Business Correspondence Part 41

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 something_ MORE _necessary. 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 cla.s.sed 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.

HOW DIFFERENT ARGUMENTS APPEAL TO FARMERS

Price _Paramount_ Quality _Essential_ Style _Unimportant_ Sentiment _Lacking_ Flattery _Useless_ Exclusiveness _Ineffective_ Testimonials _Rea.s.suring_ Reputation _Valuable_ Utility _Vital_ Service _Appreciated_

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 a.s.surance 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:

COST OF RETAIL PLAN COST OF OUR PLAN

Actual factory cost of buggy.. $43.00 Factory cost..... $43.00 Factory selling expense....... 4.00 Selling expense.. 4.00 Salesmen's expense............ 4.50 Our profit....... 6.75 Factory profit................ 7.00 OUR SELLING ----- Retailer's selling expense.... 5.00 PRICE............ $53.75 Retailer'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.................... $46.25 Expense and salary, traveling salesman, about 10% 4.50 Jobber's profit--at least 15% .................. 7.00 Retail dealer's profit (figured very low)....... 20.00 Losses from bad debts........................... 2.50 ----- RETAIL DEALER'S SELLING PRICE................... $80.25

My Plan of Figuring Selling Price.

Actual factory cost of buggy.................... $46.25 Expense and salary of traveling salesman........ nothing Jobber's profit................................. nothing Retail dealer's profit.......................... nothing Losses from bad debts........................... nothing My _one small gross_ profit................ 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 compet.i.tion. 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 compet.i.tor but helps to sell his own goods.

A cream separator manufacturer claiming a simple machine now presents in his catalogue ill.u.s.trations 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 ill.u.s.tration 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.