Pricing
The Christening Cup
A price never lands in an empty head. Letter No. 124 from Ben B. Tilley, on choosing what your price gets compared with, before the customer chooses for you.
The Letters & Archive
Every letter, newest first. One lesson at a time, told as a story, hidden in a riddle, sealed with a verse.
Sales
The Thirty Who Pay the Rent
A builder buying eleven thousand pounds of timber a year waited behind a man buying a fence post, on principle. Letter No. 123 from Ben B. Tilley, on the few who pay for the many.
Sales
Shut the Case
He left with a maybe he had personally manufactured out of a yes. Letter No. 122 from Ben B. Tilley, on the forty seconds after agreement and why everything else reopens the door.
Sales
Most People Ask Me That
He was helped by an expert in the expert's language, and every helpful question told him what he did not know. Letter No. 121 from Ben B. Tilley, on making it safe not to know.
Marketing
And What Is It You Do?
One gave the stranger a noun to nod at. The other gave him a picture to carry home. Letter No. 120 from Ben B. Tilley, on the commonest question in trade and the answer that produces nothing.
Sales
Sent Before Six
The reminder was the last contact they ever had, which means the final impression was a request for money he had been slow to ask for. Letter No. 119 from Ben B. Tilley, on the invoice.
Pricing
The Cousin's Gate
The half-price gate was the generous one on paper, and the only one that cost anybody a friendship. Letter No. 118 from Ben B. Tilley, on what to charge people you know.
Marketing
The Smear on the Hall Paint
Behind the wall the work was faultless, and she never saw behind the wall. Letter No. 117 from Ben B. Tilley, on the evidence a customer actually has.
Pricing
Six Shillings for a Locking Door
One sold forty minutes and one sold the door. Letter No. 116 from Ben B. Tilley, on why the hourly rate makes every customer stand in the hall counting.
Marketing
The Second Saturday in May
A door that is always open is a door nobody needs to go through today. Letter No. 115 from Ben B. Tilley, on giving the town a date.
Marketing
The Cider at the Farm Gate
The best cider in the county, three miles up a flooded lane, drunk by forty households. Letter No. 114 from Ben B. Tilley, on being where the want is when the want is there.
Pricing
Rot Behind the Boards
He took a piece of ordinary bad luck and converted it into a story about his character. Letter No. 113 from Ben B. Tilley, on telling a customer the cost has risen.
Sales
The Shallow Keel
By the end of half an hour it was no longer about the keel. Letter No. 112 from Ben B. Tilley, on disagreeing with a customer without making it a contest.
Marketing
Three Lines Against Her Name
She arrived as a returning customer and was converted, over one polite call, into an enquiry. Letter No. 111 from Ben B. Tilley, on remembering what you were told.
Marketing
Four Doors Either Side
He spent a fortnight on ladders in plain view of every household in the street, and left no name on the thing. Letter No. 110 from Ben B. Tilley, on the job as the advertisement.
Pricing
A Fifth Off the First
He had told every new customer what he thought his work was worth, which was a fifth less than he was asking. Letter No. 109 from Ben B. Tilley, on the first-time offer.
Sales
How Many Pints Were Drawn
His barrels went into a dark place and were never seen again until an order came in smaller. Letter No. 108 from Ben B. Tilley, on what happens after you deliver.
Sales
Unless I Hear Otherwise
She had no idea any of it had happened, and she was right not to. Letter No. 107 from Ben B. Tilley, on the decisions your work waits on and the dates they never carry.
Marketing
The Doubled Rim
He copied what could be seen from six feet away, and left out the hour he could not explain. Letter No. 106 from Ben B. Tilley, on being imitated.
Marketing
The Year the Tide Came In
He had not had a good year. He had had a year off, paid for handsomely. Letter No. 105 from Ben B. Tilley, on what prosperity hides and what to do with it.
Sales
Notice at Michaelmas
She would have told you she could not afford to lose them. She could not afford to keep them. Letter No. 104 from Ben B. Tilley, on ending with a customer of long standing.
Pricing
And What Comes Back For It
The extra work was an intention rather than an undertaking, and intentions do not survive a busy quarter. Letter No. 103 from Ben B. Tilley, on being asked for a better rate.
Marketing
Hoyle at the Far End of the Market
Both glovers lost the same sale. One lost it into a closing door and the other into a name. Letter No. 102 from Ben B. Tilley, on sending work away well.
Sales
The Man Who Was Not There
She was persuaded at three in the afternoon and could not reproduce a word of it at eight. Letter No. 101 from Ben B. Tilley, on the person who decides and never met you.
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