A manufacturer of a new composition for walls gives a more accurate idea of his product than could ever be learned from words and pictures by sending a small finished section of the board as it could be put on the wall.
A knitting mill approaches perfection in sampling when it encloses a bit of cardboard on which are mounted a dozen samples of underwear, with prices pasted to each and a tape measure attached to aid in ordering. A roofing concern has the idea when it sends little sections of its various roof coatings. And at least one carriage maker encloses samples of the materials that go into his tops and seat covers.
Most unique samples are enclosed and because of their very novelty create additional interest in a proposition. A real estate company selling Florida lands enclosed a little envelope of the soil taken from its property. To the farmer this little sample has an appeal that no amount of printed matter could equal.
A company manufacturing cement has called attention to its product by making small cement souvenirs such as paper weights, levels, pen trays, and so forth, sending them out in the same enclosure with the letter or in a separate package.
One manufacturer of business envelopes encloses with his letter his various grades of paper, made up into envelopes, each bearing the name of some representative concern that has used that particular grade. Then in the lower corner of the envelope is stamped the grade, weight, price and necessary points that must be mentioned in purchasing. The various envelopes are of different sizes. On the back of each envelope is a blank form in which the purchaser can designate the printed matter wanted, and underneath, in small letters, the directions, "Write in this form the printed matter you demand; pin your check to the envelope and mail to us."
Thus this one enclosure serves a number of purposes. First, it carries a testimonial of the strongest kind by bearing the names of prominent concerns that have used it; then, it is an actual sample of the goods; and lastly, it serves the purpose of an order blank.
Even a firm which sells a service instead of a product can effectively make use of the sample principle. One successful correspondence school encloses with each answer to an inquiry a miniature reproduction of the diploma that it gives its graduates.
While the course itself is what the student buys, unquestionably the inspired desire to possess a diploma like the one enclosed plays its part in inducing him to enroll.
A New York trust company gets the same effect by sending the prospective investor a specimen bond complete to the coupons which show exactly how much each is worth on definite dates through several succeeding years. Here again the specimen bond is not actually the thing he buys but it is a facsimile and an excellent one in that it puts in concrete form an abstract article.
Possibly it is inadvisable to include a sample. Then a picture of the article accomplishes the purpose. A grocer who writes his customers whenever he has some new brand of food product, always includes in his letter a post card with a full tinted picture of the article. For instance, with a new brand of olives he encloses a picture of the bottled olives, tinted to exactly represent the actual bottle and its contents, and underneath he prints the terse statement "Delicious, Tempting, Nutricious." If his letter has not persuaded the housewife to try a bottle of the olives, the picture on the enclosure is apt to create the desire in her mind and lead to a purchase.
An automobile dealer who knows the value of showing the man he writes a detailed picture of the machine, includes an actual photograph. Even the reproduction of the photograph is insufficient to serve his purpose. The photograph is taken with the idea of showing graphically the strongest feature of the machine as a selling argument, and ill.u.s.trating to the smallest detail the sales point in his letter. Then, with pen and ink, he marks a cross on various mechanical parts of engine, body or running gear, and refers to them in his letter.
To carry the photograph enclosure a step farther, one dealer of automobile trucks ill.u.s.trates the idea of efficiency. He encloses with his letter a photograph of his truck fully loaded. In another photograph he shows the same truck climbing a heavy grade. Then in his letter he says, "Just see for yourself what this truck will do.
Estimate the weight of the load and then figure how many horses it would take to handle an equal load on a similar grade."
In the sale of furniture, especially, is the actual photograph enclosed with the letter a convincing argument. Fine carriages, hea.r.s.es, and other high-grade vehicles are forcibly ill.u.s.trated by photographs, and no other enclosure or written description is equally effective.
After description and visualizing--through the medium of circular and sample--comes proof, and this you may demonstrate through any means that affords convincing evidence of worth. The two best are testimonials and guarantees, but the effectiveness of either depends largely on the form in which you present them. Testimonials are often dry and uninteresting in themselves, yet rightly played up to emphasize specific points of merit they are powerful in value. The impression of their genuineness is increased a hundredfold if they are reproduced exactly as they are received.
An eastern manufacturer has helped the prestige of his cedar chests tremendously with the testimonials he has received from buyers.
Letters from the wives of presidents, from prominent bankers and men in the public eye he has reproduced in miniature, and two or three of these are enclosed with every sales letter.
An office appliance firm with a wealth of good testimonials to draw on sends each prospect letters of endors.e.m.e.nt from others in his particular line of business. A correspondence school strengthens its appeal by having a number of booklets of testimonials each containing letters from students in a certain section of the country. The inquirer thus gets a hundred or more letters from students near his own home, some of whom he may even know personally.
A variation of the testimonial enclosure is the list of satisfied users. Such a list always carries weight, especially if the firms or individuals named are prominent. A trunk manufacturer, who issues a "trunk insurance certificate" to each customer, reproduces a score or more of these made out to well known men and submits them as proof of his product"s popularity.
Another effective form of enclosure is a list of buyers since a recent date. One large electrical apparatus concern follows up its customers every thirty days, each time enclosing a list of important sales made since the previous report.
Another plan is that of a firm manufacturing printing presses. In making up its lists of sales it prints in one column the number of "Wellington" presses the purchaser already had in use and the number of new ones he has ordered. The names of the great printing houses are so well known to the trade that it is tremendously effective to read that Blank, previously operating ten Wellingtons, has just ordered three more.
