5JeuJ lark ^tatc QlnUege of AgrUultutE At (ffni-iiEll ImuecaitH atljaca, Sf. 1. HF5438.S4"™" ""'"""' ''""^ Selling policies; how to plan and direct 3 1924 013 810 571 Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013810571 SELLING POLICIES HOW TO PLAN AND DIRECT THE CAMPAIGN PRINCIPLES OF SALESMANSHIP METHODS AND SYSTEMS A. W. SHAW COMPANY CHICAGO NEW YORK lONDON 0^% IV 313 Copyright, 1908, by The System Company Entered at Stationers' Hall in Great Britain, 1909, by The System Company Entered according to the Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year 1909, by the System Company at the Department of Agriculture Entered according to the Act of Parliament of the United Commonwealth of Australia in the year 1909, by The System Company Copyriffht in Germany. 1909, by The System Company Copyright in France, 1909, by The System Company Copyright in Mexico, 1909, by The System Company Under the Title "The Business Man's Library" — Vol. IV (Trade-mark Registered) CONTENTS Part I— THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES OP SALES- MANSHIP Chapter Page I. Thaininq for Selling — How the Principles of Salesmanship are Applied 1 W. A. Waterbury, Sales Manager, A. B. Dick Co. II. The Salesman as a Business Builder 17 William F. Hypes, Sales Manager, Marshall Field & Co. III. Science Versus Empiricism in Selling 23 B. C. Bean IV. Presenting a Business Proposition 32 Alexander H. Revell, Founder and President, A. H- Revell & Co. V. Applied Salesmanship and Specialty Selling .... 39 A. L. Macbain VI. Enthusiasm in Selling 49 Walter H. Cottingham, President and General Mana- ger, The Sherwin-Williams Co. VII. Written Salesmanship — The Business Letter . . 58 Glenn S. Noble, President, National Concrete Ma- chinery Co. Part II— HOW SELLING IS EFFECTED IN VARIOUS LINES VIII. How THE Selling Campaign Wins 67 John V. Steger, Founder, Steger & Sons' Piano Mfg. Co. IX. Falling off of Sales — How Remedied 76 Ricord Gradwell, General Manager and Sales Manager, Oliver Typewriter Company X. Judging the Market by Means of the Selling Force 81 Robert H. IngereoU, Pi-esident, Robert H. Ingersoll & Brother XI. Selling by Mail 86 W. A. Waterbury, Sales Manager, A. B. DiW rv. CONTENTS Chaptek Page Xn. How THE Small Mail Order Man Sells 97 Jason J. Starr, Manager, Starr Specialty Co. XIII. How THE Country Merchant Meets the Competi- tion OF THE Catalogue House 105 Frank B. Lomas, Secretary, Lomas & Famsworth Hardware Co. XIV. How THE Country Department Store Sells 113 W. G. Chamberlain, Vice-President, Skinner, Cham- berlain & Co. XV. Publicity por the Retailer 122 Tom Murray, Retail Men's Clothing and Furnishings XVI. Selling to the Jobber in the Face op Trust Compe- tition 127 George W. Ogilvie, Publisher Part HI— SYSTEM AND SELLING XVII. The Advantages and Importance or System in Selling 137 J. Harry Selz, Second Vice-President, Selz, Schwab & Co. XVin. System and the Salesman 140 W. A. Waterbury, Sales Manager, A. B. Dick Co. XIX. System and Selling in the Store 160 Geo. E. B. Putnam, Assistant Editor, Boot and Shoe Recorder XX. Proeitable Sales — How Furthered by System in the Retail House 169 David W. Rintels, Retailer XXI. An Automatic Follow-up for the Salesman 179 Kendall Banning XXII. System in Selling the City and Country Trabe. . . 188 B. C. Bean PART I THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES OF SALESMANSHIP CHAPTER I TEAINING FOE SELLING— HOW THE PRnTCI- PLES OF SALESMANSHIP AEE APPLIED BY W. A. WATERBURY Sales Manager, A. B. Dick Company In one respect the sales force is the foundation upon which success or failure in business rests. Regardless of the quality or quantity of merit possessed by the product manufactured or sold, with- out proper introduction and representation its success can only be uncertain or limited. Inventions that are valuable to mankind are lying dormant to-day for want of intelligent development in their various fields of usefulness. An eflScient sales force can not be created in a day, neither can it be purchased outright for a money con- sideration. It arrives at a state of perfection only by a process of evolution calling for careful judgment and wise discrimination in selecting the material to be used. There must be on the part of both manager and salesman implicit confidence in the merit of the goods sold and unwavering loyalty to the interests mutually represented at all times and under all conditions. The selling end of an organization may be com- pared to the motive power of a vast and intricate ma- chine, affecting the dividends according to its strength or its weakness ; each unit is a cog in the driving wheel, any one of which, if weakened or impaired, affects the entire machine. 1 2 SELLING Therefore, the selection of salesmen should be made with the greatest care and discrimination. Someone has remarked: "A salesman is born— not made." Such an opinion is apt to be expressed Salesmanship- w^lien observing some particularly bril- KotaGift-an liant success that has been made, but AcoompUsiiment ^jjjgjj^ jg j.Qgj[j an isolated case, and an exception, rather than the rule. The "born sales- man" is a spasmodic salesman. As a rule he is not evenly balanced, and his results are an uncer- tain equation for the manufacturer to place the greatest dependence upon when figuring on output and general expenses. I prefer the steady worker; the man who grinds, but whose results show a healthy and continuous increase. Give me a man with a good back- bone, susceptible to instruction, willing to absorb, and a disposition to obey orders, and I will assume the responsibility of his becoming a successful salesman. It is true that he must have a foundation upon which to build. I will call the stones of that founda- tion intelligence, education, appearance, persistence, self-control, and diplomacy. None of these is a gift, but an accomplishment that can be developed more or less, according to the individual. A sales force should work as a unit. Interests be- ing identical, they should also be mutual. Without Discussions perfect harmony between manager and and salesman the best results can not be ex- Conventions pected. Occasional meetings for a friendly interchange of ideas is money well expended. A clear- ing house of thought in every oflSce employing a force of men, for collecting information from each and dis- seminating it to all, can not fail to produce beneficial results- An annual or semi-annual convention at head- W. A. WATEEBURY S quarters is one of the best methods I know of for in- stilling new life and vigor into a body of men. A sales- man is inclined to travel certain beaten paths, and after a while finds himself running in a rut. At this time a hint, a word of advice, a knowledge of how others are handling similar business propositions, gives him new light and new experience, and he returns to his work a stronger factor. We are not original. What we own we enjoy by inheritance of acquisition from others. We are simply telling an old story in a new way, modifying it to meet existing conditions. No one man can claim a monopoly of all the qualifications for successful salesmanship, but knowledge is power, and he who has most of it, coupled with the best ability to utilize it, enjoys ad- vantages that should contribute largely to his success. A salesman feels stronger to think that he is of BuflBcient importance to his employers to have his views receive consideration, and he returns to his field of labor with an added sense of responsibility and a de- sire to do still better. "Salesmanship" may be interpreted as "ability to read human nature." It is not to be assumed that every man aspiring to become a salesman possesses this qualification at the start, but careful observation, self- control, and close application will enable him to de- velop it. It is quite as important that a salesman should be a good listener as a good talker; quick to perceive when he has said enough, and then stop. A salesman will at times sell his goods by talking, at other times he will get his order quickest by letting his customer talk. Ability to read human nature will enable him to determine when he has said enough. Organizing a sales force means as much as any- 4 SELLING thing getting together a homogeneous body ot men, each one recognizing the responsibility of his individual BucoesBDepend- PositioD and the success of his individual ent Upon Unity efforts, and all pulling in the harness in •fPnrpose ^j^g game direction, to a common end. Nationality does not enter into this selection, but honesty, loyalty and confidence are requirements that can not be ignored. Such a body of men can not be commanded at a moment's notice. They must be edu- cated and developed gradually and the weak ones weeded out as rapidly as their unfitness becomes con- clusive. In doing this, however, bad judgment may be exercised by undue haste. One man may have un- doubted ability in certain directions, or in certain fields, but may be weak in others. Failure in one does not necessarily imply failure in all, and a weak man in one locality may be a power in another. If my first impressions of such a man were favorable, I would transfer him to another field or another line of work. Location or conditions may have had much to do with his apparent failure, and I think it will generally be found more profitable to try him elsewhere than to sacrifice what has been spent in time, labor, and money in educating him by breaking in a new man. Having selected my man, I endeavor to inspire him with confidence in his ability to handle my inter- ests successfully. While it is not neces- B^g^slbUity ^^""y *" relinquish control of my affairs, or my right to conduct my business ac- cording to my own ideas, there is always a way to do this without making him feel that he is only an autom- aton and leaving an unpleasant taste in his mouth. I believe in giving a salesman the greatest possible freedom of action consistent with the conditions of the W. A. WATEEBDRY S business. I impress upon him the responsibility which is resting upon his shoulders, the value to him as well as to me of his success, and the importance of obeying orders, adhering to facts, and getting business. If his opinion differs from mine on certain mat- ters, he should remember that I am in touch with gen- eral, while he is familiar only with local, conditions, and that I have probably sufflcient reason for thinking differently. In any event, he should appreciate that his responsibility ends when someone above him assumes it, and that he is only a working part of a machine which can not perform its functions successfully un- less every part moves without friction. I do not want a salesman in my service whose honesty or loyalty is under suspicion. The physical PorsonaUtyofa ^® ^^"^ ^® *^® moral effect is injurious. Selling He is like a weak part in the machine, Organisation ^j^^ collapse of which at an unexpected moment may disarrange the adjustment or operation of the entire business. If I have lost confidence in him I find myself unconsciously withdrawing my support from him and my interest in his success, which, of course, cripples the business in his especial field. If such a suspicion arises, I will "have it out with him ;" I will give him the opportunity to clear himself, make allowances at all times for the fallibility of human nature, and recognize the fact that all men may at times be honestly mistaken. If my suspicion is not then removed, he must go. In justice to my other loyal men I am unwilling to feel that there is a traitor in the ranks, and I can not have my business handicapped by an uncertain quantity. In choosing salesmen I select men who will be loyal. A man can not serve two masters. It is a great 6 SELLING temptation to some men to handle a "side line" and opportunities are plentiful. When a salesman enters my employ he is given to understand that no money must stick to his fingers but that which comes from me. He cannot handle a "side line" and do justice to my interests. I must feel that every moment of his time is being given to the work he is employed to per- form. His future reward depends on how well he ac- complishes that work and how much he increases my business — not that of someone else. I consider my in- terests of sufficient magnitude to occupy his entire time, and I cannot divide his services with another. Out of hundreds of salesmen I have employed in the past ten or fifteen years I can not point to a single one who has been disloyal. Nor could a man long deceive me. His work would show indifference, even if knowl- edge of his disloyalty did not come to my attention from other sources. I do not think the temptation to handle "side lines" is so great with city salesmen as with traveling salesmen. The city man is working in a more thickly populated and congested field, where the business hours are shorter and his time is more fully occupied, but there is the temptation to the traveling man who is away from home for long periods at a time, and beyond the observation — as he sometimes thinks — of the home oflSce. I can offer good advice to every salesman — steer clear of "side lines." There is nothing in them in the long run. And to employers — organize your men 80 that "loyalty" will appear on the face of every one of them. I am a great believer in systematic daily reports. Aside from the fact that they enable me to keep in close W. A. WATERBURT 7 touch with the business at all points, properly handled they become valuable records. I keep my business in such condition that it can not be interrupted by the resignation or removal of any Training a ^^° ^° ^^ employ. A few moments at System of the close of each day is sufiBcient to give "Understudies" ^^^ ^^^jg ^^^^ details of what has trans- pired with the trade, a brief synopsis of which in con- densed form is available whenever needed. A duplicate of this information should be retained by the salesman. There is a disposition on the part of some managers to avoid letting a salesman "know too much." I be- lieve that a salesman can perform his work more suc- cessfully when in possession of all the facts and con- ditions affecting the business in his own field. The possibility of his leaving my employ and en- tering that of a competitor does not alarm me. Busi- ness men are, as a rule, broad-gauged men who do not seek advantages from betrayed confidences, and sales- men who undertake to profit by them discredit them- selves and only lose caste with their employers. Fur- thermore, I make it a rule to have an understudy for every man in my employ; one who, if the machine is crippled suddenly or unexpectedly, can ttike up the broken ends and continue the work without interrup- tion or injury to the business. I am not inclined to tie up a salesman with a long list of restrictions, rules, and regulations. I do not believe a man can do his best work under such con- ditions, and he loses his individuality, which to a sales- man is his most valuable asset. The moment I take away that individuality I curtail his usefulness; at the same time a fine distinction must be drawn between 2 8 SELLING "system" and "red tape." Local conditions which I do not know and can not for the moment learn must al- ways have more or less or an influence on sales, and these can only be understood by the man on the ground. I know every day what my salesmen have accom- plished the previous day, the corresponding day last month, and last year, and a statement of this in con- densed form is furnished to each man monthly for his own information and to let him know that I am watch- ing his business. The effect is beneficial, as no consci- entious salesman likes to see confronting him evidence of a falling off in business. I avoid "nagging letters," I do not find fault with a salesman, criticising his methods and telling him after a thing is done how he should have done it. If he has erred, I show him in a friendly way how and why, but I support him in what he has done and make him feel that I am supporting him. Selling goods is not always the pleasantest occupation, and there is nothing that will take the ambition out of a good man quicker or more effectively than a fault-finding letter from the home oflSce. If he has outlived his usefulness, or ceased to render satisfactory service, I dispense with his services, but do not find fault. Salesmen are, in a measure, creatures of circumstances, having their moods, and are susceptible to surroundings. They have their "on" and "off" days. The continuous grind de- mands relaxation. A good business braces them up and enables them to store their energy for reserve, but a poor business has a depressing effect, and they are obliged to call on that reserve. Nothing will exhaust it quicker than criticism from headquarters when they are doing their best, and encouragement is what they need. For dars after, their spirits are depressed, and W. A. WATERBURY 9 they are an injury rather than a benefit to the business. A good salesman does not need prodding, and he who handles the correspondence at the home oflQce should be a man of tact and even temper, and not likely to allow any personal feelings to creep into letters that will irritate the man who is getting the orders. I do not say that the man who does what I do, and what I recommend, will have all smooth sailing. There are annoyances that enter into the conduct of any large business employing a force of men, but the general application of these ideas has worked success- fully with me. My business moves like clockwork, with- out friction, and I have yet to find a better plan. Webster defines science as "the study of a trade" and salesmanship as "the business of selling goods," from which we deduce "scientific sales- Soientiflo manship" as a study of selling goods. This is in contradistinction to ordinary salesmanship, which embraces only the simple exchange of merchandise for an equivalent. The individuals who make up the latter class are a drug on the market and are already too numerous a quantity. The title of "salesman" when applied to them carries with it no especial significance. Scientific salesmanship, however, involves con- tinual study. When the scientific salesman sells a bill of goods he applies his mind to a consideration of the surroundings and conditions governing that sale to ascertain how he can duplicate it with less expense of time, labor, or money, and with a prospect of a greater amount of profit. Scientific salesmanship does not necessarily re- quire a college education, although no one will dispute the advantage of such a foundation to build upon. It 10 SELLING does, however, demand as faithful an application as is given to the mastery of a language or a profession. The community is to-day burdened with salesmen of mediocre ability, while the artisan skilled in selling goods is as eagerly sought by the captains of industry and the leaders of our greatest commercial enterprises as at any time in the country's history. The scientific salesman studies his own character as well as his customer's peculiariflesrHe knows his How the Sales- °^^ weakness or faults and tries to over- man Qualifies come them. If he is inclined to be care- er wor jggg Ijj jjjg personal appearance, he real- izes the deterrent effect on his customer and therefore his shoes are polished a little oftener, his clothes are pressed more frequently and his linen is kept in better condition. These are small items, but they weigh heavily in general results. If his disposition is jocular it will not be long before he loses some important order as the result. Too much familiarity breeds contempt, and a customer would better be approached with dig- nity and reserve. If there is any levity to be indulged in, let the customer have a monopoly of it until firm ground is established. The scientific salesman is always poli te. This does not mean that he must be effusive to the point of offense, but first impressions are usually lasting ones, and the salesman who approaches a prospective custo- mer in a brusque or indifferent manner has already prejudiced his standing. Politeness may not secure business, but I have never known it to hurt a salesman's chances of getting it. The scientific salesman studies not only to secure business, but to avoid losing it. The scientific salesman must have abs olute s elf- control. FTe has but one nature and one disposition, W. A. WATERBUEY 11 but is coming in contact with thousands, no two of which are exactly alike. Methods that will be accepted Tact a Vital without criticism by one man are odious Factor of and objectionable to another. He must salesmausiiip ^^^^^^ ^^^^ perfect control of his con- versation, his temper, and his deportment that he will perceive instantly when he is on the wrong tack and change his course. He must maintain his dignity often under the most exasperating circumstances. The scientific salesman is a goo d student of human nature. When addressing a prospective customer he quickly detects whether the occasion is favorable or in- opportune for pressing his case, and if unfavorable he withdraws diplomatically, leaving the way open for a future engagement ; he appreciates the fact that a busi- ness man may have far more important matters de- manding his attention. How often have I heard a sales- man say : "I cannot get at Mr. Blank." The trouble is not with Mr. Blank, but in the manner or at the time the salesman approached him. Mr. Blank is a business man and probably much like other business men, and there is always a time and place when and where he can be approached in a proper manner. The scientific salesman does it. The ordinary salesman gives up and probably loses business that could have been easily se- cured had he given the problem a little study. I always attribute a failure to secure an audience to inability of the salesman and never to the seclusion of the business man. The scientific salesman recognizes his weakness a"d studies to correct it. The scientific salesman does not approach all men in the same manner. One man may be greeted with an outstretched hand, another would consider this an act of familiarity and an affront to his dignity. Here is 12 SELLING where discrimination, or as we use the term, "scienee,^ must be displayed. The scientific salesman knows how to record his impressions of his customer ; he remembers what points Recording ^*^ dwell upon, what points to avoid. He impresBions flatters his customer to the extent of ad- and acts dressing him by name instantly, by recall- ing previous conversations and correspondence. He makes his customer feel that he is not merely one among hundreds of others, but one whose personality has made a distinct impression, whose character has not been forgotten in the rush of business. A salesman who forgets the incidents of previous interviews or who con- fuses one customer with another handicaps himself at once. Few salesmen have cultivated their memory to the extent that enables them to keep a mental record of customers and prospectives ; no salesman who is called upon to interview dozens of prospectives a day can hope to recall all of the details of an interview or cor- respondence of days or weeks before. The salesman who keeps in the closest touch with "live" prospectives, or who follows up good customers for further orders, does not trust his memory for the details; he makes permanent records and files them for reference. Does he think it about time for Mr. Jones to renew an order ? He looks under the "J'a" in his file index and picks out the card or folder that bears the wanted information. He learns Mr. Jones' initials, he refreshes his memory on the name and address of his firm and his oflScial position with it. He learns the exact dates of former calls and letters, the hours when Mr. Jones may be best approached, his reasons for not buying. Perhaps Mr. Jones does not recall the exact grade or amount of W. A. WATERBUET 13 goods he ordered before; the salesman can tell him. Perhaps Mr. Jones is interested in accounting methods, in real estate in a certain city or in the Panama canal; the salesman remembers these points and brings him clippings for his interest. The clippings may have been cut from the papers of that very day ; they may have been placed in the folder weeks before among the cor- respondence and invoices sent to Mr. Jones. Mr. Jones WAMEOFFIRM -_„_ ' POSmON WITH MF!M___;______ ■ ;;iKlNp OF BUSINESS ; i._.,. piDDFrESS^.. ^-^..^^ ^liD^TE DFCAi:i,S^-.,__.._^.j__ igiJATEor cqr;BESPOfjpENC6.„^„_ :|;,HeASOMS FpRl^^OTBUYfNG,: '|;iV)AV.-BUYWHEN7..__':-,'Ji'__' The folder for recording informatlou about customers and prospectivea and for holding correspondence or clippings for reference appreciates this attention ; it makes him amiably dis- posed toward the salesman; he has been approached on his ''blind side," and every man is susceptible to atten- tion. Ail salesmen can not start out with perfect memo- ries, but all may embody a system for recording im- pressions and information. The scientiiic salesman must be shrewd but not deceitful. He does not rely on misrepresentation to win business, neither does he resort to falsehood or in- trigue to strengthen his position. He does not defame 14 SELLING his legitimate competitors. This may be called "policy" or "diplomacy," but these are only synonyms for science. The scientific salesman makes a-atud y of the-g oods he sells. If a manufactured product, you will find him study of the familiar with the process of construction Product from the raw material to the finished ar- ^'* tide. He is best prepared to meet a com- petitor when he has a comprehensive knowledge of the goods he represents, their advantages and the quality of the material entering into their construction. This information enables him to discuss his business more intelligently, makes him master of his trade and places his adversary who has not a corresponding knowledge at a disadvantage. So far as practicable he will have a similar knowledge of his competitor's goods, but will say little about them, using his knowledge negatively but effectually, and thus will not be apparently hostile to a friendly competitor. The scientific salesman s tudies the methods of his com petitors . The man who Hatters himself that he has a monopoly on the science of selling goods will very likely find himself losing much valuable business. Com- petition is keen and other minds as brilliant as his are working along the same channels ; but knowledge is power, and he who possesses the greatest amount of it is more likely to succeed than he who thinks there is nothing more to learn about selling goods. The scien- tific salesman does not ignore the methods employed by others in his own line. The scientific salesman is persistent . He never takes "no" for an answer. He reasons with himself why he failed to win his customer's confidence, and, \y. A. WATERBURY 15 placing himself in the position of the man approached, considers how the argument would have appealed to him. Then he returns and tries again in another manner. The scientific salesman isjndustrious. When he is not selling he is thinking. His mind is always on his business. His attentions are not divided with out- side interests. He constitutes himself a standing com- mittee on ways and means to devise new plans and execute new schemes to promote his business. He keeps in close touch with his superior officers, seeks their confidence and gives them his, and establishes a closer bond of friendship between his customers and the house he represents. The scientific salesman is ambitious. He is never satisfied with what he has done, but is always trying to do more. "Good enough" is not his motto. "Better still" is his constant watchword. Can all salesmen become scientific? Yes, but some much more so than others. The salesman who is con- tent to travel in a rut, satisfied with just enough busi- ness to enable him to retain his position, will never attain much science in his work. He makes no friends, creates no lasting impression and adds no especial strength to the standing of his house. He gets his order because his customer happens to want the goods at that particular moment, or because he has made a price that was an inducement in itself. Giving away goods does not constitute salesmanship, nor does selling them at the least possible profit. It rests with every man to develop the degree of scientific salesmanship he will command. It is not something that can be bought, but must be acquired by 16 SELLING diligent, patient, and persistent efifort, and the salesman who will apply himself in this direction will not only be constantly employed, but will rise in the estimation of his employers, his customers, and, most of all, him- self. CHAPTER II THE SALESMAN AS A BUSINESS BUILDER BY WILLIAM F. HYPES Salesmanager, MarsluUl Field and Company A sales manager one day asked me this question, "What one thing above all others do you try to im- press upon your men on the road?" The answer was easy. "I try to make them un- derstand," I said, "that ability to sell is not the only quality needed in a salesman. Show them that simple ability to land orders will not qualify them for our sales force unless at the same time they follow absolutely the instructions of the house and attend promptly to the details of their work." Every day that I sit at my desk and watch reports come in from the men in the field, I wish I had a more forcible way of saying or demonstrating the truth of that same statement, for I know that some of those men must learn it sooner or later through sad experience. Every time I see new men start out with their samples- I wish it again, for I know that some of them are going to fail because they do not realize the importance of the warning. Time after time I have seen the brilliant beginner fall down for no other reason than that he let his own magnetic ability to take orders blind him to the necessity of keeping picked up the shag ends of his business. 