THE LIBRARY
OF THE
ERSITY
UNIV
*
COMMON VIKULUM
OMNIBUS. „ARTIBUS;
OF MINNESOTA
CLASS
658
BOOK Se 4 a
THE
LIBRARY OF SALES AND
ADVERTISING
VOLUME IV
THE
LIBRARY OF SALES
AND ADVERTISING

VOLUME IV
SELLING METHODS
}
·

A. W. SHAW COMPANY
CHICAGO
NEW YORK
LONDON
UNIVERSITY OF
MINNESOTA

Copyright, 1914, by
A. W. Shaw Company
Copyright, Canada, 1914, by
A. W. Shaw Company
Entered at Stationers' Hall, London
A. W. Shaw Company, Ltd.
Under the title
"The Library of Business Practice"
658
Se ta
SELLING METHODS
I-SALES METHODS THAT BUILT
TRADE
Editorial by John G. Shedd
I SELLING GOODS WITH WHAT THEY CAN DO
By A. L. MacBain
7
9
II HELPING THE CUSTOMER BUY MORE .
By George E. B. Putnam
18
III TEACHING PEOPLE TO USE THE BANK
22
By C. J. Colden
IV MORE REAL ESTATE SALES WITH LESS EFFORT
By Z. F. Windes,
32
Formerly of Windes and Marsh
V SELLING A MILLION OF LIFE INSURANCE
38
By Charles Weinfeld,
VI CLINCHING FIRE INSURANCE BUSINESS
46
55
Formerly General Ágent, The Northwestern Mutual
Life Insurance Company
By Carroll D. Murphy
VII WHEN DEALERS COOPERATE FOR TRADE
By W. S. Zimmerman
II-MARKETING GOODS BY MAIL
Editorial by Edward A. Filene
VIII RETAILING VIA PARCEL POST
By W. S. Zimmerman
IX SHOWING SAMPLES BY MAIL
By C. E. Cake
X KEEPING RETAIL TRADE AT HOME
By W. C. Holman,
Formerly Advertising Manager and Director
National Cash Register Company
III-HANDLING THE SALE
Editorial by Isadore Sales
XI THE SHORTEST LINE TO SALES
By Edward Mott Woolley
XII SERVICE THAT BRINGS CUSTOMERS BACK
By Carroll D. Murphy
59
61
73
78
91
93
101
•
J
609265
6
CONTENTS
XIII MAKING STORE FIXTURES SELL
By Marshall J. Bailey
By W. W. Loomis
XIV HOW QUICKER DELIVERIES MET COMPETITION
XV A CUSTOM-MADE STORE That Paid
By Fred Cook
XVI GUIDING SALESMEN BY MAP AND TACK
By W. A. Waterbury
Sales Manager, A. B. Dick Company
110
121
129
137
IV-SALES RECORDS AND SYSTEMS
Editorial by E. A. Deeds
147
XVII LEARNING TRADE CONDITIONS FROM FIELD Men
By Hugh K. Harris
149
XVIII WHAT YOUR SALESMEN SHOULD REPORT
153
By B. C. Bean
XIX FOLLOWING AND REPORTING CIty Sales
By Kendall Banning
XX SHORT-CUT REAL ESTATE RECORDS
By Z. F. Windes
Formerly of Windes and Marsh
XXI HOLDING DEALER TRADE UP TO QUOTA
160
166
175
By W. S. Zimmerman
XXII How FACTS AND RECORDS INCREASED SALES
179
By H. A. Ballou,
Proprietor, The Ballou Paint Store
XXIII RETAIL CONTROL THROUGH SALES RECORDS.
By A. W. Montgomery
188
SPECIAL ILLUSTRATIONS
FIGURE
I
A BASEMENT WITH a purpoSE
131
II
A STORE LAYOUT THAT PAID
133
111
MAP AND TACK ROUTING
143
IV
THE FACTORS IN SUCCESSFUL RETAIL SELLING
181
PART I-SALES METHODS
THAT BUILT TRADE
Retail and Wholesale
Service
RETAIL business might be described as an or-
ganization that deals with demand in the
particular and the little. Nothing is too trifling
to be studied. The individual preference of a
single customer in a hundred thousand has to be
understood and met.
Every passing whim of fashion must be inves-
tigated to see where it leads. Mercantile novel-
ties must be designed in the spirit of a holiday a
year off. A convenience that will add to the
comfort of even a small section of the public
must be developed. Straws show which way the
trade winds blow, and sometimes the shadows of
straws.
Wholesale organization, on the other hand,
deals with demand in the mass. It takes the
novelty that may become a future staple, the
hinted fashion, the odd preference, and develops
it by use of the most comprehensive, powerful
and modern mercantile machinery.
девидним

4

JOHN G. SHEDD
President, Marshall Field and Company
I
SELLING GOODS WITH WHAT
THEY CAN DO
A
By A. L. MacBain
FTER many years spent in perfecting an improved
type of duplicating device, a Kansas inventor at
last secured financial backing to make a number of ma-
chines. In his home town, where he was known, he
quickly sold the first machines that he turned out. This
gave him a start.
Gradually, the business grew. Salesmen were hired,
initiated into the merits of the machine, and turned
loose. They met with indifferent success. In Chicago,
however, he had a representative whose constant cry was
not for encouragement from the home office nor for in-
structions or leads, but for machines. While other
salesmen were unloading their difficulties on the factory,
this salesman was bewailing the difficulty of getting
enough machines to satisfy his customers.
The manager of the home office took a run to the city
to see how this selling was done. He found that the
salesroom for his device in Chicago was an open room.
Hence it was without eavesdropping that he was able to
overhear, while waiting, the salesman's demonstration.
He was answering the questions of a caller who had
dropped into the office. To the manager's surprise, the
star salesman was grossly ignorant of the mechanical
points of the machine. The feature on which the
10
HOW TO ATTRACT TRADE
inventor prided himself most was not even mentioned.
When the manager met the salesman and began talk-
ing with him, his first question was, "How are you able
to make so many sales when you seem to be in ignorance
of what the inventor considers the strong points of his
machine?"
The agent's reply furnished the keynote of the new
selling campaign by which goods are now rightly mar-
keted. The star salesman was selling service.
IGURES based on service secured decide men-
FIGURES
therefore show them, as did this successful salesman,
what your goods can do, not how they do it.
"When I go in to sell one of these business devices,"
said the salesman, "I am liable to meet a cold-blooded,
hard-faced man-a man who thinks in figures. Those
figures are based on service. He has bought labor, in
some cases, from the time he was able to work himself.
He does not care whether a girl, for instance, who is to
do his folding, is tall or little or big, or of this or that
nationality. But she must be able to fold, day in and
day out, a certain number of sheets, and do it accu-
rately.
"When this same man buys a business device he does
not care about the inventor's pet point. He does not
care whether results are secured by a wheel and an axle,
a wedge, lever or an inclined plane. All that he cares
about is the service that the machine will render. He
wants to know that it will do so much work day in and
day out, faithfully and surely, and do it better than any
other machine there is on the market. That is his great-
est interest.
"On this basis I sell. I do not talk the machine; that
is merely the instrument by which he gets results. I
WHAT THE GOODS CAN DO
11
talk service; he cares about that. I arrange my talking
points so as to play up the service the device will give,
and I translate every argument into terms of service. If
I can convince the prospect that we are selling him better
service than any one else can offer, I get the order.
The number of parts in the machine, how they work,
what the price is, are all minor matters when compared
with what the device will do. Service is what the buyer
wants, and service is what he will pay for."
From this angle the entire selling campaign of the
business was recast. Had its backers known of this
point of view from the start, early losses would have been
forestalled-losses incurred from trying to sell the ma-
chine instead of its service. And the company would
have started under favorable auspices instead of a handi-
cap.
In the manufacture and sale of motor trucks, as an
instance, the customer is not buying a four-wheeled
vehicle of a certain weight and equipment, and with a
specified engine to drive it. He is buying the service the
vehicle will render. The customer asks what machine
will do the best work at the least cost, as viewed from his
particular requirements.
"The cab and taxicab service in New York lost thou-
sands of dollars," says one of the authorities on auto-
mobile trucks, "not from the actual operation of the cabs
themselves, but from the fact that they did not know how
to get service out of the cabs. These cabs were running
twenty-two hours a day.
"It took three months to convince the manager of one
company that it was economy to put in another set
of cabs and run his equipment ten hours a day, and that
the interest on the added investment would be less than
the cost of keeping the single set of cabs on a twenty-two
12
HOW TO ATTRACT TRADE
hour service.
These cabs are now run on a ten-hour
basis and so escape unusual wear and tear. They are
giving reasonable service, and are making money for the
first time in their history."
The cab company made a false start. If, instead of
buying merely enough automobiles to do the work, it
had bought a number sufficient to perform the required
service and yet "keep alive," its equipment would have
been profitable from the start.
A successful manufacturer of washing machines came
into the business from the sales end, made a washer to
fit the demands of the market, rather than cogs and
wheels that would do certain work, and then put men
out to sell it. This manufacturer relates an incident
which gives his point of view on service.
OULD I get my washing out at ten o'clock?” this
COULD
customer asked, after every cog had been explained-
she wanted results and not mechanical facts.
"A woman dropped into a hardware store where
washers were kept," he says. "She told the dealer that
she wanted a washing machine. She had six or seven
dollars with which to buy it. She wanted to pay cash
and take the machine home.
"The dealer, seeing a chance for a sure fire sale,
started in to explain the merits of one of the washers
that was standing on the floor. He talked for some time
about levers, centrifugal and centripetal forces, the
cleansing features of hot water in motion, and the ad-
vantages of a swinging agitation to produce a profuse
lather from soap. He was prepared to keep up the
demonstration of the machine's fine points for hours, if
necessary. The customer interrupted him. 'It isn't
about the fixings that I want to know. Mrs. Hester, my
WHAT THE GOODS CAN DO
13
neighbor across the way, gets her washing out at eleven
o'clock. If I buy this machine, could I get my washing
out at ten o'clock?'"'
She was in the market for a washing machine only if
it could furnish a service that would enable her to get
her washing out before her neighbor.
There is something fascinating about poultry raising;
but less fascinating to even the poultry raiser of a me-
chanical turn of mind is the construction of the incu-
bator that produces the "perfect hatch.'
It is interesting to trace the "service idea" in the
selling of hatching devices. Almost invariably the men
who have the good machines talk "service" to the buyer.
The purchaser, in many cases, is briefly informed that he
will get the required amount of heating and heat con-
trolling apparatus. He is not loaded up with technical
terms and engineering descriptions. He is not befogged
with patent phrases or pseudo-scientific sales talk. But
he is told by constant reiteration that even the most in-
experienced buyer will get a "sure hatch" with the least
possible attention to the machine.
One of the most successful selling methods ever used
in the incubator line, in fact, was that of the inventor of
a standard machine, who drove through the country with
a hatcher in his wagon. Although it was subjected to
the jolts and jars incidental to travel over rough coun-
try roads, the machine made a higher-than-average hatch.
Of the thousands of customers and prospective customers
who knew that the Bardel incubator would hatch while
being driven over country roads, only a few knew any-
thing definite about the mechanical make-up of the de-
vice. The incubator would hatch. That was enough.
Today, with dozens of machines competing for sales,
it is almost invariably found that the big sales are going
14
HOW TO ATTRACT TRADE
to the men who are selling service and not to those who
are featuring mechanism.
"The one point," says a successful incubator sales
manager, "that has done more for our sales than any
other one factor has been the fact that our improvement
of product is followed by selling arguments that get the
service value of the improvement before the customer.
"For instance, one of the technical points in incubator
making is heat control. Keep the heat at the required.
point and you get a hatch. Let the heat run a few de-
grees above or below the hatching point and you kill the
unhatched chick. When you get a device like ours-
which by means of electrical control keeps the heat con-
stant you feature results and not the device that gets
the results. Even a child can grasp the idea that con-
stant heat gets a sure hatch; the description of a device
that gets uniform temperature may be understood only
with difficulty by a college professor.'
""
The cement industry has brought into use many ma-
chines, each designed to effect the mixing of cement at a
rate and price which will make their original cost seem
small. These machines sell at prices ranging from small
hand machines at a few dollars to pretentious machines
for contractors, that sell for nearly a thousand dollars.
These larger machines are especially featured by manu-
facturers.
What induces a contractor, builder or construction
man to put down nine hundred dollars for a cement
mixer? At least one manufacturer planned answers to
this question before he built his machine. For weeks he
watched contractors' crews at work. He timed their
operations and got records-not of what workmen might
do, but what they were actually doing. Then he figured
that in order to produce a marketable mixer, he had to
WHAT THE GOODS CAN DO
15
\
have one that would reduce, below any competitor's, the
time required for each operation. The time of getting
the cement, stone and water to the machine must be
cut; the time of loading, processing and dumping the
batch must be lessened; the time of clearing the dumped
mixture away must be reduced.
D
ESIGN and selling plan were both held up by this
manufacturer until he could put his finger on the
specific service his customers wanted.
On this conclusion both the design and the selling
plan were built. The finished machine reduced the time
needed for each operation. Then the salesman had but
to ask his prospect, "How long does it take to mix and
dump a batch?" Usually he continued, "We can cut
that time in half for you"-which was the opening talk-
ing point. And the entire selling campaign was
focused on this service. Every advertisement, every
letter, every selling point featured it. Design and make-
up of the product were incidental to the main thought of
service.
But it is not only in the specialty field that sales are
based on results. The retailer also can sell service. A
hardware man who had a partnership in a thriving busi-
ness and wanted to get out of the double harness, sold his
share to good advantage. He had money and experi-
ence; he now needed only the location. Against the ad-
vice of friends and even of his jobber, he put in a stock
in a town where local hardware men were complaining
that the field was overcrowded and where buyers were
too careful with their money to give a satisfactory vol-
ume of trade.
The new dealer had studied the surrounding country
and compared it with the field he had left. He had
16
HOW TO ATTRACT TRADE
satisfied himself that sales possibilities were there, though
latent. His first step was to tell all the customers who
came into the store that whatever they wanted to buy
they could buy best at his counters, because only those
goods were to be handled that gave the best working
value; in other words, the best service.
Now, the farmer likes goods that last. He may abuse
his purchases and let his machinery, for example, stand
out of doors to depreciate more from rust than from ac-
tual wear. But he wants durable goods. And that was
the kind that the dealer undertook to sell.
Gradually these service points began to have weight.
Slowly-for the farmer is not to be stampeded this par-
ticular store began to be headquarters for the long-lasting
and serviceable goods in the hardware line. The other
dealers had failed to sell goods-this dealer was selling
service and goods.
HIS predecessor had given up; but this retailer dusted
off the failure's counters and by showing what his
stock could do, made the store pay well.
A haberdasher who had made a small success in the
outskirts of a city had a chance to secure a leasehold,
with fixtures, in the city district. The rent, however, was
almost prohibitive. His predecessor had given up be-
cause he thought he was working not for himself, but
for his landlord.
Relying on his acquaintanceship and the fact that he
was a member of a number of city clubs, the young man
-in spite of much adverse advice-took over the lease.
After getting a fashionable and serviceable stock, he
called on a number of his friends. "What does it cost
you for haberdashery to keep yourself well dressed?"?
was the question that he put to each man. The answers
WHAT THE GOODS CAN DO
17
ranged from one hundred dollars to one thousand dol-
lars a year.
Then he explained his plan. "If you will give me the
privilege of keeping your haberdashery in style, I will
make you a figure that will not only save you money, but
will give you service in addition. I will keep you look-
ing conservatively prosperous and up-to-the-moment.
Bills will be rendered monthly. In two months' time you
will begin to see that your comfort has not only been
planned for you, but that you are actually making a
money saving."
The proposal was so novel that fully eighty per cent
of those solicited were willing to accept it at once. At
one sweep the new man secured several hundred per-
manent accounts-money upon which he could absolutely
rely to meet his bills.
Service made the start, and by continuing that service,
he laid a foundation for one of the most profitable
haberdashery stores in the city.
A LITTLE of you should go into every article that you sell-———
something pleasant, possibly the memory of a friendly
word or a cheerful smile that will make the goods seem better
to the customer who uses them.
Put your personality into your goods. Make the person-
ality so cheerful that it will add something of pleasure to the
purchase.
If a trademark on an article makes an impression on the
mind of the user, how much more should he be impressed by a
genuine smile and a cordial greeting from the salesman.
The trademark may lead the man to call for the same brand
wherever he can find it, but the cordiality of the salesman will
bring the customer back to the identical store where the cor-
diality of the salesman is to be found.
-Herbert S. Collins
Vice President, United Cigar Stores Company
A
II
HELPING THE CUSTOMER
BUY MORE
By George E. B. Putnam
DVERTISING personal in its effect pulls best. If
you can show a woman that you have something
which especially suits her in style, quality and size, you
are more apt to bring her into the store and make her a
purchaser than your competitor who advertises in a gen-
eral way.
The best way to gather information for personal ad-
vertising is to begin at once and take full details of every
sale you make. Get the address of the customer. This is
easily done if the goods are delivered. A polite request
for the name and address generally brings the desired in-
formation under other conditions. As fast as these sales
slips with addresses are obtained, the information may
be transferred by the cashier to cards similar to the
illustration shown (Form I) and arranged alpha-
betically in a suitable box. While, from greater famili-
arity with that branch of retailing, I have used the sell-
ing of shoes as an illustration, the system explained is
applicable as well to all other branches of retailing.
Have the cards in a convenient size, with space for
the name of the head of the family. This, 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
HELPING CUSTOMERS BUY
19
settled according to the circumstances of each case.
Having the name and address of the head of the
family, place on 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," or "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 during
clearance sales. You can then refer to the cards and
write a timely letter or circular, stating that you have

D
NAME
ADDRESS
A. K. Allison
DATE
STYLE
SIZE
14 State St
FOR
9/7/62 2706 4-8 Mrs Allison
3287 2-B Miss Ethel Allison
5/27/12 116 10-D Master Chas Allison
5/26/12 1009 5-6 Little
Little Boy
FORM I: From the sales slips you can profitably take the details of each
family's purchases and record them as here shown. Sales letters written
around these facts will fit both your stock and the customer's specific wants
shoes of sizes and styles that will fit some member of the
family. This is specific advertising and will be prac-
tically a personal letter.
The saving in printing and postage which this concen-
20
HOW TO ATTRACT TRADE
tration brings is worth while, 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.
One of the disadvantages with which the retail dealer
has to contend, is the fact that he may have a large stock
of a certain style of shoe and yet be out of the one
size necessary to complete a sale. And he may have
twenty different styles which fit the customer's foot, but
do not suit in some detail or other.
Many unsuccessful attempts have been made to sys-
tematize shoe stores and overcome this difficulty. A
bright shoe man down in Texas has seemingly solved the
problem. Everyone is familiar with the appearance of
the average shoe store. The shoes are in boxes, one pair
in each box.
This Texas man has a different plan in operation. He
has had the first section of his shelving-that nearest
the door-arranged into a sample case very similar to
those used by manufacturers and jobbers selling shoes
from samples. In this case the retailer places one sample
of every shoe which he carries in stock. Inside of the
shoe is placed a card, telling the number of pairs in
stock by sizes.
Now, when a customer comes in the salesman does not
have to take down a dozen or twenty different boxes; he
simply takes the customer to the sample case to pick
out the style desired. A glance at the card shows
whether or not the desired size is in stock. If it is in
stock, the shoe is quickly found and the sale completed.
HELPING CUSTOMERS BUY
21
If the assortment is badly broken, the sample shoe is
taken out of the case and customers prevented from
choosing a style in which they can not be fitted. This
is an advantage in one way, and a disadvantage in an-
other, for it would seem to favor the breaking up of
regular sizes and the accumulation of odds and ends.
To avoid this, all the broken lines are placed in the
section next to the sample case, and there is a "PM"
placed on every pair in that section. "PM” means that
a premium or a reward of a certain amount of money
(ranging in shoe stores from 10 to 25 cents) will be
given a clerk for selling a particular article, which, be-
ing out of style, or otherwise difficult to dispose of, is
not likely to be brought to the customer's attention by
the average clerk under ordinary conditions, owing to
the unusual difficulty of marketing it. This premium
is an incentive to the clerk to make extra exertions to
sell these "stickers".
The two plans, worked together, enable this dealer to
work his stocks out very clean and sell nearly fifty per
cent more goods per hour in busy times than he could
with the same force and his old methods.
WE BELIEVE that our customers and employees feel
that our business is as much a matter of personality
today as it was in the beginning. Behind each transaction
is a personal guarantee, and we trust that behind each customer
is personal interest in the growth and the perfecting of a sys-
tem that seeks to interpret the personal desires of each man,
woman and child who deals with us.
-A. Montgomery Ward
Founder, Montgomery Ward & Company
!
III
TEACHING PEOPLE TO USE
THE BANK
By C. J. Colden
LINN, a prosperous banker of the Pacific northwest,
lays his fortune to a scheme which reclaimed thou-
sands of acres of swamp land in the vicinity of his town.
The boom which followed the completion of the drainage
ditch greatly increased the wealth of the people of the
valley. Farmers and business men generally shared the
new prosperity, but Linn and his bank took the lion's
share. Today the Linn bank is the largest in a pros-
perous city of twenty thousand people.
"Linn," his friends say, "built the ditch. He made
the town and the fortunes of its people. We admire the
foresight which conceived the project and the business
ability which financed and directed it in the face of
enormous difficulties. Giving Charley Linn our busi-
ness is only a slight recognition of the debt we owe
him."
Every banker understands the business value of get-
ting close to the hearts of the people, but few of them
achieve their purpose. They fail to fully consider the
timidity that rises in the average mind at the thought
of the power of money and the complex methods of
handling it.
They do not realize that many prosperous farmers
and owners of small industries use a bank sparingly
MAKING A BANK POPULAR
23
simply because they do not understand its functions and
resent what seems a lack of reciprocity from the man
behind the brass wicket. Most of them have been bor-
rowers from the bank under conditions that worried
them from the day the note or mortgage was signed until
it was paid off. And when their own surplus profits
begin to pile up and they contrast the two or three per
cent the bank offers for time deposits (not a few small-
town banks decline to pay any interest at all) with the
six or seven per cent they sweated out of their furrows
in the mortgage days, they feel more than ever that the
banker is a class apart. Personal acquaintance, com-
mon interests, and some convincing demonstration that
the banker, "a plain business proposition," has their
welfare and the welfare of the town and county at
heart, are needed to break down this armor of reserve,
not to say lack of confidence, and turn these neglected
prospects into depositors. Let them see a neighbor be-
hind the bronze grills and plate glass, and they are
likely to look at the bank from a more agreeable view-
point.
Linter went deep in a thich which
INN went deep into the motives behind customers'
interests by digging a ditch which brought prosperity
and easy times to the territory his bank serves.
Linn, understanding the rural mind, did what few
bankers do. He avoided even the appearance of solici-
tation. His competitors tried to reach the patrons by
entering into the lodge and social life of the town. Linn
went further than striving for social popularity and
appearing to have interest in the affairs of clients. He
showed by his work that he had his neighbor's interests
at heart.
When he first proposed creating a drainage district,
24€
HOW TO ATTRACT TRADE
land owners, dismayed at the thought of the huge sums
to be expended, balked at the proposition, although they
realized in a vague way the benefits to be derived from
the undertaking. To carry out the plan, it became neces-
sary to create a special improvement district and bond
the lands within it as a source of funds for building. To
secure the necessary votes, meetings were held at the
schoolhouse and other public places throughout the val-
ley. Linn was a prominent figure at all of the gather-
ings.
Before meetings he met and chatted with the farmers
of the locality. His explanations, from the platform, of
the details of financing the affair were always heard
with attention. After the meetings men in the audience
who still had doubts remained to question the speakers.
Linn, by this means, not only met and became thor-
oughly familiar with the people of the valley, but from
their questions was able to form a good idea as to their
intelligence and thrift, their ability and foresight, and
consequent worth as clients.
Although the digging of the ditch was attended by
disappointments, it was triumphantly completed. All
the promises Linn made were found to be conservative.
Farmers who had opposed him became his staunchest
admirers and when prosperity came to them, they passed
it on to him.
Linn had a great opportunity and he took advantage
of it. But it is not necessary to wait for a great public
improvement to adopt the principles of business getting
which Linn used with such good effect. Another western
banker played the game in a different way. He noted
on his frequent tours of the locality that hundreds of
acres were bare of vegetation on account of insufficient
water. He read about Turkestan alfalfa, which seemed
MAKING A BANK POPULAR
25
suitable for the dry lands of his neighborhood. Letters
to the proper authorities brought sample seed. He
sowed two acres of alfalfa adjoining a nearby road lead-
ing to town and gained intelligent attention for the
improvement.
He was the center of alfalfa interest for many months.
When the test was successfully concluded after ups and
downs, farmers who had watched it were delighted to
receive as a gift a quantity of the seed. Taught by the
banker how to grow the crop, their trials were so suc-
cessful that the scheme was followed throughout the
locality. Now the yield of thousands of acres has in-
creased enormously in dollars and cents. With increased
receipts to the farmers came increased deposits in the
bank of the man who had originated an idea, and the
progressive banker is enjoying with his patrons a new
prosperity.
PART of Texas is now dotted with pecan trees because
this successful banker analyzed and found that his
customers thought more of them than of pens.
*
A banker in Texas tired of the stereotyped business-
getting methods that he had been using and, realizing the
lack of results from his "gift" schemes, returned a
consignment of fountain pens sent him and bought
choice pecan trees which he presented to his rural
friends. As a result of his effort, the country is now
dotted with living monuments to his thoughtful gener-
osity and he is reaping a rich reward for his work for
others.
A southern banker showed his community how to make
dollars by growing strawberries. Others increased divi-
dends by encouraging the culture of the peach and the
apple. Cotton growing contests in the south and corn
26
HOW TO ATTRACT TRADE
growing contests in the middle west have obtained busi-
ness for banks by increasing the earnings of their pa-
trons.
Close attention to the welfare of rural clients, while
necessary for the successful country banker, need not
be confined to agriculture. One banker secured for him-
self scores of loyal friends by accepting county warrants
at par when the finances of the district did not strictly
warrant it. But the few dollars lost in interest on the
transaction were in time more than repaid by school
teachers and hosts of county employees who could not
afford to have their pay checks discounted as both of
the other banks were discounting them.
Bankers often desire to attract prospects to their bank,
but fear making their rooms a loafing place. The prob-
lem is to attract men on business, not on idle errands.
A bulletin board inside a bank gets this result in an
eastern community. There is a place on the board for
the daily market report and the space is sufficient to per-
mit other announcements. These pertain to local needs.
The banker writes with his chalk:

