Monday, June 25, 2007

The Biggest Secret To Successful Copywriting There Is


Thinking Small Can Make You Rich

In the 33-plus years since I created my first little piece of direct response sales copy, I've written considerably more than a thousand direct response ads, television spots and mail pieces.

Because nearly all of them were direct response promotions, each produced an easily measurable and almost immediate result. And over the years, as I studied those results, my approach to strategizing and creating sales promotions began to evolve.

Today, my work process is very different than it was in those early years. My first thought is no longer about the product benefits or even the product's USP. Nor do I begin each project by thinking about all the rational "reasons why" my prospect should buy.

Please don't get me wrong: It's not that I've discarded any of these techniques. They still have prominent places in every promotion I create. But something else has risen to the top of my "to-do" list when creating a promotion — and that change has produced the closest thing to sales miracles I have ever witnessed.

Dinosaurs still roamed the earth when I started my writing career. Back in the early 1970s, there were no computerized mailing lists, no toll-free order hotlines, no affordable fax machines, no FedEx or other overnight delivery services — and no personal mentors or coaches for aspiring copywriters.

Thankfully, I had The Giants to instruct me. I read, re-read and re-re-read the wonderful guides left for me by those who had come before — particularly, Claude Hopkins' Scientific Advertising, Rosser Reeves' Reality in Advertising and John Caples' Tested Advertising Methods.

Thanks to these Giants, I "knew" every ad was supposed to begin by identifying the benefits my product offered to prospects — the ways in which it made their lives easier, richer, and more rewarding.

I knew I should use the most powerful of these benefits to craft a compelling Unique Selling Proposition ... establish it right up front ... and turn it into a mantra throughout my copy.

And I understood the importance of fully developing every "Reason Why" my prospects should buy.

But there was a problem: My only assignments were from fund-raising organizations — groups that had no product to sell and offered little if any direct benefit to the donor!

Giving them money wouldn't relieve your rheumatism, banish bad breath, give you whiter teeth or make you attractive to the opposite sex. Nor would it help you avoid a disaster in the health or wealth departments, or even save you time in the laundry room.

In fact the only tangible, personal result of forking over a ten-buck contribution was that you'd wind up $10 poorer!

Sure — there were vague benefits in the selfless act of giving away money to a worthy cause — like feeling good about the good you were doing. But even at that early age, I suspected that writing an appeal letter or TV spot saying, "Give me money — it'll make you feel good" — wouldn't exactly set the world on fire.

Here again, fate stepped in for me ...

What could possibly be BETTER
than leading with a tangible benefit?

From the age of 16, I had held down a part-time job in a printing plant as a folding machine operator. But this wasn't just any printing plant: Its forte' was printing and mailing appeal letters for a national fund-raising organization.

And since I worked alone on the night shift, I had plenty of time to read every one of those 8-page appeal letters.

They amazed me. At the time, I had no way of knowing the letters were being written by Richard Viguerie, Steve Winchell and Jerry Huntsinger — the "Powers, Kennedy and Reeves" of the direct mail fundraising industry. But I did know that they worked: They convinced people to donate tens of millions of dollars each year to my employer.

Poring over those appeal letters while my folding machine thunked away all night long was a real eye-opener. Whether by instinct or trial and error, these geniuses had figured out that to get a donor to write a check for a good cause, they needed to go beyond the intellect — beyond rational, "reason-why" copy and beyond a snappy USP.

In short, they needed to stimulate powerful emotions about the subject at hand — emotions that their prospects already had gurgling around inside them.

And to do that, they had to begin at a different place: Not with the product, as my reading of the Giants' books had led me to do, but with a clear understanding of the prospect's state of mind and how he already felt about the subject at hand!

Armed with this understanding, Viguerie, Winchell and Huntsinger began every appeal ("sales") letter with a headline and opening that instantly activated their prospect's emotions and made it impossible for him to look away: A shot to the gut ... a kick to the groin or a right hook to the Adam's apple.

And once the copywriters had the prospect's resident emotions working for them, all they had to do was to keep those emotions on their side until the prospect had become as passionate about the cause as the writer was — and the check had been written and mailed.

And as I studied their letters, I realized something else: Viguerie, Winchell and Huntsinger were not stupid men. They were brilliant. They could have chosen the "easy" way — to get rich selling widgets that gave them dozens of tangible benefits to offer their prospects.

