Applied business correspondence

Front matter

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Preface

OMPLETELY to cover theory, routine and individual (~ application in a book is of course ordinarily prohibitively expensive. It was possible in the case of this book because the Course in Business Correspondence prepared by Mr. Watson for the A. W. Shaw Company could be drawn on to any extent desired.

In the Course Mr. Watson brought together the results of many years of experience of the correspondence experts of the Shaw organization and several years of work which had been undertaken preparatory to publishing a course in business correspondence which would adequately reflect this experience. To this unique background he added the lessons | crystallized during the years he had himself specialized in selling and business correspondence. Mr. Watson was formerly in charge of the mail sales departments of the A. W. Shaw Company, has been similarly connected with other concerns, and has for a number of years maintained, in New York, offices as an advertising and sales specialist.

The Course in Business Correspondence amply justified the expectations which this unusual background warranted. Its success uncovered a demand for a similarly comprehensive treatment of the subject, but without consultation privileges and some of the detailed developments only possible in an extended course. The publishers decided to supply this demand by drawing together into this book the necessary text from the Course itself.

To the reader not interested in undertaking a supervised course in business correspondence, this book therefore supplies several of those distinctive characteristics of a course of study ordinarily not to be expected of a book. It contains complete machinery for the application, step by step, of its

Vv exposition. The division in the treatment is in fact so marked that the portion of the text providing specific application can be skipped, and the exposition alone—in itself a complete book on business correspondence in the usual sense of the expression—read for purposes of review or coverage of the subject in the usual way.

In connection with the provisions for application, each section is followed by problems. These problems are obviously specific assignments of work intended merely to make clear the application of the principles discussed in the text. They are in no way to be confused with the fundamental and illustrative type of problem characteristic of the case method of instruction used in the group of books now being written by members of the faculty of the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration and published by the A. W. Shaw Company. The headings of the letters reproduced illustratively have been in the majority of instances informally set | up without any attempt to indicate the actual letterheads involved. In many cases they for obvious reasons contain fictitious names. The final application section was written by W. S. Zimmerman, formerly Director of the Educational © Division of the A. W. Shaw Company.

VI

Contents

PREFACE

PARE I

Sizing Ur tut Work Your Letter Must Do

PART II EXPRESSING FEELING OR IDEAS IN WorpDs

The fundamentals of the art of good letter writing —Making your prospect visualize your product.—The negative effect of unsupported statements.—The underlying principle of good letters.—How to establish the “big idea”’ of your letter.— Picking the “features’’ of your letter—Connecting the ‘features’? with the “‘big idea.”—How atmosphere is secured. —Why some letters grasp your attention.—The reason one letter failed —Changing a poor letter into a good one.——An example in picking “features.”—Simple language as a strong point in letter writing.—How to avoid jarring the thought of your letter out of the reader’s mind—Applying these principles to other letters—Points to be considered when writing a complaint letter —How to build up a feeling of satisfaction.— A good collection letter and how it was written.—A plan for overcoming indifference.—The indirect approach and how to build it up.

Viz

BUSINESS CORRESPONDENCE PART III

How to overcome the weakness of the buyer.—Two great orations, Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address and Ingersoll’s nominating speech for Blaine: how they help the letter writer.—The consideration given to the attitude of the audience.—A comparison of the orations with two successful business letters.—The negative argument in letter writing — A practical test of a negative argument.—Examples which show how to meet the reader’s attitude.—Two letters which failed, and why.—Consideration of the “willing” and “unwilling” types of reader.—The “‘big idea”’ and “‘features”’ in a visionary appeal.—Analyzing the construction of the negative idea.— Its use in a good collection letter—How to win over an indifferent reader.—Underlying methods of a glove dealer’s successful letter—Breaking down dealers’ indifference——An exception which proves the rule.—Using the visionary idea in a successful dealer’s letter, a result-pulling sales letter, and a subtle collection letter.—A sales series, and how it can best be handled.—An analysis of the first four letters of a collection series.