Hired man wanted.-M. Brennan.
Two yearling calves to sell.-B. C. Hall.
Five-passenger auto for sale.-Wm. Glaze.
Found, a lady's shawl.-Jerry Vaughan.
This simple device serves the rural community in the
capacity of the daily newspaper want ad. It brings in
inquirers and makes the bank a market place. The op-
portunity which the board gives for forming acquaint-
ances is turned to profit by the bank officers.
In many sections of the country, the farm loan busi-
MAKING A BANK POPULAR
27
ness is a profitable department of rural banking. From
the court house the banker obtains a list of the adjacent
farm loans. The date of expiration is the important
information. Having arrangements to place the loan
with a responsible firm, he interviews the borrower a
reasonable time before his loan expires. Most farmers
prefer to transact this sort of business through the local
banker rather than with a casually known loan agent.
The banker secures a fair commission, notary fees, and
perhaps a new customer. Lucrative deposits are often
obtained by having a notary public in the bank as an
invitation to seller and purchaser to meet at the bank
when closing real estate transactions. The banker's ex-
perience is valued in drawing the papers. An accom-
modating suggestion, a bit of helpful information, and
the parties feel under obligation to the banker. He is
sometimes rewarded with a liberal deposit.
I
T PAID this young banker to give a few days to attend-
ing public sales in the farming section supporting
his bank-to make friends and buy notes.
3
A banker, dependent upon farmers for business, con-
sented to act as a clerk at a public sale held by a friend
and patron. The terms of sale required the purchasers
desiring credit to give bankable notes. The banker, hav-
ing a private rating of every citizen in the county, ac-
cepted no uncertain security. Knowing the notes to be
safely secured, he purchased the entire lot at a profit-
able discount. Attending the sale afforded him an op-
portunity to further his acquaintance with the people
of his territory and the purchase of the notes brought
new business. His services are now in frequent demand.
He is paid a fee of ten dollars for each sale. The inci-
dental business picked up often adds an agreeable profit.
28
HOW TO ATTRACT TRADE
This sacrifice of time has been converted into a pleasant
out-door diversion and a helpful excursion for new busi-
ness. It pays.
One bank uses the farmers' party telephone lines to
interest and attract rural customers. A brief wire mar-
ket report is obtained daily from big markets. At an
appointed moment every day, the banker steps to the
'phone and announces to the listening farmers the daily
receipts, the top price, the bottom price and the average.
This is especially popular in regions where attention is
given to the feeding and marketing of live stock and
greatly assists in landing desirable accounts.
Making friends with children is the easiest way of
reaching their parents' hearts. An Iowa banker in a
small country town who passed the public school on his
way to his office every morning, noticed the way chil-
dren clustered about the candy store across the street
from the school building. It occurred to him that if
children could be awakened to an interest in a school
bank the latent instincts of thrift and economy could
be aroused. With one of the teachers he established a
school savings bank which in the first week of its opera-
tion brought in $75.00. Children have stopped injuring
their health by stuffing themselves with candy of doubt-
ful origin and many of them have acquired savings ac-
counts of considerable size in the banker's safe.
When Vernon Knabb became the banker of an unin-
viting coal mining town in the Rocky Mountains, he
regretted the momentary enthusiasm which led him to
the place. The population appeared as uninteresting as
the dreary environment. The unpainted shacks were
almost obscured by ugly piles of dirt and refuse, and
healthy, active life, especially for children, was totally
lacking.
MAKING A BANK POPULAR
29
The banker infused new life into the community by
equipping a playground near his place of business. At
a quarter past four every pleasant afternoon he is at
the playground and remains until six. He introduces
all the outdoor pleasures, tactfully organizes athletic con-
tests, and gives the playground general supervision. He
is the friend of the girls and boys, to whom he teaches
the playgound lessons of promptness, attention, accu-
racy, cooperation and self-control. The friendship of
their children attracted the parents. Interest in the
banker changed to friendship, and confidence in the
bank and, as a consequence, the savings department, now
patronized by old and young, has made surprising
growth. This thoughtful and delightful innovation has
proved a good investment and, in addition, a gray-haired
banker is growing young again.
MEN
EN of affairs are continually shouldered with
community responsibilities and bankers find it
worth while to develop themselves for these tasks.
Because of his prominent position in the finances of
the community with which he is identified, the banker
possesses exceptional opportunities to become a man of
public affairs. Loyalty in this work wins personal con-
fidence. If his town is in need of a sewer system, he
can take the lead for sanitation and progress. If the
improvement calls for a bond issue, he is depended upon
to sell the securities, taking a reasonable compensation
for his efforts. When the bonds are sold, the funds prob-
ably remain in his bank until checked out. In many
instances this is a valuable item. Again, when taxes
are collected to discharge the debt, the funds are likely
to be handled by the bank identified with the proposition.
The erection of a modern school building, the con-
30
HOW TO ATTRACT TRADE
1
struction of a rock road, or the installation of a water
works, therefore enables the progressive banker to iden-
tify himself with the public good, and, at the same time,
pays him dividends for doing his duty. Few vocations.
are so fortunate. Often a reactionary policy has a re-
verse effect. Likewise, an influence exerted in behalf
of a questionable proposition may end in irreparable dis-
aster. No banker should forget that he is the financial
pilot of his people. To advise a few wrongly, shakes
the confidence of many.
There are instances in which the banker is alert and
yet does not obtain satisfactory returns from his efforts.
Wilson was such a banker. He studied his territory.
He had superior facilities. He was forceful in his
methods. For some unknown reason he was not landing
certain desirable prospects. He singled out one on
whom he had made a persistent effort. The fellow was
friendly, conditions were favorable, but the puzzling
prospect continued to do business with another bank.
By judicious inquiry, the banker obtained the reason
why from a mutual friend. This is the banker's in-
formation:
"Yes, Wilson is a fine fellow, a good banker. I'm
very anxious to do business with him, but that little red
headed bookkeeper of his visits with our young folks
and tells everything that happens in that bank. I don't
care to have my business affairs peddled over the coun-
try." Generating new business for a country bank is
lost energy if the man behind the wicket overlooks the
leaks.
After perfecting the banking machine by inspiring
employees to loyalty and enthusiasm, the modern banker
follows the Linn idea: that of trading service for service
to mutual profit. By encouraging and assisting trust-
MAKING A BANK POPULAR
31
worthy young men and helping meritorious enterprises,
the tactful banker gets business, yet avoids direct and
indiscriminate solicitation. When a patron is secured
by direct persuasion, he often expects too much from
the institution. The Linn idea transfers obligation to
the customer. Rightly, however, there is no talk of
obligations; transactions are kept on a plane of friendly
cooperation. The banker thereby retains his business
freedom and is in a position to decline courteously favors
which cannot be profitably granted.
Not only does he keep on cordial terms with his old
neighbors in his community, but he identifies himself
with the new substantial interests as a means of holding
public attention. Like Linn, he helps himself by helping
others.
♡
THE dealer who succeeds in making his store distinctive
must do more than find out where his stock or his service
fails to satisfy his customers. He must take steps to supply
these gaps, either by obvious method of finding in the line of
some manufacturer other than his regular suppliers the goods
he needs, or by persuading some maker to produce these wanted
patterns. He may have to do nearly all the studying, the ex-
perimenting, the analyzing, and the designing himself. He
may receive so little help or cooperation from producers of
standard models or patterns that he is obliged to manufacture
his special models or patterns himself. Such at least, was my
experience.
-J. S. Coward
President, Coward Shoe Company
IV
MORE REAL ESTATE SALES
WITH LESS EFFORT
By 2. F. Windes
Formerly of Windes and Marsh
TWO
I WO men can't do the work of twelve unless that
work is organized. What we need is short-cuts-
economical ways of helping our prospects to find the
kinds of properties they want, thus making it easy to
sell them."
That was the joint conclusion my partner and I
reached a few years ago. Our business is suburban real
estate our operations limited mainly to one town. On
Saturday afternoons and occasionally week nights, we
were confronted with the impossible task of each han-
dling from four to six customers at once.
One way or another, we had to develop a method of
getting more out of these rush periods. The people who
came into our office did so on their holidays or during
the hours ordinarily given to rest and recreation. They
had no time to throw away. They did not like to stand
waiting while we asked questions, described properties
and quoted prices to earlier arrivals. Frequently we
lost sales, too, because we could not bring more than a
few of our properties to the attention of a prospect
before he had to leave.
All along the line, we needed to short-cut routine.
We were using up too many minutes finding out what
sort of a house a customer wanted, what price he wanted
REAL ESTATE SELLING
33*
to pay, which part of the town he fancied, and other
details we needed.
To make quicker connections would mean ability to
handle more customers and to show a greater number
of properties to each. This should result in more sales.
The situation challenged our intelligence. We studied
conditions, analyzed methods, made changes. And the
system which we were able to develop allows my partner
and myself to give each of our Saturday afternoon cus-
tomers personal attention without exhausting their pa-
tience and interest. The customers sometimes bank two
or three deep around our long desk, yet they receive
the service for which they come from the moment they
enter the door.
WINDES
INDES reaches his prospects before they cross his
office doorway with his successful and tested system
for selling more real estate with less effort.
In fact, our system takes hold of them before they
open the door. In the two front windows are racks filled
with photographs, four inches by five in size. Each
photograph gives a view of a property we have for sale.
Whatever is characteristic and "different" about a prop-
erty we try to show in the photograph. We try to
bring out, not the selling points particularly, but those
things about a house and lot which a customer would
ask about. The number of trees, distance to the nearest
house, whether there are bay windows, what kind of
porches the size, general style and most important fea
tures are made known to the first glance.
For the further saving of time and the convenience
of both salesman and customer, each photograph car-
ries the serial number of the property. Through
all our records and on all our lists the same number
34
HOW TO ATTRACT TRADE
designates the property. The prospect does not have to
take the salesman over to a rack and point out which
property he is interested in. He asks, "How about No.
411 or No. 562. Are you sure the taxes are paid on
411? Is $5,000 the best price you can make on 562?”
The salesman with this duplicate description slip and
his memory of the appearance of the property, besides
office records ready at hand, is prepared for instant
reply.
A prospective customer takes a look over the photo-
graphs. He finds one that interests him. Then, for his
convenience, he finds right alongside it a description of
the property, typewritten on a slip of paper somewhat
longer than the postcard. The slip tells him about the
number of rooms in the house, size of the lot, directions
of frontage, light and water facilities, drainage or street
improvements, incumbrances-and the price. These
racks are "silent salesmen." People believe that which
they see and the camera makes them see.
"Is the place just like the picture?" I am asked
sometimes. The answer is, "If you stand where the
camera was when the exposure was made the place will
look to you just as it does in the photograph."
The photographs cost a little over six cents apiece;
they are made with our own camera. The labor and
time involved are negligible; a commercial photographer
does the developing and printing. Sometimes our sten-
ographer enjoys a holiday "snapping" the properties.
Sometimes a residence may have improvements and
changes so that it looks different from our photograph.
This doesn't happen often and the changes are generally
added advantages we are pleased to mention to our cus-
tomers.
No talk about property is so effective that it can not
REAL ESTATE SELLING
35
be richly supplemented with good photographs. When
a man points at a picture and says, "That's the kind of
a place I want," our task is simplified. We can get
down immediately to the next steps of location and price.
On a wall map, rolled up, each property is marked with
its number. When a prospect has become interested,
the map is pulled down and he is shown the location of
the lot considered.
Inside the office are additional racks like those in the
window. They enable us to show a dozen or more cus-
tomers at one time several hundred properties. At the
very start, therefore, before we learn the name of the
man we are dealing with, we have answered all the
questions he may ask.
TH
HIS profitable sale was half made by the system—
Windes simply told the department manager of a
big Chicago store how to sell himself a house and lot.
A department manager of a big Chicago store came
in the other day.
"I haven't got much time to knock around looking at
places," he said, "I'd like to do business, if we can do
it quickly."
"Run over these racks in the window first and then
take a good look at these wall racks inside the office," I
replied; "pick out the places you think might suit you.
Each place has a number, you will see. Write that num-
ber on this piece of paper."
He brought back the numbers of twelve places. We
jumped into his automobile and went to the four he
liked best. He bought one of the four. It was only one
of many sales I am sure would not have been made if it
were not that we have a system which helps our cus-
tomers to find what they want in the shortest possible
*
36
HOW TO ATTRACT TRADE
time. This was a situation, too, where our system was
better than twelve salesmen would have been-no num-
ber of salesmen in the time available could have told that
customer what we had to offer him, so quickly and sat-
isfactorily as did the photograph and number combina-
tion.
When a man comes into our office and asks about
property, we tell him all he wants to know and learn
his name. Generally, he gives it without being asked.
His name, address, business, and the 'phone numbers are
written on a blue card. From time to time as offerings
are made to him, their numbers are written on this card.
All the cards for the current month are kept in a desk
file. Whenever an offering or sale is made, it goes on
the customer's card. If a customer proves unproductive
that information goes on the slip.
Once a month a stenographer transfers all these items
to the Property Book and the Customer's Book. In the
former each property has a column for its serial number
and under this, with the date, is written the number of
every customer to whom it is offered. In the Customer's
Book this process is reversed.
The time required to keep our records is short. Half
a day each month is needed for all entries into the Prop-
erty Book and the Customer's Book. Since a number
can be written so much more quickly than a name or a
description, all number entries require less than one
day's time a month.
prospects cannot get
From time to time,
A considerable number of our
the time to look at properties.
therefore, we mail the photographs and description slips
of properties in which they may be interested. More
than half of the pictures are mailed back to us. On
rainy days or at other times when there are no callers,
REAL ESTATE SELLING
37
we classify prospects and send them pictures and de-
scriptions of suitable properties.
There are certain properties at all times to which we
want to give special attention. They are the properties
we are most interested in putting forward. So we have
on our desks at all times, at our fingers' ends, a bunch
of the little typewritten lists describing those properties.
By constant reference to these, we get thoroughly fa-
miliar with the selling features of the properties we are
most interested in marketing.
Duplicates of all advertising copy sent to newspapers
are kept in a desk drawer. The location of the prop-
erty is written on the duplicate so that if the partner
who wrote the copy is away from the office, we know
which property he advertised.
First and last, we remember we are salesmen. We
have little time for office detail. A fifteen-dollar-a-week
stenographer takes care of the details, while we go out
after the business which otherwise might escape.
品
​THERE is a large department store in one of the upstate
cities of New York, that, outside of commonsense busi-
ness methods, owes its remarkable growth entirely to the high
esteem in which its founder has ever been held. He knew every
clerk by name.
That was not hard at first, for he started with
a handful; but he kept it up throughout his life. He was just
as accessible on the last day he came down to business as on
the first day he opened the front door. The city did not wait
until after his death to show their appreciation; his beautiful
business house stands as a grand monument and proves the
substantial regard in which he was held by his fellow citizens.
-Edwin W. Moore
President, The Electric Cable Company
V
SELLING A MILLION OF LIFE
INSURANCE
By Charles Weinfeld
Formerly General Agent, The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company
HOW
OW do you manage to get so many applications?"
is a question I have frequently to answer.
It
would be easier, perhaps, for me to tell why I get more
than the average number. I get more because I have to.
My field consists of eleven counties in Northern Michi-
gan. It is composed mostly of small towns and pine.
stumps. The largest city has 16,000 inhabitants. In
order to write any volume of business at all, I must
secure lots of applications.
I run over my territory rapidly, therefore, and have
many short interviews with prospects. In a small lum-
bering town recently, I had two hours to spend between
trains. In that time I wrote eight applications. This
gave me an average of fifteen minutes to secure each
application and a quarter of an hour is sometimes a
very short time in which to get a man's signature to a
life insurance contract.
To secure business in this way, it is obvious that I
could not resort to elaborate or theoretical methods. I
do not keep any systematic record of prospects. I can
remember all that is necessary for my purpose about the
live prospects and I am always glad to forget the dead
ones. I travel in what might be called light marching
order. I come to the point as quickly as I can with a
PERSONAL SALES-ONE MILLION
39
prospect and if he will not do business I go on to the
next.
It may not be regarded as instructive to say that I go
after applications and get them, but sometimes the
method I use appears to be as limited as that. After I
introduce myself to a man and get on terms with him--
tell him a funny story, perhaps it not infrequently
happens that I pull out an application pad and inquire,
"What's your wife's front name?" He tells me, usu-
ally, and answers all the other questions in the most
docile manner. If I write policies for the officers of a
manufacturing plant I can get many of the employees
by simply exhibiting the officers' applications and ask-
ing the employees, "How much do you want?"
HOUGH his methods are apparently rough and
THO
ready, Weinfeld says he unconsciously follows a
system-and sells over a million a year of insurance.
I suppose that in my individual way I follow what
practically amounts to a system of securing business. It
is a system, however, of which I retain but little con-
sciousness. I aim to get an application at the first in-
terview and I get about three-fourths of my business on
first calls. I never ask a man if I can write his appli-
cation. I simply get out my blank and do it. I ask the
questions and he answers.
So far as I indulge in theories, I incline to the idea
that a man may be closed at the first interview if the
solicitor is prepared to answer arguments and meet prac-
tical objections. If the prospect lacks ready money, I
remove this difficulty by taking his note for the premium.
If he has been putting off solicitors with some shop-
worn or stock idea I can usually demolish it with some
first-class argument or illustration.
40
HOW TO ATTRACT TRADE
Here, for example, is an illustration which I often adapt
to the landing of a wealthy and successful business man
who has almost no insurance, but has all that he wants.
I did not invent it, but I do not hesitate to use it when-
ever it happens to fit. When I call upon Mr. Titus Hast-
ings, for instance, and he glances at my card, he is
likely to say:
"Glad to know you, Mr. Weinfeld, but I have all the
insurance I want."
"Thank you, Mr. Hastings," I reply, "but may I ask
how much insurance you carry?"
"Ten thousand dollars."
"May I ask if the impression that you are worth some-
thing like $150,000 is correct?"
"That's a personal matter, Mr. Weinfeld, but I don't
mind saying that the figures are not far out of the way.
"Thank you, again. Now, may I make you a propo-
sition?"
"If it is not too long."
"I will give you $10,000 for your brains, energy and
experience. In other words, for all that goes to make
up your ability, I will give you a check, draft, gold or
greenbacks. I will call the best attorney in town to
draw the agreement, but from the moment you accept,
every dollar you create belongs to me.
What is your
answer?"
"Do you take me for a fool?" Mr. Hastings probably
exclaims.
"Not at all," I reply.
"Why, I could earn $10,000 in six months if I didn't
have a cent of capital," Mr. Hastings declares. "Ten
thousand dollars to become your man for the rest of
my life! Not much, Mr. Weinfeld."
"It isn't much, Mr. Hastings, but $10,000 is precisely
PERSONAL SALES-ONE MILLION
41
the amount for which you have agreed to sell out upon
demand of the gray-bearded old fellow with the scythe.
The amount of life insurance you carry is the selling
price you put upon yourself. Your label reads in plain
figures, $10,000. If you are worth more, why don't you
raise the price?"
Reflecting on this viewpoint, Mr. Hastings is likely
to conclude that he has appreciated in value and that he
had better cover the increase with some more insurance.
PICKING out the argument which exactly fits the
situation pulls business, says Weinfeld, who saved
this $20,000 Williams policy with a sound argument.
It is surprising sometimes to find to what an extent
success in writing life insurance depends upon finding
the right kind of an argument and applying it in the
right way. Good arguments will even retrieve slips and
positive errors. I once called upon a prospect and
landed him for $20,000. As I was leaving his place of
business, I ran across an acquaintance who inquired if
there was anything doing. I carelessly replied that I
had just soaked Williams, the creamery man, for a
"double X." I went home, and two or three weeks
slipped away, but the creamery man's medical report
failed to arrive. Then I ran over to his town again to
see what was the matter. Our examiner explained.
"When you told Hardesty that you had soaked Wil-
liams his wife overheard you. She told her husband
about your soaking him and the deal was off."
I thought I saw a way of straightening up the matter
and called on the creamery man right away. I opened
up frankly: "I came very near soaking you, but you
wouldn't stand for it." He grinned in answer.
Having broken the ice, I proceeded: "I have just
x
42
HOW TO ATTRACT TRADE
one statement to make. If you agree with me, I expect
your business. If you don't, I will let you alone. Sup-
pose that I have bought 1,000 pounds of butter of you,
and have just left your place of business. Your neigh-
bor comes in and asks, 'Who was that man?' You reply,
"That was Weinfeld. I just soaked him for 1,000 pounds
of butter.' Now, then, did you cheat me?"
He studied the thing for a moment and then replied:
"You're right. I will go right up with you to the doc-
tor for the examination." This was a case where the
man might have remained hostile for an indefinite period.
He thought he really had a grievance, but a very simple
illustration set him right.
An argument which is hinted at rather than specifi-
cally stated is often highly effective. I called on a man
who thought that $10,000 would be a large amount of
insurance, but who looked good to me for at least $25,-
000. He told me that he had decided to give his in-
surance to another company and I asked him why. "Be-
cause," he replied, "it is the strongest company."
"Will you do me a favor?" I asked. He assured me
that he would if he could. "Please don't mention the
reason for your decision," I said, "to your neighbors,
Hepburn, the banker, and Castlon, the lumberman. Both
of them carry $50,000 policies in my company and both
think it is the strongest and best company in the world."
Just that simple way of putting it swept away his no-
tion that some other company was the strongest and he
took $25,000 with me.
Sometimes a mere suggestion will work in a subtle way
and modify an applicant's decision when the agent is
not present. I once wrote a man for a $25,000 term
policy. I did it with an inner protest, as the man had
plenty of money. However, I did not oppose him, but
PERSONAL SALES-ONE MILLION
43
2
when I delivered the policy I threw out one suggestion:
"This is the first time I ever knew you to do anything
cheap." A few days afterward he sent for me and told
me that he had decided that a term policy did not fit
his needs and that he wanted to change it.
The solicitor who writes many small applications and
travels rapidly over the field, as I do, will not always
be able to “frame up" an interview in advance. Fre-
quently he will be compelled to spar for an opening and
leads on which to base his arguments. Whenever a
case may be studied in advance, however, it will always
pay the solicitor to do so.
IFE insurance prospects are influenced by all sorts
Lof
of individual desires, whims and fancies Weinfeld
shows how to avoid some of these obstacles.
Life insurance prospects get all sorts of curious no-
tions in their heads and it takes considerable tact to
get around them. There is the man, for example, who
wants to take life insurance, but does not want to deal
with an agent. As a matter of fact, most of the best
companies will not accept applications except through
agents. Such a man once wrote to my company. The
home office sent me the correspondence. I called at his
town and found that he was from the east, having come
to Wisconsin to take charge of a new factory.
The local banker was a friend of mine and I asked
him to introduce me to the stranger and escape as
quickly as possible. I particularly requested that he
make no mention of my business. After the banker
had retired I asked a question: "You're not long in
the town, Mr. Folk; where did you blow in from?"
"Boston," he replied.
"Homesick?"
44
HOW TO ATTRACT TRADE
"It's nearly killing me."
"I thought so," I replied. "That's why I came over
to write you some life insurance.”
He stared, frowned, laughed, and he signed the ap-
plication just as soon as I could make it out.
Some one has said that when an American is not try-
ing to make a dollar he is trying to make a joke. I
appeal to the American's supposed love of a joke and
I find that the effort to be entertaining wins me lots
of applications. When one prospect demanded: "What
do I want insurance for? The money will do me no
good when I am dead," I replied: "My company has
taken care of that. Give me your application for $5,000
and at your death we'll make out two drafts of $2,500
each and send one draft to each place. In your case'
--I knew my man-"I'll advise the company where to
send the entire amount. You'll probably be shoveling
sulphur when it's handed to you." When a man has
any sense of humor he laughs at quips like this; and
the man who laughs is like the man who hesitates: he
is won or lost, according to the point of view.
Not long ago I closed a piece of business for $10,000.
Two weeks passed, and the applicant had failed to go to
the examiner. I then wrote the applicant as follows:
"I herewith return your application, as I have no
moth balls to put with it. As I derived valuable expe-
rience in writing your application, I thank you for per-
mitting me to write it."
In the course of three or four days the medical ex-
amination blank arrived, accompanied by a check for
the premium. The moth-ball joke had produced results.
I am frequently asked to give my opinion as to the
value of notes of introduction to prospects. Introduc-
tions are both good and bad. It depends upon the re-
PERSONAL SALES-ONE MILLION
45
lation which exists between the introducer and the other
man. If the introducer is simply a good friend of the
man you want to meet the chances are that his letter
will merely embarrass the latter. He will be anxious
not to offend the solicitor because of the friend's in-
troduction, but if he is not really disposed toward in-
surance at the time he will simply be put to the in-
convenience of getting rid of the solicitor gracefully.
The total effect of this kind of an experience is not
favorable to the solicitor.
On the other hand, there are a few rare men who
have influence with their friends, who act as advisers
to them and lead them by their example. When a man
takes a policy with me and then remarks, "By the way,
my friend Murphy thinks a good deal of my advice
and usually follows my suggestion. He needs a little
more insurance," I usually ask for a letter of intro-
duction to Murphy. Under the right circumstances
letters of introduction are worth while, but such a large
per cent of them are based upon slight relationship that
I seldom take the risk of presenting them.
THE men who know how are the supreme masters of the
business world-the Caesars and Napoleons of commerce.
A third-class man with a first-class "know how" to guide
him will get further than a man with an intellect which is
mighty but untrained.
There is a one best way to do anything. In every busi-
ness activity, from putting a cork into a bottle to creating a
world market for a new machine, there is always an “inside”
way to achieve results.
-W. C. Holman
VI
CLINCHING FIRE INSURANCE
BUSINESS
By Carroll D. Murphy
WHENE
HENEVER a fire insurance agent strolls down
the main street of his town to note progress on
an attractive risk, he meets from one to five competi-
tors returning from their survey. The construction of
a business block or public building means a scramble,
and the solicitor who would win must draw away from
the field. His wit and experience must serve to dis-
tinguish him from the crowd.
Last year a four-story business block went up in a
Kentucky city of twelve thousand. Before the plans
were finished, insurance men were on the trail, each in
the attempt to give his offer some aspect of advantage
that would win a commitment.
One prominent agent, however, made no apparent
effort to land the policy. For fifteen years he had sold
insurance with a sagacity that made his competitors sit
light. And again, he succeeded.
"How did you land that risk?" inquired a friend
of this solicitor, when the campaign was over. "You
certainly did not work for it.”
"No, I didn't work my legs," acknowledged the agent.
"I sat in my office and figured out a strangle hold.
"When I returned from my vacation, five solicitors
had already applied for that risk. And I had no
?
CLINCHING FIRE RISKS
47
standing with the owner, beyond mutual business re-
spect.
"Mr. Harris,' I said when I met the owner, 'there
are twelve fire insurance agencies in this city. Every-
one of them will be on your track daily for the next
three months-except mine. On Tuesday of the exact
week when you ought to insure, you'll know what the
rest have; if I offer something better, take it.'
"Then I went back to the office and on a red card
noted that risk for follow-up when the roof began to
go on.
MACDOWELL, the state agent, hurt himself; this
local agent inquired about his recovery: later he
found a way to let MacDowell help write the policy.
"Once when MacDowell, state agent for one of my
best companies, was here, he slipped and hurt himself
slightly as we were examining a risk. I remember
that my wife thought me over-polite to write and in-
quire after his condition a few days later. But every
one of my general agents is my friend; I take pains
to have him so. And when I wrote Mac. to hasten
his expected visit to Sept. 7, he was here on the day.
We went out to the Harris Block together and found
the owner there.
"Mr. Harris,' I said, after the introduction, 'By the
end of this week your block here will have the doors
and windows in. It ought to be insured. But the offi-
cial rate will probably not be fixed for several weeks.
"Until the representative of the inspection bureau
has examined the completed property, no one can more
than estimate the rate. But Mr. MacDowell here is
expert in doing that. He will look the building over
now, while every point of construction is evident, and
C
48
HOW TO ATTRACT TRADE
after consultation with higher officials, will name to you
an accurate rate in a faultless company. That means
that you and I may make this building safe and never
think of insurance on it again for a year.
"But the special reason why MacDowell came here
today, is that he might see the workmanship you are
getting and advise you on your electric wiring, water
mains, elevator cutoffs and the like. While it is still
easy for you to make alterations, he wishes to show
you how you can lower your own premium rate. He
will see that by next Saturday you are insured in case
of loss, but he prefers to make you safe today against
the likelihood of fire.'
"When the inspector came later he found no costly
alterations to suggest and complimented the owner on
the fire rate possible for his building. With three
hours' labor I have the insurance on both building and
stock, and expect to renew next September."
One morning the people of an eastern city awoke
to learn that a newly finished school building had
burned in the night. The loss was $27,000.
The insurance was in over twenty different compa-
nies, and each policy was a blanket covering loss pro
rata on different ward buildings. Moreover, the poli-
cies were for odd amounts, covering the contents of
each building up to a certain figure as well as the
school houses themselves.
The loss, which figured twelve and one-half per cent
of the total blanket insurance, was shortly paid. While
the other agents were studying up blanket insurance
puzzles, however, one solicitor looked ahead.
The school officials put forth extraordinary efforts
and in a few months had the building reconstructed.
The complex figures of re-insurance began to dawn upon
CLINCHING FIRE RISKS
49
various agents. And instantly the far-sighted solicitor
came forward with the solution of the problem, which
he had long since secured from the general office of his
company.
From the date of re-insurance, he figured the pre-
mium on $27,000, the amount of the loss, for the un-
expired term of the original blanket policies, which was
twenty-nine months. On the payment of its pro rata
share of this premium, he attached to each of his poli-
cies a clause reading:
"In consideration of the payment of $
as
premium, this policy is hereby reinstated for its original
amount during the unexpired term of said policy."
PPARENTLY this progressive agent only got his
share and no more-but in fact he was laying the
foundation of a valuable reputation for knowledge.
The live agent went to the board, presented his
scheme, had it accepted and his policies reinstated and
filed before the other agents struck his trail. They
then fell into line, and used up 150 copies of his clause,
one to the company, one to the agent's register and one
to the policy on each of fifty separate policies.
Apparently the progressive agent had merely retained
his share of the new premium. In fact, however, he had
established himself as the leading underwriter in his
community. By his sagacity he had gained a definite
hold on the future business of the school board, officially
and as individuals.
The average public official is far from expert in in-
surance matters. Anything which simplifies his insur-
ance problem, therefore, gives the agent of solid com-
panies favorable standing.
An agent who had recently entered a new field tried
50
HOW TO ATTRACT TRADE
vainly for some time to get a fair share of the fire in-
surance on his county jail, court house and infirmary.
He observed that the various policies were stacked away
in disorder, with no check on expiration dates, except to
"run the pack" or trust to agent's follow-ups. This
ingenious agent went to the county commissioners.
"Suppose," he suggested, "I take your policies and
schedule them in order of expiration. Such a list
would help me to keep my share of insurance up-to-date,
and would also assist you in your dates."
The commissioners gladly agreed. A day later the
agent sent in a typewritten list of the county risks,
companies represented, amounts, agents, and, in order,
the dates of expiration. At once he gained a definite
prestige among the officials.
The carbon of the list remained in the agent's desk,
however, and was even copied to his follow-up cards.
With this outline of the county's entire insurance prob-
lem before him, he is constantly planning some move
to gain more business.
Several of the names are known to be weak. With-
out mentioning them, he sometimes suggests to the board
that an insurance company demands the thorough in-
vestigation a heavy depositor gives his bank.
The insurance originally carried was too scant to cover
the property, and the agent took up this point with
the board, reminding them of their responsibility. Fi-
nally, by the bare list, the agent's own share of the
total insurance appeared unfairly low; and in view of
his solid companies and the value of his service, it has
several times been increased.
An insurance man tried in vain to get a share of the
business of a Milwaukee printing house. The owner
had placed the insurance with three or four old friends
CLINCHING FIRE 51
•
RISKS
when he bought the business ten years before and they
naturally held it, an additional thousand being taken
out from time to time as new equipment was added.
One day, the agent who was trying to get a part of
the insurance went through the plant with the super-
intendent during the noon hour. He went back to the
office and waited for the manager to return from lunch.
"I'll bet you anything from a cigar to an automo-
bile," was the agent's greeting, "that your fire insur-
ance doesn't protect you.'
PROSPECTS may jump on you like this, but if there
is method back of your purposely aggravating ap-
proach, you are ready to turn wrath into profits.
As he expected, the challenge not only caught the
manager's attention, but sent him "up in the air" with
a volley of sizzling talk about the companies he was
in being as strong and reliable as any in the world.
The agent calmly waited until the old gentleman talked
himself out and then repeated his assertion that the
property was not covered by the insurance. Finally
the manager went to the safe and took out the policies
to show the flip young agent. The latter read them
over carefully.
"Just as I thought," was his comment as he spread
out a policy on the desk before the manager. "When
you bought the business several years ago you prepared
and printed a schedule of material to be insured, and
whenever a policy has been renewed, this same old
schedule has been attached."
"But there is a blanket clause," broke in the man-
ager, "covering all the property not specifically men-
tioned."
"Blanket fiddlesticks! The blanket clause covers
52
HOW TO ATTRACT TRADE
type, cuts, leads, slugs, cases, racks and other stuff that
could be enumerated. Every machine is mentioned by
name and size. These policies insure a couple of old
cylinder presses that you traded out years ago when
you put in the new presses. Since then you have added
one or two linotypes, a monotype, a Universal and a
couple of Gordon jobbers, a folding machine and I
don't know what else. If you should have a fire to-
night you couldn't collect forty cents on these machines,
for they are not covered by your policies.'
The manager was dumbfounded. He read one of the
policies from beginning to end and asked question after
question about points that he had never thought of be-
fore.
"I don't understand it," he finally expostulated, "I've
known the men who wrote this insurance for thirty years
and-
"That's it. I know them, too. They are nice old
gentlemen, but they are practically retired from busi-
ness. About all they do is to rewrite policies for friends
like yourself whom they have known for years. They
write whatever you give them and that's the end of it.
You are hustling your own business"-as a matter of
fact it was the two sons who were doing the hustling-
"and aren't supposed to keep tab on all these things.
The insurance agent ought to do that for you and you
ought to place part of your business with some young
fellow who is right on the job and will see that your
interests are fully protected."
The manager was conservative, and in some ways an
old fogy, but he never let prejudices or friendship
excuse clumsy business, so he said, "Young man, if
you'll help me fix up a schedule that's right, I'll
promise that as fast as these policies expire I'll have
CLINCHING FIRE RISKS
53
them renewed at half the present amount and give you
the other half, so that eventually you will get half of
my business. Is that satisfactory?"
It was.
Last summer there was a fire in a Chicago office
building caused by an explosion in a room occupied by
a moving picture supply firm. Hardly had the loss
been adjusted when a large building in one of the eastern
cities was completely destroyed, the fire having a sim-
ilar origin. Immediately the Board of Underwriters
took action and the rates were raised on all buildings
in which film supply houses did business.
DICKINSON
his fortals
made
ICKINSON got ahead of his five rivals and made
a valuable friend when he went out of his way to
use this profitable method for winning over insurance.
In a certain Chicago block, a film exchange occupied
half a block and the first the manager of the building
knew about the action of the board of underwriters
was when Dickinson, one of the agents who carried part
of the insurance, called up to say that the rate had
been jumped from twenty-eight cents to sixty cents.
He added that he would be over to see if something
could not be done about it. The manager was worked
up over the thought of having his insurance more than
doubled. Dickinson promised nothing, but expressed his
readiness to do everything he could to get matters ar-
ranged in some way.
Together he and the manager went through the film
exchange room and later Dickinson brought over one of
the men from the board of underwriters. A careful
study of the situation was made and the upshot was that
entirely new methods of storing the films (which are
made of celluloid) were introduced. Instead of pack-
54
HOW TO ATTRACT TRADE
ing them away in a pasteboard box, each film was en-
cased in a tin tube and this in turn was placed in a
small sheet iron box. In the vault where the films
were stored, the wooden shelving gave way to metal
shelves and a cement floor was put in. Then certain
changes in the electric wiring were suggested and made.
All this took three months or more, but not a week
passed that Dickinson did not drop in to see how the
work was progressing. The policies of the building
expired in October and the sixty-cent rate was still in
force, but the changes had met with the approval of
the inspector and secured the promise of a new rate
within a few weeks. Five men carried the insurance
on the building, and just before the old policies expired
three of them mailed in the renewal blanks at the
higher rate without a word of comment or explanation.
The fourth man brought his in, remarking as he slapped
it down on the manager's desk, "They're sticking you
a high rate on account of that film concern fire."
Every one of the men had known of the new rate
four months before, but not one (except Dickinson) had
even informed the manager, to say nothing of making
any move to have it lowered. Dickinson had never let
the matter drop and, thanks to his efforts, the rate was
eventually restored to twenty-eight cents. He got the
bulk of the insurance on that building.
♡
To reduce complaints is to give up an adequate percentage
of your profits to satisfy people. And unselfishness is
not merely an affair of money. The salesmen of a house
must sacrifice their own comfort, their own leisure.
must sacrifice the tendency to let mere system run a business.
They
-Clarence M. Woolley
President, American Radiator Company
VII
WHEN DEALERS COOPERATE
T
FOR TRADE
By W. S. Zimmerman
O attract buyers to their city during a holiday cele-
bration, members of a western commercial club
combined to refund railroad fares to out-of-town vis-
itors and the plan proved highly successful. People
who had not been attracted by the individual offers of
merchants to repay railroad fares, made a trip to the
city and spent their money when the total amount ex-
pended, not merely sums spent in one store, was con-
sidered in the refund.
Every merchant subscribing to the plan is provided
with a quantity of slips, each of which carries a num-
ber which identifies the merchant in a way known only
to the merchant and the secretary of the club. This
prevents one merchant from getting an idea of the
number of tickets issued or the cash sales of his com-
petitors.
The left-hand section of the card is divided into ten
vertical columns, each of which is subdivided into ten
units of five cents each, making five dollars in all.
Space is provided for the customer's name and address,
thus furnishing material for a live mailing list when
the slips have been redeemed and returned to the mer-
chant who issued them.
When a customer asks for a cash fare refund, he
56
HOW TO ATTRACT TRADE
shows his duplicate sales slip and the merchant cuts
one of the refund slips in such a way that the amount
of the purchase is represented by the figures remaining
on the chart. The stubs are retained by the merchant
and are used to check up the tickets returned by the
committee.
ECAUSE rebates follow a sliding scale, refunding
Custom rebus this system encourages them
BECAU
to customers by this tested system encourages them
to buy to the free fare limit before leaving town.
After having made all their purchases, the buyers
take their tickets to the club secretary. He figures the
total of individual purchases, and, by consulting a table
printed on the back of the refund slips, can determine
whether or not the applicant is entitled to a railway

