Leonardo da Vinci's Persuasion-Dripping Cold Email
Leonardo da Vinci's letter to the Duke of Milan is a masterclass in copywriting bullets and handling objections, 500 years before modern marketing.
I've been reading a book, "Think Like Da Vinci", recommended by one of my mentors, Shane Hunter. And inside it I discovered a 'cold email' that would put most cold email copywriters to shame.
This masterpiece was written over 500 years ago, when Leonardo da Vinci wrote to the Duke of Milan looking for work:
Most illustrious Lord, having now sufficiently considered the proofs of all those who count themselves masters and inventors of instruments of war, and finding that their invention and use does not differ in any respect from those in common practice, I am emboldened to put myself in communication with your Excellency, in order to acquaint you with my secrets...
I have plans for bridges, very light and strong and suitable for carrying very easily...
When a place is besieged I know how to cut off water from the trenches, and how to construct an infinite number of scaling ladders and other instruments...
If, because of the height of the embankment, and the strength of the place or its site, it should be impossible to reduce it by bombardment, I know methods of destroying any citadel or fortress, even if it is built on rock.
...In time of peace I believe that I can give you as complete satisfaction as anyone else in architecture, in the construction of buildings both public and private...
And if any of the aforesaid things should seem impossible or impracticable to anyone, I offer myself as ready to make trial of them in your park or in whatever place shall please your Excellency, to whom I commend myself with all possible humility.
He's literally writing copywriting bullets in the 1400s, yet I've heard almost no one mention Leonardo when it comes to copy.
My favourite part of this whole letter is his ability to foretell his reader's objections and answer them.
Bullet 3, for example, answers an objection you'd have to bullet 2 (what if bombardment doesn't work?), while also answering ANOTHER objection at the end:
- If, because of the height of the embankment, and the strength of the place or its site, it should be impossible to reduce it by bombardment, I know methods of destroying any citadel or fortress, even if it is built on rock.
And then to finish off the letter, he answers the biggest objection of all.
Objection: "Is this really possible? Sounds too good to be true."
His answer: "And if any of the aforesaid things should seem impossible or impracticable to anyone, I offer myself as ready to make trial of them in your park or in whatever place shall please your Excellency."
500 years later, that's still exactly how you handle a sceptical prospect. Name the doubt yourself, then offer to prove it.
Tatsuki