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HOW TO DEAL WITH HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
" { r*
A Practical Book on Doing Business by Correspondence, Advertising, and Salesmanship
By SHERWIN CODY
Author of "How to Do Business ly Letter/* "The Art of Writing ««tf Speaking the English Language/' "Marshall Brown, American Business Man/' etc.
SECOND EDITION
FUNK & WAGNALLS CO!
NEW YORK AND LONDON
1916
COPTBIGHT, 1904, 1906, 1911, BT
SHBRWIN CODY
COPTBIGHT^ 1915, BY
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY
PHnted in the United States of America
Published, September, 1916
All rightt reserved
I
CONTENTS
•REPATOET— A Scientific Basis xi
PAET I— HUMAN NATUEB: HOW TO
HANDLE IT
I. National Characteristics 3
II. Service the American Princeplb op
Business 7
III. The Business World Takes Your Own
Valuation op Yourself 11
IV. Every Man Should Have His Monopoly 16
V. The Mind and How it Works .... 19
f VI. Practical Uses op the Imaginative
'^ Method 36
VII. Practical Principles op Appeal ... 41
Vin. Proportion and Emphasis 52
IX. Analyzing a Business 57
PART II— CORRESPONDENCE Introductory — The Form of the Letter ... 67
Margina — Spacing— The date line — The address — The salutation — The body of a letter — The elose — The signature — The envelop— The punc- tuation— ^Bules for commas — Rules for semi- eolons — ^Bules for colons — How to study punc- tuation— ^How to master the form of letters.
iii
•♦■w •.*
iv CONTENTS
PAGS
I. The Cokvebsational Style in Letteb-
Writing 75
Natural and easy way to begin a business let- ter— ^Natural and easy way to close a business letter — How to acquire an easy business style — Secretary's letter of acknowledgment — Simple letter enclosing check to pay a bill — ^A letter of endorsement — ^Answer to an inquiry — The tele- graphic style — Colloquialisms and slang — ^An illustrative chain of letters.
II. Ordering Goods and Handling Inquiries . 87
Two kinds of letters, buying and selling — Order- ing goods — A poor letter ordering goods — The same letter properly written — ^Answering in- quiries— ^A poor answer to a letter ordering goods — The right answer to this letter — ^A poor reply to letter of inquiry — The same letter re- written— Selling letters with the inquiries they answer.
III. System in Handling Correspondence , 104
How to write one hundred good letters a day — Form-sentences — ^When to use a form-letter — When not to use form-letters — System in freshening publicity — Complaint-letters — ^A poor answer to a letter of complaint — The same letter rewritten — Form-chart for complaints.
Illustrative Study of the Grocery Business 114
IV. How TO Deal With Human Nature by
Letter 127
1. When to Write a Short Letter and When
a Long One 127
2. How to Write a Letter That Will Get
Attention 128
Circular letter soliciting advertising.
CONTENTS V
PAGI
3. How to Write a Letter That Wai De-
velop Interest 132
Letters to get life insurance business.
4. How to Write a Letter That Will Com-
pel an Answer 136
5. How to do Business With a Reasonable
Customer 140
A cfystem to keep reasonable eustomers satis- fied.
6. How to do Business With an Irritable
Customer 144
Nagging letters and bow to handle tbem.
7. How to do Business With a Woman . 147
The deference due to woman.
8. How to Write to a Lady on a Delicate
Matter 151
Delicate letters — ^A frank letter to an employee.
9. Giving a Letter the Proper Tone — ^How
to Write to Your Superior .... 154
10. How to Write to a Subordinate . . . 158 V. Collections by Mail , 163
Letter to go with invoice, always required on approval shipment — Collection follow-up letters — ^A reminder to take cash discount — For small accounts overdue — ^For very small accounts long overdue — Collections from dealers — A collection letter that ' ' drew the money like a poultice. ' '
VI. Using Words so as to Make People do
Things 175
1. The Personal Touch 175
Enthusiasm the comer-stone of success.
vi CONTENTS
2. How to Condense 178
The secret of condexasation — The first full let- ter— ^A page advertisemeiit or short letter — One-inch magazine advertisement.
3. Emphasis in Business Writing . . . 185
An example of display for emphasis — ^First let- ter to get inquiries for $500 machine— Answer to inquiries brought bj the preceding letter — Let- ter to general list to get inquiries for $500 machine.
VIL SlLESMANSHIP IN LeTTEBS AND IN ADVER- TISING 193
1. Five Steps in Written Salesmanship . 193 Poor salesmanship.
2. Creating Desire 199
Poor ways to begin a sales-letter — The right way to begin sales-letters.
3. Show How Your Plan Works .... 202
"Showing How" useful in selling mining-stock.
4. Proving Your Statements 206
Qet the customer 's point of view — ^How to handle testimonials.
5. Making a Man Feel Like Ordering . . 211
A clever business-winner.
6. Make Ordering Easy, Safe, and Quick . 215
Clinchers — Letter to clinch orders.
7. Turning Advertising Inquiries Into
Orders 219
8. Follow-up Letters 220
Letter to sell a fire-extinguisher sent with cata- log on receipt of inquiry.
9. Second PoUow-up Letter 224
Illustrative letters.
CONTENTS vii
PAGI
10. Stationery and Printing for Circular
Letters 228
11. Premiums 230
Letter to get a trial wholesale order on approval — ^Premium.
12. What Can and What Can Not be Done by
Mail 233
Importance of testing every letter or piece of advertising — ^Futility of the cionventional follow- up — ^Making an argument in bits — Seasonal can- vassing.
PART III— MERCHANDISING Merchandising 243
A good business in a good location — Classes of businesses — Collections and credits — ^Financing a business — ^Records — The general selling-problem — Trusting the public — ^Approval — Questions on merchandising.
PART IV— ADVERTISING I. The Business op Advertising .... 263
Questions on the business of advertising.
II. Planning an Advertising Campaign . . 270
Questions on planning an advertising campaign.
m. The Psychology and Art of Advertising
Display 275
Attention values — Pleasing shapes and masses — Questions on the art of advertising — The prac- tical drive — Copy — ^Producing action — Questions on the preparation of copy.
Forty Illustrations of Magazine, News- paper, and Street-Car Advertisements 289
Mediums — Questions on mediums — The cumula- tive power of advertising.
viii CONTENTS
PAGE
IV. Eetail Advertising 330
The object of retail advertising — Newspapers and handbills as retail mediums — ^What to ad- vertise— The buyer and the advertisement writer must work together — The technique of retail ad- vertising— Questions on retail advertising.
V. Direct-by-Mail Advertising 342
Lists — Cost — ^Mailing-pieces and enclosures — One or two-cent postage — ^whichf — ^Hints on booklet- making — Proper style in which to write a book- let— The use and abuse of catalogs and booklets — Classified advertising — Questions on direct- by-mail advertising.
VI. Keying and Testing Advertising . . . 358
Testing retail advertising — Testing general ad- vertising— Permanent advertising record — Ques- tions on keying and testing advertisements.
VII. Printing 369
Preparing copy for printer and reading proof — Questions on printing.
Modem Type Faces 383
PART V— PERSONAL SALESMANSHIP
I. Personality 393
The advantage of having good clothes — The ad- vantage of having good manners — The advan- tage of having a good breath — Questions on personality in salesmanship.
II. Different Kinds op Salesmen and Their
Duties 403
1. Retail 403
2. Wholesale 406
3. Specialty 411
Questions on the duties of different kinds of salesmen.
CONTENTS
IX
PAOI
III. Modern Sales Organization 414
The sales-manager — The list of prospects — ^Edu- cating the customer — Managing salesmen — Ques- tions on modem sales organization.
IV. The Principles op Salesmanship , . . 424
The five factors — General preparation for sell- ing-— Steps in making a sale — Special prepara- tion— ^Attention — Creating desire for the thing in general — ^Developing interest in your goods — Closing the sale— Questions on the principles of salesmanship.
V. The Practical Process op Selling . . . 436
Setail selling — Selling to dealers — Selling spec- ialties— The primary selling-talk — The secondary selling-talk — The tertiary selling-talk — The salesman's personal check-up.
Psychological Selling Hints — Suggestion . 449
The danger of negative suggestion — ^Avoid ex- cessive familiarity — Questions on the practical process of selling.
Model Selling -Talk for House - to - House
Canvass 454
Complete Canvass to Sell This Book . . 459
Canvass for the business-manager — ^Preparation — ^Primary selling-talk for the business-manager — Secondary selling-talk for the business-mana- ger— Tertiary selling-talk for the business- manager — ^Primary selling-talk for the employee — Secondary selling-talk for the employee — The importance of a logical chain — The importance of enthusiasm — The importance of persistence— - The danger of excessive persistence — The secret of success in '' closing" sales.
Prefatory
A SCIENTIFIC BASIS
The words science and scientific have been used so mnch as advertising catchwords, in loose and illegiti- mate senses, that it is well for us to begin by consider- ing just what is the true scientific method, and how far the knowledge of any subject is or may become a science.
The scientific method follows these well-defined steps:
1. Hjrpothesis. The scientist makes the best guess that he can. He is a real student, an artist in study, a professional studier, and he sees something that looks like a great discovery. An hypothesis is the name for a serious guess by a brilliant mind.
2. Experiment and test. The very essence of modem science is trying out that which seems like a great dis- covery. "What seems is often false. We are deceived in our very best impressions. We have not looked at the thing closely enough, we are deceived as to its relative importance, its proportions, because we are too near to it or too far from it, or there is some practical defect in its working which we overlooked at first. The wiser a man is, the more likely he is to know that there are many times when he can not avoid error. Science is what we know, and the only way to know anything is to test it, to try it here and try it there. When its appearance remains the same after we have looked at it from many different sides, only then do we begin to know that it is as it looks.
3. Theory. When our hypothesis has been tested until we find it a very useful assumption, something that helps us explain many other things, but about which
zi
/
xii PREFATORY
we know there is the possibility that we may be making a mistake, we say that we have a working theory.
4. Law. When a theory has been tested on every possible side on which there can be any doubt, and the man with a scientific mind knows absolutely that there is not a single chance left that he can be wrong, the principle which at first was a guess, an hypothesis, and then by experiment and test became a theory, at last, on the finishing of every possible experiment, becomes a law. Usually, a good many different minds must unite in the experiments which finally confirm what we accept as a scientific law. ^
Only that is a science which is known so thoroughly that careful thinkers in many different parts of the world agree on its working theories and demonstrated laws. No one man, even the wisest man in the world, could make a science. Any one man who talks about *'scientizing" a subject simply does not realize the dig- nity and thoroughness of knowledge which go to make up our real sciences such as chemistry, physics, astronomy, and (on the side of dealing with human nature) the science of psychology, and the science of sociology (the youngest of the sciences, what might be called a baby science). Philosophy can not be a science, because it deals with things we know we can not really know. Much less can religion be a science, because it deals very largely with things beyond the range of human knowledge.
Moreover, scientific names, scientific terminology, are no essential part of a science. In order to know exactly what you are talking about, it is desirable to have fixt and accurate names. For example, in botany it was found that common names of plants were used differ- ently by different people. One name would be used by some people for six or seven different kinds of plants.
A SCIENTIFIC BASIS xiii
Also different languages such as English, French, or German had entirely different common names. For an Englishman really to know what kind of flower or plant a Oerman was talking about, it was desirable to have a name which would be the same in Germany and in England. So Latin names were agreed on, and the different kinds of plants examined scientifically were given names which were accepted in all parts of the world. The names, however, are only a convenience, and unless convenience actually requires special names, and those names can be accepted and used by many different authorities on that science, a terminology in- vented by some one is worse than a nuisance.
Under the general subject of Dealing with Human Nature we have two young but distinct sciences, psy- chology, the science of the way the mind acts on the impressions it gets through the five senses, and sociology, the science of social relationships, or the organization of society. Salesmanship and advertising have just as much chance of sometime becoming sciences as sociology. The reason they are not now sciences is that no con- siderable number of persons who have studied them as subjects agree on their fundamental principles. They are a collection of hypotheses, with a few working theories, but no laws. Human nature is a very com- plicated thing, so wholly dependent on changing con- ditions that it is exceedingly difficult to arrive at any- thing that will seem equally true to all people at all times. Sociology has the advantage of the records of all history. The practise of salesmanship and adver- tising is so recent that we do not really have much data.
There is, however, an art of salesmanship, and an art of advertising. An art is something which some person learns so that he can do an effective thing over and over; but until that art has a scientific basis, the
xiv PREFATORY
person who can do the thing over and over himself can not easily teach it to others. Others can learn it only by watching him and imitating him. The master artist can not explain just how he does it, just why he suc- ceeds. He is guided more by instinct than by reason. AH things that are done in the course of human rela- tions must be largely guided by instinct, and so always are arts; but we are very fortunate when an art has a scientific basis. Dealing with Human Nature in Busi- ness is a broader subject than either salesmanship or advertising, and in practise it includes a number of arts. Because it is broad it can be reduced to a simple basis, starting with some principles borrowed from psychology and sociology, and so a foundation can be laid not only for advertising and salesmanship, but also for credits, for employment and factory-management, and various other things in business or professional Uf e that do not come under the head of salesmanship or advertising. Perhaps the most important of these is the building up of professional reputation without violating the ** ethics '* which definitely forbid the use of advertising.
One more word needs to be defined, and that is the word practical. Dealing ' with Human Nature is a practical subject, not one of pure science. We stand in a certain position with reference to life. There are certain conditions all around us. The problems before us on which our life and pleasure depend are practical problems, and we need to know just those parts of sciences which will help us to solve these practical prob- lems with which we are confronted. A practical book is one written by a man who really knows what the conditions of life are, what are the problems that must be solved, and then selects such principles as will help to solve them. His hypotheses must be the incarnation
A SCIENTIFIC BASIS xv
of common sense, and he must have had a great deal of experience of life hy which to judge.
As Dealing with Human Nature involves the prac- tical application of psychology, the science of the way the mind works, we should here summarize its leading principles.
First, we should realize that all knowledge is relative. There is nothing absolute. Ancient astronomy assumed that all the heavenly bodies revolved around the earth, and explained things as best it might on that hypo- thesis. Now we know that the earth and planets revolve about the sun, and on this hypothesis we explain things more completely. The ancients assumed there were four elements, earth, water, fire, and air, and on that assumption explained things in a practical way for them. We now assume eighty-one elements such as hydrogen, oxygen, copper, iron, etc., but already we seem on the verge of finding out that these are all various forms of one element. We assume that bodies are made up of molecules, which in turn are made up of atoms (tho no one has ever seen either a molecule or an atom) ; but philosophy teaches that all we know of the substances we call matter are the sensations we get in the brain through various nerve-channels, such as color, shape, hardness, etc. It is almost certain that matter and mind are not two entirely different things, but forms of the same underlying substance.
We explain one thing by comparing it with another, or in terms of another, and that other by comparing it with something else, and so on, till at last we come back to the thing witib which we started. So our knowl- edge of existence seems to be a sort of jelly-bag: we pmich it here and it bulges out there ; or we push it in over there and it bulges out somewhere else. We ar- range all we know on a system. That works very well
xvi PREFATORY
till we come to know a great many other things that our system can not explain, and then we get another system. ICnowledge is changing all the time, and it must change. What we call truth to-day will not be truth to-morrow. That is the way we grow intellectually. When we come to think that something is absolutely fixt, we have stopt growing mentally, we have begun to die. When the world stops changing its knowledge and its explanations of things it will have begun to die.
Yet, for the time being, our working theories are all right, and when we get new ones all that is true in the old will simply be taken over by the new. We may be right as far as we go.
Psychology teaches that all impressions in the mind come to it through some one or more of the five senses, sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. Sensation starts at the end of a nerve, travels along that little white cord till it reaches the brain, where it is registered or written on the brain-substance. We get knowledge in no other way.
These sensations are brought by the nerves to the brain in a stream of consciousness. This stream of consciousness starts at birth and continues unbroken till death. In sleep or fainting-fits or the like it seems to stop ; but when we waken it goes on again.
This stream of consciousness belongs to me, the ego, the individual spiritual being, or else it is the me, tho it seems as if there were within us a something that knows — a soul above the stream of consciousness that we call life.
The mind within us gives attention, voluntary or in- voluntary, to the sensations in the stream of conscious- ness, and classifies and arranges them. We pick out the things that keep coming again and again along the stream. A certain sensation which comes many, many
A SCIENTIFIC BASIS xvii
times we identify as wlute, and another as black. A certain quality we find common to the face of a woman, to a flower, to a cloud, to a building, and we call it beauty. All that we know and think are arrangements, so to speak, in the mind. Objects in this stream of consciousness we call ideas. The act of consciously sep- arating and arranging them we call thinking.
Every sensation and every thought produces a feel- ing, an emotion; and every emotion leads to some action. The power of mind that acts consciously we call wUl. "Whether will is free, or is the inevitable re- salt of a chain of sensations and emotions which we can not control is a disputed point, but every human being has a profound conviction that his will is free.
The nervous system is made up of two divisions, the nerves that convey sensations, and the nerves that pro- duce action by contracting the muscles. These two i^s- tems work together more or less automatically. Cut off the head of a frog, and he will still kick his legs as if he were alive, because of the reflex action through the nerve-centers in the spinal column.
Instinct is a sort of automatic reflex through the brain that makes animals and men do wise things with- out thinking at all. The newly bom calf has an instinct to suck the cow's udder, and the baby has an instinct to sack the mother's breast. It lasts but for a few days, for if the calf or the baby are hand-fed for a little while it is diflScult to teach them to suck. Chickens after they are hatched are said to have an instinct to follow any moving object, a man or an animal as well as the mother hen, and if they are taught to follow a man from that time they form the habit of doing so. But if they are hooded for a few days longer the instinct of flight, the very opposite, develops, and when unhooded they try their best to fly away. Where instinct ends and
xviii PREFATORY
conscious reason begins it is hard to say. A hen sits from instinct the first time, but the second or third she probably remembers somewhat the fine chickens that came from her patient sitting before. A little reason may be mingled with her instinct, tho formerly it was supposed that animals acted only from instinct, while man acted from reason. We can hardly believe now that there is any such sharp line drawn between them.
"When the streams of nervous vibration have passed repeatedly they seem to make an easy path for them- selves, and these easy paths we call habit. Habit leads us to do things almost as unconsciously as when the frog with its head cut off kicks its legs by reflex action.
The sensations registered in the brain also make paths that perhaps actually exist in the matter of the brain, and at some future time we may start over these paths again, and so experience again the sensations that we had long before. "When we identify these with the time at which we received them, we call it memory. When we do not fix them to a certain time and occasion in the past, but recombine them as if they were fresh sensa- tions poured into the stream of consciousness, we call the process the exercise of imagination. If we have never had the sensation of sound, as when a man is bom deaf, we can never imagine what sound might be like. Imagination can build only with that which has come into the mind.
