Anonymous

“ The letters bulge with solid facts, stale statements and indigestible arguments—the relishes are lacking. Either the writers do not realize that effectiveness comes only with an attractive style or they do not know how a crisp and invigorating style can be cultivated. Style has nothing to do with the subject matter of a letter. Its only concern is in the language used—in the words and sentences which describe, explain and persuade, and there is no subject so commonplace, no proposition so prosaic that the letter cannot be made readable and interesting when a stylist takes up his pen. ”

“ He did everything that any business man could do with customers. In five years he was talking not to a thousand men but to a million. And today, though not fifty men in the million have ever met him, this man's personality has swept like a tidal wave across the country and left its impression in office, store and factory—through letters—letters alone. ”

“ The house that uses the same kind of letter on men and women will never score such big results as the firm that understands the different processes of thinking and the different methods of making the appeal. With the man it is reason, logic, argument; with the woman it is suggestion, flattery, persuasion. The correspondent who aims to establish a large mail-order trade with women must study their whims, their prejudices, their weaknesses and their characteristics before he can make an appeal that brings in the orders and makes permanent customers of trial buyers. ”

“ One man carries a note book in which he jots down, for future use, phrases, words and comparisons that he comes across while reading his morning paper on the way down town, while going through his correspondence, while listening to callers, while talking with friends at lunch, while attending some social affair—wherever he is, his eyes and ears are always alert to catch a good phrase, an unusual expression or a new figure of speech. ”

“ An inquiry is merely an expression of interest. The reader of the advertisement says, in effect, "All right, I'm impressed. Go ahead and show me." Or, if he hasn't written in reply to an advertisement, 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 salesmanship as the successful man behind the counter is with his oral canvass and his showing of the goods. ”

“ In the appeal to women there is more in this tinge of off-hand refinement, the atmosphere, the enthusiasm shown and in the little personal touches, than in formidable arguments and logical reasons. What is triviality to a man is frequently the clinching statement with a woman. And so a fixed set of rules can not be formulated for writing letters to women. Instead of a hard and fast rule, the correspondent must have in mind the ideas and the features that naturally appeal to the feminine mind and use them judiciously. ”

“ The letter is today the greatest potential creator and transactor of business in the world. But wide as its use is, it still lies idle, an undeveloped possibility, in many a business house where it might be playing a powerful part.
The letter is a universal implement of business—that is what gives it such great possibilities. It is the servant of every business, regardless of its size or of its character. It matters not what department may command its use—wherever there is a business in which men must communicate with each other, the letter is found to be the first and most efficient medium. ”

“ No figure of speech, no touch of the stylist could make such a profound impression as this brief, concise statement of fact.
The average correspondent will agree that these are all essential elements of style—his problem is practical: how can he find the right words; how can he learn to put his proposition more clearly; how think up figures of speech that will light up the thought or illustrate the proportion.
To some men an original style and the ability to write convincingly is a birthright. Others have to depend less on inspiration and more on hard work. ”

“ The mere physical effort of hunting up pen and paper by which to send in an order for SOMETHING HE REALLY WANTS, deters many a prospect from becoming a customer.
The man who sells goods by mail must overcome this natural inertia by reducing the act of sending in an order or inquiry to its very simplest terms—by making it so easy for him to reply that he acts while the desire for the goods is still upon him. ”

“ While letters take the place of spoken language, they lack the animation and the personal magnetism of the speaker—a handicap that must be overcome by finding words and arranging them in sentences in such a way that they will attract attention quickly, explain a proposition fully, make a distinct impression upon the reader and move him to reply. Out of the millions of messages that daily choke the mails, only a small per cent rise above the dead level of colorless, anemic correspondence. ”

“ Many correspondents keep within easy reach a folder or scrapbook of particularly inspiring letters, advertisements and other matter gathered from many sources. One man declares that no matter how dull he may feel when he reaches the office in the morning he can read over a few pages in his scrapbook and gradually feel his mind clear; his enthusiasm begins to rise and within a half hour he is keyed up to the writing mood.
A correspondent in a large mail-order house keeps a scrapbook of pictures—a portfolio of views of rural life and life in small towns. ”

