APRIL 2. 1903. 



The Weekly Florists' Review^ 



791 



Post Office,- 



NAME, J°h° Brown. 



BrownviUe, 



State,- 



Ohio. 



Express Co. "s- 



n-30-02, $4 50 



be put in if your facilities will permit, 

 and will help to keep j'ou in touch with 

 your customers all the year round. So 

 much for the preliminaries. 



After your catalogue is printed you 

 will want to distribute it. Don't make 

 the mistake of sending it indiscriminate- 

 ly to every one whose name you see, re- 

 gardless of whether he buys or cares for 

 your goods. If your catalogue costs 2 

 or 3 cents or more you will be throwing 

 that much away if you distribute it 

 promiscuously. Advertise a catchy collec- 

 tion of flowers or a plant in some of the 

 best country papers — oftentimes you can 

 pay for such ads. with liowcrs. Keep ftt 

 it from September until J\ine. and you 

 will be surprised at the number of in- 

 quiries you receive, some ordering flow- 

 ers, others asking for prices, etc. 



Right here is where many advertis- 

 ers make a mistake. They receive many 

 answers and orders from their advs., 

 but they do not follow them up. The 

 end and aim of advertising is to acquaint 

 people with your goods. You make them 

 acquainted with your goods in order to 

 sell them, and by keeping them constant- 

 III before the people yoiu will sell them. 

 Tlie turning of inquiries into orders is 

 the end and aim of a follow-up .system. 



Provide yourself with stiff, white 

 cards, about the size of a 6i envelope, 



and have them ruled and printed in this 

 manner. 



jS'o. 1 shows the follow-up side of 

 the card ; No. 2 the reverse or order side. 



In response to an inquiry, you sent 

 John Brown a catalogue Nov. 16, 1901. 

 For some reason, he did not order at 

 that time. Dec. 3, 1901, you follow 

 with a form letter, saying you had 

 mailed him your catalogue in response 

 to his request, but not being favored 

 with his order, you write to inquire if 

 he received it. If not it must have 

 gone astray and you would be glad to 

 mail him another. If at any time he 

 is in need of any goods in your line 

 you would be glad to hear from him, et';. 

 You also enclosed a special circular of 

 holiday greens, etc. This, however, failed 

 to elicit any response, so on Jan. 10, 

 after you were through with holiday 

 rush, you mailed him a, second form 

 order, calling attention in a polite way 

 to your catalogue and goods and en- 

 closing a circular on violets, of which 

 you are making a specialty, etc. These 

 letters follow in regular order during the 

 season without receiving any response 

 from John Brown. 



At the opening of the fall season, Sept. 

 23, 1902, you mail him another one, 

 calling attention to the many desirable 

 things in your new catalogue, which 



you are about to issue, and ask him if 

 he wishes a copy. You seal this letter 

 and attach a 2c stamp, which will bring 

 it back if the party is dead or has moved 

 away. It isn't returned to you, so you 

 are sure he is still receiving mail there 

 and you send your new catalogue Oct. 

 8. Still no response, and on Oct. 16 

 you send him another letter, enclosing a 

 circular on Boston ferns or some other 

 attractive plant. Xov. 3 you receive an 

 order from this party for .'^4.50 for a 

 box of flowers for his lady love, or a 

 funeral bouquet for a friend just de- 

 ceased, or perhaps a Boston fern. Y''our 

 labor and expense have not been in 

 vain, for you have at last gained a 

 customer and if you treat him right he i3 

 likely to order and reorder and tell all 

 his friends at BrownviUe about your 

 lovely flowers, and some of them will 

 some time want some, and they, in turn, 

 will tell others. 



The cost of obtaining this first order 

 has been about 25c. If you have a local 

 store yoirr rent, heat, light, clerk hire, 

 etc., will be several times as much for 

 every order you obtain, and a careless 

 delivery boy may ruin Mrs. Smith's palm 

 or let Mrs. .Jones' flowers freeze and you 

 will be working hard from early morn 

 until dewy night to sell .$50 worth over 

 the counter, while many days your coun- 

 try sales, with one-third the worry and 

 expense, will net you twice as much. 



But you must keep everlastingly at 

 it if you would win success in the mail 

 order business. You must advertise con- 

 tiniiously, you must ''follow them up** 

 and when you get them you must treat 

 them right. I have heard on good au- 

 thority, that a certain mail order house 

 sent one party 22 letters before fimally 

 receiving an order for a steel cooking 

 range. We follow an object to catch 

 up to it, and when we catch up to it 

 we generally grasp it. There is scarcely 

 any object or aim in life that we can- 

 not attain if we are systematic and per- 

 sistent in pursuing it. 



If your business is large enough to 

 demand the services of a stenographer 

 these follow-up letters and circulars can 

 be addressed by her at odd intervals 

 when not busy with other work. A cabi- 

 net with drawers of the proper size to 

 contain the cards can be obtained at 

 small expense. There is no need of an 

 elalxjrate cabinet bought from card index 

 people, for any good carpenter or cabi- 

 net maker can soon construct one that 

 for efficiency is just as good as the 

 expensive ones. 



Your form letters can be obtained from 

 specialists who print them to match 

 any make of typewriter of any colored 

 ribbon. Your circulars should be a lit- 

 tle smaller than an envelope, and be 

 printed on both sides, with an illustra- 

 tion on each side to catch the eye at 

 a glance. All your printed matter, letter 

 heads, envelopes, etc., should he neat 

 and attractive. Tliey will give tone and 

 standing to your business, just as neat 

 attractive boxes will give your flowers 

 a good reputation. System. 



boston. 



The Market. 



A weak week, and therefore a weak 

 report. Eetailers speak of the lightest 

 trade since .'ummer. 



Pink and white roses, carnations, sin- 

 gle violets and small white flowers not 