17 18 SELLING And again and again I have seen the mediocre man develop into a star because he recognized instructions from the house as commands — demanding immediate execution — and was just as particular about his daily details as about the size of his orders. Of this routine work one phase overshadows in im- portance all the rest. No one omission on the salesman's part causes more trouble for all parties concerned than his neglect in checking up his own samples and price lists with the house bulletins on stock shortages and price changes. Done promptly upon receipt of the house notices, this work is a comparatively simple matter; allowed to run until several bulletins have accumulated, it is one of the salesman's chief bugbears. Failure to check up is the certain forerunner of orders for goods that cannot be delivered and the making of price quota- tions which will get him into serious trouble. Let me illustrate. A salesman starts out on the road with his sample cases, catalogue and special price lists. In order that he may truly represent Salesmen and , . „ , House Mnst his firm, there must be demonstrated an Co-operate intimate spirit of co-operation between him and the house. The house must keep constantly in- formed of his movements and his business transactions ; and he must, of course, keep in the closest possible touch with the home office. The first of these requirements is fulfilled through the orders that he sends in and his daily, weekly or special reports as regards his sales, his routes of travel, his expenses, and conditions of trade in certain locali- ties or with certain dealers. Every one of these reports meets careful disposition in the house. The orders are booked for delivery, special contingencies in trade are WILLIAM F. HYPES 19 met as judgment dictates, and the personal record of the salesman's movements is carefully noted in the sales manager's office. Now in turn, for the salesman's benefit, the house sends out each day or week a bulletin of information and instructions. There is a general statement of trade conditions as gathered from hundreds of reports and viewed from the perspective standpoint of the house. There is advance information on styles and fashions and new talking points that have been developed regard- ing certain goods, either in the house or by other men on the road. But specifically and most important of all these bulletins list those goods which for any reason have been exhausted or called off sale, and those other goods on which it has been found necessary or advisa- ble to change the price quotations. If the salesman acts upon this information with an attentiveness corresponding to that which the house accords his reports, what will he do? He will imme- diately correct his price book, special price lists and catalogs, and at the earliest possible opportunity will check up his samples, discarding or marking out those withdrawn from sale. This, admittedly, is detail work, distasteful to many an easy-going salesman, who depends upon the charm of a strong personality to entice large orders into his book. But it is an essential — an absolute essential — to the man who wants to secure the confidence of his house and his customers and score a permanent success in his work. If he does it promptly each time he receives a weekly or special notice of stock and price changes, he is always sure of the accuracy of his quotations, he 20 SELLING knows that every order he takes is a bona fide order and can be filled at the house. But, how about the other, the take-it-easy salesman ? He glances over his house notices and tosses them into his sample case for future attention. Next morning or a week later he drops in on a regular customer down the line. He lands a big order, and books it all with never a thought as to whether it can all be delivered. His own samples and price lists indicate no "outs," and while he is in conversation with his customer he has neither time nor inclination to refer to his bulletins. The result is that several items go on the order that have been called off sale in the house— and three kinds of trouble are immediately started. The first man affected is the manager of the depart- ment where the order is received. Here is a request for goods which have been unavailable for Three Kinds some time and he knows positively that of Trouble every man on the road has been informed of the shortage. He has the salesman's receipt showing the date such information reached him. He gives free expression of his opinion of such work and reports the salesman's inexcusable oversight to the sales manager. But that is not all. He must write the customer, explaining as best he can that the goods were out when his order was received. Possibly he tells him when the goods are expected in stock again and suggests a substi- tute in the meantime. At best it is a diplomatic opera- tion. Then comes the second bit of trouble — the cus- tomer receives the letter of explanation and his order, short the much-needed goods. Righteous disappointment puts down a black mark in his mind against both the WILLIAM P. HYPES 21 salesman and the house, and the dealer is that moment removed one degree further off from becoming a perma- nent customer. Possibly he takes immediate occasion to complain direct to the house. At least he has opportunity to ex- press himself the next time his order is solicited. How many salesmen have had that unpleasant experience of walking in on a supposedly dependable source of a good order only to find that the order has just gone into the book of a persistent rival? Yet it happens every day for no other reason than that a promised shipment failed to come. "Why should I buy of you," says the dealer, and justly, "and have my order accompanied by the uncertainty of its delivery when I can buy of Brown and Company and be sure of getting my goods ? ' ' And then the third batch of trouble, the concentra- tion of the two previous eomplaints-^it comes properly directed at the salesman himself. He Blame Falls Justly on comes in from the road and finds on his Salesman sales manager's desk not one but a half dozen complaints due to these omissions — orders that could not be filled, prices quoted that could not be con- firmed, specific evidence that the details of his roadwork have been neglected. His sensational initial orders, his record-breaking days are forgotten in that moment by the sales manager, who is seeking not only to make sales, but to inspire the confidence of every dealer, to build up a permanent trade. "But I was too busy," explains the salesman. "I have been selling goods day and night. Would you expect me to waste an hour of valuable time on this work when I could be selling three or four hundred dol- lars* worth of goods?" 22 SELLING But has he been selling goods in the strictest sense 1 Is the sale worth while if it necessitates a negligence that breeds complaints and dissatisfaction in the trade? I believe there is not a sales manager dealing with the general trade who would not rather see a somewhat smaller order that can be filled with absolute satisfaction than a record-breaker that is going to bring another load to the complaint department and make demands upon the diplomacy of every man who touches it. Lack of observance for details has left a thousand salesmen stranded on the sands. Every sales manager knows their class. He has met them only too often during his own days on the road—wonderful order- getters, some of them, but all with that fatal fondness for the uptilted chair, the comfort-radiating stove, the eompanionship of a man with the proverbial story, when an hour in the sample room with the week's bulletin and a blue pencil would save a hundred errors. Some of the things I have said here may seem strong, but if there was any way of making salesmen realize the importance of this warning I would make my statements stronger still. If men on the road would only remember that there is more to a sale than the mere sale itself, that an order rightly handled should always be the entrance to more business, that a cus- tomer is not a real customer until absolute confidence makes the salesman and the house in his eyes his busi- ness partners, then they might realize that one complaint may lose a firm's most valued customer, that one detail omitted may lose business that can never be regained, and that sooner or later his own negligence will lose him fais position. CHAPTER III SCIENCE VERSUS EMPIRICISM IN SELLING BY B. C. BEAN The business man is not greatly surprised by any anomaly or deviation from the common rule which he meets either in the daily routine or in the varied re- quirements of his particular line. Scarcely a contin- gency can arise that has not had its precedent. Even the man young in the business has seen success — almost overnight — of small beginnings started under the most adverse conditions and in the smallest way, and has marked, too, the passing of other firms initiated ap- parently when all was propitious and having the back- ing of moneyed and influential interests. In fact, there is no line of trade or business which has not presented its anamolies — real or apparent — to those in the ranks or to the observant onlooker. In spite of these departures from common or es- tablished rules, it seems more than passing strange that the oldest science — selling — has been always considered as a knack inherent in the salesman, a gift similar to that of the darky musician who warbles like a bird without any instruction other than that given him by Mother Nature in one of her kindly moods. "Give a man a grip, a catalogue, and a time-table, let him know his predecessor was 'fired' for padding his expense ac- count and turn him loose," has been the rule for start- ing a salesman on the road. How is he to sell ? Why, by his knack to be sure. If he is a natural-born sales- ' 23 24 SELLING man he will show it in a week, maybe two, if not, he never would make a salesman anyhow. It appears right to take as a premise that sales- manship is an art not less diflScult than any other art or profession of comparative importance or which yields the same or equal results. Who expects or de- mands results of the physician, the lawyer, the engi- neer, or any other important worker, without long, careful, and arduous training? Why this seeming ex- ception in the case of the salesman ? The answer is here: The belief that salesmanship is inherent has been so firmly rooted in the popular mind that it has been held, until late years, to be rank heresy to believe otherwise. The present decade has seen this moss-grown idea get worsted in every bout. The searcher for antiques will soon be able to find this supposition only in the limbo of discarded things along with such shrewd facts as one of the last fancies to be discarded — that "adver- tising does not pay." The moss-grown idea, that salesmen do not need systematic training may have done when Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage. That time was some years ago, and this idea should be considered just as ancient and as far behind modern methods as the ox- cart is behind the auto, or picture writing on parch- ment is behind, the wireless telegraph as a means of communication. The methods of the empirical salesman are these: Being usually a man of goodly presence, a fluent talker, a past master in the art of mixing, and of somewhat mercurial temperament, he rises in the morning feeling that the day is to be good or poor. If the omens are propitious he sets forth and makes sales; makes more B. 0. BEAN 25 sales ; makes still more sales. When commissions have mounted up to a fair week's salary or an equivalent in orders he knocks off for the day — if he is selling on commission, often for the week — at least until the mood strikes him again. The selling mood may refuse to be coaxed within hailing distance for some time, and if he takes the field before it comes, few and unimport- ant sales are the result. The average sales for a definite term — as a month or year — of such a salesman present a fair average, but he is liable to let up while prospects are good as when they are discouraging. Modern methods of checking the salesman have modified this somewhat, but many star salesmen are still men of moods in spite of the check placed upon them. The fact that salesmanship has been the last re- sort of the oflfice man has tended to make the num- ber of those who sell "by main strength" large and varying in the make-up. Heads of well-established houses, too, fall in with the idea that "our trade is well established, we will send out a young man." These two factors tend constantly to swell the ranks of the empirical (and unsuccessful) salesmen. The average young man starts out with no definite aim as to what employment he wishes, other than the Breaking hazy idea that a roll-top (later advices Into say flat-top) desk, a lightning stenogra- Selling pher, a well-furnished ofiice, and other comfortable items are a necessity. Unable to break into what a certain corporation president terms the "leather- chair class" within a short length of time, he finds himself scanning the "help wanted" columns and notes with positive surprise the demand for men who can sell. Upon investigation, the various propositions he iooks into do not seem so enticing, but he tries out, 26 SELLING and, as his general efficiency and special knowledge of salesmanship is complete or not, wins or loses as the case may be. The chances are that he will lose. Why ? Because he is in a business he did not intend to take up, about which he knows little, and with which he is not in sympathy. Surely these are reasons enough why seventy, eighty, perhaps ninety per cent of those taking jip the work of selling in this empirical fashion are fail- ures. The tendency of certain houses to replace an ef- ficient salesman with a cheap boy, or to start a young man out as a venture, not having the money to spare to pay high-class men, helps swell the number of empirical salesmen. Fifty to seventy-flve dollars i)er month "and expenses" — the latter must be emphasized just right to be effective — looks large to the under em- ploy6 who is getting perhaps twelve or fifteen dollars per week at uninteresting office work. So the plunge is made, with the chances large against the embryo salesman. These methods and others similar, may be said to be the old-time ways. Not but they are now and will be used more or less in the future. So, too, the Egyptian still scratches the ground with a forked stick and calls it plowing, but the Dakota farmer who turns over a hundred acres per day with his gang plow is not in greater contrast to his Egyptian prototype than mod- ern sales methods are to the old-time ways of selling. Modern methods provide that the salesman Be one of a trained selling organization. This organization may number one, one million, or any intermediate num- ber. One of the best selling organizations I can call to mind consisted of one man. He was not only the entire selling force but the administrative force, the adver- B. 0. BEAN 27 tising force, and the manufacturing force, as well. Doubtless you have seen him also. This particular fakir disposed of a wonderful headache remedy, and he did not give it away either. Having previously made up a quantity of the harmless dope, he mounted a dry- goods box on the corner and distributed his wares to all comers. Psychology was an unknown word to him and the principles of salesmanship something of which he had no cognizance. But he was one of a trained sell- ing organization, which crude as it was, was effective. He made up in organization what he lacked in equip- ment. At the furthest remove from the example given above, stands the selling organization of the Standard Oil. Embracing as it does a selling force which directly and indirectly may be said to number nearly a million, the result of the cooperation of monopoly and sales- manship is too common knowledge to need recounting here. The ideal selling organization is one that is coordi- nate with the business organization, working along the same lines. This means that the salesman is developed as the organization develops and that he draws his knowledge of applied selling from the man or men above him, as well as from the wealth of his own prac- tical experience. The old idea was, and to some extent holds to the present day, that salesmanship is a thing apart from The Man- Office management. The office manager agera took the stand, not in so many words, it Salesman jg ^j.^^^ ^^^ practically at least, that Ms was the work of management. The salesman was con- sidered as a man in a business or profession apart from the manager. If the salesman looked to the manager 28 SELLING for a solution of a practical problem in salesmanship, the matter would probably be referred back to the sales- man with the remark or notation that this was a ques- tion of selling, not of management and as such should come in the salesman's field. Now, the manager is considered just as much — in- deed more — of a salesman than the men under him. There is no problem in salesmanship that can possibly come up in a territory that the salesman can not — if he can not do it for himself — get solved by the manager. There is nothing that nerves a salesman up for ac- curate, painstaking, intense work, more than to know that the man from whom he is taking orders ranks him in the knowledge of which he himself is an exponent. Now and then a business comes to the front with- out an organized means of selling, but it is rare indeed that this happens. And it is no unsuggestive coin- cidence that the most successful businesses of the day organize, drill, and school their salesmen with the greatest thoroughness possible. The methods of the National Cash Register Com- pany have become classic in the annals of salesmanship. To take the inexperienced man, educate him, drill him relentlessly in a school more severe than that of experi- ence and cause him to make himself a success is an accomplishment that is of itself full of inspiration and suggestion to the progressive sales manager. More diflScult, in a way, has been the building up of a sales force for "Success" Magazine. This force of agents numbers 20,000 — including those more or less active — and the unique feature of the agency campaign of this periodical is the fact that each agent receives correspondence instruction in salesmanship. These instructions cover the basic principles of B. C. BEAN 29 salesmanship, which are the same in all lines, the technical methods employed in magazine salesmanship, and the general inspirational matter Correspondence , . , , ., , , . iMtrnotion which keeps the salesman up and gomg. inSeUing rpj^g ^^^ ^^j ^^^ management — and what is actually carried out— is to instruct the salesman just as thoroughly as though he were actually in the presence of his instructor. That this is successfully done is shown by the fact that of all the prominent American general magazines that have tried to build up a successful agency force, "Success" is one of per- haps five of the number that has overcome the diffi- culties in the way. The exact means and methods by which this has been effected has been through the correspondence course in magazine salesmanship already referred to, rounded out by a considerable amount of supplemen- tary literary matter, such as "Stray Shots, a periodical of inspiration, progress and self-help" listing the lead- ing solicitors, giving the name, number of subscriptons, gain or loss over previous record and inspirational comments on the standing of competitors. Reports in detail to the home office give a chance to encourage, instruct, and enthuse the solicitor. One of the methods that may or may not smack of the empirical, is the administration of salesmanship by the tabloid process. The boys out on the "Tabloid j-gad now often receive, in lieu of specific Salesmanship" . . .... instructions, the generic gmgerism of a well-written talk by some master of the salesman's craft, who in addition, is able to place what he knows in snappy terms upon paper. This is true tabloid sales- manship when it deals with the principles of the art 30 SELLING and makes specific application, but when it merely re- lates a number of well-worn truths in regard to selling, generally applicable to any other line, it borders closely on the empirical. It is an easy matter for a trainer to say to his man, "Hit him hard ; go in and win," but it is another thing to tell specifically how to deliver a blow so as to add to its power. Instruction for salespeople has been conducted in an elementary or unorganized way for a considerable Xeachins number of years. This was usually in the Selling to form of an instruction book giving the Salespeople j.^jgg ^^ ^^^ g^^,j.g^ general conduct of the «mploy6 when on duty, and sometimes a few elementary principles of salesmanship. Now there are an increas- ing number of department stores conducting schools for their salespeople, and of these schools that for Wanamaker sales force may be considered typical, be- ing designed for all employes of the institution whom a knowledge of selling would benefit. The un- derlying principles of selling are impressed upon the employe-student, the particular feature of the store as a selling organization is strongly dwelt upon, and an effort is made to make the selling force of the store as nearly perfect in the art of salesmanship as is possible. Ail these examples simply show that scientific training is fast becoming recognized as the only sure means of increasing the efficiency of the sales force, whatever the numerical strength of that force may be. The strongest sales managers have always been those who could tell the "how" and the "why" of salesman- ship. It is no difficulty to call the other kind of sales manager to mind — ^the kind of man who says to the road man about to take his first trip, "You will meet difficulties in selling our line but you must work B. 0. BEAN 31 out your own salvation. Now there's Morse, for in. stance. Morse's sales last week were some twenty thou- sand — and his expense book, by the way, was low, very low," etc. Contrast this with the methods of sales manager who has the details of the field at his finger's ends, who recognizes intuitively what each man under him needs and supplies that need. This manager has the methods of science; and empiricism must always go down before scientific methods. So it is to be seen that history is only accomplish- ing its eternal repetition. Each science passes through its stages of formation and growth, always starting as unclassified empirical knowledge, which later gives way to systematic classification and logical arrange- ment. The methods of science are eflScient because they are natural, and the methods of nature are the ones that win. CHAPTEE IV PRESENTING A BUSINESS PROPOSITION BY ALEXANDER H. REVELL Founder and President, A, H. Revell & Company The main qualifications for a man presenting a business proposition may be summed up in the one word — personality. When you want a thing badly, talk to your man face to face. Look him in the eye and tell him what you want and why you want it. And do it at the op- portune time. Personality is the most valuable asset a man can have. No matter where a man may be — in business or in society — personality is the force that compels at- tention. And to attract and to hold the attention of your listener is the first qualification of a man who is presenting a business proposition. I believe that personality is largely a matter of cultivation. A man may have certain abilities and characteristics which are useless because he has not trained them to work for him. From a business stand- point I believe that personality may be analyzed into units, and that each unit may be developed. Any man who can train one of his characteristics — and few of us can not — can train the others, and the same general principles that apply to one apply to all. Some people complain that recipes for the culti- ▼ation of personality — like recipes for success — must include generalities. But generalities are exactly what 32 ALEXANDER H. REVELL 33 the recipe calls for. Apply generalities to your own specific case and you will get results. To resolve per- sonality — in a business sense — into component parts, I should name : 1. Tact. 2. Enthusiasm. 3. Knowledge of business. 4. Dress. Under tact I include intelligence, reserve, and all other qualities that enable a man to adapt himself to circumstances — qualities which in themselves consti- tute tact. From the moment a man enters the oflSce until he closes the door behind him, tact is winning or losing for him. He may not know it — his listener may not know it. Tact would defeat its own purpose if it ap- peared to be conscious of itself. To be most effective, tact must be exercised before the interview is taken. The man with a business propo- sition should have a definite line of procedure mapped out before he sees his man at all. His line of argument must be based upon a knowledge of the man and of his business in relation to the interviewer's own propo- sition. The first aim in every proposition is to make close connections with the interests of the man you approach and to make them quickly. At first his mental attitude toward you is negative, or at least indifferent. You must make this negative a positive attitude in your favor. In reality the man you approach has the superior position, because you are coming to him. Reverse this relation. You can do much to make this man come to you if you know enough about him. You must 3 34 SELLING show him that you have come to offer an opportunity and not to ask a favor. It is sometimes possible not to ask anything at all, but merely to state your proposi- tion and then set yourself to answering objections and setting forth the advantages that you believe would appeal to a man in his position. Go into a man's oflSce with something to say. Say it — and then stop. Beginning before you know what you want to say and keeping on after you have said it is losing both your time and your proposition. Talk just enough to keep the conversation alive and no more. Make your sentences in the oiHce the shortest pos- sible distance between two points. Remember that when a man's listening he is not telling on himself and he is flattering the man who is. It does not take talk in quantity to impress your listener that you know your business. It is the quality of talk that counts. When a man knows what he is doing, he doesn't have to explain to people that he does. It is not what a man knows, but what he thinks he knows, that he talks too much about. Do not grovel for business ; you lower yourself and give your listener the whip hand at once. But don't stand so high on your dignity that you can't see your listener when he's reaahing for you. Remember that "a real salesman is one part talk and nine parts judgment ; and he uses the nine parts of judgment to tell when to use the one part talk." Be straightforward in your manner. Frankness begets frankness. Many otherwise honest men talk in a dishonest way merely because they think they are meeting the dishonesty of the other fellow. Make a man honest with you by being honest with him, but ALEXANDER H. REVELL 35 tinder no circumstances let him make you dishonest. Stick close to your subject. Most men are busy, and have other propositions to consider than your own. If you know your man, and opportunity offers, it might occasionally be well to digress with a personal remark or an anecdote. Some of the enthusiasm he feels while talking on a pet theme may be deflected your way, and may help you to win his interested attention. But you must assume that your listener is more interested in making money from you than in making a companion of you during business hours. Enthusiasm is the proof that a man believes in himself. And a man who believes in himself is the man who makes others believe in him. Enthusiasm is the proof that a man really believes that he has something to offer — something that will help his hearer and him- self. Enthusiasm attracts. It is contagious, and when backed up with business knowledge, it convinces. As Emerson says: "Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." As regards a knowledge of business as a means of impressing the one with whom a salesman comes in contact : In the first place, a special knowledge of a man's business is the most direct way to hold his interest. Such a knowledge shows him that you are in a position to talk intelligently, and is a stepping-stone to his con- fidence. A man who goes into an oflSce should know some- thing of the aims and methods of the man behind the desk. He must be able to consider the proposition from his viewpoint, to understand his attitude toward his own business and toward his competitors. Then when he talks you will be better able to interest his motives, 36 SELLING to find out why he takes the course he does and how you may deflect this course into your own channels. You can not find out a man's attitude until you get him to talk, and you can not get him to talk until you show him that you have a definite idea of the value of your proposition to his business. If your knowledge of his affairs is accurate, you can make statements that will lead him to ask questions. At this point your are making progress, for you are then given an opportunity to know his objections and to repel attacks on the validity of your arguments. To make a man ask the questions you want him to ask is a triumph. When you