Читать книгу The Letter Book - Robert Collier - Страница 11

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As the tail is to the kite, as the rudder is to the ship, so is the close to any important letter. It may be a perfectly good letter aside from that. It may fit right in with the reader's thoughts, it may win his interest, it may spur him to action, but if it does not tell him what to do, if it does not provide a penalty for his not doing it, your prospect will slip away from you like a fish off the hook.

There is just one reason why anyone ever reads a letter you send him. He expects a reward. That is the key to holding his interest. All through your letter you keep leading him on, constantly feeding his interest, but always holding back something for the climax.

You come to it. You make your special offer. Your reader is impressed. He promises himself he will give it favorable consideration.

But you do not want favorable consideration. You want an order or a payment. How are you going to get it? Start your impulse, as outlined in the last chapter. Good! But if that does not work, what then? Provide a penalty!

There are only two reasons why your reader will do as you tell him to in your letter. The first is that you have made him want something so badly that of his own inertia he reaches out for your order card to get it. The other is that you have aroused in him the fear that he will lose something worthwhile if he does not do as you say.

It may be a delinquent debtor in fear of loss of credit standing or of court action. It may be a buyer fearing to lose his chance at a bargain. It may be the merchant fearing to lose your trade. It may be the ambitious youngster fearing to lose an opportunity for advancement.

But unless your close can arouse in your reader the fear that he will lose something worthwhile if he does not do as you tell him, you will get no results.

So when you want to inspire fear, be definite! Be specific! If you are threatening suit, tell your reader that unless you have his remittance or a satisfactory explanation by a certain date, the account goes to your lawyer. If you are going to advance your price, and want to corral all the orders possible at the old figure, set a definite date for your advance. Or if you have only a few articles left, give the exact quantity.

It carries conviction, as you can see from these two examples—

On the 1st of October, the rate of the Messenger will go up to $1 a line. If you place your order before the 30th, you can buy space to be used any time before January 1st at 750 a line. After the 30th, positively no orders will be accepted at less than $1 a line. As a matter of fact, our circulation entitles us to $1 a line right now.

Don’t let this letter be covered up on your desk. Send the enclosed reservation right now, or instruct your advertising agent to reserve the space for you, and make sure of this big bargain.

Only 46 sets left! The success of our special offer surpassed all expectations. It will be necessary to issue another edition at once. The style of binding will be changed, but otherwise the two editions will be the same. As we don’t want to carry two styles on hand, we are willing to let you have one of the remaining 46 sets at the old price, although the increased cost of paper, printing and binding has forced us to raise the price of the new sets more than 50%.

Make your reader feel that this is his last chance—keep your penalty dangling before his mind’s eye, the money-saving lost, the opportunity missed. Put into your close the fear of consequences.

Finally, tell him what to do. Don’t leave it to him to decide. We are all mentally lazy, you know, so dictate his action for him—get your suggester to working on him. If he is to do certain things, describe them. Tell him to put his name on the enclosed card, stamp and mail, or pin his check or dollar bill to this letter and return in the enclosed envelope. Here is the way others have done it successfully:

"Now, what am I to do?" you ask. Simply send your order to me personally. Just say—" Make my suit as you agreed in your letter."

If you wish other samples or further information, we shall be more than glad to furnish them. But send your order first. Remember, we have material on hand sufficient for only 95 suits. While they last, you can get a made-to-measure, tailored-to-fit suit of our regular $75 quality, for only $37.50. But to do so, you have to be prompt.

Don't send me any money after the 1st. If you do, it will surely be returned, unless you are willing to pay me the new price of $50 a share instead of $40.

I have some regard for the men who made inquiries when our project was young before it fairly got under way. That is why I am including you in this offer because you were one of our original inquirers. Remember, no acceptance of your old price after the 1st. The stock is even now worth $50.

Such wonderful opportunities will of course be snapped up quickly. Our doors will open at 9 o'clock Monday morning, and to have the widest range of selection, you should not put off your visit a moment later than absolutely necessary.

It was necessary to place this large order to secure the sets at the lowest possible figure. Knowing that the number would exceed our weekly sales, we decided to offer these extra sets to some of the ambitious young men who have been writing us.

If you will fill out the enclosed scholarship blank and mail it right away, we will send you one of these handsome sets FREE, express prepaid. But this offer must be accepted before the 30th of this month. At the rate Scholarship Blanks are now coming in, it is more than likely that the available sets will all be gone by the 30th. It is necessary therefore that you send your application at once.

The demand has been large and there are only a few copies left but one of them will be yours when you have O.K.'d and mailed the enclosed card.

But you must act now. There are only 2700 copies of this book still on hand and no more can be printed at less than double the price. So pin your money to this letter and mail it today.

Remember, he who hesitates nowadays never gets a flash at fortune. The men who made millions in Texas oil lands are the men who dared, who went ahead unafraid, who plunged in on their own judgment—and didn't wait.

The saying that everything comes to him who waits may have been true a hundred years ago, when people had plenty of time to wait for the good things of life. But today the only one that things come to is the man who goes after them. The enclosed blank is your reservation for some of the good things of life. Will you mail it now—TODAY?

It has been proved that seven times out of ten your average business man will read the opening paragraph of an ordinary letter that is palpably not from a customer, take a cursory glance at the middle, and then jump to the last paragraph to see what it is all about, and how much it costs. So it is essential that you put a hook into that last paragraph.

Remember, too, that a successful close has two parts. The first is the persuasion and inducement. It shows your reader the gain that is his by ordering, the chances of loss he takes by delay. It emphasizes the guarantee and minimizes the cost.

When your reader gets that far, he is almost ready to act, but your close lacks a hook. What must he do to get all these things? Tell him!

Make it so plain and easy he will not have a reason for not ordering. If you do not, you have not finished your letter, and lacking the barb of that hook, your reader is likely to lapse from his "almost ready" attitude back into indifference.