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Chapter 9. Inducement

The hardest lesson in letter writing I ever learned was on a trip with a city salesman. A letter had been sent out from which there were practically no returns. Naturally the office decided the trade was in bad shape and I was sent to find out why. The first customer was a stolid German.

Why didn't you answer that letter we sent you last week? I asked.

Why should I? he replied.

And when I got back to the office and re-read that letter I saw the point. There was no reason why anybody should have answered there was no inducement. From that day to this no sales letter has passed my desk without being given the test of that acid phrase, Why should I?

A description of goods, no matter how skillfully phrased, seldom constitutes sufficient inducement to pull a direct reply, even when this description has been cunningly worded so the prospect sees the article advertised in direct relation to himself or his business. The letter without an inducement may convince a man that the goods for sale are desirable and that they are suited to his personal needs, but it leaves a loophole for procrastination.

And procrastination is a whole lot more than the thief of time. It is the thief of countless orders that should be booked and filled, but aren't.

Your own experience is proof of this. You have probably determined to buy mesh underwear, insured sox, a dozen magazines, a piano player and an automobile some time. You are convinced of their good points, you know that you want them and you have the price. All that is necessary is the proper inducement the galvanic spark which will quicken into life this latent desire.

And so will your customers.

Inducements are as various as sunsets. Gain is at the bottom of them all. Gain is the root of all business action. But gain is not always a matter of dollars and cents. Besides the gain in Special price for a few days; the gain in the Special reduction in, if you send your dealers name; and the gain in the free sample, there is also the subtle suggestion of gain in This may change the entire course of your life; in

Information that may save you hours of uncertainty; and dozens of others that do not represent anything tangible but man gain, just the same.

The letter that can suggest a possibility of gain so artfully that the reader is almost afraid not to answer for fear of missing something, is a real masterpiece.

The inducement of prompt and careful service is one which will always win trade; or you may advertise a limited quantity of a certain article or style; you may play up the seasonableness of the product; you may have a real bargain in any case, you must include an inducement which will definitely answer that cold, indifferent question, Why should I? And you answer it You will gain. Or to the question Why shouldn't I? you will answer, You will lose.

A book publisher does this effectively by giving exact figures on the number of copies of certain books that he is able to supply. In six weeks more, he writes, our contract with the author expires. Three times we have been forced to renew this contract; three times we have ceased all book advertising and still the orders have continued to pile in so heavily that another arrangement with Mr. * * * was imperative.

Of the 30, 000 sets we have printed altogether there are now about 149 in the stock room, and 1, 000 more are going through the bindery. If you had seen the orders streaming in at a 200-aday clip at the termination of other contracts, you would realize how quickly these 1,149 sets would melt away. While we still have books on hand, I want them to go to our own old customers. I cannot, of course, discriminate against outsiders; I must fill the orders as they come in. But I can urge you to speak for your set now.

The common error in handling the inducement is generally that of attaching false or fictitious values to what if offered. One brilliant sales manager whose firm dealt in mine machinery and supplies won many customers by constant reference to a loose-leaf catalogue for which he issued new sheets and revised prices each week. The system was so thorough and the new sheets so valuable that many customers used it simply because it was easy to handle.

Another sales manager tried the same inducement, using a bound catalogue of huge dimensions. He failed. In both instances the catalogues were remarkable but one was serviceable and the other clumsy one constituted a real inducement and the other was a deterrent.

The inducement feature of the sales letter must always stand before the most searching inquiry. To fool a customer into responding to your letter may mark you as exceptionally clever, but that customer will neither forgive nor forget if he finds it out.

For example:

A certain dictionary publisher sent broadcast and announcement stating that holders of his dictionaries who would send him the printers imprint of the several volumes would doubtless learn something to their advantage. The bait took and those who responded by naming the imprint of the printer from whose press had issued the first edition, were immediately importuned to buy an appendix to bring the work up to date. It was a shrewd scheme too shrewd. It may have sold books, but it has certainly made enemies for that house. I know because I was on of the goats.

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Dear Mr. Wilson:

Natural expression It is just a year since I sent you that memorable letter about the Crown Calculator. When that letter was written I had an unknown, unheard of appliance to tell you about. Today nearly 5,000 of these machines are in everyday use.

Proof In great business offices all over the land, in stores, in factories, the Crown is saving time, money and errors in clerical labor. It is no longer an experiment. It is a proved, practical appliance which has made itself indispensable wherever it has been installed.

Argument leading to inducement I don't know why you have been silent during these twelve months. But whatever has prevented you from trying this machine, I want to remove that obstacle now. I want to permit you to place this calculator in your office and try it even though you fully intend in advance to send it back even indeed if I receive nothing from you a frank opinion of it and a return shipment at my expense.

Argument mingled with inducement So I am making you this offer an offer so fair and broad that even if you had made it yourself you could not have made the conditions fairer. It is no longer a question of whether the machine is really practical for 5,000 concerns you know and respect have actually tried it out and now stand behind it. It is no longer a question of whether or not you can afford itf or under the new offer, YOU PAY FOR THE MACHINE AS IT PAYS FOR ITSELF.

