A company used a sequence of six letters sent to prospective customers to increase their business by 500% in 15 weeks. The company was a service station in Toledo, Ohio located on the outskirts of town. Two strong selling points – the quality of the work and the reduced price – are the foundation upon which this firm’s bid for business is based, and these selling points occupy a prominent place in all of the letters of the series. This letter was written in the 1920s or 1930s, which was during the high point of the era of sales letters, before glass paper and pretty pictures took over the advertising business.
DODGE REPAIRS
Miller Sawyer Service Company Home Phone Park 1698
Watson Mfg. Co. Blg.
TOLEDO, OHIO Post and Albion Sts.
Mr. James Blair, January 20, 19--
1116 Pleasant Street,
Toledo, Ohio
Dear Sir:
Have you ever taken your car to a dealer service station for repairs, paid a high bill, and driven away only to find that your car ran worse than before?
Have you ever had it suggested to you, about the time your valves first needed grinding, that you’d better consider “turning in the old boat on a new one?”
Auto dealers, carrying enormous overhead, have to render service as a necessary incident to their business, which is the selling of cars --- forced on them by the manufacturers. It is an annoyance and a drain, the high cost of which is passed on to you. The dealer’s eye is always on a sale, for it is in selling that he makes his money.
With us it is different. Maintaining Dodges in good running order is our sole business. We have to do a good job or close up. We are not interested in coaxing you to replace the good car you have now, or in fostering the skilful propaganda that has made so many people think an automobile, built by the best mechanics out of the toughest materials, has a shorter life than a typewriter, a good washing-machine or a printing press.
Keep your car in repair and get your money out of it! Don’t be fooled into turning it in as worn out – only to have it run sixty thousand miles further in the hands of some taxi-cab company which knows its value.
With low overhead, our labor charge is only $1.00 an hour, instead of $1.25. Genuine Dodge parts cost alike everywhere. Our splendid shop at Post and Albion is equipped to build a complete car, if necessary, and we guarantee our work. You can run out in ten minutes, and we get you home or to a car line in one of our own machines.
Forty or fifty Dodge owners have taken advantage of our free carbon-cleaning offer. Why not try it yourself?
MILLER SAWYER SERVICE COMPANY
Manager
I think this letter is a great example of how anyone can sell in print. A lof of people are cynical that you can use a sales letter to do some of your selling for you. I used to think this was far out wacky kind of stuff. But, once I tried it out, I was surprised to find it actually worked.
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