With our stock of conscious memories, and our stock of unconscious records in the mind out of which imagi- nation builds, the ego, working along the never-broken stream of consciousness, is able to use its myriad stores through association. There is, as it were, a network of strings, or a network of paths, running from one thing to another, and we find that we want to be following these paths or tracing these strings of association. We
A SCIENTIFIC BASIS xix
are so in the habit of flying back and forth over them that we do it almost unconsciously. We have only to start on a certain path, and without any further sug- gestion we go on to the end. We hear a language which we do not understand very well, and our mind moves slowly and gropingly: there are poor paths of association. But, when we get the impressions through the ear or the eye of a language we know well, we need only a cue here and a cue there, a faint sound or a letter or two, and we catch the meaning because we are foUowing along those paths of association, filling in all the blank spaces by the imagination.
Thus we see for our practical purposes that what is already in a person's mind largely determines what we get out of it and the ease with which we can put new things in which will be important because they call up memories or start a chain of imaginations, and so produce emotions which lead to actions. It is ex- tremely doubtful whether we can make ourselves act, much less make anybody else act, except as we start the trains of thought and feeling which lead naturally to action. Making a man act may be saying something or doing something that makes him feel energetic, so that to let off his feeling of energy he does what you wish ; or it may be giving him courage, the thing he lacks in order to act. In general, however, you get>him to act by sunmioning up, even against his will, an army of those impressions recorded within his brain which lead him on so irresistibly that he can not help acting.
Also, we should bear in mind that we remember, and others remember, chiefly those things that are connected with the systems or series of connecting links which we have been building up from infancy. I am interested in baseball, and everything connected with baseball I re- member easily; you are interested in dances and par-
PREFATORY
ties, but not in baseball, so you can remember nothing connected with baseball, but everything connected with dances and parties. If you learn how to attach to base- ball the impression you wish to make, you have a key for getting all of the baseball ''fans"; and if you know how to connect your appeal with business, you have a key to all who are especially interested in business. So for you the world is not millions of individuals, but a few hundred classes.
Then to find out how it feete to be a baseball ''fan'' you become one yourself. All that you are, you under- stand in other people. You study yourself day and night, not as an individual but as one of a class, and in that way you come to know how all the minds in that class work. Of course, there is an infinite complication of classes, one overlapping the other. But with these clues, the maze does not seem quite so bewildering.
Before we leave this subject, however, let us go back to the beginning and impress upon our minds that the multitude of impressions in the mind come through five channels, the five senses, and each one of these is a gateway through which we should enter, through which we must enter, if we want to get into many different minds. We are likely, if we are personal salesmen, to make most of our appeal through the ear; or, if we are advertising men, through the eye. We should form the habit of entering freely by all five gateways.
Then we should not lose sight of the fact that nothing ever comes out of the mind that has not gone in through one of these gateways, and it behooves us to inform ourselves what really has gone in before we try to get out of other people feelings and actions which depend on things that perhaps have never gone in at all.
These are but suggestions of the practical usefulness of psychology.
PAET I
HUMAN NATURE— HOW TO
HANDLE IT
NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS
We are not studying human nature of all times, places, and conditions, but the particular human nature of to-day with which we must deal in our business and professional life. There are certain broad national characteristics which first of all we may note for our convenience.
Americans as a class are very free, little influenced by class distinctions, quick to respond to new impres- sions, acting as they feel. This is particularly true of the people of the Middle "West, who from the business point of view constitute about one-half of the nation. From them it is easy to get a hearing for a new idea, for men act promptly when convinced, and there is a spirit of good-fellowship in all social and business relations. But if business is easy to get for a new thing, it is easy to lose also. There is little deep thinking. People want quick returns.
The East is more conservative, more permanent, slower to respond, more reflective, with a certain self- conscious and local pride in this slightly greater depth of mind. There is the beginning of a class distinction between those who have money and those who have not. Those who have money, tend to be arbitrary, and those who have none tend to be subservient. These are as yet but slight tendencies.
The Pacific Coast has a characteristic daring mingled with a liking for the gay and bizarre. Striking and dashing appeals have a little the better chance there.
3
4 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
The English have deeply marked class distinctions^ with characteristic class manners. Aristocrats can be appealed to only in the manners of aristocrats ; and the middle class has its manners, while the working classes have theirs. These habits of doing things in certain special ways are deeply ingrained, and hence it is difficult for Americans who have not long studied these manners to do business in England. American manners are often offensive, especially to the aristocratic classes, and merit is lost sight of because of dislike for the man- ner of presenting it. In reality, England is as much a foreign country, requiring special study for business success, as France or Germany.
The English are influenced by patriotic reasons in their business. They will pay more for English beef than for foreign, will taboo a lamp-chimney marked **made in Germany" even tho it is better as well as cheaper. Also, their idea of business is largely the old one of warfare. Every man must protect himself or take the consequences. Where an American would trust to the other to do the right thing afterward, even if it is not in the contract, the Englishman takes few chances and asks few favors, depending on his position of advantage to compel. Yankee sharpers have in times past got the advantage of him, and now he is on the alert to get the advantage of some other Yankee, always suspecting that the Yankee is planning to beat him if there is anything irregular about the deal proposed. The Englishman seldom lets a sense of humor influence his business judgment, as does the Irishman, who takes things with a light easiness that is similar to the method of America, where the Irish have always been particu- larly successful.
The French have usually good manners, occasionally too good to be true, but cold, calculating, thrifty minds
NATIONAL CHAEACTERISTICS 5
watching for the best of the bargain when the time comes. The people are rather afraid of the official powers that be, and are not at all enterprising like the Americans. They get rich by saving. Their artistic sense is usually well developed. If Americans were as thrifty, as saving, as the French, they would soon have a good part of the wealth of the world. These charac- teristics are well illustrated by their banking. They have three or four large banks, with branches every- where, and they confine themselves to lending money safely at low interest. They have become the bankers of the world, along with Great Britain. Their money is not so much locked up in their own business enter- prises as safely loaned over the world, and it is very hard to get them to go into business enterprises.
The Germans have bad manners and an aggressive business enterprise found in no other European people. They are patient, far-sighted, scientific, and exceedingly hard workers. England, being thorough also, has manu- factured well-made articles, but Germany has been shrewd enough to manufacture cheap articles, and with her cheap goods, made in scientifically managed estab- lishments, she has got into most of the markets of the world. Germans know so much, it is hard to meet them on their own ground and match them.
The Spanish are even more lacking in business en- terprise than the French, but they are naturally sus- picious, and feel it is better as a regular thing to take no chances on doing business with a stranger whose ways and manners they do not understand. Yet they are said to be very loyal when once they have given their confidence. They like the manners of the grandee, and object to being hustled.
The Italians lack the formal habits of the Spanish, and also the excessive politeness of the French, but they
6 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
have a more kindly nature than either, without much suspicion. In their general habits they are more like the Americ€tns than any other European people, but characteristically passionate when suddenly roused, and more childlike in their nature. Sharpers probably would have exploited them, were it not for the fact that as a nation they are poor in money and so not con- sidered worth going after. But by their kindly man- ners they attract Americans, and when they have a fair chance they prosper.
The Japanese are a shrewd, thrifty, hardworking people. It is perhaps impossible for an American to understand the workings of their oriental mind; but since they model their business on American accomplish- ments, and all the leading business men in Japan read, write, and speak English, the American would best treat the Japanese as he would his own people.
So we come back to our own people. They spoil more business through lack of good manners than in any other way. Unlike the Germans, they are not patient enough to know all about their markets before they try to sell; and, unlike the French, they are not careful to save and take advantage of all that comes their way. Unlike the English, they are not always persistent with a bulldog tenacity. Their strongest characteristic is their enterprise.
We have sketched these broad national characteristics to show how people in general may be classified.
Assignment I
Sketch the characteristics of the three classes : 1. City people. 2. Village people. 3. Farmers.
»
n
SERVICE THE AMERICAN PRINCIPLE OF
BUSINESS
The medieval principle of business is contained in the Latin motto, caveat emptor, let the buyer beware.* Such a novel as H. G. Wells's ''Tono Bungay" shows the European view that business is built on fraud, adver- tising is lies, and salesmanship a shrewd hypnotizing of the victim. Dignified and honest people do not make any effort to get business, but merely sit still and wait for business to come to them. The *' ethics" of law and medicine, which originated in Europe, and have been established in the United States, absolutely prohibit the doctor and the lawyer from making any direct effort to get business. They have developed effective, indirect methods, however. The few doctors that have thrown ethics to the winds and advertised have been largely discredited.
The American principle of service takes exactly the opposite view, namely, that all people are essentially honest, that if you serve them they will pay you, and advertising and salesmanship are a system of education to familiarize people with the advantages of the special service that is offered. This education is as necessary and as valuable as the education of the public schools, in which we believe so strongly. It is one of the ser- vices that is performed which is really worth while, and, tho entirely free, is ultimately paid for by the people who benefit from it.
The principle of service is based on the psychological
7
8 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
principle that like begets like, that people feel as others feel around them. Approach a man with a smile, a kind word, a helpful touch, and he smiles back, speaks kindly, and soon becomes your friend. Treat him as a friend should, never causing him to suspect or dislike you, and he will continue to be a loyal friend to you.
A Briton might be stolid, a Spaniard suspicious, but an American takes you readily for what you seem to be, and is usually ready to make a trade with you if you have anything he wants, or he has anything you want. If neither has what the other wants, the two pass on with a smile and wait till another time when both shall be more fortunate.
The principle of unselfish service was preached very effectively by Jesus Christ. The principle of unselfish service has been the advertising and salesmanship which have carried the Christian religion far and wide; and they seem to have been just as effective in China or India as in America.
As illustrations of the application of this principle in business, we may cite the following:
Marshall Field started in Chicago the custom of allow- ing customers to return almost any goods at any time and get their money back. At first they were told they could return them if they had any good reason to do so. Finally they were allowed to return them to ''exchange desks,*' where clerks took them back without asking a question, or even casting an inquiring look. A few precautions are taken to make sure the goods are in good condition, and to avoid abuses; but these are very few.
In any claim for damages, the word of the customer is usually taken as true, without investigation or veri- fication— ^just as you would take the word of your mother or brother — and settlement made without delay even when the customer might seem to be unreasonable.
i
SERVICE THE AMERICAN PRINCIPLE 9
A few years ago the great mail-order houses charged 15 cents for their catalog (which cost them 50 cents OP more to print), to prevent people from asking for it for the sake of mere curiosity. This they do no more, assured that the man who gets it wiU, sooner or later, pay for it, with very few exceptions.
Formerly a big house refused to bother with small customers. They took so much time and attention that there was a loss on the sales made to them. Now the principle is well established that small buyers should have exactly the same courtesy as the big, for the small will some time become the big, and many small together may be worth more than all the big. All the many little losses will in due time be paid for in fuU, under the law of compensatipn, as Emerson states it in his Essay on Compensation.^
The most successful newspapers have adopted a policy of advertising themselves through performing certain public services from which they could not possibly benefit directly. One paper makes a crusade on fake patent-inedicine men, another makes a crusade to raise money for the poor when in the winter they are suflfer- ing, or for flood-sufferers, or sufferers from famine in China, or to get good school laws or good banking laws passed for the benefit of the people in general. To be successful these undertakings have had to be free from any suspicion of business benefit, except the application of the general principle that he who freely gives will freely receive.
But of course we know that there are rogues waiting to steal our purse whenever they can get a chance. The prisons are full, the courts are occupied with them. "Will not a business man suffer sometimes from dead- beats?
Yes, of course, he will suffer sometimes through those
10 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
who take advantage of him, but the number of such cases is so small a percentage that it does not count as compared with the great good that comes from open dealing with the vast majority. Even those who do take advantage usually are not punished, their injustice is scarcely noticed, and even they will soon look for a chance to pay what they owe in some form or other. A publisher once carefully took the names of his com- petitors from his mailing-list, so they would not get early notice of all the new books he brought out and the advantages he claimed for them; but presently he found that his competitors were recommending his goods when they didn't have something of their own in direct competition, and that probably the advertise- ments and sample copies he sent to these competitors of his were selling a comparatively larger proportion of goods than any other advertising he did. So he put back on his list the names of all his competitors, and helped them freely to find out early and fuUy all he was doing. They were thereafter less quick to bring out a book that cut into his, there were no feelings of animosity, and they preferred to say a good word for him rather than a bad word.
The American idea of service is that we do not have to be too careful about getting every item into the ledger, for there is a sort of universal ledger which is always balanced truly, and what is given is paid for.
Assignment II
Find half a dozen illustrations of free business ser- vice other than those mentioned in the text, and de- scribe them.
Ill
THE BUSINESS WORLD TAKES YOUR OWN VALUATION OF YOURSELF
Excess in any direction is an evil. The man that is too good is ''goody-goody," the man that is too gener- ous is a wastrel and obviously not to be trusted with the goods of other people. The real kindness to others, the best service, is just — ^treating others as you would that others should treat you — ^not better nor worse. It isn't good for you that somebody should pauperize you, nor is it good for others that you should be too loose or free with your services. The generosity and pubUe service of business has a strong backbone, and a sure knowledge that the payment will come. It knows that weakness toward others is waste, and it avoids wasting anything. It serves itself just as eagerly as it serves others. It cherishes its own strength and capital that it may be able to serve others more widely and more largely. While giving due attention to petty things, it does not waste itself on them, because waste anywhere in the universe is a crime.
The natural result ofVthis ifl^fr^ut high-minded atti- tude— ^the attitude that be'Heves all men honest till they are proved dishonest — ^has brought it about that men in business and professional life are largely taken at their own valuation. They know themselves better than any one else. If they are honest and tell the truth, the best place to go for information is to them. There are mercantile agencies that make investiga-
11
12 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
tions of the credit of business houses; but if you are asking credit from a big business house, or from a bank, the credit manager or the president of the bank will prefer to have you tell him what you have and what you are worth, rather than take any of these agency reports. Some people do lie, but they are such a comparatively small fraction of 1 per cent, that on the whole it is much safer to take the statements of the man who really does know, and more than ninety- nine times out of a hundred will tell you honestly, than to trust to outside advice.
I want to buy the cheapest groceries in Chicago, and I go to the head of a big grocery house and tell him what I, am looking for. I ask him if he can give me what I want. If he says ''Yes!" I believe him. He is very likely to say *'No! You can depend on the quality of what you get from us, but if you want cheap goods you must go to so-and-so. '* Perhaps he will point out just how higher-priced goods will prove to be the cheapest in the long run, and so you decide to pay his higher price and buy from him. But if he had not been truthful in the beginning, you would not have confidence in his argument.
Since the business world takes a man at his own valuation, it is more important that he should know that value than any one else. If on trial he is proved to have been a bad judge of his own value, it is even more against him than if he is dishonest in telling what he knows. Some men do lie, and do make money by lying; but in the long run they are found out, and, sooner or later, with scarcely an exception, they are bitterly sorry for their untruthfulness. But the majority of men simply do not know. Since they sus- pect they do not know, they do not state their claims to attention in any definite or confident tone. There-
YOUR OWN VALUATION OF YOURSELF 13
fore no one takes any notice of them. In Europe, if a man states his own claims frankly and forcibly, the general suspicion that prevails that all business is fraud makes him more suspected than if he kept quiet. When the Associated Advertising Clubs adopted as their motto, " Truth,'* and inaugurated a campaign for truth in advertising, they recognized clearly that the establish- ment of general confidence through the elimination of fraud would be the greatest asset general advertising could have.
The kind of statement about oneself that is wanted is of facts and not of opinion. A man is expected to be prejudiced in his own favor, so that his mere opinion is not given much weight. But when he says he hds nine hundred and eighty-seven dollars on deposit in such and such a bank, or has a good debt that is owed him which will become due at such and such a time, his word is taken without a question. The facts about merchandise, carefully stated, will usually be believed. So in the social community, the man who says he has been to college, has taken a mediieal degree, has traveled in Europe, and has made a special study of nose and throat disease, is taken absolutely on his own state- ment. The best statement about oneself, the least egotis- tic in sound, is a plain statement of plain facts, without any admixture of your own personal opinion. The world wants to know what you KNOW about yourself, not what you think; but it is at the outset willing to take your word for what you believe you know and can state in detail.
This willingness of the American to take another at his word is exemplified in various ways. We hire a servant-girl on what she says, seldom caring to get references or to look her up, and usually suspecting that written recommendations were given for the pur-
14 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
pose of getting rid of the servant without trouble. The English never hire a servant without a "character" from her last mistress; and if she has had a quarrel and can not get a character, she is often in a bad way, even when she is reaUy all right.
A former advertising manager of Marshall Field & Co. as a boy lived in Omaha. He believed that he could serve Field's firm acceptably and wrote a long and earnest letter stating what he thought he could do. This clear statement of his own case caused the house to make a place for him, tho none existed, and en- couraged him * to pay his expenses from Omaha to Chicago to take the place that was tentatively offered after two or three letters had passed.
A young man in Washington was a stenographer, but he had studied advertising and wanted a position in that line of business. He stated his case so forcibly that he was offered a position with one of the biggest advertising agencies in the country, and also several other positions, tho at a salary less than he thought he could afford to go for. After a while he got the salary he thought he was worth, and he proved to be worth it. The clear, forcible statement of his own valuation, even as to the amount of his salary, won for him.
Assignment III
Business men value qualities of mind more than they do knowledge in young beginners. Even a high-school boy, utterly without experience, may know something about his powers of mind so that he can state them clearly and forcibly. He may know that he is par- ticularly faithful and reliable, that he has a gift for figures or for language, or that he has unusual endur- ance, or that he can get on so well with people that he
YOUB OWN VALUATION OP YOURSELF 15
make them obey him. His great fault in applying
a position is that he does not state these things at all.
State your own powers of mind briefly, Jbut clearly
axid sincerely. Let a simple naturalness overcome what
Txuaj seem an egotistic manner.
IV
EVERY MAN SHOULD HAVE HIS
MONOPOLY
The foundation of success in business, no doubt, is being able to perform some service that nobody else can perform in your circle. This circle of yours may be the world, or it may be your country, or it may be your community, or it may be the single business house in which you are employed.
When a person has a monopoly, something that nobody else has, he can, to a certain extent, make his own price, and, above all, he can speak of himself with- out fear of exaggeration: there is nothing above him by which others can measure his littleness, with which he can be unfavorably compared. If he has this monop- oly, he has only to make peopile know it and give their reason time to assert itself, when he will inevitably get his full pay for what he can do that no one else can.
