumbers.

Before he could get the policeman to write down a statement though, Pieter did have to ply him with copious amounts of whisky to stem the violent shaking of his hands!

And the window? Well shortly after the policeman had left Pieter called the glazing company and had it replaced with armoured glass… Just in case!

All the best,

Stuart.

PS
A story is one of the most powerful ways of capturing your readers attention, use one every time you write a sales letter and you’ll be surprised at the results.

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Resource Box

Stuart Elliott is a world-class copywriter who has written numerous articles about sales letters and copywriting. Pick up your free copywriting power guide at
http://howtowritekickbuttcopy.com

“The Best Copywriter On This Planet Is Free… No Hired Gun Has More Passion For Your Product Than You Do”

Article Copyright 2006 Stuart Elliott, All rights reserved. You may only reprint this article in its entirety and you must leave this resource box intact.

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A few years ago when I was travelling through Africa I was camping with some friends in the Masai Mara game reserve in Kenya.

In case you don’t know, the Masai Mara borders the Serengeti game reserve in Tanzania and is an area of outstanding beauty full of many of the wonderous animals of Africa. It is not constrained by fences or other man made barriers and ‘Boy’ is it a beautiful place!

Well on this particular morning my friends and I were busy preparing breakfast when a troop of Baboons decided to pay us a ‘courtesy’ call.

There were about thirty in the troop including a few big males, these are big and powerful animals with canine teeth that are bigger than a lion’s, so they can be quite dangerous if roused.

They were all obviously a little hungry and started to eye up the wonderful delicacies that we humans were busy preparing and soon decided that they wanted us to share our breakfast fare with them.

Obvioulsy we were not willing to do this and a battle of wits between the humans and the ‘wild’ Baboons soon ensued. It really was quite comical – one Baboon would make a mock dash for our food only to be chased by an angry shouting human whilst another would try to take advantage of the confusion caused.

Well, I can tell you, it didn’t take long for the Baboons to outsmart their ’superior’ counterparts and soon one particularly big male was on our table, busily helping himself to a full loaf of bread – greedy so and so!

Now, amongst my group of friends was a Lady from Holland and as Hollander’s tend to be she was a particularly fine specimen of a woman, over six foot tall, big boned but not fat and as strong as an Ox.

This particular girl, I’ll call her Jane, was so incensed at the antics of the Baboons and by the particular cheek of this one cocky male that she reacted as though he had raised his middle digit to her.

She promptly picked up an enormous stick and with a blood curdling yell launched forth directly for the cocky Baboon.

The sight of this six foot ‘Amazon’ beauty hurtling straight for him and the fearful yell accompanying her sudden appearance certainly put the wind up the Baboon’s sails.

With an agile leap he was off for the safety of the nearest bushes like the proverbial 100m sprinter at the sound of the starters gun, but no way was he letting go of his prize loaf of bread!

Jane was quite pleased with her efforts so far but she wasn’t going to let ‘Mr Smarty Pants’ disappear with her breakfast so she dug in her spurs and followed him like a heat seeking missile locked onto it’s target.

Soon both disappeared into the nearest clump of bushes. All that was left was a cloud of dust hanging in the air and an eerie silence after the yells, screams and curses.

In fact the whole troop had scattered at her antics whilst we were mesmerised by the spectacle.

The silence didn’t last long however, and soon the bushes erupted as though there was a tornado within…

Out hurtled Jane closely followed by ‘Mr Smarty Pants’ only this time HE was weilding the enourmous stick!

It was just like watching something that Walt Disney had dreamt up only it was happening in real life.

Just picture if you can the sight of an Amazon princess, stick in hand, chasing down a furry breakfast thief. Both disappear into the nearest bushes only to re-emerge seconds later with the tables turned – ‘Mr Smarty Pants’ is now chasing the ‘Amazon’ princess!

Talk about entertainment value! I tell you, after the utter amazement of this situation wore off we were soon rolling about in the dust with tears in our eyes helpless to do anything but laugh!

Fortunately nobody was hurt but we never did get our loaf of brea*d back and, as hard as we pressed her, the Amazon princess just wouldn’t tell us what went on in those bushes!

Did you enjoy that story, it’s true by the way, and did it focus your attention to the end?

Well as I’ve mentioned before that is the power of a good story and you really need to tell one in all sales copy you write.

Don’t worry about whether or not you are a master story teller, just tell your story in the way that only you can. Say your words just as if you were talking to your best friend and your readers will focus on your message right to the end.

It’s something that far too many people fail to do and then wonder why people don’t buy their products.

It’s one of the most powerful ways to get your message across to your reader and is a fundamental of selling – everybody loves a good story!

Until the next time, hoping for your success!

Stuart.

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Resource Box

Stuart Elliott is a world-class copywriter who has written numerous articles about sales letters and copywriting. Pick up your free copywriting power guide at
http://howtowritekickbuttcopy.com

“The Best Copywriter On This Planet Is Free… No Hired Gun Has More Passion For Your Product Than You Do”

Article Copyright 2006 Stuart Elliott, All rights reserved. You may only reprint this article in its entirety and you must leave this resource box intact.

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