have fairly answered a man's objections you have taken the ground from under his feet, and placed it under your own. Notice also, how much stronger your point is if you can induce the man to make the objection you are waiting to answer than to answer the objection before it is made. A half-knowledge of your subject is better than no knowledge, but it is often the other half that you want the most. What you know weighs a pound and what the other fellow knows weighs two. And it generally takes some coaxing to make them balance. A man who enters a business ofQce to present a proposition is generally sized up at a glance. And, ex- The Batter of *^^P^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^°^ hands, his clothes are Busineas about the only points the observer has to ""^^ figure on until he begins to talk. The "apparel oft proclaims the man," and the saner his dress, the saner its wearer is likely to be and the more confidence he will inspire. A mau's clothes go a long way to help the people he meets classify him. This classification may be unconscious. At first glance you ALEXANDER H. REVELL 37 may not figure out that because a man wears a black frock coat, straw hat and a checkered shirt, he does not know his business, but the chances are he has not learned to adjust himself to his environment. And a man who can not adjust himself is seldom a good busi- ness man. I once heard a college president say that a gentle- man never dresses to attract attention. And the man who calls attention to his clothes is generally detract- ing attention from the man inside them. I know a man who always dressed so faultlessly that it took him a long time and cost him a lot of money to get a job. Nobody thought they could afford to pay him the salary his clothes demanded. And I know men who have ability but are so thoughtless about their appearances that employers have no confidence in their carefulness or in their taste. A man who en- ters the oflBce with a sack coat, a silk hat on his head and a cigar in his mouth, is not a normal man. He hasn't observed the fundamentals of dress. The chances are that he has not associated with men who have. A man is known by the company he keeps, and his clothes reflect the tastes of his friends. And a man who has not associated in business with a man of the caliber of the man to whom he is offering a proposition cannot be assumed to be able to place himself in the other's posi- tion and see the situation from his viewpoint. It is the normal dress that proclaims the normal man. And he is the safest kind to handle a business proposition. A business man is inclined to listen to someone who appears to be prosperous. It gives him confidence in his abilities. But prosperity is more often shown in neatness than in style. A big diamond in a soiled shirt 38 SELLING doesn't always prove that it is an appreciation of the esthetic that makes a man forgetful of the dandruflf on his coat or the mud on his shoes. When one man out of ten estimates a man's char- acter by his clothes, it is just as well to put up a good appearance. Appearances are deceitful, but the man who makes them count for him instead of against him is the man who can show the bright side of a business proposition. But dress is of value only as one of the helps in estimating a man's worth or position. It is not tact alone, nor enthusiasm alone, nor knowledge alone, nor dress alone. It is the quality inside the man inside the dress — personality. CHAPTER V APPLIED SALESMANSHIP AND SPECIALTY SELLING BY A. L. MACBAIN Traveling salesmen, as now actively engaged in assisting the manufacturer, wholesaler, or jobber, in the disposal of his products, may be broadly divided into two classes, those who sell staples and those who sell specialties. The salesman of staples has opposition in front of him that is both harder and easier than the specialty salesman. When a man goes out to drum the regular trade he meets with the fiercest competition. He may find a dozen men calling on customers where one or two would satisfy the demand there is for a particular staple. That is the drawback. The advantage is that the people must have staples. As long as the consumer exists, so long will the staple be a requirement, and just so long will the good salesman have a chance. Now, supposing that five salesmen are selling in a ter- ritory where two could supply the demand, if the goods are substantially equal in quality — and they probably will be — if they are all handling the same line, then the disposition of the product which they handle be- comes a question of salesmanship, and in salesmanship lies the salesman's chance. As a general proposition the best salesman will 39 40 SELLING have the best trade. The large man — ^the one who understands the entire problem the best — will, all other things being equal, have a much greater proportion of trade than his smaller competitor. The specialty salesman usually handles a product which the people could do without. In case of hard times the luxuries — specialties — are the ones which are first given up. In good or average times people will buy a large percentage of specialties if they are rightly approached. But at any time, whether prevailing conditions be those of plenty or not, the specialty salesman must be What the ^ better exponent of salesmanship than Specialty Sales- the seller of staples. He must create his man Must Do demand — not cater to a demand which already exists. He must get an audience when his proposition is an unknown — or suspicious — quantity to the man he wishes to see. He must close his deal for something that the customer knows can be done with- out. To take up specifically the work in salesmanship that lies before a man who would sell the specialty trade, the steps in making a sale must be considered in their regular order. These steps are four in number and are as follows : (1) The pre-approach. (2) The approach. (3) The demonstration. (4) The close. The pre-approach is the groundwork upon which the salesman builds. It comprises all the information obtainable by him that will be of importance in making his approach in selling a customer. There is really no information about a man that can be said to be value- A. L. MACBAIN 41 less in determining the method by which an approach should be made. On the other hand, a knowledge of one or two of the characteristics of the man to be approached may be considered suflQcient, the ready intuition of the sales- man being relied upon for the rest. It is assumed, of course, that a salesman will be able to call his man by name, pronouncing the name correctly upon the very first interview. This is the prime requisite and the remaining knowledge should be grouped about this in the order of its importance. The old traveling man will here call to mind a familiar scene — the "drummer," his note book and pen- cil in hand — interviewing the hotel clerk to find out the various characteristics of the man on whom he is to make his first call. Some men like to trust entirely to intuition and believe that information learned concerning a man be- fore they call on him is actually prejudicial to their ability to sell him. This is due, in all probability to the fact that by working at some time on some misin- formation so obtained, they have lost a sale. Between the pre-approach and the actual approach sometimes lies a trying time for the salesman. It is no "Headins Uncommon thing for a prospective cus- off'the tomer to keep the salesman waiting, either saieaman outside the office door and out of sight, or inside aua in the presence of the prospective buyer. This is known as ''breaking the salesman's nerve." It is often done with the idea of deliberately making the salesman nervous and consequently unable to make such an approach as otherwise would be possible. Per- haps one of the most tommon forms of this is seen when the prospective customer appears very busily interested 42 SELLING in something at his desk and allows the salesman to stand an indefinite length of time and then turns sud- denly upon him. This is especially disconcerting to the young man, but the experienced salesman recognizes it as an indication that either the man is extremely busy and actually hates to take his mind ofiE his work or that he is afraid of being talked into something that he will later regret. The salesman consequently shapes his introduction accordingly and will be in no wise dis- concerted by this attempt, as it will enable him to study carefully the outward characteristics of the man whom he is about to approach. The information for the pre-approach having been secured, the approach is made. This, by many sales- men, is held to be the most difficult, because the most important, part of selling. "Give me a chance to make a good approach and I will close him ofif," is a stock expression of many men who are expert "closers." The approach having been made, it is from the first moment the object to secure a fair hearing, and it is correctly held that the two factors, appearance and personality, start the work for or against the salesman. It is remarkable that nearly every authority on salesmanship places these two factors as those of pri- Dress as mary importance, at this stage. Some even a Factor go SO far as to enumerate what to avoid : in Selling unbrushed clothes, dirty linen, and un- shined shoes. It seems strange that a characteristic possessed in common by the negro barber, the profes- sional gambler, and the confidence man — the knack of wearing good clothes — should still continue to influence the average run of men more than personality or worth, but it is so. "Front," however, may be said to have this disad- A. L. MACBAIN 43 vantage, it is always used by the fakir. The fraudulent promoter never overlooks the influence of good clothes correctly worn. No fashion-plate general has ever yet been able to excel U. S. Grant, but Grant was not selling the city trade or he probably would have been forced to dress the part. Personality is the sum total of one's character- istics, and works strongly for or against the one mani- Peraonality festing it. This personality may or may as a Factor not be Cultivated. The trouble about culti- "" 8 mg vating a personality is that too many peo- ple do not know what to cultivate. It is not to be sup- posed that a man would let an offensive personality stand in his way if he knew what it was. Just as the man who has no ear for music often can not be brought to a realizing sense of his deficiency, so there are those who let an offensive personality dominate them to an extent that precludes the cultivation of a better. But the salesman who is able to look back on the various steps of an unsuccessful attempt to sell and say to himself, "The fault was mine, what defect in my per- sonality was to blame?" and then is self-analytical enough to determine where he is short and develop that deficient faculty is sure to improve. The procedure of the salesman when he is making his introduction and approach, may be compared to the Selline moves in a game of chess or checkers. The auExaot introduction of the salesman is the same oienco j^g ^jjg gj,g^ move ; the reply is the counter- move of the opponent. Then comes the second move of the first player — the salesman — and it is on this second move that the entire success of the attempt hangs. Right here lies the critical point of the whole under- 44 SELLING taking, as it determines whether the salesman is going to have an interview, whether the interview will be suc- cessful or not, and whether or not the salesman has a chance of landing the prospect. There is one thing certain, however, and that is that the customer is not going to commit himself in re- sponse to the first remark. He always holds consider- able in reserve. An objection — either express or im- plied — can always be counted on. It may vary from a general "busy" statement, or "no interest in what is about to be submitted," or it may be a specific state- ment — even heated, in fact — chat the one approached has no time for the salesman or his house. Just as the old herbalists hold that there is no dis- ease or poison, but there is some plant or herb which j^g is an antidote for it, so it is true that Vital there is hardly a reply that can be made ^^ to a salesman but that has the right an- swer. If the salesman here does not instantly know what reply to make it is for him to look for that an- swer, to focus the entire amount of his education, ex- perience, and intuition upon that one question. It can be learned, and under similar circumstances coming up again, applied. In the game of chess there is no move but that has its counter-move. If failure, why failure? And what is just as important, if success, why success? The third step in the making of a sale is the demon- stration, and it is here that the ordinary successful salesman finds himself upon sure ground. He has judged his man, and knows his goods, and all is clear sailing. One of the old time salesmen, who used to sell the trade in the Middle West, beginning some thirty years ago, and following that vocation for several decades, A. L. MACBAIN 45 used as his motto, "I am here to do you good." He did not make his statement general, either, in telling his customers how he could do it. He got right down to the vital affairs which touched his customer. He demonstrated it to him, and this personal demonstra- tion is the kind that makes the sales. Lincoln, it is related, early learned in beginning the study of law, that he did not know what it was to prove a thing. By means of careful, conscientious study, in which he took up the problems of Euclid, one by one, he satisfied himself that he then realized abso- lutely what it meant to prove a proposition. One of the most eminent judges of the Iowa judici- ary regards every legal problem as a proposition to be proved by a chain of reasoning. The salesman who determines with absolute ac- curacy what it means, first, to prove a proposition, and SeiUne Second, to apply the general principles of by demonstration to an immediate matter in roving hand, knows just how far to go in making his demonstration, what to include, and what to ex- clude. He can see in his mind's eye the chain of evi- dence, that he is fashioning and will make that fabric of the mind exact, logical, and convincing. Exactness is called for, that knowledge of the proposition may be imparted by the demonstrator to his listener ; the chain of demonstration must be logical in order to lead from the known facts taken as a pre- mise, to the conclusion which it is desired to establish ; and exactness of statement arranged in logical order can lead to but one conclusion — the convincing of the hearer. One of the mistakes in demonstration that is often made is in not completely proving what it is set out to 46 SELLING prove. The demonstration of the proposition must be shortened up just as much as possible, as time is Proof- usually an element that must be eon- what sidered in stating the case. On the other It Means j^^^^j^ j^ ^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^^.^ ^^^^ ^^^ prospect will not thoroughly follow what is being demonstrated. A great number of times some simple connection in the various links which make a demon- stration will be slurred over because of their simplicity to the demonstrator, and the entire eflfect lost. For in- stance, in the explanation of the working drawing of a machine, it is not an uncommon thing for one to whom the various functions of the machine are being demon- strated, to be unable to focus his mind with sufQcient intensity to carry the train of thought necessary to comprehend what is being explained, even though it be perfectly clear to the demonstrator. In making a demonstration, the salesman begins with the easy points and works to the hard. Here it is that knowledge obtained in the pre-approach becomes of great value. An expert mechanic is not to be ad- dressed in the same terms as a man who may under- stand, for instance, only that a machine is made up of wheels and cogs. A promoter who is used to swings large financial transactions naturally does not call for the same treatment in a demonstration, as does a man whose experience has been confined to sales over the counter. The fact that a man is liable at any time to run across those who are nearly as well posted on a subject as he is himself, makes the style of demonstration to be used most important. There is nothing more discon- certing to an actor than to be prompted from the audi- ence, and nothing weakens the eflfect of an attempted A, L. MACBAIN 47 sale, more than to have the listener betray a more exact knowledge of a subject than the salesman. The chances of this happening may be lessened by avoiding general statements. The general statement is open to discussion, and discussion wastes energy. The specific statement is not only more convincing, but is open to but one interpretation and there is little or no danger of the introduction of digressional matter. After the demonstration has been made as com- plete as is possible, comes the objective point for which The All- ^^^ salesman has been working, the close. Important The fact that unsuitable preliminaries — "" the imperfect work done in the approach, and in the demonstration — often prevents a satisfac- tory close is probably the reason that salesmen regard this as the most difficult part of a sale. It is no un- common thing for a salesman to say, "I can do any- thing except close." This simply means that he is weak in his preliminaries as well as in his close. The fact that the close is the only part that counts, often leads the salesman to think that is the main part of a sale. It is as though a student should say, "I can do anything except pass my examinations. I understand my text books perfectly, my recitations are excellent, but I can not stand an examination." The salesman places him- self in the same paradoxical light when he says he can not close. Given a suitable proposition, an approach correctly made, together with a scientific demonstra- tion — this leads to a satisfactory close. Just as a the- orem in mathematics may be demonstrated from pre- mise to solution, so a problem in salesmanship may be demonstrated to its proper close. Not that every prob- lem in salesmanship, however, will have the correct answer. It is absolutely impossible to sell every man 48 SELLING approached, but there is a ceiiiiin ratio of prospects that may be sold, and only keeping this ratio at a cer- tain point is good salesmanship effected. When the close is made the customer should be left in the shortest possible time that may not be charac- terized as abrupt. Having "talked a man into a sale," the salesman should be careful not to talk him out. the old adage, "Stop praising the goods after the sale is made," is as true as it is trite. Such are the methods of the specialty salesman, and very similar are the methods of the staple sales- men, only the latter are not obliged to sell a constantly changing audience as is the specialty man. The man who goes over his territory every thirty, sixty, or ninety days, or at some other regular period of time, has three things to do, study his trade, satisfy them, and apply the principles of selling as set forth above. All classes of salesmen require a constant fund of optimism on which to draw. No matter how good a proposition may be, no matter how well a salesman may be able to demonstrate it, no matter what per cent of prospects there are eventually closed, the boys with the grips must cai'ry a complete line of optimism as well as samples. It is optimism that knows that to- morrow will be better than to-day, when to-day is a poor day. It is optimism that knows that a present good run of luck will continue. It is optimism that, when there is no bright side, polishes up the dark side. More than all else the traveling salesman must have a love for his work. The petty annoyances, the physical discomforts, the continual atmosphere of re- buff that the traveler experiences, is not to be paid for in salary and expenses, or even commissions, but must come from a love of the work of selling. CHAPTER VI ENTHUSIASM IN SELLING BY WALTER H. COTTINGHAM Viee-President and General Manager, The Sherwin-WilliamB Company Work — hustle — get things done — that thought is the watchword of the American business man. But blind work — undirected hustling — getting things done wrong — these are liable to be the accom- paniment of this high-pressure spirit. How, then, shall the executive bring organization into his work — system into his striving — in order to use his steam to unwasted advantage? He has two problems to solve : He must first regu- late his own ambitions; devise a plan whereby he can inculcate his spirit of enthusiasm into his force, and gather the best fruits from it. Only by a system — that is, by something that will work automatically, precisely, accurately — can he se- cure the fullest returns from his striving. The top man who is the fountain head of a busi- ness' enthusiasm, must have a natural spring within himself to draw on. Then only can he infect the man under him. You can transform the ordinary horse- shoe into a magnet by rubbing it against another horse- shoe already magnetized, and from the second piece of iron a third can be magnetized; but somewhere, away back in the beginning of the process, there was a lodestone, which got its power direct from mother earth — where it had lain for ages. 49 50 SELLING So with enthusiasm in a business. The salesman in a far corner of the country has it pumped into him by the district agent above him ; the district agent is infected by the enthusiasm of his division manager; the division manager catches the spirit from the sales manager, the general manager, or the president; but somewhere up at the top must be the fountain head, which of itself is constantly bubbling up the spirit that puts "go" into the organization. How shall an executive tap this spring buried within him by which he may enthuse himself and infect EeaiEnthuai- others? Let me emphasize that never, as asm Inherent long as he is working for the love of gain in the Man alone, will he find the spring. Such an aim will not bring the highest success — even in money. He must play the game for the sake of the game — there must be the desire and joy of doing things, the spirit and willingness to put in his utmost strength because he enjoys his work — because he wants to make a success of it — because he wants to be a prize winner in the world's great race for achievement. Going back even a step farther — in order to reach this condition, a man of business must, first of all, have the business instinct in him ; he must like to buy and sell. He must be a trader. Many a boy shrinks from the brutality and danger of the football field; he will never make a star player. The boy who is eager to hit the line with a thud, even though he be thrown back with an ache running down his backbone, who takes a fierce joy in leaping over the waiting tackler's head even at the risk of being caught in midair and pulled down to the frozen ground — that is the boy who becomes a point- maker of his team. So in business — in order to do his best a man's WALTER H. COTTINGHAM 51 work must be congenial to him. There are businesses and businesses — there are conditions and conditions — there are kinds and kinds of work. It is only when the business, and the conditions, and the work just suit the man — or he makes them suit him — that he can put forth his utmost strength. The first great essential, therefore, to the executive in his striving, is to play the game and enjoy it. The second requisite is a definite end. The marks- man who had no bull's-eye to aim at never made the Keeping ^°P record. The business striver who has the Goal no goal in view will never reach success. "^ '^ * I believe in knowing just what I am do- ing, and where I hope to land. I always strive to make others strive for something a little farther ahead, but I always know the exact point ahead which I hope to at- tain, and I have figured out the steps I must take to reach that point. This means a great deal of study and preparation. For the sales manager, for instance, it means that the condition of his whole working field, the financial condition of the country, the circumstances in each salesman's territory, his ability, the character of his customers — all these and a thousand other details must be taken into consideration in setting the mark for his men. With this data at hand the goal to be reached can be set at a reasonable limit, within the probability of at- tainment. If it is not put within bounds, the men will think that this is only another dream, another "bluff" on the part of the sales manager to work his men to the marrow. That puts the wrong spirit into the workers. They will figure that, like the horse trader, he is put- ting the mark far enough ahead so that he can split the difference and still get what he wants. The result 52 BELLING is that they will do more than their share in splitting the difference. Put the goal within bounds — legitimate, sane, and probable — and all concerned will join in their efforts to reach it, and will be gratified beyond measure if they can only pass it and so show the man at the top that he underestimated their hustling ability. As I have said, this requires study and prepara- tion. It is a delicate thing thus to figure out what the aim should be. There are human elements involved — the vagaries of human nature — the sensibilities of men. To adjust this delicate organism brings the first necessity for organization and system. The head of the Determining factory or of the sales force is like a gea- theMark eral; he must know everything that is for Each Man g^j^g ^^ g^^ details must be placed before him in proper form, cofidensed and classified; otherwise he will be overwhelmed with a confused mass of facts. The information that the head of a depart- ment or business should have, can be conveyed in won- derfully small limits. He should have three kinds of reports, each filling its own function : Daily reports, to keep the manager in touch with current conditions ; weekly reports, to allow him to make comparison be- tween present operations and those of previous months and years ; monthly reports, to give a broad perspective, to allow of comprehensive analyses and comparisons. Daily reports from the manufacturing department should show the output of each product and depart- ment, the number of men at work, and information of any unusual happenings in the plant. Daily reports from the sales department should record the number of orders received, quantity of each product sold, and any special information from the territories traveled. WALTER H. COTTINGHAM 53 Weekly reports should show the same information for the six days' work compared with same week of the previous year. Then come the more elaborate monthly reports, showing fuller details. The factory reports should show the output for each product, expense for each department compared with output, and all compared with same period of the previous year. Monthly sales department reports should show in detail sales of each territory and each line of goods compared with former years, expenses of each territory and cost to business secured, days at work in territory, towns visited, new accounts secured, orders booked, special work done, and any other information which may be required. With such a system, the chief has as much vital knowledge as each private — and more than all put to- gether, because in his mind all this knowledge is prop- erly coordinated and related. With this information and the hold that it gives him, the next necessity in such an organization is per- Enthusine ^^^^ obedience to his commands — not the the Whole obedience which comes to the tyrant, but Organization ^j^g obedience which is given by one set of intelligent men who know their business to another man who knows their business a little better, and who they know knows it a little better. Even though he has obedience, the chief has not perfected his system of striving until he has instilled his spirit of enthusias- tic work into his force; not until the lodestone has touched the iron horseshoes, have they the power within them. I believe there are simply two factors in this mat- ter of instilling enthusiasm into a force. In the first place, there is the personality and the ability of the 54 SELLING man at the top. I have said that he must be earnest and sincere in his work, a player of the game for the game's sake, that he must have the original stream of enthusiasm within him. The successful manager is primarily a manager of men — not things. He must judge them, influence them, train and develop them, and above all "handle" them — and handling in that subtle meaning that implies sin- cerity and tact and force, and that gains confidence and cooperation. The first factor, then, is the personality of the manager. No rules can be laid down for this, aside from the general characteristics of such a man, as I have discussed them. The second factor is the spirit of competition. A game is a game because there are in it the elements of winning, of beating the other fellow. The manager's liking for the game comes, in part, from the fact that he is beating the manager of another concern, that he is pushing his company ahead of others. To the private in the ranks the same competitive incentive must be furnished. He takes some interest in the company's standing, of course, but that is far away from him, and his work plays only a small part in that. But the salesman must meet competition with the salesman in the territory next to his; one depart- ment foreman competes with the foreman on the floor above him. That is where the competition lies; be- tween these forces the competitive spirit must be aroused. Here there is greater danger than in any other part of the system. Bitterness, strife, jealousies — these too often walk with competition. And better there be not competition than to have these accompaniments. WALTER H. COTTINGHAM 55 If the competition be made fair and even, if it be conducted in a friendly spirit and with the confessed intention, not of having one man beat another, but of bringing the best out of each man — then these dan- gers can be avoided. Just as certain horses are handi- capped so as to even the chances and intensify the sports, so in this competition the most careful study must be given to handicapping. If this is not done the weak man will say: "I can not excel anyway, so why should I try to beat the 'star' man?" The "star" man will say : "I will be at the head anyway, so what's the use of hustling?" Evening the chances intensifies the sport and increases the hustling. The best basis for competition in a live sales de- partment is to estimate the results of all the different Ho Com eti- f^^tures of a salesman's work as closely tion is Made Ab- as possible in advance. Bolutely Fair pjj.