Solicited Sales Letter

Solicited letters are sent to prospects who have requested information about your products. Rather than having to work to get attention, you already have it so you build on customer interest. Persuading them to act examples of solicited sales letters include replies to inquiries about products.

Useful Openings and Closings

Openings

1) We are taking liberty of sending you a copy of our latest catalogue and price list.

2) As you have placed many orders with use in the past, we would like to extend our special offer to you.

3) We are able to offer you very favorable prices on some goods we have recently been able to purchase.

4) We are pleased to introduce our new---- and feel sure you will find it very interesting.

5) I am sorry to note that we have not received an order from you for over.

Closings

1) We hope you will take full advantage of our this exceptional offer.2) We feel sure you will find a ready sale for his excellent material, and

that you customers will be well satisfied with it.3) We should be pleased to provide demonstration if you would let us

know when this would be convenient.4) We hope you will take the opportunity to try this product which is not

only of the higher quality but also very reasonably priced.

A typical sales letter

Dear sir,

Incredible? Perhaps the things we say below may seem so. But we have hundreds of testimonials from satisfied customers to prove that the stream clean automatic dishwasher makes handling dishes practically a pleasure.

Three times a day if you wish it, the stream clean spotlessly cleanse your dishes glasses, silver wear even the pots and pans. It is all simple effortless—you simply fill the basket and press the button. The Automatic Stream Clean does the rest, completes all cycles and stops itself.

Enameled in soft charming shades of blue, green grey or brown as well as in the popular white and with added special choice, if you wish for stainless steel door your Stream Cleans keeps it a lifetime beauty.

See this remarkable automatic. We will demonstrate with pleasure, its handling ease, fully automatic operation, its amazing economy. You will win a factory discount of ten percent from the regular price if you elect one of the models within the next fortnight. Thank you.

Report Writing

“A formal statement of the result of an investigation or of any matter on which definite information is required, made by some person or body instructed or required to do so”.

A business report is an impartial objective, planned presentation of facts to one or more persons for a specific business purpose. In business, executives mangers and supervisors often base policy decision on reports. For every long report, countless short reports are presented to help business people make informed decisions on matters as diverse as the most comfortable office chairs to buy or the best recruit to hire for management training.

Classification of reports

Informational Report

The informational report is designed only to communicate factual data. Such data may include figures, personal observations and the results of interviews and other investigations, the influences from these data, however, are left to the reader. Examples of informational reports are a foreman’s weekly report of production in his section; sales man’s expense sheet etc. Such reports are valuable for their facts alone, but they may also form the basis/ perhaps in

conjunction with other reports/ for certain conclusions and decisions by the management to which they are submitted.

Analytical report

Like an informational report, an analytical report contains facts, but is also characterized by the writers conclusions or recommendations based on an analysis of the facts, the analytical report is designed to guide management decisions and therefore puts more than ordinary responsibilities on the writer. An analytical report might, e.g. weigh alternative plans for remembering employ’s tuition fees pointing out the advantages nag disadvantages of each plan, other analytical reports may provide the data an\d recommendations on how a new product could be marketed successfully etc.

Format and language

On the basis of format and language reports are either formal or informal.

Informal report

The informal report may range from a short statement of a single page to a more developed form of presentation taking several pages usually the informal report is submitted in the form of a letter or memorandum. Irrespective of length, the informal report rarely, if ever carries a cover, table of contents etc, the language of the informal report is like that of a letter.Letter reports typically go to people outside organization. For the introductory enclosing elements of your letter, follow the standard letter format, the two format additions in a letter report are:

1) A subject heading placed two line s below the salutation.2) The other headings as needed, to segment you letter into specific areas.

Letter reports a variety of purposes, here we show letter reports designed for two common purposes: To inform to recommend. Beyond merely providing information, the recommendation report intercepts data, draws conclusions and offers recommendations.

Formal reports

The formal report is usually identified by the fact that it has a cover and binding and other features that might include a covering letter, little page,

table of contents etc. When it is to have a wide distribution, the formal report is often printed and bound like a book e.g. Annual financial report to the share holders, the language of the formal report is relatively impersonal and restrained,.Formal reports are question answering or problem solving, analysis is basic to our thinking, and in this sense all the assignments you have written have involved analysis, with a formal report, your analysis might influence a major decision. Say e.g. you received the following assignment from your supervisor: investigate the feasibility of opening a branch of our company in Karachi city and select the best available location.

Clearly to get this job done, you will have to do more that observe your subject. Since high-level decisions will depend on your findings, you must seek out and interrupt all the data that will help you make the best recommendations.

