CHAPTER 2The Advantages Of Doing Business By Letter
Letters have their limitations and their advantages. The correspondent who is anxious to secure the best results should recognize the inherent weakness of a letter due to its lack of personality in order to reinforce these places. Equally essential is an understanding of the letter's great NATURAL ADVANTAGES so that the writer can turn them to account--make the most of them. It possesses qualities the personal representative lacks and this chapter tells how to take advantage of them.
While it is necessary to know how to write a strong letter, it is likewise essential to understand both the limitations of letters and their advantages. It is necessary, on the one hand, to take into account the handicaps that a letter has in competition with a personal solicitor. Offsetting this are many distinct advantages the letter has over the salesman. To write a really effective letter, a correspondent must thoroughly understand its carrying capacity.
A salesman often wins an audience and secures an order by the force
of a dominating personality. The letter can minimize this handicap
by an attractive dress and force attention through the impression of
quality. The letter lacks the animation of a person but there can be
an individuality about its appearance that will assure a respectful
hearing for its message.
The personal representative can time his call, knowing that under
certain circumstances he may find his man in a favorable frame of
mind, or even at the door he may decide it is the part of diplomacy
to withdraw and wait a more propitious hour. The letter cannot back
out of the prospect's office; it cannot shape its canvass to meet
the needs of the occasion or make capital out of the mood or the
comments of the prospect.
The correspondent cannot afford to ignore these handicaps under which his letter enters the prospect's office. Rather, he should keep these things constantly in mind in order to overcome the obstacles just as far as possible, reinforcing the letter so it will be prepared for any situation it may encounter at its destination. Explanations must be so clear that questions are unnecessary; objections must be anticipated and answered in advance; the fact that the recipient is busy must be taken into account and the message made just as brief as possible; the reader must be treated with respect and diplomatically brought around to see the relationship between his needs and your product.
But while the letter has these disadvantages, it possesses qualities
that the salesman lacks. The letter, once it lies open before the
man to whom you wish to talk, is your counterpart, speaking in your
words just as you would talk to him if you were in his office or in
his home. That is, the right letter. It reflects your personality
and not that of some third person who may be working for a
competitor next year.
The letter, if clearly written, will not misrepresent your
proposition; its desire for a commission or for increased sales will
not lead it to make exaggerated statements or unauthorized promises.
The letter will reach the prospect just as it left your desk, with
the same amount of enthusiasm and freshness. It will not be tired
and sleepy because it had to catch a midnight train; it will not be
out of sorts because of the poor coffee and the cold potatoes served
at the Grand hotel for breakfast; it will not be peeved because it
lost a big sale across the street; it will not be in a hurry to make
the 11:30 local; it will not be discouraged because a competitor is
making inroads into the territory.
You have the satisfaction of knowing that the letter is immune from these ills and weaknesses to which flesh is heir and will deliver your message faithfully, promptly, loyally. It will not have to resort to clever devices to get past the glass door, nor will it be told in frigid tones by the guard on watch to call some other day. The courtesy of the mail will take your letter to the proper authority. If it goes out in a dignified dress and presents its proposition concisely it is assured of a considerate hearing.
It will deliver its message just as readily to some Garcia in the
mountains of Cuba as to the man in the next block. The salesman who
makes a dozen calls a day is doing good work; letters can present
your proposition to a hundred thousand prospects on the one
forenoon. They can cover the same territory a week later and call
again and again just as often as you desire. You cannot time the
letter's call to the hour but you can make sure it reaches the
prospect on the day of the week and the time of the month when he is
most likely to give it consideration. You know exactly the kind of
canvass every letter is making; you know that every call on the list
is made.
The salesman must look well to his laurels if he hopes to compete successfully with the letter as a selling medium. Put the points of advantage in parallel columns and the letter has the best of it; consider, in addition, the item of expense and it is no wonder letters are becoming a greater factor in business.
The country over, there are comparatively few houses that appreciate the full possibilities of doing business by mail. Not many appreciate that certain basic principles underlie letter writing, applicable alike to the beginner who is just struggling to get a foothold and to the great mail-order house with its tons of mail daily. They are not mere theories; they are fundamental principles that have been put to the test, proved out in thousands of letters and on an infinite number of propositions.
The correspondent who is ambitious to do by mail what others do by
person, must understand these principles and how to apply them. He
must know the order and position of the essential elements; he must
take account of the letter's impersonal character and make the most
of its natural advantages.
Writing letters that pull is not intuition; it is an art that anyone can acquire. But this is the point: it must be acquired. It will not come to one without effort on his part. 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. |