SCHEME 7—HOLDING GOODS IN RESERVE
This "holding one in reserve for you" has proved effective with a typewriter company:
"The factory is working to the limit these days and we are behind orders now. But we are going to hold the machine we have reserved for you a few days longer. After that we may have to use it to fill another order. Sign and send us the enclosed blank to-day and let us place the machine where it will be of real service to you. Remember it is covered by a guarantee that protects you against disappointment. If you don't like it, simply return it and back comes your money."
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Bond brokers frequently use this same idea, writing to a customer that a block of stock or a part of an issue of bonds had been reserved for him as it represented just the particular kind of investment that he always liked—and reasons follow showing how desirable the investment really is.
In one form or another this scheme is widely used. When the order justifies the expense, a night telegram is sometimes sent stating that the machine can be held only one day more or something like that. This only is possible on special goods that cannot be readily duplicated.
In all these offers and schemes the price is kept carefully in the background. Many firms never mention the price in the letter, leaving that for the circular, folder or catalogue.