Conservatism does not help the world very much. Long experience may be without good results—if conservatism holds sway. Striking out along new lines is the way to learn fast. That is why we have set a fast pace down thru the years ; and our varied experience has added much from year to year to our knowledge of markets. This spe cial knowledge is at your service. What it means to you is most eloquently set forth in the inclosed list of bargains. Such bargains are possible only when buying power is great.
This is the introduction of a two-page letter which runs along to the end in that labored kind of style. It is not to be denied that it is solid, logical, and well expressed, and has features that are to be commended. But the letter is too general and is, therefore, hard to read. Compare it in effect with this : Dear Sir: Each one of the eleven offerings listed on the sheets in closed is a BARGAIN—good enough to warrant the use of capital letters. Take those berry bowls, for instance. They sell regularly at 50 cents each. You could sell them at "Your choice, 25 cents," or even at 19 cents, and still make 11 cents or 5 cents gross profits on each sale.
Mr. Horace Johnson, of Shelbyville, your state, used two gross of these berry bowls to sell as a leader. He filled his window with them, not full, but enough to give the "wide choice" impression, and yet few enough to show up their white, cut-glass quality. His background was black cheese cloth. It was a rich-looking window. In the center a neat sign read: These perfect berry bowls sell regularly at 50 cents each. A fortunate purchase enables us to offer them at 19 cents each—one to a customer.
The "19 cents" was displayed boldly. Mr. Johnson also used one 10-inch ad in his local paper. A copy of this is inclosed. Within less than a week he sold 288 of these bowls at a gross profit of $14.40. They would sell almost as fast, maybe faster, at 29 or 39 cents. But Mr. Johnson wanted them to be sure to be big silent advertisements to each woman who bought one.
Or take those aluminum coffee pots. The price we put on them is a silent testimonial to our buying power. This power is not due to our great size so much as to knowledge of markets. That knowledge comes from 38 years' concen tration on the problem of getting the goods so that we can offer the merchants we serve such values as these coffee pots.
Yes, we make a fair profit on each one of these eleven items.
You can buy as many as you want. And please remember that it's age and experience, not merely size, that makes this house what it is—the small-town merchant's servant—one price whether .you buy a dozen or a gross—and that a price you can depend upon.
Your order for what you want of the special offerings in closed will be filled and shipped the day it is received. You have our complete catalog. The prices on other seasonable merchandise quoted in it will tell you that these special offerings are not so special after all.
Yours very truly, From the point of view of a merchant in a small town whose account with this house has been classified as "lazy" or "dormant," which of the two foregoing letters would best serve to make him feel that prob ably he had been losing out by not giving this house more of his business ; which would be more likely to secure an order? The second letter just quoted is a good example of what is meant by concreteness. Each hundred letters brought 21 orders. The first letter, written and sent to one hundred merchants, merely as a test of the type of letter that talks general ities, brought only two inquiries and one order.
9. Analyzing the successful impor tant principles are illustrated in this letter. It antici pates resistances; for example, knowing that the reader might object to the capitalization of the word, bargain, on the ground that it is trite, the'writer fore stalls the objection with the expression, "good to warrant the use of capital letters." Moreover, the letter seems to have just the proper degree of original ity. Then, too, the ideas are naturally expressed. "Take those berry bowls," for instance, sounds more natural and human than it would to begin "those berry bowls,"—or, worse still, something like this: "The berry bowls described on the second sheet, for instance, sell regularly," etc. This letter is much more natural in expression than the other.
An important resistance which is well met in this successful letter is the feeling the reader would un doubtedly have, that these specials represent a sac rifice for an ulterior purpose. "Yes, we make a fair profit on each one of these eleven items. You can buy as many as you want." This frank, direct state ment that the concern naturally expects to make a profit, serves to create a favorable impression. Suc cessful letters anticipate resistances that are sure to arise.