There are two ways of getting a monopoly, first by setting oneself resolutely toward learning something that others do not know, or being able to do something that others can not do. The other way is to look for the place where others will be inferior to you. Both methods must usually go together. First, it is impor- tant to learn to give some service supremely well ; then, it is desirable to find the place where that service will count for most by reason of the helping influences that will gather about it.
The man who is at the top usually makes money, while the man who is second takes his leavings. It
16
EVERY MAN HIS MONOPOLY 17
often happens, however, that where one man is sacceed- ing, a competitor may come in and both will succeed still better. The community wants competitive service — for the sake of comparison, we will say two grocery stores. One grocery has the best coffee, the other has the best bread, and so on, each its specialty and monop- oly. Or one has the cheapest goods and the other has the best quality of goods. In Chicago, the department store that is the most successful has the highest quality^ and the next most successful store has always the cheap- est goods. When people are looking for the very lowest prices they can pay regardless of quality, they in- variably go to the latter store. It has a sort of monop- oly in that line. And the other store gets them when they are looking for the best goods. The stores in be- tween which have no such big specialty make far less money, but try to have their lesser specialties, and no store succeeds or even continues to exist that does not have some specialty, that is, monopoly.
The clever advertising man, when he comes into IS new business, looks for the points of monopoly, the points that this business has which no other business in the community can lay claim to, and those are the points on which his advertising hammers.
It may be, however, that in spite of everything there are those around you who are stronger and better than you. In Boston, many people Have a good education, and a high school education or even a college education gives no monopoly of learning. In that case, such a person after having done his best, should go where education is more in demand. Out in North Dakota, perhaps, he may be the best-educated man in town. Therefore, as soon as a person finds himself second, he should hasten to get away where he will be first again. The earth is various and large, and every man can have
18 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
his monopoly in his own circle, or can seek a circle where he will be a king-pin.
The point of view of monopoly, looking down instead of np, is the only good one for either salesmanship or advertising or any kind of business or professional pro- motion. At the same time in our personal ideals, in order to rise to the point of command, we must be look- ing up.
Assignment IV
Make a list of the most successful business and pro- fessional men in your town and find out on what monopoly each has built his success.
Then make a list of less successful persons or busi- nesses, and see on what minor specialties they have built the success they have.
At first the discovery of these unique points may seem diflScult, but invariably a careful investigation will reveal them. The chances are that many of those suc- cessful persons will not be able to tell what their monop- oly is; but for all that, if they have been successful, it will be found they have it.
THE MIND AND HOW IT WORKS*
Having established our point of view, namely, that business is rendering service which in so far as it is successful has some monopoly which we must discover as our starting-point, we are ready to look into the mind of the average person and see how we may appeal to it.
Psychology teaches us that impressions are entering the mind through the channels of the five senses. Poured continually into a stream of consciousness that continues practically unbroken from birth to death, they leave their marks possibly in the very physical texture of the brain itself. The ego within is constantly busy arranging these impressions and connecting them by a network of paths which we call associations. When we retrace the impressions of the past, by aid of the paths of association, identifying them as attached to a given time and place, we exercise the power of memory. When we use these impressions, connected as they are by their network of paths, so as to make new combinations, we exercise the power of imagination. When impressions and associations are divided up into elements, as when we separate the characteristic of beauty or any other abstract idea from the complica- tion which goes to constitute objects, and then arrange these abstractions according to fixt principles, we reason. When by reason we come to a fixt determination and act accordingly, we exercise the rational will. If we do the same wise things by reason of some impulse bom in us, without any process of reasoning, we are said to
♦See "Prefatory — A Scientific Basis/'
19
20 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
act by instinct. When we come to wise conclusions without taking all the steps of reason, the mind is said to act by intuition. After intuition has told us what to do we may go ahead and act according to reason; but instinct differs from intuition in that it produces action directly.
Here are all the elements of psychology in a nut- shell. Now we must see in detail just how memory, imagination, and reason work. But first let us see what the effect of habit is on the nervous system, since in reality that is the basis of the practical effectiveness of all three of these functions.
I quote from William James's text-book on Psy- chology: ^'An acquired habit is nothing but a new pathway of discharge formed in the brain, by which certain incoming currents ever after tend to escape. The moment one tries to define what habit is, one is led to the fundamental properties of matter. The laws of Nature are nothing but the immutable habits which the different elementary sorts of matter follow in their actions and reactions upon each other. ... On the principles of the atomistic philosophy, the habits of an elementary particle of matter can not change, be- cause the particle is itself an unchangeable thing; but those of a compound mass of matter can change, be- cause they are in the last instance due to the structure of the compound, and either outward forces or inward tensions can, from one hour to another, turn that structure into something different from what it was. That is, they can do so if the body be plastic enough to maintain its integrity, and be not disrupted when its structure yields. The change of structure here spoken of need not involve the outward shape; it may be in- visible and molecular, as when a bar of irop, becomes magnetic or crystalline through the action of certain
THE MIND AND HOW IT WORKS 21
causes. . . . Plasticity, then, means the possession of a strueture weak enough to yield to an influence, but strong enough not to yield all at once. Hahiis in living leings are due to the plasticity of the organic materials of which their bodies are composed.*'
M. L6on Dumont writes: '* Every one knows how a garment, after having been worn a certain time, clings to the shape of the body better than when it was new ; there has been a change in the tissue, and this change is a new habit of cohesion. A lock works better after having been used some time; at the outset more force was required to overcome a certain roughness in the mechanism. The overcoming of their resistance is a phenomenon of habituation. It costs less trouble to fold a paper when it has been folded already ; . • . and just so in the nervous system the impressions of outer objects fashion for themselves more and more appro- priate paths, and these vital phenomena recur under similar excitements from without, when they have been interrupted a certain time. .... A. scar anywhere is more liable to be abraded, inflamed, to suffer pain and cold, than are the neighboring parts. A sprained ankle, a dislocated arm, are in danger of being sprained or dislocated again; joints that have once been attacked by rheumatism or gout, mucous membranes that have been the seat of catarrh, are with each fresh recurrence more prone to relapse, until often the morbid state chronically substitutes itself for the sound one. In the nervous system, to take what are more obviously 'habits,' the success with which a 'weaning* treatment can often be applied to the victims of unhealthy indulgence of passion, or of mere complaining or irascible disposition, shows us how much the morbid manifestations them- selves were due to the mere inertia of the nervous organs, when once launched on a false career.
22 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
"Nature has so blanketed and wrapt the brain about that the only impressions that can be made upon it are through the blood on the one hand, and the sensory nerve-roots on the other; and it is to the infinitely at- tenuated currents that pour in through these latter channels that the hemispherical cortex shows itself to be so peculiarly susceptible. The currents, once in, must find a way out. In getting out they leave their traces in the paths which they make. The only thing they can do, in short, is to deepen old paths or to make new ones; and the whole plasticity of the brain sums itself up in two words when we call it an organ in which currents pouring into it from the sense-organs make with extreme facility paths which do not easily disappear. . . .
"Habit simplifies our movements, makes them accu- rate, and diminishes fatigue. Man is bo(m with a tendency to do more things than he has ready-made arrangements for in his nerve-centers. Most of the per- formances of other animals are automatic. But in him the number of them is so enormous that most of them must be the fruit of painful study. If practise did not make perfect, nor habit economize the expense of ner- vous and muscular energy, he would be in a sorry plight.
"Secondly, habit diminishes the conscious attention with which our acts are performed. Habits depend on sensations not attended to. In the act of walking, even when our attention is entirely absorbed elsewhere, it is doubtful whether we could preserve equilibrium if no sensation of our body's attitude were there, and doubt- ful whether we should advance our leg if we had no sensation of its movement as executed. We uncon- sciously attend to these sensations through habit.
" 'Habit a second nature ! Habit is ten times nature!'
THE MIND AND HOW IT WORKS 23
the Duke of Wellington is said to have exclaimed ; and the degree to which this is true no one can probably appreciate as well as one who is a veteran soldier him- self. 'There is a story/ says Professor Huxley, * which is credible enough, tho it may not be true, of a practical joker who, seeing a discharged veteran carrying home his dinner, suddenly called out, ** Attention!" where- upon the man instantly brought his hands down, and lost his mutton and potatoes in the gutter. The drill had been thorough, and its effect had become embodied in the man's nervous structure.*
** Habit is thus the enormous fly-wheel of society, its most precious conservative agent.**
Thus we see that when we face the public, we are facing men and women whose minds are cut deep with brain-paths which it will be extremely hard for us to counteract. The wise thing is to understand them and use them. If we do our traveling on these paths, we are likely to be successful ; but if we strike out across country, we are pretty certain soon to be ditched.
Association. Memory and imagination both depend very largely on association, which is nothing more nor less than the natural connecting paths that happen to exist between one thing and another. Old paths that have been worn deep are easy to travel, new ones that have not been much worn are more dilBScult. New paths that are not traveled over again are often lost completely. Or if all paths are about equally traveled they are a hopeless network, a labyrinth, in which we get lost almost instantly. If we have certain lines of thought, great trunk lines, over which we travel often, as a certain business or profession, that is a guide for aU branch paths, and we can locate them easily up or down the main traveled road. We lay out in our minds a sort of map of the paths, indicating the big ones, the
24 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
middle ones, and the small ones, and we remember by locating the new small path on this map, with reference to this big path, or that small one, or this object on the path, or that object on the path. In the brain, objects are called ideas.
This system of objects called ideas, and paths con- necting them, the ego within us arranges and classifies on three different plans; first, according to time and place when we received the impressions, that is memory ; second, according to fixt principles which we adopt, to make them conform to which we cut them up, divide them, analyze them: that is reason; third, we take them as they are, pictures in the brain, and arrange them according to our feeling, our intuitions, our in- stincts: that is imagination. Then the will acts on the promptings of either one of these, whichever is strongest.
Words and Pictures the Key to Other People's Minds. The organization of modem society and modem methods of communication have made the sense of sight the most widely useful for communication, and next to that the sense of sound. The senses of touch, taste, and smell, are less directly useful, because we have not invented practical means for. appealing to them. The original means of communication was by pictures, and that is still the most widely useful and effective. But reason has developed an artificial system of symbols called words, conveyed equally well by sight or sound. Sight is used for long-distance communica- tion, sound for short-distance.
Now, words are not things, not even things in the mind or ideas, but only symbols or tokens of things. Like paper money, they are merely tokens that there is gold in a bank somewhere which can be had for the asking. If there is no gold there, the paper money is
THE MIND AND HOW IT WORKS 25
wortb little. There may be something else almost as good as gold, such as goods or power to work, which we will accept as a substitute ; but if there is nothing, paper money is notUng more than a piece of paper with a picture on it. jSo words have no value whatever except as they represent ideas in the miud of the person to whom you speak or write.^ Many people think that words are worth what they stand for in their own minds. They are not always absolutely sure that their current value is measured solely and absolutely by what they stand for in the other man's mind.
In the case of the words of a foreign language, we understand easily enough that the person who does not understand the language, gets the words merely as the jabbering of an ape. Such a person can not even teU them apart, he can not even hear them. They have no connections with any paths in his mind, but come straight across a new country. It is very slow and hard going. The newcomer stumbles now into an unexpected hole, now over a hunuuock. There are not even any sound channels in the auditory nerve along which the unfamiliar sounds may come, so that you do not even really hear them.
The same is true among the people educated to one language, but in different ways and in different degrees. A farm laborer knows nothing of the technical terms of psychology, which produce just the same sort of effect on his mind that Russian does, perhaps, on yours. Words that suggest to you all the sights and sounds of city life, may be Greek to the country person who has never been in the city. He has no city paths in his brain, no system for connecting up the few little things he thinks he can understand.
Here, then, we have a few practical principles.
1. It takes a long time to make new paths in people's
26 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
brains, and the easiest tiling to do is to travel the old ones that are already there.
2. Words have value only according to the bank- deposit already in the mind of the person who hears them or sees them. They are not things, they are not ideas, but only tokens to call up the ideas already in the other person's mind. A word, therefore, has a different value to every person who hears it — a slightly different value.
3. Pictures and sounds are more original, more primitive than words, and will get into the minds of many more people than words will. In nearly every human being there is a nerve channel through the ear for a kind tone of voice, and a pretty well-worn network of paths inside the brain along which it may travel. Likewise, images of fields, sunlight, men, and women find easy entrance along weU-wom paths in optic nerves of most people.
Two Methods of Awakening the Mind, Reason and Imagination. William James states two essential ele- ments in reasoning, the mode of conceiving the object in the first place, or abstracting a quality of the object and identifying it as the object itself, and the general proposition of identifying that with something else, so making a logical step. Says he, ^'All objects are well- springs of properties, which are only little by little developed to our knowledge, and it is truly said that to know one thing thoroughly would be to know the xmi- verse. But each relation forms one of its attributes, one angle by which some one may conceive it, and while so conceiving it may ignore the rest of it. A man is such a complex fact. But out of the complexity, all that an army commissary selects as important for his purposes is his property of eating so many pounds a day ; the general, of marching so many miles ; the chair-
THE MIND AND HOW IT WORKS 27
maker, of having such a shape ; the orator, of responding to such and such feelings ; the theater-manager of being willing to pay just such a price, and no more, for an eve- ning's amusement. Each of these persons singles out the particular side of the entire man which has a bearing on his concerns, and not until this side is distinctly and separately conceived can the proper practical conclusions for thai reason be drawn; and when they are drawn the man's other attributes may be ignored. All ways of conceiving a concrete fact, if they are true ways at all, are equally true ways. There is no property abso- lutely essential to any one thing. . . . The essence of a thing is that one of its properties is so important for my interests that in comparison with it I may neglect the rest."
We may suppose that we are looking for a link be- tween two objects, S and P. We pick out of S some quality which for our purposes we conceive to be the essence of it, which we call M, and if we happen to find M in P we have the link we are looking for. A sagacious mind is one which discovers the right quality or attri- bute among the many that exist, and proceeds to identify it in the other object. **It not only breaks up the datum placed before it and conceives it abstractly — ^it must conceive it rightly, too ; and conceiving it rightly means conceiving it by that one particular abstract character which leads to the one sort of conclusion which it is the reasoner's temporary interest to attain.''
Of course, we may hit by accident on the same result, as when a cat happens to pull the latch of the door ; but if the latch got out of order the cat would not be able to analyze and deduce till it found what the matter was and remedied it.
'^Thus, there are two great points in reasoning. First, an extracted character is taken as equivalent to
28 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
the entire datum from which it comes ; and, second, the character thus taken suggests a certain consequence more obviously than it was suggested by the total datum as it originally came.
** Suppose I say, when oflfered a piece of cloth, *I won't buy that, it looks as if it would fade,' meaning merely that something about it suggests the idea of fading to my mind — ^my judgment, tho possibly cor- rect, is not reasoned, but purely empirical ; but if I can say that into the color there enters a certain dye which I know to be chemically unstable, and, therefore, the color will fade, my judgment is reasoned. . . .
"The extracted characters are more general than the concretes, and the connections they may have are, therefore, more familiar to us, having been more often met in our experience.
"Also, the extracted characters are so evident be- cause their properties are so few, compared with the properties of the whole, from which we derived them.
"To reason, then, we must be able to extract char- acters— ^not any characters, but the right characters for our conclusion."
Thus William James explains what reasoning is. Obviously, if we are going to get other people to follow our reasoning, they must have a similar sagacity in extracting right qualities from concrete objects and recognizing them in other objects. If their minds do not have paths along those lines which are sufficiently deep and well worn, our reasoning will be like Greek to them. If they do have sagacity along those lines, if in their minds are well-wom paths of that sort, it will give them the greatest pleasure in the world to listen to our arguments.
The schools are largely engaged in training the minds of pupils in analytic processes. Reasoning is a splendid
THE MIND AND HOW IT WORKS 29
way of getting at things that can not be got at in any other way. Thtis arguments make a good form of ap- peal to educated people, and in cases where there is no simpler or better way.
The natural and universal method of appeal is through the imagination. Sensations once experienced leave pictured impressions of themselves in the mind. Says William James, **No mental copy, however, can arise in the mind, of any kind of sensation which has never been directly excited from without/' This is extremely important to remember in our practical rela- tions with people to whom we wish to appeaL
In some people these pictures are distinct, clear, and complete, while in others they are dim, blurred, and imperfect. The good visualizer sees an absent acquain- tance as if he were sitting or standing at his side; the poor visualizer can not describe even two or three of his features. Some people have clear images of sounds, while still others have clear images of motions or mus- cular sensations.
'*Our mental images are aroused always by way of association; some previous idea or sensation must have 'suggested' them. Association is surely due to currents from one cortical center to another." These currents from one brain-center to another produce faint images which are the same as those produced by nerve-sensation currents direct from the outside. It is thus that we are able to distinguish reality and fantasy by their faint- ness or vividness.
Appeal by the imagination depends also on another element, besides the power to reproduce pictures in the brain. That is emotion, or feeling.
Every sensation coming as a nerve-current into the brain, reacts through the muscle-contracting nerves to produce action in the body. In other words, it rever-
30 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
berates through every comer of the body. This re- action may be: 1. Expressions of emotion. 2. In- stinctive or impulsive performances. 3. Voluntary deeds.
Strong emotions, like fear, anger, etc., show them- selves plainly in the muscular actions of the body. Milder emotions produce inner changes, some of which may be detected in the expression of the face by a shrewd observer. William James believes that the nerve-cur- rents going into the brain must come out again, and in coming out they change the body; then our feeling bf these bodily changes is what we call our emotions.
Likewise, the minor nerve-currents in the brain which we call imagination must produce their reactions on the body in the form of emotions or feelings, which are closely connected with impulsive actions. Or, once we feel like acting, it is easy to find reasons for deliberate action.
Appeal by way of the imagination, therefore, con- sists of calling up pictures in the mind, which, in turn, produce feelings that lead to action. You may con- vince a man's reason, and still he may not decide to act. Bouse his feelings, and he acts in spite of himself. So that, even after argument, an appeal to the imagination is often necessary to produce the feelings which will cause the action.
Making people do things. People do what they feel like doing, and they don't do what they don't feel like doing. We sometimes think we can force their wills. That is probably an error. There is just one way to make them act, namely, to start back at the beginning and set in operation those things which will produce in their minds the feelings to which their wills yield in spite of themselves.
We hear about causing '^action" in making sales.
THE MIND AND HOW IT WORKS 31
"closing" the customer who after convincing argument fails to do what is desired, but goes on arguing in- definitely and postpones action. What is meant in reality is that at the end an appeal through the imagi- nation which produces the emotions which compel action is required to supplement a defective argumentative process. The theory that a man must act if the right emotions are aroused accounts for the inevitable com- pensation which comes from unselfish public service. Oiving the compensation is a sort of automatic nervous reaction.
