Web Vintage Literature

Chapter 10. Summary and Climax The Clincher

Suppose a salesman came into your office with an article, demonstrated its qualities, proved your need of it and its value to you, made you want it so badly that you were just reaching into your pocket to pay for it and then, when he could have your money for the asking, suppose he suddenly strapped up his sample case, said I will be glad to talk to you more about this some other time, and walked out the door.

What kind of a salesman would you call him?

A shoe manufacturer tried to sell me a pair of shoes by mail. He wrote a letter that had me interested, convinced, almost ready to buy. Then instead of a clincher that decided me, I struck this last paragraph: We solicit further correspondence with you concerning our proposition. What did I do? I shot that letter into the wastebasket, and bought a pair of shoes on my way home.

Any difference between the absurdly imaginary salesman in the first paragraph and the very actual letter writer in the second? Not a bit.

But suppose the shoe manufacturer had closed by saying: Simply check the size and style you want on the enclosed blank, sign and mail it today with $3.00 in any convenient form and the shoes will come to you at once al charges paid. Suppose he had said that! The chances are a hundred to one he would have my money now and I would be wearing his shoes.

And there you have in a nutshell the vital essential that makes or kills a sales letter. You are wasting time and energy when you concentrate your strength in your argument and then fail to turn desire into action. What is the use of making the prospect want your goods if you wind up your letter with a close that lets him feel he might as well wait a day or two? Let him wait and the chances are that next day your competitor comes along with a letter that strikes home. Then he gets the business and your letter slides from the hold-over file into the waste basket.

Make your prospect want to order, of course, but don't stop there. Make it easy for him to order and make him do it now. That is what is meant by real climax it tells the prospect what to do and when to do it, it crystallizes all that goes before into the act itself.

Every successful climax has two parts. The first consists of what we have termed persuasion and inducement it summarizes all the preceding strong points of the letter, it shows the gain that is mine in ordering, the loss that is mine by delay. It emphasizes return and minimizes cost. It is the paragraph that says: Just think what you are getting this and this and this, all for the small sum of_______, think what it means to you, to your future. And remember, you do not risk one penny. Every cent of your money will be returned to you if you are not satisfied. Why delay a single moment?

When he reads that, your man is almost ready to act. But not quite, for your climax lacks the clincher. What is he to do to get all the things you offer? Tell him. Make it so plain and so easy that he will have not a reason in the world for not ordering. If you don't, you haven't finished your letter, and lacking the effect of that clincher your prospect I going to lapse from his almost ready attitude back into indifference.

Now how can you get him to act? Go back to the star salesman. How does he do it? He gives you something to sign. He lays before you an order blank complete save only for your signature. Note how easy he has made it for you to order; he does not ask that you hunt up a letterhead and draw up an order of your own. He has the order all printed and there within your easy reach.

Just apply his idea to your letter. Give the man something to sign. A post card filled out, addressed and ready to mail, a coupon that simply awaits his name or some little easy-as-lifting-your-finger act to do that makes answering almost automatic.

There is something marvelous about the tempting power of the little blank that awaits your name when it is rightly employed. No man likes to be bulldozed by another into signing anything. He balks when the tactless salesman literally shoves the order before him and attempts to force his signature. Force instantly finds the touch-button of his antagonism.

But watch the clever salesman who has learned the subtle influence of the waiting blank itself. He places the order before you but he lets it do its own tempting. He talks not the order but the goods, not your name, but your needs. And when you pick up your pen and sign your name you do so on your own initiative because you want the goods he sells.

Now the beauty of all this is that the clever salesman's methods fit perfectly into the scheme of paper salesmanship. Build up your interest, argument, persuasion and inducement and the, when you have your prospect convinced, almost ready to say I will buy, do as the salesman does, make it easy for him to decide, literally lay a waiting order blank before him.

Refer him to your little business-getting supplement the blank or card or coupon. Simply tell him what to do and what the result will be; say, You do this and we will do that. And with perfect self-assurance that whatever move he makes will be of his own choice, your man will find ordering so easy that he cant resist, he will sign and mail today.

Note for example, how simple an act one house makes ordering: Merely sign the last page of the booklet enclosed pin a two dollar bill to it and mail us today. Elementary, isn't it? No writing a letter, no buying a draft. The homesteader on a stage route with the stub of a pencil and a two-dollar note could answer that letter as well as an executive surrounded by a bevy of stenographers.

