Introduction.. 3

Chapter 1. History business letter.. 4

Chapter 2. Classification of business letters .. 5

Chapter 3. Types of business letters .. 6

3.1. Types of non-commercial business letters.. 6

3.2. Types of commercial business letters.. 6

3.3. Emails. 7

Chapter 4. Rules for the design and structure of business letters .. 8

Chapter 5 Common Mistakes in the language and style of business correspondence 10

Conclusion.. 12

Since ancient times, man has been in correspondence with his own kind. Clay tablets, birch bark letters, letters on parchment. No matter what, but the person tried to express his thoughts and aspirations through writing. Surely even then there were business letters, with the help of which a person exchanged information, made proposals and conducted negotiation communication.

When we start writing an official letter, we never think about the fact that this practice dates back to hoary antiquity. Language formulas, types, varieties of official correspondence, forms, ways of designing and working with it have been created and polished for centuries. Many types of letters have a thousand-year history.

Business correspondence is an essential means of communication today. Company links with external organizations, since it is the letters that connect the author organization with other institutions.

A service letter is a generalized name for documents of various content, drawn up in accordance with GOST, sent by mail, fax or other means.

Without exaggeration, we can say that this is one of the most common types of official documents, therefore, the success of solving specific issues, and hence the entire enterprise as a whole, will largely depend on how accurate, literate, and correct the text of the message is.

As early as the beginning of the 18th century, collections of sample documents called "pistorovnik" began to be published in Russia.

The predecessors of the "letters" were the "forms", known in the West already in the 7th century, and in Russia - from the first third of the 16th century (in particular, the "forms" of the Moscow metropolitan department) - descriptions of the details of the document, arranged in a certain sequence. Early scribes were a kind of improvised collections, "alphabets-copybooks" for scribes. They contained samples of the construction of documents according to a certain scheme, template sets of phrases and expressions, which were an integral part of formulary etiquette and reflected official relations. Another type of early scribes was the “titulars”, which contained information on how to write down the full royal title. The early scribes did not regulate the sphere of private relations and private correspondence.

For acts, transactions and petitions, stamped paper with artificial stamps and with the image of the state emblem was usually used. Some documents were allowed to be written on plain paper of an ordinary size.

Handwriting requirements were quite high: it had to be clear, clean and beautiful. The color of the paper, which could be blue, orange, fawn, and so on, was advised by the authors of the letter to be chosen carefully so as not to be reproached for lack of taste.

Letters were sent in envelopes, and the envelopes were sealed with wafers or sealing wax: only notes and rarely letters were sealed first, everything else with sealing wax.

The wafers were multicolored, while the sealing wax was mostly red. Being in mourning, he sealed the letter only with black sealing wax.

In Soviet times, the genre of "letters" was ridiculed as "a relic of the bourgeois past." Private correspondence could be subjected to postal censorship, the ability to write letters was lost, and the importance of business correspondence was underestimated. In the absence of competition, free enterprise, neither eloquence nor the ability to convince a partner of cooperation was required, few people paid attention to epistolary etiquette.

Business letters are official correspondence and are used to resolve numerous operational issues that arise in the management and commercial activities. A business letter is always a formal message. The information contained in a business letter is of a protocol nature. That is why letters are registered, and the fact of oral communication does not preclude the need for postage.

There are several types of classification of business letters, they are based on various classification features.

According to their functionality, letters can be divided into two groups:

Letters that require a letter of response (letter of question; letter of request; letter of appeal; letter of offer, etc.). Response letters should always contain the index of the letter that caused the correspondence.

Letters that do not require a letter of response (letter of warning; letter of reminder; letter of invitation, etc.).

By structural features, business letters are divided into regulated (standard) and non-regulated. A regulated letter solves typical issues of regular economic and legal situations and is implemented in the form of standard syntactic constructions. An unregulated business letter is an author's text, realized in the form of a formal logical narrative or etiquette text.

On a thematic basis, a conditional distinction is made between business and commercial correspondence. It is believed that correspondence that draws up economic, legal, financial and all other forms of enterprise activity is called business correspondence, and correspondence on logistics and sales refers to commercial correspondence.

On the basis of the addressee, business letters are divided into ordinary and circular. A circular letter is sent from one source to several addresses.

According to the compositional features, business letters are divided into single-aspect and multi-aspect ones. A single-aspect letter considers one problem, a question, and a multi-aspect one considers several. A letter is considered to be multidimensional if it contains the same type and different types of aspects - requests, messages, proposals.

Letter of request. A letter of request sets out a request, while it emphasizes the interest of the organization in its implementation. The request can be stated in the first person singular, in the first person plural; third person singular and third person plural.

Transmittal letter. A cover letter is drawn up when documents are sent to the addressee or material assets. This kind of letter justifies itself in cases where it contains additional clarifications to the attached document.

Letter-message. In this type of business letter, any information is given that does not require a response or confirmation from the side to which this letter is sent.

Confirmation letter. Contains a message about the receipt of a shipment or that a previously drawn up document remains valid. You can also confirm a fact or action.

Reminder letter. It is sent in cases where it is not possible to receive a response through telephone conversations or personal meetings. It consists of two elements: a reminder to perform an action; measures to be taken in case of non-fulfillment of a previously concluded contract or agreement.

Invitation letter. Written when an organization wants to invite another organization to a celebration or event. This business letter indicates the time, place and date of the event.

Thank you letter. This type of letter expresses gratitude for the performance of some kind of activity.

Letter of guarantee. It is drawn up in order to confirm certain obligations and is addressed to an organization or an individual.

Request and response. These types of commercial correspondence are in writing the implementation of two-way communication.

