buy of the shoemaker who is too independent to consider himself our servant and who makes us feel that he is doing us a favor in serving us. Letters can influence a deal when the catalogue would not receive a second look. A follow-up letter that appeals to a person at once puts him in good feeling with the writer. Not simply the letter itself, perhaps, but what it does, and how it does it. Here, again, I shall go into some detail later in the series. Most people enjoy being urged. They enjoy having several parties trying for their order and feel respect for those that win. One may intend to buy of a certain house, but does not like to be considered "easy" and will frequently hang off just to see what the advertiser will do. Right here, let me say that it is the business of the follow-up system to ascertain the

If you

lower price may be expected. are intending to cut prices, then go ahead, but such practice will soon convince the public that your prices are made to cut and your work will increase in difficulty. It has been my practice for years to investigate by answering ads, all the new schemes I learn of. One advertiser in Peoria who started at $100 in his first letter cut to $60 in his third, $50 in his fourth, and his last letter, just received, cuts to $30. He will, no doubt, go to $10, or even $5, before he quits, and his apparatus would doubtless be high at either figure.

A well-known advertiser guaranteed to teach hypnotism by mail. His "course" was $10. Before he quit me he offered the "full course" for $1. Such schemes make the work of the honest advertiser diffi

cult, and it requires good sense and tact to overcome the effect of it. We have probably all received inquiries for catalogue and "lowest prices" or "your last offer first." There will always be this class to deal with.

Each one of us must treat it in his own way. If a cut in price is made there must always be some reasonable excuse for it. No philanthropic

desirable

excuse goes. It is often perhaps to sacrifice prices, but it should be handled with extreme care. And it should never be done by circular letter, nor if avoidable should it be voluntary. Sometimes you can lead your customer to believe he is a skillful buyer, but don't overdo it. On the other hand, I know of mail order houses of the highest standing who never reply to a request for lower price except with a firm but courteous denial, and never follow after such request has been made. I have heard of one who always files such requests in "no attention" compartment, but I would doubt such report.

There is a further class of general procrastinators. They intend to buy and need the goods, but seem to put it off with no real reason only that they don't get to it. Such are good customers, but slow, and it pays to follow them. Skillful follow-up work can usually unearth the real cause for delay and guide the advertiser in handling them. They can be talked to without avail, but should be held onto. They will come when ready. There is another class who are more or less curious, simply sending for catalogues without much thought of buying. It is right here that the educational work of the follow-up system tells, and those who came out of curiosity can often be worked up to the buying point when they had no real idea of it to begin with.

I think enough has been said to show the importance not alone of the follow-up system, but of the care with which it should be laid out and conducted. It has been said that a successful advertising man would be a success at anything. I think the best evidence of success in a mail order advertiser is the results obtained from his follow-up system, for therein, as has been said, lie the elements of success or failure as no

where else along the whole line of mail order work. While we are making plans for future work, for greater success and higher achievement, let us pause long and consider well the follow-up system, for by it we must, most of us, stand or fall.

Probably the point of greatest importance in the follow-up system is when to follow. This would seem to require careful study to secure the best results. But usually inquiries are simply passed over to the filing clerk who, a certain number of days after its receipt, sends out chaser No. 1, and so continues, should no order come in, to periodically chase up with circular letters or whatever has been prepared for that purpose. Such work is purely mechanical, and like all machines, is without intelligence or reason, and is one of the causes of unsuccessful results. It is not to be expected that in a large mail order business with hundreds or thousands of inquiries per day the managers can give anything like personal attention to the mass of inquiries, and in such volume it is probable that a sufficient number of writers will be represented who are sufficiently unacquainted with the follow-up methods to be deceived thereby to make the business successful. I believe, however, in fewer inquiries properly worked, and a territory well cleaned up. Experience of many years, and a careful study of the possibilities of the mail order business has led me to adopt certain methods which have proved themselves successful. For any article over $1 in price I advocate the system of six chasers in what may be called close succession. If properly done, reasons for not purchasing can be elicited from 90 per cent of all inquiries. It is probable, also, that before exhausting this series it will show whether it will pay to follow further. If an inquiry will stand the whole series it is in all probability dead for a season, but I would not lose sight of it for a couple of years at least. The number is so small that it costs little to carry them and some will eventually come to time. For a proposition involving a selling price of $5 or over, personal letters should form a goodly part of the follow-up system. I have even had success in employing rapid handwriters for cer

tain

classes of inquiries. Inquiries should be divided into classes or groups and then turned over to different methods of follow-up. To many of them a personally written letter should be sent, and not a printed circular letter. An experienced follow-up man can usually tell at a glance just how to handle an inquiry. Style, location, and certain earmarks tell him what to others would never be known.

I advise sending the first chaser so it will be received in 4 to 6 days after the catalogue. In sections within a 24-hour mail service this should be followed in from four to six days more. For points further away, ten days will be sufficiently close. Never let more than two weeks intervene

be

written. If an inquirer replies and opens correspondence then the ordinary methods apply until he goes

back into the chaser files.

When reasons are given for not ordering, then they must govern future action. If an inquiry will stand the first series (in this case six) without disclosing his position, then I would advise chasing him once a month for say six months, and drop him until the following season. This, if the goods are such as have seasons. If not, he should be reminded at least once in two or three months for at least a year. In mail order work it is persistency that wins.

