Est. Yesterday · Delivered Free
Trade, mind and machine, taught the old way. Free lessons in marketing, sales, pricing and psychology, each told as a story and sealed with a verse.
Trying is Free, Ignoring is Costly
Every letter, newest first. One lesson at a time, told as a story, hidden in a riddle, sealed with a verse.
Pricing
Two ironmongers, the same traveller and the same wholesale figures, and the four prices out of four hundred that the whole parish could repeat from memory. Letter No. 339 from Ben B. Tilley, on where your margin should come from and which prices must be beyond argument.
Sales
Two coppersmiths, the same sheet copper and the same rivets, and the question one of them asked about a Monday four years gone. Letter No. 338 from Ben B. Tilley, on why a customer orders the size of a year that has already passed.
Marketing
Two harness makers, the same waxed thread and the same careful work, and the name one of them gave it in an evening with a pen. Letter No. 337 from Ben B. Tilley, on why a thing without a name is never asked for.
Technology
Two electricians in your own century, the same sort of program and the same free fortnight, and the awkward question one of them sent at ten past nine on a Wednesday evening. Letter No. 336 from Ben B. Tilley, on why the answer a firm gives before you pay is the best you will ever get from it.
Psychology
Two brewers, the same barley and the same well, and the sour cask in August that one of them answered in the room where the complaint had been made. Letter No. 335 from Ben B. Tilley, on why a complaint heard by other people is answered for their sake rather than the complainant's.
Mindset
Two chairmakers, the same beech and the same pole lathe, and the disused sty one of them pulled down on a Thursday in January. Letter No. 334 from Ben B. Tilley, on why a decision is not made until something has happened that cannot be undone.
Pricing
Two bootmakers, the same calf leather and the same eighteen shillings a pair, and the four days one of them spent out of the shop with a notebook. Letter No. 333 from Ben B. Tilley, on why the going rate is a rumour and what to measure instead.
Sales
Two jobbing builders, the same bricks and lime and the same nineteen pounds, and the half sheet of paper one of them would not price on its own. Letter No. 332 from Ben B. Tilley, on why an enquiry that arrives already specified has turned you into a price.
Marketing
Two churn makers, the same five pounds spent in the same three places, and the sixty-one people who asked the price at the butter market. Letter No. 331 from Ben B. Tilley, on why a source of enquiries must be judged by the work and the money it turns into rather than by the asking it produces.
Technology
Two stairlift engineers in your own century, the same booking program bought in the same April, and the half hour one of them spent writing down everything that could send a message in his name. Letter No. 330 from Ben B. Tilley, on why every automatic thing needs a halt you can reach in minutes and have pressed once before the day you need it.
Psychology
Two coachbuilders, the same elm and varnish, and the board of eleven ordinary jobs one of them nailed up by his gate. Letter No. 329 from Ben B. Tilley, on why a customer decides whether your work is for him by the example nearest to himself rather than the best one you own.
Mindset
Two corn merchants, the same wharf and the same scales, and the four lines one of them wrote in a ruled book before he bought. Letter No. 328 from Ben B. Tilley, on why a result cannot tell you whether you judged well.
Pricing
Two well sinkers, the same rods and the same two shillings a foot, and the quarter one of them knocked off before the farmer had finished hesitating. Letter No. 327 from Ben B. Tilley, on taking the risk off a decision instead of money off a price.
Sales
Two paperhangers, the same paste and the same eleven shillings, and the four lines one of them wrote about the man who would knock on the Monday. Letter No. 326 from Ben B. Tilley, on why a customer buys the pair of hands she believes is coming.
Marketing
Two coppersmiths, the same borax and the same four shillings at the printer, and the one worn copper that one of them described in full. Letter No. 325 from Ben B. Tilley, on why a particular can be checked where a claim can only be doubted.
Technology
Two bathroom fitters in your own century, the same machine that answers questions and the same Sunday schedule of works, and the particulars one of them took out before he typed. Letter No. 324 from Ben B. Tilley, on why a customer's particulars typed into a machine have left your premises for good.
Psychology
Two implement makers, the same castings and the same badly sowing seed drill, and the four lines one of them wrote in October instead of proving anything. Letter No. 323 from Ben B. Tilley, on why a customer who has defended a fault for years cannot afford to accept your proof.
Mindset
Two wheelwrights, the same elm and the same ash, and the half hour one of them spent in a cooper's yard waiting on a brine tub. Letter No. 322 from Ben B. Tilley, on why the improvement your trade lacks is sitting in a trade you have never watched.
Pricing
Two plasterers, the same lime and the same hair, and the seven pounds one of them named standing up before he had been near the ceiling. Letter No. 321 from Ben B. Tilley, on the rough figure you give to be obliging.
Sales
Two cartwrights, the same ash and elm and the same eighteen pounds, and the farmer who quarrelled about the wheels. Letter No. 320 from Ben B. Tilley, on why the customer who argues with you is the one who is buying.
Marketing
Two book-keepers, the same four shillings a day and the same two hundred doors, and the line about three years unentered that filled one man's winter. Letter No. 319 from Ben B. Tilley, on the customer who stays silent because he dreads being seen.
Technology
Two blind fitters in your own century, the same jobs program bought in the same March, and the wet Tuesday one of them spent reading what it already did. Letter No. 318 from Ben B. Tilley, on why a second program is usually bought to do a thing the first one already does.
Psychology
Two slaters, the same Welsh slate and the same copper nails, and the estimate one of them addressed to a single man out of five. Letter No. 317 from Ben B. Tilley, on why a request put to several people is answered by none of them.
Mindset
Two sign writers, the same gold leaf and the same seven pounds ten for a draper's fascia, and the three pounds one of them stopped asking for in the April. Letter No. 316 from Ben B. Tilley, on why the sum in dispute is never what the dispute costs you.
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