This is seen sometimes in making collections. An irritating letter may arouse a little anger. Along with that is a sense of honor inherent in the consciousness of owing the debt. These two emotions produce a dis- agreeable conflict, to get rid of which the obvious thing is to pay the debt. The process has become almost ^standardized. Or a man develops some intense feeling ^hich keeps him from paying his debt. An irritating etier makes him angry. Then a very pleasant personal call takes him unawares and relaxes his anger, and along with the anger the feeling which stood in the way of his paying his debt, and he pays it in spite of himself.
Play upon the feelings of others depends first on knowing the images or impressions in the brain, then the paths of association connecting them (in other words, getting a map of the enemy's country), next of appealing primarily through the imagination, but always bridging the gaps by reasoning, and finally by the clever marshaling of both reason and imagination to produce the feelings which make action inevitable.
The singer gets money from people by appealing to the ear-imagination, which produces such pleasurable feelings that people become sound-topers, so to speak.
32 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
and give up their money just as readily as liquor-topers. The painter produces his emotion through the eye, the novelist through the printed page, and the business man through appeal to the cruder emotions connected with bodily comfort, utility, etc. The processes used by Tet- razzini, Sarah Bernhardt, or Dickens, are in principle the same as those that must be used by salesmen and advertisers, to dispose of the goods which are even more essential to the successful living of life than music, drama, or fiction. Whether the methods are rightly or wrongly used depends on the honesty or dishonesty of the users. Our original premise was that honest service is the only thing that is permanently successful in busi- ness or professional life.
Questions on How the Mind Works
1. From what point of view do we start in this survey? .
2. Describe in detail how all impressions enter the mind.
3. What effect do they have in the mind, and in what form do they come out ?
4. How does William James describe habit t
5. How does M. Dumont describe habit t
6. What are brain-paths, and how do they help the working of the mind?
7. What practical effect does habit have on our actions ?
8. What effect does habit have on attention to details?
9. In what story does Huxley illustrate the working of habit?
10. Illustrate ''association," and show how both memory and imagination depend on it. What is memory? What is imagination?
THE MIND AND HOW IT WORKS 33
11. What two keys are there to people's minds t H- Instrate the difference between the appeal of words and of pictures. How does a foreign language affect us if we are not familiar with it?
12. Summarize the three practical principles of ap- pealing to the minds of others.
13. Explain the process of reasoning.
14. What kinds of people are susceptible to the appeal of argument or reason? Where is the reasoning method most in use f
15. Why is appeal through the imagination the natural and universal method f What is absolutely essen- tial to making that appeal? Illustrate the imaginative method.
16. What is emotion or feeling ? In what three forms do the nerve-currents entering the brain react ?
17. How do emotions show themselves in the body? In what way does the principle apply to mild appeal through the imagination? Summarize the process of appeal through the imagination.
18. How is it possible to make people do things? II- Instrate the reaction in making collections by irritation. How do artists make people pay money? What form of appeal alone is permanently successful in business or professional life?
Assignment V
Education and advertising are so nearly the same thing that we may study them together. Let us test the law that nothing comes out of the mind that hasn't first gone in. The teacher may select two short poems, like two sonnets by Wordsworth, which he can read particularly well, or two pieces of prose ; read one aloud to the class, and then have members of the class read it back to him. Then let the class read the other one
34 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
first, while he reads it last by way of contrast. The tones of expression, the interpretation by the voice, the fine understanding of the shades of meaning, could not be in the minds of the pupils till they had gone in by direct impressions. To equalize the matter of prepara- tion, the pupils should carefully prepare the selection they are to read first.
To illustrate the advantages of the imaginative ap- peal over the didactic, we will suppose there are in the class boys or girls who know little or nothing of base- ball, and others who do know much about it. Let one who knows try to explain it to those who do not know. That will be by the didactic method. Then make a chart of the diamond on a large sheet of paper with dear, broad lines. Letter in the pitcher, catcher, base- men, etc., so as to mark their positions, including also the batter. Then mutely illustrate each step of the game by going through the motions, first of the pitcher pitching the ball, first putting a finger on the chart where the pitcher is, then the catcher catching the ball, the umpire behind him looking sharp, and, finally, the batter hitting the ball, pointing to the ball flying over the field, and then an outfielder catching it; and so on. In each case be sure first to touch the name on the chart.
To illustrate the superiority of the reasoning method over the imaginative on another occasion, try to find some imaginative method of making clear the contents of this book, which can easily be explained. Its size, shape, color may be shown or illustrated, but they are not the book. The contents of the book might be illus- trated imaginatively by pictures of persons writing letters at typewriters, or an advertisement-writer de- signing an advertisement, or pictures of the average man and woman whose processes of thought we are trying to analyze. Quite a little can be done in this
THE MIND AND HOW IT WORKS 35
way, but reasoned explanation in rightly chosen words is practically essentiid to make the connection dear.
Let ns turn over the advertising pages of any maga- zine and pick out those which make an almost purely imaginative appeal, as the soap advertisements, and then those which, because of the educated class of people for which they are written, make a didactic appeal, as Tiflfany's advertisement, or those which, from theit very nature, seem obliged to use the didactic method to a large extent.
VI
PRACTICAL USES OF THE IMAGINATIVE
METHOD
To use a word or perform an act which will start those brain-currents along the paths of association which habit has formed, so that the mind of the other fellow will begin to shape attractive pictures, that is what the imaginative method is in practise. Mr. Lorin F. Deland, in his little book, 'Hxm^uiallOli m Busi- ness," has given us some examples of it from his own experience.
Two street bootblacks with kits over their shoulders were crying for shines on the two equally busy sides of a busy street. One made the plain, matter-of-fact ap- peal, ''Shine your boots here!" while the other cried, **6et your Sunday shine!'* As it was four o'clock Saturday afternoon, the word ** Sunday" started a whole train of reflections in the minds of the passers, as a result of which that boy got twice as much business as the first.
Mr. Heinemann, the London publisher, saw two ped- lers standing side by side selling toy dolls. "One of them had a queer, fat-faced doll, which he was pushing into the faces of passers-by, giving it the name of a well- known woman reformer, then prominently before the public. His dolls were selling rapidly, while the man beside him, who had a really more attractive doll, was doing comparatively little business." Mr. Heinemann suggested that he hold two dolls in each hand, and cry them as *'The Heavenly Twins." That was the title of
36
USES OF THE DIAGINATIVE METHOD 37
Sarah Grand's novel, which was then all the rage in London. **The 'Heavenly Twins' dolls were an instant success, and within one hour the vendor of the woman- reformer dolls gave up the fight, acknowledging him- self beaten, and moved five blocks down the street to escape the ruinous competition." Those doll-vendors succeeded because they supplied the mind as well as the hands with something to play with. The passers bought the dolls thinking of what fun they would have at home calling them by the names the vendors had given them. It also illustrates the folly of selling single articles when you can sell twins, which reduce stock twice as fast.
Mr. Deland tells another story of a; rug-dealer who wanted to unload a thousand oriental rugs in a week. He thought of knocking twelve or fifteen dollars off the average price of $25 to $35, but instead he was induced to print an advertisement containing a sort of picture of a dollar bill, which was good on the price of any rug at its face value of one dollar, if used within six days. Some 1,600 rugs were sold, at a discount of only $1,600, coupled with an imaginative method, whereas if $12 or $15 had been knocked off the price, probably less than two hundred rugs would have been sold. The habitual currents of the mind which play about dollar bills so persistently in the lives of most people had been set going by the sight of a crude, make-believe dollar bill, the value of which they could see as well as think about didactically.
The same method was used to dispose of 50,000 pictures which had been made to sell at $5, but which the house decided to unload at $1 each after all their advertising had failed to dispose of more than 700. They thought of sending out to dealers all over the country a circular announcing $5 pictures reduced to
38 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
$1, a method that would have told everybody at a glance, ''We are stuck and trying to unload that which has been a failure." Instead, they made a handsome en- graved receipt and sent it to the 350,000 Orand Army men, saying that a war veteran might get a $5 Civil War picture for only $1, if he would have the certificate endorsed by the secretary of his post. It was an in- dividual chance that came only to Grand Army men; but, of course, they let in their friends, if they didn't care to buy the pictures themselves, as it was a pity to throw away a receipt for $4.
As Mr. Deland remarks, it is not the price that counts, but the reason for the price.
It is said that Phillips Brooks was giving some ser- mons in Faneuil Hall, in Boston, Sunday evenings, to ''waifs and strays." After two or three weeks the audience had fallen to half a houseful. Then Mr. Deland announced that admission would be by ticket only. "If we can't fill the house half full when ad- mission is free, how can we possibly do it when admis- sion is by ticket only," said his associates. But the next Sunday the hall was full, and continued full for the rest of the season. It is said Moody often resorted to the method of making admission by ticket only when his audience threatened to be small. People couldn't sacrifice that which they had which somebody else didn't have. What everybody could have, they didn't want.
Here is another good story which Mr. Deland tells. An organ-manufacturing firm had sold 200,000 organs, the largest number ever put out by any house, and wanted to advertise the fact. So they had a contest for ideas to illustrate "How Large is 200,000," and then put the suggestions as pictures into a book which they offered to send on receipt of a 2c. stamp. But only 788 books out of the 100,000 printed were sold hy a
USES OP THE IMAGINATIVE METHOD 39
large and expensive advertisement in the Youth's Companion. What should be done? Mr. Deland pre- pared another and smaller advertisement, placed a sunple rebus at the top that any one could solve, and offered to igive the book to any one who would solve that rebus, and it could not be had on any other terms. The advertisement was inserted once, and for a time nothing was heard. Then came a letter saying: "Where is this thing going to end? We have sent out twenty-three thousand books up to last Saturday night. We have now a force of five women employed in open- ing letters and mailing books. Had we not better pre- pare another edition?" So it went on for ten weeks more, finally breaking all known records for the num- ber of replies from any single advertisement.
So important do some big business men regard the possibility of imaginative appeal in a good name that they register as a trade-mark all the good names they can possibly think of, not because they can ever hope to use them, but to head off their possible competitor; for what can a competitor do in selling a new soap if he can not give it a good name, one that will touch the imagination of the people. ''Sunlight" is the name of a popular soap in England, and the name ''Sunlight" has been registered at $50 each registration for every possible household article, and an American soap manu- facturer has registered every good name for a soap he could find. It is said that as high as $50,000 has been spent by one firm to register imaginative names just to head off competition.
Finally, Mr. Deland illustrates what he calls "in- vention** versTis "imagination." Invention is a clever idea. Imagination is an idea that touches off the cur- rents running along those brain-paths which the cus- toms and habits of people have created in their cortical
40 HUMAN NATUEB IN BUSINESS
gray matter. Congress shoes, with elastic webbing at the sides instead of laces in front, had been enormously sold because they were guaranteed to wear a certain length of time, and a pair which failed to wear so far as the elastic was concerned might be handed to an express company anywhere and sent back to the factory, and the shoes would be repaired and returned free of all cost. Then a few dudes along the Atlantic coast from New York to Washington; in what the manufac- turers spoke of as ''the dude belt,'' began to wear laced shoes. The fashion spread, and the manufacturers of congress shoes began a long, hard fight against the hardest force to fight that is known — ^fashion. After several years of hard thinking, Mr. Ddand noticed that only 170 passengers had been killed on railways in an entire year. "While the railways kill their employees, and outsiders who are crossing the tracks, they do not kill their passengers. So his idea was to give an in- surance policy to every wearer of congress shoes who was killed on a passenger-train. It was an ingeni- ous idea, but it didn't touch the imagination, and no progress was made against the tremendous force of fashion.
Assignment VI
Turn over the advertising pages of any modem na- tional magazine such as McClure's or the Saturday Evening Post, The Literary Digest, Collier's, or the Ladies' Home Journal, and make a selection of the ad- vertisements that contain an imaginative appeal: (1) those with a simple picture appeal, and (2) those with some statement or use of words which you think should start brain-currents along the habit-paths in the minds of average American men and women. Make a written report, giving briefly the reason for each selection.
VII
PRACTICAL PRINCIPLES OF APPEAL
1. Like begets Like. Vibrate a violin-string, and all other surrounding strings which have a phonic relation will spontaneously vibrate in unison. Like begets like. This is the foundation of the American principle of service in business. Serve others and they will feel inclined spontaneously to serve you. Regard others as honest, and they will regard you as honest and treat you honestly. Smile at others and they will smile back.
On the other hand, be suspicious, and others will catch the attitude of mind and be suspicious too. Be pessimistic, and you make those around you pessimistic. Try to punish your enemies or your competitors, and they will try to punish you.
Many people do not think that manners count for anything in business. They count almost for more than anything else. It is largely by your manners that the feelings of people around you are determined, and feel- ing has more to do with business than reason. It is by manners that the pleasant brain-currents are set moving, that imagination is touched.
Professional men, above all, must depend on the pleasant effects of good manners. The dignified and courteous professional man, with a kindly manner and a helpful tone of voice, ready to encourage and inspire his patients or his clients, is the man people want. They need good advice, encouragement, restraint, calm, more than they need medicine or law ; and what is more, they will pay for these other things in the bill for legal
41
42 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
or medical services. People do not distinguish. Give people freely what they need, and they will gladly pay a high price for the thing they thought they needed, even if given in very small doses. People look at the large ledger of life, and care more about seeing that the general balance is right than the special balance.
Enthusiasm begets enthiisiasm. The greatest thing in salesmanship is enthusiasm, since enthusiasm begets enthusiasm. The best book salesman in the United States (so he was called in his day) used to say, ^'All I do is to go around and enthuse 'em up." We may take exception to his use of the word ^'enthuse/' but his philosophy was all right.
People lack the energy to do things. Seeing a sales- man full of energy, they seem unable to avoid catching some of it, and the energetic feeling thus induced makes them come to a decision and place orders. They feel as if they must do something, and the easiest thing to do is to write the name on the dotted line.
People for the most part have faint likes and dislikes, faint perceptions of the wise thing to do, faint con- victions, faint ideals, faint power of will. Enthusiasm is the chemical which makes the faint clear and strong, which brings out the picture, raises from a sort of ideal world into the world of realities.
Enthusiasm is the secret of leadership. ''Gome on!" says the general at the head of his troops; "Come on!" says the football captain at the head of his men; ''Come on!" says the teacher, "and let us study for all we are worth!" The example produces an electrical thrill, it sets the brain-currents moving, and nature within does the rest.
Competition depends on the same principle, pltis pride. First we go in because of the infection of seeing others do it. Then pride stirs us to get into a class by our-
PRACTICAL PRINCIPLES OF APPEAL 43
selves. Under the stimulus of competition, salesmen will do at least half as much again as they could do alone. The gang-spirit possesses them. The desire to be in a class by themselves drives them on.
We may compete with our own past records, or in- duce others to compete with their own past records. The desire to beat somebody or something is a clearly good basis for sales-appeal.
Half a dozen doctors with their offices side by side in the same building will often each do better than any one alone. A man going into a new line of business often needs to excite some competition before he can get his own business moving, and the two competing get more than double the business than one could get. This is a fact often observed.
A calm, judicial attitude begets a judicial attitude. We Americans forget that oftentimes what is needed for our success is an impartial attitude on the part of those to whom we appeal. This is particularly true of all lines of endeavor in which the reason is an essential element. Most people with a purpose to accomplish argue all on one side. That makes the other fellow argue aU on the other side. Impartially state the argu- ments on both sides, weigh them impartially, and you will make the other man inclined to do the same thing. At any rate, he is not excited to concentrate his mind on the arguments against you. School-book publishers praise the books of their competitors instead of tearing them to pieces as they did in the old days. Nothing is lost by being fair. One perhaps need not go out of his way to state all the defects of his own product, yet if he represents that it is flawless, the other fellow will be sure to be looking around to see what is the matter with it. Unless you are frank and unprejudiced you are not likely to find the other man unprejudiced.
U HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
If you dislike and suspect another man, you may be almost certain that he thinks of you in just the same way. What does that fellow think of me? Does he think I am a nasty, sneaking little brute, the way I think of him? You may almost gamble your life that he does. You have not mentioned it to any one, but he has felt it in your atmosphere as you pass. If you want to win him, you must conquer your own feelings, turning your attention more to yourself than to him. Otherwise let him alone.
2. Every man wants a Monopoly. We have al- ready seen the advantage of doing business with a service which no one else on earth can render as well as we can. The point of view of having that which is unique gives us a leverage of an almost mechanical kind. It also gives us the attitude of mind of being a king, and it is the province and duty of a king to conquer. We can use superlative arguments without fear when talking of a monopoly. There is no limit to our enthu- siasm when we have a monopoly.
Now, in making our appeal, we can just turn this about. Every one else wants a monopoly, something that nobody else can get. Here is a second-hand piano that has a little sweeter tone than any other piano in this town; that is the piano I want. Here is a dress from Paris in a little lat^r fashion than any one else has, and my lady wants it to the extent of being able to pay about double price ; and when, six months later, all the shop-girls on the street are wearing the same style, she is equally anxious to discard what she paid so much for.
The precise value of novelty in sales-appedl. The desire of the public to get that which is unique, a monopoly, is a compelling force toward novelty, and the fact that making new paths in the brain is a very slow
'*
PRACTICAL PRINCIPLES OF APPEAL 45
process is the counterbalancing conservatiYe force. It is a well-known fact of history that world-progress is slow, tho steady under normal conditions, while ab- normal conditions stop it almost altogether.
People have progressed up to a certain point. They want to take the next step, whatever that may be. Cer- tain needs have accumulated of which the public is hardly conscious. The success of business which con- sists in service along those lines depends on how much miconscious desire has accumulated. If it is felt just here and there over the country in the more advanced, it may be too expensive to find out what persons are ready for it, and educate them to it. Careful testing of the popular temper alone should be the guide of action. Inventions or ideas that are ahead of their times will inevitably fail in spite of the most adroit salesmanship.
New points of view in regard to old things furnish the best promise of commercial success. Words and phrases become worn out more quickly than things. The word "success" may come to be associated with a certain unpractical sentimental philosophy, and books and courses of study advertised by use of that word may fail, whereas new and specific developments of the same thing, exprest from a new point of view, as, "How to Do Business by Letter,'' "How to Talk WeU," "How to Deal with Human Nature in Business,*' may attain a very large success. When the writer advertised a *' Complete Course in Business Correspondence," the inquiries were few, but when he advertised his course, *'How to Write Letters that Pull," he met with instant success.
