|
CHAPTER 7How To Bring The Letter To A Close
GETTING ATTENTION, explaining a proposition and presenting arguments and proofs are essentials in every letter, but they merely lead up to the vital part--GETTING ACTION. They must be closely followed by PERSUASION, INDUCEMENT and a CLINCHER. The well written letter works up to a climax and the order should be secured while interest is at its height. Many correspondents stumble when they come to the close. This chapter shows how to make a get-away-- how to hook the order, or if the order is not secured--how to leave the way open to come back with a follow-up.
Nothing will take the place of arguments and logical reasons in
selling an article or a service. But most salesmen will bear out the
statement that few orders would be taken unless persuasion and
inducement are brought into play to get the prospect's name onto the
dotted line. Persuasion alone sells few goods outside of the church
fair but it helps out the arguments and proofs. The collector's
troubles come mainly from sales that are made by persuasion, for the
majority of men who are convinced by sound arguments and logical
reasons to purchase a machine or a line of goods carry out their
part of the bargain if they can.
There are a good many correspondents who are clever enough in
presenting their proposition, but display a most limited knowledge
of human nature in using persuasions that rubs the prospect the
wrong way.
"Why will you let a few dollars stand between you and success? Why waste your time, wearing yourself out working for others? Why don't you throw off the conditions which bind you down to a small income? Why don't you shake off the shackles? Why don't you rise to the opportunity that is now presented to you?"
Such a letter is an insult to anyone who receives it, for it really tells him that he is a "mutt" and does not know it. Compare the preceding paragraph with this forceful appeal:
"Remember, the men now in positions you covet did not tumble into
them by accident. At one time they had nothing more to guide them
than an opportunity exactly like this one. Someone pointed out to
them the possibilities and they took the chance and gradually
attained their present success. Have you the courage to make the
start, grasp an opportunity, work out your destiny in this same
way?"
This is persuasion by pointing out what others have done.
It is the persuasion of example; an appeal that is dignified and
inspirational.
And here, as in all other parts of the letter, there is the tendency
to make the appeal from the selfish standpoint--the profits
that will accrue to the writer:
"We strongly advise that you get a piece of this land at once. It is bound to increase in value. You can't lose. Won't you cast your lot with us now? It is your last opportunity to get a piece of this valuable land at this extremely low price. Take our word for it and make your decision now before it is too late."
A manufacturer of folding machines got away from this attitude and cleverly combined persuasion and inducement in an offer made to newspaper publishers during the month of October:
"You want to try this folder thoroughly before you buy it and no
better test can be given than during the holiday season when heavy
advertising necessitates large editions. Now, if you will put in one
of these folders right away and use it every week, we will extend
our usual sixty-day terms to January 15th. This will enable you to
test it out thoroughly and, furthermore, you will not have to make
the first payment until you have opportunity to make collections for
the December advertising. This proposition must be accepted before
Oct. 31st."
Such an inducement is timely and doubly effective on this account. The appeal reaches the newspaper man at the season of the year when he is busiest; just the time when he most needs a folder, and the manufacturer provides for the first payment at the time of year when the average publisher has the largest bank account.
Occasionally the most effective persuasion is a ginger talk, a
regular "Come on, boys," letter that furnishes the dynamic force
necessary to get some men started:
"There is no better time to start in this business than right now. People always spend money freely just before the holidays--get in the game and get your share of this loose coin. Remember, we ship the day the order comes in. Send us your order this afternoon and the goods will be at your door day after tomorrow. You can have several hundred dollars in the bank by this time next week. Why not? All you need to do is to make the decision now.
"Unless you are blind or pretty well crippled up, you needn't expect
that people will come around and drop good money into your hat. But
they will loosen up if you go out after them with a good proposition
such as this--and provided you get to them before the other fellow.
The whole thing is to get started. Get in motion! Get busy! If you
don't want to take time to write, telegraph at our expense. It
doesn't make much difference how you start, the thing is to start.
Are you with us?"
Now, there really is nothing in these two paragraphs except a little
ginger, and a good deal of slang, but this may prove the most
effective stimulant to a man's energy, the kind of persuasion to get
him in motion.
One thing to be constantly guarded against is exaggeration--"laying
it on too thick." Concerns selling goods on the instalment basis
through agents who are paid on commission, find their hardest
problem is to collect money where the proposition was painted in too
glowing colors. The representative, thinking only of his commission
on the sale, puts the proposition too strong, makes the inducement
so alluring that the goods do not measure up to the salesman's
claims.
