Such attention helps to win the confidence of the farmer and the knowing correspondent never loses sight of the fact that the farmer is, from bitter experience, suspicious especially of propositions emanating from concerns that are new to him. After one or two satisfactory dealings with a house he places absolute faith in it but every legitimate mail-order concern is handicapped by the fact that unscrupulous firms are continually lying in wait for the unwary: the man with the county rights for a patent churn and his brother who leaves a fanning mill with a farmer to demonstrate and takes a receipt which turns up at the bank as a promissory note are teaching the farmers to be guarded. Many of them can spot a gold brick scheme as soon as it is presented. Therefore the correspondent has to keep before him the fact that the farmer is always wary; his letters must be so worded that no obscure phrase will arouse suspicion; no proposition will admit of two interpretations.
So the guarantee and the free trial offer are essential features in letters that sell the farmer. In hundreds of letters from manufacturers of goods that are sold by mail to the farmer, nearly every one throws into prominence the guarantee and the free trial offer with money refunded if the purchase does not prove satisfactory.
A manufacturer of farm implements puts this guarantee into the first person effectively.
Such a letter carries conviction; you are impressed by the fact that 40,000 farmers consider this spreader the best; the offer of comparison and demonstration seems conclusive that a comparison is not necessary; you feel that the man who bought a different kind of spreader must have acted hastily without investigating the merits of this particular machine.
The farmer is usually open to conviction but he has to be "shown." After he has had successful dealings with a house for several years he readily accepts its assurance that something is just as good at a less price than what he would buy of a retailer, but he can most easily be won over by strong "why" copy. An educational campaign is almost always necessary for the farmer who has never bought goods by mail; to pull him out of the rut of established custom it is necessary to present facts and figures to convince him that the direct-to-the-consumer method is to his advantage.
To get this to the eye and mind in a striking way is the first requisite.
A Cincinnati firm selling buggies uses a comparative table at the bottom of the first sheet of the first follow-up, as follows:
* * * * *
COST OF RETAIL PLAN COST OF OUR PLAN
Actual factory cost of buggy.. $43.00 Factory cost….. $43.00
Factory selling expense……. 4.00 Selling expense.. 4.00
Salesmen's expense………… 4.50 Our profit……. 6.75
Factory profit……………. 7.00 OUR SELLING ——-
Retailer's selling expense…. 5.00 PRICE………… $53.75
Retailer's profit…………. 15.00
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DEALER'S SELLING PRICE $78.50