But these geniuses had intentionally chosen to specialize in the fund-raising field instead! Why?

Could it be that they knew something I didn't?

Could it be that they understood that the "curse" of having no benefits to sell, no "reason-why" copy to create and no USP to shout from the rooftops ... could really be a blessing in disguise?

Could it be that they believed starting with the prospect instead of the product — setting out to first identify and then activate the strongest emotions the prospect already has — might be a better way to go?

And if so, I asked myself, "What if you could do both at the same time?"

Instead of beginning with the product and merely trusting the prospect to respond positively to its benefits ...

What if I began by thinking about the prospect and how he must feel about the subject at hand — and then carefully crafted every part of my sales message to get those resident emotions working for me?

What if I began by selecting themes that connected most powerfully with those emotions? What if I added a kind of "emotional overlay" to every headline, every opening, every credibility device, every product benefit, every offer and every call to action?

Wouldn't the response be substantially better?

"Hmmmm ...!"

These angels on my shoulders
put millions in my pocket

A decade after I left that printing plant, the 30-something version of myself sat down at a typewriter in a musty basement bedroom in Minneapolis ...

My mission: To write a promotion that would sell rare Morgan silver dollars to subscribers of The Money Advocate investment newsletter.

The Money Advocate was published by a coin company; Security Coin & Bullion. And until I came along, they were doing just fine, using rational, left-brain, reason-why, benefit-oriented copy and a pretty good USP to sell about $360,000-worth of rare coins per month.

So there I sat, staring at a blank page, wondering how to begin. As was their custom by this time, the ghosts of Kennedy, Hopkins and the rest of the classic advertising choir were perched on my left shoulder — as close as they could get to the left side of my brain — chanting, "benefit ... Benefit ... BENEFIT!"

They wanted me to begin logically — by headlining and then focusing on the benefits of investing in rare coins.

Meanwhile, on my right shoulder, Viguerie, Winchell and Huntsinger were doing their dead-level best to out shout them, telling the right side of the brain to begin with the feelings my prospect most likely felt relative to my product: Lead with "emotion ... Emotion ... EMOTION!" they chanted.

So I sat there, turning that old Morgan Silver dollar over and over in my hand. What is it, really," I asked. Where did it come from? Where has it been? What does it symbolize?

Suddenly, I was reminded of the movie Somewhere In Time — in which Christopher Reeves was magically transported through time after seeing the date on a coin. I thought ...

"This isn't a coin, it's a TIME MACHINE!"

"If these coins could talk ..." I wrote, "what wonderful stories would they tell?"

"They would speak of a time gone by. Of the hardy prospectors who mined their silver. Of smoky saloons, honky-tonk pianos, raucous poker games and painted ladies.

"They would speak of freedom. Independence. Honor. The code of the West.

"The Morgan silver dollar was there with Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday at the gunfight in the O.K. Corral. And it was on the poker table when Wild Bill Hickock drew his "dead man's hand" and succumbed to an assassin's bullet.

"They only look like beautiful and potentially profitable 'rare coin' investments. And while they are, they are also more: Each is touchstone with our colorful, uniquely all-American history that you can hold in the palm of your hand."

Then, just to keep my left-shouldered, left-brained "benefit" angels quiet (and to give my prospects' spouses a plausible reason why their significant others had succumbed), I included plenty of "reasons why" buying those coins was the smartest thing they could do. After all — they were great investments!

That copy, a two-page flyer, mailed on January 1. Thirty days later, it had brought in $3.6 million in sales — TEN TIMES MORE than my client's purely rational, logic-based, greed-driven approach had ever generated in a single month.

And that was just the beginning. Within one year, my new approach had my client selling $16 million-worth of rare coins each month, making him the single largest rare coin dealer in America — by far.

Flash forward ten more years ...

The 40-something version of myself sat down at his computer on the top floor of my four-story beach house on the Gulf of Mexico ...

I had just completed my second promotion for Health & Healing. The first had been gangbusters, generating eight times the response of any health package Phillips had ever mailed.

Now, it was time to write my headline (yes, I do it backwards) — a way to "grab prospects by the eyeballs" and compel them to open and read my sales copy.

Just to humor the benefit boys, I tapped out the word, "CURES." After all — that was what my copy was packed with and promised more of.

My left-brain angels — Kennedy et. al. — beamed triumphantly.

But what kind of cures were these? Which strong emotion do these kinds of drug-free, surgery-free remedies trigger in my prospects?