Then the correspondent should be careful not to put the inducement
so strong that it will attract out of curiosity rather than out of
actual intent. Many clever advertisements pull a large number of
inquiries but few sales are made. It is a waste of time and money to
use an inducement that does not stimulate an actual interest. Many a
mailing list is choked with deadwood--names that represent curiosity
seekers and the company loses on both hands, for it costs money to
get those names on the list and it costs more money to get them off
the list.
The correspondent should never attempt to persuade a man by assuming an injured attitude. Because a man answers an advertisement or writes for information, does not put him under the slightest obligation to purchase the goods and he cannot be shamed into parting with his money by such a paragraph as this:
"Do you think you have treated us fairly in not replying to our
letters? We have written to you time and again just as courteously
as we know how; we have asked you to let us know whether or not you
are interested; we have tried to be perfectly fair and square with
you; and yet you have not done us the common courtesy of replying.
Do you think this is treating us just right? Don't you think you
ought to write us, and if you are not intending to buy, to let us
know the reason?"
If the recipient reads that far down into his letter, it will only serve to make him mad. No matter what inducement the company may make him later, it is not probable that it can overcome the prejudice that such an insulting paragraph will have created.
Some of the correspondence schools understand how to work in
persuasion cleverly and effectively. Here is a paragraph that is
dignified and persuasive:
"Remember also that this is the best time of the entire year to get
good positions, as wholesalers and manufacturers all over the
country will put on thousands of new men for the coming season. We
are receiving inquiries right along from the best firms in the
country who ask us to provide them with competent salesmen. We have
supplied them with so many good men that they always look to us when
additional help is required, and just now the demand is so great
that we can gurantee you a position if you start the course this
month."
Persuasion plays a small part in selling general commodities, such as machinery, equipment, supplies, and the articles of every-day business, but correspondence courses, insurance, banking, building and loan propositions and various investment schemes can be pushed and developed by an intelligent use of this appeal.
Merged with the persuasion or closely following it should be some inducement to move the reader to "buy now." Description, explanation, argument and even persuasion are not enough to get the order. A specific inducement is necessary. There are many things that we intend to buy sometime, articles in which we have become interested, but letters about them have been tucked away in a pigeon-hole until we have more time. It is likely that everyone of those letters would have been answered had they contained specific inducements that convinced us it would be a mistake to delay.
In some form or another, gain is the essence of all inducements, for gain is the dynamic force to all our business movements. The most familiar form of inducement is the special price, or special terms that are good if "accepted within ten days." The inducement of free trial and free samples are becoming more widely used every day.
The most effective letters are those that work in the inducement so
artfully that the reader feels he is missing something if he does
not answer. The skillful correspondent does not tell him bluntly
that he will miss the opportunity of a life time if he does not
accept a proposition; he merely suggests it in a way that makes a
much more powerful impression. Here is the way a correspondence
school uses inducements in letters to prospective students in its
mechanical drawing course. After telling the prospect about the
purchase of a number of drawing outfits it follows with this
paragraph:
"It was necessary to place this large order in order to secure the
sets at the lowest possible figure. Knowing that this number will
exceed our weekly sales, we have decided to offer these extra sets
to some of the ambitious young men who have been writing to us. If
you will fill out the enclosed scholarship blank and mail at once we
will send you one of these handsome sets FREE, express prepaid. But
this offer must be accepted before the last of the month. At the
rate the scholarship blanks are now coming in, it is more than
likely that the available sets will be exhausted before November
1st. It is necessary therefore that you send us your application at
once."
It is not necessary to offer something for nothing in your inducement. In fact, a good reason is usually a better order getter than a good premium. Make the man want your proposition--that is the secret of the good sales letter. If a man really wants your product he is going to get it sooner or later, and the selling letters that score the biggest results are those that create desire; following argument and reason with an inducement that persuades a man to part with his hard-earned money and buy your goods.
It is a never-ending surprise--the number of correspondents who
cleverly attract the interest of a reader, present their proposition
forcibly and convincingly, following with arguments and inducements
that persuade him to buy, and then, just as he is ready to reach for
his check book, turn heel and leave him with the assurance that they
will be pleased to give him further information when they could have
had his order by laying the contract before him and saying, "Sign
here."
There are plenty of good starters who are poor finishers. They get attention but don't get the order. They are winded at the finish; they stumble at the climax where they should be strongest, and the interest which they worked so hard to stimulate oozes away. They fail because they do not know how to close.
