Functions of a Business letter

Business letters secure, promote and maintain business without complications, Business letters serve us a reference for the future. Every organization should have to classify its outgoing mail and incoming mail and file them classified on the basis of their subject matter in a chronological sequence. Business letters serve to maintain the correct information of the organization in the perception of the receiver. Business letters establish and maintain contacts over a wide area truly enlarging  the scope and extent of business. Business letters can be used as legal documents in disputes. All business letters promote goodwill and enhance the prestige and the image of the organization.

We can enumerate the functions of a business letter thus :

(a) Promotional Functions: Business organisations have to grow and enlarge, improving the quality of their products, by producing new products and providing better services. The customers have to be kept informed through letters these developments. Business organisations have to expand their market by tapping new areas. All round expansion is possible only if the organisation keeps all the people concerned well informed through letters that promote sales and service.

(b)  Informational Functions: Business letters provide valuable data about earlier policies, transactions and all other activities of the organisation. Modern business cannot depend on memory as in olden days. Letters are ready references if they are available. New policies can be evolved by studying the earlier ones. It is not only essential to maintain good correspondence but also more essential to make them be available in the files.

(c) Legal Functions: Business letters can provide evidence in legal disputes, if any, that occur in a transaction. They are useful as legal documents in quotations and offers.

(d) Goodwill Functions: Business letters promote goodwill among parties transacting business. They build a good rapport between parties in a business transaction.

All these functions of a business letter promote sales and improve the image of the firm. So, every business letter is a sales letter if it serves the stated or implied objectives.