A request is an appeal from a person who wants to make a deal. The request must indicate the name of the goods (services), the conditions under which it is desirable to receive the goods, the terms of payment, the quantity and quality of the goods.

Offer and response. This type of letter usually indicates the conditions under which the exchange of goods (services) should take place. The answer expresses agreement or disagreement with the conditions put forward.

Letter of claim (complaint), response to it. The reclamation contains claims against the party that violated the obligations assumed under the contract and claims for damages. It can be made regarding the quality, quantity of goods, delivery time, etc.

Grounds for filing claims;

Evidence of the damage that has occurred;

The specific requirements of the complaining party.

E-mail is a very special type of communication that allows, if desired, to communicate in an interactive mode, in a teleconference mode, etc. and representing both great opportunities and great difficulties due to the specifics of conducting electronic correspondence. On the one hand, emails are almost no different from their usual predecessors - paper letters. At email there is a recipient's address and a sender's address, in system messages the date and time of sending and receiving the message, the text of the letter and the signature of the sender are "protected", the "Subject" line or the subject of the message is saved, it is possible to send a copy, the attached file acts as the Application command.

Typically, a business letter consists of several typical structural elements:

1. Header area.

In this part of the letter, a corner stamp of the organization is placed on the left, indicating the name of the organization, its postal and other details, as well as the registration number and date of registration of the letter as an outgoing document. If the service letter is a response letter, then it also indicates to which document this letter responds.

The details of the addressee are placed on the right side of the header.

Below the corner stamp is a title to the text of the document. The heading language structure may look like:

Preposition about + noun. in the prepositional case: "On the supply of cars";

On the issue of + noun. in the prepositional case: "On the issue of the supply of spare parts";

Concerning + noun. in the genitive case: "Concerning the purchase order", etc.

2. The actual text of the letter.

The main features of the design of the text of the letter are as follows.

* The text of a business letter, as a rule, should relate to one issue or several issues if they are interconnected and will be considered in one structural unit destination organization.

* The text of the letter, as a rule, consists of two parts. The first part sets out the reason, basis or justification for compiling the letter, provides links to documents that are the basis for preparing the letter. The second part, starting with a paragraph, contains conclusions, proposals, requests, decisions, etc.

* Letters are printed on standard sheets or forms of A4 or A5 format; when writing a letter on two or more pages, the second and subsequent pages are numbered in the middle of the top margin of the sheet with Arabic numerals.

*If the letter is on letterhead official, then its text is stated from the 1st person singular: “I ask ...”, “I direct ...”. In other cases, the text of the letter is stated from the 3rd person singular.

* If an attachment is provided for the text of the letter, then it is indicated below the main text, for example: Attachment: for 10 sheets. in 1 copy. If there are several applications, then the abbreviated name of each application document is given, indicating the number of copies and sheets.

3. Signature area.

This area is drawn up in the usual way: the position and surname of the person who signed the document is indicated.

If the executor of the document was another person, then the surname of the executor and his telephone number (or other details, if necessary) are indicated at the bottom of the letter sheet on the left side.

Unfortunately, business letter writers often make a lot of mistakes. The latter can be divided into the following types: structural, syntactic, morphological, lexical, stylistic, technical.

Structural errors.

The source of structural errors is the incorrect construction of a business letter, the disproportionate position of its parts. It is important that each aspect of the content has a specific place in the logical structure of a business letter and does not overlap with another aspect. Failure to comply with this condition leads to long introductions and complex systems motivations.

Syntax errors.

Mistakes related to incorrect word order in a sentence.

Violation of the specifics of the use of adverbial phrases. The adverbial turnover serves as a means of conveying an action that occurs simultaneously or in connection with another action. It is not difficult to correct errors in the use of adverbial phrases by replacing sentences with adverbial phrases with sentences with circumstances expressed by combinations of words.

Errors resulting from ignorance of the structure of a complex sentence. Often, the compilers of business letters unnecessarily complicate the text. Although the specifics of a business letter require close attention to the details of the presentation, however, not always and not all the details are appropriate in the text. Therefore, unnecessarily complicated syntactic constructions should be simplified. This can be done both by direct reduction of the text, and by its processing, for example, by breaking up a complex text into separate phrases that are simple in composition and construction.

Morphological errors.

Mistakes in the use of full and short forms of adjectives. It should be borne in mind that short forms of adjectives are more common in official business speech. The full names of adjectives in such texts turn out to be inappropriate, they are felt as colloquial and even colloquial.

Lexical errors.

Incorrect use of words and terms.

Inappropriate or unjustified use of foreign words. Borrowing foreign words is a natural way of enriching any language. Often, foreign words denoting concepts that have already been assigned a Russian equivalent get into the business language. However, it makes no sense to use a foreign word if there is a Russian term for this concept. The use of foreign vocabulary should be due to three circumstances: necessity, relevance and accuracy of word usage.

Tautology. Semantic repetitions that occur when cognate words coexist in a sentence. Tautological repetitions make the phrase dissonant. In addition, they make it difficult to perceive it, because they attract attention to themselves.

Errors in the use of synonyms. Mistakes in the use of synonymous words often come from the fact that a polysemantic word can be synonymous with another in only one of its meanings.

Stylistic interference.

Artificial lengthening of speech. Experts advise: "Do not state in a letter what you would not say orally." However, in our modern official correspondence, examples of artificial lengthening of speech are very often encountered. In the language of business correspondence, too long turns are unacceptable.

Technical interference.

These interferences include typos, errors, mechanical damage to the integrity of the text (tears, sticking to the envelope, etc.). the main reason for the occurrence of technical interference is negligence in the preparation of a business letter.