“ By any one of these appeals, or better, by a combination of appeals, a letter can be given an individuality, a vitality, that will make it rise above the underbrush of ordinary business correspondence.
To begin with, vapid words and stereotyped expressions should be eliminated, for many a good message has become mired in stagnant language. So many correspondents, looking for the easiest road to travel, fall into the rut that has been worn wide and deep by the multitudes passing that way. The trouble is not the inability of writers to acquire a good style or express themselves forcibly ”

“ The letter-writer who can tap one of these lines of thought gets results in a flash. Such letter takes a basis of facts common to most men, blends them in the letter written, so as to form fixedly from the prospect's own ideas and experiences, a firm conviction that what the writer is saying is absolute truth. A single sentence that does not ring true to a man's experience is an obstacle over which the message will not carry.
A company selling land in the west, sent out a five-page letter— enough to smother whatever interest might have been attracted by the advertisement. ”

“ One of the pathetic sins of business letter writers is to work in the price too early in the letter—before the prospect is interested in the proposition. The clever salesman always endeavors to work up one's interest to the highest possible pitch before price is mentioned at all. Many solicitors consider it so essential to keep the price in the background until near the end of the canvass that they artfully dodge the question, "What is the cost?", until they think the prospect is sufficiently interested not to "shy" when the figure is mentioned. ”

“ The repair man from the factory may give a good explanation of how a machine works, but the chances are he would fall down in trying to sell the machine, unless he understood how to reinforce his explanations with a salesman's ability to use argument and persuasion.
And so you must look well to your arguments, and the arguments that actually pull the most orders consist of proofs—cold, hard logic and facts that cannot be questioned. As you hope for the verdict of the jury you must prove your case. It is amazing how many correspondents fail to appreciate the necessity for arguments. ”

“ Logic and conviction, in fact, are the keynotes to selling men by mail. Men fear being "worked." On those occasions when they have been "worked," it has generally been through sentiment—through the arts of persuasion rather than a clearly-demonstrated conviction that the proposition was right. As a consequence, persuasion alone, without a mass of figures and solid arguments, does not convince a man. ”

“ A clever sales letter may make the proper impression, it may have all the elements necessary to close the sale, but it is asking too much to expect it to handle the whole situation alone.
The average prospect wants more than he finds in a letter before he will lay down his money. The very fact that a letter comes alone may arouse his suspicions. But if he finds it backed up by accompanying enclosures that take things up where the letter leaves off, answer his mental inquiries and pile up proof, the proposition is more certain to receive consideration. ”

“ Fundamental principles must be understood; ways of presenting a proposition must be studied, various angles must be tried out; the effectiveness of appeals must be tested; new schemes for getting attention and arousing interest must be devised; clear, concise description and explanation must come from continual practice; methods for getting the prospect to order now must be developed. It is not a game of chance; there is nothing mysterious about it—nothing impossible, it is solely a matter of study, hard work and the intelligent application of proved-up principles. ”

“ It is the exceptional correspondent who stops to analyze his letters, looking at them from every viewpoint, and then tests out his conclusions, trying one appeal after another until he evolves certain principles that pull letter writing out of the class of uncertainties and enable him to depend upon definite returns.
For there are appeals that are practically universal. Appeal to a man's ambition and you have his interest: larger income, better position, some honor or recognition—touch these and no matter how busy, he will find time to read your message. ”

“ In other words, the stationery of a business house—the size, the proportions, the tint, the quality of its correspondence-paper— offers the first of the several opportunities for the correspondent to put the recipient into a receptive state of mind toward the communication. It is an item that the shrewd correspondent does not ignore, because it offers him an opportunity—and the first opportunity—to score. ”

“ A man may walk into a store with the deliberate intention of buying a shirt, and if the clerk who waits on him is not a good salesman the customer may just as deliberately walk out of the store and go to the place across the street. Lack of attention, over-anxiety to make a quick sale, want of tact on the part of the salesman—any one of a dozen things may switch off the prospective customer although he wants what you have for sale.
Even more likely is this to happen when you are trying to sell him by mail. He probably cares little or nothing about your offer ”