^^^ ^j^^ country should be divided into territories that can be most conveniently and economic- ally reached by railway transportation. A careful rec- ord should be kept of the number of towns in each terri- tory, with the population. Reports should show the number of towns worked and unworked, a list of pres- ent customers and prospective customers, and state- ment of present business by individual customers. With this information carefully compiled an esti- mate can then be made on the basis of present business and unworked possibilities. When this figure is ar- rived at, it makes the mark for the salesman. Then comes the mark for the sales manager — which is the aggregate of all territories — and for the division man- ager — the sales for his entire district — and for the gen- eral manager — the entire sales for all territories, all divisions and all districts. i 56 SELLING The estimate fixed, the aim then is to see who can secure the largest percentage of gain. If the estimate is arrived at with good judgment, the competition will be fair and the man with a limited field has the same chance as the man with an unlimited one. If the award is to be perfectly just, the other con- siderations involved in selling besides the mere gross sales should be given place in making up percentages. The cost of securing business is the most important of these minor factors; the man securing the lowest percentage of expense to sales should get good credit. Gain over previous years' business, towns visited, and orders secured; number of new agents appointed; the number of complaints and cancellation of orders; the bad debts in a territory — these are some of the other factors to be considered. In practice the best scheme is to assign a certain percentage to each of these factors; gross sales, for TheEeward instance, might be given 60 per cent— at the End that is, this one thing would count for a of the Game jj^^j^ ^^^j. j^^jj j^ ^^^ making up of re- sults; percentage of expense to sales might count for 10 per cent. Then give each man his per cent on each of these factors — near or far from this assigned figure according to his results. The addition of all his per- centages gives the final standing of each man. With this competition there must be a reward. However a man may like a game, he will work just a little harder if he knows he will be paid for the extra effort. The giving of a substantial reward also puts the affair on a business footing. The men can not ask then, "What are we going to get out of this?" They will see that their house is willing to divide with them the rewards of increased business. WALTER H. COTTINGHAM 57 As a postscript, I wish to emphasize the thought that however good the system, however strong the in- centive, real enthusiasm can not be built on hypocrisy. Unless the goods which the salesman has to sell, which the factory worker has to make, are of high quality. I can not see how the spirit that I have been speaking »f can be aroused. There are good reasons for this. I have said that in order to work up enthusiasm for striving in others, a man must have enthusiasm within him. He can not have such a spirit unless he has faith in his goods, unless he believes that they are the best, or that they have the quality he is talking. Hypocrisy is a rotten foundation upon which to build enthusiasm; it is a poor base for any business. The salesman who must constantly talk what he does not believe, who is always uttering specious argu- ments, whose chief selling characteristics must be men- dacity — such a salesman, instead of developing, must surely degenerate, not only in his business ability, but in his transactions with his own house. You can not expect a man whom you compel to be insincere in deal- ing with others, to be sincere in his dealings with you. The salesman does not regard a position with a house carrying poor goods as permanent. And perma- nency is the chief necessity in building up an eflflciency instilling enthusiasm. Most important of all, selling good goods, goods in which you have faith, goods that you think are go- ing to make the world better — that gives the whole game a gist and satisfaction. Here is the thing in a nutshell — merit begets confidence, confidence begets en- thusiasm, and enthusiasm conquers the world. CHAPTER VII WRITTEN SALESMANSHIP— THE BUSINESS LETTER BY GLENN S. NOBLE President, Natwnal Concrete Machinery Company The importance of the business letter as a means of selling is nowhere better shown than in the treat- ment the various selling factors receive at the hands of the progressive business men. If three firms, A, B, and C, wish to secure the trade of a certain class of men — say business managers of certain lines of trade — sup- pose A takes as a means of publicity the personal solici- tor, B, publicity by advertising, and C, solicitation by means of business letters. By "business letters" I mean the term in its re- stricted, not its general sense — designating those tact- ful, impressive, business-compelling missives bearing the stamp of personality from seal to signature, which create the desire or develop the one latent, and lead the recipient to gratify the awakened or stimulated want — in other words — salesmanship in its wi-itten form. Now, if A has his advertisement in a selected me- dium, and B has sent his solicitor to call on his man, before the prospective buyer has had time to see the advertisement and while the solicitor is being viewed with suspicion by the oflSce boy or secretary and left to cool his heels in the outer oflSce, C's business letter (note the restricted sense) has been read, considered, and, the chances are, favorably acted upon. It haw 58 GLENN S. NOBLE 59 fulfilled its mission, the goods, through its instru- mentality, have been sold. All this, too, takes place be- fore either the ad of A or the solicitor of B has had access to the prospective buyer. Nor need this supposition be considered as over- drawn, if there is always kept in mind that a letter to Salesmanship ^^ ^ paying letter must be written sales- inthe manship. The underlying principles of "*' selling first, must be known ; second, must be applied; third, must be disseminated. I assume, first, the letter writer understands the principles of salesmanship — that he is either a "natural-born" sales- man and takes to barter and trade as a duck takes to water ; or that he has studied salesmanship as a science worthy of his best efforts and acquired the knowledge necessary for him before he can sell successfully. Sec- ond, I further assume that the writer knows his line thoroughly and his man just as thoroughly and is able to apply the facts of one to the needs of the other. Third, comes the means and methods of dissemination by which the salesman in his oflBce reaches the buyer in his oflSce or home and makes the business letter the means of effecting the sale. To judge anything definitely and completely a standard of comparison must be taken. I take as the standard of comparison for the business letter the somewhat indefinite rule "advanced business methods." An age that has seen the introduction of the telephone, the sky-scraper, rapid transit, and countless other ad- ditions to and modifications of the old means of busi- ness-doing and business-getting, has relegated to the scrap heap many moss-grown customs having only an- tiquity to commend them. Those rules, customs, meth- ods, and systems that have survived or are newly in- 60 SELLING stituted — though still in their formative stage — may be called "advanced methods of business." Therefore, to judge or lay down rules for the "postage stamp salesman" is to judge or measure by a standard that does not possess the first great essential necessary to a standard, 1. e., invariability. But if invariability is not one of the elements of advanced business methods, there is one factor that is invariable in its requirement. It is the essential of all business. It is the very cause for existence of all com- mercial relations. This is results. Indeed, the formula for successful business is that the sum of all the vari- able factors shall equal results. To put it mathemati- cally, X + y == results. Both modern business methods and potential re- sults demand that the correspondent be a thoroughly „. „ „ informed man. That he has better than spondenta a superficial knowledge of the things of Salesman which he writes is a manifest requisite, else the one written will surely sense the fact. A man may write fluently of what he does not thoroughly understand but seldom convincingly, and to sell one must convince. A knowledge of human nature is of major importance in interesting and inducing the so- licited buyer. It is an intuitive or acquired knowledge of the human tendency that leads the correspondent to make each step easy for the one addressed, from getting his attention, to the final coup manifested in the tactful phrase, "simply sign the form (not forgetting the re- mittance, of course) and return." To be abreast of the current events — to show easily and naturally that the writer is in the front, not at the rear, of the business procession is desirable. The in- telligence of the public is being rapidly raised by the GLENN S. NOBLE 61 innumerable forces of education in its various forms. Your letter is a part of that educational force — see that it measures well and favorably by others of its class and scope. These factors, and others not touched upon, differ- entiate the salesman from the man who wastes both his employer's postage and the time of the one to whom he writes. To be master of the craft of letter-writing and the art of salesmanship is no small accomplish- ment and one to be pushed for, and that will be suit- ably rewarded by a slice of the fruit known as "success." The business-compelling letter is one that fairly bristles with the personality of the writer. It reflects that personality as the diamond does the light. It figuratively reaches out and grasps the hand of the recipient and wins his confidence and respect before a half a dozen words are said. To do this the basis of the business-compelling letter is integrity, busi- ness respectability, or that indefinable something that makes the letter stand out as a whole from all others. Integrity — integrity unmistakable and undeniable — is the test by which the wheat is separated from the chaff and is eventually the standard by which every business proposition is measured. Much more so is this true when reaching out for favors by the ever-ready means of correspondence. Courtesy, tact, and enthusiasm do much for effec- tiveness in letter-writing. There are those who have the courtesy and tact to carry any reasonable propo- sition through. Their knowledge of men and things is so definite, their overtures so well-timed and suitably placed that all doors seem to open before them. Then, too, a person who is enthusiastic over his business — 62 SELLING who does not think, but who knows it is the best thing in the world, will convince where a less enthusiastic man would fall down with a much better oflfer. As the motor can not run until the electricity has been furnished, so the best business scheme can not move until there is back of it the man, having a steadfast belief in himself, in his firm, and the future of the business he represents. The correspondent goes to work to get his letter out, by keeping constantly in mind the fact that he stands in the position of a salesman — his object is to sell. He then has a mark at which to aim. The artil- leryman who trains his piece by guess, pointing it now here, now there, might now and then wing the enemy, but it would be more by good luck than by marksman- ship. The correspondent who does not ever bear in mind that he has something to sell and direct his every energy to that end, may now and then land his man, but it will not be because of good salesmanship. To do all this he must ask, not for inquiries, re- plies or reasons, but for business. "Make a definite re- quest for business in every letter," is the slogan of one of the most successful business men I know. And he makes it win because it is the right principle. The writer who hammers this idea in and clinches it with a reason is a master of salesmanship. What may be reasonably expected in the line of re- sults is no longer an unknown quantity. It is the prac- tice of leading business houses to try out ^Trying certain letters. Say ten letters are pre- pared, and one of them proves to be a "puller," then this letter is taken as a standard and used for an entire list of names, so reducing risk to a mini- mum. Yet some business men will go on day after day GLENN S. NOBLE 63 dictating the same letters though certain of them "pull" and others do not. To remedy this let every man take the time to experiment with his correspond- ence. Let him try out his letters and find if his pet letter — the one with the well-rounded phrases — is the one that really brings in the money. If letters do not produce results there is something wrong — something to be remedied. That something must be hunted down, whatever it may be. Perhaps you are writing the busy city man the same length letter as the country buyer, yet the one has but a few seconds to devote to your individual effort while the latter will be read carefully, be it one, three, or five pages in length and then put away carefully to be read again. The two broad classifications into which letters fall are, (1) the personal letter; (2) the form letter. Speaking for myself, I am a firm believer in the per- sonal letter. If it is worth writing a letter at all let it be a personal one. The form letter has its place in soliciting; so has the hand bill. But I do not believe in trying to palm off a form letter on a man under the guise of a personal communication. I can not help quoting here part of a letter which expresses my views on being followed up, as written to a follow up artist by the manager of a university book store: "It is very interesting for us to watch some of the developments of the follow up system : your aggregate results of such a system may be satisfactory but they are sometimes amusing and sometimes provoking to the victim. For instance, just at present a Cleveland firm is turning all its batteries loose on us in an attempt to sell us a barrel of roof paint. You can imagine how useful an article that would be to a college book firm." 64 SELLING By this I do not mean to underrate the usefulness of the circular letter, but mean to emphasize the fact that it should not be abused. Indeed, the very fact that it is misused tends to make the ■personal letter more effective. While the future of the form follow-up is uncertain because of the fact that it is employed so extensively and by those who do not use discrimination either in its make-up or its distribution. The future of the personal letter will develop along the same lines as that of salesmanship. As selling comes to be recognized as an art and studied as such, the art of letter- writing — written salesmanship — will be studied also and reduced to as scientific a basis as the times afford and occasion demands. PART II HOW SELLING IS EFFECTED IN VARIOUS LINES : J. CHAPTER VIII HOW THE SELLING CAMPAIGN WINS. BY JOHN V. STEGBR Founder of Steger & Sons' Piano Manufacturing Company The whole end and aim of a manufacturer's battle is summed up in the one word "selling." Looking toward this goal, and grounding my policy on these sound economical principles, I came West, and early in 1878 began the manufacture of pianos. Without the positive assurance that the smallest quantity of my product could be turned into cash, I convinced myself of the possibilities of the market by a course of reason- ing something like this: Four considerations determine the location of .n new industry — proximity to supply of raw material, advantage in meeting competition, nearness to market and shipping facilities, and supply of labor. My competitors and buyers are located, for the most part, in the East. The former pay freight on the lumber sent from here to their factories. I will plant my workshop almost in the midst of the raw material, and then ship my product back to worry the New York and Boston makers. They pay freight on the solid, bulky log. I take this timber, chip it up, throw out the shavings and sawdust, and pay freight on the hol- low and comparatively light piano. This gives me — the manufacturer — the greatest possible advantage, a reduced cost of production. Through this, my sales- 67 68 SELLING men acquire the best selling argument known — reason- ableness in price. Second, as the West grows and the taste of the people extends beyond the bare wants of the pioneer, I can build up a new trade in a field as yet unex- ploited. Here again I will have the advantage in freight rates, as I save tariffs, as compared with the eastern manufacturer, on both trips, on lumber and the piano. This gives the opportunity for a still fur- ther reduction in price. As to the other factors, labor supply and shipping advantages, they are as conspicu- ous here as in the East. When the factory site is once located in the proper environment from an industrial standpoint, the deter- mination of the special character of the product must be made. I began with the idea of making pianos. What grade could be made to sell to best advantage in a new field and by an unknown and untried manu- facturer ? This was the next problem that offered itself to me as a man looking for profits in pianos the same as it would to one making stoves, ranges, or many other lines of goods. There are two theories on which the determina- tion of the character of a product hangs. You may Determination reimburse yourself for small output and of the Grade limited sales by the high price — which • the Product mgans that you cater to the class which wants all there is in elegance of construction and finish, as well as real quality of the article. On the other hand, you may follow the idea of a large output through mod- erate prices, which means small profits and large sales. We adopted the latter of these policies because of our location in the Middle West, where utility is often sac- JOHN V. STEGER 69 rificed to ultra-fashionableness. I decided to make a product that would appeal to the people in the homes of the great middle class. I cut out some of the frills and gave the consumer a staple article to begin with. Long ago we branched out in different lines, of course, until now we manufacture every grade of piano. But, if quick returns are desired on a small outlay of money, the staple article, sold in large quantities at a moderate price, is what goes. The next step, keeping in sight all the time the idea of selling, is to give an individuality to your pro- ludividuality "^^^^ which will mark it from competitors, of This distinctiveness should be hammered ro uct jjj^^ ^]jg public, first, through advertising, and, second, through salesmen. It should be properly protected by patents. It should be typified in a name which the public will come to know. It is, in fact, the prime requisite of a product seeking a place in the markets of the world. As a man without some origin- ality is a nobody, so a manufactured article without distinctiveness has no standing in the eyes of the buyer. This line of reasoning does not apply exclusively to pianos. The young manufacturer with a small amount of capital, who contemplates entering the lists as a maker of sewing machines, typewriters, office desks, automobiles, and many other products, has the same considerations to keep in mind. Mention any one of these articles I have named and some particular make or makes stand out. Their names, special im- provements, patented devices or attachments, and some selling point based on price have been indelibly im- pressed upon us by repetition. Many pianos look alike on the outside, but open them up and there is seen to be a vast difiference in the 70 SELLING make. Here, in the heart of the piano, is where I spent money in perfecting patents, in fighting infringements, and in securing a general make-up all our own. The time to originate these qualities, which go so far to make the product a seller, is before placing it on the market. If sales are rushed prematurely, the trade gained will not be lasting. Whether your product shall be put upon the mar- ket simultaneously at widely scattered points, thus Sales Field- developing your sales campaign exten- How Expanded sively. Or whether you shall, during the and Developed ^^^^ ^^^^.^^ g^jj ^^jy j^ ^^g jj^^g ggj^ ^^^^j. the factory, and gradually extend this field, developing sales intensively, depends largely upon circumstances and the character of the product. Where the product is something quite new and has no particular vogue in the home field, and where the manufacturer has suf- ficient capital, the extensive method is preferable, in spite of the fact that it is more speculative. Keturns will prove richest if the latter method is employed, as with it you reach out the long arm and get only the cream of the trade over a wide area. Intensively, the buying spirit must be greatly stimulated at one point. We adopted a combination of both methods. For the first few years the output was sold largely near the factory, and the advertising attempted to bring the product before the public in and about Chicago and the inlying sections of Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. I was not overburdened with cash at this time. Pro- duction on a large scale was impossible, and, as a re- sult, I oould not employ salesmen for every state in the union, nor could I have supplied them with the goods to sell. It was against my business instinct and principles to borrow money to flood the piano markets, JOHN V. STEGER 71 which might have proved a losing game, or at least a slow one. The location of the factory has a certain ad- vertising value in its immediate vicinity and, as a re- sult, the development of the home sales field was my first care. In bringing a new manufactured product before the public, that is, in advertising it, the thing to be avoided is an attempt to reach too large a Mettods"^ clientele. Scattering their advertising among people who will never make buy- ers is the mistake of the new manufacturer. At the same time, every bit of fertile sales soil should be util- ized and sowed with the seeds of advertising. The end of advertising, it should be remembered, is always a money return. The question is, then, to determine to whom the advertisement is to appeal — the retailer, the consumer, or both. Modern manufacturers' advertis- ing has developed the idea that it is always best to make the advertising appeal to both the retailer and the consumer. This is a principle known as "selling the product twice." In other words, the manufacturer does publicity advertising, first, to sell to the dealer, and, second, to aid the dealer in selling to the con- sumer. From the first we have confined our adver- tising mostly to circular letters to the consumer, send- ing catalogues to dealers, and advertising in the daily newspapers. These methods all work together. The advertisements in the Chicago newspapers were the basis on which we obtained our first agents. The advertisements worked first on the consumer. He saw it in the paper and, when the time came for buying a piano, asked his dealer whether he carried it. At the same time the dealer was perhaps noticing the "ad" from day to day. The inquiries and the direct appeal 72 SELLING of the advertisement influenced him to write in to the house, and then some representative of the firm, or, later, when we had them, salesman, called on him and closed a bargain by which he agreed to handle our product. Every inquiry concerning a piano, from any part of the country, we look upon as a sales prospect, and enter the name, residence, and other data in a card catalogue. If the inquirer is within the territory of one of our dealers, the letter is referred to him; if not, to our own retail sales department in Chicago. In either case the battle for the business begins at this point. We send out circular letters to the inquirer and enter this fact on the card. The dealer is sent ad- ditional catalogues and literature, besides plate matter to run in the daily newspapers. This circularizing campaign is never dropped until the "prospect" is landed. Then the fact of the sale is entered in the card, which is removed to the dead file. The circular letter should be brief and impress upon the reader the name of the product, its individual- ity and the price. Advertisements in newspapers should follow along the same general principle, emphasizing the name, the individuality, the price and the fact that small profits and numerous sales make the central idea in the sales campaign of the concern. As the number of dealers handling our pianos in- creased, salesmen to visit them became necessary. The Or nizati n ^^^^ problem that arises in organizing a of the force of salesmen for any manufactured Sales Force product is the salary system. Commis- sion, straight salary, and a combination of both are variously employed by different firms. Experience has JOHN V. STEGER 73 proved in a large number of cases, however, that a straight salary basis is the most satisfactory. The Steger Piano Company employs this method. We never pay commission. My idea is that a man should be taken upon a guaranteed salary for a period ending with the time when he ceases to show positive results in his work. Long-time contracts are not advisable, as they are principally advantageous to the salesman. In case a year's contract is made, if a salesman proves unsatisfactory the employer is bound for the full year. In case he gets a better offer from another concern at a salary more than his firm can afford to pay, the chances are, if not released, he will shirk his work and his discharge is made necessary. So the employer gets the short end in either case. Long contracts are a curse to any employer. Exclusive territory is always assigned to salesmen, and, in return, money results and a thorough canvass are demanded. A system for knowing just how well a salesman has worked his territory is essential. We accomplished this, first, by requiring daily reports of our agents and traveling men, in which they state towns and firms visited, sales made, or the reason when orders are not taken, and other remarks in regard to the condition of the territory ; second, in case any sus- picion arises as to the character of the work of the salesman, we send out inquiries to dealers, or send an oflScial representative of the firm to look over the territory. The salesman aims to accomplish much more than simply to canvass his territory for sales He collects every bit of information of any possiblr value to his firm. He compiles lists of families inter, ested in his line, which he obtains from dealers. H« sends in lists of dealers who, by proper pressure may 74 SELLING be induced to handle the line. He visits new towns, establishes new agencies, enthuses the dealer in regard to the good selling points of his article, and, lastly, he acts as a sort of a reporter investigating whether the dealer has played "square" with the firm. It often happens that a dealer receives a consignment of pianos, some of which he may sell on time. Instead of forwarding the money, when received, to the house, he may retain it and not report the sale for a considerable time. Thus he has the use of all moneys collected. The salesman checks up the number of instruments on hand, number received at diflferent dates, and the num- ber sold. Then he reports the exact condition of affairs. A manufacturer often sells not only to the dealer but to the consumer direct. His campaign and terms of payment depend upon which of these is the customer. When a dealer takes the agency for our pianos, he usually is sent a consignment of pianos to be paid for on time. A small cash payment is usually made, and an agreement in regard to the balance is incorporated in a contract. If a European piano manufacturer should be told of the yearly output and sales of a manufacturer like Eeiation *^® Steger plant, he would be incredulous, of Output His yearly sales would fall far short of to Credit ^^^^^ figures. The reason is to be found in the fact that the European sells only for cash. Only about one-fourth of the sales of the American manu- facturer are for cash. The remainder are sold on long- time payments. The question as to whether a customer is a safe risk or not is one which is determined by in- vestigations of our central offices and by the salesman. The central office investigates into the case of dealers who are to be made agents. They depend upon reports JOHN V. STEGER 75 of Dun and Bradstreet and special reports from banks. The traveling man makes investigations in the town where the dealer resides, and thus learns his general reputation for meeting his obligations. In determin- ing the reliability of a consumer to whom the manu- facturer sells direct, a combination of these methods is used. The dealer, in selling, of course, takes his own risk and uses whatever methods he may see fit. Both dealer and manufacturer, in selling to the consumer on time, take back a chattel mortgage on the property. To the consumer, no discount is offered for cash; if sold on time, an interest of six per cent is charged by the house. To the dealer, the manufacturer allows a discount for cash. If he takes the pianos on time, he not only loses the discount but is charged six per cent interest. The average cost of a sale and the average profit are factors which we carefully work out. Daily re- ports of the traveling men, including, sales, traveling expenses, etc., together with the cost systems and data collected at the factory, enable the manufacturer to figure these out in a rough way every day. These are in the nature of estimates, however, and are unsatis- factory. At the end of each month these same items, covering a long period, can be averaged up, and the average cost of each sale and the profit can be deter- mined accurately. CHAPTER IX FALLING OFF OF SALES— HOW REMEDIED ,^ BY RICORD GRADWELL Oeneral Manager and Manager of Salet of the Oliter Typewriter Company The epitome of each day's work is placed before me every morning in the shape of daily sales book. This book is made up of the daily reports received from each one of our two hundred and fifty travelers and from extracts from periodical reports of over 4,000 local agents and general dealers. The fact that the sales in a territory are falling off is brought to my attention within a day or two from the time that the actual slump occurs, dependent upon the distance of the territory from the home ofQce. And the secret of this promptness in detecting weakness in our forces in time to check them is just the secret of the growth of this company. Like the Dutch boy who held his fist in the hole in the dike to save the town from a flood, so the sales manager must be quick to stop a leak in the selling organization under him. He must be quick to discover the weak spot, quick to call for help in making that weak spot strong. When I am convinced that a territory needs special attention, First, I get after the traveler. Second, I get after the dealers. Third, I start the publicity department at w»rk ia that territory. 