Drawing up the text of a business letter is always an act of speech creativity, no matter how the letter is - regulated or unregulated. This is work that requires enough high level language competence. It is impossible to learn how to write business letters correctly and convincingly without practicing and learning this difficult art, without knowing the features of official business and journalistic speech styles. Today, the number of genre varieties of business correspondence and reasons for compiling and sending business letters is increasing. Locale in business correspondence coexists with expression and with elements of dialogization of speech.

All this requires a manager today to have more speech training than, say, ten years ago, in the era of the reign of standard and stereotyped texts. The ability to think independently and formulate one's thoughts, competently conduct a written dialogue is valued more and more in business circles.

Russian literary language, one of the richest and most expressive languages world, accumulated in the field of writing business communication invaluable experience, represented by unified and stereotyped language forms, traditions of using etiquette means.

Today, it is important not to lose these treasures, not to copy Western models, but to respect our ancestors, who have polished the form and style of business letters for centuries, and to fruitfully develop domestic traditions of compiling business correspondence - a task that faces today's and future generations business people in Russia.

1. Veselov, P.V. Modern business letter in industry / P.V. Veselov. - M.: Publishing house of standards, 1990. - 160 p.
2. Zagorskaya, A.P. Letter book for business correspondence / A.P. Zagorskaya, P.F. Petrochenko, N.P. Petrochenko. – M.: Mosk. worker, 1992. - 247 p.
3. Rakhmanin, L.V. Stylistics of business speech and editing official documents / L.V. Rakhmanin. - M .: Higher. school, 1982. - 259 p.
4. Taylor, K. Fundamentals of office work in modern business: Per. from English. / K. Taylor. – M.: Sol System; Finance and statistics, 1997. - 176 p.
5. Tepper, R. How to master the art of business writing: 250 notes to help the manager / R. Tepper. - M.: Audit: UNITI, 1994. - 231 p.

Overall rating 8 out of 10 Usefulness 9 out of 10 Ease of reading 10 out of 10 Beautiful writing 6 out of 10 Use of examples 8 out of 10

A more appropriate title for this book would be The Art of Negotiating in Letters. The book does not say anything about the rules for formatting a business letter, accepted forms of address, punctuation marks after greetings, the correct wording of the subject line, etc. It communicates more important information - how to make a business letter effective. Some tips are cool, some are dubious. Let's start with the cool ones. In the life of every person comes the need to write a letter with a claim, refusal or apology. Karepina offers templates for such letters. These templates teach you how to properly present negative information in order to get what you want from the addressee: not to offend with a refusal, to get a positive response to the request. Templates are on the author's website. In general, I was terribly upset when I stumbled upon them in the book, because for more than a year I had been learning how to write such letters on the theory of Kemp and the advice of Ilya Sinelnikov on the Bureau website. I constantly compose letters for friends and I was terribly proud of my ability, but then it turned out that Sasha Karepina already had all this. The book is also good because the author writes easily. She delivers equally well. useful information about the structure of the text; how to use bulleted and numbered lists; where passive constructions are needed, and where real ones; when to include "official" and when to include "lover" in the writing style.

Style creates an image: once a person who writes in a personal style was called a “lover” by the participants of the training, and someone who chooses a formal style was called an “official”. Approaching in a letter to the "lover" we emphasize our personal beginning, human qualities, position; and approaching the "official", we hide everything human. Neither one nor the other image is good or bad in itself: in some situations it is beneficial for us to be more of a "lover", and in others - more of an "official"

I think that one "official" should not be used in a letter, it is better to wisely mix in a "lover" with his personal style. The recipient will appreciate To create a convenient writing structure, Karepina suggests using the form of a “tree”: the trunk is the main idea, it branches into paragraphs-branches, and the branches into details-leaves.

The lower we go down the tree, the more details become, and the higher we go, the less there are. When moving from top to bottom, the picture becomes more detailed, when moving from bottom to top, it becomes more generalized. Why is a "tree" task more efficient than a regular one? Firstly, because it is convenient for us to go from the general to the particular: first to understand the essence, and then to find out the details. And, secondly, because it is difficult for a person to keep in his head more than three unsystematized facts.

The examples in the book deserve special attention. The author takes classical texts and analyzes them. Templates for effective letters can be remembered literally from Pushkin's poems. You did well in school in literature lessons, didn't you?

Why does rejection hurt so much? It seems to us that the person behind the door does not care at all about these problems, he does not care about them, he does not see us point-blank - and there is a feeling that we have been rejected, written off. The addressee of such letters feels the same. And so that he does not have such a feeling, it is worth showing in the refusal that we just care and we understand what caused his request and why the situation turned out the way it did. Let us turn again to Onegin's letter. Refusing Tatyana, he seems to be saying: I understand how you decided on this; many would consider you immodest and ill-mannered, but I see that you are driven by purity and sincerity.

I have read the souls of trusting confessions, innocent outpourings of love; I love your sincerity...

Let's move on from the advantages of the book to the disadvantages. Inconsistency among copywriters is sinful, but in the book it is: somewhere the author writes “you” with a capital letter, somewhere with a lowercase letter, I did not find any logic in this. The book will not teach you good language. On the one hand, she does not set herself such a task, but on the other hand, the author teaches not to use clericalism, but sometimes she herself resorts to them. For example, the word “given” is often found on the pages. This is my least favorite word. But that will be another post. There are a lot of “stop words” and “amplifier words”, some texts smell like “copywriting of the brain”. In training examples, this is not good. Here Karepina offers an example of an effective sales letter:

The standard price of the book is 350 rubles. Agree, it's cheap. But there is a more interesting offer: we will sell the first 500 copies of the book at an absolutely incredible price - only 150 rubles! Do you want to be on time? Buy now! And for all those who signed up today - a bonus! You will be able to participate in a VIP session of individual coaching from network marketing guru John Smith for free!

