Business Correspondence Part 26

The man who inquires about your goods isn't "sold" by a long ways.

He is simply giving you an opportunity to sell him. Inquiries aren't _results_, they're simply _clues_ to possible sales, and if you are going to follow those clues up and make sales out of them, you need the best men you can find and the best letters those men can turn out to do it. Inquiries of good quality are costly, frequently several times as costly as the advertiser figures in advance that he can afford to pay. Yet, strange to say, many advertisers will employ $50 or $100-a-week ability to write advertis.e.m.e.nts that will produce inquiries and then expect $10 or $15 men to turn them into sales. As a matter of fact nine times out of ten the hardest part of the transaction is to close the sale.

An inquiry is merely an expression of interest. The reader of the advertis.e.m.e.nt says, in effect, "All right, I'm impressed. Go ahead and show me." Or, if he hasn't written in reply to an advertis.e.m.e.nt, he sends an inquiry and invites the manufacturer or dealer to tell what he has. To get the highest possible proportion of sales from each hundred inquiries, requires that the correspondent be as skillful in his written salesmans.h.i.+p as the successful man behind the counter is with his oral canva.s.s and his showing of the goods.

If the truth were known, it is lack of appreciation of this point that discourages most concerns trying to sell by mail, and it is the real secret of a large percentage of failures.

A clock manufacturer notified the advertising manager of one of the big magazines that he had decided to discontinue his advertising.

"The inquiries we get from your magazine," he wrote, "don't pan out." The advertising manager thought he saw the reason why and he made a trip down to the factory to investigate. Reports showed that in two months his magazine had pulled over 400 inquiries, yet out of that number just seven prospects had been sold.

"Will you let me see your follow-up letters?" he asked. They were brought out, and the advertising manager almost wept when he read them. Awkward, hackneyed, blundering notes of acknowledgment, they lacked even the merest suggestion of salesmans.h.i.+p. They would kill rather than nourish the interest of the average prospect. He sent the set of letters up to the service bureau of his magazine and a new series of strong convincing letters, such as the clock deserved, were prepared.

On the strength of these he got the advertiser back in and the next month out of 189 inquiries, forty-six clocks were sold. Think of the actual loss that manufacturer suffered simply because he did not really appreciate that inquiries aren't sales!

Get this firmly in mind and then get the proper att.i.tude toward the inquirer. There is a big difference between the original sales letter and the answer to the inquiry. You haven't got to win his interest now. You've got that. But you have got to hold it and develop it to the buying point. Your man has asked you something; has given you the chance to state your case. Now state it in the most complete, convincing way you know how.

Dear Sir:

We are pleased to receive your request for "Wilson's Accounting Methods," and a copy goes forward by today's mail. Do not fail to notify us if it fails to reach you within a day of the receipt of this letter.

Your attention is particularly called to the descriptive matter on pages 3 to 9, inclusive. We are confident that among the forty stock record forms there ill.u.s.trated and described you will find a number that will save time and labor in your office. You will see that our stock forms are carried in two sizes--3 by 6-1/4 inches and 5 by 8 inches, the smaller size being furnished at $2 a thousand and the larger size at $2.50 a thousand, a.s.sorted as you desire.

Should you desire special forms to meet your individual requirements, we can furnish them to order, printed from your copy, on one side of linen-bond stock--your choice of five colors--at $3.50 a thousand.

On pages 116 to 139 you will find complete descriptions and order blanks of our special introductory outfits, ranging in price from $1 to $22.

We make these attractive offers to enable our customers to select outfits that can be installed at a very small cost, and we s.h.i.+p any of our stock outfits with the distinct understanding that if they are not entirely satisfactory they may be returned to us at our expense.

Under the liberal conditions we make, you incur no risk in placing an order, and we trust that we may be favored with one from you right away. By purchasing direct from us--the manufacturers--you eliminate all middleman's profits and are sure to get proper service.

Let us hear from you.

Very truly yours, [Signature: Anderson & Anderson]

_A letter that sums up well the princ.i.p.al features of the goods described in detail in the catalogue and the strong points of the manufacturer's plan of selling. The letter is closely linked with the catalogue. Such a letter as this is a strong support to the catalogue_

A good way to get at this is to put yourself once more in the other man's place. What do _you_ like to get when _you_ answer an advertis.e.m.e.nt? And how do you like to get it? First of all you like a prompt answer.

"I have had some experiences lately," says one business man, "that have made me feel that promptness and careful attention to all of a correspondent's requests are fully as important as the literary part of business correspondence. I am interested in an enterprise in which material of various kinds will be used--sample jars, mailing cases, and so forth. I have been writing to manufacturers in the effort to get samples and prices.