4.55 | 4.05| 3.55 | 3.05 | 2.55 | 2.05 1.551.05 55 5
4.604.10 3.60 3.10 2.60 | 2.10|1.60|1.10
60 10
4.65 | 4.16|3.65 | 3.152.65 2.15 1.65|1.15| 65 15
COMMERCIAL CLUB,
CASH SALE REFUND
4.70|4.20 3.70 3.20 2.70 | 2.20|1.70|1.20
70
20
4.76 4.25 3.75 | 3.25 2.75 2.25 1.75 1.25 75 26
4.80|4.30 3.803.30 | 2.80 | 2.30|1.80|1.30 | 80 30
NAME
ADDRESS
4.85 4.35| 3.85 | 3.35 2.85 2.35 1.851.35
4.90 4.40 | 3.90|3.40 | 2.90 | 2.401.901.40
4.95 4.45| 3.95 3.45 | 2.95 2.45 1.95| 1.45] 95
5.00 4.50 3.00 3.50 3.00 2.50 2.00 1.50 1.00
85
35
90 40
45
50
61
RETURN THIS SLIP WITH OTHERS TO THE
SECRETARY'S OFFICE, 102 MAIN STREET AND
GET THE PRICE OF YOUR RESERVED TICKET
FORM I: When dealers hold a sale together, a refund slip like that here
shown is given with each purchase to designate the amount of money spent.
The customer turns them in and receives a railroad ticket or cash refund
of a value proportionate to the total amount of her purchase
or interurban ticket. If the total does not equal the
sum entitling him to a ticket, the applicant is given a
refund proportionate to the sum of money spent. This
return, however, is far below the refund made to the
person entitled to a ticket as, by this means, the buyer
WHEN DEALERS COOPERATE
57
is often induced to increase his purchases. Anything
over the amount required for a ticket is retained by
the club.
There is no fixed relation between distance traveled
and refund received. The committee in charge bases
its allowances on local conditions and makes higher
refunds from some points than from others. Where
the plan was first tried, it was found advisable to allow
a greater ratio between sales and refunds to people
coming from distant points than to buyers living com-
paratively close in.
At the close of the celebration the secretary or club
committee totals the cash sales represented by all the
refund slips redeemed for visitors. To the sum spent
for printing, advertising and administration, is added
the amount of money refunded to buyers.
This ex-
pense total is divided by total cash sales and the result-
ing quotient is the constant factor used in estimating
each merchant's share of the cost. The sales total of
each member, as represented by his refund slips, is
then figured and this total is multiplied by the con-
stant factor. For example:
Total cash sales...
Railroad fares
•
All other expense
$12,000
$114.52
17.80
$132.32
Factor of cost-132.32-12,000-$.011
Total of refund slips (Merchant No. 61)
$438.35.
Amount paid by merchant No. 61-438.35X
.011-$4.82.
Each subscriber's share of the expense is based on a
fixed ratio to the amount of slips issued for cash busi-
*
58
HOW TO ATTRACT TRADE
ness done. All the stores are on an equality.
In former years, merchants refunded railroad fares
only to people buying big bills of goods. This plan,
however, was never highly successful because visitors
did not care to spend large amounts at any one store.
Most of them preferred to shop. When the plan of
combining to pay fares was first broached, merchants
refused to accept the proposal on the ground that sales
slip duplicates, cash register receipts and similar
methods of counting sales would give the auditing
committee a line on the business of competing mer-
chants. Punched tickets or any other single slip sys-
tem for apportioning sums paid out for railroad fares
was, on the other hand, condemned by the smaller mer-
chants who would have had to subscribe an undue pro-
portion of the amount paid out.
The system outlined here, however, obviates these dif-
ficulties. Each merchant is identified by a number
known only to the secretary. Therefore, the refund
slips may be handled by any one. When the bills are
figured, the secretary translates the numbers into names,
and mails each merchant a bill for his share of the
expense in the envelope which encloses his redeemed
cash fare slips.
♡
AREPUTATION for handling a certain grade of mer-
chandise of a seasonable character takes years to build.
Yet it may be torn to pieces by using this reputation, for a
single season, to dispose of a bargain stock of dress goods or
suits, which may have been picked up at a small cost.
-Philip A. Conne
Secretary and Treasurer, Saks & Company
PART II-MARKETING
GOODS BY MAIL
"We Are Responsible"
THE inevitable result of social and political
changes will be the transfer of power to the
business men of the world because we are respon-
sible—the most responsible men in the world.
We are successful in just the degree that we are
responsible. We are unsuccessful and constant-
ly ejected from the business world by the bank-
ruptcy courts or otherwise, if we are irresponsible.
So it will come to be seen that we are the
natural leaders. It will be found that all the
principal things that our businesses need, the
masses of our employees need also; good hous-
ing, good transportation, good recreation facili-
ties, good education that really fits men for their
life's work and for their living; well-governed
cities, justice and security for property.
These are the things our employees will use
their new, greater power to get; and to get them,
they will use us as leaders, as soon as they re-
cognize that our enlightened self-interest wants
these things too.
Edward Wilene
lu
2