The whole example consists of cheap tricks, exclamation points and empty words. Behind such a text, I see some nonsense, I will send it to spam and forget it forever. No, I won’t forget, it’s better to rewrite normally:

The standard price of the book is 350 rubles, but we will sell the first 500 copies at 150 rubles. The book has a lot of useful things, and we want even more people to be able to buy and read it. To participate in the promotion you need to register (link). Everyone who signs up today will receive a ticket for an individual session about network marketing John Smith. Details about the event (link).

Behind such a text is friendly advice and a desire to help. There is another point with which I do not fully agree. Sasha Karepina says that the letter must have an introduction. Without it, it will turn out as if “they throw the ball without warning,” as the author writes. This is true, but some of the book's introductory options are unfortunate. For example:

I draw your attention to... I bring to your attention... I inform you...

These phrases are terribly boring and smell like officials. The introduction should be more friendly. This is the time to use something more personal in order to immediately lure the addressee to your side. A good introduction is related to the context of the letter. Let's try to use the phrases proposed by Karepina, correct them for less formal ones and fit them into context:

Good afternoon, Ulyana! Regarding your question about the portfolio logo.

It’s immediately clear what the discussion will be about (I think it’s not scary if the introduction duplicates the topic) and it sounds quite friendly, although the business style is not violated. It is clear that the introduction is not needed when replying to a letter in a message chain, where the context is already visible. Well, the last fly in the ointment. Sasha Karepina tells how to use italics, underlining and bold writing in letters. I think it is better not to use such highlighters. First, it is necessary to formulate thoughts in such a way that the reader can easily single out the main point without additional emphasis. Secondly, bold type and underlining draw attention to themselves all the time. I have nothing against italics: it looks neat and unobtrusive. Karepina says that italics should be used in letters to "very important people." I think that all your readers should be treated equally respectfully, regardless of importance. My verdict. The book will be useful to those who know little about the correct presentation of information and effective negotiations. Interesting examples and easy language will help you learn the material well, but in some places you need to be more attentive, and not take all the advice on faith.

Modern business is impossible without a business letter: we compose commercial offers, we correspond with clients and partners, we write cover letters and CVs, filling the corporate website with information, preparing press releases, reporting on the work done… And we are often nervous — how will our word resonate?

How to turn a business letter into an effective persuasion tool?
How to stop writing "to the trash"?
What to do and what not to do to make our texts work?
Sasha Karepina, business coach and business communications consultant, answers these questions in her new book.

Introducing the new, revised edition of the book!

Chapter from a book.

Fishlock's light bulb. Facts in sales letters

In 2010, English artist and designer Tim Fishlock decided to say goodbye to electric incandescent lamps. For almost a century and a half, these familiar round lamps with a spiral inside illuminated the houses and streets of Europe - and then they decided to gradually replace them with new, energy-saving ones.

The farewell turned out to be unusual: Tim collected 1243 lamps together and made an openwork, cloud-like ball with a diameter of more than a meter from them. Inside the ball, the artist placed the only energy-saving lamp - thanks to this lamp, the entire structure turned into an unusual chandelier with overtones.

Looking at a photo of this chandelier on the Internet, I thought: it seems that sellers of electric lamps have a new class of buyers - those who need these lamps not only as a source of light, but also as a material for creativity. A web search quickly confirmed my hunch.

When I searched for “works made from light bulbs,” I found an article about how young designers in Madrid built an entire wall-screen out of lamps. Then the search engine gave a link to the site of a French artist who creates flower pots and spice table sets from the same lamps. Finally, I came across an American site under the heading "All about electric lighting", where detailed instructions on the assembly of luminous clusters of lamps with their own hands.

A trend was emerging—and lamp suppliers around the world likely noticed it before I did. So, while I was admiring the fancy planters and salt shakers, they were thinking how to use this trend. How to reach out to creative people, how to offer them your lamps, including in a sales letter. Or selling text for the site.

Actually, I was going to write about selling texts, but I stumbled upon the story with light bulbs by chance in search of examples. Readers convinced me to take up these texts. The first edition of The Art of Business Writing didn't have a separate chapter on sales writing, but as soon as the book came out I was bombarded with questions.

"I sell youth clothes(mountain bikes, electric massagers, sports nutrition), readers wrote to me. - How to offer this product to the client by letter? What techniques from the book to use? Where to start, how to finish, how to write about the price? There were so many questions that, after consulting with the publisher, I decided to complete a new chapter for the second edition and consider in detail the process of writing sales texts. That's what came out of it.

We promise

Let's imagine that you and I just sell light bulbs. Among those with whom we correspond, there are creative youth - it is to this youth that we will offer our light bulbs.

Let's start from the beginning, that is, from the "penny". Let's promise something attractive to the addressee and use the first block of the sales letter for this - a promise.

How's that for a start? Sounds like a good idea: we start with a problem that worries our young creative readers. But you can do better if you remember the principle of the tree, the principle of "from the general to the particular." Before talking about the details, you need to formulate the essence. So let's do it.

Do-it-yourself futuristic office design - and almost for nothing?

It's possible!

A stylish person today cannot do without a stylish office. Are you at the beginning of your career? Not yet ready to invest in exclusive office design and expensive materials? It doesn't matter: we will help you decorate your office in an unusual and inexpensive way.