"Well," I thought, "The medical industry doesn't want us to know about these alternatives, and even tries to silence people who recommend them.

"So they're ... let's see ... 'prohibited?' No ... 'banned?' No ... 'censored?' Not quite ... 'forbidden?' No ... wait a minute ...

YES! That's it! That's my headline! FORBIDDEN CURES!"

I loved the word "forbidden." It felt like a mischievous child trying something "naughty" for the first time. It also made me feel resentment towards the self-appointed, supposedly superior, paternalistic establishment that believes it's a better judge of what's right for me than I do. It made me feel bound and determined to not just break, but shatter their stupid prohibitions!

And of course, the angels on my right shoulder — the "emotion" boys — loved it, too.

When it mailed, the package beat my control so handily that Phillips' mail quantities reached six million pieces in each 60-day mail cycle. The royalties were so good, I took the rest of the year off and played on the beach.

From genius to dunce
in the wink of an eye

Adding the right shoulder/right brain/ emotionally driven copy techniques practiced by the great fund-raising copy writers ...

... to the more left shoulder/left brain benefit/reason-why/USP approach to copy espoused by the world's greatest advertising copywriters ...

... was quite simply, the single greatest breakthrough of my career.

It was making me richer and more in-demand as a copywriter. And, being young and cocky, I was absolutely convinced that, like Kennedy, Hopkins, Reeves and the rest, I had something new ... something better than anyone had ever thought of before.

But I traded my newfound "genius" status for a dunce hat the minute I began re-examining — and really studied — the ads that Kennedy, Lasker, Hopkins and the other Giants had created during their lifetimes.

These guys may not have said much in their books about the importance of connecting with prospects' resident emotions — but they sure did it an awful lot!

In fact, whether by intent, instinct, or as the natural byproduct of their obsession with selling benefits, they did it all the time!

And as I read their words with new eyes, I even found this, from ad legend David Ogilvy:

"Researchers have not yet found a way to quantify the effectiveness of emotion, but I have come to believe that commercials with a large content of nostalgia, charm, and even sentimentality can be enormously effective."

I felt like a drooling moron. It had been right there in front of me all along — but I had been too obsessed with the nuts and bolts of meticulously identifying product benefits, writing "reason-why" copy and shouting my USP to even notice!

Had I simply emulated what the Giants did — instead of just studying what they said — I would have been miles ahead of the game!

Not only hadn't I invented the technique of identifying and then mobilizing my prospects' emotions to create greater attention, readership and response ...

... it had taken me years to figure out what the Giants had been trying to tell me all along!

Maybe I would have caught on sooner, if, early on, someone had shaken me by the shoulders, slapped me a couple of times and said ...

"People act on their emotions far more often than they do on their intellect alone.

"People buy for emotional reasons far more often than for merely rational ones.

"If you want people to act on your copy and buy your product, first determine how your prospect is likely feeling right now.

"Then, use your benefits as bridges to activate the emotions that will compel him to buy!"

Couldn't have said it better myself!

That's when my work process changed forever.

Put Dominant Emotion Marketing to Work for You NOW!

Instead of beginning like I once had and as many copywriters still do — by identifying product benefits — wouldn't it make more sense to put the prospect and his most compelling emotions FIRST?

Wouldn't it be better, for example, to ...

1. Begin by figuring out what the prospect's resident emotions are regarding the things the product addresses ...

2. Figure out which of those resident emotions are the strongest, most compelling, most "dominant" in his or her life ...

3. Identify the benefits my product offers that will most effectively enhance his strongest positive emotions and/or resolve his negative ones ...

4. Address those benefits in ways that keep the prospect's most dominant emotions working with me — and never against me ...

5. And as you review and edit your sales copy, wouldn't it make sense to keep making this kind of emotional connection at every opportunity?

Hope this helps!

Clayton Makepeace, www.makepeacetotalpackage.com/


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Is a Super Bowl Ad Really Worth the Cost?


Drive Media Interest at a Trade Show

One Super Bowl ad runs $2.6 million. Is it a good investment? What else might an advertiser do with that kind of cash? Do the people’s favorite ads even get the best results?

Super Bowl ads have, for years, been little more than a beauty contest for advertising agencies. When a company selects an agency's ad to represent it during the Super Bowl, it’s sort of like choosing a girl to represent a state in the Miss America pageant. Super Bowl ads are an iconic, cultural phenomenon that makes very little sense; essentially, they're the advertising equivalent of bathing-suit-clad girls with big eyes and high heels talking about their dreams of world peace.