The great work of the advertising-writer or salesman, therefore, is to find new ways of thinking about old things. The inventor is trying to discover unconscious
46 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
needs which have accrued at any given time, so as to offer new services to the public; but the writer is in the same way trying to find new points of view, new angles of appeal. That requires just as sagacious and inventive a mind as mechanical invention does, and the cash-value of such discoveries of new points of view, new ways of expressing old ideas, is just as great as the cash-value of mechanical inventions, and probably on the average it is greater. But there is no artificial protection for new points of view as there is for me- chanical inventions, except as they can be coined into a name or phrase. To copyright such a name or phrase does not protect it, but actual successful use of it, whether it is registered as a trade-mark or not, does create a property in it that the law recognizes and pro- tects— ^that is, the common law. Copyright registry as a trade-mark, which is limited to definite new names of things, aids in the protection; but advertising catch- lines are not usually protectable in this way. They must be held by mental force, so to speak, that is, by continued active use in such a way that others can not very well afford to use them because of the confusion that would surely be caused and the danger that they would help you more than they would help themselves. The inborn need to base a business on monopoly makes people avoid even the appearance of trailing l)ehind some more vigorous thinker.
Excess of novelty is doomed to failure, and equally so is the lack of it. Nothing so fully illustrates the com- mercial value of the golden mean, and knowing just where the mind of the average man stands, and what else is in the field.
If you can find a way to give a client or a customer something that no one else has got, even something that only a few others have got, or something that none of
PRACTICAL PRINCIPLES OP APPEAL 47
his immediate neighbors have, he will grab at it. Gangs do the same things, but they want their individual' possession. This may be a ticket to an entertainment, such as Mr. Deland used to fill Phillips Brooks's Sun- day evening service, or it may be the picture of a dollar bill which really was worth a dollar under certain con- ditions, or it may be the prize given to the person who solves the simple rebus.
The successful salesman is always trying to find some- thing special and unique for his or her customers. It is related by Mr. Sheldon that a woman clerk in a department store in Pittsburgh made a point of taking the name and address of every customer in a little book, and dropping her a card or telephoning her whenever any bargain was offered in the store in which she might be interested. A consistent carrying out of this plan brought so much business she was paid $3,000 a year salary, while clerks at her side who were just clerks, were getting but $3 to $7 a week. This became for that clerk a matter not only of bargains, but of exclusive bargains — at least they seemed exclusive to her custom- ers. They recognized and paid her for her services in keeping them posted, for a bargain you do not know about is no bargain at all.
Every customer wants to know just how a given thing will apply to his case, just how it will work out with his conditions. The chief service of the salesman is often investigating the customer's condition and then pointing out just how this particular article will meet his particular needs. "We often hear in business, *'My business is peculiar, my case is different." In the main features it is not different from a thousand others; in a few special details, which loom big in that man's mind, it is different, and the salesman must Srst of all find out how to adjust the offering to that man's tiny
48 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
differences which seem to him so big and important. Afterward he may take up the general arguments, which from the outside seem so much more important. This is partly due to the mechanical fact that what is very near to a man looks big to him, and what is far away looks small; but partly, also, it is due to human nature's natural love for monopoly, for something ex- clusive. An advertising man who says, **I will divide my time between you and four others," will not have nearly as much attention as one who says, *'I will do all your advertising work just as much as if I were in your exclusive employ ; but it will cost you only $25 a month.'* From the price, the buyer knows that other work must be done, but it is wisdom on the part of that advertising man not to mention the other work. Be- cause of the low price the customer will overlook the unmentioned fact that a dozen others are getting the same sort of service, indeed, inevitably must get it.
The same principle works out in the same way in selling limited editions of books, in exclusive agencies, and in aU the range of peculiar privilege, including the idea of political pull which a man believes is his alone among many who wish it.
3. The Habit of Obedience to Command. All per- sons as children are trained in the habit of obeying commands, and the great majority of workers are em- ployees doing the bidding of a very few executives. Therefore, all their lives the majority of persons are drilled in the habit of obedience to command. In a country like Germany, where every able-bodied man must serve in the army, the habit of obedience is even much stronger than it is in this country. "We have already noted the effect of habit on the old soldier who dropt his potatoes and mutton on the ground when a joker called out the command ''Attention!" In all
PEACTICAL PRINCIPLES OP APPEAL 49
games the commands of the captain are most important in the winning of victory.
In dealing with human nature in business, the direct command takes advantage of the habit of obedience. ''Sign here!" spoken in a firm and commanding tone makes the person addrest want to sign because it starts those brain-currents along the path of that habit of obedience which is so deeply cut by lifelong experience.
The return coupon with its place to sign before mail- ing, or the return postal card seems a silent command which is certainly powerful, tho the mere matter of convenience is also an important consideration. The quiet, silent voice, saying, '*Do it! Do it! Do it!" is far better than the loud and insistent voice which may awaken the obstinacy of human nature, the disinclina^ tion to be bossed. People like to follow the commands of friends, of reason, of those who seem to know more than they do. The kind of command that is effective is the command that is linked with leadership in a common cause, the command of the football captain who is in- spiring and commanding at the same time. Where no real authority can exist, stimulation must be greater than command, but suddenly, just at the right time, the word of command touches the habit-center of obedience in the brain and brings results. It is what salesman call '' closing," after the customer has been led step by step until only a small step remains to be taken. Suddenly, as the customer hesitates at that last step, the salesman says, ''Do it!" and he does it before he has time to reflect; the lifelong habit of obedience to command is stronger than doubting and unsatisfied reason.
50 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
Assignment VII
To illustrate the dictum that "like begets like/' let us interview ten persons in succession^ we will say, soliciting subscriptions to a school paper, or selling tickets for an entertainment, or working up interest for athletic support, or to volunteer for some special work that is to be assigned. In the case of five of them we will go straight and blunt to the thing desired; and in the case of the other five we will start with a pleasant word about something in which the person addrest is known to be interested, on the theory that taking an interest in his affair will induce him to take an interest in your affair. Make notes of the result in each of the ten cases.
To illustrate the principle of the monopoly, arrange some interesting activity of the class, or school, or family, or business, in which you wish to take in ten persons. To five of them say, *'We want to get ten per- sons, of whom you are to be one'*; to the other five say, "We are going to do so and so and so, and particularly want you to be in on it," saying nothing whatever about the other nine. Make notes on each interview and re- port results.
In the last case, after your arguments, try to close by suddenly saying, "Come, put your name down!" having your subscription list all ready, or whatever it may be, with pencil in hand. Make it a quiet, quick, mental effort entirely free from all violence of assertion.
Questions on the Practical Appeal
1. Illustrate the principle "Like begets like."
2. What is the importance of enthusiasm in sales- manship, and how is it produced in others f
3. What is the "gang-spirit," and how does it apply in business?
PRACTICAL PBINCIPLBS OF APPEAL 51
4. "WhsLt is the effect of a calm, judicial attitude, and iwrhen is that required!
5. How is the principle of monopoly to be used in making a sales-appeal f
6. How is the liking for what is unique counter- balanced by the force of conservatism, and how must -the salesman adjust the balance in making a sales- appeal f
7. Illustrate the value of new points of view in re- gard to old things. What are the limitations of nov- eltyt
8. How can the habit of obedience to command be used in making salesf
9. How do the return coupon and return postal card -work into this principle?
VIII
PROPORTION AND EMPHASIS
The mind of man is practically capable of giving attention to only one thing at a time. If I am talking with my wife about an important matter, and you rush up and begin to tell me a story, unless you secure my attention I shall not hear a word you say any more tlian if I were deaf. If I am a business man in an ofl5ce, and five or six persons are trying to speak to me at one and the same time, I can give attention to only one, and probably will turn to the person who speaks most loudly and insistently (immediately becoming dis- gusted by his loudness and insistence, and throwing him out), or I may give my attention to a person stand- ing perfectly still with folded arms, attracted because he is doing something different from the rest.
Attention having been secured, it must be held un- broken until the arguments or appeal have had time to sink in. You may state your case clearly and fully, yet if not enough time has passed for the more or less slow- working mind to take in the impression, there will be only a vague picture left. When a camera is used to take a picture the plate must be exposed just the right length of time. If the time is too short, there will be no picture at all, but only a confused collection of marks ; or if the exposure has been too long, the picture will blur and run into a confused mass. The mind of another person must be exposed to your argument just the right length of time if the best effect is to be secured.
A short-story writer will present one picture in his
52
1
PROPOETION AND EMPHASIS 53
imaginatiye creation after another. He may be able to say what he has to say in the first ten lines ; but if not enough time has passed for that picture to make its photographic impression he keeps on using words, say- ing the same thing over and over in different forms and from different points of view till he knows he has got the right development, when he passes on to the next imaginative picture.
Then the salesman, letter-writer, or advertisement- writer, as well as the public-speaker or teacher, must judge nicely the proper portion to give each argument or imaginative appeal. He is painting a picture on the mind of another; the foreground must be larger, the background smaller, to create the illusion of perspec- tive ; arms and legs must be of exactly the right size, the small details must be filled in with just the right full- ness or completeness so the large or main points will not be buried or thrown into ecUpse.
In speech we get this proportion by emphasis. Em- phasis teaches us to pitch our voices just so they will be heard comfortably according to the surroundings, according to the natural hearing of the person we ad- dress, and according to the importance of our subject. In writing we get the same effect by the vigor of our language, by capital letters or italic, or by putting a thought into a very short paragraph.
Correct emphasis depends on knowing the condition and nature of the mind of the person addrest. When we know that, an instinct guides us. Personal sales- men have the great advantage of seeing before their eyes the person to whom they speak and adjusting their emphasis accordingly, and likewise timing each item of their appeal correctly, just so as to make the impression clearly and then pass on. The writer must go out and see typical human beings of the kind he is to write for.
54 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
until in his imagination he can see them, see them so vividly that he can seem to feel just how much to write and just how strongly to emphasize it. That is why a writer must be endowed with a strong imagination. He must be able actually to see his customer sitting in the chair beside him.
Since correct emphasis in writing is a more difficult matter, let us consider that for a few moments.
First, what is already in the mind of the person who will read this, what competitors are clamoring for his attention, what general demands on his thought are likely!
To get attention, the important thing is to send the appeal in some way that is different from the rest, not enough different to be freakish, but just enough to create a fresh sensation in the brain.
Then what four or five things constitute the whole picture, and how long can I depend on holding this particular reader's attention f If I know he will read only a twenty-line letter, I must proportion my argu- ment so I can get it all into twenty lines. If he will read a two-page letter, why, I must proportion it ac- cordingly.
Eiiowing that the mind pays attention to only one thing at a time, I must consider each point in the pres- entation, I must drive it in just hard enough so it will become clearly fixt in the length of time at my disposal, and then I must pass on to the next point, giving each its due proportion. At the end, I know that I have got each essential point in its proper size or proportion, I have driven it under the skin so that it will stick, and I have not indulged in an excess that will create a revulsion against me.
Usually I give a skeleton argument, according to reason and the rules of logic. To save timQ I con-
PROPORTION AND EMPHASIS 55
stantly resort to the imaginative method of using words or pictures that will start currents in the brain along the paths of habitual association, for they are the quickest elements in any appeal. If my time is reduced to an instant, my only chance lies in an imaginative picture like those used by Cream of Wheat or Pears' Soap, and my whole thought is to find a picture that wiU set as many of the brain-currents to moving as pos- sible that are good for my business object. But great care must be taken to see that there are not any cross- currents.
In order to economize time so that we may preserve our proportion, the very name of the thing should sug- gest its quality. **How to Do Business by Letter'* was selected as the name of that book, because it told so clearly the nature of the book. It was the best adver- tising catch-line that could be devised, so that no special or additional one was needed. The character of the type used should harmonize with the thought, and so far as possible the paper on which it is printed, the magazine with which it is associated, etc., etc.
Successful emphasis and proportion indicate the true artist, who is master of his craft, and knows the human mind.
Assignment VIII
By way of illustrating the principles of proportion and emphasis, let us try the following experiments:
Let the teacher or a student read the next section in an absolutely even tone of voice, without emphasis, and let each member of the class afterward write down as good an account of what he has heard as possible.
Then let the teacher or a student read a condensed and unemphasized summary of the points, and at the
,-4
56 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
end let the members of the class give an account of what they have heard.
Then let the teacher read the entire section with emphasis and a view to making every member of the class understand every point, and explain or emphasize by special remarks any portions that in his knowledge of the class are not likely to be understood. Let us see how much more intelligent an account the members of the class can now give of the section.
It should be understood that interim reading of the section is prohibited. The first two experiments can be tried one day, the final experiment a second day, and on a third day the three sets of reports can be read together and compared. This plan will help to master an important section, and at the same time illustrate the principles of this one.
IX
ANALYZING A BUSINESS
The adyertising^ and selling side of a business is its most vital part. No man can make a success of half a dozen different unfamiliar businesses at one time, and no student of advertising and salesmanship can make a success of his study unless he specializes on ONE BUSINESS, and tries to get to the bottom of that. Unless he does concentrate on some one business, there is no possible chance that he will get to the bottom of anything.
What shall that one business bef Local conditions and circumstances must determine. It might well be the school paper, the success of which in a business way a class might devote itself to. Or it might be some local business such as the shoe business in a great shoe- town like Brockton, Mass. With individual students it might be whatever business they expect to enter.
If no special business offers, nothing could be better than a study of the grocery business, for which a full series of practical exercises has been worked out in an appendix. Groceries are universal, and grocery stores can always be found. A person's mother at home can answer most practical questions, and in the mail- order grocery catalogs a written text-book on the grocery business is within the reach of all.
However, in a class it would be well, after the pre- liminary study of human nature that has been made up to this point, to take a vote on the business to be
57
58 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
analyzed^ and having decided upon it, to follow it through to the end without deviation.
If possible, it should be a business in which customers can be called on personally for oral sales practise. More distant customers should be appealed to by letter along the same lines as the oral appeal is made. Adver- tising, either by newspaper or handbills distributed from house to house, should be called for in the nature of the business if all-round practise is to be afforded.
Running a small newspaper of any kind affords ideal practise. The readers may be interviewed with the idea of finding out what service the newspapers can render them. Then the editorial side should proceed to render that service. On the basis of that service an appeal should be made in oral salesmanship for subscriptions, and also for advertising in its columns. When that advertising is secured, the department should study the businesses of the advertisers so as to teach them to shape their advertising so it will bring returns and make them willing to continue. Time may prevent much personal sales-soliciting for subscriptions, but what can not be done personally can be done by letter, and the sales-talk will furnish precisely the best mate- rial for the letter.
First, oral sales-talk, then written sales-talk, these two alternating more or l^ss throughout the work, is the right combination. It is impossible to know what people want, and how their minds act, without actually going to see them and talking with them. Only when this information has been received, can successful sales- letters be written. Other letters should usually be answers to correspondence received. The style of letter-writing is the conversational style, and going out and talking is the very best way in whidi to learn what conversational style is.
ANALYZING A BUSINESS 59
Here is the system of analysis for any business, and the writer has used it with success in the study of several hundred. Sometimes one point is of more im- portance than another, or is of no importcmce at all; but allowances must be made in a common-sense way. The study of competition gives a broad outlook and something for comparison. In the case of a patented invention or a copyrighted book, there is the indirect competition of all other devices and all other books. Modem books must compete with all the classics. All things that are not indispensable compete with each other for a place in the Uf e and mind of individuals, for one person can make use of only a very few of all the good things that may be afforded. Sheer lack of brain- power to think of the thiQg may prevent it from getting even first attention. The important thing is to get a true conception of the relation of the business to the actual world. Only when such a true conception has been acquired is there any chance for practical grasp of the vital problems.
The advertising outlook is so much broader than the personal salesmanship outlook that in this consideration we should be guided by that. We first start with the broadest view, and gradually narrow down to the details that intensive study makes interesting. Adver- tising skims the field, sales letters begin to work it slightly, while personal salesmanship works it in the most intensive way that is possible. Which is in practise most importcmt must be judged individually in each case. But in our study we start with the broad outlook and narrow down to the details when we have really grasped the relation of the business to the outside world.
60 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
System of Analysis
1. What is your competition! I would not refer directly to your competitors in any sales-appeal, but I must address a customer in whose mind are the argu- ments of your competitors. You must know what those arguments are, and go about saying that which will offset or counterbalance them in the mind of the cus- tomer. If you have to compete with lower prices, it is necessary to talk frankly on the subject of prices and point out in a common-sense way that your customer can't afford to take that which costs less and is cor- respondingly lower in quality, and why or how he wiU make more money in the end by paying a little more and getting something that is right.
2. Then you should consider what you have that nobody else in your territory has. You may say, Nothing. Unless you have something that your cus- tomer can't get as conveniently from anybody else, you have no basis to ask for more than your natural share of business. You may give better service, you may even give only a pleasanter manner and fairer treat- ment. Advertising, which keeps the customer con- stantly informed, is a service. You must find out what it is that makes one of your good customers give you his business in preference to giving it to the other fellow — not what you think ought to make him, but what you know from actual investigation does make him.
The thing you have which nobody else really has (whether anybody else can get it or not is another matter) is what really makes a man buy from you, and which you ought to drive home hardest of all in your sales-appeal.
3. Talk is not enough, however, to get orders. Argu- ment must be supplemented by proof. You must con-
ANALYZING A BUSINESS 61
sider how to prove your claims, and if you can make your claims in the testimonial words of other people, even if you can't quote their names, you have gained a splendid point.
A bunch of conventional testimonials in small type is worth little, even if you can get them and use them at all. Qet a testimonial that is really a splendid record of facts, and play it up in good type with a clear black- letter heading. Or reproduce sales-orders, or give records of sales, or ANY FACTS THAT WILL TEND TO PEOVE YOUR CLAIMS. Records of facts that will pass in a law court are what you want, not praise or any form of **hot air," either of your own or of anybody else.
4. Ask a man to do something easy that he can reasonably do, and make it as easy for him to do it as you can. A return post-card carrying a trial order or a bit of information you ought to have is a good thing, and you should have a printed post-card form to use as often as possible with your sales letters. Don't for- get to be VERY CLEAR AND SPECIFIC as to what you want done, and provide a convenient way. Don't ask a large decision when a series of small decisions can be substituted, and don't ask a man to commit himself beyond recall when you know that what he gets on approval he will want to keep and pay for.
5. Getting your facts right is much more important than the wording of your sales-talk, or letter, or circular, or advertisement, and if you haven't the preceding four points, it doesn't matter much how well you word your appeal.
But if you have the right basis, consider the follow- ing points in connection with the wording:
(a) Have you covered, even in a brief letter, every point with absolute clearness, just as you would explain
62 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
to a child f It is a mistake to assume that every busi* ness man knows this, that, or the other, and that it would be foolish to refer to such points. When a man is reading hastily he wants everything before him or else he is likely to overlook something because it is not clear enough for instant perception. Don't compel him to figure out what is wanted. Let him see at a glance.
