How to develop your business writing skills? Psychology of business letters

A business letter is an instrument that affects how we are perceived by superiors, customers, partners or potential employers. The article answers the question, how to develop the skills of writing a business letter, contains recommendations, schemes, examples.

Writing letters is an art. Write business letters - martial arts.

Like any martial art, the ability to write letters synthesizes a variety of techniques and techniques, takes into account the psychological aspects of personality development.

What do I need to know before writing a business letter?

The letters of an intelligent person reflect the nature of those to whom they are addressed.
Lichtenberg Georg Christophe

Working on a business letter begins with your answers to questions:

Who is your target and what do you know about him?

• Business scope of the company?
• Do you know who you are emailing to?
• What do you know about the person you are addressing the letter to?
• What is important to him?

Why you need to answer all these questions:

• so you establish a psychological contact with your addressee
• will quickly reach the desired result

The address letter has more chances of an answer, because the name for the person is the most important word for it.

The name of a recipient printed or written on paper gives him positive emotions, because

• confirms the fact of the existence of a person as a person
• raises his self-esteem

Personal acquaintance with the addressee and a careful study of his behavior will allow you to speak with him in one language.

Important: People always relate better to those who look like them.

What is the purpose of your letter?

You are about to:

• ask for a favor
• refuse to
• request to offer a service / product
• to file a claim

Important: If you are going to use flattery as a mechanism for influencing the addressee - flatter sincerely. A sincere compliment always gives pleasure to people with high self-esteem. People with low self-esteem perceive flattery negatively!

What exactly are you going to convince your addressee?

• How, from your point of view, should the person you are writing write to arrive?
• What are you waiting for from him?

Goals defined - it's time to think about the arguments of

• What exactly are the arguments you are ready to present? How are they confirmed?
• Which argument might interest the addressee?
• What is your interest in particular?
• How much do your interests differ from the addressee?
• What can be a compromise solution?

Basic rules for writing a business letter

The rules for writing business letters are quite simple.

Rule 1: Image of

Important: The person reading your letter does not know you personally! Your letter should form a solid and cute image of

Thanks to the well-chosen image in the letter, you will influence your counterpart at the subconscious level.

Five "trouble-free" images:

The image of an influential person attracts many, however, not all are members of the "strong world" club. If you enlist the support of such a person and have this not only oral, but also written confirmation( for example, a letter), boldly refer to this fact in the process of communicating with your counterpart. Otherwise, you will have to work on other images.

Important: Producing an influential person requires using a strong enough style of presentation

in the letter. Rule 2:

structure Block structure is the most convenient for business letters

Rule 3: Lead-paragraph

Lead-paragraph is several sentences that precede the preamble of

.lead-paragraph:
1. Sincere flattery and compliments towards the addressee

• I just read your book, and it made a huge impression on me
• I heard about you as a person who rendersSupport of talented youth
• Your subordinates speak of you as an excellent leader of

2. References to personal acquaintance or recommendations of
3. Acknowledgments( if this is not your first contact with the addressee)

Rule 4: Use of correct etiquette forms

Rule 5: Literacy

Why is literacy important, explain in school:

Rule 6: Brevity is the sister of talent, or why the fewer words, the more sense?

A significant thought, expressed in a concise form, takes the form of wisdom, just as a large tree already sees in the seed.
Demetrius of Falersky

Interesting fact. The concept of "laconicism" was introduced into the literature of Plato in the IV century BC.Most of us are still trying to learn how to express our thoughts laconically.

Important: Your recipient is a busy person. He does not have time to read novels in letters. Remember about this when composing the text of the letter.

Editing the draft version of the text, boldly get rid of unnecessary words. More about stop words you will find out by watching the video "Maxim Ilyakhov: Simple rules of strong text" at the end of the article.

_8212"> Rule 7: The specifics in a business letter - your trump card

In the business world - the truth is always better than outright lies or a little nonsense. Letters without facts are automatically sent to the "spam" folder or trash.

But you have another task?

You wrote the letter:

Your recipient read the following:

You wrote 41 words. Of these, only 4 fact words are really important for the addressee. Impressive? Your addressee will not be exactly impressed with such statistics!

What should I do?

Edit:

Rule 8: The subject of the

letter The absence of the subject letter indicates your inexperience!

The theme should be memorable, "catchy".

Tip. When you think about the subject of your letter, remember: "cling" to the benefits that you are willing to offer.

Rule 9: Business letter - business style. Why can not I use other styles?

Because it will not be a business letter at all.

Examples of business information letters

A well-formed business information letter has the following plan:

Example letter:

What psychological techniques can be used in a business letter?

1. The "Cause" tactic

• Explain clearly and clearly the reasons for your referral to this person
• Explain why he should help you, what are the benefits of helping you

2. The tactic "Repeat"

Business proposal, calls for action, the request is repeated in several blocks of the letter in different ways

3. Tactics "Assumption"

Such tactics intrigue the addressee, but not always appropriate. The assumption is difficult to confirm by facts. If you run the risk and make a guess, be prepared that in time you will have to answer for your words

4. Tactics "Approval"

The text of the letter uses only affirmative sentences that create the truth effect

How to quickly learn how to write business letters? Practice and once again practice

• Pass special training
• Read special literature and do self-education

• Practice a lot

What can spoil your letter? Video

A vivid illustration of a bad letter is the video "For training" Business letter ".The film "Three from Prostokvashino".

Writing can spoil:

• inconsistency of the structural blocks
• no logic in the statement
• verbosity
• no facts
• presence of errors
• inaccurate clearance, etc.

Video: "For training" Business letter ".The film "Three from Prostokvashino"

Why the business letter had no power? Where did you make a mistake?

• Your letter could not be viewed in 30 seconds and determine the degree of its importance

accordingly

• Your letter seemed to the addressee not very important

Statistics: average manager receives 100-200 letters per day

Important: The main idea of ​​your message is stated at the beginning of the text! And only then there is an explanation of the main idea

How to develop business letter skills: advice and feedback

Read the finished video on business letters

Video: Maxim Ilyakhov. Simple rules for strong text

Video: How to write a marketing letter? WebPromoExperts webinar # 130

Video: The tricks of persuading and selling letters

Video: Advantages and Disadvantages of Business Letters - Anton Krasnobabtsev