"In writing a letter, under the same conditions, to a woman, I put all technical description in an enclosure or accompanying folder and write a personal note playing up the fact that in after years it will be very pleasant to have pictures of self, family, baby, and friends.
"These two appeals are the opposite poles of selling—the one logic and conviction, the other sentiment and persuasion."
Logic and conviction, in fact, are the keynotes to selling men by mail. Men fear being "worked." On those occasions when they have been "worked," it has generally been through sentiment—through the arts of persuasion rather than a clearly-demonstrated conviction that the proposition was right. As a consequence, persuasion alone, without a mass of figures and solid arguments, does not convince a man.
A land company uses a novel method of conviction along this line, aiming to get the prospect to furnish his own figures. The idea is, that these figures, prepared by the prospect himself, and the accuracy of which he himself vouches, will work conviction.
The letter reads in part:
Suppose, ten years ago, you had paid down, say $10 on a piece of cheap land.
Then from time to time you had paid in say $10 per month on the same land. Had you been able to buy then as you can buy from us now, your land would have been secured to you on your first payment.
Now figure out what you would have paid in at $10 per month in ten years. Now, remembering that well-selected land doubles in value once, at least, every five years, what would you be worth now, from your $10-a-month investment?
* * * * *
The letter proved the best puller of a series of try-outs sent to professional men and men on salaries.
Every man has, as a by-product of his every-day experience, certain more or less clearly defined impressions. With some men these are still in a sort of hazy formation; with others these vague ideas are almost a cult. The letter-writer who can tap one of these lines of thought gets results in a flash. Such letter takes a basis of facts common to most men, blends them in the letter written, so as to form fixedly from theprospect's own ideas and experiences, a firm conviction that what the writer is saying is absolute truth. A single sentence that does not ring true to a man's experience is an obstacle over which the message will not carry.
A company selling land in the west, sent out a five-page letter— enough to smother whatever interest might have been attracted by the advertisement. Here is the third paragraph from the letter:
"As you were attracted by this investment opportunity after reading the straight facts regarding it, I have come to believe in your judgment as a careful and prudent person who recognizes the value of a good, permanent, promising investment."
* * * * *
That's enough! It is barely possible that the first few paragraphs might arouse the reader's interest enough to glance through the five pages, but this crude attempt to flatter him is such palpable "bunk" that he is convinced there is not the sincerity back of the letter to make it worth his while—and five pages more are headed for the car-wheel plant.
The "man appeal" is one that draws strongly from man experience. Ambition, responsibility, logical arguments, reasons why—these are the things that the correspondent keeps constantly before him. They all have root in experiences, habits of thought and customs which distinguish men; they are more exclusively masculine attributes that play an important part in the make-up of letters that rivet the attention of busy business men.
How To Write Letters ThatAppealto FARMERS
The farmer is a producer of necessities, hence he is a shrewd judge of what necessities are. More, he has always in mind a list of necessities that he intends to purchase—when he "can afford it." For this reason the letter that sells goods to him must either stimulate him to an immediate purchase of an article on his "want list," or to displace a necessity that is already there with somethingMOREnecessary. So the letter that sells goods to him must appeal to his needs—and give him detailed specifications to think about
* * * * *
"Does it appeal to the farmer's need," is the overhead question which is back of all advertising directed at the man living on a farm. It is not necessary to go into proofs; the reasons are apparent.
"All other things being equal," says the chief correspondent for one of the big mail-order houses, "the surest sale is the item that the farmer patron feels he must have. Even after making money enough to be classed well-to-do, the farmer persists in his acquired mental habit—he tests every 'offer' put up to him by his need for it—or rather whether he can get along without it. This predisposition on the part of the audience to which the letter is addressed is to be borne in mind constantly—that the farmer thinks in terms of necessities."
So the mail-order firm shapes its appeal to the farmer, emphasizing the need of the merchandise it is offering, and at the same time it bears down heavily on the advantages of buying direct.
And while the easiest way to reach the farmer's purse is by appealing to his needs—the practical value of the article or goods advertised—the correspondent must keep constantly in mind the particular manner in which the appeal can best be made. The brief, concise statement that wins the approval of the busy business man would slide off the farmer's mind without arousing the slightest interest. The farmer has more time to think over a proposition—as he milks or hitches up, as he plows or drives to town, there is opportunity to turn a plan over and over in his mind. Give him plenty to think about.
The farmer's mail is not so heavy but what he has time to read a long letter if it interests him, and so the successful correspondent fills two or three pages, sometimes five or six, and gives the recipient arguments and reasons to ponder over during his long hours in the field. One of the most successful men in the mail-order business sometimes sends out a seven-page letter, filled with talking points. "It will save you money"—"I want you to compare the Challenge with other machines"—"Shafting of high carbon steel"—"Gearings set in phosphorus bronze bushings"—"Thirty days' free trial"—"Try it with your money in your own pocket"—"$25,000 guaranty bond"—point after point like these are brought out and frequently repeated for emphasis.