PART IV How to Maxrt Your MEANING CLEAR 179

Why the reader will not translate a jumble of words into ideas. —How to avoid “‘waste-basket editions” in letter writing.— The importance of using the right word.—Arranging and stacking your ideas logically—Herbert Spencer on ‘The Philosophy of Style.”—How to express the idea so that it will live in the reader’s mind.—An analysis of Victor Hugo’s greatest description.—Utilizing Hugo’s “arrangement of features” in a successful sales letter—The principle of piling small ideas on big ones in letter writing.—Victor Hugo’s idea applied to a matter-of-fact letter —Working your [prospect up to an appreciation of your proposition.—How to group ideas for easy reading.—Holding the reader’s attention by saving his mental energy.—A collection letter which builds up a powerful picture by suggestion.—An example where wide gaps between the “‘features’’ ruined the letter.—Avoiding short letters which leave too much mental work for the reader.— Lincoln’s statement that a man’s legs should be “long enough to reach the ground” applied to letter writing.—Being sure that the letter actually carries the complete “load,” as a principle for determining length—Choosing the right

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CONTENTS words.—Why the language of a letter should be determined by what you are writing about and to whom you are writing. —What Spencer has to say regarding the choice of words.— Learning from Edgar Allan Poe how to select words.—Acquiring style through a self-compiled dictionary of your business trade terms.—How to build such a word file-—Where to find the words.—An easy method for sorting your ideas.—How to use the word file with the least effort.

PART V How to Make Your Letter SINCERE Q43

Why readers often fail to believe the truth when it is written. —Reasons why some people find it easy to win the confidence of others.—Creating friendliness in a letter.—How the point of contact helps letter writers ——Bookish theory boiled down to practical business principles —What the letter writer can learn from the salesman.—How to put over the impression of a strong, sincere, winning personality.——Analyzing the typical complaint letter.—A successful answer to this letter.— How to arrive at a basis of mutual understanding.—A sales letter which attracts attention in the first paragraph.—An example of a letter which beams with frankness and sincerity. —Personality as a personal quality, how to develop and use it in your letters.—How successful letter writers make their personality felt—Why the “you” in letters sometimes is a mixed blessing.—The fault with “you” in many letters.—Turning the “you” in a letter to your own use.—Sizing up the “load”’ of the typical “you” letter problem.—Making “‘your interest and mine”’ the connecting link.—A successful appeal to human nature.—How dividing the Big Idea into “features”? makes interests mutual.—Why sizing up the “‘load”’ is helpful—Why a human appeal gets results.—A letter that won a good job in spite of strong competition.—The importance of understanding the prospect’s doubts.—Copy which pulled 36% returns, and the reason behind it.—The thought behind it.—The thought behind Mr. Root’s appeal to the Russian people.— The same thought applied to a simple business letter.—Applying this principle in the letter to “Smith’”—Putting mutual understanding and sympathy in the very first line.—Getting “Smith” in a receptive mood for your thought.—Clinching the thought of your sincerity in “Smith’s” mind.—Building a credit man’s letter on the same idea.—A garage man’s letter which reflects a keen personality.—Putting both dignity and good fellowship in letters.—The knack of sincerity, and how anyone can cultivate it.

IX

BUSINESS CORRESPONDENCE i

PART VI How to Make Your Letter PERSUASIVE 291

How to start the motive power which makes a prospect act.— Human actions and the influences which prompt them.— Using persuasion to arouse a motive for action.—The difference between motives and ideas.—A sales letter, and why it failed. —Turning the love motive to business uses.—The six motives from which all human action springs: love, gain, duty, pride, self-indulgence, self-preservation.—Determining whether a letter carries persuasion or not.—Using curiosity as a motive. —Billy Sunday’s use of the six prime motives.—Sunday’s methods applied to an everyday business problem.—How to find ‘“‘fuel”’ which will arouse a motive for acting—The effect of mixing “fuel”’ with the “features.’”’—Using imagination as “fuel” in a collection letter—Mystery, and how it may be worked up to get results.——How the Self-Indulgence motive can be used.—Why a classification of motives helps to write a letter—A system built upon the same principle.— Determining the quantity of motive “fuel”? a persuasive letter requires.—A successful sales letter and why only a little “fuel”? was used.—How to write collection letters that get results—Applying the “motive” principle to a sales letter series.—How to select the best motive for a letter.— Why the Self-Preservation motive is the most difficult to arouse.—The best method for attracting the slow-pay customer.—Distinguishing between the idea that the reader is to be sold on, and the motive that persuades him to sign the order.