We substantiate promises

The addressee is interested - and now we need to explain to him what exactly our help will consist of. That is, add the following block to the letter - justification of the need for your product or service.

An excellent material for office design is light bulbs. From them you can collect any original compositions, including luminous, shimmering, shimmering in different shades.

Depending on the creative idea, you can use light bulbs of different colors and shapes, different luminous intensity, giving your works of art a bright, sunny flavor - or turning them into fantastic, unearthly designs!

Our company offers light bulbs and accessories for creating such sculptures.

Now the buyer is interested and almost in love with our product. Almost, but not quite. What does he lack?

We give evidence

The buyer can hear our words about the merits of light bulbs, but not fully believe them. In fact, every seller praises his product, but in fact, not everything is always rosy. Maybe these bulbs are of poor quality, quickly burn out? Or maybe they're dangerous, they don't fit environmental standards? And in general, does anyone already use them - or has anyone been able to "breed" yet?

To dispel the doubts of the buyer, we must provide evidence of our trustworthiness. For example, such.

The quality of our services has been tested by time. For more than five years we have been supplying light bulbs to the Russian and European markets. The safety and reliability of our bulbs are evidenced by the certificates of Rospotrebnadzor and the European Commission, as well as numerous medals of international industrial exhibitions ...

Let's take a look at evidence in more detail. What kind of evidence might this be? Essentially, we have two ways to prove that a product is good. First, we can refer to the experience of other customers, talk about what serious people used our product and how it made them feel good. Here's how to do it in a sales letter:

When offering light bulbs to creative people, we referred both to the experience of other customers and to an authoritative opinion, so that the main doubts of the addressee should have dissipated. What else can be done?

Another thing that can be used to alleviate concerns about the quality of a product is a warranty. Are we sure that our product is good? We are not afraid that buyers will not like it? In this case, you can safely offer the dissatisfied to return their money. It is unlikely that there will be many such dissatisfied, but the rest of those reading the letter will be even more convinced of the quality of our light bulbs.

We name the price

Well, now we are approaching the most subtle, scrupulous moment. What causes the greatest anxiety among novice sellers, what causes the main discomfort? Of course, talking about the price. While you are praising the product, everything usually goes like clockwork: it’s nice to talk about a good thing. But sooner or later, the time comes to answer the question “how much?”, and here we are in for problems. What if you don't like the price? What if the buyer decides that it is expensive? What if this topic does not appear in the conversation at the right time and the conversation falls apart without ending with a sale?

Disputes about which part of the sales letter to name the price have been going on for more than one year, and, perhaps, more than one century. We are faced with a classic conflict of interest here. The buyer wants to know the price as early as possible - it is beneficial for the seller not to disclose this price for as long as possible.

To show why, I usually describe this situation in training. A girl is walking along the street, and suddenly she sees a dress in a shop window. The girl likes the dress. The girl understands that it is in such a dress that she will be irresistible at the next club party. She has been dreaming of just such a style for a long time, besides, the color of the dress is perfect for the recently bought shoes!

The girl enters the store, examines the dress closer, feels the fabric to the touch, applies it to her face to assess how this shade suits her, and finally notices the price tag: the dress is expensive. Not so much that she couldn't afford it, but still. What do you think happens next?

Do you think our girl turns around and leaves the store without a purchase? No matter how! She argues: I have a good salary, career prospects. I work so hard, so rarely indulge myself. Don't I deserve at least one really stylish dress? Or maybe it is in this dress that I will meet my fate? Maybe it is thanks to him that someone who has not noticed before will pay attention to me ... And now the wallet is already opened, the dress is bought and the happy girl goes on with a new thing.

Now imagine an alternative scenario. A girl walks down the street, sees a dress in the window, and next to it is a large written price tag. “Ah, of course, this is an expensive store,” the girl thinks and moves on. The money remains in her wallet, and our honest store does not receive any profit.

You will say: “But we have seen many times that stores write the price in the window in large letters so that it can be seen from afar. So this is also possible!” Well, yes, it happens - but what is the usual price? That's right, low! Such a price can be written in the most prominent place, you can wave it like a flag - and it is possible that it will attract the buyer.

But if you can’t call your price low, then you shouldn’t rush with it. It is better to first ensure that the buyer becomes interested in the product, falls in love with it, and only then reveal the cards. But only with the mind!

Putting price in context

Imagine that we want to write in a letter the price for a set of light bulbs for one medium-sized sculpture - not the same as Tim Fishlock's, but smaller, say, up to half a meter. Let such a set cost, for example, 6000 rubles.

Inexpensive? But I can easily imagine a person who, seeing this figure, will be indignant: “Six thousand? For light bulbs? This is some nonsense!" Light bulbs are often associated in people with something inexpensive, junk, and the amount of 6,000 rubles can scare them. Therefore, it is important not only to tell the addressee this amount - you also need to put it in the right context.

How much do you have to spend to decorate your office with a sculpture from traditional material stone, metal or plastic? Let's say 30-40 thousand rubles. Compared to these figures, our six thousand is just a penny! That's what you need to tell the addressee!

To show that our price is not so high, we add one more block to the email - the price justification block. It can go before we name the price, or after - depending on how high this price is. If seeing the amount would make the reader faint, it's best to start with an excuse. If the amount is more or less acceptable and familiar, the justification can be left “for a snack”.

Designers save tens of thousands of rubles on our light bulbs - after all, one small office sculpture made of metal or plastic costs 30-40 thousand, and a set of light bulbs and accessories for making such a sculpture will cost you only six thousand.

What, in principle, can you compare the price to make it seem low?

