Quick sales letters for e-mail or postal mail

As a salesperson, a big part of your job is creating new business opportunities. And as you create those opportunities, you're constantly following up with your customers and prospective customers with letters and e-mail messages. Typically, you'll type or paste the same form letter into a lot of letters and e-mail messages to complete this task. And that can take a lot of time, no matter how fast you type.

1. Create and send letters with a few clicks of a button
   Microsoft Office Word and Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 offer you an easy way to use AutoText entries and a custom toolbar to create and send your letters.
   Important To use a custom toolbar with Outlook, you must be using Word as your e-mail editor. To find out how, click Turn Word on or off as your e-mail editor or viewer in the See Also box on the right side of your screen.
2. Write once, send many
   An AutoText entry is stored text or graphics that you want to use again. A custom toolbar is a place where you can store all the tasks you use on a regular basis — including AutoText entries.
   In this example, you'll create AutoText entries for some form letters that you send frequently. Then you'll add the AutoText entries to a custom toolbar in Word.
   Write the AutoText entries for your sales letters
   In Word, type the text that you want to store as an AutoText entry. For this example, you can use the following text for your letters.
   Meeting confirmation letterDear [Recipient Name]:
   Following up on our phone conversation, I look forward to meeting with you on Thursday, July 10, at your office.
   In the meantime, let me know if you have any questions.
   Sincerely,
   Order confirmation letterDear [Recipient Name]:
   We have received your order and are in the process of filling it, as described in the enclosed copy of the order. The total cost of the order is $[amount]. Your order number is [order number]. Please allow [amount of time] for delivery.
   If you have any questions about your order, or if we can be of further service to you, please call us at [phone number], and a representative will be happy to assist you. When you call, please have your order number available so that we can expedite your request.
   Thank you for your patronage. We appreciate the opportunity to serve you.
   Sincerely,
   Price quote follow-up letterDear [Recipient Name]:
   This is just a reminder that the terms and prices on the enclosed quotation are still good for several weeks.
   If you've been shopping around, you may be thinking of a system that is slightly different from the one we quoted you.
   In that case, give me a call. We'd be happy to quote again on your new specification. We can even provide quotes for various configurations to aid you in making a decision.
   Just one other thing to keep in mind: There's rarely just "one solution" to a given business computing challenge. If you're still uncertain, please call us. We can recommend hardware, software, and service alternatives that can meet any requirement — and budget.
   Sincerely,
   Select the text of your form letter.
   On the Insert menu, point to AutoText, and then click New.
   In the Create AutoText dialog box, type the name of the sales letter, for example Meeting confirmation, Order confirmation, or Price quote follow-up.
   Click OK.
3. Set up a custom sales toolbar
   Now, let's create a custom toolbar where you can store your form letters.
   There are three steps to setting up your custom toolbar:
   Create the toolbar.
   Add a new menu to the toolbar.
   Add your AutoText entries to the new menu.
   Note After you create a custom toolbar, it is available in all programs that use Normal.dot (or the Normal template). The reason you see the toolbar when you switch between such programs as Word and Outlook, is that they both use Normal.dot. After creating a custom toolbar, you might be prompted to save changes to Normal.dot. If you don't save changes, the toolbar you've added won't be available the next time you open Outlook or Word.
4. Create your toolbar
   On the Tools menu, click Customize.
   In the Customize dialog box, on the Toolbars tab, click New.
   In the New Toolbar dialog box, in the Toolbar name box, type the name you want. For this example, type Sales Tools.
   In the Make toolbar available to box, select Normal.dot, and then click OK.
   The New Toolbar dialog box closes, and a new, blank toolbar appears on your screen next to the Customize dialog box, which remains open. In the following example, the Sales Tools toolbar has been dragged above the Customize dialog box.
   Sales Tools toolbar
   Customize dialog box
   Add a new menu to your toolbar
   In the Customize dialog box, click the Commands tab.
   In the Categories box, click New Menu.
   Drag New Menu from the Commands box to the Sales Tools toolbar.