"In several cases it really seemed to me as if the manufacturer was trying to test my patience by waiting from three days to a week before answering my letter. Several of them forgot to send the samples they referred to in their letters. In other cases the matter of samples was overlooked for a few days after the letter was written or the samples were ordered forwarded from a distant factory without any explanation to me that the samples would be a few days late in arriving. In still other instances references were made to prices and sizes that were not clear, thus necessitating another letter and a further delay of a week or ten days.

"As I had to have all the material before I could proceed with any of it, one man's delay tied up the whole job.

"Really when one has a chance to see the dowdy, indifferent way in which a great many business concerns take care of inquiries and prospective customers, the wonder is that there are so many successes and not more failures.

"How refres.h.i.+ng it is to get a reply by return mail from an enterprising man who is careful to label every sample and to give you all the necessary information in complete form and to write in such a way as to make you feel you are going to get prompt, careful service if your order is placed with him. It is a pleasure to send business his way, and we do it, too, whenever we can."

It is easy enough to look out for these things when a regular method is adopted. With a catalogue before him, the correspondent should dictate a memorandum, showing what samples or enclosures are to be sent and how each is to be marked. By referring to the memorandum, as he dictates, the references will be clear.

Cherish both carefulness and promptness. You don't know what you sometimes lose by being a day late. An inquirer often writes to several different concerns. Some other correspondent replies by return mail, and the order may be closed before your belated letter gets in its work, particularly if the inquirer is in a hurry--as inquirers sometimes are. You may never learn why you lost the order.

When you cannot give full attention to the request immediately, at least write the inquirer and tell how you will reply fully in a day or so or whenever you can. If you can truthfully say so, tell him that you have just what he wants and ask him to wait to get your full information before placing his order. In this way you may hold the matter open.

Dear Sir:

Replying to your esteemed favor of recent date would say that we have noted your request for a sample of Royal Mixture and that same has been forwarded.

This tobacco is absolutely without question the finest smoking tobacco on the market today. This statement will be substantiated by tens of thousands of smokers.

We hope to receive your valued order at an early date and remain

Truly yours, [Signature: Brown & Co.]

_The first paragraph of this letter is so hackneyed that it takes away all personality, and there is nothing in the second paragraph to build up a picture in the reader's mind of an enjoyable tobacco_

Now as to the style and contents of your letter, here's one thing that goes a long way. Be cheerful. Start your letter by acknowledging his inquiry as though you were glad to get it. "Yours of the 15th received and contents noted," doesn't mean anything. But how about this: "I was glad to find on my desk this morning your letter of the 15th inquiring about the new model Marlin." There's a personal touch and good will in that. A correspondence school answers a prospective student's inquiry like this: "I really believe that your letter of the 6th, which came to me this morning, will prove to be the most important letter that you ever wrote." An opening such as this clinches the man's interest again and carries him straight through to the end. Don't miss an opportunity to score on the start.

Dear Sir:

Your order for a sample pouch of Royal Mixture is greatly appreciated. The tobacco was mailed to-day.

To appreciate the difference between Royal Mixture and the "others,"

just put a little of it on a sheet of white paper by the side of a pinch from a package of any other smoking tobacco manufactured. You won't need a microscope to see the difference in quality. Smoke a pipeful and you will quickly notice how different in mellowness, richness and natural flavor Royal Mixture is from the store-bought kind.

If you are not enthusiastic over its excellence I shall feel greatly disappointed. So many discriminating pipe smokers in all sections are praising it that it makes me believe that in "The Aristocrat of Smoking Tobacco" I have produced an article that is in fact the best tobacco money can buy.

Royal Mixture is all pure tobacco, and the cleanest, best-cured and finest leaf that the famous Piedmont section of North Carolina can produce. The quality is there, and will be kept as long as it is offered for sale. Depend upon that.

The more you smoke Royal Mixture the better you'll like it. This is not true of the fancy-named mixtures which owe their short-lived popularity to pretty labels, fancy tin boxes and doctored flavors. I give you quality in the tobacco instead of making you pay for a gold label and tin box.

The only way to get it is by ordering from me. Royal Mixture goes right from factory to your pipe--you get it direct, and know you are getting it just right, moist and fresh.

Right now, TO-DAY, is the time to order. A supply of Royal Mixture costs so little and means so much in pipe satisfaction that every hour of delay is a loss to you. It's too good to do without. Money refunded promptly if you are not satisfied!

If it is not asking too much of you, I would like to hear within a day or two just how the tobacco suits you. Will you not write me about it? Be critical, as I desire your candid opinion.

Respectfully yours, [Signature: Wallace E. Lee]