EDWARD A. FILENE
President, William Filene's Sons Company
VIII
RETAILING VIA PARCEL
POST
By W. S. Zimmerman
قرد
ARCEL post service supplies a new link in the
PARCE
chain which binds the consumer to the retail store.
The last important link was forged a dozen years ago
when the telephone captured city and suburban resi-
dence districts and brought the farmer within speaking
distance of the stores in his market town. It made
ordering easy, lightened the work of the buyer, put
him in quick touch with his source of supplies. In
the cities and towns its influence on trade was felt im-
mediately, but in the country the problem of getting
the goods to the buyer remained as a barrier to telephone
sales.
After a decade of waiting, however, the parcel post
arrived, to put the small retailer in the large city on a
service equality with the largest department store, and
to give merchants in the smaller towns a definite ad-
vantage over their mail order rivals. The city shop
finds at its command a delivery system as speedy and
convenient, for all practical purposes, as the wagon serv-
ice of the big stores.
The small-town merchant can get his goods to his
country buyers more quickly and more cheaply than
can any seller outside the county. In conjunction with
the rural telephone lines which criss-cross the farming
62
MAIL SALES
districts, he has the inside track on the trade of his
county.
The catalog house has made the most general use of
the new service, both for the advertising value of deliv-
eries made by it, and for the very real savings as com-
pared with express rates.
For retail merchants in many lines, the cheap, easy
and accident-proof carriage of the rural free delivery
routes offers a promising opportunity to develop trade
by supplying to country customers service never before
possible. Shoe stores, laundries, dry goods stores, drug
stores, hardware stores and other retail shops which
handle goods coming within the generous size and weight
limits make such deliveries by mail. Their experiments
in many cases are bringing their country neighbors into
line for home buying again.
ELLING by parcel post can not be relied upon al-
ways to help your profits and sales-follow this advice
for preparatory testing and investigation.
Before investing heavily in preparations for selling
by parcel post, test carefully to find the effect which
routine delay and breakage may have on your success.
Often the uncertainty of delivery at a scheduled time
in satisfactory condition, which frequently hampers a
large public service, seriously disappoints retailers who
attempt to use the parcel post. Test until you can esti-
mate how great an allowance you should make in your
plans for this condition.
A hardware man in an Illinois town associated the
parcel post with his store during his holiday and after-
Christmas advertising. Early in January a succession
of sleet, snow and rain storms made travel over the
country roads difficult. Six miles out of town one even-
USING THE PARCEL POST
63
ing a farmer broke a bucket in a pump he was trying
to repair. Recalling the hardware man's advertising, he
saved himself the twelve-mile drive by telephoning his
want, the size of the pump, its maker's name, and a
reminder to the dealer that the pump had been bought
at his store. His repair part reached him by mail the
next morning, and was adjusted in half an hour.
When the farmer "stopped in" the following Sat-
urday to pay for the bucket, the incident gave the dealer
an opening to suggest the advantage of trading at
home. If the break had occurred in his cream sepa-
rator, feed chopper, gas engine, or any one of several
farm conveniences purchased from a catalog house, the
repairs could hardly have been secured under two days.
Contrasting this certainty of delay with the prompt
supplying of the pump repair, the farmer saw the profit
in buying his implements at home.
This hardware dealer regularly uses this possibility
of emergency service as a convincing argument for
home buying. Another of his parcel post sales was
of a hay knife to a farmer several miles out who
had broken his old blade, but had determined to "do
without" rather than drive in to replace it. In a joking
mood he called up the hardware man at his home that
night and asked him if he could send a new knife by
the R. F. D. carrier.
"Sure thing," the dealer answered, and in a few min-
utes' chat learned just what kind of a hay knife his
customer wanted and the price he wanted to pay. "You
ought to come in and get acquainted with my stock,"
the dealer urged. "When you know what I've got, you
can save yourself lots of cold drives this winter." De-
livery of the hay knife the following day brought in
another "looker" before the end of the week. Credit
64
MAIL SALES
in such telephone transactions is a minor matter, be-
cause most of the customers own the farms on which
they live.
From these and a few other similar experiences, the
hardware man evolved a hurry-up selling plan to which
he has since traced considerable business. With the two
rural telephone directories before him, he checked the
names of all the farmers he knew well and had each of
his two clerks check their special friends. Having
plenty of leisure, one or the other of them kept the
store telephone busy most of the time on several stormy
days, calling the men they knew and telling each the
story of the telephone sale and its attractive bargains.
Without creating a "run" on the store's reserves of
hardware, this telephone campaign has pulled enough
orders to make the store owner very glad he adopted it.
LET the R. F. D. man take the drive," is good parcel
post advertising only if you have carefully worked
out the other details of your mail campaign.
The third step in his parcel post campaign was to re-
shape his newspaper advertising. From his jobbers and
various manufacturers whose specialties he had in stock,
he secured electrotypes of their catalog cuts and made
up full-page advertisements picturing and describing
"leaders" chosen from the "slower" articles in stock.
Each was plainly priced at less than regular figures.
"If you can't get in to size up these bargains before
you pay good money for them," each advertisement an-
nounced, "telephone Bell 841 and you'll get them by
parcel post next morning. I should certainly enjoy
meeting you at 91 North Washington any hour, any day.
But the R. F. D. man has to take that long, cold drive
every day, anyhow. My main idea is to give you at the
USING THE PARCEL POST
65
lowest possible price and with least trouble to you, ex-
actly what you need when you need it.'
Sales records for the first month showed a twenty
per cent increase over the corresponding month of the
previous year-a record which the dealer credits entirely
to his parcel post advertising. Moreover, he proposes to
serve this country trade all the year 'round-from the
man who needs a handful of spikes to fasten a new
plank in the barn floor or a bolt for the windmill, to the
woman who wants a paring knife or a new teakettle.
In a similar way, a druggist in an Indiana town is
skimming the cream of the trade in his section. During
his most successful parcel post sales campaign, the lead-
ing paragraph of every newspaper advertisement he
used read:
"When the doctor telephones, 'continue present treat-
ment,' don't hitch up and freeze driving to town to re-
fill the bottle of medicine. Telephone 361, give Helvin
the prescription number and Uncle Sam will have it at
your door the first thing in the morning.
The good feeling which this mail order service has
created is taken advantage of by the druggist, who
wraps with each package a circular describing the sun-
dries carried in stock. Publicity, secured through ad-
vertising the "posted prescriptions" scheme, has caused
a marked increase in the sales of his brushes, boxed
candies, soaps and toilet articles. The mailing fees are
so small that profits can safely absorb the charges.
The rural housewife has been quick to seize the ad-
vantages which her grocer's advertisement urges for
parcel post delivery. When she runs out of tea, coffee,
sugar, starch, or spices, she no longer goes without
needed articles until her next trip to town. A moment
at the telephone places the order, which is delivered by
܀
66
MAIL SALES
mail the next day at an extra cost too small to count
against the convenience.
Clerks are instructed to call up customers on rural
routes during their spare hours. At two points waste
is reduced. The grocer is not robbed of possible sales
while the housewife is "getting along without"; tele-
phone selling profitably fills the dull hours.
"Blizzard tomorrow," said a middle western grocer to
his partner. "Women in country houses will be fuming
because they have to go without fresh vegetables and at
the same time here is our green stuff going to the bad."
AKING the weather work for you is helpful, par-
MA
ticularly if you can induce the R. F. D. carrier and
the weather man to join forces for your benefit.
Parcel post solved this man's dilemma of supply cut
off from demand. People who could not make the trip
to town were formerly forced to go without fresh
vegetables, no matter how fat their buying purses might
be. Risk of loss and percentage of waste, moreover,
kept the grocer from buying except in limited quanti-
ties. Under the new system the clerks call up customers
and solicit orders just as the supply on hand, the next
morning's purchases, the special offerings of the market
or the weather indications dictate. During bad weather,
a friendly phrase addressed to the housewife as a "shut-
in for the day" not only makes a ready market for
lettuce, spinach, fruit and winter luxuries, but also
flatters and pleases the customer. Mailing cost is almost
negligible.
Another phase of parcel post usefulness to the retailer
developed in the experience of an Oklahoma hardware
house. A farmer, ten miles out, broke a plowshare.
Not having a duplicate in stock, the dealer telegraphed
USING THE PARCEL POST
67
his wholesale house at Kansas City and had the share
shipped that afternoon by parcel post direct to the
farmer. The part made a quick trip and went out on
the rural route in time to turn a half mile of furrow the
following afternoon. The customary profit on such a
plowshare was seventy cents. The telegram cost twenty-
five cents, the postage seventy-two cents. The dealer
split this expense with the customer, made twenty-one
cents profit and set the country-side talking about his
quick service in emergencies.
This instance suggests a field for parcel post cooper-
ation between the jobber and retailer, and a valuable
talking point for the close-at-hand wholesale house in
dealing with the small store. One wholesale hardware
house has brought this fact home to its field salesmen by
shipping to each by parcel post a new type of shovel
which it desired to push and urging them to use the ship-
ment to demonstrate to dealers the advantage of selling
special orders from the house catalog and making direct
delivery by parcel post the next day.
CO
◄OMBINATION offers will probably help you as
much as they did this Minnesota grocer if you study
his methods for making “stickers” move off the shelves.
Many merchants who have succeeded in passing the
first obstacle of getting patrons interested in the parcel
post are baffled by the costs of mailing. The pound rate
is charged for fractions of a pound and in the local
zone the cost of succeeding pounds is only a fifth of the
cost of mailing the first pound. Candy for children,
souvenirs, advertising booklets and novelty schemes are
often used as fillers in parcels weighing less than a
pound. But the big difficulty lies in the cost of mail-
ing the first pound. This makes many deliveries too ex-
68
MAIL SALES
pensive, as the cost of mailing a pound of sugar, for in-
stance, amounts, practically, to the cost of the article.
Combination offers usually solve this problem. Ad-
vertisements of a Minnesota grocer explained that mail-
ing goods in capacity weight lots enables him to pay de-
livery charges in the local zone. To secure buyers in
the maximum weight class, he offered a series of "parcel
post bargains" composed of combination lots of goods,
and gave the offers such names as "Kitchen Specials,
"Household Specials," and the like. The parcels were
made up of food staples or articles required in daily use,
and in every case carried the attraction of extra values.
He put the bargain element into his offers at first by in-
cluding in the combination "stickers" which he was
willing to move from his shelves at any price.
A druggist who uses the combination idea found,
after brief experiment, what combinations can be mailed
under the one-pound limit. He advertises a list of trade-
building offers in the newspapers. Persons who want a
can of tooth powder get extra values by making their
order include a toothbrush and a cake of toilet soap. The
shaver who runs out of soap and orders delivery by mail
is induced to add a can of talcum powder and a bottle of
cold cream. Tests and experiments are gradually point-
ing out the best sellers in the earlier combinations and
are suggesting additions and changes as well as new
schemes.
In the local zone, except on low-priced staples, mer-
chants using the parcel post have generally assumed the
mailing charges. Whether this practice can be con-
tinued is doubtful, unless the buyer, who is a regular
and steady customer, carries the bulk of his purchases
home without expense to the retailer and asks for parcel
post delivery only in emergency cases. The mailing
USING THE PARCEL POST
69
الله
charges can too easily become a tax on a local merchant's
profits to be lightly considered. Outside the local zone,
the size of the purchase has thus far determined whether
the buyer or the seller shall pay the postage.
As a rule, the retail price has marked the line be-
tween store-paid and consumer-paid deliveries. For
weightier goods, the price limit has generally been set
at five dollars for goods delivered outside the local ter-
ritory but within the first zone. For lighter stuff, espe-
cially goods bought in small quantities, the price limit
for free delivery runs from one dollar up. The schedule
for free delivery can be easily fixed by going over in-
voices. Such a list when printed is a good advertise-
ment and guide to the buying public.
A western department store has made distance limit
free deliveries by offering free delivery of any two-dol-
lar purchase within the first zone and free delivery of any
five-dollar purchase to any point within three hundred
miles. Where the order is outside the free delivery zone,
and where the purchase is under five dollars, the com-
pany asks that twenty-five cents be added to the price of
an article to cover postage. The company agrees to re-
turn the difference between the amount remitted and the
actual cost of mailing.
L
AUNDRY profits were increased by this campaign-
and the successful schemes for printers and small
department stores also gave satisfactory returns.
The laundry man has also found new avenues of busi-
ness expansion opened to him through the parcel post.
In the past, the difficulties of getting linen to and from
the country home has been a constant handicap on trade.
The men had their starched shirts and collars "done
up" in town, but the family washing machine had to
70
MAIL SALES
take care of the "flat work" on which the steam laundry
could offer its best service and lowest prices.
An Ohio laundry man contrasted the disadvantages
of home washing in winter and the prompt service and
low prices which he could offer on family work. "Don't
let your wife worry over a tub in winter," he urged in
his newspaper advertisements and circular letters. "It's
hard on her, hard on the clothes and wash-day dinners
are hard on you. On sheets, pillow cases, table linen
and towels, my prices are lower than the cost of soap and
coal, to say nothing of a probable doctor's bill.
"Bring in your laundry, and I'll return it by parcel
post the third day. Send it in by the R. F. D. carrier as
late as Wednesday and it will be ready for you by
Saturday noon. I'll pay the postage either way on
bundles amounting to fifty cents."
Little argument was needed to persuade the farmers'
wives that winter washing was a dangerous economy.
As a consequence, the laundry's receipts increased fully
twenty-five per cent. The postage paid has cut the
profit on the new work materially. Pro-rating his
wagon cost, however, the proprietor has discovered that
his rural deliveries cost him very little more than those
he makes in town.
The usefulness of the parcel post has been turned to
account by a department store in a small Indiana city.
Morning after morning, in the R. F. D. edition of the
local paper, the advertising features some single item of
the store's stock, always with an introductory query.
"Lost a glove?" "Need new rubbers?" "Coffee pot
sprung a leak?" or the like. Followed the suggestion:
"Call Hesbanks, 261, both 'phones, and ask us to send
you by parcel post," introduces the day's leader, what-
ever it happens to be, attractively priced.
USING THE PARCEL POST
71
Not every one on the country routes wanted Scotch
mittens or Featheredge petticoats on the days they
were featured, but before the end of the second week of
the campaign, telephone sales to country customers were
averaging fourteen a day. Clerks were instructed in
this store to hold the attention of telephone inquirers
and offer to either make purchases for them in other de-
partments or transfer them. In the dress goods and
silk department, when the usual January sales were
under way, one clerk with a wide country acquaintance
made forty-seven sales of dress patterns "on approval"
by parcel post in two weeks; only fifteen of the pat-
terns were returned. Her success is explained by her
knowledge of her customers' tastes, complexions and
figures, and her skill in choosing for each woman in-
dividually.
Even printers, whose output is denied fourth-class
mail privileges, have used the parcel post to advantage.
The editor of a California weekly made his advertising
react to his advantage when he established a mail order
column in his classified ad section. To get the depart-
ment going, he offered space at a low rate for the first
month. Merchants tried out parcel post ideas in the
medium and some of the farmers advertised chickens,
eggs, apples and other farm produce to the people of
the town. The column now serves as the public market
of the locality.
This "community of interest" idea was followed in
another way by a group of Iowa merchants who co-
operated in making up and paying for a town parcel post
catalog. A druggist, a hardware man, a harness maker
and half a dozen others who depended upon the rural
trade made up a combination catalog describing leading
lines. Booklets were mailed to out-of-town customers
*
72
MAIL SALES
and proved an incentive to buying.
Parcel post sales mean a wider extension of credit and
the necessary accompaniment of an accurate accounting
and collection system. The important ruling of the
Post Office department that an invoice can be inclosed
with the goods allows the sending of a sales slip with
each parcel.
This gives, at the end of the month, the best possible
excuse for a monthly detailed statement of the cus-
tomer's account to check against the sales slips. The
billhead can carry a line stating the account is due on
or before a certain day of the month. Slow-pays can be
brought to book by explaining that the postage on
parcels makes it necessary that accounts be settled, say,
before the tenth of the succeeding month.
Credits on telephone orders in the smaller cities and in
the average country town can be determined without
much difficulty. The customer's reputation and financial
responsibility are usually an open book to the interested
inquirer.
THE friendships of a country town salesman have an im-
portant bearing upon the selling efficiency of the man or
woman behind the counter. His efficiency is often increased
in the ratio by the number of friends which he possesses
and the tact which he uses in making more.
-W. G. Chamberlain
Vice-President, Skinner, Chamberlain & Company
IX
SHOWING SAMPLES BY
MAIL
By C. E. Cake
:
HERE are fifty dealers we find it impossible to
THE
sell because of their remote locations," said a
manufacturer of brass goods to his sales manager. "Our
travelers don't get to them often enough; other houses,
located nearer, step in and get the business. But we
can sell them, or the greater part of them. I have de-
cided to make up samples of faucets, joints and other
goods, and send them to these dealers every thirty days.
The samples are to be about one-fourth the regular size
and can be sent by mail.'
Within thirty days after the first hundred samples
were sent, the brass manufacturer had received orders
from ten of the dealers; in sixty days, fifteen more; and
at the end of ninety days, after three different kinds of
brass faucets and joints had been mailed, there were
orders from ten others: thirty-five altogether-and only
one letter had accompanied each sample throughout the
mailing.
A clothier in the central west had a larger trade on
collars than on ties, although his stock of ties was much
greater than his stock of collars. He had a fine assort-
ment of ties, attractively displayed and continuously
pushed by the salesman-the sales total should have
doubled that for collars. He resolved to make it that
74
MAIL SALES
large, at least, and the first idea he hit upon was to
send samples to a select list of names.
He ordered an extra lot of ties for the summer sea-
son; the majority were smart four-in-hands. Manila
envelopes, twelve inches long by two inches wide, each
containing a tie neatly folded, were sent to five hundred
persons. The assortment was as varied as possible. A
few bow ties were also mailed in packages to fit.
These ties cost on an average of thirty-seven cents
each; they were extra good fifty-cent values. The
envelope and postage cost six cents, making the total
expense forty-three cents for each sample or $215 for
the entire lot. This apparently was a big price to pay
for the advertising, but the total of sales of ties for
the three months following this generous sampling was
more than three times the figures for the preceding
three months. In fact, this merchant was so well
pleased that he has decided to send sample ties by mail
at the beginning of each spring season.
could reis talem powder, it is
Fa manufacturer could sell faucets by mailed samples,
If
a retailer neckties and this man talcum powder, it is
worth your while to study their methods.
A manufacturer of talcum powder, though there was
no dead stock on hand, decided to send samples of his
powder to consumers, for the direct benefit of his dealers.
First, he experimented. He got an average of twenty
names from each of one hundred dealers. Then he
ordered a thousand sample boxes, replicas in miniature
of the regular size. These he enclosed in corrugated
paper boxes.
The postage cost two cents each. The
cost of the sample boxes averaged about four cents each
and the paper cases cost three cents each-total, nine
cents, or-including additional expenses-about $110 in
SHOWING SAMPLES
75
all. The immediate growth in business from the hun-
dred dealers averaged twenty-five per cent, and con-
tinued from a tenfold increase in the amount of samples.
Varied uses for cement are shown by an ingenious
sample distributed first at a recent annual exhibition of
the manufacturers of the product, and later mailed to
contractors and builders. A level, three inches long by
an inch wide and one-half inch deep, made of the cement,
is enclosed in a thin paper box. The company's name
is neatly imprinted on the top side.
One thousand of these cement samples were mailed,
and they brought more than a hundred inquiries from
users throughout the country.
Later, models of cement blocks used in house and
store construction, four inches long, two wide and one
deep, were mailed to the trade. The cost of mailing by
parcel post was not high, and the novelty of receiving
a cement brick by mail-which could be used as a paper-
weight-attracted favorable attention and many live in-
quiries.
A manufacturer of Key West cigars, who found it
necessary to stimulate his trade, made a small cigar, two
and a half inches long by a half inch thick, from the
best tobacco, placed the usual band about it, wrapped
it in tin foil, packed it for rough handling in a box to fit,
and then mailed one each to a thousand wealthy men.
A clever enclosure called attention to the quality and
offered a special price on a size and shape "to order.”
The cost was $75; immediate returns, over $300. Repeat
orders at the end of ninety days led this manufacturer
to give his little smokes wider distribution.
A coffee dealer secured similar results. The demand
for his brand was not as strong as he desired. The
brand, a special one for use in French-drip coffee pots,
76
MAIL SALES
was pulverized. His trade fell principally among the
wealthy. He ordered several thousand sample packages,
each containing enough to make three cups, and mailed
them direct to the trade, giving grocers a pound free for
sending him, on a convenient return post card, the
names of ten wealthy consumers. Sales gradually grew
to a volume which satisfied him.
A land operator decided that the investor must be
convinced of one thing: the quality of the soil. So he
ordered corrugated paper boxes, two inches square, and
mailed samples of the soil of the land he was offering to
two thousand prospects, with a letter calling attention to
government analysis. Inquiries poured in and he sold a
thousand acres to customers who gave his land close
thought on account of his unique sample. The expense
was approximately $200.
LUMBER you would hardly think could be sold by
mailed samples, but actual experience proved the
sample-by-mail plan successful.
Lumber is another product that has entered the grow-
ing list of "unusual samples." A hardwood flooring
manufacturer cut some of his product into pieces three
inches long; some finished, some unfinished. On one
side he pasted the brand, the price, and the name of the
prospective purchaser.
A soft wood dealer did the same thing, specializing in
gum wood, which he wished to bring to the attention of
contractors as a new wood for interior finishing.
An office equipment dealer experienced considerable
trouble with two brands of carbon paper he stocked.
The complaints practically killed that branch of his
SHOWING SAMPLES
by my
business. He discarded the brands, took on new ones,
and wrote sales letters in duplicate, to a selected list,
leaving a sheet of the new carbon between the original
and copy. The letter called attention to the class of
work the carbon would do, as shown by the duplicate
copy. This unusual sample helped to rejuvenate his
carbon paper business.
Manufacturers of other lines also believe in striking
samples as a means for placing the merits of their
product graphically before the consumer. Tooth paste
in small tubes; varnish in tiny cans; enamel on bits of
wood; roofing material made up as it appears in actual
construction; knitting yarns sampled on cloth to show
effects; candies; brick, and enameled and other styles,
prove the advertising value of unusual samples. The
sample itself is rarely enough to secure the order, but it
gets attention for the sales-letter.
A sample which requires extensive explanatory printed
matter is not a good sample. The sample itself should
compel interest and arouse desire. The selling letter
can then focus on closing the sale.
SELLING by mail requires a peculiar line of talent. An
order can be obtained only by winning the purchaser's
confidence. 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.
—W. A. Waterbury
Sales Manager, A. B. Dick Company
X
KEEPING RETAIL TRADE
AT HOME
By W. C. Holman
Former Advertising Manager and Director, National Cash Register Company
A
NDREW JACKSON was once holding a court in
Tennessee. A noted gun man, the terror of the
region, entered the court room and created a disturb-
ance.
"Eject that man," ordered Jackson.
The terrified bailiff dared not move.
"Call a posse and eject him," said Jackson.
Still the bailiff made no move.
The court room was silent-court officers, witnesses,
and spectators were all paralyzed with fear, except
Jackson himself.
"This court is adjourned for five minutes," said
Judge Jackson. Leaving the bench, he walked straight
up to the bully and looked him directly in the eye. The
latter, after a tense minute of endeavor to meet the
judge's gaze, weakened, shifted from one foot to the
other, dropped his gun and sank into a chair. Jackson
seized him by the collar, took away his gun, dragged
him outside and kicked him down the steps.
SO.
The man was terrible only to those who thought him
In a town of five thousand, little more than an hour's
ride from Chicago, there is a middle-aged hardware clerk
who threw away a good business because he let fear of
KEEPING TRADE AT HOME
79
catalog house competition master him. He owned
a store, fairly well stocked in an old-fashioned way, and
enjoying a moderate trade until the proprietor began to
brood over the inroads mail order concerns were making
on his sales.
The more he brooded, the greater his alarm grew and
the more unreasonable became his attitude towards the
customers who went away to spend their money in-
stead of using it at home. And since he made no in-
telligent effort to lure back the customers driven away
by his sarcastic speeches and unprogressive methods,
his sales dwindled steadily. Finally, in a fit of despond-
ency, he closed out his stock at a ruinous figure and
went to work for another and a saner man.
You
OU will admit that the hardware clerk let ungrounded
fright scare him out-these methods show how he
should have grappled with the catalog problem.
There are too many retailers in the United States
whose mental condition is like that of this ex-merchant
in the earlier stages of his obsession. They see the
catalog house as an overwhelming menace to the re-
tailer-a danger all the graver, now that the parcel
post may make long-distance trading for the small town
and rural consumer easier than ever before. Yet most
of them, if they would walk straight up to the problem
that frightens them and grapple with it in the right
way, would not find it terrifying.
Nor is this dread of catalog houses confined to cross-
roads stores with only country trade. There are hun-
dreds of small cities and large towns where the mer-
chants entertain this fear, though it is based on a mis-
conception and false suggestion which they have al-
lowed to grow up, or on good reasons which need not
80
MAIL SALES
have existed had the retailers studied the situation and
handled it with energy and intelligence.
To begin with, mail order houses have no striking ad-
vantages over the local retailers. Instead they have dis-
advantages, when all the factors are reckoned up. But
they apply twenty times as much ingenuity to the over-
coming of their disabilities as the retailers employ in
utilizing their superior opportunities.
Stop and think this over. Analyze the conditions.
Compare the advantages of the catalog house with
your advantages as a local retailer-and you will never
have a moment's dread of them.
Take the claims-truthful claims-that they sell so
many millions of dollars' worth of goods in a year.
What if they do? The retail stores of this country sell
billions and billions worth of goods in the same time.
New York alone buys a billion and a half dollars' worth
of food each twelve months.
Take that other bogie of greater buying power. It is
undoubtedly true that the larger the quantity of goods
you purchase the lower the price you can command.
Against this decided advantage in buying, however, you
should set the tremendous selling and handling expenses
the catalog houses must and do assume.
Compare these selling costs with your own selling
costs. Remember that in the end the consumer pays all
costs. Can you or the mail order house then offer him
the better values? Should it be difficult to convince him,
if you know your business, that he is not saving money
when he orders merchandise by mail?
You have the practical advantage of being on the
ground. You meet him every day-or can meet him
when you want to. You can find out who he is without
trouble; you can talk to him as one neighbor to another.
KEEPING TRADE AT HOME
81
*
You have the advantage of personal contact with him.
When you talk with him, however, never abuse the
catalog houses. Mere abuse is usually taken as an
admission that you can not offer as much for the same
money as the mail order house. Besides, no free Ameri-
can with money in his pocket and a shrewd suspicion
that he is a good trader cares to hear his business judg-
ment challenged so flatly.
Be cool, quiet and specific, therefore, in all you say.
Men who will not listen to you if you indulge in sarcasm
or mere assertion, will listen and be convinced by plain,
clear reasoning based on facts.
SHOW your home town customers in this way that you
can more than meet the distant catalog house at every
turn and then make your demonstration hold water.
Show him that it is on only a few articles that
catalog prices-for the qualities you handle are really
cheaper. Tell him why the mail order house offers
these leaders at low prices and be frank enough to
tell him what these leaders are, if he wishes to know.
But don't let him buy the article. If necessary, offer
to compete with the catalog prices-not on the few
specific articles offered as leaders, but on the full order
he would make up and send away. Add freight charges,
since in long-distance buying the purchaser always has
to pay the carrying charges.
Try to make an arrangement with your jobbers to
fill just such orders with brands equal to the mail order
qualities, but different from those in your regular stock.
If you can make such an arrangement-wholesale houses
ought, in their own interests, to jump at every such
chance, ought even to organize a special service to take
care of this kind of trade-go ahead and send the order
82
MAIL SALES
away to be filled. Have it shipped to you, in a separate
box, and deliver it in this original package, collecting
the freight charges, of course. In a word, show your
catalog customer, plainly and conclusively, that he can
get nothing from a mail order house that you cannot
supply him with just as cheaply and with less risk of
dissatisfaction on his part.
Buying from you he has a chance to inspect his goods.
When he buys from a catalog, he buys from a printed
description. And a printed description of an article is
not so satisfactory, and gives nowhere near as true an
idea of its merits or suitability to his needs as an in-
spection of the actual article itself will give. If you
put proper emphasis on this point and make clear to
your prospect the advantages of doing business face to
face, you can easily show him that it is to his interest
to buy from you.
It
Look at the thing strictly from your prospect's view-
point; then show him the disadvantages of buying by
mail. Frequently it means delay, with no one near to
be held responsible. It means cash in advance.
means the unpacking and setting up of machines by the
buyer himself. It means qualities which represent lesser
values, either in materials, construction or finish, than
those you handle. It means difficulty, if goods fail to
come up to expectations or if there are breakdowns, in
proving that fact. It means much correspondence by
customers not accustomed to letter writing. It means
sending out of town cash that should increase the value
of the buyer's farm or city property.
Don't be content with negative work, however. Do
something positive to keep the trade of your locality at
home. One of the ways to stop a forest fire is to start a
back fire. A live retailer in a small town can start any
KEEPING TRADE AT HOME
83
number of back fires which will put the catalog houses
on the defensive.
He has every advantage in such a contest. He is on
the ground, the mail order houses are far distant. He
meets his customers, or possible customers, in person or
can do so whenever he desires. His dealings with them
are dealings between neighbors and friends. He knows
the condition of his prospects, the size of their families,
the age and needs of each member, their financial status
-facts which his mail order rivals would find it hard
and costly to discover. Yet less exact information of
this very character, together with the good will built up
by advertising, is the most valuable asset of the catalog
houses.
MAIL order houses are unable to work sales miracles;
as a matter of fact, their methods are quite usual;
why not adopt a few of them yourself?
Every mail order house has a card record of possible
buyers. Any local retailer can get up a card record ten
times as valuable as that treasured by a mail order
house. It is far easier for him to know all about the
people in his single community than for distant mail
order houses to do so. And since specific information
helps them to sell by mail, how much more helpful it can
be made to the local merchant selling face to face.
For illustration, suppose two young people in your
town are engaged to be married. Haven't you a better
chance than any distant mail order house to know it?
The young people will wish to furnish a house. You
have the first chance to interest them. You know who
their friends are-or can find out. Here is a list of
people who will soon be buying presents. This one in-
stance is typical of scores of selling opportunities that
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MAIL SALES
will come to you if you have knowledge of your com-
munity.
As for names of prospective customers, you can secure
the county assessors' lists with little trouble. You can
have the telephone directories of all the rural exchanges
for the asking. You can get customers to give you the
names of neighbors. You can offer free some inex-
pensive but attractive souvenir to all who ask for it and
so get their names and addresses. You can add the
names of club members. Other ways will suggest them-
selves to you if you once start to get names.
Better than all-since your selling efforts can be con-
centrated on a small group, you can have your clerks
make calls in every direction or go out yourself.
By keeping constantly on the lookout, you will find
countless opportunities to push your trade in a personal
way just when, and right where, such pushing is likely
to count most. The trouble with too many retailers is
that they do none of these things. They sit still and
wait for trade to come to them, while their long-distance
rivals exercise remarkable patience and ingenuity in per-
fecting their approach to both prospective and regular
customers.
Consumers have in the main three reasons for buying
from mail order houses. First, they think they can get
lower prices for similar qualities. Second, they think
they cannot get, at any price, from their local store-
keepers the kind of goods they want. Third, the
catalog houses go after their trade constantly, per-
sistently, untiringly. If their first offer fails to swing
your neighbors their way, they return to the attack from
another angle-from half a dozen other angles, if the
siege must be that long.
Every one of these handicaps you can overcome, if
KEEPING TRADE AT HOME
85
you are enterprising. In fact, it is precisely because
you have neglected your chances to cultivate your
natural customers that mail orders have become familiar
to them.
First rule of all: don't sit in a corner and blame the
people if they do not flock to your counters. Do some-
thing to bring them in. No matter how small your
store is, make it bright and attractive.
IVE definite ways to arouse curiosity, make a profit-
FI
able stir and stimulate your sales are here suggested
by Mr. Holman, who is a business man himself.
Arrange your goods so that they will make the best
possible appearance and impression. Keep your win-
dows fleckless. Put a new coat of paint on the front of
your store. Rearrange your shelves and counters with
an eye to display and accessibility. Attract notice by
showing evidences of enterprise. Curiosity will make
people come in to see what you are about. The more
curiosity you can arouse-the more talk you can stir-
the better for sales.
New goods will be your first need. If you haven't
cash or credit-if too much money is tied up in stock on
hand—if you have let salesmen overload you with stock
that will not move at the price you expect to secure-
get rid of those stocks and get hold of some ready
money by hoisting them out of the store at cost. If
necessary, sell them below cost-for cash. They are no
good to you on your shelves. The longer you keep them
the less of value they have. And by cutting prices you
will not only secure ready money, but you will attract
buyers and will prepare them for further action.
Don't let people think you are selling out your old
stock because your are discouraged. Tell them you are
ご
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MAIL SALES
clearing stock because you need room for new goods.
Don't be pessimistic. Act as if a fortune had been left
you. Be cheerful-joyous. Your attitude will create
more talk—just what you want. You want people to
know you are very much alive.
If you have sufficient capital and room, you need
not slaughter prices. Put aside part of the surplus
stock of stickers and depend upon working them off at
reduced prices as your new business policy increases
your trade. For you are going to increase your trade.
You may begin small. But you are going to grow. You
are going to put goods in your store that will bring
people there. When you have had only a few lines of
goods before, you are going to have many. Not all at
first, perhaps, but in the end. From the very beginning,
however, you should plan for a bigger business.
Buy small stocks of goods and buy often. It is better
to buy one dollar's worth of goods and make five cents
in two months, than to buy five dollars' worth to get a
lower price and keep that five dollars' worth of goods
two years. Look upon every dollar of capital you have
as something that you must keep moving. Don't bury
your money in surplus stock where it is not quickly
available.
Surplus stock swells investment and shrinks sales.
Turn the surplus into cash, even though you take a
loss, and invest the proceeds in that quantity of another
line that will serve to supply the demand until a fresh
lot can be obtained. This is the one disposition of sur-
plus stock which will help to keep profits above the point
of fixed expense. This kind of merchandising has made
millions for city stores. It will make money for you.
Of course, this kind of merchandising means effort.
But effort is the entrance fee in any kind of business.
KEEPING TRADE AT HOME
87
There are other reasons for turning your stock often.
Remember that variety is a tremendous puller of cus-
tomers. If you have the same old stock month after
month you'll have a dwindling stream of the same old
customers. But if your stock keeps changing-if every
week a few new things in your store give it an atmos-
phere of freshness-people will begin to come in just to
look around, and will generally remain to buy.
DEVELOPING desires" sounds like a mighty in-
tangible suggestion until you find that these specific
suggestions make an A B C of it-they tell how.
99
Women enjoy "looking. The store that makes
"looking" easiest, and has the most to display, de-
velops desires in customers who may come in just to buy
a package of tea or a spool of thread-customers who
had no intention of buying anything of value.
One of the greatest merchants in the world once ad-
vertised a "courtesy day" for furniture. On that day
people were asked to come and look at furniture he had
for sale. But as he advertised and as his clerks said, not
a stick of furniture was for sale that day. No price
would buy it. And the result? Thousands who came
to look at furniture bought something else. The store's
sales in other departments were enormous.
Not more
than half the crowd came to buy the things they did
buy. They came "just to look" at the furniture.
Arrange your store so that your stock can be seen.
You may know, and your clerks may know, what you
have in the store. But possibly no customer will know.
Put in a center counter if you can. Display everything
you can. Have a window display outside as big
and various a display inside as you can. Show that you
carry many things, even if your stock of each is small.
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MAIL SALES
And post cards telling that you can get anything not
visibly for sale and will enjoy doing so.
Put plain price tags on the things you display, when
you are using tags. Many a woman who will not ask a
clerk about the price, and will walk out without buying,
will come forward and buy if she sees plain price tags.
Post cards requesting people to ask you about goods,
any goods, whether you have them or not, are often
worth sending out. If you haven't them in stock you
can get them.
Establish a permanent bargain corner or counter or
section. Consider the enormous success of the five and
ten cent stores in cities of almost every size. Remember
that every department store has its bargain days and
bargain sales as sure as the weeks roll round. The
largest retail store in the world gives over an entire floor
to popular priced goods.
Feature some real bargains, bargains which no one
can mistake, prominently. Put them in the show win-
dow, in the middle of your store. Force them on the at-
tention of every one who enters. You know the sparkle
that comes into a woman's eye when she sees extra good
values offered at low prices. One or two genuine bar-
gains may turn the whole trade of that woman in staples
to you. Sell your "leaders" at cost, therefore—at a
little less than cost, if necessary. They are so much ad-
vertising the cheapest and absolutely the most effective
kind of advertising. You put in "leaders" to cause
comment, to draw people into your store, to get the tide
running your way. For every penny's loss on a bargain
you are likely to make a good gain on sales of staples to
customers who came in to look at or buy your bargains.
Buy for the bargain counter regularly. Change the
stock offered as often as you can. Get the same people
KEEPING TRADE AT HOME
89
who came in for one bargain to come in regularly for
more. Make frequent shifts, even if you have to put
part of the articles back in the storeroom. One week
have glassware in the front and the next in the rear.
Strive for a "different" look in your store every week.
Aim to create the impression that every time a cus-
tomer comes to your store she will find something new
and good on sale. If certain items of your stock fail
to move briskly at the regular prices, move them out by
way of the bargain section.
TWO thoughts considered
has to be
of enough importance by
big city merchants to be called to mind when buying
in the millions and which will help you also.
Change your "leaders" often. Remember that the
purpose of the bargains is to arouse interest, to remind
people of their needs, to start them buying, by offering
something so genuinely good that they will come back
often to look over your stock. At the same time, re-
member that your main purpose is to sell staples.
Push your staples on the score of quality and fair
prices. By selling them at a fair profit you can sell
them in quantities about as large as if you pushed them
on the score of price.
The atmosphere of novelty, of bargains, in your store
you must get from specialties. A visit to any large
city will put you in touch with concerns that make
a specialty of supplying just such goods. They have
hosts of "leaders" which you can use as profitably as
can the mail order houses. They will be glad, if they see
you are a live prospect, to keep you informed by mail
of all that they can offer you. That is their business.
You can't carry a full stock of specialties of all kinds.
But you can get in touch with wholesalers who supply
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MAIL SALES
them. You can secure their catalogs and order weekly
from them. You can get cuts of the specialties you
want to feature, and use them in your advertising.
Then, while the mail order house can make only a
pointed appeal to customers in your locality, you will
have a double appeal. You can use printed matter and
show the actual goods themselves. You can add also the
appeal of your personal influence.
In all your store dealings offer to return money to
any dissatisfied customer, or exchange the goods. That
offer will still further cut the footing from under your
catalog competitors. You are on the ground. It is
easy to come to you to exchange goods. Such a chal-
lenge will still further advertise your store.
As you grow, these things will not be enough. In all
your advertising, make your personality felt. Make
your townspeople feel that you in person are talking.
Begin by advertising special sales, to be held on days
when you know the largest number of shoppers will be
free to buy-days when the most money is in evidence.
Make people wish to visit your store on that day.
♡
NO MAN can learn to be a "crack shot" unless he wastes
some ammunition. The sales manager should stand the
expense of the experiments made by a new man who shows
ability; it will pay in the long run. If mistakes continue and
positive results do not come, the man must go. But, on the
other hand, if after a trial of this kind a man's caliber is
determined, then the time for promotion and increase of salary
is at hand.
-Richard W. Sears
Founder, Sears, Roebuck & Company
PART III-HANDLING
THE SALE
IN
Tomorrow's Profits First
N no phase of modern business are the ad-
vancing standards more evident than in the
attitude of the house toward the customer-not
alone in the personal relationship between the
buyer and the seller, but in the established
policies for insuring the permanency of the cus-
tomer's trade.
In the retail business this is especially appar-
ent. The long-time customer with an established
patronage is an infinitely more valuable asset
than a number of casual one-time customers; in
fact, the standing of a store may be largely de-
termined by the number of its regular patrons,
which attests not alone the established sources of
revenue, but, more particularly, the character
and worth of the service which the house renders.
During my forty-five years of practical expe-
rience, ranging from office boy to head of the
house, I have learned no more important truth
than this; that each customer offers an oppor-
tunity for a continued profitable trade, and that
any methods of establishing him or her on a per-
manent basis are of vital importance to the firm.
Ssadore Taks