76 RICORD GRADWELL 77 Ekich of our travelers works in a territory assigned exclusively to him, on a straight salary basis with ex- penses paid. He is the manager of that territory ; the general office acts only in an advisory capacity. He is held personally responsible for the success or failure of his particular field. Each territory includes from fifty to three hundred dealers, to each of whom is given an exclusive district, and with whom the traveler must keep in touch. Hence the daily reports from our travelers cover pretty much the entire country. Each month I assign a "quota" to each traveler. This quota represents the number of sales which each traveler must produce from his territory during the given period in order to maintain his standing and to show the results that we expect. This estimate is based upon the position, condition, and size of the territory, as shown not only by its past record, but also by its estimated possibilities. This quota, together with each traveler's record, is placed before me each morning. From it I can tell at a glance when any territory is not giving us the orders we believe we ought to get from it. As soon as this information makes itself apparent, I call the traveler in charge of that territory to account and ask for explanations. At the same time I write to each of the dealers in that territory, asking for informa tion concerning the slump and for suggestions for over- coming the obstacles which seem to be checking them. And next I flood that territory with follow-up letters, advertising literature and other printed and written matter. The traveler's reply to our inquiries must neces- sarily consist of explanations and excuses — legitimate 78 SELLING and otherwise. To distinguish one class from the other, I have four checks: First, the letters from the dealers in his territory, to whom I write at the same time I write the traveler. By this system, discrepancies are instantly J/Excuses° brought to my attention. Few travelers will oflfer the excuse that "crops are poor" when they know that we are receiving replies to our inquiries from an indefinite number of business men among whom they are working. This last October, for instance, one of our territories in West Virginia showed a marked falling oflE in sales. The traveler in charge ex- plained that the presidential campaign was causing a disturbance in business circles and that orders were hard to get in consequence. As we had received no similar excuses from any other section in his neighbor- hood, we sent a special representative into that terri- tory. The following month the returns from that terri- tory were greater by 60 per cent. It is the knowledge that this careful check is kept on each man's work that inspires him to be cautious with mere "excuses." Second, the newspaper reports of bank clearings from every business center in the country, which are sent to me weekly. These reports verify or disprove any excuses that "business conditions are stagnating." Third, the weekly reports from the Weather Bureau at Washington. These reports indicate the rainfall, for instance, throughout the country. Rainfalls interfere with traveling over country roads in the rural and agricultural districts. When the farmers can not come to town, business is quiet. We know from which terri- tories we may accept explanations for lack of orders on this basis and arrange the work so as to prevent a threatened falling off. RICORD GRADWELL 79 Fourth, our map and tack system of showing the number and kind of sales in every part of our market. This system — as effective as it is picturesque — con- sists of a number of maps, mounted at the bottoms of flat drawers of a filing case, and of small thumb tacks of fifteen different colors. A green tack represents a traveler ; a yellow tack represents a sale ; a white tack, showing black dots, represents the number of times a special representative of the company visits that town, and tacks bearing a series of twelve different plaid de- signs represent different months of the year in which in- quiries are received. A map properly filled out with these tacks shows at a glance the condition of our market, i. e., the number of inquiries from each town for a definite period, the number of sales in each town in the same period, the activity and success or non- success of the dealer in that community. A glance at this map tells me that we have received this year from this town in Colorado nine inquiries, of which five have resulted in sales through our local traveler. The two inquiries received in October, two in September and one last June have not yet been turned into orders. I also know that our special representative has made two visits to this town. I can tell from my card records whether or not these sales were made at the time of his visit — a bit of Information that helps us determine the selling ability of our salesman at that point, as to whether he closed the deal or his dealer did. Over here, on the other hand, I see that we have a traveler, but have received no inquiries. A glance at our records shows that several orders have been received from this place. This tells me that this traveler is working his district closely; that he is absorbing the inquiries himself by doing his own local advertising and 80 SELLING covering his tteld so closely that he sells his machines before the "prospects" know they intend to buy. He is the kind of man we are looking for. But I have been telling you only what I do after our business has fallen off — after the illness has come, It is our business to foresee a slump and prevent it ; to keep in touch with the market and to regulate our business to meet the changing conditions. For example, last June I learned that the boll-weevil was eating up the cotton in Texas. As the cotton crop regulates the business condition of that territory, I immediately re- arranged the field so that the travelers in Texas should still continue to show increasing sales, in spite of con- ditions, fewer travelers, of course, being used. And whenever we can, we furnish our travelers and dealers with information and means of warding off the slump— for avoiding the business blight that we, here at the central offlce, can see approaching in the distance. It is the man on the heights who can first see the storm clouds approaching the village in the valley. It is our duty to forewarn by forearming our selling organization. CHAPTER X JUDGING THE MARKET BY MEANS OP THE SELLING FORCE BY ROBERT H. INGERSOLL President, Robert H. Ingersoll & Brother As the executive head of a manufacturing house, I keep in touch with the market through my selling force by a system of daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly reports from each of our salesmen. The "market" of any manufacturing house consists of the people who buy its product. Hence a study of the market involves : First, a knowledge of the article which the public demands. Second, a knowledge of the most direct and inex- pensive methods of placing this article in the hands of the public. This house was established on the belief that the public wanted an inexpensive watch — the "public" used in its broadest sense. Our sales force was organized to meet these conditions. This particular "public" can not be assumed to de- vote much time to reading the periodicals, nor to con- ducting its business by correspondence. A man wants a watch and as a rule he takes the quickest and most di- rect way of getting it. He buys it at the nearest store, and the chances are that we will buy the watch whose name and price are most familiar. Hence our policy of 81 82i SELLING giving general publicity rather than direct advertising to our product. As a result of this system but few watches are sold direct to the consumer. They are disposed of through the medium of jobber, the retailer and the miscellaneous class, known as "schemers" and "premium users." These jobbers in turn sell to a large number of retailers. For this reason our customers last year numbered but 15,000, although we marketed 2,000,000 watches. Our selling force, then, is organized to handle not the general public but only these 15,000 customers who serve as mediums. Our "market," in other words, con- sists of the jobbers and retailers. To keep in touch with the market we must, first, keep the company in touch with the salesmen ; second, keep our salesmen in touch with the trade. I. To keep the company in touch with the sales- men, we have organized our forces and installed report systems as follows: The United States we have divided into an eastern and a western division. At the head of each is a divis- ion manager. Under the eastern manager are ten sales- men; under the western manager, five. These fifteen salesmen cover the entire country four times each year. These salesmen are on a par. They are all con- nected with the company on a straight salary basis — a plan that we have found by experience to be more satisfactory than the commission system. They are all responsible only to their division manager, who in turn Is responsible to the company. Each salesman is assigned to a clearly specified territory, out of which he must not sell. These territories are regulated largely by the development of the jobbing trade in that locality. Thus, but one sales- ROBERT H. INGERSOLL 83 man covers all of New England, owing to the high de- velopment of the jobbing trade at that point. The sales- men connected with these jobbing houses do the work that our salesmen would do ordinarily. The two division managers route each salesman in their division. The route is indicated on a map in the bottom of a flat drawer in the filing case. Each city and town the salesman is to visit is indicated by a tack bearing the date of his arrival and departure. His course is indicated by a string attached to these tacks. From these fifteen salesmen the division managers get reports which keep them in close touch with the market, and from which the company is enabled to make preparations for unusual approaching conditions. As our market is closely defined, our salesmen move along regular and closely worked paths; hence their expense accounts are fixed within certain limits, which are exceeded at the salesman's cost. Each salesman sends a daily report of his work to his division manager. On these reports are filed merely the orders "entered." These reports are not considered in the final estimate of the salesman's value, as many "entered" orders are not filled. So these daily reports are later verified or corrected by the salesman's weekly reports. On these daily and weekly reports the division manager bases his weekly statement to the company. These reports from the two division managers are brought up for consideration every Wednesday morn- ing. The records from each territory are compared with the records of the same territory for the correspond- ing week of the year before. Any marked discrepancy results in letters for further information or with special instructions. In some cases a special salesman may be sent to find out the causes. In this way a careful watch 84 SELLING is kept on the market, and any decline is promptly checked. A monthly, quarterly, and annual report is also sent by each manager to the company. On these monthly reports the "entered" orders are discarded and only the "shipped" orders are noted. Each of these reports show corrections and con- densations of the preceding reports. For instance, the manager's monthly report indicates on a single sheet the name and record of each salesman for the period indicated, showing the amount of business received from him, the amount of his business which the com- pany has "passed," the amount which has actually been shipped, together with the percentage of his expenses to the business he has transacted. To keep in still closer touch with the salesman, an individual card record is kept to show in detail the record of each year. The annual record cards are then filed together for reference. II. To keep the salesmen in touch with the market, they are trained to confer personally with the trades- men. Each salesman is routed to reach the "high" spots — the big business centers — first. From these "high" spots he radiates to the smaller towns. He visits every retailer who handles a line of goods in which ours may be included. He talks shop to him. He finds out how much of our product and how much of our competitors' product was sold the year before, that he may estimate the amount of our goods he can handle next year. He studies the demand in that vicinity and the reasons which lead up to and cause it. By this system the company gets reports every year on the condition of our entire market — the reports of ROBERT H. INGERSOLL 85 experienced men who are familiar with the trade and who can look at conditions from the company's stand- point. To determine that a territory is being properly de- veloped, we compare its record for the past few years. If these records show a falling off, we know that either the district or the company is losing ground. A card record system shows the comparative sales of each di- vision by months, including rates of increase or de- crease. As each of these records acts as a check om the preceding reports, an accurate analysis of the coh- ditions of the business may be had at a moment's notice. A special index covers each town in which our business has entered. A record is kept of the sales in that town in the past. From this record the company estimate* the amount and class of business it may expect. Another card system records the amount and grade of product sold by each salesman in each territory and the gross profit thereon. In this way, the exact value of a territory and even of a salesman is calculated in dollars and cents. CKAFTER XI SELLING BY MAIL BY W. A. WATBRBURY SaLs Manager, A. B. Dick Company He would be a courageous man who would under- take to lay down any hard and fast rules for selling by mail — conducting a mail order business. Such presump- tion would carry with it an ability that no man posses- ses. There are, however, certain truths that may be observed. One of the most important features to be consider- ed is following up an inquiry after an interest has been created. Of what benefit is advertising unless it is fol- lowed to a successful conclusion ? By a "mail order business" I refer to that class of business which is transacted at a distance ; where the seller does not come into personal contact with the buyer ; where correspondence, instead of personal inter- views, has to be depended upon to effect sales, and where catalogues, circulars, form letters and personal communications take the place of local and traveling salesmen. The mail order business is, comparatively speaking, of modern origin, but every year sees it assuming vaster proportions and including wider fields. Its possibili- ties seem to be limited only to the number of products for which there is a demand and supply. The mail order business may be divided into two distinct classes: First, the exclusively mail order 86 W. A. WATERBURY 87 house, which handles one or more products and which makes no attempt to sell except through the medium of the postal department, and secondly, the house which sells both by mail and direct to the purchaser person- ally. The latter may more properly be referred to as a mail order department. It is impossible to undertake to enumerate the va- rious lines of business that might be conducted on the mail order plan either wholly or in part. The broad rule may, however, be laid down that there are oppor- tunities for a mail order business wherever there is a seller who desires more purchasers. There are to-day men engaged in various enterprises who could easily double or treble their profits by establishing a mail order department in their business. Selling by mail re- quires a peculiar line of talent. Selling by the older methods calls for a display of goods, an explanation of their merits, or their advantages in quality or price, and he who creates the most favorable impression on the mind of his customer is the man who meets with great- est success. Selling by mail is an entirely diflferent proposition. A order can be obtained only by winning the purchaser's confidence. He does not see what he is buying. Seldom is he in position to compare prices with those of others, and he has only your word for the merit of the goods. You must convince him that he can trust you, that the goods are what he needs and as you represent, and, most of all, as you are dealing with some one you have never seen or who has never seen you, of the necessity of paying for the goods in advance. This requires a new kind of diplomacy and salesman- ship. In embarking in a mail order business the first question to be considered is how to create the demand ; 88 SELLING the second, how to handle the prospect, and the third, how to obtain the order. Obviously, as a mail order Building a business contemplates selling away from Mail Order home, the demand must be created by some uBiness form of advertising, and this is perhaps the most difficult feature of the business. Millions of dollars are wasted annually through unprofitable ad- vertising. The progressive business man of to-day real- izes that he must spend a certain amount of money, but advertising is not his specialty and he finds every year he has wasted a large amount by not applying his money where it will do him the most good. If he places an appropriation in the hands of an advertising agency he is apt to feel that they, having so many interests to care for, are not giving his business the attention it de- serves. If he undertakes to write his own advertising matter he too often lacks the ability and his catalogues and circulars fail to bring the desired results. There are arguments for and against both methods. The pro- fessional ad-writer is too much inclined to make his reading matter euphonious but meaningless. He is sometimes eloquent, but lacks an intimate knowledge of the subject which he is presenting; he can not carry conviction to others. On the other hand, the man who writes his own advertising matter is expressing his personal opinions and expects everybody to share them. He becomes impatient if others do not see things as he sees them. He expects too much. He does not realize that his correspondent is on the defensive and must be convinced. A buyer must be won — not driven. A combination of both methods often gets the best results, but with this modification : let an experienced man write the advertising matter, utilizing what others think of the goods, and keeping his own and your per- W. A. WATERBURY 89 Bonal views in the background. Every man should have unbounded confidence in the articles he represents, but by this plan the advertising matter does not bear the stamp of professionalism. Your personal opinions are not offensively forced upon others, and what is said is the testimony of disinterested parties — which is always the strongest kind of argument. Different lines of business require different methods of publicity. What would prove profitable in one would Mediums for ^® wasted advertising in another. News- APublicit7 paper advertising has its advantages, and Campaign j^j. (.gj-tain kinds of publicity cannot be equaled. Magazine advertising has its distinct field, and circular letters hold a high place in the estimation of progressive business minds. The best methods of securing publicity must be determined by the product handled and the class of people to be reached. It has been my observation that newspaper advertising for a mail order business is perhaps the most profitable where a commodity has a local general demand — such articles as are usually found in a city or country store. In the large department houses of a large city newspaper ad- vertising is essential to prosperity. Personally I am an advocate of circular-letter ad- vertising. By circular letters I do not refer to ordinary The circular type-printed, stereotyped letters that be- Letter tray themselves as such, but carefully Campaign prepared and executed form letters carry- ing with them the appearance and individuality of a personal communication with the stamp of genuineness. Such a letter goes where you want it to go. It reaches whom you want it to reach. It says what you want it to say, and if your goods have merit and you have offered them intelligently, your correspondent, if in the 90 SELLING market, is in immediate touch with you, and your ad- vertising has not been wasted. Uncle Sam is a good canvasser. He will not go far down the line with this kind of advertising before he finds a purchaser. The goods which I personally handle are sold through the trade, through salesmen and solicitors, through agents and dealers, and by correspondence. Although there are probably a thousand people engaged in the sale of these goods, the mail order business con- stitutes a very large percentage of the gross volume and by far the most profitable portion. It is affected by no discounts, salaries or expense accounts beyond a little postage, stationery, and clerical labor. I create the demand principally by circular letters. These are addressed to names on classified lists, sup- plemented by a moderate amount of general publicity obtained through the medium of the current popular magazines. The latter is principally for the purpose of keeping the name prominently before the public. By classified lists I refer to lists of people or individuals engaged in different lines of business who should be interested in the goods I have to offer. These lists are obtained from different sources and in various ways, but they become a permanent part of the business and are worked on as long as they remain profitable or until all the meat has been extracted from them. In this way there is little wasted ammunition. The first object in circularizing is to excite curios- ity. The initial letter must be brief and to the point. It must not be burdened with platitudes to tire the reader, nor must it appear as though the same letter had been sent to a hundred or more others. It must say enough — and no more — about the merits, advan- tages and prices of the goods to cause the party ad- W. A. WATEEBURY 91 dressed to consider whether they are of value to him. This letter is usually in the form of an interrogation. My object is to draw my correspondent out, to excite his curiosity and induce him to open up correspondence with me for further information. The nature of his reply will determine whether he is a prospective pur- chaser. As the first letter is the lure, it stands to reason that too much care and consideration cannot be exer- cised in its preparation. It is the keystone of the entire structure. It must avoid the earmarks of a stereotyped letter both in its composition and in the quality of the work. It must appeal to the reader as a personal, bona fide letter of business solicitation. The composition of such a letter rests with the writer; the mechanical work may be handled in one of Prenarinff three ways: the bona-fide typwritten let- circular ter, the printed letter (prepared by the Letters printer in either plain type or imitation of typewriting) and the duplicating machine process (reproduced copies). The first is, of course, expensive and out of the question. It involves a large typewriter force, both in operators and machines, and the conse- quent salary list makes the burden excessive. The sec- ond, while not quite so expensive as the first betrays itself as a printed circular. As all the letters are printed at one impression, there is an evenness and uniformity to the copy that precludes it from being accepted as a bona-fide communication. Under certain conditions it is possible to insert the name and address at the head of the letter, but this is generally impracticable, as the type in the printer's office, from which the letter is printed, and the type on the writing machine in the user's oflfice, where the name and address must be in- 92 SELLING serted, often do not correspond. Again, the typewriter ribbon and the printer's ink often vary so much in color or shade that the discrepancy is made apparent. The third method appeals to me the strongest. Du- plicating machines as now manufactured are capable of reproducing 15,000 to 20,000 copies a day. These copies are an exact reproduction of actual typewriting. The original copy from which subsequent copies are obtain- ed is made on my own typewriter, and, therefore, every copy reproduced from that original must conform to it. As the name and address are subsequently inserted with the same typewriter that made the original, using a ribbon made from the same ink with which the copies were reproduced, each letter becomes an original and bona-flde communication to the party addressed. Further, my form of letter may be changed as often as desired. The suit of clothes which fits you will not fit me, neither will the same argument or letter appeal to different people in different lines of business. Twenty-flve or fifty letters of a specified form cover one line of business, while 500 or 5,000 may be necessary for another. The advantage of the duplicating machine is there need be no waste. The printed letter, on the other hand, is usually prepared and provided in quanti- ties to cover all conditions. For this reason results are usually disappointing, and the eiBcacy of the circular- letter as a business getter is discredited. When an interest that prompts an inquiry for fur- ther information and prices has been created, the in- FoUowinffUi) quirer becomes a "prospective customer." Kepiies From From that moment he is watched and Prospeotives nursed. After I receive an inquiry, I must win the writer's confidence. I must convince him of the merits of my goods and secure his order. If his W. A. WATEEBURY 93 credit is established I am willing to fill any order he may oflfer, but if his credit is to be determined, I must have cash in advance of delivery. This communication must now be carefully studied and analyzed to deter- mine how it shall be followed up. It must also be re- corded in such manner that it will not be neglected. The first communication from a prospective customer is given a number in the upper right-hand corner and the same number is given to an index card bearing the name and address. This card, with others, is filed in a cabinet case alphabetically by states, cities and indi- viduals' names, and is used for no other purpose than an index. Some users of this system undertake to record a brief synopsis of the details on this card. This may be of advantage in certain lines of business, but not in others, as the correspondence is generally kept intact and gives all the information complete as it progresses. To keep a history on the card only means additional labor. This card, therefore, is used only to locate the correspondence. The correspondence itself is kept in numerical files, without regard to alphabeti- cal arrangement. At the time the original inquiry is received, in addition to a number and its index card, a corresponding number, a "tickler" blank, is filled out, giving the name, address, number, character of business and credit standing of the correspondent, the date of his communication and the nature of the inquiry. The communication being analyzed, a reply is sent and the nature of the reply and date recorded on the How Com- blank. This reply may be a personally municationB dictated letter, or it may be one of a series Are Treated ^f j^j.