The head of the English department in the university would be pained at the lack of literary quality, but it is a farmer's letter and it follows the grooves of the brain in the man who is going to read its seven pages. And after all, the writer is not conducting a correspondence course in rhetoric; he is selling implements and is not going to chance losing an order because his proposition is not made perfectly clear—because it shoots over the head of the reader. And the correspondent not only tries to make his proposition clear but he tries to get up close to the recipient in a friendly way. The farmer is awed by formalities and so the writer who really appeals to him talks about "You and Me." "You do that and I will do this— then we will both be satisfied." One successful letter-salesman seldom fails to ask some direct question about the weather, the crops, the general outlook, but he knows how to put it so that it does not sound perfunctory and frequently the farmer will reply to this question without even referring to the goods that the house had written about. Never mind! This letter is answered as promptly and carefully as if it had been an inquiry forecasting a large order.
* * * * *
PriceParamountQualityEssentialStyleUnimportantSentimentLackingFlatteryUselessExclusivenessIneffectiveTestimonialsReassuringReputationValuableUtilityVitalServiceAppreciated
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Such attention helps to win the confidence of the farmer and the knowing correspondent never loses sight of the fact that the farmer is, from bitter experience, suspicious especially of propositions emanating from concerns that are new to him. After one or two satisfactory dealings with a house he places absolute faith in it but every legitimate mail-order concern is handicapped by the fact that unscrupulous firms are continually lying in wait for the unwary: the man with the county rights for a patent churn and his brother who leaves a fanning mill with a farmer to demonstrate and takes a receipt which turns up at the bank as a promissory note are teaching the farmers to be guarded. Many of them can spot a gold brick scheme as soon as it is presented. Therefore the correspondent has to keep before him the fact that the farmer is always wary; his letters must be so worded that no obscure phrase will arouse suspicion; no proposition will admit of two interpretations.
So the guarantee and the free trial offer are essential features in letters that sell the farmer. In hundreds of letters from manufacturers of goods that are sold by mail to the farmer, nearly every one throws into prominence the guarantee and the free trial offer with money refunded if the purchase does not prove satisfactory.
A manufacturer of farm implements puts this guarantee into the first person effectively.
Such a letter carries conviction; you are impressed by the fact that 40,000 farmers consider this spreader the best; the offer of comparison and demonstration seems conclusive that a comparison is not necessary; you feel that the man who bought a different kind of spreader must have acted hastily without investigating the merits of this particular machine.
The farmer is usually open to conviction but he has to be "shown." After he has had successful dealings with a house for several years he readily accepts its assurance that something is just as good at a less price than what he would buy of a retailer, but he can most easily be won over by strong "why" copy. An educational campaign is almost always necessary for the farmer who has never bought goods by mail; to pull him out of the rut of established custom it is necessary to present facts and figures to convince him that the direct-to-the-consumer method is to his advantage.
To get this to the eye and mind in a striking way is the first requisite.
A Cincinnati firm selling buggies uses a comparative table at the bottom of the first sheet of the first follow-up, as follows:
* * * * *
Actual factory cost of buggy.. $43.00 Factory cost….. $43.00Factory selling expense……. 4.00 Selling expense.. 4.00Salesmen's expense………… 4.50 Our profit……. 6.75Factory profit……………. 7.00 OUR SELLING ——-Retailer's selling expense…. 5.00 PRICE………… $53.75Retailer's profit…………. 15.00——-DEALER'S SELLING PRICE $78.50
* * * * *
This makes the prospect stop and think if not stop and figure.
Another carriage manufacturing company uses a somewhat similar method of comparison but introduces it at a different point. Between the first and second pages of a three-page follow-up, a sheet in facsimile handwriting is introduced forming a marked comparison, mechanically, to the typewriting preceding and following it:
* * * * * *Problems of Dollars and Cents saving easily solved.Retail Dealer's plan of figuring selling price.Actual factory cost of buggy……………….. $46.25Expense and salary, traveling salesman, about 10% 4.50Jobber's profit—at least 15% ……………… 7.00Retail dealer's profit (figured very low)……. 20.00Losses from bad debts……………………… 2.50——-RETAIL DEALER'S SELLING PRICE………………. $80.25
My Plan of Figuring Selling Price.Actual factory cost of buggy……………….. $46.25Expense and salary of traveling salesman…….. nothingJobber's profit…………………………… nothingRetail dealer's profit…………………….. nothingLosses from bad debts……………………… nothingMyone small grossprofit……………. 8.50——-MY SELLING PRICE………………………….. $54.75* * * * *
This "saving sheet" can not fail to attract greater attention by means of its form and place of introduction than though it were typewritten and in regular order.