There are two essentials to a successful clincher of this kind: it must give the reader something easy to do, and it must be clear. Virtually your offer is a contract and its terms should be so simple, its conditions so eminently fair that the reader can find no reason for not accepting it.

These people exemplify the idea perfectly when the say: Simply pin a $2.00 bill to this letter as a deposit, and we will send the book by the first mail. Look the book over carefully. If you don't see a dollar s worth in almost every page, write a mere postal and we will return your $2.00.

There are not restrictions, no conditions, no strings on this offer. It is open to every well rated businessman who acts before the first edition of the book is exhausted. Pin your $2.00 to the letter and mail today.

Could anything be plainer? And could a man find one good sound reason for not accepting that offer? Here is another: Simply wrap your three dollars in this letter and mail it now not after lunch, for things to be done after lunch are often not done at all. But now when this letter is before you, when you need merely wrap your check or the bills in it and mail to me at my risk. And then the orders may come and the goods may go, by the hundreds but you will be sure of your set by immediate prepaid shipment.

Of course there are variations unnumbered to such closes. A typewriter company uses the idea admirably when it says:

The factory is working to the limit these days and we are behind on orders now. But we are going to hold the machine we have reserved for you a few days longer. After that we may have to use it to fill another order. Sign and send us the enclosed blank today and let us place the machine where it will be of real service to you. Remember it is covered by a guarantee that protects you against disappointment. If you don't like it, simply return it and back comes your money.

The simpler the order to be signed the better. A coupon of a dozen words can often tell the whole story. If no money is to accompany the reply, an addressed post card bearing a printed request is best of all. Simply sign the enclosed card and drop it in the mail borders on the extreme of easy ordering. There is something about a guarantee blank, too, that coaxes the pen to its dotted line. A safety razor manufacturer who sold his goods on approval enclosed with his sales letter a legal looking return contract that read:

ABSOLUTE GUARANTEE

I deposit herewith $2.50 for which please send me absolutely without further cost your * * * Razor. It is understood that if I am not perfectly satisfied with my investment I will return the razor to you within ten days and you will refund my full $2.50 promptly and cheerfully, canceling the order.

Such a protective guarantee wins the confidence of the prospect, and this form got many a buyer because it showed him specifically that he could not lose.

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ Begin Letter Illustration _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

Dear Sir:

Weak and formal We have not had the pleasure of having received a reply to the letter we addressed to you about two weeks ago, and we pause to ask if you received that letter, as well as the catalog which we mailed you at the same time. If so, we trust that our prices and superior quality of Princeton Piano Player have so interested you as to insure you order when you are ready to purchase. If, however, the catalogue and letter did not reach you, kindly advise us, and we will mail duplicates.

Lacks Interest/Apology injures and weakens appeal We are real anxious to secure your order, yet do not want to annoy you continually with a lot of stereotyped letters such as are generally sent out by factories selling their products by mail-in other words we do not abruptly conclude that simply because you were kind enough to write us relative to our goods that you are under obligations to buy of us. We trust, however, that after you have gone over the matter very carefully you will decide that our Princeton Player is the best for the money, and that when you are ready to purchase, you will favor us with your order, as we know you will never have any cause to regret it.[Why should I?]

More weakening apology In the meantime, if you have no objections, we will mail you now and then illustrations and descriptions of each of our new styles as we place them on the market, feeling hat you will be interested in the latest up-to-date styles, even though you may not be in an immediate need of them yourself.

Again thanking you for the inquiry, we are

Very truly yours,

This is an actual letter used as the fourth and last in a follow-up series. It is poor because not only is it entirely lacking in argument as to quality or price, but throughout it takes entirely the wrong attitude that of a continual apology for taking the prospects time, for annoying him, for following him up at all. This invariably places the writer in a bad position, for instead of making the reader want to buy, it makes him feel that his order is asked merely as a personal favor.

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ End Letter Illustration _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

Now take notice of the rewrite...

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ Begin Letter Illustration /_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

Dear Mr. Carter:

Direct The only thing that has kept you from ordering a Princeton Piano Player long before this is that you are still a little in doubt as to its value you still hesitate to believe that it offers positively the biggest value that your money can purchase.

Three condensed arguments convincingly stated There are a number of ways in which we might once and for all time remove your prejudice, your doubts, your misgivings. We might point to the 8,143 satisfied purchasers. we might show you the steady stream of orders that number more than half a thousand each month. - we might pull open drawer after drawer filled to bursting with unsolicited testimonials.

But we have a plan better by far than any of these.

Inducement You are to try the Princeton Player in your own home for thirty days one full month AT OUR RISK.

Proof Simply deposit the first small payment. The player will be delivered to your home, ready for your use. Then put it to a test as thorough as severe as you wish. If the player does not more than please and satisfy you in every particular, simply say so and we will remove it at our expense and refund every penny of your deposit.

If you are as thoroughly pleased as the 8, 143 others who have purchase, you have simply to continue making your small monthly payments.

Persuasion Could we possibly make a fairer, more liberal offer? Could any offer more clearly prove our absolute faith in the Princeton Player?

Strong close Accept this offer today. Simply sign the enclosed deposit blank, enclose $10 and mail now and the player will come to you at once.

Very truly yours,

Now note the rewritten follow-up letter on the same proposition. Without a suggestion of apology, it goes straight to the point with argument and proof, and then offers a still stronger inducement a free trial of the player. Far from being apologetic, it is straightforward strong, convincing.

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ End Letter Illustration _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

A correspondence school found a winner, too, in a serially numbered coupon which is enclosed with a letter telling of a special offer to students. Each coupon read: This serial coupon will be accepted as $5.00 in cash payment toward the tuition for our regular $18, twelve-weeks course in bookkeeping, if properly signed and mailed within seven days following receipt of this letter.

But when you give your man something to sign, guard well against obscurity. It is human nature to search a wordy order blank for statements with double meaning.

There never was a proposition that didn't have possibilities of a sales climax and there never was a sales letter that didn't have a place for a clincher. If you cant give the reader something to sign, do the next easiest thing. Note, for example, the way the man winds up who solicits my typewriter ribbons for re-inking:

A trial will convince you, and the sooner you send them the more you'll save. Why not press the button and have them packed up and shipped right now?

A good climax is the antithesis of procrastination. It gets the reader in motion. It tells him what to do. It makes him reach for his pen, sign, seal and stamp his order and hike for the mail box.

The clincher is the only kind of a close that makes a sales letter bring results. Give your man something to sign or at least give him something to easy to do that he cant help doing it. Tell him how and what to do and to do it today. Try it and you will find your sales letters picking up the shekels like a magnet.

* * * * *

The Present Task PUT into every letter, every paragraph, your undivided and focused force. Concentrate your thought upon it, undiluted with the worries of the past, unaffected by anticipations.

Give each problem your best. Finish it and then forget it.

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ Begin Letter Illustration_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

Dear Mr. Graham:

Statement of fact wins confidence You will of course, as a matter of convenience and economy, install stock racks in your new factory racks that will classify your supplies and make them easily accessible.

Explanation of need But in addition to affording these advantages you will want racks that occupy no more space than your supplies actually demand. Every foot of space in your factory is a fixed expense to you, it costs you money every day year in and year out. And every foot of space that is wasted means actual money loss.

Explanation and argument showing how need is met This one feature of compactness alone makes the Thompson steel rack superior to any other device in use for the storage of parts and supplies. For the Thompson is adjustable to every varying demand. You don't have to waste a large bin or two or three parts and stuff a small bin to overflowing. You can adjust each bin separately to the nature and quantity of the articles it contains, so that parts are given not an inch more room than they actually need. Think what this means in money gained every day in the year.

Explanation of advantages Yet as your supplies or stock increases you will find these racks capable of unlimited expansion. You can make additions and extensions at any point to meet increasing requirements. Each section is a unit and new sections fit perfectly with the old.

Explanation of quality And Thompson racks are built to last. Constructed of the most durable steel, they are tested to hold the heaviest loads, no matter how unequally placed. Once installed, they will never cost you one cent of additional expense and they will last a life time. Proposition brought definite point in close and clincher

Arrange NOW to make these racks one of the great conveniences of your plant. Fill out and mail today the enclosed post card it will bring our representative to give you a complete estimate of your needs. This information puts you under no obligation to buy, and it is yours for the asking. Send the post card by return mail,

Very truly yours,

A good letter beginning with a statement with which the prospect agrees and leading him step by step to the buying point.

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ End Letter Illustration _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/