Business Correspondence Library, Vol. II: How to Get and Hold Business by Letter
The second of the System Company's three-volume Business Correspondence Library: 20 chapters in five parts, billed as holding 234 tried-out plans and 97 actual letters.
What it is
The second of the System Company's three-volume Business Correspondence Library: 20 chapters in five parts, billed as holding 234 tried-out plans and 97 actual letters. Part VII covers the sales letter that must win the order alone, following up inquiries (a clock maker's 400 magazine inquiries yielded seven sales until the magazine rewrote his follow-ups, after which 189 inquiries brought 46 sales), enclosures and samples, post cards, and eighteen schemes for making it easy to reply. Part VIII sets out appeals to women, men and farmers. Part IX shows retailers drumming up local and out-of-town trade by letter, using their own credit and delivery records as lists. Parts X and XI cover selling to dealers, including remote crossroads stores, and opening new territory with sample coupons, money-back offers and letters sent over a local dealer's signature.
Why read it now
The durable idea is that an inquiry is a clue, not a result. The clock maker's numbers show that follow-up, not lead volume, decides sales, and that is still where most funnels leak. The eighteen ways to make replying easy (prepaid cards, filled-in order blanks, coupons) are today's pre-filled forms and one-tap WhatsApp buttons; checkout studies agree that each extra step loses buyers. Samples, coupons redeemable at a named store and money-back guarantees still drive trial. Letters that make the local dealer the sender are an early form of co-op and partner marketing. What has dated: the audience chapters rest on stereotypes (women read every letter, farmers think only in necessities) that are neither fair nor reliable; segment on behaviour and need instead. The motivational pages before each part are filler. Use: audit your follow-up before buying more leads, time how fast each inquiry gets a full answer, and cut every step between interest and order.
Passages worth keeping
The man who inquires about your goods isn't "sold" by a long ways.
من يستفسر عن منتجك لم يقتنع بعد، بل أعطاك فرصة لتقنعه، والعمل الحقيقي يبدأ بعد الاستفسار.
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.
حتى الجهد البسيط في الرد قد يمنع شخصًا راغبًا فعلًا من الشراء، فاجعل الرد سهلًا إلى أقصى حد.
Know yourself, know your goods, know your man.
قبل أن تكتب أي عرض، اعرف هدفك ومنتجك والشخص الذي تخاطبه.
The two-page letter which a man would toss into the waste basket unread may be read by a woman with increasing interest at each paragraph.
هذا مثال على تعميم الكتاب حول الجمهور، فهو يفترض أن المرأة تقرأ الرسائل الطويلة أكثر من الرجل، وهو افتراض لا يصلح أساسًا للتقسيم اليوم.
His stock is usually so meager and orders so small that an expensive salesman's visit is hardly warranted.
التاجر الصغير في القرى البعيدة لا يستحق زيارة مندوب مكلفة، لكن الرسائل تصل إليه بتكلفة قليلة وتفتح سوقًا مهملة.
The scanned text has OCR errors. The passages are quoted from it, with only obvious slips fixed.
What it teaches best
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