Chapter VII

THE CORRESPONDENCE FILE. Proper Handling of 103
Correspondence One of the Vital Essentials
to Success—Life Blood of the Specialist’s
Practice—Right Kind of Correspondence Clerk
an Indispensable Ally—Method of Keeping
Letters on File So as to Secure Best
Results—Sample Letters that Bring Large
Financial Returns—Methods of a Competent
Correspondence Clerk—How He Makes Money for
His Employer—Tracing the Financial Rating
of Strangers—Securing Names and Addresses
of Prospective Patients—Utilization of
Newspaper Clippings—“Follow-up”
Systems—Advantage of Using Plain Envelopes
in Writing to Strangers—Obtaining
Testimonial Letters from Patients—Use of
These Letters in Attracting New
Comers—Conducting Correspondence With
People in Small Towns—Purpose in Avoiding
Duplication of Testimonials

CHAPTER VIII.

GETTING AT FINANCIAL STATUS. How to Ascertain 119
the Monetary Resources of Callers Who
Appear Unannounced—Line of Conversation
That Will Lead Any Man to Unwittingly
Reveal His Financial Standing—Free
Examinations and How Smart Specialists Make
of Them a Big Drawing Card—Bringing a
Caller to the Point of Submitting to an
Examination—Means by Which an Impression is
Made—Benefit in Keeping an “Assistant”
Within Handy Reach—Clinching the Caller as
a Patient—Avoiding the Naming of a Definite
Time for Treatment—Reasons Why Some
Specialists Fail to Obtain Good Fees—Lack
of Tact in Getting at a Caller’s Ability to
Pay a Reasonable Fee—Crude Tactics that
Defeat the Purpose of the Physician—Danger
in Too Much Haste and Rash Promises—Modesty
Properly Applied the Great Winner

CHAPTER IX.

DECIDING UPON THE FEE. Value of Psychological 131
Influence in Acting at the Right
Moment—Just as Easy to Get Big Fees as
Small Ones—Experience of a Young
Physician—Great Difference in Patients—An
Exhibition of “Gall”—Incubus of the Old
Dollar-Fee System—When to Name the Fee and
How to Fix Upon the Amount—What the
Practitioner Should Say and Do in Order to
Secure Large Payments—How Reduction May Be
Gracefully Made When a Patient Protests
Against the Amount—Dealing With “Tight
Wads”—How to Skilfully Dangle the Bait of
Health Without Actually Promising
Results—Taboo on the Word “Cure”—Bringing
the Caller Who Hesitates Down to the Point
of Positive Action—System to Be Followed in
Deciding Upon Amount of Fee a Patient Will
Pay