   On the Sales Tools toolbar, right-click New Menu.
   On the drop-down menu, select the words New Menu in the Name box, and then type Letters.
   When you're finished, click the Sales Tools toolbar or press ENTER.
   Now your toolbar has a menu on it — but the menu is empty. Not for long!
   Add your form letters to the Letters menu
   In the Customize dialog box, click the Commands tab.
   In the Categories box, click AutoText.
   Drag the AutoText entries one at a time from the Commands box to the Letters menu on the Sales Tools toolbar.
   How?
   Click the Letters menu to see the new menu you just created.
   Now you have your Sales Tools toolbar — complete with a snazzy menu containing all your sales letters.
5. Form letters at your fingertips
   Now all you have to do when you want to write a sales letter is click the Letters menu on your Sales Tools toolbar, and then select the letter you want. You can paste it into a Word document to send to your customer through postal mail. Or you can use your new toolbar in Outlook to paste the text directly into an e-mail message.
   You can even add e-mail commands to your new toolbar that enable you to send e-mail directly from Word.
   Add e-mail commands to your Sales Tools toolbar
   In the Customize dialog box, click the Commands tab.
   In the Categories box, click File.
   From the Commands box, drag New E-mail Message to the Sales Tools toolbar.
   From the Commands box, drag Send Now to the Sales Tools toolbar.
   Click Close.
   Now your Sales Tools toolbar looks like this:
   New E-mail Message button
   Send Now button
   Letters menu
   You're ready to send!
   From this one toolbar, you can open a new e-mail message, add a sales letter, and send the message. That should save you some time!
   On the Sales Tools toolbar, click the New E-mail Message button.
   Note that the Sales Tools toolbar is available in the new Outlook message.
   In the new message, type an e-mail address in the To field, and then type a subject in the Subject field.
   Click in the body of the blank message window to make the Letters menu available on the Sales Tools toolbar.
   On the Sales Tools toolbar, on the Letters menu, click Meeting confirmation. The Meeting confirmation AutoText is automatically pasted into the body of the e-mail message.
   Make whatever changes to the text that you want. For example, add the customer's name, make sure any dates are correct, or specify product names.
   On the Sales Tools toolbar, click Send Now.
6. Revise your form letters
   If you want to revise a sales letter, you can easily make changes and then save the updated letter to use again.
   Open a new blank Word document.
   On the Sales Tools toolbar, on the Letters menu, click the sales letter that you want to revise.
   Make your revisions to the letter.
   Select the text of your revised letter.
   On the Insert menu, point to AutoText, and then click New.
   In the Create AutoText dialog box, type the original name of the sales letter.
   Click OK.
   Click Yes.
   Your revised sales letter is now available from the Letters menu on the Sales Tools toolbar.
7. Managing your toolbar
   You work with your Sales Tools toolbar the same way you work with built-in toolbars. For example, you can move the custom toolbar around the screen, dock (docked: Fixed to the top, bottom, or side of the window. You can dock a task pane, the toolbox, the menu bar, and all toolbars.) it where you want it, or turn it on or off.
   Dock the Sales Tools toolbar
   When you first created the Sales Tools toolbar, you probably noticed that it was "floating" — in other words, detached from the other menus in Word or Outlook. If you want to dock the toolbar with the other toolbars, just drag it where you want it to go.
   Docked and floating toolbar examples
   Docked Sales Tools toolbar
   Floating Sales Tools toolbar
   Turn the Sales Tools toolbar on or off
   Every time you open Word or Outlook with the template associated with the Sales Tools toolbar (in this example, Normal.dot), you'll see the Sales Tools toolbar.
   To disable the Sales Tools toolbar from either Word or Outlook:
   Right-click any toolbar, and then clear the check box next to the Sales Tools toolbar.
8. Create more toolbars
   Now that you've set up a Sales Tools toolbar, you can customize it with your most common Word and Outlook tasks. You can even create multiple toolbars for different tasks. Take a look around and try different things. And remember, you can create custom toolbars for all Office programs.