Over a year, the price of one Super Bowl ad could provide your company exposure to 50 percent of the population of Southern California. It would buy you enough radio repetition for the average listener to hear your ad four times a week, 52 weeks a year throughout Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange County and the Inland Empire (Riverside and San Bernardino). Altogether, $2.6 million could buy you several thousand ads, which would reach a total of nearly 15 million people.

Paying $2.6 million for an ad to air during the Super Bowl might possibly be the dumbest thing you could do with $2.6 million. Or the smartest. It all depends on what you communicate in the ad.

The Dumbest Super Bowl Ad of 2007: FedEx Ground
Although this was one of the more clever and entertaining ads this season, it'll also prove to be counterproductive. Remember the ad? A bunch of people are sitting in a conference room …

MANAGER: FedEx saved us with their overnight service, so we’ve added FedEx Ground for everyday shipping.

JOEL: Ground? That doesn’t sound fast.

RELAXED GUY LEISURELY HOLDING COFFEE: Actually, Joel, FedEx Ground is faster than you think.

MANAGER: We can’t judge things by their name. Don’t you agree, Harry?

EXTREMELY HAIRY GUY: Absolutely.

MANAGER: Eileen?

GIRL LEANING HARD ON HARRY: Of course.

MANAGER: Joy?

JOY: (Gives an effervescent giggle with a beaming smile)

MANAGER: Bob?

BOB: (Bobs his head up and down in an extreme fashion)

GUY WITH HUGE DOUBLE CHIN: You see, Joel, we all agree that FedEx Ground is fast, despite the name “Ground.”

MANAGER: Well said, Mr. Turkeyneck.

The ad ends with the FedEx logo revolving quickly to reveal four variations--FedEx Ground, FedEx Express, FedEx Kinko’s and FedEx Freight--while an off-camera announcer says, "FedEx Ground. Fast. Reliable. And for less than you think."

Here are the major problems with the ad:

  1. The ad clearly illustrates that Joel was right; you can judge things by their name.
  2. The people arguing that FedEx Ground is fast “despite the name” appear bizarre and ridiculous. Joel is the only normal person in the room. We identify with Joel, not with the others.
  3. “For less than you think” is ambiguous ad-speak. Specifics are always more powerful than generalities. “For as little as $2 a package” is specific. And far more impressive.
  4. The ending of the ad is soft and unfocused. We’re not yet convinced that FedEx Ground is a worthy alternative to UPS, and it seems that FedEx isn't completely convinced either. In the end, the company wants to be sure that we realize there are at least three other FedEx options: FedEx Express, FedEx Kinkos and FedEx Freight.

The Smartest Super Bowl Ad of 2007: Two Lions for Taco Bell
Remember the ad? A pair of lions are looking at a group of campers in the distance eating lunch while on safari. The lions smell the new steak taquito from Taco Bell. The rest of the ad is one lion trying to teach the other how to pronounce “carne asada,” the type of steak used in the taquito.

Here’s what makes the ad work:

  1. A lion is king of the jungle; its opinion is respected.
  2. Lions are meat-eaters, absolute carnivores.
  3. Viewers learn how to pronounce a strangely spelled word--carne asada--thereby increasing their comfort level when ordering the item at Taco Bell.
  4. The ad ends with a mouthwatering close-up of freshly grilled carne asada steak as it's being sliced. You definitely want to taste it.
  5. The ad is focused on one thing: the carne asada steak taquito. Taco Bell’s agency had the wisdom not to include any images or descriptions of other Taco Bell products.

TV is an impact medium. But there will be no impact if the viewer isn’t paying attention or if your ad's message is unfocused. The Super Bowl is the one event each year that guarantees viewers will be paying attention. We tune in as much for the ads as for the game.

Are your ads entertaining but counterproductive, like the FedEx ad? Or are they entertaining, focused and convincing like the Taco Bell ad?

Follow the lead of FedEx Ground if your goal is to entertain America. But if you want to sell product, I suggest you study Taco Bell's script.


Roy Williams is Entrepreneur.com's "Advertising" columnist and the founder and president of international ad agency Wizard of Ads. Roy is also the author of numerous books on improving your advertising efforts, including The Wizard of Ads and Secret Formulas of the Wizard of Ads.


