Robert Collier - The Robert Collier Letter Book

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Suppose a good job were open where you work. Could you fill it? Could you jump right in and make good, or would the boss have to pass you up because you lacked training?

The man who is offered the big job is the man who has trained himself to hold it before it is offered to him.

Don’t take chances on being promoted. Don’t gamble on making good when your opportunity comes. If you want a big job that carries responsibility and pays good money, get ready for it! Pick out the job you want in the work you like best. Then start right now to get, through the Blank Correspondence School, the training that will prepare you to hold it.

If you do as Arnold Bader did—he lives five miles north-east of Monticello—you will have very little trouble with your clover, and you can start a patch of alfalfa that will grow.

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When a man, 42 years of age, who has been working for others all his life, decides to go into business for himself—and when, in a few short months, he so solidly establishes his business as to outdistance competitors who had the advantage of years of experience—there must be something about his method of doing business that other men would like to know about at once.

In the January magazine, you will find the story of how John Jones succeeded, what he did, etc.

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Pay-day—what does it mean to you? Does your money go ’round? Or does it fail to stop all the gaps made by last week’s or month’s bills?

Last week according to actual, certified reports on file in our office—300 men got their salary raised as a direct result of becoming more proficient from studying ABC courses. Don’t you think it’s time that salary raise was coming your way?

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The old saying: "There is strength in numbers," certainly does not apply to the wearing apparel of the woman of today.

Could anything be more disappointing to a well dressed woman than to pass an exact counterpart of the coat which she is wearing, on some other woman?

Exclusiveness is the keynote of our women’s coats; therefore we cannot permit any duplicates. That’s the reason our Women’s Coat Salon, etc.

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"How’s the garden?—is the morning greeting at the suburban station. Many estate owners are planting potatoes on all their available ground. Others, not so ambitious, are growing only enough for a table garden.

Under these conditions, House and Garden magazine assumes a new importance. It has already established a reputation for clear, usable garden information. Now, it is a guide book for the subject uppermost in everyone’s mind.

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You get more pay for each working hour now than you did the first day you worked. Why? Because you put more value into each hour of your time. You have developed your efficiency.

Your business efficiency grows out of your business ideas, and these come from your business knowledge. If you enrich your knowledge with the tested and proven experience of other men, you save yourself valuable time and the needless labor of studying out that which is already known. You add other men’s business knowledge to your own efficiency. You get the material out of which to make new and original ideas.

It is these new ideas that make and break records. They mark the difference between the man who gets paid much and the one who receives little. And it is the material for these new ideas that you find in System, the Journal of Modern Business Management.

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25 or 30 years ago, back in the days when we traveled by the Dobbin and Dashboard route, men used to say—"Well, I reckon life insurance is a good thing, but you have to die to win.

Times have changed. And so have life insurance policies. Today there are at least 17 ways you can put life insurance to work for you, right now, in your own lifetime, and reap rich rewards without sacrificing the protection value of the policy.

No matter what business or personal undertaking you have in mind, there is probably a policy that will help you carry out the program easily, quickly, economically—and at the same time protect those dependent upon you. Frankly, I’d like to discuss the matter with you, etc.

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There is one type of letter that is always interesting news, provided the product you are offering has an established market. That type is the price-reduction, money-saving offer. Here are a few such letters that have proved particularly effective:

Monday, March 6th—mark the date on your calendar now! It is the date of a sale you will not want to miss. A sale of women’s white Spring frocks at $12.50. It is such an interesting event that we want to tell you a few things about it. Most of the dresses are, etc.

At the close of a busy season, we find ourselves with 137 sets of the beautiful Gold Star edition of Oliver Cromwell’s works slightly damaged from stock-room handling—so slightly you would have to make a close inspection to discern the damage, but still—you know how it is—they cannot be sold as perfect books.

So rather than send them back to the bindery and give the binders the profit of re-binding, we have decided to let the advantage go to a few booklovers—people like you who love good books for the books’ sake and not for trifling details about them—and to offer these 137 sets at just what they would be worth with the covers ripped off!

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At certain periods of the year, we have special events in this store which we do not advertise. In order that we may personally advise you of such sales, we would like to have your name and address. Won’t you please therefore give us this information at the bottom of this card, and either send or bring it to the store at the first convenient opportunity?

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On the 1st of October, the rate of the Business Week will go up $1 a line. If you place your order before the 30th of this month, you can buy space to be used any time before January 1st at $—a line. After the 30th, positively no orders will be accepted at less than the new figure. As a matter of fact, our circulation entitles us to the higher rate now.

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That one extra dress you so badly wanted, but thoughtfully and economically decided not to buy—that smart afternoon frock, or the pretty street dress, that you longed for, but resisted because to buy it then would have been extravagant—is now, you will be happy to learn, turned into a matter of plain, common sense economy!

For to make space for spring stock that is coming earlier than we were prepared for, we must cut the prices on our complete and beautiful line of winter styles to the point that will make it almost an extravagance not to take advantage of the wonderful values.

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We are enclosing in this envelope our check for $6.20 payable to Smith Bros. Readers. This means that if you endorse the check and return it to us before Dec. 10th, we will send you $6.20 worth of these readers, whichever ones you may choose!

On the back of the check, you will find complete list of all our Readers, Grades 1A to 6B. If you wish to order additional quantities at this time, you can apply the enclosed check against our bill as part payment.

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You will probably be able to buy an Ever-ready Bag next year—10 years from now—But, you can never buy it again at its present price of $14.85. That price is about to go up to $20. The special low payment, free-on-approval club is about to close for good.

This is your chance.

The card herewith brings the newest bag, etc.

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Of course, there are ways of flagging the reader’s interest even before he gets to the first line of your letter. Putting a catch-phrase on the outside of the envelope is one. The Literary Digest employs this method on most of its mailings, so you can be sure they have found it effective, for no experienced user of the mails keeps up any practice that does not justify itself in increased orders on the record sheet.