ISADORE SAKS
President, Saks and Company
XI
THE SHORTEST LINE
TO SALES
By Edward Mott Woolley
AN'T I cut the selling time on a pair of shoes?'”
CAN'T
an Eastern shoe dealer questioned. He admitted.
that fancies and variables may change the selling time
for individual sales, but felt the major elements in a
sale to be comparable with some ideal, invariable stand-
ard.
These invariable elements are the engineering units in
salesmanship. For instance, the whim of a customer
might necessitate twelve trips about the store for the
purpose of bringing twelve pairs of shoes to that cus-
tomer for inspection. This indecision and fault-finding
on the part of the buyer would be the variable factor,
but those twelve trips, of themselves, might be made
practically non-variable, or at least, might be made to
consume a great deal less time and energy.
In reality, as the merchant discovered by repeated
observations, this element that should have been ap-
proximately non-variable was much more variable than
the other element. In one typical instance, the sale of a
pair of shoes consumed fifty-two minutes. Of this, the
time spent by the clerk with the customer was twenty-
four minutes, while the time he consumed in hunting for
shoes and walking about the store was twenty-eight
minutes. Roughly, the merchant estimated the time
X
94
HANDLING THE SALE
really needed for getting the goods to be nine minutes.
Thus, nineteen minutes were consumed unnecessarily by
this clerk during a heavy rush period.
Furthermore, the investigator satisfied himself that
the reduction of this unnecessary selling time would
have a very appreciable effect on the mood of the cus-
tomer, and thus effect an additional reduction in the
total selling time required.
In the reorganization and standardization of any fac-
tory, the first thing considered is the relation between
the workman and equipment. Before any tasks are set
or any operations timed on instruction cards, the equip-
ment is put in the condition and grouping that will
harmonize most completely with human effort, while the
whole factory organization is put in trim to serve the
workers at the machines. Looking at his store in this
light, the shoe dealer saw its shortcomings. He had
laid great stress on service to customers, but almost no
stress on the store's service to its clerks. And, since the
two forms of service are intimately connected, he dis-
covered that his service to customers was not as good as
he had supposed.
YOU have watched clerks vainly hunting around for
You
stock often enough; but have you thought of the
remedy for this wasteful loss of valuable time?
But, leaving out of his present reckoning the ques-
tion of service to customers, he concentrated his problem
upon the other form of service. This, he saw, must be a
definite, predetermined and carefully measured service
that would enable his selling force to focus to the maxi-
mum of its efficiency on the selling operation itself. In-
stead, it had dissipated a large percentage of selling
time in merely secondary operations, such as hunting for
THE SHORT LINE TO ORDERS
95
stock, climbing ladders and descending to the stock-
room in the basement. His clerks wasted motions be-
cause of meager training and a lack of system.
Equipment, then, was the first thing considered, to-
gether with methods associated with equipment. Watch-
ing his store during a busy afternoon, the lack of true
efficiency seemed to him almost spectacular. It was dur-
ing rush hours that the bad equipment, lost motion and
utter want of standards piled up the expense and re-
duced his profits to a few hundred dollars a year. At
the very time when efficiency ought to have been main-
tained at its maximum in order to get out the goods and
get in the money, it fell to its minimum. Viewed from
the standpoint of effective management, it was absurdly
low-so low that at least forty per cent of the human
energy put upon it might have been eliminated. In
order to handle the rush periods at all, it was necessary
to support perhaps eight persons in idleness during the
duller intervals.
The shoe trade seems to offer no standard methods
of shelf grouping or of keeping track of goods. No
two stores follow just the same rules. In his own store,
as in others, this merchant found that fixtures presented
a uniform primitiveness of conception and lack of op-
portunity for proper classification. Clerks frequently
pulled out and opened a dozen boxes, in various parts of
the store, in their search for a single pair of shoes of
the style or size wanted. Customers waited ten or
twenty minutes to be told, regretfully, that diligent
search had convinced the clerk that the particular shoes
wanted were not in stock.
In solving his problems, this merchant based his in-
quiry on a series of time studies of the operations in-
volved. It is likely that the man who now comes into
シ
​96
HANDLING THE SALE
the store and calls for a given size of shoes will be con-
ducted to a chair occupying the position most efficient
for that particular selling operation. All the goods
likely to be available for this customer's needs will be
grouped within convenient reach of this particular sell-
ing chair. If necessary, more chairs will be provided in
order to further this plan of grouping. In the past,
the position of the customer in the store has had no
standard relation to the position of the shoes he was
likely to buy.
MAKING low priced work fill in service gaps by
plans such as this often means crossing the line
between retail failure and success.
In the meantime, a new system of replenishing stock
on the shelves has been inaugurated. Formerly, when a
salesman sold a pair of shoes from a box on the shelf,
he turned the box around so that its label was toward
the wall. The next morning these empty boxes were re-
filled. The delay meant numberless trips of salesmen
to the basement for the purpose of hunting up stock,
while the customer waited and the congestion increased.
Now the boxes are filled as fast as emptied by a couple
of bright boys who are thoroughly trained in stock.
More actual work is now expended on this operation, but
it is low-priced work which immensely facilitates the
actual selling operation.
Likewise salesmen are relieved to a large extent of
the task of returning shoes to their shelves after re-
jection by customers. A uniform system of labeling,
for the goods and for the unit of space they are to oc-
cupy, is used. One of the great time consuming fac-
tors in most shoe stores lies right here. Even if the
stock is fairly well classified, theoretically, this classifi-
THE SHORT LINE TO ORDERS
97
cation does not stand out positively and conspicuously,
while the goods, once removed from their places on the
shelves, become unidentified stock in a large measure re-
quiring expert labor to sort and return to the shelves.
Labels and classification symbols are microscopical,
where they exist at all, and are erratic and lacking in
standard uniformity.
The classification and identification of stock and of
articles generally are vital factors in effective manage-
ment, and do as much as anything else to reduce motion
and increase sales. And it is almost an axiom that
classification and standardization, to be worth the effort,
must be reduced to a system to make them permanent
and equally available to all employees.
To illustrate: a shoe clerk stands in the store, facing
the shelves on one side. He sees row after row of shoe
boxes, tier upon tier, and they convey to his mind, in
the aggregate, the impression he might get from gazing
on a blank, brick wall There would be nothing about
the brick wall that would automatically segregate one
section of its area from another, and there is nothing
about those tiers of shoe boxes that indicates boldly any
boundary lines, divisions, sub-divisions or units.
Now, suppose the clerk wants to take from those
shelves a shoe of a given price, style and size. He first
performs a series of mental processes, measuring off with
his eye the approximate area where the shoes probably
are; then he sub-divides the area-still a mental process
-and sub-divides again. His impulses have all been
more or less wavering and subject to error, and by the
time he has actually located the thing he wants, he has
consumed a great deal of time and energy, more time
than the operation really required. Add to this the
further loss of time that comes from the capricious sys-
98
HANDLING THE SALE
tem of classification itself, and the mistakes of other
clerks due to lack of uniformity and want of training,
and the result is very low selling efficiency.
But now, just to illustrate, mark off in some way a
certain section of those shelves, and at the top put the
conspicuous letter A. Assume that the clerk knows that
A is the classification letter for the very thing he wants.
Instantly, and with only automatic mental processes, he
goes to that section for the shoe he desires.
Carry the brick-wall analogy a little further. A gang
of painters is sent to letter an advertisement upon it.
As the men proceed, they all pause in the actual paint-
ing in order to measure out the spaces, each space re-
quiring the combined time of the whole gang. The job
takes three or four times as long as it would if the fore-
man had measured off the letter spaces in advance and
chalked them. Then the painters would have been re-
lieved of all preliminary thinking and adjustment of
mental processes, and would have got at once into the
work which they were most competent to perform.
THESE
HESE investigations demonstrated that it may often
cost you eight thousand dollars a year to use ill-
chosen equipment costing five thousand dollars.
So, extending his researches to the stockroom, wrap-
ping counters, methods of keeping track of stock, and,
in fact, to every part of his establishment, this shoe
merchant is seeking the equipment and methods that
will conserve human energy to the maximum. In the
past, equipment to him meant chiefly the value of the
lumber and cabinet work. Now he sees very clearly
that ill-chosen or badly arranged equipment worth
$5,000 might cost him an additional eight or ten thou-
sand dollars a year.
THE SHORT LINE TO ORDERS
99
This matter of store equipment and the accompany-
ing methods is directly comparable with the equipment
and operating methods of a factory. For the sake of
illustration again, take an analysis of manufacturing
costs. A machine worth $30,000 may demand a yearly
equipment charge of $6,000. If the machine could
work 6,000 hours it would carry a charge of a dollar an
hour. But the shop's hours may be 2,400 in the year,
so the rate becomes $2.50 an hour. The actual rate of
the machine, however, becomes ten dollars an hour, if
it is only used on an average of 600 hours in the year.
And when working, it takes twenty hours' actual time
for a standard job.
Therefore, the combined efficiency, all items con-
sidered, is only two per cent. Comparing the operation
of this machine under actual efficiency and under stand-
ard efficiency, the total cost of a job under the former is
$227, and only $7.80 under the latter.
Now take this shoe store; here was a great piece of
selling mechanism working as inefficiently as many ma-
chine tools work. To use mechanical analogies, there
had been no analysis of the pulling or feeding power and
the proper speeding of this selling machine. To earn a
reasonable profit, sufficient to give the business vitality
and permanency, the whole equipment and human organi-
-zation of the store should have been molded to facilitate
the rapid movement of profitable customers in all direc-
tions.
The time a salesman loses in false motions, and
through the lack of proper store equipment and service
to clerks, is like the time lost by mechanics in hunting
for tools and material, or in fussing with unsuitable ma-
chines or belts. And, in both instances, the wage waste
is the small part of the loss. The great waste lies in the
100
HANDLING THE SALE
inefficient movement of a costly machine that is piling
up overhead expense.
But this philosophy is not one of shoes alone, but one
that is broad enough to take in all forms of selling.
This shoe store was selected as an example because it
offered a rather striking and specific instance of typical
waste motions due to lack of analysis of selling methods
and classification of stock. The subject is full of po-
tentialities, and the more it is studied, the more does it
assume its proper proportions in the marketing of mer-
chandise.
THE retail dealer is much exercised about meeting cata-
log 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 catalog houses, he
has in many instances driven them entirely 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 catalog
houses," and who, therefore, has not the item that the farmer
or mechanic wants when he calls for it; and the man who re-
fuses to anywhere meet the price of the catalog house—in other
words, the man who does not put up a good, strong fight,
who gets left and becomes discouraged.
-E. C. Simmons
Chairman of the Board, Simmons Hardware Company
HA
XII
SERVICE THAT BRINGS
CUSTOMERS BACK
By Carroll D. Murphy
AVE you ever stood at your door and wondered
what makes those 'cross-the-street customers your
competitor's rather than your own? You have on the
average as much buying ability as your rival. You get
much the same discounts. In the main, the packages on
your shelves are identical. Why, then, are the customers
his-not yours?
Think it out and you will find that it is the little
thing the friendly word, the personal accommodation,
the extra service, the unusual touch of efficiency, the
novel attraction-that induces the people in your trade
territory to stop in at or pass your store.
A telephone customer dropped into a store in the rice.
belt. She had read of the extra food value and better
flavor of the unpolished grain and decided to try it. The
man at the counter failed to recognize her and smiled at
her request.
"You can't buy it, and if you could, you wouldn't put
it on your table," he told her. "It's too dark." He
failed to understand that she rated utility above mere
appearance. Another dealer, at her request, made it a
point to secure a sack of the unpolished grain direct
from a rice grower. On an investment of only five dol-
lars, plus the trouble of writing, he was able to satisfy
102
HANDLING THE SALE
her curiosity, make her a steady patron, and, inciden-
tally, stimulate a regular demand for the unpolished
grain among his other customers.
This second grocer tried to please rather than to re-
form his trade.
"Apples are what I am looking for today," said one
of his customers. "Pick out some nice red ones for the
table."
For answer the dealer got down by a box of
Jonathans and selected a dozen of the handsomest ones.
"It takes all my time to run my business the way I
want it run," he explained to a friend. "But I know
my store is finding and holding its trade."
It is in this field of personal service-thoughtful,
though trifling, evidences of interest in the individual
customer and her wants-that the smaller merchant can
find the means of meeting and balancing the pull of the
greater establishment or the mail order house.
L
ITTLE instances of service like this could easily be
multiplied a thousand times over-and every one
would build sales and bring customers back.
"Where can I get a kettle mended?" inquired a new
resident of her market man.
"There's a tin shop a block and a half down the
street," he answered. "But let me have it. I will have
it mended and delivered this evening with your order."
"Thank you," said the customer, meaning it. There-
after cut prices or bargain values could never draw her
patronage from this shop. For friendly effort of this
sort, however slight, is a trade builder.
The retailer who looks at things from the other side
of the counter often finds the customer willing to re-
ciprocate.
A hardware man found a customer who wished to
SERVICE IDEAS THAT PAID
103
purchase twenty or thirty feet of plain wire. The sale
would total only five or six cents. Instead of slighting
the matter, however, the dealer inquired to what use the
wire was to be put and selected the size which would
best fill the bill. The purchase figured daily in the
householder's convenience and the dealer's way of han-
dling the transaction made a permanent and profitable
patron.
Store conveniences supply another means of attracting
passers-by and making them feel your interest in their
welfare. And as both men and women, when they buy,
seek naturally the places which they visit oftenest and
where they are most at home, it follows that trade fol-
lows the flag of comfort and convenience. Recognizing
this fact, the owner of a book store at an interurban
corner not only established a ticket office with a bulletin
of cars on time or late, but has also arranged a cozy
corner with tables, magazines and easy chairs under
reservations that prevent loafing by young folk whose
time should be employed elsewhere.
Other book stores have found it profitable to post in-
vitations to visitors to browse around at their leisure
and find books for themselves. "Our clerks are here,"
one book shop of this sort announces on these cards,
"simply to show you where to find what you want, or
to find it, if you prefer that service to make finding
and buying easier for you-never to bother you or to
urge you to buy. The books themselves are our only
salesmen." As a consequence of this policy, the store
has a city-wide reputation as a pleasant place to spend
a spare half hour or longer, and has practically all the
book lovers of the town for its customers.
Druggists have done more, perhaps, than any other
class of merchants to develop store and neighborhood
104
HANDLING THE SALE
service. In many cases, they have found it difficult
to hold such service down to the point where its cost
does not equal or exceed the value of its trade pulling
power. Public telephones, seats for those who have to
wait for cars, a supply of postage stamps for sale, are
common features of nearly all city and small-town drug
stores.
INDI
NDIANA druggists are possibly no more progressive
than others, but you will find it worth your time to
make note of this plan and study over it.
Once in a while, however, a real business building
feature is added. An Indiana druggist captured the
attention of every fountain pen user in his town by an-
nouncing that he was prepared to give expert care and
make ordinary repairs on any standard fountain pen.
The young woman in charge of this department, he ex-
plained, had just returned from a two weeks' course in
repair work at the Chicago branches of the best pen
companies and was ready to give owners of pens the
benefit of her experience.
"If your pen is not working well, bring it in,” he
urged. "Ordinary adjustments and repairs-while-you-
wait will cost you nothing. I know what a bother it
is to try to get along without my own fountain pen. I'm
establishing this service to cut down the time needed to
send a pen back to the factory for repairs.
"Half the time-if your pen is any good at all-
you'll get it back in something between five minutes and
an hour. The other times you'll only lose a day of the
comfort and convenience it gives you. If it is badly out
of shape and has to go back to the factory, I've a few
'loaners' that will help to tide you over until your own
pen returns. And any time your pen runs dry, you'll
SERVICE IDEAS THAT PAID
105
find a filler handy at our pen counter-with a load of
blue black or jet black ink always at your service."
This druggist featured one standard make before:
now he carries carefully selected stocks of four stand-
ard pens and two of the cheaper kind and sells more
pens than all the other stores in town. The reason for
his success is the efficiency of his service. The fountain
pen girl really learned a lot about repairing on that
first trip and has added to her knowledge every day
since.
Efficiency in the service you offer the public, how-
ever, is absolutely essential. More than any other item,
save prices, it weighs heavily in deciding prospects be-
tween your shop and the one across the way. A mer-
chant who makes mistakes in his bills or deliveries, no
matter if the errors are against him or are cheerfully ad-
justed, gives customers a feeling of uncertainty and dis-
trust. "Getting things right" the first time impresses
trade as does nothing else.
Salespeople in many stores-perhaps in your store-
have adopted a listless, wooden attitude toward unusual
requests.
"You can't get it," "We have nothing of the sort,"
"I don't think we have it," are stock replies to in-
quiries from people who come to the counter with money
in hand. And these replies are softened by no word or
evidence of interest-no thought or search for the article
desired. How different, on the other hand, is the at-
titude of the proprietor of a chain of city drug stores,
who after rummaging through shelves and drawers said:
'Can you wait five minutes? I'll send a boy over to
the wholesale house and get it for you. Or I will send
it out. I was certain we had it."
This willingness to go out of your way to serve your
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106
HANDLING THE SALE
trade often seems to take you a long way from the
beaten track of profit, but as a matter of fact it is rarely
wasted. Friendly service rendered even to the transient
has a way of counting in the cash till. A traveling man
at a Georgia hotel decided to catch an earlier train than
he had expected. He 'phoned the laundry man to rush
the delivery of his linen. The laundry man explained
that it would be almost impossible, but took his forward-
ing address and train number. Just before the train
pulled out, the laundry man hustled through the car,
located his man and made his delivery. The salesman in
his visits to that town has never failed to talk for the
man who went out of his way to give service.
SERV
ERVICE is an intangible element in retailing—a
thought, an action, a little accommodation-but a
very tangible one when used to build your profits.
There is a right and a wrong way for clerks to handle
trade, especially during busy times. One salesman can
often keep more prospects contentedly waiting than can
three associates with less tact and common sense. Your
public will be extraordinarily patient if you notice them
and convince them that you are trying to reach them.
"First come, first served," is a rule for which the
barber shop has trained men to fight, but the abuse of
which often irritates customers at the retail counter. A
young couple dropped into a suburban confectionery
store in their home neighborhood, intending to purchase
ice cream. The proprietor was telling a favorite story to
a customer who had bought. The young couple waited
for him to finish. In the midst of the anecdote, how-
ever, a prominent society woman stepped in. The store
proprietor stopped in the middle of a sentence, disre-
garded the waiting customers and served the newcomer.
SERVICE IDEAS THAT PAID
107
The couple walked out to find a shop where they could
buy on a basis of equality.
A metropolitan shoe store has adopted selling tactics
which often result in similar blunders of an even more
exasperating kind. The store rule is that any clerk who
has been assigned to a prospect, upon seeing that he
cannot close the sale, shall tip off the floor manager.
The latter then assigns a new salesman to the prospect.
In practice, the customer is made to feel that the second
clerk comes not to take up the more difficult part of
fitting, but shrewdly to sandwich in a demand for an
entirely new statement from the customer, apparently
with the idea that he may bring more pressure to bear
in the direction of a sale than could his fellow workman.
The customer is almost always piqued by the necessity
of beginning again with a measurement, and a state-
ment of the style, price and so on.
In another store, however, certain clerks are chosen
for their ability to handle difficult fittings, and are so
introduced by the other salesman, when a prospect is
turned over to them. At the same time, the salesman
takes special pains to mention precisely what sort of
merchandise the prospect is looking for. The latter is
saved the repetition of these details.
Precedence in receiving attention, help in "digging
up" some special purchase, and this tact in transferring
a prospect from one clerk or department to another, are
always points on which the shrewd salesman can build
good will.
One little woman in a small-town dry goods store is
busy even on the dullest days because of her tact in
helping ladies find just what they are looking for. She
is familiar not only with the stock advertised and on
display, but with all the odds and ends which some spe-
2
108
HANDLING THE SALE
cial use or bargain figure will sell. A furniture sales-
man, on the other hand, made himself obnoxious by ex-
plaining, "This is the only style of kitchen table for
which we have any demand whatever. He followed
this reflection upon the odd taste of his customer by
drawing a sarcastic comparison between a rug he was
trying to sell and a set of rugs which his prospect had
bought and was trying to match. Another salesman for
the same house took the same customer under his guid-
ance and sold her a furniture bill of $215. The cus-
tomer commented on the patience and willingness of the
second salesman and found that he was the proprietor.
PUT all your ability at the call of your customers, go
to market for them, anticipate their slightest wish-
then service will automatically help you.
Every store needs its training school, more or less
formal-and every first rank store includes such a func-
tion-where the salespeople are impressed with the fact
that patience, tact and a common-sense view of the cus-
tomer's wants distinguish the big and growing business
man just as surely as does his pay envelope. Personal
adaptability must hereafter be considered an essential
of store efficiency.
The final word in retailing, however, is real customer
service to put all of your storekeeping ability at the
call of the people in your trade territory. A customer
had asked at a market for a certain brand of chipped
beef and found that it came in larger quantities than
he wished to buy. He inquired for a smaller package.
"Yes, we have the other brand at thirty-seven cents,"
was the reply, "but we don't urge it on our customers.
Deducting the weight of the package, you get only about
ten ounces, and that, as you can see for yourself, is
:
SERVICE IDEAS THAT PAID
109
hardly value. In place of it I would suggest one of the
bargains we are featuring for today," and the market
man went on to display what he conceived to be best
fitted to his customer's wishes.
Salesmen who take the road have to do "missionary
work," and carve trade out of the rough. With the
local retailer, however, there is an opportunity to make
a sale to almost every store visitor through accommoda-
tions. You see men coming into your place-women going
into your competitor's store. Their purpose is to buy.
They have a want which they are eager to satisfy. Any
sort of common sense and friendly treatment will win
their trade. It may almost be said that only by a
harsh, narrow, lazy attitude can they be driven out of
their way to buy of a rival.
They want values, of course, and satisfactory qual-
ities, whether they are buying canned tomatoes or woolen
blankets or overshoes. They may make formal demand
for nothing more than these. But they remain human,
with the unfailing instinct for seeking pleasant places
and cheerful folk. And the retailer who considers the
human element makes friends as well as permanent
customers.
HUMAN beings are not like merchandise, nor are they to
be handled like merchandise. Dealing with the pur-
chasing public is a problem in personality, and it is through
the point of contact, wherever it may be: at the counter,
through correspondence or wherever service may be rendered,
that the favorable impressions are created which ultimately
constitute one of the firm's greatest assets.
-Henry C. Lytton
President, The Hub
XIII
MAKING STORE FIXTURES
SELL
By Marshall J. Bailey
TANDING beside his main aisle counters at the
ST
busiest hour of a spring Friday, a Boston retailer
noticed a woman leaving the silk department without
purchasing, but carrying a sample he felt his stock could
match. He bought his spring silks personally and took
pride in their variety. Fifteen minutes later he saw
another customer fail to match one of the season's
favorite colors in which he was well stocked.
He overtook this woman. Politely he pointed out to
her the value to him of knowing exactly why she had
failed to find the bolt to match. "Well, if you've got it,
it's no fault of mine or the girl that we couldn't find
it," she replied. "We both looked high and low.
Finally, I became provoked-particularly as I know
where I can get it."
The retailer felt that he could not make sales on ver-
bal assurances of complete stocks. He went over the
silk counters personally. Bolts of popular shades were
scattered about. One of the desired bolts he found in a
stock box; the other had fallen behind a shelf. Little
accidents to rob his stock of two popular shades, but the
clerks declared it impossible to avoid mislaying bolts
during the rush hours.
His fixtures were at fault. They failed to guard and
STORE FIXTURES THAT SELL
111
show all the stock he put in their keeping. Loss of
stock prestige and sales followed. He set to work de-
vising new fixtures. When he had finished, there were
neither counters nor shelves in his silk section. A line
of tent-shaped racks held the bolts end on end. A pay-
ing new specialty department took over the discarded
fixtures.
These tent-shaped racks, made of cherry, have edge
boards, a flat top piece twelve inches wide, and strips of
heavy moulding running from apex to bottom at inter-
vals the width of a bolt. The bolts are racked between
the mouldings in color ranges. At a glance the cus-
tomer is shown the complete gradation of shades offered
in the color she is seeking.
IXTURES are capable of taking many details off
FI
the shoulders of your clerks-this bolt rack cut the
average sales time from fifteen minutes to five.
When all the clerks are busy, customers can match
samples or select patterns by inspecting the racked bolts.
If they find what they desire the clerk can complete the
sale by placing the selected bolt on the top piece and
measuring off the desired length. A stock boy puts the
bolt back into the proper color range. The fixture keeps
all the stock constantly before customers. It helps to
sell by dividing the task of selecting between the bolts
and the customer. In a New York store, it cut the
clerk's average sales time from fifteen minutes to five.
These rack fixtures for piece goods point the fact
that counters and shelves are already old-fashioned for
certain classes of stock. Store managers buy, copy or
invent at every opportunity fixtures which help save
dollars and clip minutes off the sales-time average.
When these new fixtures go into a store, the second-hand
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112
HANDLING THE SALE
man is usually asked to call for some displaced counters.
The advanced type of cloak and suit selling equip-
ment is largely responsible for the "street" layout which
the larger department stores feature on entire floors.
This equipment, the units of which are enclosed, par-
tition-high show-cases, when fitted together, turns aisles
into "streets.' The space it surrounds becomes a
"store" off the "street." Little signs along the
"streets" announce the "stores," and cabinet show win-
dows display samples of their stocks.
The unit fixtures for the "street" equipment are de-
signed with four objects in view. In the first place,
their natural subdivision into "stores" leads the cus-
tomer to pick out the particular stock he wishes to in-
spect.
Concealment of all but one or two styles is the second
object. When a customer enters one of the "stores,'
salespeople who are specialists in its stock roll back mir-
rored doors housing the desired size and slide out a rack
which displays a limited number of styles. The cus-
tomer's attention is purposely centered on these selected
models. There is no unnecessary display of other ar-
ticles, more costly and more attractive, perhaps, to dis-
tract her attention. If the customer is not satisfied
with any of the garments on the first rack, others are
pushed out in the effort to make a sale. But the mer-
chandise manager gambles on human nature and the
fixture to usually secure a sale from the first selection.
Realization of his wager makes for limited stocks and
quick turn-overs.
The third object is to check the natural tendency of
salespeople to push the highest priced garments when
allowed to show entire stock. Often over-zealous persua-
sion either irritates or embarrasses the customer. If it
STORE FIXTURES THAT SELL
113
continues, she reaches one of three possible decisions:
yielding and spending more than intended; insisting
on buying at the price she first had in mind; or leaving
without purchasing. Whether she buys or not, there is
undesirable irritation and friction which the concealing
fixtures prevent by displaying only the best styles in
stock at the price she has made up her mind to pay.
The fourth object has to do with the psychological
effect on women of quiet and freedom from distracted
attention. In the little enclosed, mirror-lined "store,
the customer is out of the main-aisle rush. An expert
saleswoman helps her buy. The annoyance of clerks at
her elbow trying to interest other customers is avoided.
EN
INCLOSED unit type fixtures sort stock to standard
sizes and line prices and place before the customers
quickly exactly what they desire to inspect.
Equipment of this enclosed unit type is built also for
men's clothing. The units have glass sides and do not
entirely conceal the merchandise. But they are too low
to actually display stock. They also segregate suits to
style, size and price. Racks roll out to place before a
customer the store's entire stock of the particular line
for which he had asked.
Enclosed equipment of this type increased the sales of
several departments in a Washington store over sixty
per cent. This record led the supervisor of selling to
experiment with other departments. In the underwear
section he reduced waste effort to a minimum and in-
creased the sales by making one box do the work of
four. Under-vests had been shelved in the customary
manner in boxes, each containing a different size.
Within a short time, through constant handling and the
breaking of the frail cardboard tops, the boxes were not
心
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HANDLING THE SALE
only hard to manage, but gave an appearance of disorder.
Now large boxes are fitted into the remodeled shelves.
They are deep enough to hold four or five sizes of each
garment-the contents of a like number of the discarded
boxes. By a single motion, the clerk produces the same
result that formerly required four. The plan is also in
use in other sections where, observation demonstrated,
the demands of prospective buyers necessitated showing
at each sale a variety of styles, shades or sizes.
The supervisor of selling has used the same principles
throughout the store to lessen by short-cut sales methods
the time required to satisfy one customer and make way
for another. In the velvet section he found the stock
packed in boxes and shelved back of a second floor
counter. There one clerk was stationed, but fifty per
cent of her time was spent in helping saleswomen at
nearby counters. Since the demand for velvet was not
great enough to keep her constantly occupied, prospect-
ive customers often found the isolated velvet counter un-
attended. The nearest clerk, usually one not familiar
with the stock, attempted to make the sale. She fre-
quently left the velvets scattered over the counter, ex-
posed to damage from dust and stains.
Fixtures built like ladders, with loose adjustable
rungs turned by hand, are now in use. A large glass
case with sliding doors displaced the shelves. The lad-
ders, each rung holding a roll of velvet, are fitted into
the case.
The stock is easily accessible-a short pull
and the velvet will unroll. It can be assorted into color
ranges. If the regular velvet saleswoman is away, the
occasional purchaser can be promptly served by a clerk
from an adjoining counter, so simple is the arrangement.
Comparative observations of the new and the old
method demonstrated that the change eliminated one
STORE FIXTURES THAT SELL
115
vital selling fault and increased sales over thirty per
cent. This increase is largely due to the ease with which
buyers can match samples on the new ladder-like fix-
tures, which display the velvets arranged according to
color gradation. Formerly a clerk often removed and
re-shelved eight bolts in making a sale. These waste
motions are avoided under the new method, since each
shade can easily be reached without removing bolts
from the fixture. In rush hours the customers are able
to match samples without assistance from salespeople.
HA
AVE you ever analyzed the sales talk of a clerk showing
a customer cloth? To do so often leads to new
methods which stop rough edged selling and its wastes.
During mark-down sales, before the new fixtures were
installed, the velvets were carelessly piled on tables; the
regular stock was shelved in the customary manner. On
an average, clerks handled four bolts to every pur-
chaser. Here is an analytical observation of a clerk
showing different shades:
~
Clerk
1st Bolt.
Selling talk brisk.
Customer
Attention concentrated.
2nd Bolt.
Selling talk advisory.
Interested.
3rd Bolt.
Selling talk advisory.
Interested.
4th Bolt.
5th Bolt.
Selling talk indifferent.
Silence.
Interested.
Indifferent.
Not satisfied.
6th Bolt. No Sale.
The correct shade was afterward found in stock. The
clerk's indifference evaded the display of other stock by
the excuse that the prospective customer was "only
matching samples.'
""
Under the methods displaced by the new fixtures,
wasted time and effort in handling stock lowered the
average selling efficiency, detained the customer, kept
the counter occupied, and the aisles crowded. The re-
2
116
HANDLING THE SALE
sulting congestion in the department enforced dilatory
buying and dilatory selling. Efficient activity was lack-
ing because the displaying and re-shelving of stock con-
sumed forty-eight per cent of the salespeople's time.
The newer shoe shops have discarded both the high
shelves jammed with manufacturers' boxes labeled in
many colors and the sliding ladders which years of use
have associated with the shoe store. The manufacturers'
boxes are replaced with permanent stock boxes, each
pair, of course, in a separate box. After sales the boxes
are replenished from the reserve stockroom. Since no
duplicate sizes are carried in the forward stock of any
style, the fixtures need not be higher than a salesman can
conveniently reach.
A large and notably successful Boston store has sup-
plemented the customary shoe department benches with
comfortable chairs scattered about the section. Besides
assuring to everybody some degree of privacy, these
chairs give the salespeople an opportunity to take a
customer out of earshot of the varying price quotations
which distract her when jammed into a bench near
three or four clerks all trying to make sales. Her at-
tention is pleasantly centered on the efforts of one
salesperson, who thus has an uninterrupted chance to
demonstrate the stock and induce her to buy.
The collar rack which displays the range of stock
styles was probably the first fixture invented to actually
help handle sales. This fixture invites and aids the cus-
tomer to pick out the style he wants. Its efficiency is
now increased by a fixture behind the counter. This is
divided into large compartments built to hold boxes of a
standard size. The manufacturer packs the collars by
third or half-dozens into little boxes. After the cus-
tomer has selected the style, the clerk can quickly offer
STORE FIXTURES THAT SELL
117
the collars neatly boxed. This plan encourages sales in
lots and keeps the collars fresh. The little boxes are
neat and attractive.
BINS
Baluable testing the methods and nons
INS were costing this hardware man many sales and
valuable clerk hire-he changed his methods and now
knows that equipment is worth thinking about.
An eastern hardware dealer, passing his store on a
Sunday evening, saw that the watchman had forgotten
the safety lights. He had hardly entered when he
stumbled over two nail bins. A few minutes later he
barked his shins against a keg of finishing nails. Next
morning, he recalled the nail keg and the bins. For
the first time he noticed how unsightly they were. Then
one of his salesmen caught his attention. He hurriedly
gave a boy a handful of nails for a cent. A moment
later a mechanic received over-weight. Nails were con-
stantly being spilled on the floor. The hardware man
had discovered one of the hidden leaks through which
poor equipment was sapping net profits.
"I went back to my office determined the bins should
go," he says. "They were wasting my time, my money,
my effort, and my floor space. I have my nails in pack-
ages now, classified by weight and size, and packed on
shelves. The lowest price of any package is five cents.
The 'handful' customer who 'just wants to nail up a
shelf' pays a nickel instead of a cent and is satisfied
with the weighty package he gets for it. No more nails
are lost or given away. The bins have gone-so has the
waste effort. It takes about a minute to handle a sale.
The clerks are pleased and I am pleased. We keep busy
during slack hours making up the out-size packages.
Fixtures which help the window dresser pull sales are
also being introduced. They usually result from the in-
ら
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HANDLING THE SALE
genuity of a thoughtful decorator, but time-studies often
point out their value. A southern department store,
stocking the cheaper lines, found it took from eight to
eighteen hours to dress the east side full front, de-
pending on the character of the merchandise and the
style of the display. The prevalence of competing cut-
price sales which must be met and the apparent diffi-
culty in making a quick shift of full fronts led the man-
ager to test for ways and means.
The actual results of his tests, of course, varied be-
tween wide extremes. This was partially on account of
the widely different stocks constantly handled. The
series of tests showed, however, that in displays in which
the usual mirror dividers were not used, there was a
material reduction in the time required to change the
fixtures and arrange the new display.
The reason for this was easily placed. These mirror
dividers were kept in the trimmers' storeroom on an up-
per floor of the building. Because of their weight and
the care required in handling them, it took two men
to get them down the elevator and truck them across the
store to the windows. Then it was necessary to carefully
edge them into the windows. The dividers were cumber-
some and the window entrances narrow. The mirrors
had to be raised to an angle of forty degrees and slowly
wormed into the show windows. The time tests showed
that all this labor went into the placing of an orna-
mental fixture in the window, for outside of its service
to the store as a background or divider, the selling utility
of the mirror was insignificant. The mirror dividers are
now kept permanently in assigned windows and never re-
moved. In all other display windows, the trimmer uses
a popular board divider of his own design.
It is patterned after the mirror fixture and painted
STORE FIXTURES THAT SELL
119
white. On either side, and at each end of the board, a
strip of steel is inlaid. Shelves can be fitted into these
strips at any desired level. Both sides can, therefore,
be used. These new fixtures cost the store about $175
each. The advantages of the board divider are ap-
parent. One man can handle it in quick displays; and
it is not breakable. They make entrance to the windows
easy, and often increase the selling efficiency of the
trimmers' department fully fifty per cent. Scratches
and marks from rough handling quickly disappear under
a coat of paint. They lack, however, the ability of the
mirror divider to reflect displays.
WINDOW
´INDOW dressers find this new style of divider saves
time and allows the clerks to use the display as a
sample when selling from counters near the windows.
As a selling fixture, this board divider gives a high
degree of utility. During emergency shifts, the shelves
on the divider display merchandise while the floors of
the windows are being cleared. The rapidity with which
changes of dress can be made eliminates the need of
window shades. Passers-by are given something to look
at all the time. Increased sales and a further reduction
of waste effort results from showing goods on the divider
shelves during special sales of brass ware, silver and
china, when there are frequent inquiries about specific
designs or pieces. Whenever possible, the divider
stands near a window entrance. Its shelves hold a
sample of every article in the window. This enables the
clerks to reach samples without entering the windows or
disturbing the floor display.
The changes which retail stock storage is undergoing
are partially caused by the introduction of fixtures de-
signed to help sales. These fixtures demand a smaller
120
HANDLING THE SALE
reserve stock than shelves and counters. Their small
forward stocks require frequent replenishment. The re-
serve stock must, therefore, be as near as possible.
The spreading use of fixtures with a power to sell is
a step toward the thorough reorganization predicted for
retail distribution in America. The ideal is a fixture
from which the customer can select goods without as-
sistance, pay the cashier and leave the store. A Broad-
way restaurant has realized this ideal. Thousands of
New Yorkers easily select their food, drop their coins,
punch a button and carry their meals to tables. Re-
tailers want the same service from fixtures and are will-
ing to pay for it. The manager of a large Boston store
keeps standing an offer of $100 for the best selling
fixture designed by a clerk. Automatic selling venders
may never be perfected, but fixtures with a power to
sell are a fact. They make possible the rapid display of
the large present-day stocks-and customers learn to
choose the store that shows the most in the least time.
♡
Get the
YOU'VE got to believe in yourself and make your buyers
take stock in you at par and accrued interest.
grip of a bull dog on a customer. Feel the same personal so-
licitude over a bill of goods that strays off to a competitor as a
parson over a backslider.
-George H. Lorimer
XIV
HOW QUICKER DELIVERIES
MET COMPETITION
By W. W. Loomis
IVE bicycle boys formerly handled the deliveries
FIVE
for three associated drug stores in a well paved
southern city of, perhaps, seventy-five thousand. But
competitive drug stores on most of the advantageous
corners, in the middle of many blocks, and scattered
through the residence districts, set a pace that demanded
still better service.
The young proprietor of the associated stores solved
the problem by motorcycle deliveries cleverly adver-
tised.
For his central store he put on two motorcycles; for
each of the others, one. At a cost of $2.50 each, extra
"one-way" telephones were put into the stores.
Street car advertising was the chief medium of pub-
licity, though some newspaper space was used. At a
monthly rental of $50.00, every car in the city con-
stantly carries a card calling attention to the "Owl" drug
stores' quick, free delivery. The points emphasized
are no route deliveries, no charges and no failures.
One advertising slogan which guaranteed fifteen-
minute delivery or a five-dollar forfeit brought in com-
ment from hundreds of people. Only two forfeitures
were necessary in months of service and the offer pulled
extraordinarily well because it proved the druggist's
5
122
HANDLING THE SALE
faith in his own plan of "making good."
A visitor dropping into one of the "Owl" stores may
see two motorcycles along the curb. Two minutes later,
unnoticed, both will probably be gone; so quietly and
efficiently does the service work.
The 'phone call comes to a back room, where two clerks
are constantly preparing and labeling orders for de-
livery. These are laid out in order for the rider as soon
as he comes in from his last trip. Deliveries are made
C. O. D. and the rider is charged at the desk with sales
until he turns in his collections.
Repeat prescriptions are filled by number; a motor
goes after the original prescriptions, has them filled and
delivers them free. Medicines are given precedence over
less urgent orders, though everything from chinaware to
stamps, regardless of profit or amount, is delivered with
equal readiness.
Q
UICK delivery methods advertise “Marvin's” every
day of the week and far into many nights—service
which brings customers back over and over again.
The different stores cooperate as fully as possible in
deliveries. Should a rush order reach a store when its
motor is away, it calls upon one of the other stores for a
machine. On Sundays and slack times two of the
motors are laid off, and they work in relays at meal
times. Every machine bears the trademark, "Mar-
vin's"; and the sight and sound of the motors day and
night typifies quick, "get there" relief.
For four months the proprietor of the "Owl" stores
hung to his campaign in the face of a standstill trade.
Then his advertising struck returns. Housewives awoke
to the new convenience and began to talk about it.
In the sixth month, the sales quadrupled those of a
QUICKER DELIVERIES
123
half year previous. On a slow Sunday, with only two
motors at work, one hundred and twenty-five orders
were motorcycled. The extreme delivery distance is
nearly four miles one way, but on the basis of a three-
quarters of a mile average, this Sabbath record means
nearly two hundred miles for each machine.
The druggist estimates that now fifty per cent of his
orders come over the 'phone. To have quadrupled this
business is a triumph in swift, accurate service-in busi-
ness-getting alertness.
The merchants in a city of fifteen thousand had a
heavy burden in delivering their goods to the scattered
population. Just west of the city were several coal
mines and their trade was desirable enough to warrant a
four-mile delivery of goods. To the east there were rail-
road shops and yards with another, and almost distinct,
population. Then to the south was a residence district
that could not be neglected.
The merchants had to operate about three times as
many delivery wagons as business men in cities where
the population was more centralized. Not infrequently
it cost a merchant considerably more to make a delivery
than the entire amount of the order. The people com-
plained of high prices, while the business men insisted
that they were not making money—a statement that
was substantiated by a number of failures. The mer-
chants seemed unable to locate the trouble; they could
not understand why their profits were not equal to those
of stores doing a like volume of business in other cities.
One summer a traveling man for a wholesale house
spent his vacation with relatives in the little city. He
had called on the merchants for years, but during
these vacation weeks he got acquainted on a more per-
sonal basis and became interested in their local prob-
124
HANDLING THE SALE
lems. Having the breadth of view of one who has long
bumped up against business conditions in various local-
ities, he soon grasped the situation. He started out "to
find the answer," and became personally interested.
THI
Tile traveling, ma
HIS traveling man reduced delivery expenses for
the merchants in a city of fifteen thousand and at
the same time created a profitable business for himself.
He quietly gathered from the merchants information
relative to the number of orders delivered every day and
the cost of the teams and drivers. Then he got the
dealers together one evening and outlined his plan.
"Your legitimate profits are eaten up by the cost of
deliveries and the trouble with the delivery system is
too much lost motion," he declared. “For instance,
Alexson may have to send a wagon several blocks out of
its way to deliver Mrs. Hybist's bushel of potatoes;
White sends his wagon out of its way to send this same
Mrs. Hybist a couple of cans of corn and a bunch of
celery, while Murphy covers the route the third time
to leave a loaf of bread and a half dozen rolls.. To
hold your trade you have to make your regular de-
liveries regardless of the number of orders. It costs
practically as much to send a wagon down to Knob
Hill with a sack of flour and a cake of yeast as it would
with a full load. You have to make deliveries; you
can't condense territory or add materially to business.
The only thing to do is to pool your deliveries so that in
place of three or four partially filled wagons covering
the same routes, you can deliver all the goods for a given
section of the city in one wagon. Pool your work. Have
an independent delivery service that will handle the
goods from all the stores. A third of the men and teams
can do the work and you can cut the price of many
QUICKER DELIVERIES
125
of your commodities and still make a larger profit."
He then presented figures showing what it actually
cost the stores to deliver their orders. Some of the
merchants had never tried to figure out their expenses
per order and the cost in some instances seemed almost
unbelievable. It was easy to show where they could
save money by a syndicate service. To the anticipated
objection that the scheme looked all right in theory but
might not work out satisfactorily when put to trial, the
traveling man declared his willingness to back up the
scheme with his own money. He went on to say that
he was tired of the road and had been looking for an
opportunity to get into business for himself; he added
that he had enough confidence in the syndicate delivery
service to give it a trial, and would make a contract to
deliver all orders for three years at a flat rate per order,
regardless of distance, at a figure that was less than half
of what some of his dealer friends were paying. He
offered to buy their delivery wagons and horses at a
fair valuation, hire their most reliable drivers, and make
deliveries to all parts of the city twice a day.
Naturally there were many objections-the propo-
sition was too big to be grasped by all the men at once.
The smaller stores were enthusiastic because it would ¨
give them just as good service as their larger com-
petitors and for this same reason the larger stores
disapproved. They argued that they would be sur-
rendering one of their strongest talking points-fre-
quent deliveries. But it was pointed out that they
would be the biggest beneficiaries, for inasmuch as they
saved money on every order, the greater the number
of orders, the greater the amount saved.
The merchants went home and began to figure the
actual cost of delivering goods. Gradually they were
126
HANDLING THE SALE
converted to the single delivery service and the scheme
was tried with many misgivings. It has now been tested
by six years of operation and in the main it has proved
satisfactory to all concerned.
HEN you reach the limit of expansion in your home
territory, you will want to know how to branch out
into adjoining sections and grow still more.
In an enterprising Chicago suburb the merchants
adopted this cooperative delivery plan for extending
their markets to several smaller villages. No one busi-
ness man had enough trade in any of these nearby vil-
lages to warrant his introducing a free delivery service,
but several of them got together and agreed to take turns
in sending wagons to the new territory, each one de-
livering the orders for all the others. On Monday Stow
covers a certain district and the next day Rich goes
over the same route, while Stow sends his wagon to
another section, and so on. In this way each merchant
is able to extend his markets; his only additional ex-
pense is for one more delivery wagon and driver.
The possibilities for intelligent cooperation are be-
ginning to impress themselves upon retail merchants
and these two instances show most profitable results.
A southern haberdasher, anxious to extend his trade,
took a lesson from the mail order houses and decided to
reach outside territory by "jobbing" to the consumer
and delivering his orders by mail and express. He had
formerly been a traveling man in the counties he thought
of covering and knew that a certain per cent of the more
careful dressers went to a larger town to buy. His plan
was to take the season's novelties direct to these men.
Anticipating each season, he packed trunks with
choice samples which he selected with discrimination in
QUICKER DELIVERIES
127
order to cater to the different sections he visited. Then
he launched out on a retail selling trip. A week or less
ahead of his visit, he placed advertisements in the local
papers inviting the public to call and inspect his sam-
ples. Reaching a town, he would display his line in a
hotel sample room as in his jobbing days. Customers
would order by sample and he booked their orders for
delivery several weeks later. The shirt or the necktie
that comes direct from a large city always seems to be
more stylish and up-to-date than the same article pur-
chased in the country store. In every town many men
made it a point to look over the samples "just to get a
line on the new styles," and almost invariably they
found something that took their fancy and orders.
No attempt at a cash business was made. All goods
were delivered by mail or express and collections were
handled in instalments or C. O. D. Very few accounts
showed losses.
The plan was extended to a territory within a two-
hundred-mile radius from the Louisiana store, and
brought welcome styles to the men in the smaller towns.
The Louisiana haberdasher demonstrated the possibilities
open to the retailer for extending his trade by delivering
orders whenever and wherever they are wanted.
One of the causes of the growth of department stores
in the larger cities is the perfection of their delivery
services. Not only must goods be delivered in perfect
condition, but they must be delivered promptly. To
such an effective system has this service been reduced by
some of the stores that frequently customers making
purchases early in the afternoon will find the packages
awaiting them when they return at six o'clock to their
suburban homes fifteen or twenty miles from the city.
The department store that covers both a large city
128
HANDLING THE SALE
and a forty-mile zone of suburban territory has delivery
needs that require speed and economy. The great dis-
tances preclude the exclusive use of delivery wagons
running direct from the store. The larger stores often
speed up their service by establishing sub-stations in
outlying districts. Large motor trucks have now usu-
ally supplanted the wagons formerly used, and four or
five tons of merchandise can be sent by one of these
trucks directly from the store to a distributing station
where the smaller wagons are waiting to receive the
goods and complete the deliveries.
Many of the stores use express companies when send-
ing goods to suburban towns. All purchases except
furniture and bulky merchandise are packed in mam-
moth trunks which are loaded upon trucks and rushed
to the express stations on a regular schedule. Repre-
sentatives with delivery rigs, kept in the various suburbs
for this purpose, meet the trains, open the trunks on the
platform, sort the packages by streets or routes, and de-
liver the goods, miles from the store, within a few hours
after the purchases are made.
Merchants are looking upon their delivery service
more and more as a vital factor in attracting business.
In small towns and in large cities alike there is a
noticeable movement afloat to quicken deliveries.
IF THE manufacturer and wholesaler would seriously study
and cultivate the retailer, see him as an important part of
the distribution rotation, there would be no "dealer problems.'
The manufacturer assumes an entirely different attitude
when he becomes intimately acquainted with the retailer. When
the personality, the power, the rights of the merchants are
recognized, his assistance and cooperation will be zealously
safeguarded.
-George L. Louis
XV
A CUSTOM-MADE STORE
THAT PAID
By Fred Cook
ATE started me in business in "hand-me-down"
FATE
quarters where some one had "kept store" for gen-
erations. The style and arrangement of the building I
inherited; it seemed impossible to develop an individu-
ality in such surroundings. Like discarded clothing, the
store did not fit my requirements and changes would be
little more than patches.
The building, about twenty-two feet wide and eighty
feet long, was shelved after the fashion of the majority.
of small establishments. Counters stood in front of
every department and through the center of the store
ran another series of counters or tables. As a result of
this arrangement the floor space was very limited and
divided into narrow aisles. On busy days the crowds
were handled with difficulty. The entire layout was un-
satisfactory, particularly as a narrow front limited the
window space.
One day it became necessary to buy the building in
order to avoid being turned into the street. It seemed
as though the cramped quarters had me cornered. Every
day some new inconvenience became apparent and I
wished heartily for a store built after my own ideas and
to fit my business.
My opportunity came unexpectedly. The old frame
130
HANDLING THE SALE
building, no better in its power of fire resistance than
in its architecture, burned to the ground. I decided to
design a building that would avoid the mistakes of the
old one, and conform as closely as possible to my desires.
I outlined the virtues which my store was to possess:
First, it was to be reasonably fireproof. The old
building was so ramshackle that the insurance rates were
high. As a result I had been only partly covered and
had suffered a heavy loss. Any sort of a frame struc-
ture was, accordingly, out of the question.
Second, my plans called for a store wide enough to
give plenty of floor space and satisfactory window front-
age.
Third, I wanted distinctiveness and personality that
would at once stamp my shop as different from other
establishments.
And, fourth, it was to have an abundance of light
and be as attractive as my limited capital would permit.
I did not want an architect to draw the preliminary
plans for the building, as I felt that I knew the demands
of my business much better than an architect. I drew
my own rough plans and then secured skilled assistance.
With my appropriation in mind, I decided upon a build-
ing thirty-five by fifty feet, with solid brick walls. An
excavation was made the full size of the building so that
there would be plenty of basement room. While there is
not much chance for originality in building a basement,
a glance at my new basement (Figure 1) will show
some distinctiveness to be possible.
The driveway over which all freight is received lies
to the back of the store lot, so a wide entrance was ar-
ranged for the back of the basement. This entrance was
made wide enough to admit an ordinary wagon, so
that the truck of freight or the farmer's load of produce
A CUSTOM-MADE STORE
131
could be backed directly into the basement and there un-
loaded.
The brick piers necessary to support the streak sill

