Letters That Make Good: A Desk Book for Business Men (Third Edition)
The third edition, dated 1915, of the desk book edited by George William Poole and Jonathan John Buzzell for the American Business Book Company of Boston.
What it is
The third edition, dated 1915, of the desk book edited by George William Poole and Jonathan John Buzzell for the American Business Book Company of Boston. It keeps the first edition's signed monographs on the plan, data, message, style, opening, body, closing and mechanics of a letter, and adds two chapters: Edward B. Brown on training and managing a department of sales correspondents, and F. W. Ross on a survey of firms about one-cent versus two-cent postage. A new preface shows how to learn style by rewriting a specimen letter for another trade. Part II, "The Best Letter I ever Used and Why", fills 314 pages of facsimile letters, now classified under Securing Attention, Personality, Persuasion and Follow-up Series, with notes on each and an index by situation and by firm, from Burroughs Adding Machine to the Denver Post.
Why read it now
Read this edition for its two added chapters. Brown's plan is close to how a sales development team is run today: train writers on the product, the competitors and the market, send them into the field, review every letter before it goes out, try letters on a small list, key the replies, and pay on results. Ross's survey finds that 97% of firms glance at advertising mail, and that a letter which looks personal and well made is handled like normal correspondence, while one that looks mass-produced is sorted with the circulars. The same sorting happens to email and WhatsApp messages today. The rest of Part I holds for the reasons given in the first edition: facts before phrasing, one idea per letter, a close that says exactly what to do. A clothing merchant's note that his cleverest letters pulled poorly is the best warning in the book. Dated: the results are self-reported and uncontrolled, and the survey never says how many firms answered. Use: apply Brown's routine to anyone who writes sales messages for you, starting with review of every message in their first weeks.
Passages worth keeping
A letter without facts is like a body without bones; it won't get anywhere.
الحقائق هي هيكل الرسالة، ومن دونها تبقى كلامًا لا يقف ولا يقنع.
Business men are coming to realize that form letters without a plan are like a building without an architect.
الرسالة التي تُكتب دون خطة مسبقة تشبه بيتًا بلا مهندس، تتفرع وتلتف ولا تصل إلى غايتها.
I have written many letters which were infinitely cleverer than these . and yet whose records as 'pullers' have been very mediocre.
يعترف كاتب رسائل لمتجر ملابس بأن أذكى رسائله كانت متوسطة النتيجة، فالبراعة لا تساوي البيع.
Every concern that sends out sales-getting letters should have just as thoroughly organized a method of training and grading up their Sales Correspondents or inside salesmen as they have of coaching and keying up their outside salesmen.
من يكتب رسائل البيع يحتاج إلى تدريب وتقييم منظمين مثل مندوب المبيعات الميداني تمامًا.
the man who would throw away the one-cent letter would also throw away the two-cent letter.
إنفاق المزيد على شكل الإرسال لا ينقذ رسالة قرر القارئ أنها لا تعنيه، فالمحتوى هو ما يحسم.
The scanned text has OCR errors. The passages are quoted from it, with only obvious slips fixed.
What it teaches best
Read the original archive.org
If this library is useful, leave an email
We send new patterns, ads, and notes when we add them. Name and phone are optional.
You are on the list
We will write when we add more library material.