^ ig^ters that may be reproduced in quantities. In my own case, out of an average of +wo to three hundred letters received daily, perhaps 75 per 94 SELLI!SG cent may be answered with these form letters, leaving 25 per cent to be answered by a personally dictated let- ter. If a dictated letter is used, the word "letter" with a brief abstract of the contents and date is noted on the tickler blank; if a form letter is used, the number of the form letter and date are recorded. Copies of all form letters used are kept in a book convenient for ref- erence as to subject-matter. This tickler sheet, as the name indicates, "tickles" or attracts attention daily. It is kept in a tickler case on my desk. The tickler case is a box containing 31 cards, representing the 31 days in the month. Each card bears a number at the top, back of which are twelve other cards, representing the months in the year. Tickler sheets are distributed in the tickler box daily, filed sufficiently far ahead to allow time for my letters to reach their destinations, and time for answers to reach me. The tickler sheets under each date are ar- ranged alphabetically. This assortment of the sheets into the tickler case is done at the close of each day and the card for the day just ended is moved to the back of the case. The following morning finds before me matters for attention on that date. Answers to my letters from the parties represented by the tickler sheets before me should be received during the day, or in the event of no communications being received, "follow-up" letters are sent calling attention in a delicate manner to the fact that no responses have been received to my letters of certain dates and suggesting the probability of their having failed to reach their proper destinations, and politely requesting replies, as the matters are being held open in my files. The number of this follow-up letter is noted on the tickler sheet and the sheet advanced in the tickler box to the next day (not several days, as at first, W. A. WATERBUEY 95 as the expected reply may have been delayed and arrive the following day, crossing my follow-up letter en route). Carbon copies of dictated letters are attached to the correspondence in the numerical flies, as the number of the form letter on the tickler sheet is suiHci- ent reference when a form letter is used. This is re- peated each time a letter passes to or from any corre- spondent, and as the tickler sheets are handled daily, all live transactions are kept prominently before me for attention. The number of prospects that can be handled by this system is unlimited and a question only of clerical force. My numerical files at present run over 20,000 "prospects." It is not to be assumed, however, that my tickler case contains sheets for all of them. "Proepoots" Many have been sold. Many are aban- doned for the time being, and many have proven unsalable. The latter are disposed of by at- taching the tickler sheets to the correspondence and transferring the latter from the numerical file to the general oflBce file, and the index card to a "dead" file. When parties are sold the correspondence is transferred to the general file and the index cards marked "sold," with a record of the purchase. These cards are then transferred to a "sold" file. For "prospects" that are to be revived at a future date the tickler sheets are advanced to some time when they will be reached in natural rotation. It frequently happens that a prospective purchaser is not prepared to purchase, and the tickler sheet is ad- vanced to some future date. Conditions change and he becomes ready to purchase before the time anticipated. The contents of the letter will usually determine whether it is a "previous prospect" and reference to the 96 SELLING oorrespondenoe will determine where to find the tickler sheet. If, however, any doubt exists, a refepence to the card index will show whether I have been in corre- spondence with the writer. In my business, with its many local agents, the representative on the ground has to be notified of the Co-4"peration prospective business. For this purpose I With the use another form letter, the substance of Local Agent ^j^j^j^^ -^ ^j^^^^ ^^ ^ jg interested in such- and-such goods and requesting my representative's prompt attention. A record of this letter is made on the tickler sheet and a carbon copy of my letter to the prospective customer is sent to the local agent. In my letter to the prospective customer I refer to my local agent, who will call upon him in my interests to serve him, and requesting him to advise me what action he takes, thus leaving an opening for me to address him at a future date in the event of the local agent not secur- ing the order. A perfect understanding exists between the local agent and me, and it is immaterial which of us secures the order. The advantage of this method is that there are apparently two of us competing for the business. It is human nature for a man to favor one of two competitors. Perhaps he has a prejudice against buying so far from home and a disposition to favor a local dealer with whom he may have other business re- lations, or where he can examine the goods. Two of us are more likely to succeed than one in eeeuring the order. In the event of the local agent making the sale he at once reports the fact to me. The tickler sheet is at- tached to the correspondence and the latter disposed of as previously described. CHAPTER XII HOW THE SMALL MAIL ORDER MAN SELLS BY JASON J. STAKR Manager, Starr Specialty Company There are a large number of people who are inter- ested in the mail-order business, because of the fact that they may at some time engage in it, as it is a busi- ness which may be started on a small scale and with little capital. Broadly speaking, there are three classes of enter- prises which may be classified as belonging to the "mail-order business" : (1) The exclusive mail-order house. (2) The house or firm which conducts a mail-order department. (3) The small mail-order man or firm. By the small mail-order man, is meant in the usual use of the term, one who conducts a mail-order busi- ness either as a side line apart from his regular em- ployment or who makes his start in business via the mail-order route, handling a small article of, say, less than three to five dollars in value. It is with this last class that this chapter will deal entirely. The small mail-order man does not necessarily need to make a large success of his business the first year or two for it is then that he is getting his educa- tion in this line, and there is little education worth haying — be it in the mail-order or any other line — that 97 98 SELLING does not cost time, money, and labor. In this respect the small mail-order man differs from the other classes in the mail-order business, as it is a reguiar business with them, and they can not afford to spend any time or money in the purchase of experience, and so usually enter the field with an experienced management or backing, or both. The first attempt that the small mail-order man usually makes in the selling field, is in marketing of jjjg some novelty that he has reason to believe Novelty will appeal to some class of trade with " which he has some acquaintance. For instance, a man coming to the city from the country, and having a thorough knowledge of the printer's trade, would naturally be informed as to what the country trade would buy in the line of some novelty of interest to printers. A man who had had experience in the jewelry business in a small country town, would be able to make a success of the retailing of some small novelty in jewelry, selling particularly to the countrj trade. This, then, is the first requisite: That the mail- order man know something of the field which he is about to canvass. Not only should be know what the demand is, but he should also know whether the field is thoroughly canvassed or not by other firms. The competition that he is liable to meet will come from various sources. The large catalogue houses handling nearly every line of goods may conflict with him; the mail-order departments of houses which sell by means of salesmen should be noted; while some other small mail-order man may have had the same deal in mind that he has, and now be working it sue- JASON J. STARE 99 cessfully, or be planning a similar mail-order cam- paign. There is not much danger of coming in conflict with the first two classes. The most dangerous com- petition will in all probability come from his rival in the small mail-order class. There are three means of determining what is the most feasible field to enter : (1) Consultation with a mail-order expert. (2) A thorough reading of mail-order papers and other mail-order literature. (3) Systematic observance of the advertising col- umns of papers carrying mail-order advertisements. As regards the first, consultation with a mail- order expert, this course is to be unqualifiedly recom- Learninff mended. If a man who is thinking of by going into the mail-order business will Consultation write a personal letter to any of the reputable experts in the business, stating without re- serve what he intends to sell — if his scheme is that far along — how he intends to handle it, how he intends to buy, and in fact all of the details of the business as he intends to take it up, and will arrange for a consulta- tion with the expert at a certain time, he will for a very nominal fee, obtain information that cannot fail to be worth many times what it costs him. This, it is needless to state, is preferable to securing the same information by experience. Not only is it less costly, but by obtaining this information at the start instead of in driblets, the amateur mail-order man has a secure foundation upon which to build — that of others' exper- ience. True, now and then, a mail-order business is fathered and floated, along entirely different lines than any predecessor, but such a business is usually backed 100 SELLING by ample capital, which as a general thing the small mail-order man does not have. As regards the second means of determining what field to enter, this presupposes the existence in the mind of the future mail-order dealer, a well defined plan or scheme which he has ready to float, but for which he lacks those technical details essential in any business to make it a business. There are a number of excellent mail-order papers which are in themselves a thorough education in their line. A number of books, too, have been written by men thoroughly understand- ing the business and are full of helpful suggestions and exact methods treated in detail. Some of this litera- ture is quite elementary and will do for those wishing to get advice from the beginning. As regards the third, if the advertising columns of a large number of papers are watched carefully to see what lines are selling apparently with the greatest success, a close observer who is about to start in the mail-order business will learn considerable to his ad- vantage. This applies particularly to style of adver- tising, as mail-order advertising has a distinct style, both as regards matter and display. It is by one — or all — of the means outlined above that the prospective mail-order man secures the infor- mation on which he bases his business, and to under- stand the exact means that he uses to effect selling, these means must be considered in conjunction with mail-order salesmanship. Speaking broadly, there are three metiiods by which a product may be disposed of by mail : (1) Advertising. (2) Circularizing. (3) Letter-writing. JASON J. STARR 101 The most common method is the combination of the three. The mail-order man advertises for two purposes, to secure publicity and orders or prospects. Some lines of business are such that it may be advis- able to advertise only to secure publicity, to keep the name of the flrmi more or less prominently before the public. The ordinary buyer does not have confidence in a firm whose advertisements are not to be found in the various publications and if he receives a circular let- ter from such a firm he is very liable to class it as a humbug, though it is by no means necessarily one. The advertisement, therefore fulfils two requirements, it is a guarantee, so to speak, of the reliability and respect- ability of the dealer and also acts as a means of secur- ing direct orders and prospects. The small mail-order man is especially open to the request of curiosity seekers; boys writing him for samples; requests on postal card for catalogue, etc. It therefore behooves him to make every advertisement particularly distinctive ; a specific request for business, not a request for the reader to ask for a catalogue or a free sample. The first sale, owing to the cost entailed to secure it, will not be a profit maker. The mail-order man must look to his subsequent sales to yield a profit. It is here that the business-getting qualities of the promoter begin to show. He must early ascertain what is a reasonable per cent of orders obtainable from his list of names and how much he can spend for follow-up letters, circulars, and other advertising mat- ter to secure further orders. Lists of names may be purchased outright from those in the business. These lists are of all kinds, 102 SELLING good, bad, and indifferent. By taking a number of lists secured from different sources, working each list syste. matically, and carefully noting the num I«i8t8 ber of replies received, the cost of each reply, the amount of business secured from each list, the cost of the business so secured, etc., it will be unmistakably shown whether or not the particular article that the mail-order man is handling can be sold to a certain list of customers to advantage or not. The ideal way of working a list of names would be to write a personal letter to each one on the list, but this is impracticable owing to the fact that it takes too much time to dictate a personal letter to each one and also because in writing to a stranger from whom no letter has been received, but little of the personal element can be introduced. Consequently a number of circular letters prepared in the follow-up style may be used for the list. These letters may be sent under a one or two-cent stamp at the discretion of the sender. If a list is made up of names of coun- try people living in small towns or on a rural free de- livery route a circular letter sent under a one-cent stamp will receive — if well gotten up — nearly as much attention as one dictated to that particular person, and sent in an envelope bearing a two-cent stamp. The mail-order man starting in business can also use the circular and the small catalogue to good ad- vantage. The most effective catalogue or circular is the one enclosed with a letter calling attention to some particular bargain or bargains in the literature which accompanies it. Many detached circulars should never be enclosed in a letter as it gives a bad effect to the whole. A method that has been used to good advantage by many small mail-order men is as follows: JASON J. STARR 103 The first letter is either a personal one or a form letter, and is sent in response to an inquiry or order, or to a name on the list that it is desired to try. If the one addressed is not heard from in ten or fifteen days, a small catalogue accompanied by a suitable form letter is sent. The last communication is a special offer circular, either with or without a third form letter, this to follow at the regulation time, say ten or fifteen days. This makes three requests for busi- ness, and if these do not turn the prospective customer into an actual one he should be dropped from the active list, and placed on the catalogue list, to receive a new catalogue when it is put out. It will be seen that the ability to sell lies in the advertisement, the circular letter campaign, and the Ability to preparation of auxiliary advertising mat- Sell-Whore ter. There is little or no luck or chance It Lies about it. The article which it is desired to sell must be selected with considerable judgment; there must be a demand for it, either actual or latent. If it is latent, the demand must be cultivated to the selling point, and the sale closed off without an unrea- sonable expenditure of time and money. Individuality and adaptability will soon show in the mail-order busi- ness, the same as in any other line, and if started in a small way and built up, conforming to those require- ments necessary to the success of any and all busi- nesses it will grow and expand with the ability and energy of the promoter. The small mail-order man will find an accurate system of peculiar value in various ways. He should have a suitable system for recording and keeping track of his inquiries, prospects, and customers. A compre- hensive card system will govern the date of his follow- 104 SELLING up letters. Advertising, too, will be shown up in its proper manner. If each ad is keyed by means of a street number, building number, or desk number it will be shown conclusively which is the best paying medium for him to use. By the use of card system also exact costs may be had of goods or articles handled, thus showing what the exact profit is for everything sold. Selling to agents had best not be attempted by the small mail-order man. The ordinary agent is an un- known quantity ; the poorest prospect may develop into a splendid agent only to quit work just as he is be- coming a paying investment, while the man who appar- ently has no qualifications at all for agency work may turn out to be a diamond in the rough. There have been so many agent's propositions which have had as a design the selling of a so-called "sample outfit" at an exorbitant price that the honest man advertising or writing for agents is liable to be mistaken for one of that class, and have diflSculty in securing his agents because of that reason. As a final word it may be said that the small mail-order man succeeds because he has three things, good goods, business initiative, and a broad conception of the possibilities of salesmanship. CHAPTER XIII HOW THE COUNTRY MEECHANT MEETS THE COMPETITION OF THE CATALOGUE HOUSE BY FRANK B. LOMAS Secretary, Lomas and Famsworth Hardware Company There are those who speak with confidence or fear, as the case may be, saying that the present conditions tend to the elimination of the country merchant. This may be true in regard to the "storekeeper" but not as to the up-to-date "merchant." The time has passed when all that is necessary for the merchant to sell, is that he have a store, a line of goods and the prosaic announcement in the county paper of the existence of "John Jones, Dealer in General Merchandise, Main St., Smithville, Iowa." As conditions change, so must the methods of meet- ing them change. Catalogue house competition differs from that of our competitors on the other side of the street. With our local competitor we are on an even footing. We buy at the price he does; we have the same territory to draw from that he does; our expenses are equal. Here it lies with the man and his ability. With the catalogue houses we are at a disadvan- tage in our buying. They buy at the jobber's price, tak- ing the jobber's profit and a good share of the retailer's profit. This gives them a large margin of profit and also permits them to make a price on a leader that is ruinous for the retailer to meet. The manufacturer, 105 106 SELLING in his dealing direct with the retailer, protects the jobber in price. Then the retailer must be protected by the jobber and the manufacturer. Place the catalogue houses on an equal footing with the retailer, large or small, and they could not The Country ^° business. And this condition is corn- Merchant a ing. The country merchant is a necessity. Hecessity rpj^^ manufacturer knows this ; the jobber knows this ; and both realize that he must be protected in the way of prices on all standard articles. If all merchandise can be marketed through the catalogue house direct to the consumer, cheaper, quicker, and more satisfactory than through the retailer, then that is the way to market it. With all the facilities at hand for buying, it must not be forgotten that the more progressive people are, the quicker they want their goods. When they want a thing they want it at once, not a week hence. If the manufacturer thinks the cata- logue house can distribute his products the best, that is the way to market them ; but if he thinks the retailer is necessary to him, he must protect him, and he is bound to realize this. Mr. E. C. Simmons, of Simmons Hardware Co., ex- presses my mind in the following: "The retail dealer is much exercised about meet- ing catalogue house competition, and properly so ; many of the most intelligent ones consider it a menace fraught with great danger for their future welfare. I find, however, that in many cases where there is an up-to-date merchant who is alive and wide-awake, who keeps his stock up, who keeps either the same goods that these houses advertise or similar ones to take their place, and who competes directly with the catalogue houses, he has in many instances driven them entirely FRANK B. LOMAS 107 out of his section. It is the retailer who gives it up and says: 'I will not keep such and such an article, because it is quoted by the catalogue houses,' and who, therefore, has not the item that the farmer or mechanic wants when he calls for it; and the man who refuses to anywhere meet the price of the catalogue house — • in other words, the man who does not put up a good strong fight gets left and becomes discouraged." The catalogue houses are, indirectly, the father of the Rural Free Delivery Service, and the would-be- Kethodsof father of the Parcel Post, and they were the Catalogue not slow to take advantage of the former. ^°^* Through this medium they place their descriptive matter in the home of every farmer in the country. The local merchant can nicely follow their example in this mode of advertising, and get results from it. To be sure, he can not afford to issue a large catalogue, but he can send descriptive matter, and fol- low this up with personal letters, when a man shows himself in the market, or even interested. The local merchant must be persistent and agressive, but always courteous. These are the two main attributes that have put the catalogue house where it stands today. The reasons why a man should patronize his home store, are many of them abstract, and therefore more difficult of comprehension than the continual cry of "Cheap! So Cheap!!" But, taking them up in detail, let us see why the country buyer purchases from the catalogue house: The first reason is because he is asked; not only is he asked for his business once or twice, but he is con- tinually kept after for a share of his trade. It is one of the rules of selling, that persistence wins, and a man who has been bombarded with arguments week in 108 SELLING and week out as to why he should patronize a certain house, will eventually do it. The specific reason that induces the country buyer to patronize the catalogue house, is the alleged cheap- ness of the article he is buying. Certain leaders, usually a standard article, are featured and used as an entering wedge, upon the hope that relations once begun will be continued, and future orders will bring a profit which will more than offset the loss on the leader. Another reason which aids the catalogue house in selling, is the fascination of getting goods from a dis- tant place — this having a firm hold upon a large class of people. Then, too, many people like to buy from a cata- logue, or from an advertisement. When the best talent available is employed in the compilation of a catalogue, or in the framing of an advertisement, the excellent points of a product are so emphasized, and the weak points so minimized, that a desire is created for the article in question. There are few who have an- swered a glowing advertisement, painting the virtues of some article in the highest colors, to find that the advertised article was only of common material, who will not call to mind what is meant by this state- ment. These, then, are the advantages which are held to accrue from patronage of the catalogue house. Now Interest of '^* ^^ consider the disadvantages; disad- the Dealer and vantages that are not theoretical or at all Buyer One beyond the bound of everyday happening. I have said that the reasons why patronage should be given to the home firm are often abstract. The prin- cipal reason is that the home merchant is a great and FEANK B. LOMAS 109 vital factor in the upbuilding of the country. Here the seller and the buyer meet on common ground ; they both are interested in the same civic problems; they rise or fall together. Does the country prosper? Then so does the country town. Does the country man ex- perience prosperity? Then the country merchant shares. The interests of the two are too closely inter- woven to be separated, and they should aid each other in the general upbuilding of the locality in which they live. A more concrete reason and one which intimately touches the buyer, is the fact that when financial de- pression — as that caused by a crop failure or similar influences — strikes the community, the country pur- chaser is the first to ask for an extension of credit. Nor even must we wait until there is a period of depression, for the country merchant often carries his patrons for nearly everything that they buy. Nor is it the im- provident and shiftless class that always is the most insistent for credit. The farmer who owns a comfort- able home and section of land, often requests a larger line of credit for a longer time than the renter on a small place, and living in a much simpler style. The reason for this, of course, is that the moneyed farmer knows that he is good, having no feeling of compunc- tion whatever in asking the merchant to carry him, be- cause he believes that the mere fact that he can pay is sufficient. It is here in the credit department that the first disadvantage of buying from the catalogue house, shows the most strongly. Cash is the rule in these transactions; no one thinks of asking credit of the catalogue house. Aside from the obvious unfairness of making cash sales out of town and asking the home 110 SELLING merchant to extend credit, there is the economic view spoken of, that a dollar spent at home, comes back directly to the farmer, which, if spent outside, may or may not return. I have spoken already of the fact that price is made a feature by the catalogue house. This, of course, does not include transportation. Freight Price or express charges add materially to goods bought out of town, and it is an education to the country buyer, to take his favorite catalogue to his town merchant and go over with him the cata- logue price, plus cost of freight or express, and see in how many cases his home store- can equal the out- of-town price, and save him money. Then, too, there is always the delay incident upon orders. This may or may not be a minor matter, ac- cording to the geographical location of the buyer. Usually, however, it is a matter worth reckoning with. Another disadvantage in out-of-town buying, is that the quality of the articles or goods purchased, is not liable to be understood by those ordering. Every one knows of the dissatisfaction that results from goods that do not match, clothes that do not fit, groceries that are not up to standard, all purchased from mistaken motives of economy, from an out-of-town house. The difQculty of exchange, which is so easily taken care of by the home merchant, here comes strong into play. I have already alluded to the efifeot D^v^** of the rural free delivery upon the coun- try merchant. This view is more than offset by the growing use of the telephone in country districts. Not only can the regular customer notify his merchant if goods he has purchased are not what he FRANK B. LOMAS 111 wished, but he can send in his order, and have it booked almost as well as though he were there, and have it sent out by the rural delivery man to his own door. There is no advantage that the mail-order house has, that the country merchant cannot have, with but pos- sibly one exception, which is that he does not buy in as large lots. This, however, is more than offset by the fact that he does not have the rents, insurance, and taxes to pay that must be paid by the mail-order house in a city. The selling means of the v^atalogue house can be made the selling means of the retail merchant, and to better advantage, for the personal element can enter into the sales of the latter much more than into those of the former. The retail man is in close touch with the majority of his sales and each can be made to bear the imprint of his individuality. Does the mail-order house advertise? So may the country merchant; he can advertise as forcibly and persistently, and with much more certainty of results, than any other business in the world. Does the mail-order house "follow up" its pros- pective customer until he buys? So may the country merchant. A personal letter now and then will be more of a trade increaser than a dozen mimeographed form letters