In the first place, it is really not sold. I must wait for the retailer to sell it to the user before I can ship the dealer a new supply. I am dependent on him—and I am too much of a farmer to be dependent on anybody.
Then, too, the dealer usually carries several brands of paint, and, naturally, he pushes the sales on the brand that pays him the biggest profit. And the brand on which he makes a long profit is not a guaranteed brand of long-wear ing paint, like Paint. Therefore, as a rule, the dealer does not push the sale of his best brand of paint. I don't blame him for that. You or I might do the same thing in his place. We all like to get as much profit as we can.
That is what we are in the business for. You are farming for the profit you can get out of the land. And I frankly confess that I am making and selling paint for the profit there is in it. I would be three kinds of a chump if I should sell paint for the fun of it. And I should be a bigger chump if I should try to make you think that I am going to all the trouble of making and selling the highest grade of paint just to keep myself out of mischief.
I am in business, just like you or any other business man, for profit. That is exactly why I adopted my new policy— from paint maker to farm-painter—because I thoroly believe that I can sell much more paint direct to thousands of farm ers than I could to hundreds of dealers, at the same price and at less expense. I will get a bigger volume of sales at less cost when I sell direct to you.
You no doubt know something about what it costs to keep a bunch of traveling men on the road. They can see only a few dealers as compared with the thousands of farmers I can talk to by mail for several postage stamps. Uncle Sam is my salesman. I know that he ,will make good for me be cause my plan of selling direct to users does save money for you. It gives you the chance to buy the very highest grade of paint at a saving of at least fifty cents on each gallon.
Your lawyer will tell you that there are no loopholes for me in this guarantee. This kind of a guarantee can seldom be given by the retailer. It must come direct from the manu facturer, legally made out like the "guaranty" across the page, and this makes a lot of bother for the dealer when nego tiated thru him. This is another reason why I prefer to sell direct to you: a legally guaranteed paint like — is a lot of bother for the dealer, so naturally he would not push it like other brands. That guarantee means much to you. With it
you are dead sure that — Paint will laugh at the winter storms and the hot summer sun for at least five years, that it will not peel off or crack or blister—that it will give your house a substantial appearance, alongside of which a house with cheap paint would be a sad contrast. In fact, I am will ing to match up a five-year-old coat of— Paint with any one year-old-coat of any other paint that costs the same price.
You get a good two-dollar paint for $1.45 a gallon, and you get a valuable premium with your first order. These premiums cut deep into my profit, but I am glad to give you your choice of them, as explained on the list, because I know your first order will not be your last. A self-addressed en velop with an order blank in it is inclosed with this letter. Pick out the color or colors and jot down your order on the blank right now, put the order blank back into the addressed envelop, and then mail it to me.
Let me thank you for reading this long letter. I meant to make it long because I want you to fully understand my proposition. I want to supply the paint you need. I want your first order strong enough to give you a big share of my profit in the shape of premiums. Just figure up the total saving of money you will keep in your pocket by getting your paint direct from the maker. Then make out your order. Be sure to tell me what premium you want.
Yours very truly, P. S.—Remember I said in my advertisement I pay the freight.
11. Convincing presentation.—This letter sounds authoritative to the farmer partly because he soon finds out that the writer knows the farm from expe rience. Authority of this kind is most convincing, when it is not obviously dragged in for this purpose. The style of presentation all thru this letter is con vincing. It has a frank "you-and-I" tone, which is not overdone. Farmers, like other classes, are keen to suspect letters that are too familiar and agreeable. They like to have a letter get right down to business from the start. That is what this one does, and at the same time, the presentation sounds as if the writer were enthusiastically talking to the farmer.