PART VII How to Make Your Lerrer Get AcTION 349

Impulse and the part it plays in making people act.—How salesmen make use of the old circus idea for securing action. How to determine whether or not the close of a letter is effective.— How suggestion generated action in one sales letter—Why one collection letter pulled in the money.—An unsuccessful close which made it possible for the reader to side-step the issue.—Why a “let-down” at the close spoils a letter —How a purchasing letter put its idea across.—Making it hard for a reader to decline the action desired.—Closing a sales letter. —How the reader was made to act.—A slight change in a collection letter which increased results by 80%.—A letter which won a good job for an advertising man.—Building up a close for a successful sales letter—How the reader’s fear of x

CONTENTS i losing a good opportunity was aroused.—How to analyze your proposition.—The final action desired, the motive, the preliminary job, the easy connecting path.—How to use this analysis in everyday work.—A letter worked out on this principle that secured women sales agents by the score.— Using the idea to secure dealer cooperation.—How to insure that your reply blanks come back to you.—Why the enclosure should be given as careful consideration as the letter.—A good plan to follow when specifications are part of the order—How to make legal requirements simple—Other ways of putting a punch at the close of your letter.

PART VIII How to Maker Your Letrer Grip ATTENTION 397

The importance of the beginning of a business letter —How to attract and hold the reader’s attention in your form letters. — A follow-up letter which gripped the attention of its reader.— Insuring that the busy man reads your letters by putting yourself in his place——The two elements to be considered when planning attention-grippers: the receiver’s attention; the idea to which his attention must be led——How the busy reader may be led to pick out your letter—Gaging the attention-rays, of your reader.—The second step in building up grippers: selecting the “‘feature”’ of your letter which can most easily be built up to constitute a stopper.—A stopper which drew the attention of women readers.—Two letters and two stoppers compared: why one was a success and the other a failure.—The four principles of getting attention.—A practical test of these principles.——Linking up a stopper to the Big Idea of a sales letter—How a good opener overcame a weak close—How to choose an attention-ray—One “don’t” to keep in mind as you work up an opener: never attract attention merely for the sake of attracting attention—The idea behind an opener that lined up book lovers.—Gripping the attention before the prospect begins to read.—Adapting the idea of the stopper to the envelop.—Why unique and original schemes are not always necessary or best.—An example of how the “features’’ of a letter may be used as openers.—How an appeal to women was based on a feature—The importance of limiting your appeal so as to attract the essential attention-ray of your letter.—A useful idea on hunting the possible attention-rays of readers——How “‘fuel”’ for the motive may also be used.—Bringing your appeal into prominence at the very start of your ‘etter.—A final suggestion regarding the building of attention-stoppers.

XI

BUSINESS CORRESPONDENCE PART IX

PLANNING LETTERHEADS, ENVELOPS AND ENCLOSURES 45]

The mechanics of the letter: new ideas on enclosures.—The purpose of the letterhead——How it developed.—A first consideration: are your letterheads and envelops safe, efficient vehicles for carrying the “loads” of your letters?—A simple letterhead: how, when and where to use it.—Considering the letterhead and envelop from your own viewpoint.—Establishing confidence by our letterhead and envelop.—Building up or protecting reputation.—When a decorative effect is desirable——How to specify the work of designing correspondence forms.—Charting the work your letterheads ought to do—A practical test in laying out a sales letterhead.—Questions to ask yourself when you face this problem.—An answer to the question “Should officers’ names have a place on the letterhead ?’’—How to make type and paper reflect your personality. —Facts which are often needed on a letterhead.—The science of efficient stationery applied.—Simplicity, as an ideal to be striven for, when working out a letterhead.—Special letters which require an out-of-the-ordinary make-up.—The rule to apply as you design the card for an envelop.—The cover to use for circular letters and special mailings.— When varying the character of the stationery pays.—How to decide on the size and shape of letters and envelops.—The three types of enclosures: missionary, reenforcement and _ selling—Milissionary circulars and the purpose they serve.—Reenforcing a letter by the use of a special circular.—Selling enclosures and how they may be put to work.—Viewing your business as a whole when enclosures are planned.—Increasing sales through using a series of circulars—New ways to reenforce a selling letter.— Why many enclosures stuffed in letters fail to get results.— When enclosures will fail in their purpose.——Booklets which will increase the returns on a sales letter—A chart which helps analyze the needs of a sales letter —A chart which helps analyze the needs of a letter—How to use the chart.—A fundamental to base the plan of the circular on.—Giving the Big Idea first consideration.—Selecting ‘“‘features”’ that will reenforce the sales letter —How to figure the costs on an enclosure.—A plan which helps when cutting costs is necessary.— Mechanical layout: the first steps in making a dummy.—How to meet the mental process of the reader.—Making it easy for the reader to get the idea of your copy.—How to route the attention of the indifferent prospect.—Prices and other ways of reenforcing the text.—Meeting the natural question of the prospect.—How to get an artistic balance.—When it will pay