Firstly, with the benefit that the addressee will receive from the purchase, unless, of course, this benefit can be represented in monetary terms. In a sales letter, this can be formulated as follows:

If the benefit cannot be measured, we can compare the price of our product with the prices of alternative products - of course, if the alternative prices are higher than ours. The options might be:

Finally, you can compare the price with the value of the offered bonus package, for example, like this:

For our light bulbs, we used the comparison option with alternatives. But imagine that we had information that a stylish office design increases sales in this office by 30%! In such a case, we would, of course, apply the method of comparison with benefit.

We squeeze the buyer

Suppose we did not work in vain: both the promise seemed interesting to the addressee, and the product did not disappoint, and the price did not scare away. “All right,” the addressee says, “it will be necessary to keep this product in mind. Somehow, on occasion, look in more detail ... ”Can we rejoice?

Of course not! “Sometimes on occasion” usually never comes, and therefore, the purchase does not occur. Experienced sellers advise to “squeeze” the buyer, to ensure that he makes a decision now, and does not put it off until later. That is why the sales letter contains the “Incentives to buy now” section. And for a letter about light bulbs, this section could look like this:

You can save even more if you order bulbs from us within three days of receiving the email. With this letter, we will give you a special 30% discount.

By what arguments can we move the addressee to an immediate purchase? Monetary or non-monetary.

Let's start with the monetary arguments, that is, with the arguments related to the price. For those who buy "right now", we can always make a discount or offer a bonus. Here's how to say it in a sales letter:

For the sale of light bulbs, we used the monetary option - and what are the non-monetary options? What else, besides discounts, can encourage a customer to buy immediately?

Well, for example, the lack of goods. If the goods are snatched from the wheels, who will hesitate? Everyone will run to buy, and even be glad that they had the opportunity to snatch such a deficit! Here is a variant of “boosting” through the scarcity of a product that could be used in a sales letter about trainings:

However, the reason may not be related to the product. Not the seller can rush the addressee, but life itself. The addressee may understand that if he does not hurry, competitors will easily overtake him and then no product will help. Here's how it might be mentioned in a sales letter about investments:

Give the final boost

Well, finally we said everything we wanted. It remains only, in the language of the third chapter, "get off the horse." And here is the time to use ... recommendations Lao Tzu. In his Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu taught that a journey of a thousand miles begins with one small step. Of course, the great sage was not talking about selling light bulbs, but why not apply his advice, as they say, in everyday life?

Let's try to push the addressee, to make him take that very small step - of course, in the direction of the purchase. Let's add a final block to the letter - a call to action.

We are confident that our light bulbs will be an excellent material for your creativity. To make sure of this, we invite you to our annual international exhibition electrical sculpture. Just take a letter with you - and it will become your pass to the world of the unusual. Come, we are waiting for you!

Light bulbs are understandable. And what kinds of motives could we basically use?

There are three main types of motivation.

1. We can immediately agree with the addressee on further negotiations:

2. We can invite him to our place to get acquainted and make contacts:

3. And finally, we can ask the addressee with probes:

You can come up with other moves - the main thing is that the matter moves forward so that the issue is not postponed until better times.

Basically, the idea is simple. But there is one insidious pitfall that our sales letter can suddenly shatter.

Imagine that you decide to use the "negotiate arrangement" option. You sit down to write a letter and, without thinking evil, output:

Notify me by e-mail a convenient time for you to communicate so that we can meet and agree on our plans.

How will the recipient react? He will run to tell you something - or he will be indignant: “Why are you building me?! Who are you to tell me?" Indeed, the phrase "tell me" sounds like an order, and ordering a client is not a good idea. In order not to take risks, it is better to abandon the orderly phrases such as “subscribe to the newsletter”, “sign up for a training”, “tell me a convenient time” and formulate the idea differently:

I propose to meet and agree on our future plans. I will be happy to discuss the date and time of the meeting by e-mail ...

Putting together a template

And now that we have discussed all the blocks of the letter separately, it's time to put them together, to make a “fish” out of them, a template for writing your sales letters. Let's take this time a more serious product - services for archival storage of documents.

We discussed a letter for the sale of such services with readers in the section on business correspondence on the website www.e-xecutive.ru. The result of the discussion is before you.

As you can see, all the cubes are the same as in the letter about light bulbs, and stacked in the same order - only the facts inside the cubes are different. Try and use these cubes in your sales letters - and good sales to you!

Sasha Karepina, The Art of Business Writing. Laws, tricks, tools" , - M.: "Mann, Ivanov and Ferber", 2010

How to influence people with a word from a distance? How to convey the essence of the message and your emotions without distortion? How to get the desired response? How to refuse without offending, justify without anger, demand or ask - and get what you want? Sasha Karepina, a business coach on business writing, answers all these questions. The rules and techniques of persuasive business writing, the technique of creating working texts are illustrated with examples not only from business, but also from history and literature. It is impossible not to remember them.

The book will be of great help to anyone who at least occasionally makes commercial offers, conducts correspondence with clients and partners, writes resumes, fills in information on a corporate website, prepares press releases, reports in writing on the work done and simply communicates in an epistolary genre.

To convey your idea to the addressee, you must use the correct structure of the letter. This is achieved using a tree structure:

- Appeal

Tree branch title phrase #1

The headline of the nth paragraph. The nth paragraph itself

Tree branch title phrase #2

Headline of the 1st paragraph. 1st paragraph itself

The headline of the nth paragraph. The nth paragraph itself

Example:

How to grow trees (how to build a structure)

There are two options:

1 option. Top down . If we write from scratch and we have not yet collected facts in support of our idea. We ask ourselves why we need to do what we ask, and answer with 2-3 brief statements (Vanka needs to be taken away from the village, because he suffers in the city, and in the village he will be useful to his grandfather). Thus, we get the head phrases of the branches.

