The aim should be to give this sense of confidence in the opening of business relations.
Many people do not care to trust a strange firm with money, and in many cases it will be necessary to allow a credit account. Whether this can be safely done or not depends so much on the particular standing of the inquirer and the nature of the goods asked for, that it is difficult to speak more definitely. But in general, the better the class of customer, the more usual is it for him to ask for credit.
The majority of customers will pay if the system of collecting accounts is a proper and methodical one. This will be referred to again later on.
" " Chasers," and " preliminary postal acquaintanceship with the customer having been made, it is then system atically followed up.
A series of "follow-up" letters are sent to him. These are mild in tone, striving in a courteous way to get the man to say something which can be answered. The hopeless people from the point of view of a mail-order firm are those who will make no reply. They may be merely indifferent, they maybe unreasonably prejudiced, they may be absolutely antagonistic—there is no way of gauging their frame of mind and overcoming their indifference, prejudice, or antagonism. But if they answer there is hope of exercising the powers of persuasion, the inspiration of salesmanship.
The " follow-ups" are sent out for several times running at suitable in tervals, the letters being, of course, varied to try to overcome the customer's passive opposition at different points. But if they fail to take effect, a second series of letters, the "chasers," are despatched at similar intervals.
The "chasers" are more assertive or more pushful in tone (always, be it understood, without adopting an attitude that might possibly offend the prospective customer); and are accompanied by samples, if the nature of the business admits of samples being conveniently sent, or by offers of some kind. Though the promiscuous offering of free samples is usually a waste of money, much may be done towards effecting a "capture" by a judicious oiler at the right stage in the preliminary correspondence. When people
are given a free trial of goods as a personal favour, they feel much more under an obligation to buy than if they had received the goods as the result of answering an advertisement in the Press. The latter is a general offer; the former is felt to be to themselves alone.
But if the customer fails to respond to these letters and offers, a third series, the " grips," are despatched to him. are more forcible in tone, and should have the effect of either " rounding him in " or of hardening him in his determination not to buy. In the latter case he will be entered in the " dead inquirers' " list. When a certain amount has been spent in inducing a man to become a customer, and he still fails to respond, it is advisable to give him up altogether. There must clearly be a limit to the preliminary expenditure on each prospective customer. The exact amount to be laid out in this way must, of course, be determined by the nature of the business ; but it is well to think out a limit, and to adhere strictly to that limit.
The three classes of letters, " follow-ups," " chasers," and " grips," are stock letters ; the particular kinds to be sent out to a prospective customer will vary according to the discretion of the business man in charge of the letter department. A very great deal depends on his judgment in estimating the calibre of the customer and the exact appeal which is most likely to pierce his defences.
A close study of human nature can nowhere be turned to more advantage than in the mail-order business.
The Filing card-index system is the only one that can be conveniently applied to the keeping of the detailed information about each customer, and the course pursued with him, necessary to the proper conducting of the mail-order business. It is essential to be able to lay one's hand'at a moment's notice on the measures that have been tried with each possible customer, so that if at a later period he were to open correspondence again after definitely dropping it, one would be able to avoid the wastage of money in repeating forms of appeal that had been made before.