It is useless to write a letter so short that it doesn't tell your story. You can always emphasize your strong points in the letter and tell the complete story in an attached printed circular. In any case, the story must be told completely enough to produce conviction.
(6) Do you present your points in the correct order of sales-appeal f Namely :
Creating desire in general for the service you are prepared to give;
Showing how your plan works, so that people can depend on their own common-sense judgment as to the likelihood that you are right;
Backing up your statement by proofs;
Throwing a personal tone into your appeal so that a customer will feel like doing what you ask ;
Ending with a quick, safe, and easy method of com- plying with your wishes. In making a sale, when you know you can't hold him in court and do not wish to, you may even sign a man's name for him, printing it if you please so there will be no suggestion of imitation.
(c) Do you strongly, tho briefly, emphasize FACTS that wiU catch attention at the outset and fix it; or in a letter do you emphasize mere words which wiU have no meaning unless your letter is read through f Capitals and the underscore should be used to make three or four prominent facts stand out so they will catch atten- tion at the very first glance. They take the place of
ANALYZING A BUSINESS 63
blaek4etter heads in a circular, not emphasized words in conversation.
(d) Are your strongest points put in very short paragraphs (of two or three lines each) f
(e) Is your talk or letter or circular of the precise length that the particular class of people you are ad- dressing would like — short and crisp for business men, longer and more detailed for the slower-minded! In any case, have you told your whole story with proper emphasis f
(/) Is your appeal, whether oral or written, enthu- siastic enough 1 Extreme energy of expression is neces- sary to make a man feel like ordering in most cases. Seldom does a tame letter or a tame talk do much good.
(g) The man who has developed a business part way to complete success knows more about it than any other human being on earth, and he is the one who knows most about the merits of his goods, his competition, and his customers. The outsider who would succeed must cling very closely to the man who reaUy knows the business ; he must be merely a mouthpiece. Then when he has perfected his canvass or written his letter, he should be very sensitive in observing whether it seems just right to this man who knows most about the busi- ness. The points criticized by that man may not be the right ones, but his uneasiness is pretty sure to indi- cate that something is wrong which ought to be righted.
PAET II CORRESPONDENCE
Introductory
THE FORM OF THE LETTER
When a gentleman who is weH-drest, neat, and in- telligent-looking steps into an office, he is likely at once to be accorded the attention a gentleman should have, and it is favorable attention. If his trousers bag, his collar is dirty, or his hair uncut, he also attracts atten- tion, but it is unfavorable attention, even suspicion and a feeling of contempt. The common herd that are neither good nor bad get little attention of any kind.
The form of a letter makes almost exactly the same impression. It is a matter of art whether it has good margins, a proper proportionate drop from the top, and even arrangement of paragraphs, salutation, etc., and is correct in every little detail of punctuation. A letter which is like the punctiliously drest gentleman com- mands immediately the attention necessary to get its contents properly read and considered. People give such hasty glances to letters when they are received in large numbers that the first impression is almost the k^ to first success.
Margins are a matter of art. The top of the letter should not look crowded, but at the same time the mass of the letter should not drop below the center of the page. The date-line should be well up unless the letter- head is a large and heavy one. If the letter is short, the side-margins should be wide, but in typewritten letters never less than an inch on the left and three- quarters of an inch on the right, and paragraph in- dentations about the same. Pen-written letters may
67
68 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
have less margin and less indentation, say three- quarters of an inch. The best-looking letter has the effect of about the same margin all around except that there may be a little more at the bottom.
Spacing is somewhat a matter of taste, but single- spaced typewritten letters should have a double space between paragraphs and above and below the salutation. Pen-written letters do not need extra spacing.
The date-line should always be placed to the right of the center-line of the page; it should include the fall address, street, town, state — as well as the date written and punctuated thus: Nov. 5, 1919. When it is long we abbreviate the month, when short we do not. Omit ^ ' th " after 5.
The address of the person written to is usually placed at the top of the letter on the left-hand side, flush with the margin, in not less than two nor more than three lines. The town in the second line may come flush with the margin or be indented as a paragraph, and a third line, if indented at all, should be indented as much more, so as to present a pleasing slope to the right. In social and semi-social business letters the name and address may come at the end, flush with the left-hand margin, and this is usually considered best when the name (as ''My dear Mr. Jones") is used in the salutation. The best business usage does not insist on this, however.
The salutation should always come flush with the left-hand margin. It is old-fashioned to indent it. And it should be followed by a comma in social letters usually, and a colon in business letters. The semicolon, still taught in some schools, is absolutely taboo in busi- ness practise and the colon and dash, while still widely used, are not considered by careful letter-writers to be as good as the colon alone.
THE FORM OF THE LETTER 69
The Nations Gash Register Ck>MPANy
0AXiozfjOHio. Hareli 6, 1916.
Mr. SlMrvln Cody,
Chicago, lilt Dear Ibv. Oodyt
I have jttst r«o«lT«4 yoqp letter of Karoh i.
I still feel our Daytoa people oumot be interested In this St the present tiae and therefore do not advise, attempting it.
Tory truly jowig
JVS/UtO
OFFICS HAKAOSa.
BT7BINKSS STYUB, MARGINS AND ARRANGEMENT FOR VERY SHORT LETTER
70 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
In bnsmess letters, **Dear Sir*' for single men, "Gentlemen*' for companies or firms, and *'Dear Madam" for all women are standard and established. The old or English form ''Dear Sirs'' is out of date, and *'Dear Miss'* is taboo; but for young girls ''Dear Miss Jones," with the name, is used whenever there is any excuse for it.
In social letters or semi-social business letters, "My dear Mr. Jones" is a little more formal than "Dear Mr. Jones," and both are desirable when there is a certain degree of personal acquaintance. In very formal official letters, "Sir" alone may be used, but occasions for it are very, very few.
The body of a letter should begin as a paragraph. The older style of beginning the body of the letter directly under the end of the ^salutation is rapidly pass- ing out of use. The paragraph indentation should vary from five typewriter spaces to ten according to the size of the letter, but for common letter-writing about eight spaces is most desirable. Pen-written letters have slightly less indentation as a rule, from half to three- quarters of an inch.
The close for a business letter should start just to the left of the center of the page, only the first word should begin with a capital letter, and it should be followed by a comma. "Tours truly" is the commonest formal busi- ness close, "Very truly yours" is a degree more cor- dial, and "Cordially yours" is justified in letters in which a certain intimate personal relationship is sug- gested, as between a school principal and his prospective pupils. * ' Sincerely yours" should be reserved for social letters or business letters to actual personal friends, while such a close as "Faithfully yours" has an indi- vidual personal touch suitable for a; somewhat aggressive professional man for example.
THE FORM OF THE LETTER
71
ASEKQ-MONXHXy lOUlWAL OF UTBI/«r CMTia^
^BUSHED ON THB PIMT AMD SlXTESKTH OF lACH MOHTH
lUBUCAnON OmCEt 6)1 SOUTH SHERMAM STRICT- CHIOAOO
99 ^*t Sr. Codyt
Z h«T« iMML BMailas fop a loot tlat to ivito yoB m Boto tliankiiig you for- tJio lotto'r foy •oot ttao nzAL.
fhoro In no dotibt that «• !»▼• lAdlEod litorary solidarity In Aasrloa. Our pooplo bOTO boon abserbod in to aony difforont thingo tbat tboy hoTo not had tiao to f onnilato and ditonao litorary otandardat thor u^ otlll a vol'torlac ■aos.
Oar cotmtnr bat boon rapidly ooaiag into a position of iittomational proainanoo^ and that Miot bring f ith it a oonao of national dig- nity and ad doubt national litorary aolf?rttUf atlen*
M9tt oordlally yovra^
uia S!«ff « .Ul.
T,t.9ttif^
ntOFKSSIONAL STYLE, ABRANOEMBNT SUITXD TO LONG LETTER
72 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
The signature should always be clearly legible tmlesa it is printed on the letter-head. It is a great nidsanee to get a letter from a man and not be able to make out his name. Women should place *'Miss'* or *'Mrs.'* in parentheses before their names in writing to strangers, or sign their personal name and write their husband's name with Mrs. below in parentheses. It is very em- barrassing, not to say rude, for a woman to sign initials like a man, or fail to indicate whether she is married or single.
The envelop should have the address in the lower half, well spaced out, the body of it a little to the right of the center, but never crowded up against the right- hand margin. The name, the street, the town, the state should each have a line to itself, with good space betweem it and the next item. The last item should be an eighth to a quarter of an inch from the bottom of the envelop the first item a trifle above the middle, and the space between equally divided between the items. The ends of the lines, except the last, may have commas or no punctuation. Periods are wrong. If the address is long, it is desirable to put one item in the lower left- hand comer, on the same line as the state (the last line).
The punctuation of a letter is formal and conven- tional as far as the opening and close are concerned. In the body of a letter the comma is used only when required to make the meaning clear. As a rule, the letters of persons trained on book-rules are over- punctuated. When no confusion will result it is justi- fiable to omit a comma regardless of a rule. Trans- posed phrases and clauses when short need not be set off by commas, yet contrast or distinction may always be shown by inserting a comma, regardless of rules. Im business letters the essential rules are very few.
THE FORM OF THE LETTER 73
Rules for Commas
Rule 1. Words, phrases, and clauses in a true series^ should be separated by commas, including a comma before '*and" preceding the last item (omitting the comma before the **and,'' tho still common, is not now regarded as the best usage).
Rule 2. Clauses and participial phrases that are merely explanatory are set oflE by commas, while those which are restrictive are not set off.
Rule 3. Transposed words or clauses are set off by commas, unless short so that no confusion would be likely.
Rule 4. "Words or phrases thrown into the sentence are set off by conunas.
Rule 5. In compound sentences, a comma should pre- cede the *'and'' or **or*' if the subject of the last part is exprest (a true compound sentence), and should nearly always precede **but," or be used before **and" or "or" when it is followed by some disjunctive word like *'also** (if indeed a semicolon is not required). If clauses are short and closely coimected, no commas need be used even when required by this rule, and when they are long, and grouping by commas will help easy read- ing, commas should be inserted even when they would be contrary to the rule.
Rules for Semicolons
Semicolons are used for only three purposes, to sep- arate sentences which are short and closely related; to separate groups of words which are themselves sub- divided by conmias (as items of goods in an order when there are several descriptive items) ; and before "but" and other disjunctive words like "and also" in com- pound sentences when the second part is strongly con- trasted.
74 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
Rules for Colons
Colons are used only after salutations and words equivalent to **as follows.'* The dash indicates an ab- rupt transition, or is used as a mild colon to precede summaries. Other marks do not offer difficulty, but require merely attention to their use.
How to Study Punctuation
With these rules engraved deeply and permanently on the mind, explain each punctuation-mark in the let- ters in this book.
How to Master the Form of Letters
The best exercise on the form of letters is to copy the model letters through this book till this can be done without error and in handsome artistic form. Ten or a dozen letters of different kinds should be copied.
THE CONVERSATIONAL STYLE IN LETTER- WRITING
Natural and Easy Ways to Begin a Business Letter*
DON'T begin all your letters in the same well-worn, stereotyped fashion, as :
**In reply to your esteemed letter of the 12th inst., we beg to apprise'*;
''In answer to your letter of the 5th inst., we have the honor to inform you";
**We are in possession of your favor of the 28th Feb., to which we hasten to reply";
"Tour esteemed letter of the 16th inst. is duly to hand, in which you advise me to take good note";
'^ Referring to your esteemed communication of the 16th inst., please send."
YOU WOULDN'T TALK LIKE THAT. Don't write like that.
The Right Way
Begin at once on what you have to say, and acknowl- edge incidentally the letter you are answering. For example, begin (if the letter contains an order) :
**We thank you cordially for the order contained in your letter of the 16th inst., just at hand, but wish to inquire."
If letter asks a favor of some kind, begin :
"We have read yours of the 16th carefully, but can not see our way at present to grant your request" ; or,
f»
^The use of capital letters in the text happily illustrates the peculiar intensified emphasis characteristic of "business Bnfflish.
75
76 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
"We fuUy appreciate all you say in your letter of the 16th iiist.y just received, but*'; or,
"I should very much like to do what you ask in your letter of the 16th inst., but.*'
If the letter asks information, b^in to give the infor- mation at once:
"Yes, we have such a machine as you describe in your letter of January 16th, and are sending you our catalog, in which you will find full description of it on page 000**; or,
**We are sending you our catalog, in which you wiU find the information you ask for in yours of the 16th — pages 000 and 000**; or,
**It gives us pleasure to quote you on the articles mentioned in your favor of the 16th inst., as follows:'* etc.
Natural and Easy Way to Qose a Business Letter
DON'T dose your letter with a set phrase that your customer will see every time he gets a letter from you, and so know that it means nothing. Business letters are too short to be filled with words that do not mean the most that words can mean.
Don't say:
*' Trusting we may have a continuance of your valued patronage, we are, your most obedient servants"; or,
** Soliciting your further orders, we remain. Dear Sir*'; or,
*' Trusting this will be satisfactory, we are.**
Say anything that is natural, friendly, and intelli- gent, and do not insist on ending your letters with "we are" or *'we remain." These are not bad words, but they are greatly overworked. Get variety and intelli- gent meaning into the ends of your letters.
THE CONVERSATIONAL STYLE 77
"Thanking you cordially for your order, we remain/' is a standard form that may be used when a mere form is required.
"We shall be very glad if the quotations we have given meet your requirements, and you will favor us with your order. Truly yours.'*
"If you need anything more in our line, we hope you will remember us. Very truly yours.**
"We are anxious to do everything we can for the convenience and accommodation of our customers, and hope you will remember us when you have further orders to place.'*
**We hope we have succeeded in pleasing you, and trust you will afford us another opportunity of serving you.**
If the letter is not one requiring what would corre- spond to a graceful bow on the part of a salesman taking leave of a customer, simply write ** Yours truly," "Yours faithfully," or whatever form seems most ap- propriate, and sign your letter. The habit of always forcing in some meaningless close is a bad one. Polite- ness and a pleasant manner are always appreciated, however, if they are genuine. The moment they be- come ** machine-made" they lose their force. Therefore, be genuinely polite in all your letters as well as in your personal dealings.
How to Acquire an Easy Business Style
NEVER USE IN A LETTER WORDS YOU WOULD NOT USE IN CONVERSATION.
They make your letter seem stiff and formal, and pre- vent your getting into sympathy with the man or woman to whom you are writing.
78 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
Words to be avoided are: Same (as a pronoun — ^the same), herewith, beg, esteemed, apprise, have the honor.
There is a simple method by which you can acquire an easy and natural style in letter-writing.
Imagine that your customer is sitting opposite you. Talk to him in your letter just as you would if he really sat there. Never use a word in writing that you would not use in talking. Plunge at once into what you have to say. Say it naturally and without effort. Be sure you say everything your customer will want to know. When you have said what he will want to hear, stop.
Example
Mr. John Jones,
Pueblo, Colo.
Dear Sir:
Replying to your esteemed favor of the 6th inst., we beg to advise you that at present writing we are out of Merchant brand all-wool socks of the size you mention, but consignment is now en route to us, and we expect to have a full stock not later than the 20th. We are hold- ing your order, and as soon as goods arrive we will give same our prompt attention.
Hoping this will be satisfactory, we remain
Yours faithfully.
The Burley Merchandise Co., Ltd.
A Better Style
Mr. John Jones,
Pueblo, Colo.
Dear Sir:
We are very sorry to say that just at this moment we do not have in stock Merchant brand all-wool socks of the size mentioned in your order of the 6th. We have a
THE CONVERSATIONAL STYLE 79
shipment on the way, and expect to receive it in a very few days. As soon as the goods arrive we will fill your order and dispatch it at the earliest possible moment.
We trust you will suffer no inconvenience from the short delay. Very truly yours,
The Burley Merchandise Co., Ltd.
Very simple notes are often worded in awkward com- mercial phrases. Stiff formality is especially objec- tiooable when the occasion is unimportant.
Secretary's Letter of Acknowledgment
Dear Madam :
Mr. Jones requests me to acknowledge receipt of the book you were so kind as to leave yesterday, and to state that he hopes to see you soon and thank you in person*
Respectfully yours,
"Bequests,** ^'acknowledge receipt,'* "state'* are commercialized words and so to be avoided in a note like this, which should have some grace and literary good manners. Here is a better version :
Dear Madam :
Mr. Jones wishes me to thank you for the boojc you kindly left yesterday at his oflSce. He was sorry that he was out at the time, but asks me to say that he hopes to see you very soon and thank you in person.
Very truly yours,
Simple Letter Enclosing Check to Pay a Bill
Original: Gentlemen :
We b^ to enclose our check for $134.60 to cover your invoice of July 14:th, which we enclose. Please receipt the invoice and return to us at your early convenience, wi twUeve ns. Yours truly,
80 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
Changed :
Qentlemen :
We are enclosing our check for $134.60 in payment of the accompanying invoice. Will you kindly acknowl- edge receipt?
We thank you in advance. Yours truly,
The slight changes in this letter do not amount to much the first time or the second time, but the thousandth time the accumulated impression is vast.
A Letter of Endorsement Poor:
Dear Sir :
I have received a copy of your book entitled ''Busi- ness Correspondence," and beg to advise that I have ex- amined it with care. I find if a remarkably practical and useful work, full of common-sense ideas and well fitted to be found on the desk of any correspondent Permit me to congratulate you on your success in this regard.
Yours truly,
Better :
Dear Sir :
I have been reading your book on ''Business Corre- spondence," and it has interested me more than any- thing else on this subject that I have seen for a long time. Your suggestions are full of common sense, and I am sure they will really help any correspondent who may apply them to his own work. They have helped me, and I am eager to see anything else on this subject you may write.
Congratulating you, I am Sincerely yours,
THE CONVERSATIONAL STYLE 81
Answer to an Inquiry
The following letter is given as a model in a recent book on business letter-vrriting. Gentlemen :
In answer to your communication of Dec. Ist, with reference to the character and business stability of a certain firm in this city, would say that upon investiga- tion we find said firm to be financially embarrassed, and utterly devoid of honorable, reliable business principles. We can not recommend you to do business with them.
Very truly yours,
Beserve and restraint should always characterize a letter like this. Greater force often lies in what is left unsaid. Gentlemen :
On receipt of your letter of Dec. 1st we made investi- gations, and as a result we do not recommend credit Iransactions. Yours truly,
The Telegraphic Style
This is poor : Dear Sir :
I enclose herewith return copy of lease favor J. H. Jones, same having been executed on behalf of this com- pany. Please* deliver to owner and acknowledge receipt hereof. Yours truly,
"Herewith" and **hereof " are good words to avoid- especially the latter. What is the objection to a simple, straightforward statement in natural English t The fol- lowing is shorter as well as simpler :
Dear Sir:
Will you kindly hand to J. H. Jones the enclosed lease, which has been duly executed by the Company, and acknowledge your receipt of it. Yours truly.