An objection may be raised that such persistency offends the party. When I come to treat of mail order

literature I shall show how this may be avoided. I can only say now that it brings orders, and that is what we are all after.

In selling seasonable goods, also, consideration must be given to the season in the locality from which the inquiry comes. Let it be assumed that we are selling hay-making tools or implements. It would be little use to pay much attention to an inquirer after the haying season commenced, although he should not be allowed to lapse from memory, and should be persistently worked to a

finish early in the following

season.

"If at first you don't succeed, try again," is good advice in mail order work, but the trying again should not be mechanical, nor untimely. When one does not need your wares it is useless to try to induce him to buy. If he cannot buy it is little short of insult to urge him. The merits of the goods and the name of the advertiser can be kept before such in a manner not offensive, and it will be my purpose in a future article to point out the means by which I conceive it should be done.

Another reason for persistently following, even for a long time, is that the purchaser might not have been satisfied with his experience in dealing with a competitor and may be influenced to go somewhere else. If you drop him you are out of the race and stand to lose what you might have won-a permanent customer. It should also be borne in mind that a customer easily won is usually as easily lost. It is the victory won by hard fighting which is lasting, and a customer won after a good fight is likely to be a permanent customer if he is used rightly and gets good value for his money.

In Bible times it was the practice of the harvesters to permit the gleaners to follow them and gather up what was left. We find cases many people their chief support.

that in many found in this So, too, careful gleaning after mail order work will often be found to yield sufficient to support a by no means small part of the expense account.

There may be for some of us a point for consideration as to where we send our follow-up matter. There is little merit in wasting money trying to work a territory that is unproductive by the very nature of things. To him who is sending out his products by mail there is no difference, but if freight or express has to be used, then it is a far different proposition. The tendency in such cases will naturally be to control thoroughly the territory that lies near enough to allow competing with others without the heavy handicap of larger freight rates and express charges. It may be found that failure to get satisfactory results from certain territory is due to the fact that some rival is nearer, or enjoys the advantage of lower freight rates. These are matters for consideration when laying out the work and if the facts are known in advance, the system can be so arranged that money and time may be saved, for unless you can sell cheaper, or give better quality, or get a lower transportation rate for certain sections, there is sure to be someone near or in that territory which will make it exceedingly interesting because of the superior advantages he enjoys.

I said in the beginning that the

success of a mail order business is in direct proportion to the excellence of the follow-up plan. It will, I trust, be evident that so much enters into the planning of such system that it will not pay to leave it to amateurs in advertising. One may be a good correspondent, and write business bringing letters, but may be a dead failure when it comes to a follow-up system. It is a case where "the best of us often require the advice of someone better." After an inquirer is once in correspondence, a good correspondent may land an order where a less fluent writer would lose, but to get next to the inquirer and to measure his possibilities, yea. even his probabilities, requires an experience and training which cannot be acquired in correspondence schools. Neither can "Character in handwriting" studies give it. It requires actual practice in the field, together with a born intuition, the whole coupled with sound sense and the ability to profit by all-good and bad-that has gone before.

In conclusion, then, as we clean house in these summer months, let us weigh carefully, judicially, and decide wisely. In computing results consider the number and tenor of the follow-ups or chasers; whether they were sufficient in number to cover the case; were they so timed as to secure the best results; was the work thoroughly and persistently done in the territory where naturally we should look for the best results, or did that territory receive the same mechanical and unintelligent routine as some locality from which, by the very nature of things, small results should be expected; were the letters interesting and instructive as to the best interests of the customer, or were they simply "duns" to buy. And when we lost did we do it cheerfully, or seek to make the purchaser feel that he had robbed his family of its just deserts, and by purchasing from some other house had engaged in compounding felony.

Bearing in mind that the followup system represents the selling force, and, like the salesman, is the link connecting the customer with the house; let it stand for the integrity of the house in the fullest sense and make for us friends that will respect us and buy from us-if not at first, then later.

VERY line of activity at the present day is marked by a strenuousness which seems to be ever increasing. This is due in a great measure to advertising, although advertising is comparatively a "new wrinkle."

The forerunner of all trade and industry is the iron horse. From its conception to the present day the railroad business has been as progressive as any in which man takes a hand. The strife of competition between parallel lines in these days when more people are traveling than ever before, calls for redoubled efforts in the advertising department.

There may be those who think that the advertising manager of a great railroad system reclines in a sumptuous leather chair before a polished mahogany desk

plentiful in quantity. There is literature to be composed and distributed; there are accounts to be kept; correspondence to be handled; advertising copy to be sent out; visitors to be attended to; transportation requests to be filled, and a hundred and one things to be taken care of in the alltoo-short space of a working day. The routine is about as tiresomely monotonous as it is in any office

the corporation.

where there are many details requiring attention. In fact, the railroad advertising agent realizes, to his sorrow, that much of his time must be devoted to matters of minor importance which will undoubtedly have little effect SO far as increasing the company's revenue is concerned.

is

And just there lies the fundamental idea of the advertising department. I t maintained first and foremost to augment the income of There are many things which take weary hours to finish that the experienced advertising man knows will never produce any direct benefit as a reward for his labor. But he must not become pessimistic, for pessimism has no place in the scheme of his existence. The successful man, whether he be advertising agent or what not, is the one who schools himself in maintaining an optimistic viewpoint under all circumstances.

In general, advertising may be