Junk mail? How about getting RICH on it with cold letters to mega-wealthy prospects.

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First... thank you to "The Big Bee" for posting a month ago about the largest life insurance policy every written... not surprisingly acquired via direct mail. Dovi Frances, who sold the policy, has been my hero lately and I've been following everything I can about him.

While many of you think people trash every piece of mail nowadays and that everyone would rather scan QR codes or look at facebook ads... Guys like Dovi Frances are busy writing letters to billionaires and raking in more cash than everyone you know combined.

About a week prior to this story, I had released a podcast about the power of mailing to business owners home addresses, rather than to their business. The extra research to find their addresses has always paid off for me and it's nice to see these compelling stories about how effective it really can be.

Not only did Dovi land a record-breaking insurance policy by using direct mail, but his sales letters have also roped in other billionaire clients from scratch. In fact he started his company by sending letters to wealthy people just a few years ago.

And this guy is not some 'pro' copywriter who spent two years meticulously copying "they laughed at me when I sat at the piano" by hand whilst wearing Gary Halbert's underwear.

from this article....

Frances spent 4 1/2 years in the Israeli army (the requirement is 3 years for men). During that time, he was in the infantry and attended the officers' academy. He went on to graduate from business school, and then followed his older brother to Deutsche Bank in San Francisco in June 2008.

He was a junior-level bank employee when he woke up and watched the news of the Lehman Brothers' collapse that September.

However, when the government rolled out the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), his competitive advantage was destroyed. Other banks had started extending credit, and his pipeline was gone overnight.

He didn't give up, though. Instead, he thought of a new idea to get clients.

"With that, I needed to figure out a way to reinvent myself as a banker. I decided to do something no banker has done before — direct letters to people who are not clients who reside in properties in excess of $5 million."

Frances worked with Deutsche's legal and compliance to draft the letter. He sent out 2,000 and received two responses. One of those responses was from Sergey Grishin, a Russian billionaire.

Frances said Grishin's chief of staff saw the letter and opened it. Grishin thought "Dovi Frances" was an interesting name. That's when the billionaire decided to reach out.

Frances got an email from Grishin about 3 a.m., saying, "Hey, Dovi, I got the letter. I want to meet. I just bought this house for $27 million in cash! When are you available?" They met that same morning in Santa Barbara.

After, he managed to bring Grishin on board as a client. They did some deals together, and eight months later Frances left the bank to launch SG, LLC. (SG stands for Sergey Grishin.)


Some points to ponder:

1. Response rate doesn't mean squat. 2,000 letters and two responses could mean massive failure or massive success. 'Response rate' should never be solely how you determine a campaign's success.

2. The smallest things can pique someone's interest. In this case, the man's name "Dovi Frances" sounded interesting enough to get the letter opened.

3. Even billionaires respond to what most people would call "junk mail".

4. Never underestimate the power of direct mail to reach even the highest level and most seemingly-difficult-to-reach prospect.

5. When someone is hot for your service.... ACT IMMEDIATELY ON IT. When the iron's hot you need to strike. The longer you wait the quicker their interest will fade. Dovi got the email at 3am and met the billionaire THAT MORNING. I'm willing to bet that most of you would think that you'd seem desperate if you responded that fast. Not true one bit, it shows you're on your game and that what you have is important. Essentially it shows you are not f****g around.

P.S. Also worth noting is that he did this while working as a Junior Level Bank Employee, he didn't even have his own company launched yet. Not only did he do this in his spare time, but he ended up quitting and naming his company subtly after his 'whale' of a first client!
#offline marketing #billionaires #junk #mail #problem #responding
  • Is there such a list available, of business owners home address?
    • [1] reply
    • There probably is but I've had success with it simply doing research and looking for them manually. Easily done with an assistant's help.
      • [1] reply
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  • So true!

    You can basically do a Google search on the super wealthy and their addesses will pop up.