82 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
Colloquialisms and Slang
Since business letters are written in conversational English, the standard of purity is different from that which applies to literary English.
Slang may be defined as words or phrases which have a touch of vulgarity about them which prohibits their use in writing of any kind, and also in conversation.
Colloquialisms are homely expressions which do not shock the refined ear in conversation, but which are out of place in careful literary compositions.
Colloquialisms may be used in letter-writing if neces- sary to make the meaning clear and forceful, but slang should be strictly avoided.
AN ILLUSTRATIVE CHAIN OF LETTERS
The Inquiry
Cranford, N. H., March 30, 1919. Messrs. Jones & Co.,
Boston, Mass. Gentlemen :
I wish a dress made to order, and write to know what you can do for me. Do you send samples of spring dress-goods t And do you have anything which shows styles and how to take measurements}
Oblige, (Mrs.) Bertha M. Smith.
The Response
Boston, Mass., April 1, 1919. Mrs. Bertha M. Smith,
Cranford, N. H. Dear Madam:
In accordance with your request of March 30, we take pleasure in sending you our spring catalog under sep-
THE CONVERSATIONAL STYLE 83
arate cover, induding a large variety of sample pieces of sammer dress-goods, representing aU the latest and prettiest weaves.
We •believe that we carry the largest line of high-grade dress-goods in this country, and the name * 'Jones" is a synonym for excellence at a moderate price. If you will write us more in detail, we shall have the greatest pleasure in assisting you to make a suitable selection. We trust we may hear from you again in a short time.
Yours very truly,
Jones & Co., By S. D.
It is not necessary to be stiff even if you are formal in a business letter. In this letter and the others in this chapter, colloquialisms would be out of place. You can not talk to a strange lady in the same free style you would to an intimate friend.
The Order
April 9, 1919. Gentlemen:
I have decided to have a dress made of the goods like the enclosed sample, in your style No. 997. I will have it full silk-lined, price $40, exactly as described in the catalog. I have filled out a measurement-blank, and enclose it.
I don't see how I can be quite sure that the dress will fit me unless I have tried it on. I think I may go to Boston the latter part of the month, and if you can have it ready I might try it on then.
Very truly yours,
(Mrs.) Bertha M. Smith.
84 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
Acknowledging the Order Dear Madam: April 11, 1919.
We thank you for your order of April 9 and riiall hope to please you in every way in filling it. You will re- member, however, that it is stated in our catalog that at least half the price of a made-to-order garment must be paid in advance. We ask this not only of you but of every one, for you can readily understand that this is the only protection we have. While ready-made gar- ments may always be returned and money will be re- funded, we can not take back made-to-order garments or exchange them.
We guarantee, however, that we will give you a per- fect fit, and that you will find the workmanship and style unexceptionable in every way. If the dress is not made precisely as you order it, your money will be re- funded promptly. You will see, therefore, that you, too, are fully protected.
The most convenient ^ay will be for you to send the entire amount in advance. If you wish, however, you may send half, and the other half will be collected when the goods are delivered.
As soon as we hear from you we will begin work at once, and if you are to be in Boston you can call and have the dress fitted in our workrooms.
We hope we may be able to please you.
Yours truly,
Jones & Co. The Inquiry
Montpelier, Vt, Jan. 10, 1919. Coventry Supply House, Coventry, N. Y. Gentlemen :
I have your catalog, and have looked all through it to find the kind of gun I want, but it does not seem to be
THE CONVERSATIONAL STYLE 85
there. All the guns described in the catalog are rifles, and I want a light shotgun — a good gun for little money. Do you have any guns of this kind?
Do you sell furs? My wife wants to use some in mak- ing up a jacket. If you do not handle them, can you tell me where I can get them?
I shall be very much obliged if you will let me hear from you immediately.
Very truly yours,
Martin Fisher.
The Response'*'
Jan. 16, 1919. Mr. Martin Fisher,
Montpelier, Vt. Dear Sir:
We suspect from your letter of January 10 that you do not have our regular winter catalog, and take plea- sure in sending you a copy under separate cover. Probably the catalog to which you refer is our special catalog of rifles in which no shotguns are described. If you will look on pages 95-96 of the catalog we are send- ing you, you will And a number of shotguns described and quoted. Some are priced very low indeed, yet we fully guarantee everything we sell, and you may be sure that you will find nothing better of its kind on the market.
We do not handle furs not made up into garments. For the sMns we would refer you to Messrs. Back, Becker & Co., Washington Street, Boston. If you ask them for '* scraps*' and tell them exactly what use your wife wishes to make of them, possibly you can get small
* Observe tbat the response is fall, courteous, and helpful, tho the subject-matter seems unimportant. Heads of houses could not afford to write such letters, but employees at low salaries may easily be trained to do so, and carefully prepared letters may be adapted so ag to be used many times.
86 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
pieces at a low price which will serve as well as expen- sive whole skins.
We hope you will look our catalog through carefully at your leisure, for we know you will find many ex- cellent bargains. We carry only new and high-class stock, and permit our customers to return, at our ex- pense, any article they do not find exactly as represented. If at any time you receive any goods that do not please you, tho we have filled your order exactly as you have sent it, still you can return the goods and we will refund your money, less forwarding charges. We are always pleased to answer questions, and will do everything in our power to aid you.
Yours truly,
Coventry Supply House.
Assignment IX
Supposing that we have selected a business which we have studied with care so that we can apply to it the System of Analysis, and have chosen some one item of goods which we understand well enough so that we know what questions customers might ask, let us —
1. Formulate the question orally and then in a letter of inquiry,
2. Answer the question orally, and then in a letter replying to the inquiry,
3. In reply to No. 2 place a conditional order, first stating the order orally and then in the form of a letter,
4. Acknowledge the order in an appreciative way, first orally, then in a letter.
5. We may repeat these four steps in the study of another item of goods, and if necessary a third item, until this interchange of business can be executed with some tact, human feeling, and intelligent sympathy.
II
ORDERING GOODS AND HANDLING
INQUIRIES
Two Kinds of Letters — ^Buying and Selling
In business there are two things — ^buying and selling. Successful buying consists in knowing what to buy, and the only important thing in buying is to specify every- thing you want and make it perfectly clear just how you want it.
Buying-letters should be just as brief as possible — they can't be too brief in the mere matter of words if they cover clearly every essential point.
Selling-letters, on the other hand, must be as long as the prospective customer will read — and must display all the fine art and highest skill in letter-writing. It is in these letters that the fine art of business English is dis- played, and in which the true art of advertising must be constantly exercised.
Ordering Goods
In ordering goods be sure to—
1. Make a list, or arrange in a column, if there are several items, to avoid confusion,
2. Give sizes, styles, and all other details you possibly can, or clearly explain what you want,
3. State how money is sent, or how you intend to make payment,
4. Indicate whether shipment is to be made by mail, express, or freight. Remember that if goods are to be
87
88 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
sent by mail, money should usually accompany the order, including an allowance for the postage.
The letter can not be too brief , but it must be dear and complete.
A Poor Letter Ordering Goods
Ashford,* Feb. 8, 1919.
Whittington & Co., New York.*
Gentlemen :
Please send as soon as possible Band-McNally's atlas,' a dozen handkerchiefs, five cakes of soap, and some writing-paper and a half a dozen pens. Send as soon as you can,* and I will pay on arrival.*
Yours truly,
Martha Martin.
1. The address is not sufficient, since the state is omitted. If the town is small, always give the county.
2. Always give the street address when you can.
3. Band, McNally & Co. publish many atlases at many prices, and it would be impossible to know from this statement what was wanted. There are many grades of handkerchiefs, many brands of soap, and a great variety of paper and pensi Not a single item in this order could be intelligently supplied.
4. This is practically a repetition of the language with which the letter opens.
5. Small consignments of goods are usually not shipped to a distance unless the price is paid in advance. In any case, there should be a clear statement as to just how the goods should be forwarded, whether by mail, express, or freight, unless there is a free wagon-delivery from a large local store.
OBDEEINO GOODS, HANDLING INQUIRIES 89
The Same Letter Properly Written
Ashford, Conn., Feb. 8, 1919.
Messrs. Whittington & Co., 3 Whitehall St.,
New York City.
Gentlemen :
Please send as soon as possible the following:
1 Rand-McNally's Popular Atlas of the World, $2;
1 doz. ladies' white linen handkerchie&, the best value yon have at about 25c. each;
6 cakes of glycerine soap, 10c. a cake, 6 for 50c. ;
A box of ladies' cream note-paper and envelops, rough finish, unruled, about 35c., or any special value you have of this grade.
I enclose money-order for $5, and will ask you to refund any balance in my favor or prepay forwarding charges.
Yours truly,
(Miss) Martha; Martin.
End. M. 0.
Notice in regard to this letter —
1. That while it is not necessary to prefix ''Messrs." to a firm name, it bespeaks your culture and education, as well as your courteous disposition, to be careful in these details.
2. When different articles iare ordered, each item shoxdd be given a line by itself — ^that is, should be made a paragraph, even if, as in this case, the various items are separated by semicolons and form parts of a single sentoacid. This is a case in which the sentence includes several paragraphs.
90 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
3. Observe that items of this sort should be separated by semicolons, while after the last one you place a period. .The semicolon means, in a practical way, ** There is more to come," while the period means, ^'This is the last item/*
4. Always describe what you want so fully that yon are sure the clerk will know exactly what to send you. Never send an order by mail for something you are your- self in doubt about. It is better to write first for infor- mation.
5. Many women have an idea that it is independent to sign initials (so that a stranger receiving a letter does not know whether it comes from a man or a woman), or else the simple given name without Miss or Mrs. ; but the only courteous way is to relieve the stranger of the em- barrassment of guessing whether you are married or single, and avoid ridiculous blunders by writing Miss or Mrs. before the name in parentheses. Only vulgar people write it without the parentheses.
Answering Inquiries
Before answering any letter be sure that you under- stand fully all about the subject concerning which you are going to write. If you do not understand clearly every phase of it, make inquiries until you understand.
When you understand the matter yourself, explain everything clearly, point by point, to the customer.
Think of the customer as a little child, and tell him aU about first this point, and then the next point, and then the next. Think carefully just what he knows, and just what he would like to find out. Try to put your- self in his place.
ORDEfiING GOODS, HANDLING INQUIRIES 91
A Poor Answer to a Letter Ordering Goods
(Letter-head and date.) Miss (Mrs.!) Martha Martin, Ashford, Conn. (!).^ Dear Miss^ or Madam:
We hereby* acknowledge receipt of your esteemed* order of the 8th inst., which has had our prompt atten- tion.*^ We are unable to ship the goods, however, since you do not state what quality and kind of goods you wish, and make no enclosure of remittance.*
If you will supply us with the necessary information as to quality and kind of goods desired, and will remit a sufficient amount, we will give your order immediate attention.
Yours truly,
1. Do not insult a customer even by the hinted criti- cism of a question-mark.
2. **Dear Madam" is sufficient.
3. Such words as ''hereby," ''herewith," etc., are usually unnecessary in a letter, and help to give it that forbidding formality which repels and deadens interest.
4. Useless jargon, quite meaningless.
5. How many business letters contain statements of this kind, which really mean nothing, even if they are not untrue !
6. The writer evidently did not know what she wanted, and detailed information should have been sup- plied.
The Right Answer to This Letter
Martha Martin, (Letter-head and date.)
Ashford, Conn. Dear Madam : We have received your order of the 8th, but are
92 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
unable to fill it until we find out a little more exactly what you want.
Do you wish Rand-McNally's Popular Atlas of the World, price $2.00? We sell a great many of these.
What price do you wish to pay for handkerchiefs, and do you wish white or colored, ladies' or gentlemen's size?
What brand of soap do you prefer, and what price would you care to pay?
We have ladies' fancy writing-paper, put up 24 sheets and 24 envelops in a box, at 25c. to 50c. a box; also very good note-paper by the pound at 20c., envelops to match 10c. a package.
It will be cheaper for you to send the necessary amount of money in advance, and let us forward by express, you paying the charges when you receive the goods. Of course, we wiU let you exchange or return any goods you do not like.
As soon as we hear from you we will give your order prompt attention.
Very truly yours,
. Notice —
1. That as ''Martha Martin" did not write *'Miss" or '*Mrs." before her name, no title can safely be used.
2. That m selling by mail you must give the smallest order as much attention as the largest. The small buyer may become the big buyer ; and besides, the greatest suc- cesses have been based on uniform courtesy to all.
3. That the ignorant customer wants suggestion and help — ^which should be sympathetic, and not officiously obtrusive.
4. That every item spoken of should have a paragraph to itself, and the facts should be stated in perfectly sim- ple language, without any trade terms.
OEDBBING GOODS, HANDLING INQUIRIES 93
5. That while a letter ordering goods may be as short as you can make it, a letter explaining difficulties must be sufficiently long to cover fully all the details.
A Poor Reply to Letter of Inquiry
(A customer writes to say, "I am thinking of buying a piano. I want something good, and cheap. What would you advise? Have you silver G strings for a violin? I have a pretty good violin, but the Q string grates somewhat, and I thought possibly a silver string might be better. What do you charge for Chopin's ''Nocturnes?'')
Feb. 3, 1919. Mrs. John Farewell,
Aberdeen, N. Dak. My dear Madam,
In reply to your esteemed favor, which seems to have no date,^ we are sending you our complete catalog, in which you will find full particulars of all the styles of pianos, violin-strings, and music which we have, with prices attached.^ We sincerely hope you will be able to make a suitable selection, and that we may be favored with your valued^ order at an early date.
Trusting this information may be entirely satisfac- tory,* we beg to remain,'
Yours truly,
1. Almost an insult to the customer to remind him that he has not dated his letter.
2. ''Attached" is used in a technical commercial sense and might confuse an ignorant person. This ref- erence to prices may just as well be omitted, for the customer in looking over the catalog will find the prices.
3. ** Valued*' is meaningless here.
94 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
4. A word greatly overworked, and having little or no distinct meaning.
5. This last sentence has been inserted merely to fill out and make a close. It is just as well to omit it en- tirely and write simply, ** Yours truly."
The Same Letter Rewritten
The letter quoted above is a very stupid one, and is precisely the kind that is likely to drive a customer away just when relations have been opened and an excellent sale is in prospect. Any salesman who met a customer in a store in this indifferent fashion would be discharged without ceremony.
Blank & Blank, Chicago, 111., Feb. 3, 1919.
Mrs. John Farewell,
Aberdeen, N. Dak. Dear Madam:
We are much interested in your letter just received and are sending you our catalog.
About what price did you wish to pay for a piano, and for what sized room did you want it? We have a great variety, and many excellent instruments at as- tonishingly low prices. If you will kindly tell us just what you had in mind, we shall take great pleasure in advising you to the best of our ability.
Quite possibly a silver string would improve the tone of your violin. We can send you one for $1.00.
We enclose a little folder with prices of standard music which we carry. You will find Chopin's Noc- turnes quoted on pages 3, 9, and 12. You wiU also find them in some of the general collections described on page 2. If you do not find just what you want, write more in detail.
ORDERING GOODS, HANDLING INQUIRIES 95
We shall look for another letter from you in a day or two, for we feel sure we can please you, and you can always depend on fair and courteous treatment from us.
Very truly yours,
SELLING LETTERS— WITH THE INQUIRIES THEY
ANSWER
The First Inquiry
Mar. 3, 1919. Messrs. Macy & Co.,
New York, N. Y. Gentlemen :
I understand you sell men's furnishings by mail. Have you anything that will show fully what you oflEer? I wish to buy, but should like full information in regard to what I purchase, and also should like to know if I may return anything I do not like. An early reply will oblige.
Yours truly,
Henry Farley.
Reply to the Inquiry
Mar. 4, 1919. Dear Sir:
In compliance with your request of yesterday we hasten to send you our complete catalog, in which you will find a detailed description of our entire line of goods.
We make it a rule to protect our customers in every possible way. If goods are not satisfactory, they may be returned at our expense. We also forward C. 0. D., with privilege of examination.
We believe that we have the finest goods in our par- ticular line to be found in New York, or anywhere else.
96 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
You will find us prompt and ooarteous, and anxious to do anything we can to serve you. Our salesmen and correspondents are at your disposal, and we shall be glad to give you fuller information at any time if yon let us know just what you are looking for.
Trusting we may hear from you again at an early date, and have the honor of filling your orders, we are
Most cordially yours,
The Follow-up Letter
Mar. 16, 1919. Dear Sir:
About two weeks ago we had an inquiry from yon in regard to our line of goods, and wrote you immediately, sending you our catalog. We should be glad to know if the catalog reached you promptly. If it did not come to hand, please let us know and we will send another.
We are confident that we have the best goods in our line to be found in New York, or in any city, and at reasonable prices. You will not find anywhere a house that will extend you more courtesies, or deal by you more fairly, nor will you anywhere get prompter ser- vice. We pride ourselves on the promptness with which we fill all orders. Many of them are fiUed the very day they are received.
May we not hear from you shortly and know in what way me may serve you?
Yours truly.
The Second Inquiry
Mar. 20, 1919. Gentlemen :
I want a pretty pink and blue cravat for about 50c. I do not care to go higher. I want one that will wear well and look rich. What would you recommend! I
ORDERING GOODS, HANDLING INQUIRIES 97
i: also want some shirts and collars. Can you recommend iti. your 50c. unlaundered shirts for wear? Do you think ii your 10c. collars are as good as the 25c. onest* '!' As soon as I hear from you I will send you an order.
Yours truly,
Henry Farley.
1-:
IT:.
Answer ta the Second Inquiry
Mar. 21, 1919. Dear Sir;
We think we have such a tie as you describe in your letter of yesterday, and if you will send us an order, with as full a description as possible of what you want, we will exercise our best judgment, and believe we can send you something pretty. In any case, you know, it may be returned if you do not like it, and we will make another selection or refund your money.
The fronts of our 50c. unlaundered shirts are rather small, and, of course, the material is not of the finest. We have something at 75c., which you will find de- scribed under No. 4786 on page 32 of the catalog, which we can recommend in every possible way, and we believe that you will find this a better bargain than the cheaper shirts, tho they are as good for the money as you will find elsewhere, and, if anything, a little better.
We do not hesitate a moment in recommending our 10c. collars, in quarter sizes. We can fit you perfectly, and you will not be able to tell the difference between these and collars costing double. Remember that you get two of these for one of the others.