Second only to the testimony of the man who buys is the guarantee of the seller. Mail-order houses are coming more and more to see the value of the "money-back" privilege. It is the one big factor that has put mail sales on a par with the deal across the counter. Time was when sellers by mail merely hinted at a guarantee somewhere in their letter or circular and trusted that the prospect would overlook it. But it is often the winner of orders now and concerns are emphasizing this faith in their own goods by issuing a guarantee in certificate form and using it as an enclosure.
A roofing concern forces its guarantee on the prospect"s attention by giving it a legal aspect, printing in facsimile signatures of the president and other officials--and stamping the company"s name.
Across the face of this guarantee is printed in red ink, the word "Specimen." Along the lower margin is printed, "This is the kind of a real guarantee we give you with each purchase of one of our stoves." A mail-order clothing firm sends a duplicate tag on which their guarantee is printed. Across the tag of this sample guarantee is printed in red, "This guarantee comes tagged to your garment."
The prospect who finds proof like this backing up a letter is forced to feel the worth-whileness of your goods or your proposition, and he draws forth his money with no sense of fear that he is chancing loss.
The number and kind of enclosures you will put into your letter is entirely up to you. But before you allow a letter to go out, dig under the surface of each circular and see whether it really strengthens your case.
Apply this test; is the letter supported with amplified description, proof, materials for ordering? If it is, it is ready for the attack.
You may find it best to put your description, your testimonials, your guarantee and your price list all in one circular. It is not a mistake to do so. But whether they are all in one enclosure or in separate pieces, they should be there. And in addition, put in your return card order blank or envelope or whatever will serve best to bring the order. When your letter with its aids is complete, consistent, equipped to get the order then, and only then, let it go into the mails.
Bringing In _New Business_ By POST CARD
PART V--WRITING THE SALES LETTER--CHAPTER 20
_Methods of soliciting trade by mail are not confined to the letter or printed circular. The postal regulations are sufficiently broad to allow a generous leeway in the size and shape of communications that may be sent by mail, and as a result, a new field of salesmanship has been opened by the postal card. Folders, return- postals and mailing cards have become part of the regular ammunition of the modern salesman, who has adapted them to his varied requirements in ways that bring his goods before me "prospect" with an emphasis that the letter often lacks--and sometimes at half the cost_
The result-getting business man is always asking the reason why. He demands that a method, especially a selling plan, be basically right; that it have a principle behind it and that it stand the microscope of a.n.a.lysis and the test of trial.
There are three reasons why the postal card is a business-getter.
Did you ever pause while writing a letter, sit back in your chair, and deplore the poverty of mere words? Did you ever wish you dared to put in a little picture just at that point to _show_ your man what you were trying to say? Of course you have if you have ever written a letter. That is reason one.
Did you ever watch a busy man going through his morning"s mail? Long letters he may read, short letters he is sure to glance through, but a post card he is certain to read. It is easy to read, it is to a degree informal and it is brother to a call on the "phone. That is reason two.
And the third reason is that no matter what the principles behind it, by actual test it brings the business.
While primarily the postal mailing card is intended to aid the letter in many ways it does what the letter can never do. It can carry a design or an ill.u.s.tration without the least suggestion of effrontery, which a letter can not do without losing dignity. It can venture into clever schemes to cinch the interest. It is the acme of simplicity as means to win an inquiry. And withal it does its work at less cost than the letters.
In general postal mailing cards may be cla.s.sed as of three types:
1. THE DOUBLE OR RETURN POST CARD. This consists simply of two ordinary post cards attached for convenience in mailing, sometimes closed at the loose edges by stickers but usually left open. The one carries the inquiry-seeking message; the other is for the reply. It is already addressed for returning and contains on the opposite side a standardized reply form to be signed.
2. The two or three or four FOLDER MAILING CARD. This gives greater s.p.a.ce and opportunity for cleverness of appeal through design. The third or fourth fold may or may not be prepared for use as a reply card. Instead of providing for the reply in this way, some of these folders hold a separate card by means of corner slots. In any case they fold to the size of the ordinary postal and are held by a stamp or sticker.
3. ILl.u.s.tRATED PERSONAL LETTERS. These are in effect simply letters printed on heavier stock which fold into post card size. Their advantage lies in the opportunity for ill.u.s.tration and an outside design or catch phrase to win attention. In some cases they are even filled in exactly in the manner of a form letter.
Which of these forms is best suited to your uses is a matter which the nature of your proposition and your method of selling must determine. Whether you want to tell a long story or a short one, whether you want it to serve merely as a reminder or as your princ.i.p.al means of attack, these and other points must guide you. So to help you determine this, it is best to consider the post card here on the basis of its uses. There are four:
1. To get inquiries.
2. To _sell_ goods; to complete the transaction and get the order just as a letter would.
3. To cooperate with the dealer in bringing trade to his store.
4. To cooperate with the salesman in his work on dealer or consumer.
Inquiries may be inspired in two ways--either by using a very brief double card or folder which tells just enough to prompt a desire for more information or by a post card "letter" series which works largely on the lines of letters enclosed in envelopes. In the first instance the card or folder resorts to direct pertinent queries or suggestions of help that impel the reader to seek more details.
An addressing machine manufacturer, for instance, sends his "prospects" a double folder with a return post card attached This message is little more than suggestive: