The Project Gutenberg EBook of Business Correspondence, by Anonymous Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the header without written permission. Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. **Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** **eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** *****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** Title: Business Correspondence Author: Anonymous Release Date: January, 2005 [EBook #7309] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on April 10, 2003] Edition: 10 Language: English Character set encoding: ASCII *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BUSINESS CORRESPONDENCE *** Produced by Andrea Ball, Charles Franks, Juliet Sutherland, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team BUSINESS CORRESPONDENCE VOLUME I HOW TO WRITE THE BUSINESS LETTER: _24 chapters on preparing to write the letter and finding the proper viewpoint; how to open the letter, present the proposition convincingly, make an effective close; how to acquire a forceful style and inject originality; how to adapt selling appeal to different prospects and get orders by letter-- proved principles and practical schemes illustrated by extracts from 217 actual letters_ CONTENTS BUSINESS CORRESPONDENCE VOLUME I PART I _Preparing to Write the Letter_ CHAPTER 1: What You Can Do With a Postage Stamp 2: The Advantages of Doing Business by Letter 3: Gathering Material and Picking Out Talking Points 4: When You Sit Down to Write PART II _How to Write the Letter_ 5: How to Begin a Business Letter 6: How to Present Your Proposition 7: How to Bring the Letter to a Close PART III _Style--Making the Letter Readable_ 8: "Style" in Letter Writing--And How to Acquire It 9: Making the Letter Hang Together 10: How to Make Letters Original 11: Making the Form Letter Personal PART IV _The Dress of a Business Letter_ 12: Making Letterheads and Envelopes Distinctive 13: The Typographical Make-up of Business Letters 14: Getting a Uniform Policy and Quality in Letters 15: Making Letters Uniform in Appearance PART V _Writing the Sales Letter_ 16: How to Write the Letter That Will "Land" the Order 17: The Letter That Will Bring An Inquiry 18: How to Close Sales by Letter 19: What to Enclose With Sales Letters 20: Bringing in New Business by Post Card 21: Making it Easy for the Prospect to Answer PART VI _The Appeal to Different Classes_ 22: How to Write Letters That Appeal to Women 23: How to Write Letters That Appeal to Men 24: How to Write Letters That Appeal to Farmers What You Can _Do_ With a POSTAGE STAMP PART I--PREPARING TO WRITE THE LETTER--CHAPTER 1 _Last year [1910] fifteen billion letters were handled by the post office--one hundred and fifty for every person. Just as a thousand years ago practically all trade was cash, and now only seven per cent involves currency, so nine-tenths of the business is done today by letter while even a few decades ago it was by personal word. You can get your prospect, turn him into a customer, sell him goods, settle complaints, investigate credit standing, collect your money_--ALL BY LETTER. _And often better than by word of mouth. For, when talking, you speak to only one or two; by letter you can talk to a hundred thousand in a sincere, personal way. So the letter is the_ MOST IMPORTANT TOOL _in modern business--good letter writing is the business man's_ FIRST REQUIREMENT. * * * * * There is a firm in Chicago, with a most interesting bit of inside history. It is not a large firm. Ten years ago it consisted of one man. Today there are some three hundred employees, but it is still a one-man business. It has never employed a salesman on the road; the head of the firm has never been out to call on any of his customers. But here is a singular thing: you may drop in to see a business man in Syracuse or San Francisco, in Jacksonville or Walla Walla, and should you casually mention this man's name, the chances are the other will reply: "Oh, yes. I know him very well. That is, I've had several letters from him and I feel as though I know him." Sitting alone in his little office, this man was one of the first to foresee, ten years ago, the real possibilities of the letter. He saw that if he could write a man a thousand miles away the right kind of a letter he could do business with him as well as he could with the man in the next block. So he began _talking_ by mail to men whom he thought might buy his goods--talking to them in sane, human, you-and-me English. Through those letters he sold goods. Nor did he stop there. In the same human way he collected the money for them. He adjusted any complaints that arose. He did everything that any business man could do with customers. In five years he was talking not to a thousand men but to a million. And today, though not fifty men in the million have ever met him, this man's personality has swept like a tidal wave across the country and left its impression in office, store and factory--through letters--letters _alone_. This instance is not cited because it marks the employment of a new medium, but because it shows how the letter has become a universal implement of trade; how a commonplace tool has been developed into a living business-builder. The letter is today the greatest potential creator and transactor of business in the world. But wide as its use is, it still lies idle, an undeveloped possibility, in many a business house where it might be playing a powerful part.

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