Next, you need to decide what kind of torment and what benefits will be discussed. Vanka is suffering, because he is beaten, abused and kept in poor conditions. It will be useful to grandfather, because. be able to earn and take care of him. So we got the headings of the paragraphs.

When these phrases are ready, it remains to “overgrow” them with facts. Remember who, when, with what and for what beat Vanka. Make a list of insults, pick up examples of bad living conditions, etc.

The tree will tell us exactly what data is needed to “support” main idea letters.

Option 2. Upwards. If we have a set of facts. We take a fact from the set and ask the question “What does this fact say? Are there other facts on the list that point to the same thing? How can all of them be summarized?

How to write the capital phrases of letters and branches (feeding copper pennies)

In order not to drown in the information flow, modern man puts filters on incoming information. These filters pass only what is important and interesting to a person. To overcome the filters, you need to use the "copper penny" method, i.e. fact that will interest the addressee and will meet his needs.

Our task is to choose for each individual penny. To do this, you need to understand how the position of the addressee will change if he does or does not do our way. Will this affect his safety, earnings, expenses, work (will it become more interesting, more efficient, more prestigious?), career growth, development, status in the team, etc.

You need to show the penny in the most visible place - in the head phrases of a letter or branches.

There is a penny in the second branch - Vanka, after all, promised to please his grandfather, to work, to be a support.

But in the first branch, “pennies” are not visible at all: Vanka writes about what worries him, and not about what is important to his grandfather. It can be fixed like this:

However, there are situations when it is better to show the penny in the introduction itself. For example:

· when the addressee needs to make significant efforts to fulfill your request;

· when for the addressee the request has a strong emotional connotation (if the grandfather spent a lot of effort to arrange Vanka in the city).

But it is better to do this not on the forehead, but simply by slightly changing the wording of the penny, and voice the request itself after the main arguments in the conclusion.

1) with voicing wishes. Then the title phrase of the letter will be penniless

2) with problems. Then in the title phrase we will tell the addressee how not to lose a penny

3) with the possibility. Then in the title phrase of the letter we will explain how to get a penny

Which option to choose depends on the situation. It is necessary to assume how the addressee will react to the request as a whole.

· If the energetic “Yes, of course!”, Then you can start with a desire.

· If the categorical “No!”, Then you need to start with a problem or an opportunity. When choosing between a problem and an opportunity, you need to understand that it is more painful for people to lose than not to receive what is not yet available. Therefore, a letter that begins with a problem attracts more attention. Important: when pointing out a problem to the addressee, do not present it as criticism - no one likes it.

· If “Well, I didn’t think about it ...”, then you need to rely on intuition and understanding of the situation.

What to do if there is no money?

Use praise:

· “As an expert who deeply understands the principles of the development of the industry, you will undoubtedly agree that…”,

· “Due to the fact that your organization is the most competent in this market, please advise on the following issue...”,

· “Dear grandfather, only you are my intercessor before the whole world, kind soul! You won’t leave me alone in the city to disappear!”

And if he leaves, then he is no longer an intercessor, and it turns out not a kind soul. This is a psychological moment. But this is not flattery - this is a manipulation-based technique using flattery. We don’t write “You are so good”, but “Because you are so good, you will definitely help me.” Even if the addressee has a good reason for refusal, the refusal will be associated with additional discomfort for him.

Important: for the reception to work, you need:

1) so that the addressee has a need to look a good man or an expert;

2) so that the addressee believes that this need can be satisfied.

In other words, if the addressee can be called an expert, then the text allows him to confirm his reputation, and if not, then this is just a mockery. Need flattery, similar to the truth.

It is necessary to write letters in such a way that it does not turn out to be a request, but a potentially profitable offer.

In our culture, it's not very common to talk about business right away. First, we talk “about the weather”: we express the hope that the interlocutor is doing well, we send greetings, congratulations on happy events. To do this, add to the introduction lead paragraph- a short sentence between the greeting and the introduction. It will help you enroll in one of the categories that are difficult to refuse:

1) influential people;

2) relatives or acquaintances;

3) those who we like;

4) those who will be lost without us;

5) those who are interested, intrigued, attracted attention

How to write a lead paragraph

You can use 1-2 receptions at the same time, otherwise the introduction will be overloaded. You need to take the quality of the lead paragraph, not the quantity.

1) sign up for influential. If you are not feared or respected enough, then you need to enlist the support of those who are feared or respected:

“At the direction of the director, I am sending you for approval ...”, “Considering that the project is under the personal control of the governor, we remind you ...”, “In accordance with the constitution on freedom of the press, we ask you to ensure ...”.

When there are no influential people, you can use concepts that are significant for the addressee.

2) sign up with friends and family. We emphasize our similarity, commonality with the addressee (participation in one project, program, read one article, met at an exhibition, etc.), i.e. looking for points of contact.

3) try to please. We give compliments. However, it is necessary to praise for real merits. Can't be repeated. We can start with congratulations.

4) we are convinced that we will disappear without an addressee. You need to inspire a sense of pride in your own indispensability.

5) interest and intrigue. Often the recipient knows what is in the letter, so he opens it without enthusiasm. Another thing is if the letter starts unexpectedly. An intriguing lead paragraph is the most “hooligan”; therefore, it is not always possible to use it in business correspondence. However, now we correspond more and more by e-mail, without adhering to a rigid formal framework, so we can often afford some liberties. And these liberties sometimes help to reach the addressee.

