We hope that your business is holding up nicely in all lines and we assure you that it is our desire at all times to be of any assistance to you that we can be.

The following letter, establishing between correspondent and dealer friendly relations that likely will lead to sales, was based upon information furnished by the salesman:

Gentlemen:

Fred Clark told us about the personal discussion he started when he was in your store last October. As I got the story, Mr. Smith maintained that more than five per cent of your patrons were women. And Mr. Newman inclined to the opinion that fully twenty per cent were either women, or men who have been sent to make a purchase for the wife at home.

Fred told me he thought Mr. Newman's estimate was about as you would find it if you checked up your trade carefully for a month or so. He said that you were going to keep such a check on customers for the month of December and let me know the results.

But we haven't heard a thing from you regarding this test. I am particularly interested because we have several retailers in the West who are keeping this data. I have been trying for a number of years to get an accurate estimate of the percentage of women purchasers in our trade.

If you kept this data and have not mislaid it, I wish you would send me the percentages. I know Mr. Smith will not attempt to hold back, even if he did fall short in his estimate.

If the sample of weather we 've been having lately is anything like what it is up your way, trade ought to be brisk on those 7-C Ideals you ordered in September.

The dealer is in a position to furnish information relative to the needs of the individual customer. The following letter is based upon information thus furnishd:

Dear Madam:

You take pride in keeping your home attractive. The Lord Hardware Company, our agent in your locality, says you do, so

we are writing to tell you about our Decorative Department. The proper blending of colors for both the exterior and interior is a problem which can only be solved in a satisfactory manner by experts. Right here is where we can prove of assistance to you.

You want your home decorated differently from other homesyou want it to look as up-to-date as possible, but in accomplishing this, you do not want to pay more than you otherwise would have to pay.

We maintain a Decorative Department that can show you how to decorate your home (both inside and outside) artistically and economically. Our artists will help you plan color combinations for all surfaces, and their recommendations will be illustrated by means of color plates worked out in the actual Paints and Varnishes. By looking at the color plates you can get a good idea of how the exterior, and each room in your home, will look after it has been decorated.

Understand us, we offer you this service free of charge. You are not obliged to use Sherwin-Williams Paints and Varnishes when you decorate your home. Fill in the attached blank and mail it to us in the enclosed envelope.

There's a Sherwin-Williams Paint, Varnish, Stain, and Enamel made for each purpose each one will give you the best results at the lowest possible cost. A complete assortment of Sherwin-Williams Products is carried by The Lord Hardware Company, 4525 Central Avenue. They will be pleased to assist you with your painting problem.

A number of correspondent supervisors, in addition to consulting with salesmen from time to time, make it a point to "get out on the road" for one or two months each year and thus make doubly sure that they are "in step" with men to whom they write during the other ten or twelve months.

Correspondents are also able to add to their information by consulting whatever past correspondence there has been with the prospect or customer.

In making a selling appeal, it is often impossible to gain a definite insight into the individual needs and interests of each separate pros

pect. Obviously, the advertiser can not acquire intimate acquaintance with the circumstances surrounding each one of the thousands of prospects to whom his advertisement appeals. Likewise, in sending out the same form letter to 1,000-or 50,000-prospects in the course of a mail sales campaign, the correspondent can not expect first to establish personal contact with each individual prospect. The only alternative then is to group the prospects, in accordance with common needs and interests, into separate classes.

To illustrate:

All attorneys have certain needs and interests in common, and these needs and interests are quite dissimilar to those of the medical men. Hence attorneys and doctors form two separate classes relative to the aims and purposes of the selling appeal.

The character of the product and the nature of the sales campaign. determine the basis of classification. Classification may thus be based upon occupation, as druggists, grocers, insurancemen, farmers; or on relative income, as men of wealth, men of moderate resources, men whose means are only sufficient for the bare necessities of life; or on locality, as Easterners, Westerners, Northeners, Southerners; or on sex, nationality, religion, political bias, or on any line of cleavage sufficient for your purpose.

