Page 246 - One Thousand Ways to Make $1000

“very.”

5 d oes it ask for an order?
Remember people are not mind readers. You may know perfectly well why
you are writing them and what you want them to do—but do they?

5 i s it grammatiCaLLY CorreCt? Have you used “was” when you should have said
“were”; “who” in place of “whom”; “differ with” instead of “differ from”;
“shall” instead of “will,” etc.

There is quite a difference between getting a “you” point of view into a letter
and going over a letter and changing the “we’s” to “you’s” as so many
writers seem to do. If the letter has a “you” point of view and is built up from
that angle, it doesn’t make any difference how many times you use “we” or
how much you say about yourself, because what you do say about yourself
will be of interest to the man you are writing to. How can he do business with
you until he knows about you? For example, suppose you are selling soap.
You are pardonably proud of the fact that your soap is nearly pure—purer,
perhaps than any soap sold at the price. You work hard to acquire a
reputation as a quality soap maker. You have made many sacrifices in order
that your customers should know you as being fair and honorable. If you are
guided wholly by instinct, you are inclined to harp on these points in your
letters, but the man to whom you are writing doesn’t care nearly as much
about these things as he does about what your soap will do for him.

Let the Other Fellow Shout Your Praises

The tone of a letter makes or breaks it. The skilled salesman knows this and,
consequently, strives in his letter to give it an atmosphere of restraint rather
than of extravagance. There has been a lot of fun poked at such expressions
as “we beg to state,” “your obedient servant” and “with your permission.”
Perhaps these are a bit unnecessary, but they at least serve to give a letter a
tone of humility which is pleasing.

Nothing influences the tone of a letter more than the fault of shouting your
own praises, which so many letter writers seem to feel is necessary. In order
to do this they overindulge in superlatives and make a lot of statements which