Arizona republican., 1914-07-06

personality-he is a SLOUGH because
he has been slipping down rather
, than striving upward. You, on the
other hand, have a positive personal
! ity, because you are constantly climb
ing. There is, then, no reason you
should indulge in a Jekyll-Hyde stunt
when you write business letters.
When you transact business face
to face, You link your product or your
service up to that of the prospect.
You talk to him about that which
you sell in such a way that he sees
your proposition in the light of his
needs, his problems. Yet the great
majority of letters are interminabl
We, We, We this and We that, or
Ours and Mine. Because they do not
fit in with the prospects business or
his living conditions, they fail to
awake even his self-interest. Others
(and these are a considerable portion
of the minority in their desires to
talk from the other mans viewpoint,
indulge in vociferous You You You
ing that is nothing more than the
rasping racket of the side show
barker
When you meet your prospects in
person, you put forward all that is
vital and virile in your makeup
You plan your play according to the
nature of the party to whom you talk
You take hold with a grit that grips
You use gimp and gumption. You
concentrate and put your heart into
it. Do the same thing with your let
tiers. Don't grind them out as if
you We're some school kid reciting a
lesson. Talk TRUTHFULLY, for a
lie is as quickly recognized in a letter
as in your voice. Talk SINCERELY
because hot air on paper rarely
brings back cold coin replies. Talk
politely-for courtesy counts and
neglect never Talk vimfully-for a
weak, Sinking letter leans easily tow
ard the junkman's alley. Talk simply
because even the big brains that
build business are more receptive to
and affected by the simple than the
superficial. Talk neutrality-suspicious.
ally. Just be yourself-natural. Wis.,
ualize. the man or woman, or the class
them out in front of your minds eye
and imagine oulself talking to them
Talk humanity TO and WITH them
never directly at them. Use your
heart as well as your head in this
letter talk. Use feeling and not spiel
ing. Be humanity yourself and then
you can do with your letters as you
do in person. You can get under
the prospects hide-can get a grip
order. But the only way you can
do that is to GET IN THE ENVEL-
OPE AND SEAL THE FLAP!
In his dress, the ragged hobo of
the mails is much like his human
namesake. I've ridden with these last
on rods beneath and sooty, cindery
roofs above. I've seen them drop
off the train at the entrance to some
city yards-the stubble of beard grimy
with grease and grit, hair tousled in
tangles, blinking eyes seeing the blur
of the world, rotted snags of teeth
sticking out from tobacco shreds-
to their haunts with that
gait that betrays their lack
of impetus. Clad in rags foul with
filth and patches of many colors, they
were but rotting wrecks of what had
once been men. Would you take such
a one as he stood and send him to-
sell your service? But, is it not tuue
that many letter comes to your
desk possessing those very same I'M
slightly characteristics?
They come in hordes, these hoboes
of the mails. Letters so folded that
they remind you of nothing more
than the Grumpy slept-in shoddy of
the tramp. Letters written on the
flimsiest of paper, indicating the
cheapness in which the writer's held
you in their esteem. Letters using
blotchy, bleary headings, with de-
signs and alleged art effects that are
as tangly as the tramps' hair and as
harmonious in colors as his veined
nose and yellowed teeth. Form letters
so sloppy of fill-in that they call to
mind no more ridiculous picture than