Square your classification with this general rule, that members of any one class shall have enough in common to make it possible that the same series of sales arguments will appeal virtually to all of them.

Having determined to which class you may most profitably make your appeal, ascertain the needs of the class by talking with as many as possible of its individual members. Then base your selling argument on the firsthand information thus ascertained.

One of the most productive appeals ever made by an eastern tractor concern resulted from a talk that a representative of the firm had with a California rancher. "My ranch is so big," said the rancher in answer to a leading question, "that sometimes I have to use a tractor day and night; that 's why I like a 'hard work' tractor, a tractor I know will never quit.' Sometimes, after I've been working pretty steady all day, I wake up at night to hear the old 'hard work' tractor clicking it off across my fields with never a hitch or miss, just as regular as can be-and I tell you it 's mighty sweet music to my ears. Embodied in an advertisement, and in a series of sales letters, that

expression of opinion sold tractors to California ranchers owning large acreage because it matched the actual interests, the vital needs, of the class of men to whom it was written. The correspondent, in making a class appeal, measured up to the first prerequisite of effective salesmanship: he "got in step" with his prospective customers; he made his sales appeal not from the standpoint of the tractor concern but from the pivotal viewpoint of the ranchers considering the purchase of a tractor. The following advertisement makes a definite and effective appeal to garage owners as a class:

HOW ONE GARAGE OWNER REDUCED HIS
SPONGE BILLS

By Elmer R. Murphy, President.

In a Chicago garage not long ago, I overheard the owner complaining about the high cost of sponges. "We buy a large bale," he said, "and they seem to be gone in no time."

"How do you buy them-by the pound?" I asked.

"Yes," he responded, "why not?''

"That's why they 're so high," I said. "They are probably loaded with epsom salts or glucose to increase their weight. This loading disappears the first time you wash the sponges."

He'd never heard of buying by the piece, and he had n't thought of getting an advertised brand. Sponges were just sponges to him.

I sent him a "Colossus" sponge weighing about 10 ounces and asked him to compare it with one of his.

A few days later he telephoned, "I have learned something. I tested your sponge with one of ours of the same weight. After washing them both, I found yours was 50 per cent larger than ours. I am sure we have been paying for considerable "loading" in our sponges.

"From now on we are going to buy sponges by the piece.” Adopt this plan in buying your sponges. Demand quotations on a certain size sponge by the piece, instead of by the pound. The U. S. Army and Navy have adopted this plan. So have the leading railways, manufacturers, painters, decorators, and hundreds of others.

Every sponge we sell is guaranteed to be a pure sponge.

It

is marked with the "Colossus" trade mark either on a tag on the sponge or on a label on the bale.

Send us a specimen of the sponges you have been using and we shall send you a sample of "Colossus" in the size and grade best fitted to your needs.

Here is an excerpt from a letter that makes a direct, personal appeal because it was written with a knowledge of the problems confronting farmers as a class:

Are you ready for the corn harvest?

We know how you feel about it, especially if you still go into the field with a corn knife and chop, chop, chop. During corn harvesting time, the dew always falls heavily, with the result that the corn fairly drips water early in the morning. You 've got to kind o' sit around and wait for the sun to dry up the dew before you can get to work. Several hours each day are wasted in this way and the harvest extends beyond the time when the corn is in the best condition to cut: that is, just when the ears begin to glaze, and the stalks and leaves still contain all of the nutritious juices.

With a good corn binder all this is changed. You go into the field early, at just the right time, and you cut and shock more in a day than six or seven men can possibly do with corn knives.

If you haven't a binder, get one by all means. You will find that it will take the backache out of the corn harvest.

The following excerpt from a letter shows that the correspondent was familiar with, the problems confronting young men recently graduated from high school and just getting a start in business:

Let me cite a few instances where you might find a training in effective Business English of distinct value to you.

Suppose the general manager were to call you into his office and ask a number of questions about your work. Could you answer them briefly and concisely, yet fully? Would you be able to think of the exact words and their meaning so that he would understand you at once, without having to ask you to explain? Could you talk to him without hesitating or faltering, so that he