"Mommy, Will You Tell Me a Story?"

A lot of writers feel obliged to work their way toward the story and throw in several paragraphs of warm-up copy. But unfortunately, the reader might just flip the letter aside and go on to something else before ever getting intrigued by the story that’s buried farther down in the copy.

This isn’t just a theory. It’s been tested. Many times. The story is far more important than your case history and rationale, and facts and figures.