We shall hope to receive your order at an early date.
Very truly yours.
* This seems a foolish question, bnt may have a certain meaning not fally exprest which the correspondent must divine and answer intelli- gently and politely.
98 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
The Order
Mar. 30, 1919. Gentlemen :
Please send me your neatest pink and blue 50c. cravat, two 75c. unlaundered shirts, and half a dozen of your 10c. collars. I enclose $5, and will ask you to return any balance remaining.
Yours truly,
Henry Farley.
Acknowledging the Order and Asking Information
Mar. 31. 1919. Dear Sir:
Thank you for your order of yesterday, with remit- tance of $5. Unfortunately you omitted to give the size of shirts and collars. We would suggest that you send not only the neck-measurement, but the length of sleeve desired. In measuring the sleeve, measure from the seam on the top of the shoulder to the wrist.
As soon as we know the sizes desired we will give your order prompt attention, and you will get the goods within a day or two.
Once more thanking you, we are
Yours truly,
April 3, 1919. Gentlemen :
My neck measure is 16 inches, and sleeve 33. Kindly send the goods as soon as possible.
Yours truly,
Henry Parley.
ORDERING GOODS, HANDLING INQUIRIES 99
A Complaint'*'
April 5, 1919. Gentlemen :
I expected to receive to-day at the latest the goods ordered of 70a March 30, but they have not reached me. Let me know by return mail when I shall get them.
Yours truly,
Henry Parley.
Answer to the Complaint
April 6, 1919. Dear Sir:
The goods ordered by you March 30, you will remem- ber, we were unable to forward until we had received the sizes given in yours of April 3. It takes about one day for us to select the goods and fill out invoices. These were dispatched yesterday, and notification mailed you. No doubt you have received the goods before this.
We hope you will be pleased with what we have sent you, and that we may be favored with additional orders from you in the future. Yours truly,
Goods Received; Customer Dissatisfied
April 6, 1919. Qentlemen :
The goods I received from you came this evening. The shirts and collars are all right, but I do not like the cravat at all. I wanted something quiet and sober, and you have sent me a flaring, high-colored thing. I send it back by post, and will ask you to send me another, such as I want. Yours truly, * r
Henry Farley. :
* This complaint 1b absurd, but reonlres just as polite an answer M if it were well founded.
100 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
A Pleasant Letter of Adjustment
April 7, 1919. Dear Sir:
We are very sorry to see by your favor of the 6th that the cravat we chose did not please you. We are glad you acted promptly and returned it, and no doubt we shall receive it to-day or to-morrow. As soon as it comes to hand we will choose another that we hope will please you better, and send it at the earliest possible moment.
We are always anxious to please our customers, and you will find us ready at all times to make every pos- sible effort to meet your wishes.
We trust we shall be more fortunate this time in our selection of a cravat.
Very truly yours,
The Customer Impatient
April 10, 1919. Gentlemen :
A day or two ago I received your letter dated April 7, in which you said you would send me another cravat at once for the one I returned to you. I have not yet received it, and wish you would trace it.
Yours truly,
Henry Farlqr.
The Company Always Polite
April 11, 1919. Dear Sir:
We regret to know by your letter of the 10th that the second cravat sent you had not come to hand. It was posted on April 8, but the post-office is often a little 4oW with parcels of merchandise, and it is our experi- ence that goods sometimes lie a day or two before they go out.
OEDEEING GOODS, HANDLING INQUIEIES 101
If you do not receive the cravat by the 14th, let us hear from you again, and we will do what we can to trace it.
Hoping, however, that there will be no more delay, and that the article when received will prove satisfac- tory, we are Very truly yours,
A Follow-up Letter for a Later Order
July 25, 1919. Dear Sir:
Some time ago we received a small order from you, which we hope we filled to your satisfaction.
We are mailing to you to-day our new autumn cata- log, and ask you to look it over carefully, for we believe we have as fine a line of goods as you will get anywhere, and at most reasonable prices.
You will find us exceptionally prompt, and always courteous. Anything you do not like may be returned at our expense, and we wiYL send you something else in its place, or refund your money. So you see that you take no risk whatever in shopping by mail.
May we not hear from you again soon t
Faithfully yours,
Assignment X. Letter Ordering Goods
The writing of clear, definite, and complete orders is an ioLportant thing in every business. In a manufac- turing business, raw material must be ordered, and in a mercantile business, orders must be placed to replenish the stock. In this assignment we shall confine our- selves to orders for goods described in the printed matter which we use as our text on that business.
Let us write a letter containing an order for twelve items, being sure that every detail necessary to filling the order has been stated. These letters should be ex-
102 HUMAN NATUEE IN BUSINESS
changed between members of the class and carefolly checked over to find omissions or unnecessary words. If defects are found, either the person finding them may write a letter asking for the missing information, or the teacher may require the writing of a second or third letter ordering goods till this work can be done with business-like completeness and accuracy.
Assignment XL Writing and Answering Inquiries
The class may be divided into two portions. Mem- bers of each half may search the printed matter of the business that is studied to find questions which would be fair, inquiries, even if they themselves know the answers. Then section one will exchange letters with section two, and they will proceed to answer the in- quiries as in a real business house. Some original search and investigation may be necessary to get the answers to the questions. This will lead to a deeper study of the business than had been made, and outside persons familiar with the business will have to be interviewed. These may be any employees in that line of business with whom it is practicable to get in touch.
Assignment XIL Making Sales-Arguments
When the information required by the preceding assignment has been secured and discust so that all the points are understood those receiving the inquiries should answer them with a view to making sales. If the arguments do not seem sufiScient, the reply may be an evasive letter making objections; but if it appears to be a successful sales-presentation, a letter containing an order should be written. When orders are not given, a follow-up letter should be written in an attempt to strengthen the sales-appeal.
OEDERING GOODS, HANDLING INQUIRIES 103
Assignment XIII. Caring for Delayed Shipments
After orders have been placed, each member of the class should write a letter complaining of delayed ship- ment, and the other member of the class to whom it is addrest should reply with a tactful, soothing letter cal- culated to produce patience.
Assignment XIV. Adjusting Complaints
When finally the goods are supposed to have been re- ceived, a letter may be written by each member of the Irwo sections to some member of the opposite section making complaint as to the condition of the goods, and a pleasant letter of adjustment should be written in reply.
Ill
SYSTEM IN HANDLING CORRESPONDENCE
How to Write One Hundred Good Letters a Day
You write one hundred letters a day.
They all seem to be different.
In any large correspondence, the majority of the let- ters will be routine — that is, on one, two, or three general subjects. They may all have the burden, **Pay up"; they may all say, **Buy my goods''; they may be answers to inquiries on one particular line of goods; they may be answers to complaints about shipments.
Carefully think over the letters of any typical day. Divide them into a few classes. Take up first the largest class. With carbon copies of a day's letters before you, choose a number which are typical of the largest class. Bead half a dozen of these aloud in succession ; you will be surprized to find how much alike they are.
There is a great likeness ; there is a little difference.
The first thing you want to do is to find out the best ways of handling the part that is common to all.
Spend an entire evening studying that type over. Try to think of new, good ways of expressing your meaning. Drop your old hack-phrases and get new, natural ones. Spend several hours in writing one letter in different ways. Choose the best ways — ^not one, but several. Then take up another letter of the same class, and work on that very slowly. Refer to any good models you may have at hand, to any correspondence you may receive of this kind.
Make one really good letter.
104
SYSTEM IN CORRESPONDENCE 105
'With, this good model in your mind you can vary in a multitude of ways in your dictation on the spur of the moment, tho without making any essential or very im- portant change ; and if the model is good, the variations can. be made correctly tho quickly.
Then take up another class of letters and master that.
But master one kind of letter at a time — ^take a week for it if necessary. A great deal of time spent in prep- aration of this kind will save vastly more time in the routine of your work, and you can compose in a few seconds a letter just as good as if you spent a day over it. The chances are, indeed, that when you are once fully prepared, you will write a better letter if you 'write quickly than if you write slowly.
Forms and How to Use Them Successfully
Demosthenes had a book containing forty or fifty pero- rations suitable for any occasion.
We find those form-paragraphs used again and again in his greatest orations.
He studied until he found the very best possible way of saying a certain thing, or several good ways, and then lie stuck to them.
Form-Sentences
Do not attempt to write form-letters in ordinary cor- respondence.
Use form-sentences.
Study carefully the easy and natural ways of saying some of the things you have to say often. Find two or three ways of saying the same thing. Improve those forms whenever you can.
Then use them judiciously.
Beware of falling into a rut. Don't use the form
106 HUMAN NATUEE IN BUSINESS I
because it is a form and easy; use it because in that form you have found the best possible way of saying what you have to say. That is why Demosthenes used his form-paragraphs.
When to Use a Form-Letter
If you have a large number of inquiries, all just alike, it would be folly to do otherwise than follow the best possible reply that you can devise with the most careful study. Get a form and let the typewriter copy it.
If you have a large number of inquiries all just alike except for the addition of some slight question, begin or end your letter by giving the special information, and in the rest of the letter follow your form.
When you write a circular letter to persons you have never heard from or can not distinguish, divide those persons into classes according to profession, habits, or education and position in the world, and write an en- tirely separate form-letter for each class, adapting that letter to the class just as carefully as you would to an individual.
When Not to Use Form-Letters
Never use f orm-letters in writing to persons you know are different, whose letters to you differ ever so slightly, or who will feel somehow that you are putting them in a wide class. The only good form-letter is the one which each reader will think was a carefully planned letter to him alone of all the people in the world.
Learn to Freshen Your Letters
Letters as well as advertising need to be freshened occasionally, and freshened in a radical way. It is not enough that the same customer does not get a particular form-letter twice. If letters are always worded in the
SYSTEM IN CORRESPONDENCE 107
same general style, written on a letter-head that has long been familiar, and carry the same general arguments, they are not going to have their maximum of success.
It is impossible for one man to invent many different styles, and when you want a new style it is advisable to get a new man to do it.
While one letter-head used year in and year out, so that it is an established trade-mark, is a good thing for all routine business, soliciting letters should be sent out on a constantly changing style of paper and printing. Vary the color and quality of the paper, the arrange- ment and design of the type, and provide a new but characteristic design or cut. The changes need not be great ; but the impression of the whole should be fresh.
No mistake could be greater than to abandon a well- composed literary form. Phrases worked out with great difficulty and tested by success should not be discarded without careful consideration. Change is desirable, but it should not be too radical. Indeed, if one has worked out a dozen good ways of putting a thing, those dozen ways may be combined in thousands of styles, and the fresh combination is a fresh letter.
And after one good form has been used till it grows stale and is laid aside, one may often return to it after a time with great success. Every good letter and advertis- ing form should be kept in a file for constant and ready reference, and the good things that have been done should be often reviewed that nothing of value be lost till it is completely exhausted, if that time ever comes. At the same time, a man with brains must be constantly behind every set of forms or they will certainly lose their potency.
When a series of form-letters have been sent out to a list of persons who ought to give good business but have failed to do so, it is well to sit down and dictate to each
108 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
person on that list an original letter even if it is not as good as the regulation form. A remark or two may be written by hand at the bottom or the side, and the signature should always be in the handwriting of the dictator, even if a firm name is signed.
Variation in the general appearance of letters may be secured by using different typewriters and sizes of type, and different colors of typewriter ribbons.
But the power behind all these efforts at variation is the restless, resistless, energetic, and determined man. A prize-fighter may receive a blow over the heart and not be affected by it, or a blow over the eye, or in the pit of the stomach ; but let him get all those different blows in succession, from a man who takes him wherever he seems to be weak, and after awhile he will succumb. The same is true of the customer. He may not yield to solicitation on this argument, or on that, or on some other ; but he may yield on all combined, put forth by a man who is never weary.
It takes energy and hard work to write continually fresh letters. Nothing is harder than originality main- tained at high pressure. But it is for work of that kind that a man is paid; and he is usuaUy paid according to the amount of work he does.
System in Freshening Publicity
Even if an enormous amount of advertising and letter- writing is being done, each new advertisement and each new soliciting circular-letter is an experiment. The wise man will have a series of experiments in hand all the time. He will get up a new letter or a new advertise- ment every week and will put it out where he can test it. He will watch it with the greatest care, continually checking up results. The failures he will drop. The successes he will have in readiness for a new campaign.
SYSTEM IN CORRESPONDENCE 109
He will never go into a large campaign with that which has not been thoroughly tested, any more than a rail- road company would build a new bridge with steel that had not been tested because they had built one bridge and found it all right.
If you are promoting business in any way, see that your testing department is always busy.
This form-paragraph system is peculiarly applicable to complaint-letters.
Complaint-Letters
One of the most important kinds of letters in all branches of business is the letter answering complaints made by customers, and this subject may well be en- larged upon and illustrated at some length here.
All such letters should be extremely polite, friendly, and soothing.
A correspondent in the claim-department of a rail- road company once said to his manager, '^That man makes me so angry I don't know what to do with my- self.''
"You are paid,'' said the manager, "to sit and take such irritating letters as his, and act as if you really enjoyed them."
The man who was so irritating said afterward he sent his large business over that line because they were always so good-natured he really had no excuse to take it away.
A Poor Answer to a Letter of Complaint
A customer writes: "More than a month ago I sent you $2 for a set of Smart's books on English. After two weeks I had heard nothing, and wrote to you. In reply to that letter I had one from you saying you would trace the books, and if they were lost you would
110 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
send me another set. I have heard nothing since. Now you've got my money, and I have nothing. Unless you either send the books or return my money immediately I shall refer the matter to my lawyer.
(Letter-head) Coventry, Jan. 2, 1919. ^ Mr. John Boche,
Norwich, Conn. Dear Sir :
Four letter of the 29th ult. surprizes us somewhat. Tou must know that sometimes goods go astray, even when the greatest possible care is taken. Besides, our responsibility ends the moment we deliver the goods to the post-office and get our receipt. If you have a friend in the city and he will call, he can see our receipt from the post-office at any time. As a matter of ac- commodation to our customers, however, we always do what we can to locate goods that go astray, and in case of loss assist in making claim. If you doubt our re- sponsibility or standing, you may write to the Com- mercial Bank of this city, to whom we refer by per- mission.
We send you another set of books, however, and would ask you kindly to notify us if the first set turns up later.
Trusting we may be favored with your patronage in the future, we remain
Yours truly,
Barwell & Barton.
However cantankerous a customer may be, whatever mean things he may say, whatever provoking insinu- ations he may make, no wise business man will allow even the tone of his letter to be affected in the least degree. In writing to that customer he will employ the same terms of warm cordiality, and show the same
SYSTEM IN COREESPONDBNCB HI
sympafhetic interest as in the case of a mild complaint from his most intimate personal friend.
Indeed, it is when a customer is irritated that you need to use your utmost powers of soot&ing sympathy. Nothing is more effective than to say that the writer will give the matter his immediate personal attention, and act precisely as he would if a friend had suffered.
The Same Letter Rewritten
Jan. 2, 1919. Mr. John Eoche,
Norwich, Conn. Dear Sir:
We are exceedingly sorry and greatly surprized to see by your letter of the 29th ult. that you have not yet received the set of Mr. Smart's books which you ordered so long ago. You certainly have been most patient to wait so long, and we quite understand your feeling in the matter — ^indeed, we should feel precisely as you do were we in your position.
We trust, however, that you wiU not hold us respon- sible in this particular case. The receipt we hold shows that the books were promptly dispatched by parcel-post on receipt of your order. We try to forward the same day the order is received. It sometimes happens that the post-office is remiss, and many shippers hold that their responsibility ceases the moment the goods are turned over to the post-office. We, however, always con- sider the interests of the customer as our own until he has actually received the goods in good condition, and found them to be entirely satisfactory.
We are sending you to-day another set of books. If the set first dispatched should turn up, we beg that you Vnll notify ns and we will forward postage for its return.
112 HUMAN NATURE IN BUSINESS
Thanking you for your patience and courtes^y in this matter, we are
Very truly yours,
Barwell & Barton.
Assignment XIV. Form-Letters
Thinking of the business which we have been analyz- ing, while we study the Form-Chart for Complaints on page 113, let us first consider one by one whether these paragraphs apply to that business. Such as do not may be checked off. Then for each paragraph let us write from the customer such a letter of complaint as that paragraph might be an answer to, mentioning some specific goods and making the letter complete in every respect. Finally, let us use the paragraph in a complete letter properly answering the complaint. Only one letter under each of the five headings may be writ- ten, if that seems desirable.
SYSTEM IN OOKKESPONDBNCB 113
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Practise Assignment
ILLUSTRATIVE STUDY OF THE GROCERY
BUSINESS
(The grocery business is here studied in a way to illustrate how any business may be taken up, and two or three weeks might well be spent on this model by way of practise even if an entirely different business is to be studied. First, we most study one item of goods at a time, the most typical of the business, until we see what questions customers will ask about it, and how those questions should be answered. Then we will take another item, and so on. Each query will first be answered orally, and then in a letter as if it came by mail. Out of the general letter-writing will come circular letters, which in turn will be expanded into booklets or condensed into advertisements.)
Learning to do Business
It is impossible to teach business in general — ^we must know one business, no matter what, if we are to learn how to apply the general principles of business management.
Success depends on exact knowledge of goods, exact knowledge of customers, and a simple, tactful, energetic, common-sense handling of these business facts. Generalities in business breed vagueness, and vagueness in business is the chief cause of failure. The only way to escape from the degenerating influence of super- ficial vagueness is to study some one business at first hand — ^leam business by doing real business if possible, or at any rate study- ing a real business.
The Grocery Business Open to all
As we all have to eat, every mother of a family must be a buyer of foods, and any school-child can go out and ask his mother the fine points on groceries. No doubt the mother, if set system- atically to study the subject, can learn a good deal, too. Then, at every comer there is a grocery store at which students may call and make first-hand observations, and get their questions answered. Any scientific suggestions on advertising which they
114
SYSTEM IN CORRESPONDENCE 115
maj offer ought to be appreciated by the grocer who wants to get the busiiiess from his competitors, as any grocer easily can do if he knows how to advertise scientifically, as well as how to buy good groceries at right prices.
Success also depends on studying competition, and the mail- order ''Grocery Lists'^ of Sears, Boebuck & Co. and Mont- gomery Ward & Co., with which all grocers have to compete, are aTailable for the asking, and these give a complete text on the grocery business, including all the salesmanship that produces a large volume of orders, tho, since it represents the competition, students can not copy a word of it, but nevertheless can see what they must equal and offset by better arguments.
Method of Study
'An pupils should provide themselves with mail-order groeery lists, which may be had for the asking on a post-card.
All inquiries of customers should first be answered orally t^ way of