Right-out-from-the-shoulder arguments and facts may also be used to good advantage in handling competition. What the farmer wants is to know whether the other goods are as represented; whether the proposition has any holes in it. If the seller can give him facts that prove his product better than others, honestly and fairly, it does not boost the competitor but helps to sell his own goods.
A cream separator manufacturer claiming a simple machine now presents in his catalogue illustrations of the parts of other machines used in the actual separation of the cream from the milk. This comparison shows that his machine has fewer parts and consequently will stay in repair longer and clean easier—two important talking points.
Where a competing firm enters the field with a cheap quality of goods that would react against the trade, it is sometimes policy to put the facts before the prospective buyers.
This was done by a Winnipeg manufacturer of metal culverts after the following plan:
"Last May a firm manufacturing metal goods attempted to enter the culvert field in Western Canada. We sent out a letter to every Councilor in Manitoba and Saskatchewan showing the weakness of its culverts. It looks as though our letter settled all chance of selling the kind of culvert it was making, for it immediately quit the campaign for business. We do not think a single culvert was sold.
"The same company is again making an effort to enter the field, and we would be pleased to see it get a nice business If it sold a good culvert, but as long as it sells anything like the one now advertised we shall most vigorously oppose it because we are certain the culverts will not give satisfaction, and that will mean purchasers will be very much disappointed, and will have a tendency, as a result, to be opposed to all metal culverts; their disappointment will be so great that it will react against our company.
"Look at the illustration in the magazines of the nestable culvert—a man is pinching the metal on the lower section of the culvert back upon itself. There are very few machine shops in the country in which the heavy metal we use could be bent. At any rate, to bend back our metal, you would require a machine shop wherever you were doing your road work. Take a sledge hammer the next time you see one of our culverts and prove to yourself the task that would be before you to bend our culverts. You simply could not do it."
* * * * *
The farmer who receives such a letter, if not entirely convinced, is at least reasonably certain to make an investigation before placing an order with the firm selling culverts that can be bent by hand. And it is probably a good thing for the mail-order business that such efforts are being made to protect the public against inferior goods.
Experience has shown that while offers to the farmer must be clear cut, the chances of pulling an order are increased if he is given a number of options as to price, plan of payment and different kinds of items open to purchase. He does not like to be restricted to one particular item, or one arbitrary form of payment. This fact was long ago recognized by the large catalogue houses, for they aim to offer several kinds and sizes under every item listed. It has been found that where both the number of items and options in a line is doubled or otherwise substantially increased, that the percentage of sales immediately increases.
A company in Canton, Ohio, putting out a line of sprayers, offers on the back of its order sheet four sprayers of different prices and four forms of making payment for each sprayer. This gives the prospect sixteen options—one of which will look best to him, when he sends in his order.
This information is printed on the back of the order sheet, where it can not get separated from it and where it will have a "last appeal."
The mail-order houses have been vieing with each other in trying to find unique appeals to the farmer. To this end profit-sharing plans and various premium schemes have been introduced, in some cases with phenomenal results.
While the farmer is no different from the ordinary public in wanting to get his money's worth he is open to conviction through smaller devices than is his city brother. And the "novelty device" appeals to him strongly.
An Ohio company putting out buggies as a main product, adds an insurance policy as a clincher. The purchaser is himself insured for one hundred dollars payable to his heirs in case of his death; the buggy carries an indemnity—not to exceed fifty dollars—covering accidents along the line of breakage or damage in accidents or smash-ups. This insurance, under the policy given, is kept in force a year.
This extra not only acts as a sales argument but a basis for a talk like this:
"The S. & W. pleasure vehicles have been tested by insurance company officials. They have been proved practically unbreakable, the material and durability surprising the insurance officials. Insurance is not issued on sickly persons, weak buildings nor on inferior vehicles. It is because our vehicles are so well made that insurance is permitted."
* * * * *
This makes a convincing talking point, particularly to the man who is not familiar with accident indemnity, and to the young man who is about to buy a "rig" in which he may attempt to demonstrate that no other man can pass him on the road.
When it comes to framing up a campaign there are many points, minor in themselves, but each having its significance, that it is well to consider. It frequently happens that not enough attention is paid to the stationery that is used for farmers, but all these things have their influence in prejudicing the recipient for or against a new house.
"It is a good rule in writing the farmer to diversify your stationery," says a mail-order man who has sold a wide range of specialties. "The reason for this lies in the fact that when a farmer has been drummed about so much he may grow resentful at the persistence. We aim, not only to present the proposition very differently each time, but we use different size envelopes, different letterheads and markedly different enclosures in each follow-up.