IRON RAIL
BRICK PIER
BRICKO PIER
BRI
BRICKO PIER
BRIC
RICK| O | PIER
DOUBLE DOORS
FIGURE 1: This basement plan allowed the dealer to provide a driveway
for wagons and at the same time to use a streak sill instead of more
costly bracing. The four brick piers support the sill
interfered with the driveway clearance. To overcome
this difficulty, the device shown in Figure I was used.
The V arrangement of the last section of the streak sill
132
HANDLING THE SALE
in no way lessened stability and made it possible for a
loaded wagon to enter and proceed to the center of the
basement. This has proved a real advantage on many
occasions. The stone basement walls are two feet wide
throughout and provide ample strength should we ever
care to increase the height of the building.
Practically the entire store front is of glass. My
final plans called for a twelve-foot display window on
either side of an eleven-foot entrance. This entrance
tapers to about eight feet at the doors (Figure II).
The entire front, including iron beams for overhead,
iron columns, plate and prism glass, and wooden sashes
was ordered complete from one source to insure a satis-
factory fit. The woodwork is stained and varnished; the
iron columns and overhead beams painted white; and
the scroll and relief work tinted with gold. This gave
an effect quite distinct from the stereotyped form of
store front found in the average small town.
ENTILATION and lighting plans are store features
VEN
which you will want to specify in detail when you
finally build to order a store for your business.
Topping the large panes of plate glass and extending
across the front of the building, are three sections of
prism glass set in copper. The prism glass gives ad-
vantageous lighting qualities. To complete the day
lighting of the building, four arched windows, three by
four feet, open through the west side wall into a court.
They are near the top of the wall and above the shelv-
ing. The arched portions open and provide ventilation.
In the rear of the building, directly over the two
pairs of double doors, are plain oblong transoms, two by
six feet in size. The area of the glass in the building
approximates five hundred feet and daylight floods the
A CUSTOM-MADE STORE
133
CROCKERY FIXTURE
store a valuable assistance in displaying goods.
The floor arrangement and the fixture lay-out were de-
signed to meet the special requirements of our trade. I

