除了中国人，日本人、印度人、越南人、欧洲人，谁都想跟美国人做生意。作为典型的生意导向型的国家，美国人性格开朗直爽，对陌生人的邮件推销和电话销售接受度远远高于关系导向型国家（如中国、日本和南美各国）。因此，用邮件发开发信开发美国市场，不失为一种较有效的手段。

美国人做事认真，骨子里有自傲情绪，尤其是American Whites，要求高，有时甚至挺矫情。因此，跟他们打交道，先了解美国人对开发信的要求。笔者从美国进口商协会收集和摘录了一些关于Sell to U。S的推广信建议，供大家了解。

一、Guide to Successful Marketing and Selling to US Importers。

Direct marketing（sending a sales letter by mail）is the most effective way to market your products and find new buyers。With all the new technology we have today（internet，fax，B2B，etc）more than 8 out of 10 US importers say they prefer to be contacted by sales letter。But you cannot send just any letter。The sales letter that you send represents your company。If it looks good，you look good。If it looks bad，you look bad。If there are mistakes in the letter then the quality of your product is questioned。（大部分的美国商人习惯用邮件联系。发给美国买家的推销信就是你公司的“形象代言人”，因此要力求做到专业。）

An estimated 97％of all sales letters go into the trash。It is important that your sales letter looks nice and is effective in order to be part of the 3％of letters that stay on the importer’s desk。Importers generally look at the first paragraph first。If they are still interested they skip down to the last paragraph to look for the seller’s web site address。Our research showed that US importers generally do not look at the second or third paragraph。（97％的推销信会直接被当成垃圾邮件，只有3％的推销信能入美国买家的眼。一般来说，推销信的第一段是阅读者关注的重点，因此，需要把你最好最吸引人的信息放在开发信的第一段。然而我们很多业务员的开发信第一段往往是千篇一律、乏味的自我介绍。）

Sales letters don’t sell anymore。Your web site does that now。Your sales letter has two functions。The first is to introduce your company and your products and the second is to direct the reader to your web site。Effective sales letters generally have four paragraphs and are arranged in the following manner：（开发信不是要卖东西，你的网站才是。因此不要在开发信中咄咄逼人，强硬销售不起作用。）

Paragraph 1：Attracting Attention（把你最好最吸引人的东西放在第一段）

A recent research study showed that US importers generally spend seven seconds looking at a sales letter to determine if they are interested or not。If within that 7 seconds you have convinced the reader that you have a product they would like to buy and resell then they will continue reading。Otherwise the letter goes into the trash。

Paragraph 2：Building Interest and Desire（接下来介绍你的产品，激发对方兴趣和需求）

Once you have the reader’s attention you must give the basic details。Your goal is to show that you have a reliable product that the importer can buy from you and then easily resell in the US for a profit。

Paragraph 3：Convincing The Reader（说服对方你的产品好在哪里）

At this point you have the reader’s interest and have given the basics。This paragraph tells the importer the benefits of buying your product。Here you show the buyer how he／she will benefit from buying your product。

Paragraph 4：Request for Action（可以通过回信索要样品、联系你们获得产品图册等方式让对方看完你的邮件，有所行动，而不是把你的邮件压箱底。）

This paragraph is short and has only one function：go to your web page for more information。It is very important that you put your web site address in this last paragraph and encourage the reader to go there to see more about your products。

二、How Not To Write A Sales Letter（如何写推销信）

1、Every word in your sales letter must be chosen carefully。Do not use words that are pushy，like“prompt”，and“ASAP”，and“at your convenience”。US importers do not like to be pushed into making a decision。
（下笔之前，斟酌用词，不要下笔千言，废话一箩筐。）

2、Do not try to flatter the buyer with words like“esteemed”and“respected”。US importers will give you an order because you have a product they want。Not because you tried to inflate their ego。
（拍马屁对美国人没有用。这个对欧洲客户同样也不起作用。反而显得自己很卑微。）

3、Do not use abbreviations。Using“B。Rgds”for“Best Regards”and“Tkx”for“Thank You”implies that you are lazy。No US importer wants to do business with someone who is lazy。
（不要用缩写，看起来像是个二吊子懒销售。）

4、Do not misspell any words or use bad grammar。Your sales letter is the only representation of your company that the buyer sees。In their eyes a poorly written sales letter means poorly produced products。
（尽量避免简单的拼写错误和错误语法。这是没文化的表现。）

5、Do not make the reader hunt for your web site address。The goal of your letter is to get the prospective buyer to go to your web site for more information and hopefully to give you an order。Put your web site address in the last paragraph and also in the contact information at the top of the letter。Make it easy for the buyer to get the information he／she wants and to contact you for more details and possibly a price quote。
（把你的公司网址放在最后一段以及邮件上方的联系信息中。跟页眉页脚类似的效果，让买家随时方便找到你的网址。）

三、一些我们外销员常干、美国进口商反感的事

你还在用yahoo等免费邮箱？

Do Not Have a Free E-mail Address As Your Business E-mail

Having a free（hotmail，gmail，yahoo，vsnl，sina，etc）e-mail address is one of the worst things you can do in business。It’s fine for your personal messages to friends。But free e-mail accounts used for business purposes are very，very bad for your business。

US importers do not trust free e-mail addresses。The exporter could be the largest food exporter in that country，but if they have an e-mail address of goodfood＠yahoo。com then to US importers they automatically become small。No big companies who know what they are doing use free e-mail addresses for business。

用传真推销产品？

Don’t Send A Fax

This is a step up from e-mailing，but it is still a bad way to try to market and sell your products。

Reasons of not sending a fax to sell your products：

1）The function of the fax machine is to get documents from clients，customers and suppliers。It is not a marketing tool。It makes US importers very angry to get sales faxes。It uses their fax paper and ties up the fax machine preventing clients and suppliers from sending legitimate faxes。

2）It is illegal。US law prohibits the sending of a sales message by fax unless the person receiving the fax has given permission。

In most cases the cost sending a fax from overseas to the US is about the same as postage to the US。And a sales letter by mail is much more effective at finding new buyers。

你的经理说给老美发邮件语法和英语不地道没关系？

Don’t Send Sales Letters that Have Spelling／Grammar Mistakes or Use Out-of-date English
The sales letter that you send to a prospective buyer is your representative of your company。If it looks good then you look good。If it looks bad then you look bad。More detailed information is in the section Sample Sales Letters。

Check your letter to make sure there are no spelling or grammar mistakes。These mistakes make your company look sloppy and inefficient。Do not use abbreviations as if you are using a telex。For example，using“pls”for please and“u”for you make the prospective customer think that you are lazy。Do not use out-of-date sentences like“Would you be so kind。。。”and“Under separate cover please find。。。”These old sentences show that you are old fashioned。