sent to prospective buyers. Do leaders and low prices of the catalogue house attract? Then the country merchant may have his leaders, which he has purchased advantageously, in the same way. As an up-to-date merchant looks out on his field and thinks of the means at his hand to obtain patron- age, he is almost embarrassed by the wealth of material. The test lies here: Is he competent to use it? If he 112 SELLING is, he will stand as a merchant; if not, he mnst quit the business. It matters not whether he be forced out of the field by the catalogue house, or by a more enterprising competitior — out he must go. It lies with the man himself as to whether he will win or lose. CHAPTER XIV HOW THE COUNTRY DEPARTMENT STORE SELLS BY W. G. CHAMBERLAIN Vice-President, Skinner, Chamberlain & Company The department store must base its success or failure upon some groundwork or foundation, the same as that upon which all effective selling is based. As in all sales, success is made of, and reducible to, cer- tain units which have varying importance, a large majority of these being essential to success. The mer- chant who makes a success of department store selling, therefore, is the one who has the best grasp upon these essentials which are the component parts of general salesmanship, plus those special essentials peculiar to the business of a department store. The first essential, as it strikes the one coming to buy, is the store in which the firm does business. The department store of the smaller cities should always be a roomy one. The contents should not be cluttered up, or give the appearance of being crowded into too small space. The height of the store should be enough to give a roomy effect, and, at the same time, allow the hanging or draping of certain classes of mer- chandise that require display to sell. Accessibility of the store building is generally a great aid to securing a volume of trade. By aocessi- 113 114 SELLING bility is meant, of course, location as regards the busi- ness and residence part of the town. People prefer to trade at a store on a main street and sur- of'wlibiUty rounded by other and prosperous busi- ness houses, rather than with one situ- ated on a side street, or much detached from other build- ings. Location, however, is not as important to the department store as to the exclusive and smaller one, as the store itself makes the location at once popular, thereby escaping, in many instances, excessive rents, and less being at the mercy of property owners. But usually buyers like to do their purchasing in a small area, not running about so as to cover a large terri- tory ; and there is always a feeling that one can "drop in" a store that is accessible from parts of the busi- ness portion of town, when one is down on another errand. This leads to a considerable amount of inci- dental trade; as people coming down town to buy one thing, frequently remember others that they need, and purchases are made accordingly. That the store be well lighted, and have large and sightly windows for display, is a prime requisite. A well-lighted store not only gives a general CheerftftaeBs cheerful appearance to the place, but also permits of display of many goods, the purchase of which depends upon correct light values, or ability to observe the details of the article put forth for sale. The window display of a store is an art in itself, and all show windows should be so arranged, that with reasonable effort and ability, an attractive showing can be made. The final requisite of the store is that it present aside from all its other details — location, size, accessi- W. G. CHAMBERLAIN 115 bility, etc. — a light and cheerful appearance, in decided contrast to the old fashioned general store. This, com- bined with absolute cleanliness of all departments, is a factor that often is, but should never be, overlooked. Only by waging a perpetual warfare with dust and dirt can the store be kept up to the standard that is re- quired by the critical buyer. The next thing in which a purchaser is interested, is the stock. That it should be complete, well arranged, and attractively disposed of in the store, stock goes without saying. The department store is especially liable to call for vary- ing lines of goods. If anything is wanted and there is any doubt as to whether it will be found at a furni- ture store or hardware store, the tendency of the buyer is to go to the department store because the very fact that it is a department store gives the idea that there will be found in stock what the purchaser desires. The problem of how comprehensive to make a stock, is al- ways before the department store man. To determine exactly what lines to carry, and what specialties to keep in stock require constant study on the buyer's part, and the trade papers are found to be of great assistance to the department buyer. The factor which next interests the buyer, is the one to show him the stock; i. e., the employ^. It is here that salesmanship in its concrete sense becomes the most important factor in the success of a busi- ness relying purely upon selling for its profits. The city salesperson must possess the virtues of politeness, attentiveness, competency, etc. But in ad- Effloienov dition to these, the country salesman must of the One possess, what, for lack of another term, wbo Sells jjj^y ljg described by the words, "social 116 SELLING quality." The friendships of a country town ealesman or saleslady have an important bearing upon the sell- ing efficiency of the man or woman behind the counter. People are not only intimately acquainted, but have their personal grounds for preferring one certain sales- person, or a certain class of salespersons, to another. These reasons may grow out of nationality, blood re- lationship, fraternal friendship, or one of a thousand other reasons. And the efficiency of one selling to the public is often increased in the ratio by the number of friends which he possesses and the tact which he uses in making more. Perhaps next in the interest of the buyer, is the gen- eral management. This, too, has two sides: the busi- ness and the social side. The business side embraces those qualifications which belong to all successful in- stitutions — honesty, accuracy, reliability, promptness, and perhaps a score of other things which favor a mer- chant in his relations with the buying public. The reputation of the general management is an important part of the stock in trade of the firm. Good-will may take years to build up, and once firmly intrenched in the minds of the people, is an unpurchasable asset of the company. The general management is also related to the so- cial side of those who come to buy. The habits of the jj^g proprietors of the department store in Personal the smaller cities are closely scrutinized, Factor ^^^ ^j^g fj-jends made by them often ex- tend their courtesies in a business way. This does not mean by any means that a proprietor is at all depend- ent upon business to the amount that he goes into society — far from that. Business and society, in fact, will not mix, but the indirect social qualities, the W. G. CHAMBERLAIN 117 friendship shown to one person to-day, the cordiality evinced at all times to those who have the slightest claim upon one, build up that social good-will so neces- sary to success in any line. Besides the foundation upon which effective sell- ing is based, there are numerous elements related to, or interdependent upon, successful salesmanship. In buying the greatest care must be shown; first, to secure a stock varied enough to answer the demands of the trade; second, stock must be bought close enough to meet successfully all competition, and also be of. such quality as will at all times give satisfaction to the purchaser. This is effected by having one buyer who makes the buying for his or her department a business; studies it, and consults with the clerks in the various departments, and makes the results show the effect of his or her study and work. Another factor is that of advertising. .Department stores carrying a large stock of goods must, as in all other businesses, first let the public know fi.dvertlaing the size of their stock; that is, what can be bought at the store. There is no bet- ter advertising medium than the town papers when used properly, and the most effective ads are always those quoting prices. Circularization is effective if the circulars are neatly gotten up, and the mails are to be preferred for distribution in all cases. Catalogues are quite effective, but in towns of 8,000 or less, it is seldom possible to get out a catalogue that is comprehensive enough to give the returns for the output necessary. Gift schemes of various kinds are often brought out, but very few of these are worth the time and at- 118 SELLING tention necessary to put them to successful use. The same amount of time and energy spent in other ways, is usually productive of better results. The relation of credits and collections to selling, as effected by the department stores, is an intimate one. Credits ^^ ^^® smaller cities, of 8,000 inhabitants, CoUectionB, or less, the patrons of a store not only an se ling j^^j^ ^^^ credit, they take it as their due. Where there is no organized means of reporting credits taken part in by all of the merchants of a town, it becomes necessary for each merchant to use his own judgment in the matter of granting extensions of credit. This is all the more difficult because of the general mis- understanding of the public of what just credit really means. Often the man who has had accommodation after accommodation granted to him, and in fact been educated to what it means to pay his bill when due, takes offense at some minor matter, and becomes an actual enemy of the firm who has granted him a large number of favors. This, in time will be done away with, and the merchants of the town will present a united front to buyers so that there will be little or no shift of trade on account of credit extensions. To help the sales division a great deal of tact is necessary, but the percentages of loss — either direct, where the cus- tomer never pays, or indirect, where he turns his busi- ness to another place, because of refusal of credit, is small indeed for the amount of business done. Over all the other elements, controlling them, is system. This factor is the most important of any that enters into successful selling, particularly where a store is large and dealing in a great number of classes of goods. Without system the department store can sell — for a time — but at such prices and under W. G. CHAMBERLAIN 119 such conditions, that either profits or trade must suf- fer — one or the other. The country department store is open to competi- tion from three principal sources : (1) The small dealer. (2) Surrounding country towns. (3) City catalogue houses. It may be sta1;ed, generally, that the larger the store, the greater the advantage a firm has in selling, jj^g This is the day of big things. The buyer Large likes to be identified as doing business ^*'"^® with a store that is the largest in the city, and carries the most complete line. This in itself is an advantage. The department store man must be careful not to let it become a disadvantage, by letting his competitors specialize his business away from him. He must know each of the various ramifications of his business just as well as does the man who has but one line, and works that line hard. Overhead expense of the large dealer is proportionately greater than that of the small dealer. There is more chance for waste. He must, therefore, make up that loss by the advant- age that he has in selling, because of the fact that the purchaser is more easily induced to patronize the large store than the small one. Then, too, his organization as regards number is more complete than that of the small dealer. He em- ploys, say, five times as many clerks. Each of these clerks has his circle of friends and acquaintances, who, in turn, have their friends, and a larger proportion of buyers may be reached and influenced than is possible for the small dealer to affect. Competition as regards the surrounding country towns, is met somewhat in the same way. The large 120 SELLING stock, the facilities for fllling satisfactorily any order for anything that the country buyer may want, appeals forcibly to the out-of-town purchaser. It is no more than right that some special inducements be given the buyer who passes by the small store in his home town jj^g to come to a larger town to buy of the de- Out-of-Town partment store. Nor is this unjust to urciaser ^j^^ ^j^^ buyer. The slight difference in the way of inducement, is well earned by a buyer from an adjoining town who comes to the county seat on business, and reserves his orders in bulk for the store, where he knows they can be filled in their entirety. This matter of competition is one that offers an excellent chance for study to the progressive retailer. Knowing where his competition is to be looked for he must then kpow how to meet it. There are two ways of effecting this. He can either make his organization so perfect that it is not open to business-destroying competition or he can make his selling efflciency so high that it is nearly perfect. In either case he is secure. It may here be asked, "Why not effect both?" This is not always possible because the faculty of organiza- tion and the faculty of selling are not always found in the same man. It is a good rule, while not underrating a competi- tor, to acknowledge no competition until it is found that that competition has no vulnerable point; nothing from which a lesson may be learned and applied. The city catalogue house has been, and is still, a bugaboo to some country merchants. I do not regard it as such. I take the stand today, as HTO»ef°^ I have always, that the wide-awake and hustling up-to-date business man can com- W. G. CHAMBERLAIN 121 pete with any one selling in his own line. If he can not, he is in the wrong business. The catalogue house gets some trade, it is true, but the proportion is rela- tively small when compared with the amount of trade that there is in sight. This may vary in different local- ities ; in fact it does vary greatly with the geographical location of a place, but the interests of the country 6uyer are so interwoven with the future and the for- tunes of his own home store that he will always, with very few exceptions, be a loyal friend and patron of it. CHAPTER XV PUBLICITY FOR THE RETAILER BY TOM MURRAY A man who nowadays rents a store, hires help, and does not figure on advertising is not destined for a suc- cessful business career. He had far better figure rent first, then advertising, and his help expense afterward. If he does not advertise it will not be long before he will need no employes. Had it not been for advertising I should have been crowded out of my business the sec- ond year. If a man does not know enough to advertise in these days he can buy that kind of brains that does know, and he had better do so or quit buying goods, get out of business, and work for the man who does advertise; he will need you. Look around you. Who are the men who succeed? Are they not the advertisers? Make yourself the talk of the town. It can be done. I can not be otherwise than a great believer in advertising. Window adver- tising has been with me one of my great successes. Here is a sample of how effective judicious advertising is: I started in business with a small capital. The first year I did a business over ten times the amount "A Sheriffs ^^ ^^ Original capital, but lost money. At Sale Without the end of this time I had a big stock of the Sheriff" goods, not paid for, and no money in sight to satisfy my creditors. I didn't want to take my name down from over the door. No doubt the sheriff could 122 TOM MURRAY 123 have made a successful sale and turned merchandise into cash and me into the street. Such oflEicial services are, however, expensive, so I determined to use his name without his services. I had a sign made, large enough to cover the whole front of the store, except the door. The announcement read : "Closed, but not by the Sheriff. This store will be opened tomorrow at nine." The "Closed by the Sheriff" were the only large, bold letters on the sign. The words "but not" were in very small letters. The phrase, "This store will be open to-morrow at nine," was in medium size print. Next morning at nine the store was packed. This ended in one of the most successful sales I ever had. I succeeded in getting out the goods and getting in the money. Many people expressed their regrets; many were glad of my action, though they did not say so, for it gave them a chance for bargains. Some asked, "How much money would have saved you? Why didn't you tell me?" I found out how many real friends I had, and I have not lost their addresses. After I had ex- plained to my friends and asked them to read the sign carefully, they would laugh and say, "That is a good one," and turn around and buy some goods. I found that I secured splendid results from what are known as "blue pencil ads," both in my windows The Birth of ^^^ ^° street cars. They originated in the Bine Pencil this Way: About three years ago, after Advertisement trimming a window, I found that I did not have any printed or painted show cards to advertise the goods and prices. With me it is necessary that every window must have some kind of an advertise- ment. Every show window, it matters not how beauti- fully it is dressed, is ineffective if there is not some kind of a written or printed advertisement in it. In 124 SELLING this instance, as it would have taken time to have a card printed, I sent out for a blue pencil, and wrote the first blue pencil ad ever written. They took, I wrote more, six or eight of them, and put them all in one window. All day long twenty-five or thirty people were reading them. I have been writing them ever since, only instead of writing them for one window I now write them for twelve. I never study an ad. I write any odd sentence that may happen to come into my head. It must, how- ever, be amusing to be successful. If you can amuse the public, you can get their money. I find that the more a man gets into the habit of writing ads, the more ideas come to him. Many a man who thinks that he can not write ads is mistaken. A little nerve often proves that a man has some advertis- ing brains of which he did not know. Assume prosperity. Look prosperous; be prosper- ous in your attitude toward your employes and your Prosperity as customers. Wear a smile. Dress well, for an Asset in all a well-dressed man appears prosperous; Business gjj^^ after spending your money and en- ergy to get your customers, do not deceive them. Never advertise anything at a special price unless it be true. If you sell a garment and it does not give satisfaction, the customer will no doubt make complaint. Satisfy him. Don't do it by talk; give him satisfaction. Be liberal about it. Make him think you are the squarest man he ever traded with. Make him a walking ad- vertisement for you. In order to buy good merchandise, and also to re- ceive "clever" treatment in case you should want a favor from your creditors at any time, select houses that are above suspicion and known to be honorable in TOM MURRAY 125 their dealings. A reliable firm will give you more favors if you need them than a firm with a questionable reputation. The minute a firm of the latter class does not get its money promptly, it is far more apt to sus- pect and to lose confidence in you than is the other firm. A man may get to be a successful merchant and build up an immense business, and wake up some day with the realization that he is fast losing it. He wonders why, for he is still doing the same hard work. He must not overlook this : He is not alone in business ; he has partners. He must not make them too "silent." I re- fer to the employees. It may be possible that he has in his employ some fellow who has more brains than he has — a future merchant prince. He should encourage him; give him a chance. Let him tell once in a while what he thinks. If his ideas are good, no one should be ashamed to adopt them. To hold your trade you must have employes who are civil. Civility is cheap and lack of it expensive. To gain this end, be civil to your employes. You cannot expect an employe to be civil to customers if you are not civil to him. If you do not feel well, if you are cross and cannot come to business and meet your help with a pleasant "good morning" and remain pleasant, you had better stay away for the day. Your employes can run your business far better for that day without you. Stay home, play golf, play anything but the fool. Cross words and stern looks are catching. Your em- ployes are apt to meet and use your customers in the same way that you treat them. Be civil to all men. Put yourself out more to speak to a man who is not worth a dollar than you would 126 SELLING to a millionaire, for the latter will not feel oflPended if you do not recognize him. His money and conceit cover the slight. Don't go into business unless you intend to adver- tise. Don't engage in business unless you can be civil and obliging. Ever keep in mind that the time may come, be you ever so successful at present, when you may be reversed in life, sometime to be an employ^ again. CHAPTER XYI SELLING TO THE JOBBER IN THE FACE OF TRUST COMPETITION BY GEORGE W. OGILVIE Publisher The trust, to-day, is to many people an unknown factor in the world of business. When the dealer attempts the sale of a line handled by an organized trust, he has not only ordinary business competition to meet, but must so conduct his sales department as to sell in the face of such competition and successfully meet the extraordinary competition of the trust. Should anyone think that the trusts cannot furnish that sort of business competition, or I might term it excitement — just let him get into a line of business that is partially or, in effect, wholly controlled by a "gentlemen's ( ?) working agreement" or trust. Every business man who seeks his legitimate share of trade knows that competition is severe enough with- out adding that of this generally unknown factor — the trust. This holds true particularly in the publishing of Bibles and dictionaries. This branch of the publishing business has, I believe, undergone more radical changes in the last decade than many, if not most, mercantile lines, and the changes are of a more substantial nature than the ordinary manufacturing and jobbing trade would be able to withstand. The wholesaler of cloth- ing, boots and shoes, groceries, or general merchandise requires a better selling organization now than ever 127 128 SELLING before, but he does not meet as difficult conditions aa does the publisher pushing for the jobbing trade. It can safely be taken for granted that most of the trusts — or parties to a "working agreement" — in their desire to restrict or do away with competition will do or attempt to do one of four things: (1) Force the independent dealer out of business by ruinous competition. (2) Begin malicious suits against the competitor's customers or the competitor himself, and thus by threats and bulldozing methods "put someone out of business." (3) Buy him out. (4) Leave him the field. The first of these methods is generally adopted in competing with small concerns that cannot withstand "sales below cost" competition; the second by those combinations that have no legal rights, but attempt to manufacture them by bribery, illegal and fraudulent claims of rights that do not exist except in the minds of the claimants, or by improperly influencing judicial decisions; the third, only when numbers one and two have failed; the fourth, never unless they have been beaten at their own game. Of the foregoing plans, the first, third and fourth are so well known as to require no special comment. The second or malicious suit method is not particularly new, but is less usual in its application than the others, for trusts and combinations do not like to let legal light shine on or the public eye see the "fine work" details of many of their business transactions. They fear that such a light may have the same effect as it is reported the X-ray has on certain forms of microbe disease — cures — ^but kills — not necessarily kills the GEORGE W. OGILVIE 129 patient, although it may do so — but is sure to kill the microbe, which in this instance may be compared to the methods, not the individual. You may ask: "Is this method ever used?" Judg- ing from my own experience it certainly is. I will merely give an outline of how it was used by a corpora- tion competitor that I had previously supposed to be oflBcered by the most respectable business men in exist- ence. This competition embraced such methods as : (1) Threatening communications. (2) Attempted bribery by the attorney of the cor- poration of an employ^ having access to valuable records to steal them and otherwise furnish informa- tion of value. (3) Endorsement of the foregoing by the corpora- tion as the act of their duly authorized attorney and legal representative. (4) Methods similar to the boycott in intimidating the jobbing trade. These methods, merely enumerated here, have been given in their entirety in the "Publishers' Weekly," and might be found interesting to those who have had or expect to have trust competition, but the mere mention of the above methods of competition make it plain, I think, that the person who gets in the way of a combine is likely to be run over, or has to be made of such ma- terial that when their car strikes him he is strong enough to throw it off the track, and as I have not yet been taken to the hospital for repairs, one is at liberty to draw their own conclusions. Another incident in a trust campaign occurred shortly after I began to publish Bibles. The fact that there is a Bible trust is not generally 130 SELLING known, but here is what the New York "Sun," in its issue of Feb. 25, 1903, said editorially, under the head- ing of: "The Book for Which There is the Greatest Demand :" "The recent consolidation of large Bible publishing houses in New York, London, and Edinburgh in a great xte corporation is an interesting, and perhaps Bible a significant, incident. It indicates that "" the business of Bible publication con- tinues on a great scale, as a private enterprise; that the public demand for the Scriptures still exceeds that for any other book printed on the earth. So great is the demand that the publication of Bibles as a purely business enterprise is carried on extensively and profit- ably; and now, as we have said, it has been consoli- dated into a great corporation or 'trust.' " The Sun is not known (to put it mildly) as an anti-trust publication, therefore what it says has the weight of authority. There is a Bible trust, and I offended it, for I refused, when requested, to sell prop- erty to them for |1,000 that cost |12,000, the announced penalty for non-compliance being that they would "sell Bibles for less than I had any idea of." The experi- enced business man does not need to be told what such a remark means, as he well knows what an "under- selling campaign," conducted by an organization hav- ing practically unlimited capital, leads to. However, in spite of combine opposition over 15,000 Bibles were sold from Chicago for shipment to New York City (the trust headquarters) in a very short time. All this is prefatory to means of selling ; it is, how- ever, closely related to selling inasmuch as it shows what competition a man or firm has to meet in the disposal of his product. Then, too, the buying public is GEORGE W. OGILVIE 131 afifected ; not only the jobber to which a man must sell first, but the consumer himself is not in a receptive mood, and salesmanship teaches that the first requisite of a successful sale is that the one to whom a sale is to be made be in the mood to buy. When there is organized agitation against the product of a certain firm it makes it just that much harder to sell. The jobber desires to maintain pleasant and equitable relations with each of the firms from which he buys and if the word is passed around that one of the number is "unfair" it is very easy for him to refrain from sending any orders to the one so des- ignated. The public, too, is reached to a certain extent through the jobber, and more particularly is the re- tailer. Here, however, the effect is not Age and as great as ^it might be supposed. The Worth relation of the public to buying is far different from what it used to be, and the seller must take advantage of this fact. It is no longer necessary to quote age as a guarantee of goodness. Younger and more enterprising firms employing more modern methods and giving better values for the money, and making a special improvement in the product, both as to quality and volume, have educated the buying public to look with favor upon the new, not because it is new, but because it is liable to be better than the old. The first active step in selling is the counteracting of any adverse feeling which may have been created through the various ramifications of the combine. This is done by the ordinary aggressive means used in push- ing for trade, by advertising, circularization, influence of personal friends, etc. Advertisements, to have an influence on the job- 132 SELLING bing trade, will be of two classes, those in the jobbers' trade papers and others, as those in general maga- zines, which give general publicity. A general public- ity campaign is an expensive one, and it must be kept in mind what proportion of advertising expense is to be allotted to general publicity and what to what may be termed specific publicity or special advertising. It will be found, almost without exception, that the best returns from advertising are those in which a specific demand is made, and this can not be done in a general publicity campaign. A certain amount of general publicity, however, is necessary to assist the jobber in disposing of his prod- uct. General publicity in the abstract, is expensive, and does not possess the main virtue which the direct advertisement does, viz.: the property of being keyed so as to show exact results. A direct advertisement nowadays uniformly bears a key which shows how many orders the advertisement in question has pulled. The use of the catalogue and the smaller circular is so common and its application so well known that it does not need taking up here. The smaller books are often sent out for review, sometimes in exchange for general reading notices, but in case of the larger works this would be impracticable, owing to the cose of the sample. In the case of the Bible it would hardly be necessary for many samples to be sent out except to show quality of binding and gen- eral make-up. A dictionary, however, must be thor- oughly reviewed by those competent to judge it, as well as by the regular reviewers of the press. The ability to build up a satisfactory sales force is found in but few men. It is now universally recog* GEORGE W. OGILVIE 133 nized among successful sales managers, that, hard as it is to secure competent salesmen or those susceptible Making the *^ training, and to build up a successful Jobber the sales organization, a harder task lies s es Force before the man who would dispose of his product to the jobber. If one of the members of a sales organization does not show selling qualities he can be laid off and another man put on in his place. The progressive sales manager can get results because he can choose his sales force. In reaching out for trade through the jobber there are no possibilities of that kind. The jobbers of the territory in which the whole- saler is selling are his sales force — a sales force so con- stituted that the wholesaler is to a certain extent de- pendent upon them. This means, then, that when the jobbers constitute a firm's sales force that it offers a point of attack that the trust, through its legal organization is not slow to take advantage of. Intimidation of the jobber is immediately sought. Sometimes it works — sometimes not. There is no such thing as intimidation of a sales force. The salesman who would give as an excuse that he was "intimidated," would be a rarity indeed. Oppo- sition only makes a sales force work the harder. Com- petition is invited and considered to make the game more interesting. Then, too, the salesman is in abso- lute touch with the buying world. He sees things from the standpoint of one who knows by contact, not by hearsay. His communications to the home office are of the greatest value as an index to trade conditions. The jobber, on the other hand, is not in business to cooperate with his supplier. He is aiming to secure his goods as cheaply as possible. From the very nature 134 SELLING of things he can not be expected to aid the firm of whom he buys. He must be appealed to in the uni- versally accepted way, by being given the best goods on the best terms. It is merely a trade contest between the trust and the non-trust supplier. This contest will always be on. Businesses will gain power with success and attempt to do away with competition that they may have the field entirely to themselves. It is a condition which, in the same or a modified form will always be present in American in- dustrialism. In conclusion, there are just a few things neces- sary when "bucking" a trust — first, unlimited and un- qualified nerve, never give up; second, capital enough to do business on ; third, the right sort of goods — equal or better than the trusts, and lastly, confidence in yourself. PART III SYSTEM AND SELLING CHAPTER XYII THE ADVANTAGES AND IMPORTANCE OF SYSTEM IN SELLING BY J. HARRY SELZ Second Vice-President, Selz. Schwab ^XAj J i ' Jo - , I /jjLm, liiUj^.