Our outside reports are not sufficient to permit us to ar range this matter on an equitable basis. These reports all speak highly of you in a personal way, but do not give us the required information concerning assets and liabilities to enable us to determine a credit rating, to which we feel con fident you are entitled.
We inclose a statement and will appreciate it very much if you will fill it out so that we can fix your credit as high as you deserve. This information, we assure you, will be held in strict confidence and used only by ourselves.
Your order calls for goods to be shipped immediately. We will make an exception to our rule in this case. We sug gest that you send us a draft by return mail, in considera tion of which we will allow you a special discount of 5 per cent. But this concession applies, of course, only to this first order,, for we are confident we can easily arrange credit for future shipments.
We trust you will take no personal exception to our above suggestions, which we have made solely in your interest.
Thanking you for the kindness of an immediate and, we trust, a favorable reply, we are, Yours very truly, This letter was used as a form. While it has many good features, it seldom influenced an addressee to send a statement of liabilities and assets. On the con trary, in several cases, the result was that the pro spective customer tried to get the shipment without complying with the conditions. The credit man who used this letter found opportunity to talk confiden tially with several merchants to whom it had been sent. He was surprised to find that his effort not to offend these men had failed. Their resentment was caused not so much by the "turndown" as by the obvious at tempt to make the refusal diplomatic. They resented the facts that the writer apparently thought they were the kind of men who had to be handled with gloves, and that he also seemed to think that they could not see thru his attempt to be diplomatic.
With this knowledge of the reader's point of view in mind, the credit man rewrote the letter as follows : Dear Sir: We find that the commercial agencies give you a low rating. We know, however, that the agency reports are sometimes wrong. But we always desire a personal state
ment direct from each new customer, and our regular form on which these statements are made is inclosed for your con venience.
As soon as we get your favorable report we shall make immediate shipment of your order. It is being prepared for shipment and will be forwarded as soon as we hear from you. If you care to avoid any delay due to the time it might take you in giving us the confidential statement re quested, we will allow you a 5 per cent discount for cash by return mail.
This liberal cash discount, however, applies only to first orders. It is given because we feel that it is a fair con cession to you under the circumstances and, frankly, we do not want to miss the opportunity to ship the order. We know that our goods and services will satisfy you. We want this order to be the beginning of another good account for us.
You understand, of course, that anv other wholesale house from which you would want to buy follows this same practice in opening new accounts. It means protection for you as a customer of ours. We await your commands.
Yours very truly, This letter proved much more effective for accom plishing its purpose—to get the cash or the statement. In not a few oases, it brought a frank confession of financial weakness, but with adequate assurance of growing strength sufficient to warrant a limited amount of credit. The main difference between this and the other letter is its evident directness and hon esty. It was an unusual experience for the merchant to be told frankly in the first sentence of a letter of this sort that his rating was low—it was not "sur prisingly low," or "lower than expected," or "com paratively low," nor did it even "happen to be low," but it was "low." The writer did not even "regret to find" it so. The addressee, knowing that what the writer says in the first part of the letter is true, would naturally believe that the rest is true also, and he would have a definite desire to make good with this kind of credit man, especially if he knew that his fi nancial condition at the time was really sound enough to make his report favorable, or if he happened to have available the necessary cash.