The Collection of Master Business Letters
A portfolio of 250 one-page sales letters that Davison wrote for paying clients, reproduced as typewritten sheets with each client's and product's name blanked out, so every letter reads as a template.
What it is
A portfolio of 250 one-page sales letters that Davison wrote for paying clients, reproduced as typewritten sheets with each client's and product's name blanked out, so every letter reads as a template. A short foreword tells the reader to ignore the subjects, copy the sentences and paragraphs he likes into a numbered, indexed file, and blend them into his own pitch; it calls advertising by mail the coming foundation of big business. An index files the letters by trade, from accounting and automobiles to wall paper and wheat. Examples include a $2 success book said to be worth $200,000, a store owner's letters asking staff to serve difficult customers and spread word of mouth, flour letters built on anecdotes, paint letters with coverage figures, a graded collection series that ends with an attorney's notice, and a closing set for a fat reducer, patent cures and whiskey.
Why read it now
Two things still work. The method: collect proven lines, file them by the buyer's trade, and adapt the nearest one, which is how swipe files and prompt libraries are still built. And the collection series, which opens by assuming the customer simply forgot, adds weight letter by letter, offers more time before any threat, and asks only for evidence of willingness to pay. Modern dunning sequences follow the same order, and field trials of payment reminders, on tax bills and court fines, find that clear, early, polite letters raise payment rates. The strongest sales letters are the plain ones with numbers, such as barn paint at $10 against a $150 repair. What has dated: whole lines in capitals, strings of alliteration, promises of a new life for $2, and the health letters, whose claims for a fat reducer and a tuberculosis cure would breach advertising rules today in the US and in Saudi Arabia. Use: build your team's swipe bank indexed by client sector, and adapt the collection series for overdue B2B invoices in Arabic, keeping the offer of more time before any legal step.
Passages worth keeping
Get the meat of the salesmanship out of this material and blend it into your own selling story.
لا تنسخ الرسائل كما هي، بل استخرج منها أساليب الإقناع وادمجها في عرضك الخاص بمنتجك.
IT ISN'T MINE UNTIL YOU SAY SO.
المال الذي يدفعه العميل لا يصبح ملك البائع حتى يرضى العميل، وهذه صيغة مختصرة لضمان استرداد المال.
A run-down barn may require $150 to $200 to repair, when $10 or $15 spent for paint IN TIME would have avoided most of that expense.
الرسالة تقارن كلفة صغيرة الآن بكلفة كبيرة لاحقًا، فتجعل الشراء يبدو توفيرًا لا إنفاقًا.
We know it is a small matter and in all probability you have simply overlooked it. Won't you fix it up today, so we can turn the amount in?
أول رسالة تحصيل تفترض حسن النية وأن العميل نسي فقط، فتطلب السداد دون أن تحرجه.
All we ask is an evidence of your willingness to pay.
حتى في المرحلة الأخيرة قبل القضاء، تطلب الرسالة إشارة إلى نية السداد فقط، وتترك باب المهلة مفتوحًا.
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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