^MAJ^ Fig. m (the top card), the "prospect " card, bearing the name and address of a possible customer. Fig. V (the bottom card) shows the address record of a salesman on the road connected with same are in possession of the credit de- partment, waiting to be called for), Middleville, Hast- ings, Nashville, Charlotte, Battle Creek (purple tack, collection), Marshall, Albion, Homer, Hanover, Addi- son, Jackson, Manchester, Tecumseh, Dundee (which extends beyond the limits of the map shown on the illustration), Adrian, Hudson, Jonesville and home. I now take two strings, red and green, and tie them to the Coldwater tack, looping the red around the tacks in the order above named, until I reach Jones- W. A. WATERBUEY 157 ville, the last town before reaching home, where the string ends. This shows the route taken. The object of having the string end at Jonesville is to avoid con- fusion, as one examining the map might assume Doe went in the other direction if the circle of the string was completed to Coldwater. The green string is also tied to the Coldwater tack, but is left loose. As soon as Doe clears the first town (Sturgis) he notifies the home ofiBce by wire (or mail if he is traveling slowly) and the green string is looped around the Sturgis tack, and so on during his complete route. A glance at the map will always show the last town cleared, therefore, the next town is the place where he can be reached by wire or letter if necessary. By following this system, no matter how many travelers I have out, I am always in constant touch with them and can reach them quickly by wire or letter. Of course it is important that notices of departure from any town should be immediately recorded on the Color Schemes ™^P ^^*^ ^^^ ^°°®® string as soon as re- Indicating ceived. Eeports of the business transacted BusinessValnes ^^^ ^g^j^g ^^^^^ ^j.^ g^^^ j^ ^.^ ^j^^ ^^^^ oflSce daily and the records are handled along the gen- eral lines already explained. This plan is intended to cover the movements of Doe, who travels rapidly. In the case of a traveler moving more slowly the mail may be utilized instead of the telegraph for notifying the home ofiSce. In this case, as much notice in advance of time of departure as is practicable should be given. The nature of the work will determine which service is necessary to use. As fast as a town is cleared and the correspond- ence, reports, and orders sent in, if unfinished or pros- pective business remains, the black tack is restored. 158 SELLING If all business is cleaned up and there is no further necessity for returning and orders have been taken, a blue tack is substituted for the black. A town may bear a black and a blue tack — indicating prospective busi- ness and sales consummated. I soon find the territory dotted with blue tacks and the maps show where my business is coming from. A preponderance of black tacks and a scarcity of blue in territory regularly and properly traveled indicates weak representation or an unproliflc field and attracts my attention. A change of representatives may alter the situation or failure to get a satisfactory business may be due to causes needing careful study. This may at first appear a complicated system, burdened with laborious detail and requiring a con- siderable amount of clerical assistance to keep up. As a matter of fact, it is very simple. It clears itself up as one gets into it, and a few moments each day regu- larly applied is sufficient to keep it moving like clock- work. Another useful purpose served by a map-and-tack system is to indicate where the money spent on advertis- ing is attracting the most atte'ition and producing the best results. Of course, every large business enterprise which advertises extensively, keys its advertisements, or has its own way of ascertaining from what adver- tisement any business emanates, so it can be credited to its proper source. The thickly dotted sections of black tacks in any part of the country indicate the interest that has been created. Eeference to the index cards and correspondence shows the source of inquiry and will determine where the credit belongs and the value of the advertising medium. For locating a traveling man who is moving over a W. A. WATEEBURY 159 tacked route, as for instance, Mr. Doe, reference is had to his card in the index file under "Coldwater." Pre- Knowing the vious to his departure from a town or city Traveler's he wires his time of departure and his "** hotel or mail address in the next town, sending this information as far in advance of his de- parture as practicable. If circumstances will permit, this information may be sent by regular mail. As soon as it is received the time of departure, date, name of the next town and mail address are recorded on the card, which is available to anyone who has occasion to com- municate with him. Figure V shows the form of card used for this purpose. It indicates, for instance, that salesman B. F. Jones left Carlinville, July 11, 6:30 p. m., and he should be addressed at Ross House, Haga- man, until another notice arrives. In the case of a traveler moving too rapidly to permit the use of his de- parture notices, the local address in the different towns should be ascertained and recorded on the cards in ad- vance. Another colored tack may be inserted alongside a red one in any town or city along the route when it is necessary to address a traveler at a certain place. Adoption of the system will suggest various uses for the tacks as one becomes familiar with the plan of operation, and the map-and-tack system once installed will never be abandoned. CHAPTER XIX SYSTEM AND SELLING IN THE STORE BY GEO. E. B. PUTNAM Associate Editor, The Boot and Shoe Recorder Retail dealers are aware of the advantage of thor- ough system in their business and know more or less about the way in which cards are filed and indexed, but many of them will always be interested in the defi- nite application of a system that can be used in their business. As a means of keeping posted on the needs of cus- tomers, and to impart information to customers and to keep account of stock, this system offers unusual facili- ties. Take for example the dealer who wishes to ad- dress his customers three or four times a year, both at the time when he receives his new stock and when he makes his semi-annual clearance sales. At such times a circular letter is of great ad- vantage, and in order to get the full effect of such a sys- CiroulariziiiB *^°^ there should be as full a list as pos- tha sible of all those who have bought goods '^"'^® at your store. It may seem a task to make the beginning, yet, if undertaken systematically, a little at a time, the dealer will be surprised to see in how short a time he would have a fairly complete list of his customers, the styles of goods they wear and their sizes, which would be almost invaluable to him. I would have cards of a convenient size made, with spaces for the name of the head of the family. This, 160 GEO. E. B. PUTNAM 161 when it comes to buying, is usually the wife and mother, for she buys for herself and the children, while the man, as a rule, buys shoes only for himself. This point is one to be settled according to circumstances. Having the name and address of the head of the family, place in the lines below, the names of each mem- ber of the family to whom you have sold shoes. If you can not get their names simply write "youngest girl," "son," "little boy," opposite the sales made. When you sell a pair of shoes record the size and stock number. This will give you a valuable record for use at the time of clearance sales of shoes of any kind. You can then refer to the cards and write letters or send circu- lars understandingly, stating that you have shoes of such sizes and styles as will fit some member of the fam- ily. This is specific advertising and will be practically a personal letter to each one. Then, again, such a list enables you to announce that having a record of the size of shoes worn by each member of the family, as well as the style, you can fill any order by mail, a distinct advantage if the customer goes away for the summer, or is traveling. If you let your customers know that you can thus fill their orders you can frequently make sales which would otherwise be given to the dealer in another city. This information will also give you an indication of the kind of footwear each one of the family wears, and if you are making a sale of low priced footwear, you can omit from your mailing list those who wear only the higher grade of goods. If you want to hold a "private view" or "special opening" for the exhibition of your new lines of fine goods, then you can omit from the list those who buy only the cheaper grades. The saving in printing and postage is worth vrhile, 162 SELLING and the adoption of the card system will be found the easiest way in which to keep such a list up to date, for if a customer changes his home address it can easily be corrected on the card or a new card made. The changes in sizes of the children's shoes should always be noted, for the little feet will surely grow, and if the list does not keep pace, errors may be made. The best way to compile a list of this kind is to begin at once and take full details of every sale you gg^jjjjjj^^ make. Get the address of the customer. Tour This is easily done if the goods are de- *" livered to the customer. A polite request for the name and address generally brings the desired information. As fast as these sale slips are obtained they may be transferred by the cashier, to cards similar to the illustration shown here (Figure I) and arranged alphabetically in a box made for the purpose. While, from greater familiarity with that branch of retailing, I have used the selling of shoes as an illus- tration, the system explained is applicable as well to all other branches of retailing. The most effective advertising is that which is personal in its eflfect, and the dealer who can show a lady that he has something which especially suits her in style, quality and size, is more apt to bring that per- son to the store and make her a purchaser than the one who advertises in a more general way. The dealer who is successful must keep close watch of his stock, and the nearer he comes to knowing just Keeping exactly what he has on hand and how his Track of stock is selling, the more successful he will be. Many dealers keep no account of stock whatever; some keep a stock book. Those who have tried it find that the card system is the most satis- GEO. E. B. PUTNAM 163 factory. As the stock is continually changing, the stock book must necessarily contain many dead pages, those of lines which have been discarded, or pages which have become so crowded as to require opening new ones. When the stock record is kept upon cards it is much better, for the cards registering discarded lines may then be taken out without interfering with the arrange- J A \ \ ' (^A > 1 1 ^ FIG. I ment of those which remain, and therefore avoid hav- ing what would be useless pages if kept in the stock book. An advantageous size is 4 inches high and 6 inches wide. This is a standard size and they are kept in stock by all dealers in these goods. These should have at the top a space for the stock number. It would be 164 SELLING well to designate men's shoes, by numbers between 1000 and 2000; all women's shoes in the 2000's; boys' and youth's in the 3000's; misses' and children's in the 4000's, and so on. That is, use the left hand figure to represent the class. The second figure in a like manner can represent the houses from which you are buying, as few dealers buy from more than ten firms in any one line. NUMBER COST ^ -^^ SELL J — ORDERED RCC'D '3lL-Ls -.V. "^ /3kf/^y-3ij^. Ui^lr±t a N u o O z •k < f « 3 -1 u l» k. o Ifl 1- ID ID S bl u n 3 U a. m « t- Z 3 u u c U li. IT 0. "' o t- < o t- M w u hi z < w u < w k O z o u c u > 14 O 111 N io >• o i o z o o K K « 4 o z « o oc d s 4 o 111 IT w 6 z z o z o u o z z 4 u :£ D 4 O u S K' kl >■ z M u 111 N < S u O 3 o 4 < O 3 u o .1 4 z a O « W c a 4 O KENDALL BANNING 181 To minimize this loss as much as possible, a system has been instituted which keeps a careful watch over the prospective business, by making each salesman call to his own attention prospective sales with which he should keep in touch. This system centers in a small leather booklet, three by five inches in size, which each salesman car- ries with him. In this book are bound in loose leaf form, one hundred or more of the cards illustrated in Figure I. These cards alternate in color, yellow and white, throughout the book. Every time the salesman encounters a firm which may be in the market he makes a record of the inter- _, Entered ^^^^ ^^ *^^ yellow sheet and a carbon on Follow-TJp copy on the white sheet. On this sheet he writes, with indelible pencil, the es- sential information to be remembered, the name of the customer, his address, the date of the interview, the name of the buyer of the house through whom the transaction must be made, and the kind of business which the house is doing. The salesman also indicates the style of safe at present in use, its size, and its age. This information is used as a basis on which the old safe may be taken in exchange for a new one. Space is also provided for a brief comment on the prospects of selling, and a note is made of the prices which have been quoted, the number of the floor to which delivery must be made and the date on which the salesman believes that a follow-up ca\l should be made. The salesman then signs this slip ■ nd deposits both the original and the carbon in a basket provided for this purpose, at the main office, where each sales- man reports every morning. 182 SELLING u y- < o z 3 o E »- 10 < £ w 111 u S a. o 0. u c 4 o z C a: U 3 > K 3 U m c B I S o 4 4 O KENDALL BANNING 183 Every day these slips containing information re- garding prospects are collected by the item clerk. The original slip is filed chronologically, under the date on which the salesman is to make the next call. The white slip is filed geographically, according to the district in which the "item" is located. Every night the item clerk selects from the file those yellow slips on which are indicated the calls to be made on the following day. These slips are taken from the file and are placed in a small compartment in a cabinet which serves as the salesmen's postoffice, and in which all directions and correspondence are found by the salesmen the first thing in the morning. Each of these compartments is numbered and devoted exclusively to the use of one salesman. In this way the memoranda of calls to be made on that day are not only brought to the attention of each salesman, but are placed before him in his own writing. The white slips are left in the geographical file for reference. As soon as the salesman makes these follow-up calls, he arranges a return call report illustrated in _ . , , Figure II. The first of these return call The Salesman's " Eeturn Call reports is made out on a pink slip, on Eeport which is recorded the name of the firm, its address, the date of the call, the buyer's name and whatever comment is necessary. At the bottom of the slip a space is provided for a reference to the date of the next call. These pink slips are then filed chron- ologically in the same cabinet which contains the yel- low slips. They are brought to the attention of the salesman on the date indicated, in the same maimer as the first report on the yellow slip is given him. 184 SELLING o n » o 00 M 01 O (tl « O N <» O 1 N O 10 J n N a OB <0 10 u -I a « is u < > h < < I O u (0 < h. o u I- « I o Z H> < z (A 9 »: I- C 4 < h S 2 U 3 E O KENDALL BANNING 185 In the same way a report on tlie third call is made out on a gray slip, and the date of the fourth call is indicated. Thus a complete and constant record of every prospect is kept, not only by the salesman, b'ut by the company, which uses the white slips in the permanent file as a basis of inquiring into the work which each salesman is doing in each geographical district, and from which the company may follow the progress of each district and call the man's attention to prospects that are not being carefully followed up. This supervision by the company of the work of each salesman results to the advantage both of the sales force and of the company itself. In the first place, the system impresses the salesman with the necessity of differentiating carefully between those firms which are in the market and those which are not. The status of those who are in the field is brought to his attention mechanically and regularly, in a form which he can most easily recognize. In the third place, the system creates a bond between the company and the salesmen, whereby the latter are made to recognize the fact that the interests of both are common, and that the assigned territories are not to be regarded solely as personal property, to be cultivated or neg- lected at will, but must be cultivated by co-operation. This system may be applied with modifications to the sales force of every manufacturing house whose salesmen make personal solicitations. Covering all Whether these memoranda amount to one Territory pgj. ggQ^ qj. twenty-five per cent of, the total calls which are made, the follow-up slips are of value in keeping the territory covered carefully at all times. 186 SELLING In eases when sharp lines are not drawn between assigned territories conflicts between salesmen who are working on one prospect are brought to the attention of the company mechanically, by means of the geo- graphical file, and adjustments may be made before the matter comes to a dispute. As each sale is made, the follow-up records are re- moved from the follow-up files. In this way, the fol- low-up lists are kept constantly "alive," and the state of life of each prospect is indicated by the color slip. The salesman knows that a yellow slip is a memoran- dum for a second call, a pink slip is a memorandum for a third call, and a gray slip means a fourth call. As each call usually implies a continued interest on the part of a prospect, the salesman may plan his day's work in such a way as to give his most careful attention to those firms on whom records show that the great- est amount of care has already been given. The salesman who wishes to keep in his own posses- sion a permanent record of his prospects may be pro- vided with cards like Figure III, which remind him of the time elapsed since the last call and furnish all neces- sary data regarding quotations. These cards the salesman may keep in an individual follow-up file. He may classify them in either of two ways: By grouping them alphabetically, and using clips over the figures at the top to guide him in picking out the cards which must be attended to each day; or by distributing them in a file with a set of guide cards numbered for each day of the month. The latter method is generally found the more satisfactory. To be successful a system of this kind does not need a great amount of time, but it needs faithfulness. KENDALL BANNING 187 Records which call for daily memoranda should be at- tended to every night. The salesman must obey his follow-up. If he does this, the system will do as much for him as will an assistant salesman. This system, although somewhat similar in purpose to the follow-up systems of other business houses, is unique in its specific application, and bears many points of advantage over the personal notation system, which, as a rule, the average solicitor carries on for himself without the supervision of the company. CHAPTER XXII system in selling the city and country trAde by b. c. bean The salesman calling upon his trade secures, from the nature of his business, a vast deal of information that is of great use to the sales department and, by extension, to the credit department as well. But a few years since the only method of securing this informa- tion was from the salesman's reports, usually in the form of letters. In some cases it was necessary in order to get in complete data on a week's work for the salesman to send in his orders, a route card, an ex- pense book, and then write one or two letters to report on special features, conditions of trade, etc. The tend- ency now is to condense and compact information as much as possible. This acts in two ways: (1) It gives the salesman less writing to do, while greatly extend- ing the amount of information, and (2) compacts records for easy and quick reference. The first advantage is an important one for the reason that a salesman welcomes anything that will lessen his clerical labor. He is often compelled to make up a report on the train or in the distracting sur- roundings of a country hotel, and if his work is facili- tated so he has but to fill in a card, he is not liable to defer it as he might the writing of a letter. The second advantage is of even more importance, 188 B. C. BEAN 189 particularly to the sales manager and his assistants. To have complete, up-to-date, and detailed information of the entire field in a compact space makes manage- ment just that much easier. Specifically, modern business methods call for one or more of the following: (1) Salesman's report show- ing day's work and condition of trade; (2) list of pros- pective customers, showing date of calls, sales, etc.; SALESMAN'S REPORT CARD "O-.A^.O... DATE .J.T./.t-yjAf. TOWN CLASS OF GOODS ORDCRED SALESMAN A B C D E NO. CALLS t^ >^ ^ v^ ^ COMPLAINT9,|NQUrRieS,eTC. :f4 0" tiyo-trtU..^:^^ t^ ^^^«^ y?/«-v,.,i<7T^ V /%C/%««^ t^ yJxLb ^jU.L.i^^'-c-d- FOBM I (3) catalogue of the customers and prospects of the combined sales force of the house; (4) record of sales and collections, showing comparative records of pres- ent md past business; (5) weekly, monthly, or annual compilation card. Form I is designed as the simplest form of report admissible. This is designed as a check on the road man who works from the sales manager's list. This 190 SELLING list may be furnished the traveler in usual typewritten form or the report card may be partially filled out in the oflSce and sent out for completion. When the salesman visits the town he forwards his card to the house, where it is checked up and filed under guide card of the salesman making the report. M ^.doLuyu /)l i J>i-vnjiAJ cAfLo^/ yJt^,n^cAy J 3 K S F I ft 3 A o z z > z o w 3) o < 3 o z p X » n H W 33 in c z w ■n T £ ^ i DAY •n 3 O 3 -t > I S ^ \ -t DATE '^ -a; ■Si MOTEL BILLS h >t MILES USED n X 3 » VALUE MILEAGE X m (A PI >^ X Of CASH TRANSP'N X \ - BUS BAaCAGC & EXPRESS O o < s s D 10 ■51 - m < § - u bl -V Cfl .hi 6 ^ J J FOBM IV or some modification of it, is a valuable one, being dif- ferent in kind from the salesman's report of country customers. Different colors represent different districts of the city, as many colors being used as there are selling districts. The card is practically self-explanatory in its makeup and may embody any special features de- (Bired. Thus the notations "a," "f," "g," etc., after the 194 SELLING date in the space for "Calls," refer to a code used in indicating individual results of the salesman's visit. Following are some of the keys to letters, which, of course, may be varied as desired by the user. a = Not buying. 6 =: Buyer out. f = Firm overstocked and not buying. roBM V g = Secured promise from buyer to give us a fair share of trade. Information not covered by the key letter may go In space under "Remarks." The salesman routes his cards in the office, takes them with him on his calls, and makes his notations and returns his card each evening to the cabinet wheiee B. C. BEAN 195 they are filed, the date tab being set to indicate the probable or exact date the next call should be made. By modifying Form V as desired a list of actual or prospective customers may be arranged and the form may be modified to suit the requirements of the country trade. In this case it is desirable to use the color scheme to distinguish each salesman's customers. Classification of sales may be effected by means of in- dividual tabs on the card. The ordinary daily or monthly follow up cards may be used, too, in arranging for the taking care of prospective business. There is no line of business that can not use one or more of the foregoing records. They may be modi- fied and extended to suit the particular line the house sells and will be of direct as well as indirect use in keeping the sales manager in touch with his sales- men, his buyers, and his selling expense. The importance of a suitable system for the sales force is emphasized because it is at just that point at which improvements are generally made. The manager looks with favorable eye upon those expenditures which have to do directly with the selling end of a business and the live man connected with a concern not running under modern methods of systematization often finds his chance in placing the sales force records in economi- cal shape. Selling records, unlike production records, are simple and can be determined with absolute accuracy. The ratio of sales to expenses may be determined to the fraction of a cent, for instance, and when the record extends over a considerable length of time, such a history determines with mathematical exactness the worth of a salesman in the territory which he has worked. 196 SELLING The importance of this systematization is not 4o be under-rated as it has often been held that the value of the salesman was an indeterminable or inexact quan- tity. This has often been because the resources of the territory in which a sales force worked was unknown, a result of the lack of systematic records in the past. No manager can get correct impressions except from summaries, and these should be compact and in the best form for continuous study and everyday cootact.