Reference no: EM132285816

You are the lead for Overbridge LLC's international expansion project. The recent bonus motivated your team to exceed expansion projections and you want to help your team succeed. Thus, you seek permission from the CEO to offer a sales promotion in exchange for viable referrals from your current customers in United States.

You decide to write an example sales letter that your team can use as a model to persuade current customers to provide international referrals in exchange for a free level of service. Your task is to determine and clearly write the terms for the free service in a persuasive manner. For example, you must determine a fair level of service (i.e. free gift, such as a reusable bag or water bottle? a 10% discount on the next purchase?) for a specific number of viable referrals outside of the US. A long list of names is not necessarily helpful; instead you are looking for customer contacts who might genuinely be interested in your customized products. Even though you are working to persuade, you must precisely and clearly communicate to avoid confusion, poor publicity, or even a law suit from customers who misinterpret your message.

Write a formal block style template letter that each person on your team could use to send to their current customers. Be sure to include Overbridge LLC's address and placeholders for the recipient's name, title, company, and address. Your team will appreciate the placeholders so that they can simply fill in the blanks.  Use the Indirect Approach and AIDA model to frame your arguments, as outlined in your text book.

Tips:

Remember that you are asking for action, not just simply providing information for review. End your letter with a request that makes it easy for the reader to comply with your desired action. Be specific about what you want (i.e., a specific number of referrals), when you want it by (i.e. when the offer is not longer valid) and specific steps the customer must take to receive your offer (i.e. contact their sales rep or visit a special Overbridge LLC website to enter information).

Avoid, or at least minimize, the use of first person references.

Successful persuasion also requires that the reader understands how he/she can benefit from complying with your request. In this case, the reader may benefit from a discount or free product. What other persuasive arguments can you think of to convince the reader to provide you with viable international referrals?