"Particularly along rural routes, where the men folks are in the field when the carrier comes, I aim to change envelopes and letterheads. I never want the housewife to be able to say to the man of the house when he asks what mail came, that 'There's another letter from the firm that's trying to sell you a cream separator'."
To make ordering easier and to get the farmer to "act now" a coupon or an enclosed postal card, good for a limited number of days is widely used. This makes it easier to send for catalogue or a free trial or whatever is advertised. It is a spur to action and results in adding to the mailing list, names of many persons who might never respond if they had to wait until they found pen or pencil and paper—and a convenient opportunity.
A rebate check is another popular scheme for inducing the customer to order. An old mail-order house calls attention in the first form letter sent out with a catalogue to the fact that accompanying it is a check for one dollar to apply on the first order.
This order is made out in the form of a personal check, filled in with the prospect's name. It is, to all intents and purposes, a personal check, only payable in goods instead of cash.
Similar use of the check method of exciting interest is also used by a Detroit incubator manufacturer, who finds that many who have resisted other appeals answer to the chance to convert a check into a saving.
This same firm also adds as a clincher an offer to pay the freight on certain lines of goods, so that the catalogue price becomes actual cost instead of cost plus freight charges. Such inducements come home to the farmer; anything on the "something-for-nothing" order appeals to him.
Aside from the nature of the proposition and the way it is presented, there is the all-important element of seasonableness. The man who has always lived in the city might understand the general principles of mail-order selling and have a good proposition, but his success would be indifferent unless he understood the meaning of timeliness in reaching the farmer. If your letter or advertisement catches the eye of the farmer he will in all probability put it away in the shoe box back of the chimney until ready to buy; it would be almost impossible to train enough guns on him during the rush season to force his interest. It is a common experience with mail-order houses to receive replies to letters or advertisements six months or a year after they are sent out—sometimes years afterwards. The message was timely; it wormed its way into the farmer's "mental want list" and blossomed forth when he felt that he could afford the article.
Only a carefully kept record-of-returns sheet or book will show when sales can best be made on a particular item, and the shrewd manager will test out different items at different seasons before launching a big campaign which may be ill-timed.
"The winter months are the best time for comprehensive information to soak in—but the letter generally is not the place for this. Put personality in the letter—specifications in the circular." This is the advice of an experienced correspondent whose length of service enables him to speak authoritatively.
"A winter letter may be long, verbose and full of interesting information; the farmer will read it carefully. This is the time to get in specifications, estimates, complicated diagrams and long arguments which require study. Letters for the work months need to be short and snappy, both to insure reading and to act on a tired mind."
And then finally the proposition must be made so plain that there is no possibility of its being misinterpreted. What a city man who is a wide reader gets at a glance, the ordinary farm owner or farmer's boy—often with only a rudimentary knowledge of English—must study over.
"So needful is the observance of this principle in our business," says this manager, "that our sales letters have come to be almost a formula. First we state our proposition. We then proceed to take up each element of the offer and make it as plain and plausible as possible."
In this case the elements are:
1. The thing offered. 2. Time of trial. 3. Freight paid. 4. Return privilege.
"All the letter is a plain exposition of 1, 2, 3, 4—the preceding paragraphs are summarized and connected. For instance, after the item offered has been treated and the length of trial made clear, the two are summarized thus:
"Theseparatorwe offer is not only the best that money can buy but it isjust what you need—no wonder we are willing to give you 30 days in which to try it.
"But what about freight?"
"Just this."
* * * * *
"Then we explain freight paid and return privilege. This gives a continuous and increasing summary straight through the letter, which closes with a recapitulation of the proposition.
"The aim of putting several summaries of the proposition in all sales matter is so that there can be no possible mistake about the proposition, for thousands of propositions are turned down by people on farms simply because the reader does not quite understand everything."
The farmer is in constant dread of "being caught" and there is little likelihood of his taking advantage of any offer that is not absolutely clear in his mind. The letter writer must realize what a point this is with the average farmer. What a city man does he can keep to himself; if he buys a gold brick he gets rid of it and forgets the transaction just as quickly as possible. But what the farmer does is neighborhood gossip. If one of those "slick city fellers" sells him something he can't use, every one knows it.
Make the proposition clear—so clear that every one in the family can understand it, for usually purchases are talked over for days before an order is finally sent out. Take into account the farmer's suspicious nature and bear down heavily on the utility of the article. There is no hidden mystery in reaching the rural prospects but they must be handled with discretion and with an understanding of the prejudices, characteristics and viewpoints of the farmer.