The success of his plan lies in the rapidity with which he handles a voluminous correspondence, and in this he is materially assisted by the use of an electrically-propelled multigraph, rubber stamps, etc. His business is conducted almost entirely through letter-writing and he has hundreds of forms of original letters and follow-ups suited to all classes of debtors, enabling him to make attacks from every angle.
PLAN No. 456. MADE AND SOLD SHOES
A Boston young man, some years ago, was traveling salesman for his father, a wholesale dealer in shoes. His experience on the road proved how hard it was to get dealers to push the sales of shoes of any make, and he decided to go into the business of making shoes on an extensive scale and selling them in his own stores. At that time he had no stores, and all the large manufacturers ridiculed his idea, but he went ahead, just the same, secured models of the most expensive shoes made, opened a little store in Boston, began making shoes of excellent value, yet which he could sell in his own store for $3 a pair—that was before the war, of course.
He advertised these $3 shoes, first locally then nationally, and the ads. brought a steady demand for the shoes, to which he had given a dignified yet easily-remembered name, and it was not long until he had more shoe stores, and still more. Now he has nearly 400 of them, scattered over most of the civilized world.
PLAN No. 457. SELLING HAIR TONIC
Never mind what kind of hair tonic it was. There are many ways of making various kinds, and those who wish to go into the business of selling hair tonic can select the one that suits him best. But it’s the selling idea you are after, and here is how one young man did it:
To avoid the necessity of sending a 12-ounce bottle by express, at a cost to the buyer of 40 to 50 cents, he got a hair specialist to condense it into one ounce, so he could send it in a common mailing case for less than 5 cents postage, and pay that himself. All the buyer had to do was to add enough water to the condensed preparation to make 12 ounces of good hair tonic, and to a list of names of people who had sent letters to other hair-tonic advertisers he mailed a neat little booklet telling all about his condensed hair tonic, and offering to send a 1-ounce bottle for 50 cents, also enclosing a fancy label for a 12-ounce bottle.
Out of 4,000 such names, he sold 900 of the 50-cent bottles; then he advertised and got more names, sent more booklets and got more orders.
However, in order to encourage sales of two bottles at a time, he offered a neat, small purse, that cost him 10 cents in gross lots, and offered this as a premium with each sale of two bottles for $1, and, as most of those who wrote him were women, the purse brought the orders.