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Getting Past Your Business Launch


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If starting a business were easy, everyone would do it. But they don’t. Only those of you who know deep down inside you're entrepreneurs at heart will ever take these steps--even if you’ve denied that entrepreneurial spirit burning inside you for a long time.

Using that burning desire to grow your business, however, is a far different task from simply lighting it. Most people start with the odds stacked so much against them that it’s difficult for them to fan the fire beyond the first few months or years. Here are a few pieces of advice I can offer to help you keep your new business growing in size and profit:

1. Hire people who are better at the job than you are. It’s a fact that companies are built by people, and the best people build the best and most profitable companies. Put simply, great employees may cost you 20 to 30 percent more in wages, but they can be twice as productive as mediocre employees. Invest in good people.

2. Place high urgency in everything you do. Always do everything you can today. When I started each of my businesses, I'd work constantly until I just had to go eat and sleep. Too many people treat their businesses as nine-to-five jobs. Never put something off until tomorrow if you can do it right now.

3. Get customers coming back. The road to profitability is through repeat business. Too few business owners set themselves up for long-term success. Your business grows when you add regular new customers on top of existing regular customers. Think of it this way: What if every customer you ever got stayed for life? How many regular buyers would you have?

4. Make decisions quickly. New companies don’t have the time or resources to stand still. General H. Norman Schwarzkopf once said to me, “When placed in command, take charge.” He also believes it’s better to make a decision and move than it is to stand still.

5. Deliver more than you promise. If you tell a customer it'll be three days, deliver in two. If you think it'll be two hours, say three hours and surprise them. This is the best form of marketing ever.

6. Price yourself for profit. Don’t ever be the cheapest. You're the little guy; you don’t have economies of scale. Big companies can make up in volume what they lack in margin. You can’t.

7. Never spend a dollar you don’t have to. You don’t need a new desk, you need a cheap desk. Too many new business owners go and buy the best stuff because they think image is important. Listen, when you get profitable, you can have a big mahogany desk. Right now, just get a desk.

8. Set a big vision.Start Small, Finish Big should be the title of your book. Don’t aim to be the best dog trainer in Montana--aim to be the best in the country. Remember, building a business is a 10-year plan, not a one-year plan.

9. Marketing is math. Don’t ever let an advertising sales rep teach you anything about marketing. Reps will say dumb things like, “Half your advertising works and half doesn’t--and you’ll never know which half.” Rubbish. If an ad that costs $100 makes you $100 back in profit, it’s a good ad. One other tip: Image advertising doesn’t make sense when you're not yet profitable.

10. Learn to sell. There's nothing worse than a business owner who isn’t willing to sell--or even learn to sell. No company makes money unless someone sells something, and you can’t just rely on people you hire to do the selling for you. If you want to grow a profitable business, you’ve got to learn sales yourself.

11. It’s simpler than you think. Before most people even go into business, they work it up to be far more complex than it really is. Business is very simple: Sell at a profit and keep at it. Overcomplicating the process won’t help anyone. If your business seems too complex, it probably is--so make it simple and watch yourself succeed.

Remember, you have a lot to learn--and that’s a good thing. You'll make mistakes. Just try to make them small ones at the start. Never bet the ranch on one deal.


Brad Sugars is Entrepreneur.com’s Startup Basics columnist and the founder of Action International, a business coaching franchise.


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On Unsolicited Advice


An Unlikely Entrepreneurial Inspiration

Once you start your own business, the advice pours in from all sides: Your sister has a great idea for a marketing campaign. Your brother thinks you should get a franchise. Your father wants you to be tougher on your employees. And your mother, who's worried about you, suggests that maybe you should really be looking for a job.

Unsolicited advice doesn't just come from family members. Friends, lawyers, accountants, even strangers you meet at networking events or soccer games suddenly become experts when they learn that you own your own business.

It's a jungle out there. Of course, you could just ignore them all and go your own way. But some people have good ideas and insight. How do you know who to listen to and who to ignore?

Here's a handy guide for determining what advice to pay heed to, and who you should politely thank and say, "Could you pass the cheese plate please?"

• Experienced businesspeople in your industry: Listen hard to these folks! Novice entrepreneurs often believe they know better than those who've been around a long time. But the realities of an industry don't change quickly. You can learn a lot from those who've been in an industry. So listen closely even if you don't follow their advice to the letter.

