Seven Deadly Sins & The Art Of Persuasion

Seven Deadly Sins & The Art Of Persuasion

Once someone sent me a glib little marketing article with a list of the Seven Deadly Sins. It explained that the more you appeal to your customers' Pride, Envy, Wrath, Gluttony, Lust, Sloth and Greed, the more you'll sell.

I knew the guy was right... but I also knew that when you brazenly pander to the lowest common denominator, you infect your customers with a bunch of diseases that you too will catch... and eventually you suffer a wretched, miserable death.

One must be careful what one succumbs to.

I've always thought I should write something about this, and then copywriter Tony Ostian sent me a piece about the late Martin Conroy. Martin is the man who wrote the Wall Street Journal subscription letter, a 780 word masterpiece of persuasion that has now sold over $1 Billion of subscriptions (!). The very most successful sales letter of all time.

Martin, too, suggested applying the Seven Deadly Sins. But he had a different take on it.

Listen up... this is brilliant:


"If you're trying to find out what makes people tick, you might take a look at the Seven Deadly Sins from the old Baltimore Catechism. Remember them? Pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy and sloth. Of course, the deadly sins are all bad and all extreme and all no-nos.

"But there's an unsinful, unextreme side to every one of them where you can see how good and honest people act and react. On the sunny side of sinful pride, for example, nice people still take normal, unsinful satisfaction in what they are and what they have.

"Short of deadly covetousness, people have an understandable desire to possess some of the good things in life. Instead of sinful lust, there's good old love that makes the world go 'round. Without raging in anger, good people can still feel a reasonable annoyance with bad people and bad things. Without getting into gross gluttony, normal men and women can have a normal appetite for good food and drink. Short of envy, there's a very human yen to do as well as the next guy. And as for sloth, who isn't happy to learn an easier way to do things?

"The Seven Deadly Sins. If you want to know what makes people act like people, they're worth a look."


Whether you're advertising a new business opportunity or tempting your own taste buds with a steak dinner, the difference between success and self-destruction is the fine line of discernment that keeps you from taking things just a bit too far. Trespass that line and someone starts making promises they can't keep... customers get resentful... suddenly grim guys from the government in black suits show up and freeze your bank accounts.

Or you can build on the unsinful, unextreme side of those desires and have a business that lasts.

Hope your New Year is going full tilt, I know mine is. Keep swingin' that axe,

Perry Marshall