convert-sales-page

# Convert Sales Page - The Long-Form Direct-Response Sales Page

> *"Know who you're talking to and where they are. Answer the Four Questions before you write a word. Open through the Side Door with Skin in the Game and your Fingerprint. Build desire, earn trust, give them the excuse to buy. Close from every angle. Then close again."* - The Donahoe Method, in one paragraph

This is the flagship of the conversion pack. It applies all eight Donahoe Method frameworks top-to-bottom and emits three things: a structured editorial brief, a paste-ready HTML/CSS reference implementation, and a Method audit footer.

## When to Use

Trigger phrases: `write me a sales page`, `build me a sales page`, `long-form sales page`, `donahoe sales page`, `direct response sales page`, `flagship sales page`, `/convert sales-page <product>`.

Use this when:
- The user has a product, course, service, or offer that needs a complete long-form page (1,500–8,000 words depending on temperature).
- The reader needs to be taken from cold to sold inside a single page.
- Both copy AND a deployable HTML scaffold are needed.

## When NOT to Use

- **Auditing an existing live page** → `/market landing <url>` (CRO teardown of someone else's page) or `/convert audit` (Method-scoring an existing draft).
- **Rewriting existing copy** → `/convert rewrite` (preserves voice while applying Method).
- **Short opt-in page** → `/convert squeeze`.
- **Video sales letter script** → `/convert vsl`.
- **VSL hosting page** → `/convert vsl-page`.
- **Designing the offer itself** (value equation, bonuses, pricing) → `/funnel offer`.
- **Sequencing the page in a campaign** → `/funnel build-campaign` or `/funnel ladder`.

## Inputs

Required:
1. **Product description** - what is being sold? What does it actually do?
2. **The one person** - name, city, situation, last failure. Donahoe Voice Rule #1: One Person Rule. If the user supplies a segment ("course creators"), ask once for one specific human.
3. **The Nerve** - the specific raw pain that's bothering them this morning. Sensory, not abstract.
4. **Offer** - price, what's included, deliverables, any bonuses, guarantee terms.

Optional:
- **Author voice notes** - signature phrases, profanity tolerance, tone. If absent, default to The Donahoe Voice Rules.
- **Existing proof assets** - testimonials, case study numbers, screenshots, named customers.
- **Temperature override** - if the user knows the traffic is cold/cool/warm/hot, accept; otherwise classify via `convert-temperature`.
- **Brand colors / logo** - for the HTML scaffold's CSS custom properties.
- **`out_path`** - defaults via `build_report_path("business-conversion", instruction)`.

## Workflow - Phase -1 plus All Eight Method Phases

The page-builder MUST walk Phase -1 (VoC mining) plus all eight Method phases. Skipping any phase produces broken copy.

### Phase -1 - Voice-of-Customer Mining (HARD GATE - refuse to proceed without it)

Halbert's "person who" letter style and Schwartz's awareness-level sequencing both require one thing the seller cannot fake: **the buyer's actual language**. Without it, every framework that follows generates from the seller's mental model, not the buyer's. The page reads *plausible* but never *resonant*.

This skill REFUSES to proceed to Phase 0 until the VoC bank exists. Ask once. If the user says they don't have one, hand them the 30-minute mining playbook below. Do not start writing without it.

#### What to collect - 5 to 10 verbatim quotes

The quotes must come from the reader's actual mouth/keyboard, not the seller's hypothesis. Sources, in order of diagnostic value:

1. **Amazon reviews of similar / competing products** - especially the **3-star reviews** (most diagnostic - buyer is engaged enough to write, but unhappy enough to name what's missing).
2. **Support tickets / customer-service transcripts** - pre-purchase questions show objections; post-purchase complaints show desired-outcome gaps.
3. **Sales-call transcripts** - prior calls with this avatar; pull pain quotes, "what I tried before" quotes, and "what would success look like" answers.
4. **Reddit / Quora / forum threads** - search the niche subreddit or forum for the problem term; the comments are the language.
5. **Customer interview voice memos** - even one 20-minute call with one buyer beats a hundred reviews.
6. **Email replies from the existing list** - paste the question "what's the hardest part of [problem] right now?" and read the replies as raw material.

Aim for 5-10 quotes total, balanced across pain, desired-outcome, and objection categories (3-5 each).

#### VoC bank format (capture before writing a word)

```
## VoC Bank - <YYYY-MM-DD>

### Pain quotes (3-5)
- "Quote 1, verbatim, with original spelling/grammar." - [source: Reddit r/<sub>, 2026-04-12]
- "Quote 2, verbatim." - [source: 3-star Amazon review of <competitor product>, 2026-03-08]
- "Quote 3, verbatim." - [source: support ticket #1247]

### Desired-outcome quotes (3-5)
- "Quote 1, verbatim - what they said success would look like." - [source: existing testimonial we have]
- "Quote 2, verbatim." - [source: sales call transcript with <name>, 2026-04-22]

### Objection quotes (3-5)
- "I tried [competitor] before and it didn't work because..." - [source: Reddit thread]
- "I'd buy this but I'm worried about..." - [source: support ticket]
- "What if my situation is different because..." - [source: sales-call objection log]
```

Keep the original spelling, profanity, fragments, and run-ons. Cleaning the quote up destroys its value - the rough edges are the proof of authenticity.

#### How Phase 1+ uses the VoC bank (load-bearing)

The VoC bank is not a research artifact filed away. Each downstream phase MUST pull from it:

- **Phase 2 (Layer 1 Nerve Strike)** MUST quote or near-paraphrase a **pain quote** from the bank. The first sentence of the page is the buyer's words played back to them, not the seller's invention.
- **Phase 3 (Three Locks - The Want)** MUST su