Formats of Report

You may present a report in any of four formats:

Re-printed formBasically, for “Fill in the blanks” reports, preprinted forms are relatively short (five or fewer pages) and deal with routine information, often mainly numerical. Use this format when the person authorizing the report requests it.

Letter

For reports of five or fewer pages that are directed to the outsiders, letter reports include all the normal parts of a letter, and they also may have headings, footnotes, tables and figures.

MemoThe most common format for short (fewer than ten pages) in formal reports distributed within an organization, memos have headings at the top: TO, FROM, DATE NAD SUBJECT. In addition, like longer reports, memo reports often have an internal headings and sometimes visual aids.

ManuscriptFor a formal approach, menu script range from a few pages to several hundred pages. As their length increases, reports in manuscript format required prefatory and supplementary parts.

ORGANISING SHORT REPORTS

Short reports are basically of two types: informational and analytical. Although there may be overlapping between the two types, the former is more neutral whereas the latter is more analytical and persuasive.

Short reports can be divided into following:

MEMO REPORTS LETTER REPORTS

MEMO REPORTS:A memo report is a cross between an interoffice memo and a formal reportIn the business world, the memo report is the most popular form for routine reports within an organization. It uses a memo heading, but the body which is usually two to five pages long, is organized like the body of a formal report and may have side headings.Memo reports can be used to:

1) Answer a request for information2) Report progress3) Make recommendations4) State facts5) Communicate ideas 6) Send statistical data7) Explain trends within an organization

Classifying memo reportTypical memo reports are categorized as:1) In formational memo reports2) Analytical memo reports

Informational memo reportsThe main purpose of informational reports is to inform and to summarize information. For an information report you will:1) Gather facts, figures and data.2) Organize the information3) Interpret and present the organized information objectively.4) Make recommendations if asked. These vary widely in content, depending on type of business, purpose, topics discussed and reader’s needs. Although there are many kinds of informational reports, following are the main types:1) Conference report Topics for conference report range from summaries of personal sales call conferences to write-ups of meetings attended by hundreds of persons. For example, an advertising account executive may write a conference report after every meeting or phone call between the ad agency and a client. The text of such reports is usually organized by the topic discussed or presented simply chronological order.2) Progress or status reportsSome internal communications are simple progress or status report written on fill-in-forms and sent as needed or required to those who need the information. Others are fairly brief narrative reports. These narrative reports may be:1) Responses to requests for complex information.2) Ideas3) Explanation4) Simple recommendations.Longer more involved progress or status reports may contain recommendations supported by financial data or operating results.

3) Periodic Reports

Periodic reports are routine and are prepared at regular time intervals--- daily, monthly, weekly, quarterly or annually. Sales Reports and Financial Reports are among the most common periodic reports prepared in business organizations.

Periodic reports are often prepared on pre-printed forms which provide blank spaces in which to record information. Reports may also be

prepared according to standardized outlines to ensure uniformity. Sales reports, credit report, audit reports and many legal reports are prepared in standardized format.

Analytical memo report

A pure analytical report has one central purpose. To analyze a situation or issue. There may or may not be a specific recommendation in the end of the report. Such reports include:1) Report on the cause of the abrupt decline in sales volume.2) Report on the evaluation of a person before recruitment.3) Report on an individual who is in consideration for promotion.4) Report on the analysis of a particular book.

Organizing memo Reports

One of the most common and effective techniques of memo organization is to itemize the information. A report that contains complex facts and ideas will be easier to read if items are: 1) Separated into paragraphs 2) Numbered or 3) Preceded by side headings.

The next step after information gathering is to determine the best way to present your findings. Remember that your report is expected to be factual and reliable. To accomplish this you would:1) Present the facts with absolute fairness and accuracy.2) Be careful not to mix your opinions with the facts you report.3) Reserve your comments for your conclusions and recommendations.

Informational memorandum (Periodic) Report. To:---- From:------------Subject: Season ticket salesDate---------

Season ticket sales for 2009 increased 15.1 percent over last year. This year we sold 18.88 tickets, as compared with last year’s total of 15,970. This represents a healthy increase of 2,406, which will certainly boost our operating budget as we begin the season.

Here are the season ticket sales results as they were reported monthly, for both years: Season Ticket Sales Comparison of 2008 and 2009

Month 2009 2008 Increase IncreaseJuly 122333 5566 66 34.7%August -------September --------------------------------------------------------------------------Total 16666 12222 6666 15.1 % --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The renovation in our new water park has really increased our sales considerably. The season ticket sales campaign has officially ended. I hope you are proud of the results as we are in the Marketing department.