DOUBLE DOORS
DOUBLE DOORS
STORE ROOM
GROCERY CABINET
AISLE
12 FT COUNTER
WINDOW SHELF
OFFICE
FLOOR PLAN
POST
FIXTURE
DOORS
GROCERY CABINET
AISLE
12 FT COUNTER
WINDOW SHELF
FIGURE II: The dealer who designed this store lay-out planned to secure
generous floor space, well lighted and ventilated. He was forced to use the
posts to avoid expensive trussing
handle three lines-groceries, crockery and five and ten-
cent goods.
The crockery department I located at the front of the
VARIETY GOODS FIXTURE
134
HANDLING THE SALE
new store, so that its displays would catch the eye the
moment a customer crossed the threshold. One side of
the doorway features crockery, the other variety goods.
Every fixture is separate and complete in itself and no
shelving is attached to the walls.
For example, the grocery department shelving is built
in two cabinet sections. The first shelf is three feet from
the floor. The space is utilized for drawers in one of
the sections, and for bins in the other.
The design of these bins is unusual. In my old store
I used ordinary bins for sugar, oatmeal and other
similar stock. They necessitated extra handling, for the
goods had to be scooped from the barrels into the bins.
I noticed that a competitor stores the barrels beneath the
shelving and puts up his goods directly from them. I
now secure the advantages of both systems by making
the lower sections of the cabinet large enough to admit
barrels and hide them from view. A foot or so of the
shelf directly above each compartment is hinged to form
a cover. In this way I secure all the neatness of a bin
and none of its inconveniences.
Above the bins and drawers in the cabinet are four
shelves. The first shelf is three feet wide and the others
are successively a few inches narrower. The chief ad-
vantage of this style of shelving is its convenience. It
will hold more goods than any other style and enables
you to make a full stock display with a very small amount
of goods. Owing to its receding width, it allows you to
remove goods from behind without disturbing the front
row and preserve an unbroken display. At inventory
time, canned and package goods can be counted without
removing them from the shelving. The top shelf, which
is six feet from the floor, I use for display purposes.
Directly in front of these two grocery cabinets I
A CUSTOM-MADE STORE
135
placed twelve-foot counters. Each counter has eight
drawers and eight display fronts. The display fronts
are made by fitting the inner ends of the drawers with
glass and providing a partition a few inches back of
them to keep the display goods separate from the bulk
of the contents.
Directly in front of the aisle and between the two
counters and cabinets, the office is located. It is merely
a desk enclosed in a cage. The location was chosen for
the sake of convenience and because from it all parts of
the store are in plain view.
HELVING can be made to help sell-plan your fix-
SHELV
tures to work with your salesmen and relieve them
of the details of getting customers suited from stock.
The fixtures for the crockery and the five and ten-cent
goods are like the grocery equipment. The same re-
ceding shelf plan is used, except that the base is paneled
and is but eighteen inches high. Five shelves of grad-
ually decreasing width complete these fixtures. The
crockery shelving is covered with green felt for display
purposes. Easels on the shelves and cup hooks screwed
into the shelf edges are useful, so that customers can
inspect goods at close range and have liberal aisle room;
no counters are placed in front of these departments.
This arrangement leaves a floor space clear of all ob-
structions and nearly thirty feet in width. On sales
days some of this space is used for tables or booths, but
at all other times remains clear.
All of my fixtures are of ash. Ash is cheaper than
oak and finishes almost as well.
The window shelves are made four feet deep with
three-foot paneled backgrounds of ash. These back-
grounds I have found to be of the right height for ordi-
136
HANDLING THE SALE
1
nary stock displays. When a more pretentious display is
planned, a false back can be built to any desired height.
I found it necessary to use columns through the center
of the building, since eliminating them meant expensive
trussing. I partly concealed them by building hexagonal
oak cabinets around them. These cabinets are fitted
with plate glass shelves and make very useful fixtures,
particularly adapted to seasonal displays of glass spe-
cialties and other small wares.
A one
To get favorable lighting at night, I use electric bulbs
which demand twelve hundred candle power.
hundred candle power light, with a prismatic shade,
hangs over each grocery counter, two at equal distances
from each end of the side wall fixtures, and two in line
with these near the center of the store. The windows
are equipped with adjustable bonnet reflectors which
hold two forty candle power bulbs.
After using my new building for a considerable length
of time, I know of no change I should care to make.
Plans of the building and fixtures have already been
furnished to other merchants who wish to duplicate my
successful arrangements.
♡
DON'T you feel when you get into a store for the first time
that you instinctively know what the store represents?
Can't you almost feel that you will get a square deal in this
place, or that you had better keep your eyes open in the other
place? When the clerks treat you courteously and intelli-
gently and you are made to feel that you are welcome, aren't
you pretty sure to go out of your road even to trade there?
Well, all that is personality, and we usually speak of it as
store policy and store methods.
-Ben B. Hampton
XVI
GUIDING SALESMEN BY MAP
AND TACK
By W. A. Waterbury
Sales Manager, A. B. Dick Company
MAP and tack systems are one of the most important
equipment features of offices which handle travel-
ing salesmen, selling agents, or a more or less extensive
mail order business. They are geographical charts that,
in a way, keep the management of your business under
close supervision. They are to the manufacturer or
merchant as the train charts are to the train dispatcher
-indicators showing what is going on at every critical
point.
You can make the map and tack system show in con-
densed form the territory covered by your dealers,
agents and traveling salesmen. You can use it to lay
out a salesman's route and to follow him as he pursues
it. It keeps you in constant touch with his work and
lets you know at all times what he is doing and whether
he is making or losing money.
The map also tells you at a glance where prospective
trade lies. It locates fields that have not been de-
veloped. It shows you where collections are due, and
where advertising is producing the best results. It may
be drawn upon for a hundred and one other points im-
portant to your business.
As generally used, the map and tack system consists
of one or more cabinets of shallow drawers, which con-
138
HANDLING THE SALE
tain the maps required. Sometimes a single drawer is
used for a map of a single state; sometimes a drawer will
contain only a portion of a single state and at other
times two entire states, according to the character of your
business and the money you can afford to put into the
equipment.
Tacks with different colored heads and balls of differ-
ent colored twine are used in connection with the maps
to indicate different business conditions.
ALESMEN can be followed by maps and tacks, their
SALESMEN can
and the
routes scheduled and their work laid out so that it
can be checked from the home office day by day.
This is the simplest form of a map and tack system.
Probably no two concerns apply it in exactly the same
manner. The equipment is merely the foundation and
may be regarded as the tool with which to work.
I have found my way of operating the system to be
simple and practical. Any one can put it into practice
at any time without conflicting with other interests.
I will take as an example my company, which employs
fifty to a hundred salesmen to handle and sell a market-
able article that is in more or less demand in all parts of
the country. In addition to the salesmen on the road,
I have a resident sales organization of dealers and agents
who are under contract to handle my line of goods and
who have, under the contract, exclusive rights to the
sales in their territories. These agents are scattered.
Some control a single town or city, others an entire
county, and some a state.
As I have no right to operate in districts allotted to
exclusive agents, I have to keep my traveling salesmen
out of their territory. In order to do this, it is im-
portant that exclusive territories be designated on the
MAP AND TACK SYSTEMS
139
maps. I give an exclusive contract to a resident agent
or dealer who can secure more business, or the same
amount of business, at less cost than I can through my
traveling men. It is vital that I keep myself informed
of his productiveness and prevent it from diminishing.
To do this I use white tacks.
A white tack indicates an exclusive agent. If he con-
trols a town or city, a single white tack inserted at that
point on the map is sufficient. If he covers a county or
large territory, a line of white tacks along the county