• Customers: You'd better be listening to your customers, because they're the ones who determine whether you stay in business. It's tempting to dismiss the advice of customers because it often comes in the form of complaints. Instead, look for ways to gather as much insight and suggestions from customers in positive situations. Ask for their feedback.

• Employees: Your employees can be a rich vein of insight and advice for your company. Seek it out, listen to it carefully, and use it when you can. Create an environment where employees know their advice is welcome, valued, and given a careful hearing. Employees often know the ins and outs of some aspects of a business better than the owner.

• Investors: Your investors are, in essence, your partners, so the advice-giving and advice-taking process is a two-way street. It's part of your job to help your investors know enough about your business so that when they give you suggestions, it can be informed and well-reasoned.

• Board and advisory committee members: In most cases, people serve on your board of directors or advisory committee because you've asked them to, so their advice should be given great respect. Board members (of corporations) have legal authority, so board decisions must be followed.

• Friends and family: Your family's support is often essential for major business decisions, especially financial ones. If you're taking a home equity loan, for instance, you certainly must have your spouse's approval. In which case, they have a right to have their suggestions listened to with respect.

But on other decisions, remember, people close to you have their own motivations and their own fears coloring their advice. When your spouse suggests you'd be a lot more productive if you didn't work in the living room, he or she may just want to get your stuff out of the way.


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Entrepreneur targets tennis players


Godfrey

Bow Rodgers didn't expect the lessons he learned in Silicon Valley to help his tennis game.

But it turns out they have. The longtime technology entrepreneur has co-designed a unique tennis training tool that helps tennis players, including himself, improve their stroke.

The WristAssist is a training aid that straps onto a player's hitting wrist, connects to the racket and helps the player "feel" the correct swing motion. The tool is made of nylon and Velcro webbing, with a tough, lightweight string that attaches to the racket. It resembles a space-age wrist brace.

"It grooves the correct stroke," said the bright-eyed Rodgers, 61, president and chief executive officer of Palo Alto-based SquareHit Tennis, which just launched its flagship product. The tool has also been an inspiration for Rodgers because it helped improve his volley stroke, which he often overhit.

A top tennis club player and former collegiate star at Santa Clara University, Rodgers is passionate about the new product that's allowing him to create a business around his favorite sport.

He sees big potential for the tool among affluent tennis players eager to improve their game. He said there are 26 million U.S. golfers and 24 million tennis players. But although golfers spend about $300 million a year on golf training equipment, tennis players spend only $20 million on training aids. That adds up to an underserved market, he said.

The $69.95 WristAssist locks in proper wrist positioning and has attracted the attention of scores of tennis pros, including Brad Gilbert, who helped coach tennis stars Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick to top world rankings. Gilbert's latest prodigy, Andy Murray, won the SAP Open tennis tournament in San Jose on Feb. 18.

"It's a great tool for club players," Gilbert said. "Bow's an innovator. It helped my son with his backhand."

Now faced with marketing the new product, Rodgers is reaching back to the lessons he learned in Silicon Valley. He helped the old Commodore 64 video game software get off the ground by closing distribution deals with Toys R Us, Kmart and Circuit City.

He was also chief executive of MeeVee, a personalized TV program search company in Burlingame, and chief operating officer at multimedia company BigBand Networks in Redwood City, helping that company grow.

Rodgers lined up some financing from angel investors, including himself, and is now using his skills in the fundamentals of business to help folks improve their tennis fundamentals. Eventually, the company will produce "a suite" of tennis training tools, said Rodgers, who is also Burlingame Country Club's tennis team captain.

First off, Rodgers hopes for a big rollout of the WristAssist, which he designed with his partner and tennis coach Ray Bilsey and engineer Maurice LeBlanc. They're not selling the product in big retail stores, so they can capture more of the profits themselves. They sell it now online at www.squarehittennis.com. WristAssist went on sale in July and has sold to 200 tennis pros and sold in 30 countries, Rodgers said.

The WristAssist is also sold at tennis tournaments, such as the SAP Open. So far, its biggest customers are tennis pros.

"If I get a student on the court who has a floppy wrist, they're a perfect fit," said David Petrie, head tennis pro at Burlingame Country Club. "It's a very good tool for putting the racket in the right place and doesn't allow students to waver or wobble."

As for pushing the product, Rodgers is plenty familiar with the world of sports. Besides his tennis prowess, he holds the record for the longest run from scrimmage in Santa Clara University football history: 99 yards.


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