Argument and persuasion Read the offer through and ask yourself if you could receive a fairer one. A quarter a day the cost of a couple cigars places the Crown in your office AT ONCE. The first payment of $5 enables you to put the machine into immediate money-saving money-making use. And the balance you have nearly a whole year to pay.

Clincher making ordering easy I have attached a convenient coupon to the circular enclosed. Simply sign this coupon enclose it in an envelope with a $5 bill and mail it to me AT MY RISK. Your name is enough security for me. The Crown will go forward, all transportation charges fully prepaid, as fast as return express can take it.

Yours very truly,

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A good letter, showing strong inducement presented in a naturally expressed, man-to-man talk that wins the readers confidence.

Yet while such brazen means are to be eliminated there is a wide latitude within which the mail-sales man may work without being reduced to price slaughtering other inducements which will pull replies from interested people and make the labor of landing the order easy. A case of this is seen in the following, written by he commercial agent of a large power company:

Dear Sir: Will you kindly supply us with information as per attached form? We are getting statistics covering the power situation in Longview and would appreciate your cooperation.

The form enclosed was provided with spaces for very complete information regarding the addressees power equipment and requirements, and placed in the commercial agents hands exactly the facts he needed in order to make a complete and definite proposition. About 33 per cent of the letters sent out brought back the desired information. This, to be sure, is an exceptional case, but it represents the extreme to which that part of a sales-letter designated as the inducement may be carried.

It is not necessary to offer something for nothing. It is not necessary to appear to be giving your man a double eagle for a one-cent postage stamp. But it is necessary ever and always, to incorporate in a sales letter something which will answer that eternal:

Why should I?

It may be simply an offer that is eminently fair and so squarely put up to you that you cannot refuse, as for instance when a refrigerator manufacturer writes: Remember, an order is simply an opportunity for the Morton to sell itself to you. There is no sale no obligation to keep it until you have used it in your home for 60 days and are satisfied. Just let us send it.

And always make the inducement seem easy to take hold of. Have nothing involved nothing that will force the reader to doubt as to the correct thing to do. Uncertainty is the mother of inaction. Your proposition should be clear as day. Do this and you get that and no matter how indefinite you leave that, you must make this specific and simple. This is the real strength of the coupon in advertisements and of order-cards in circular letters. Coupons and order-cards are not so much easier to use than a short letter, but they look easy and what is more important they condense the terms and methods of procedure down to bare essentials and show the customer exactly what to do.

The process of making it look easy to take hold of the inducement, follows up the answer your inducement makes to the question, Why should I? with the insistent return question of Why shouldn't you?

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Dear Sir:

You have not yet sent us YOUR subscription to SYSTEM.

Why?

It cannot be the price$2 for you would gladly give many times that amount for the ideas that a single issue of SYSTEM will bring.

It cannot be the want of time for a mere stroke of the pen would place your name on SYSTEMS mailing list.

It cannot be you are not interested for who ever heard of a business man who did not want his business, his efficiency, his income to GROW?

It cannot be the need of opportunity for we have written you five letters, giving you five opportunities, and as yet you have not responded to any one of them.

So we write once again. Will you give yourself a chance to learn what SYSTEM is accomplishing for you even while you are keeping it from your desk? We do not want to annoy you; we want to help you, and as evidence of our sincerity, make the following unusual offer.

Bear in mind: One book FREE with your renewal!

And every idea in every volume is specific, practical, USABLE written by experts. Here are correct, definite, detailed solutions for all those business problems that so long have vexed and worried you. Every book in the whole series is printed in large clear type on dull-finished book paper, richly bound in vellum deluxe. 128-172 pages, size 5 1/4 x 7 1/2worthy of a place on any business man's desk.

Run your finger down the nine titles listed in the circular. Pick out the book YOU need. Mark your choice and send with a $2 bill TODAY.

We will not only send you SYSTEM for the next twelve months, but will also forward you, absolutely free, even transportation charges prepaid, the HOW book that YOU choose. This is the fairest offer we know how to make. Take advantage of it NOW and thank us at your leisure.

Yours very truly,

An actual follow-up letter that has been very successful in pulling a large number of orders. Note how, without the slightest suggestion of apology, it condenses the arguments that have gone before, then offers an inducement as a climax not only of the letter, but of the entire series.

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The Now Element FINE phrases and interesting anecdotes are not what bring replies to the sales letter. The prospect may enthuse over your literary touch and swear at the delay you have caused in his work. He may chuckle over your wit and chuck your proposition into the waste.

The only thing that sometimes redeems stupid paragraph's that makes clever wording irresistible is a reason to act at once, a subtle demand that must be met now, a simple why that puts this particular, brief task above the dozens which clamor to be done today and must some of them await the tomorrows.