As you hope for results, do not overlook the summary and the climax. Do not forget to insert a hook that will land the order.
Time, energy and money are alike wasted in creating desire if you
fail to crystallize it in action. Steer your letter away from the
hold-over file as dexterously as you steer it away from the waste
basket. It is not enough to make your prospect want to order, you
must make it easy for him to order by enclosing order blanks, return
envelopes, instructions and other "literature" that will strengthen
your arguments and whet his desire; and more than that, you must
reach a real climax in your letters--tell the prospect what to do
and how to do it.
The climax is not a part distinct from the parts that have gone
before. Persuasion and inducement are but elements of the climax,
working the prospect up to the point where you can insert a
paragraph telling him to "sign and mail today." How foolish to work
up the interest and then let the reader down with such a paragraph
as this:
"Thanking you for your inquiry and hoping to be favored with your
order, and assuring you it will be fully appreciated and receive our
careful attention, we are."
Such a paragraph pulls few orders. Compare the foregoing with the one that fairly galvanizes the reader into immediate action:
"Send us a $2.00 bill now. If you are not convinced that this file is the best $2.00 investment ever made, we will refund your money for the mere asking. Send today, while you have it in mind."
Here is a paragraph not unlike the close of dozens of letters that
you read every week:
"Trusting that we may hear from you in the near future and hoping we
will have the pleasure of numbering you among our customers, we
are,"
Such a close invites delay in answering. It is an order killer; it smothers interest, it delays action. But here is a close that is likely to bring the order if the desire has been created.
"Simply wrap a $1.00 bill in this letter and send to us at our
risk."
A writer who does not understand the psychology of suggestion writes
this unfortunate closing paragraph:
"Will you not advise us at an early date whether or not you are interested in our proposition? As you have not replied to our previous letters, we begin to fear that you do not intend to avail yourself of this wonderful opportunity, and we would be very glad to have you write us if this is a fact."
How foolish to help along one's indifference by the suggestion that
he is not interested. Just as long as you spend postage on a
prospect treat him as a probable customer. Assume that he is
interested; take it for granted that there is some reason why he has
not replied and present new arguments, new persuasion, new
inducements for ordering now.
A firm handling a line very similar to that of the firm which sent
out the letter quoted above, always maintains the attitude that the
prospect is going to order some time and its close fairly bristles
with "do it now" hooks:
"Step right over to the telegraph office and send us your order by
telegraph at our expense. With this business, every day's delay
means loss of dollars to you. Stop the leak! Save the dollars! Order
today!"
Another unfortunate ending is a groveling servility in which the writer comes on his knees, as it were, begging for the privilege of presenting his proposition again at some future time. Here are the two last paragraphs of a three-paragraph letter sent out by an engraving company--an old established, substantial concern that has no reason to apologize for soliciting business, no reason for meeting other concerns on any basis except that of equality:
"Should you not be in the market at the present time for anything in our line of work, we would esteem it a great favor to us if you would file this letter and let us hear from you when needing anything in the way of engraving. If you will let us know when you are ready for something in this line we will deem it a privilege to send a representative to call on you.
"Trusting we have not made ourselves forward in this matter and hoping that we may hear from you, we are,"
It is a safe prediction that this letter was written by a new sales manager who will soon be looking for another job. Such an apologetic note, with such a lack of selling talk, such a street beggar attitude could never escape the waste basket. The salesman who starts out by saying, "You wouldn't be interested in this book, would you?" takes no orders. The letter that comes apologizing and excusing itself before it gets our attention, and, if it gets our attention, then lets down just as we are ready to sign an order, is headed straight for the car wheel plant.
Avoid in the closing paragraph, as far as possible, the participial phrases such as "Thanking you," "Hoping to be favored," "Assuring you of our desire," and so forth. Say instead, "We thank you," "It is a pleasure to assure you," or "May I not hear from you by return mail?" Such a paragraph is almost inevitably an anti-climax; it affords too much of a let-down to the proposition.
One of the essentials to the clinching of an order is the enclosures such as order blanks and return envelopes--subjects that are sufficiently important to call for separate chapters.
The essential thing to remember in working up to the climax is to make it a climax; to keep up the reader's interest, to insert a hook that will get the man's order before his desire has time to cool off. Your proposition is not a fireless cooker that will keep his interest warm for a long time after the heat of your letter has been removed--and it will be just that much harder to warm him up the second time. Insert the hook that will get the order NOW, for there will never be quite such a favorable time again. |