Hand-Book of Modern Business Correspondence
A handbook of model letters and office systems compiled by Forrest Crissey, assisted by a corps of correspondence specialists, and published in Chicago by Thompson & Thomas.
What it is
A handbook of model letters and office systems compiled by Forrest Crissey, assisted by a corps of correspondence specialists, and published in Chicago by Thompson & Thomas. It opens by regretting that letters have turned curt and machine-like as volume rose, then asks how an army of clerks can write in one house voice. Chapters cover a six-part letter plan, openings to avoid, selling letters, form letters, credit and collection, complaints, mail-order, department-store, bank and country-store systems, and applications. Franklin Hobbs's chapter writes one timber-preserving offer as four letter series, for the General Manager, the Chief Engineer, the Supervisor of Bridges and Buildings and the Engineer of Maintenance of Way. A wholesale grocer's Wishbone Coffee series offers to pay the reader one cent a minute for her attention. A green-ticket system for returned goods is credited with tracing the shipper in 98 per cent of cases.
Why read it now
The durable idea is in the selling-letter chapter: one offer, a separate argument for each official who touches the decision. That is account-based marketing a century early, and Gartner's research on B2B buying groups puts the typical complex purchase at six to ten decision makers, each with a different worry. The collection chapter's point, that sales and credit must not work at cross-purposes because money letters touch the customer where he is most sensitive, applies to any payment reminder today. The green ticket shows that many service failures are process failures. What has dated: the courtesy formulas it models, such as "your valued favor of the 5th inst.", which Gardner's 1915 textbook already attacked as stock phrases; the advice to hide every sign that a form letter is mass-produced, which now reads as a trust risk; and job applications written by fathers for their sons and daughters. Use: before a B2B campaign, list each role in the client's buying group and write one first message per role, naming that role's cost or risk.
Passages worth keeping
A slightly different letter should be given each official.
العرض الواحد يحتاج رسالة مختلفة لكل مسؤول، لأن ما يهم المدير العام غير ما يهم كبير المهندسين.
Given this means of endless multiplication it rests with the correspondent or the Department of Promotion, to avoid in the wording and phraseology every semblance of machinery and multiplicity.
بعد أن صار نسخ الرسائل بالآلاف ممكنًا، صار على الكاتب أن يمحو من الصياغة كل أثر للآلية والتكرار.
Letters relative to credit and to collections touch the customer of the house on his most sensitive point and the fact should always be carefully considered.
رسائل الائتمان والتحصيل تمس العميل في أكثر نقاطه حساسية، فلا بد من الدقة واللباقة في كل كلمة منها.
And it all simmers down to two things: get the patronage, and hold it.
عمل تاجر التجزئة كله يرجع إلى أمرين: أن يكسب العميل، ثم أن يحتفظ به.
It enabled us, in 98 per cent of the cases, to locate the shipper and to secure "disposition" from him
تسجيل كل خطوة في حركة البضائع المرتجعة مكّن الشركة من معرفة المرسل في 98 في المئة من الحالات، فالنظام الدقيق يحل ما تعجز عنه الرسائل.
What it teaches best
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