    As Dan Kennedy would say, "We bank money not response rates."
    • [1] reply
    • Banned
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    • I can supply a list of business owners home addresses and cell numbers. PM me if your interested in my service.
      • [2] replies
    • Banned
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  • Lol major cell phone companies will not provide lists of cellphone numbers.
  • Yes, so let's not miss all the Black Swan serendipitous type stuff that happened here.
    That his name was such that it piqued someone's interest.
    And that it piqued interest enough to actually open the letter.
    And that someone wasn't the billionaire but his Chief of Staff.
    But that after reading it thought his boss needed to see it so he showed it to him. Whew, that was close.

    And that Deutsche bank was somehow okay with a junior level employee using their name to mail out letters to billionaires. How does THAT happen? Because I was a junior level employee at a bank when I was in college and I was lucky if they let me use the frickin' bathroom let alone communicate with their wealthiest prospects.
    • [ 2 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Interesting that the record-breaking life insurance policy billionaire was acquired via a letter as well so I kind of have a hard time believing it's some kind of freak luck.

      I wish we had more and more details.
      • [1] reply
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  • From what I know, that original letter was not about insurance policy and it happened two years earlier. BTW, I don't think we will ever know how it happened, but it doesn't change the fact that direct mail works when targeted properly and done consistently.
    • [1] reply
    • What you said.

      Everyone is so caught up in FaceBook, Google, QR codes, etc that they FORGET that direct mail WORKS.

      Don't get me wrong, I'm not bashing online marketing..... I use the hell out of it.

      Im saying that don't FORGET about DIRECY MAIL as another way to reach your market.

      On second thought.... PLEASE DO FORGET. I use it extensively and LOVE the fact that it works so well for me and my competition is so low because other marketers in my space are busy plastering QR codes on billboards for their prospects to attempt to SCAN while driving 80mph - "because direct mail doesn't work".
  • Lotsa lessons in there: how fast the guy adapted to new situations and realities, thought of ways to reinvent himself, figured how to zig when others were zagging, and then when he got his shot, he overdelivered so much his client helped him open a new company.

    "Look, if you had one shot, or one opportunity
    To seize everything you ever wanted. one moment
    Would you capture it or just let it slip?
    Yo"
    • [1] reply
    • Think about the amount of junk mail that comes through your email. As internet marketers, how many lists have you gotten onto to check out a free ebook? I know I've got about 4,000 unread messages at the moment!

      On the other hand, I received a well crafted letter in the post a few weeks ago - it stood out because it was the only one that wasn't a bill It was for an internet marketing 1/2 day seminar with the usual upsell at the end. My credit card was $2,500 lighter by the end of that day because that letter + a half day sales pitch had such a strong impact, while those 4,000 auto responder emails still lurk in Outlook and will probably stay there until I delete them without ever reading them.

      Something to think about Have a great weekend!

      Michael.
  • You know, I actually enjoy looking at direct mail pieces. Mind you, not those newspaper fliers, or valu packs, those get tossed without a glance, but rather anything that's either a letter, or a post card, always gets checked out. Now I may not be interested in whatever their offering, but I'll look at it. Not so with most emails. The only ones I open are from people I trust, or businesses whom I know that I've signed up for. Indeed, if you email me with your name, or some funky sounding or looking business name, it gets immediately put in the spam folder; junk mailers beware!

    Anyway, DM works, probably because people think that it doesn't!
  • Banned
    1 customer? That could have been blind luck?
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    Junk mail? How about getting RICH on it with cold letters to mega-wealthy prospects.

    First... thank you to "The Big Bee" for posting a month ago about the largest life insurance policy every written... not surprisingly acquired via direct mail. Dovi Frances, who sold the policy, has been my hero lately and I've been following everything I can about him. While many of you think people trash every piece of mail nowadays and that everyone would rather scan QR codes or look at facebook ads... Guys like Dovi Frances are busy writing letters to billionaires and raking in more cash than everyone you know combined.