6) avoid predictability. Do not use hackneyed phrases, more facts and specifics. (not a high-class professional, but the author of theory X, the developer of technology Y, on which the work of the entire industry is based; not just important project, but a project that is under the control of the president or a project that will help solve the shortage problem ...).

How to write an introduction

The introduction works to convey facts. It does not communicate facts, but prepares the addressee for their perception (we do not throw the ball right away, but warn first “Catch!”).

Entry methods:

1) preamble.

I inform you ... I draw your attention ... I bring to your attention ...

You can inform with an emotional connotation: “I regret / gladly inform you ...”, “I am forced to inform ...”.

Maximum three words

2) reminiscent of the introduction. Used when answering a request or continuing a previously started conversation.

In response to your request, I inform you... In continuation of our conversation on the forum, I bring to your attention...

The main thing is not to overload the reminiscent introduction with information, one simple sentence. It is better to indicate the necessary information later in the body of the letter.

3) clarifying introduction. Used to indicate important circumstances.

Considering the difficult situation, I ask you... In order to avoid problems, I suggest...

How to write a conclusion

The conclusion serves as a reminder of what exactly we need from the addressee. And in order to remember it, the conclusion should be short, concise and bright, similar to a slogan or a catchphrase.

There are three ways to write a conclusion:

1) Metaphor- the use of a lively, vivid image (for example,

· Teamwork = common effort;

· Reducing the term = gain time;

· Juvenile delinquents = guys in trouble;

· All funds = each ruble;

· Investing or investing = injecting funds.

2) emotional words- words that catch the reader serve as a psychological anchor in the mind (death, orphan, victory, defeat, happiness, pride, love, dignity, help, support, struggle, trouble, fear, war, deceit, etc.). Example for letters: win in competition, win the market.

3) Playing with the cliché. It is necessary to use a well-known saying (cliché) and turn it around at an unexpected angle (for example, if you stick to the principle of “an eye for an eye”, then everyone will become blind, or if you lend a helping hand to everyone, you will quickly stretch your legs).

Building Effective Phrases

1) The tree principle is used not only for the whole letter, but also for the sentence. The addressee, reading the letter, first wants to see the whole picture, and only then find out the details. The picture is reflected by the main members of the sentence - the subject (who, what) and the predicate (what does it do, what happens to it, what it is).

In a clear sentence, we write that " tenants are transporting things at their own expense”, but incomprehensibly that “transportation of things is carried out at the expense of residents”.

2) The main principle of an effective sentence is that if you need really understandable texts, then the subject and predicate in them must be made specific and informative. And if we are talking about an action, then the verb should convey the essence of this action in the predicate.

For good sentences, it will be better if one action corresponds to one verb - for example, “did”, “allowed”, “brought”, “said”, etc. In the compound predicate “carry out transportation”, a appendage is added to the verb "transportation". This appendage takes away all the meaning, leaving the verb empty.

AT good offer we write that Residents are transporting things at their own expense”, and in a bad case that “Residents carry out transportation."

3) The sentence must begin with the main, and not with the secondary.

Not properly: To avoid unpleasant situations when tourists pay for a tour and then receive a visa refusal from the embassy, ​​the travel agency has changed the procedure for receiving and checking documents.

4) Transition from one sentence to another. By building the text, we adjust sentences to each other. The point of our fitting is to create a connection between the sentences.

For example, atelier "Cinderella" offers women's coats and fur coats, sewn according to author's models. Talented young designers are developing these models.

The proposals themselves are good, but when moving from the first to the second, the thought stumbles: we do not understand what young designers have to do with it. To remove this verbal bandwagon, we fit the second sentence to the first one in one of two ways. These methods are most conveniently considered on the example of a well-known rhyme:

The priest had a dog

He loved her.

She ate a piece of meat -

He killed her.

The second method connects the first and third lines - it throws a bridge from the end of one line to the beginning of another. At the end of the first line, a dog is spoken of - and this dog appears at the beginning of the third line. Therefore, the binding method can be called " connection through the dog».

In our example, Atelier "Cinderella" offers women's coats and fur coats, tailor-made models. These models designed by talented young designers.

How to choose a writing style

There are two types of writing style - personal and formal. To select the desired style, you need to determine the purpose of the letter.

There is no strict sequence of techniques, you need to decide according to the situation. The more techniques used, the better.

1) show you read. Hearing "no" is doubly unpleasant if it seems that your request was not even read. Therefore, it is necessary to mention the details of the request in the refusal.

2) understand, sympathize. So that the addressee does not get the impression that the door was slammed in front of him, that we do not care about his problem, you need to show in the refusal that we care, we understand what caused his problem and why he had such a situation

3) referring to circumstances. Refusal is perceived differently if there are objective reasons than because the addressee is not liked or wants to offend.

4) note the merits. It can be shown that we treat the addressee well and appreciate his achievements.

6) offer an alternative. It is easier to accept a refusal if you are offered something in return.

7) leave the door open. When you are given, it seems like it's forever. It is necessary to show the addressee that this is not so: if the circumstances change and the reason for the refusal disappears, then we will return to his problem again.

Example:

1) we criticize the actions, not the addressee so that the complaint does not offend him. Wrong “You are bad because you do something”, right “Such and such your actions create problems”, i.e. it should not be the addressee who is to blame, but his actions, traits, environment.

2) we criticize the company, not the addressee. In this case, the addressee will not be the defendant, but our ally, our hope for a solution to the problem.

3) understand, sympathize. When he does something that does not suit us, he has reasons for this, which must be taken into account.

5) substantiate the requirements. It is easier to agree with the claim if you understand that something depends on it and we are not talking about empty nit-picking.