XII

CONTENTS to disregard the rules of the artist—What the layout man can learn from his salesman.—The value of putting the Big Idea squarely up to your reader.—Contrast, and how it should be used to get the best effect.—The use of colors from a business port of view.

PART X ORGANIZING CORRESPONDENCE WorK AND TESTING LETTERS oi 501

The first principles of producing a letter and its enclosures.— Using with greater effectiveness the letters you write——The first steps in organizing the letters used in a business.—Increasing your letter-writing facilities as the business grows and ‘develops.—A one-man-business organization chart for handling letters—How a form paragraph system is gradually developed.—Organizing the routine for easy handling of letters to carry the same ‘‘features.”—Putting a word file to use. —A simple index which lightens the work of the dictator.— The simplest method of using a system of form paragraphs. —Some plans of indexing to be avoided.—An outline of a thoroughly successful indexing scheme.—Where and how to begin organizing a form-paragraph system.—Why a study of old letters will suggest Big Ideas on which to build.—Your next step: picking “‘features”’ and visualizing them.—Getting the right “‘openers”’ for your form letters—How to find the reader’s mental attitude and the approach to it.— Fundamental types and why it pays to hunt for them.—How to work over and standardize paragraphs for form letters——Methods of indexing which may be adapted to your system.—When a system of paragraphs will save money.—How to reduce letter writing to automatic routine.—Using forms in smaller businesses as an aid to dictation.—Dictating from forms to speed up production of routine letters—Form-letter systems and how they help to meet standard needs.—How to handle complaints, inquiries and collections with letter forms.—Building the routine for circular-letter systems.—The first step to take in testing a letter for pulling power.—Little errors which testing will help to disclose.—How the test will increase profits or stop losses.—How practical ideas are brought to light.— What a series of tests on a list of bankers disclosed.—How a local selling campaign indicates the trend of the market.—A way prices and policies may be tried out.—How to profit by the facts that a test brings to light—Analyzing results and checking up on the mailing.

XIII

PAR EUXxT MATERIALS FOR LETTERS AND USES FoR THEM 543

How to find new uses for your letters and material for them.— The conditions which determine mailings of business letters.— A simple principle: why a letter which will accomplish some definite benefit greater than its cost should be the controlling factor in deciding on a mailing.—The real reason why some circulars fail to get results——One way of making letters to the trade bring in orders.—An Idea Record, and how it can be used in any business.—How live ideas may be merchandised within the business.—A chart which shows how letters can help your business.—Seven generic types which include all business letters —Analyzing to find new uses for your circular matter.—Final touches that make the chart a help to the ' advertising man.—How the chart of ideas can be put to permanent, practical use.—How an Idea Record is used by an automobile distributor.—Classifying the field for circulars and for advertising copy.—How an Idea Record will suggest new plans for publicity.—Suggestions for using old ideas in new ways.—How an Idea Record turned failure into success for one firm.—Putting the Record to work: where the ideas come from.—How the store owner may profit by using the chart.— An answer to the question, “‘What Shall I Write About?” —A banker’s experience in making letters bring in new depositors. —Where to get ideas for the letter you have to write—A “scout letter’? which helped to bring in new ideas.—How a laundry secured new ideas for letters—How to build up and maintain representative mailing lists.—The sources of lists for any going business: directories, lists compiled by houses in allied but non-competing lines, lists sold by regular list houses. —How references to permanent lists may be made easily.—The importance of retaining the identity of individual lists —Keeping the mailing lists weeded out and up to date-——How to apply the ‘‘clean-up”’ mailing idea to your list.

INDEX 595

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