Getting a definitive answer to “who’s the best James Bond?” is tough.

Far easier?

Answering who the worst James Bond is, which of course is Roger Moore.

Why was Moore’s Bond so awful (in my humble but accurate opinion)?

Simple:

He was unbelievable.

It was hard to believe his James Bond could actually be real.

Let me give you an example, followed by a woeful tale of a client’s sales page, and how this relates to sales and persuasion.

Imagine you’re commuting to work in a helicopter. Mid-flight, the pilot gets electrocuted. A scratchy voice booms out from the intercom: “AHAHAHAHA!!! IT’S BEEN NICE KNOWING YOU, {FIRST_NAME}!!!”

It is, of course, your mortal enemy, who is now is flying your helicopter via remote control, steering you to your doom.

Now, a normal reaction to this might be…

“PLEASE! PLEASE!! PLEASE DON’T DO IT!! I’LL DO ANYTHING! ANYTHING!!!!”

But MI6 agents are taught not to panic in helicopter-nappings, so perhaps a normal “double-0” response would be,

“Sh*t.”

… then grab the joystick, semi-panicking, trying to remain as calm as possible in the face of death.

That would be believable.

But Roger does none of these things.

Instead he looks…

.. well, a little bit miffed.

Combine that with all the puns, the eye-brow raises, the silly jokes, and you’ve got a man who… isn’t really believable as a cold-hearted killer of Her Majesty’s Secret Service. And if people can’t believe, they can’t be “immersed” in the movie as they should. (Whether this was Moore’s doing, or just bad script-writing, no idea).

Now, a recent client’s sales page:

It threw out a claim that was completely unbelievable. Impossible, actually.

And obvious to not only me, but the market too.

There’s two problems with this.

One, it could land them in legal hot water.

But two, for the 80%+ of prospects who spot it, the entire sales message will be ruined.

Yes, make bold claims.

But you better back ‘em up with enough proof to make them believable.

And if you want an expert eye to make sure your claims are doing just that, you can get on my email list at www.emailodysseys.com.

Peace.

Iain