Read Online How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Dale Carnegie
Tags: General, Family & Relationships, Psychology, Interpersonal relations, Self-Help, Personal Growth, Business & Economics, Careers, Careers - General, Success, Business Communication, Persuasion (Psychology), Communication In Business, Applied Psychology, Leadership, Personal Growth - Success
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my
viewpoint. But you are vague about how it will be to my
advantage.]
Very truly yours,
John Doe
Manager Radio Department
P.S. The enclosed reprint from the Blankville Journal will
be of interest to you, and you may want to broadcast it over
your station.
[Finally, down here in the postscript, you mention
something that may help me solve one of my problems.
Why didn’t you begin your letter with - but what’s the
use? Any advertising man who is guilty of perpetrating
such drivel as you have sent me has something wrong
with his medulla oblongata. You don’t need a letter giving
our latest doings. What you need is a quart of iodine
in your thyroid gland.]
Now, if people who devote their lives to advertising
and who pose as experts in the art of influencing people
to buy - if they write a letter like that, what can we expect
from the butcher and baker or the auto mechanic?
Here is another letter, written by the superintendent
of a large freight terminal to a student of this course,
Edward Vermylen. What effect did this letter have on
the man to whom it was addressed? Read it and then I'll
tell you.
A. Zerega’s Sons, Inc.
28 Front St.
Brooklyn, N.Y. 11201
Attention: Mr. Edward Vermylen
Gentlemen:
The operations at our outbound-rail-receiving station are
handicapped because a material percentage of the total
business is delivered us in the late afternoon. This condition
results in congestion, overtime on the part of our forces,
delays to trucks, and in some cases delays to freight. On
November 10, we received from your company a lot of 510
pieces, which reached here at 4:20 P.M.
We solicit your cooperation toward overcoming the undesirable
effects arising from late receipt of freight. May we
ask that, on days on which you ship the volume which was
received on the above date, effort be made either to get the
truck here earlier or to deliver us part of the freight during
the morning?
The advantage that would accrue to you under such an
arrangement would be that of more expeditious discharge
of your trucks and the assurance that your business would
go forward on the date of its receipt.
Very truly yours,
J----- B ----- Supt.
After reading this letter, Mr. Vermylen, sales manager
for A. Zerega’s Sons, Inc., sent it to me with the following
comment:
This letter had the reverse effect from that which was
intended. The letter begins by describing the Terminal’s
difficulties, in which we are not interested, generally speaking.
Our cooperation is then requested without any thought
as to whether it would inconvenience us, and then, finally,
in the last paragraph, the fact is mentioned that if we do
cooperate it will mean more expeditious discharge of our
trucks with the assurance that our freight will go forward on
the date of its receipt.
In other words, that in which we are most interested is
mentioned last and the whole effect is one of raising a spirit
of antagonism rather than of cooperation.
Let’s see if we can’t rewrite and improve this letter.
Let’s not waste any time talking about our problems. As
Henry Ford admonishes, let’s “get the other person’s
point of view and see things from his or her angle, as
well as from our own.”
Here is one way of revising the letter. It may not be
the best way, but isn’t it an improvement?
Mr. Edward Vermylen
% A. Zerega’s Sons, Inc.
28 Front St.
Brooklyn, N.Y. 11201
Dear Mr. Vermylen:
Your company has been one of our good customers for
fourteen years. Naturally, we are very grateful for your patronage
and are eager to give you the speedy, efficient service
you deserve. However, we regret to say that it isn’t
possible for us to do that when your trucks bring us a large
shipment late in the afternoon, as they did on November
10. Why? Because many other customers make late afternoon
deliveries also. Naturally, that causes congestion. That
means your trucks are held up
viewpoint. But you are vague about how it will be to my
advantage.]
Very truly yours,
John Doe
Manager Radio Department
P.S. The enclosed reprint from the Blankville Journal will
be of interest to you, and you may want to broadcast it over
your station.
[Finally, down here in the postscript, you mention
something that may help me solve one of my problems.
Why didn’t you begin your letter with - but what’s the
use? Any advertising man who is guilty of perpetrating
such drivel as you have sent me has something wrong
with his medulla oblongata. You don’t need a letter giving
our latest doings. What you need is a quart of iodine
in your thyroid gland.]
Now, if people who devote their lives to advertising
and who pose as experts in the art of influencing people
to buy - if they write a letter like that, what can we expect
from the butcher and baker or the auto mechanic?
Here is another letter, written by the superintendent
of a large freight terminal to a student of this course,
Edward Vermylen. What effect did this letter have on
the man to whom it was addressed? Read it and then I'll
tell you.
A. Zerega’s Sons, Inc.
28 Front St.
Brooklyn, N.Y. 11201
Attention: Mr. Edward Vermylen
Gentlemen:
The operations at our outbound-rail-receiving station are
handicapped because a material percentage of the total
business is delivered us in the late afternoon. This condition
results in congestion, overtime on the part of our forces,
delays to trucks, and in some cases delays to freight. On
November 10, we received from your company a lot of 510
pieces, which reached here at 4:20 P.M.
We solicit your cooperation toward overcoming the undesirable
effects arising from late receipt of freight. May we
ask that, on days on which you ship the volume which was
received on the above date, effort be made either to get the
truck here earlier or to deliver us part of the freight during
the morning?
The advantage that would accrue to you under such an
arrangement would be that of more expeditious discharge
of your trucks and the assurance that your business would
go forward on the date of its receipt.
Very truly yours,
J----- B ----- Supt.
After reading this letter, Mr. Vermylen, sales manager
for A. Zerega’s Sons, Inc., sent it to me with the following
comment:
This letter had the reverse effect from that which was
intended. The letter begins by describing the Terminal’s
difficulties, in which we are not interested, generally speaking.
Our cooperation is then requested without any thought
as to whether it would inconvenience us, and then, finally,
in the last paragraph, the fact is mentioned that if we do
cooperate it will mean more expeditious discharge of our
trucks with the assurance that our freight will go forward on
the date of its receipt.
In other words, that in which we are most interested is
mentioned last and the whole effect is one of raising a spirit
of antagonism rather than of cooperation.
Let’s see if we can’t rewrite and improve this letter.
Let’s not waste any time talking about our problems. As
Henry Ford admonishes, let’s “get the other person’s
point of view and see things from his or her angle, as
well as from our own.”
Here is one way of revising the letter. It may not be
the best way, but isn’t it an improvement?
Mr. Edward Vermylen
% A. Zerega’s Sons, Inc.
28 Front St.
Brooklyn, N.Y. 11201
Dear Mr. Vermylen:
Your company has been one of our good customers for
fourteen years. Naturally, we are very grateful for your patronage
and are eager to give you the speedy, efficient service
you deserve. However, we regret to say that it isn’t
possible for us to do that when your trucks bring us a large
shipment late in the afternoon, as they did on November
10. Why? Because many other customers make late afternoon
deliveries also. Naturally, that causes congestion. That
means your trucks are held up
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