ADDRESS
AGENT
James
Hagaman. Ill
mes Wood & Co
Sity of Stagamau only
NAME
.ADDRESS
AGENT
James
ames Wood & Co
Htagsman Ill
FORMS I and II: The card at the top is filed by cities to locate the
agent's name, address and territory. The lower card is filed by the agent's
name in a general index and gives a cross reference to the territory cards
or territorial boundaries, a black string connecting them,
and a white tack to mark the agent's headquarters in a
town or city, show the district covered and the per-
manent address of the man in charge. If a territory
has more than one agent, two white tacks indicate the
fact.
140
HANDLING THE SALE
It is, of course, essential that there should be a way
of naming agents by inspecting the map. The index
card shown in Form I, supplies this information.
A drawer in a card cabinet, subdivided according to
states, cities and names, will hold the cards. The cards
appear under the names of the cities tacked in white
and contain the names and addresses of the agents and a
description of the territories. Duplicate cards (Form
II) containing only the names and addresses are kept
separately with the cards of all the other agents, ar-
ranged alphabetically by names.
One glance at the map shows the territory controlled
by an exclusive agent. Reference to the first card filed
under the name of the city he uses as headquarters
shows who he is and the territory he controls. The sec-
ond card gives only his name and address. It is the
cross index and locates the territory and address of an
agent who is mentioned only by name in correspondence.
Reference to the map makes the information about him
complete.
On receipt of an inquiry I consult the map and the
town or city that furnished the prospect. The original
inquiry is given a number, and all future dealings or
correspondence with the inquirer is conducted under
that number. An index card (Form III) which car-
ries the name and address of the prospect is given a
corresponding number. We do not file correspondence
about prospective business in the general office file until
the inquirer has been sold, but file it separately and by
consecutive numbers. The number of the card acts as
a guide for locating the correspondence. These cards
are filed alphabetically by states, cities, and names.
As soon as a prospect has been secured, the city
tacked in black, a number given and an index card filled
MAP AND TACK SYSTEMS
141
out, I send circular matter, prices and other necessary
information. Two carbon copies of the letter are made.
The stenographer attaches one to the original communi-
cation for temporary filing, and forwards the other,
with an appropriate letter, to the agent controlling the
territory from which the prospect answered. I never
send the original communication to an agent, but write a
reply worded so that he can understand the purport of
the original inquiry. If this is ambiguous, I attach a
copy of the inquiry.
The black tack remains in the map until the resident
agent notifies the home office of a sale. After a sale it
is removed and a blue tack substituted.
If the cards

NAME
ADDRESS
Charles Peters & Son
Peoria, Ills.
H.C. Halpack
ADDRESS
PROSPECT
SALESMAN
Springfield, Ill.
CITY
DEPARTED.
DATE —
ADDRESS
Sturgis
Three Rivers
Schoolcrafs
Kalamazoo
10:30PM July 7 St James Hotel
6:00
6:30
7:10
"
"
1. Gen. Delivery
13 Hess House
FORMS III and IV: The card at the top is a "prospect" record, and gives
the name and address of a possible customer. The lower card shows the
address schedule by which salesmen on the road are followed with corre-
spondence from the home office
show other prospective business in the same city, both
blue and black tacks appear. The proper index card
is marked "sold" and transferred to the back of all
cards in that state into a "sold" compartment. The
142
HANDLING THE SALE
compartment is arranged alphabetically under cus-
tomers' names. The correspondence, which can be lo-
cated by the number on the card, is removed from the
numerical file and transferred to the general file.
Thus a black and blue tack indicate business accom-
plished and work still to be done, and reference to the
cards, the correspondence and the "sold" cards shows
instantly the prospective trade and the sales. A sum-
mary of the business done in any town can be con-
veniently kept on a card in the "sold" file. In this
manner the amount of business done by any agent for
any period of time can be quickly ascertained.
Sometimes it is difficult to induce the agent to notify
you when he makes a sale to a prospect you have re-
ferred to him. Usually a reminder will secure action.
A monthly statement of the sales enables you to tack up
the maps, add to your cards and assemble a complete
statement of the business done in an agent's territory.
HALPACK, a salesman, is routed by the map and
tack system and his trip here explained so that you
can follow him and watch him at work.
Open territory methods can, perhaps, be best illus-
trated with Figure III, showing a section of Michigan. I
will suppose that this part of the state has no exclusive
agents, but is covered by three traveling men, Halpack,
Maxton and Casey, routed from Chicago, the home
office. We can take Halpack as an illustration. For ex-
ample, let us suppose he travels from temporary head-
quarters at Coldwater. Consequently Coldwater bears
a plaid tack. Since this territory is not surrounded by
tacks and string, it is not exclusive. It is under the
control of the general office and covered by a salesman.
Reference to the index card under "Coldwater, Mich-
MAP AND TACK SYSTEMS
143

MECOSIA
Meconia
White
OM.
Pleasant
MIDLAND
Midland
Cloud
ISABELLA
Leb
Edmore
Howard
City
MONTCALM
Cedar
Merrill
Bay City
Paines
Saginaw
Greenville
Chesaning,
Sheridan
CRATTOT
SAGINAW
Carson City
Ashley
St.Johns
Grand Rapids
CLINTON
Iowell
Grandview.
IONI
Portland
Elmdale
Hastings
Wayland
Middleville
¦ BARRY
Montelth
Alle
G.H
Richland Jo.
MOORE KALAMIZO
LAM
Co.
KALAMAZOO
Vicksburg
Schoolcraft
ST.JOSEPH
Nashville
EATON
Charlotte
Battlecreek
Marshall
CALHOUN
Homer
OMEGA
SHIAWASSEE
Owosso
Corunna
LANSING
SEPARATOR
Ca
INGIAM
Eaton
Rapids
Flushing
Durand
Williamston
LIVINGSTON
Stock bridge
Howell
JACKSON
Jackson WASHTEN
Manchester
Albion
Hanover
thens
BRAQC H4
Jonesville
Addison
Three Rivers
Coldwater
HILLSDALE
Hudson
Tecumsey
LENAWEE
Karian
Sturges
GE
FIGURE III: This corner of Michigan has been routed by the map and
tack system for a salesman traveling from Coldwater to Grand Rapids to
Tecumsey and back through Adrian. The white tacks represent exclusive
agents; the black, inquiries; and purple ones are placed at Grand Rapids
and Battle Creek to designate special business.
144
HANDLING THE SALE
igan," shows that Halpack is in charge. I find black
tacks in numerous towns and cities scattered throughout
this section of the state, and go to the index cards to
obtain numbers locating correspondence in the numerical
file. Letters so obtained enable me to analyze condi-
tions and lay out a route for Halpack to follow. I must
arrange his route so that he will not come in conflict
with Maxton, who operates from Eaton Rapids, and
other travelers in contiguous districts. I substitute
plaid tacks for black ones in towns where I have pros-
pective business which I desire Halpack to visit on the
present trip. Examinations of the railroads and the
junction points give me the following route: Cold-
water to Sturgis, Three Rivers, Schoolcraft, Kalamazoo,
Richland Junction, Allegan, Monteith, Wayland, Grand-
ville, Grand Rapids (a purple tack in Grand Rapids in-
dicates special business; reference to the index card
shows it to be an important collection and all papers
connected with it are in possession of the credit depart-
ment, waiting to be called for), Middleville, Hastings,
Nashville, Charlotte, Battle Creek (purple tack, col-
lection), Marshall, Albion, Homer, Hanover, Addison,
Jackson, Manchester, Tecumseh, Dundee (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 Jonesville, the
last town before reaching home. This shows the route.
The object of having the string end at Jonesville is to
avoid confusion, as one examining the map might as-
sume Halpack went in a direction opposite to my rout-
ing, if the string was continued back to the Coldwater
tack.
The green string is also tied to the Coldwater
MAP AND TACK SYSTEMS
145
tack, but is left loose. As soon as Halpack clears the
first town (Sturgis), he notifies the home office by wire
(or by 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. The next town is,
therefore, the place where Halpack can be reached by
wire or letter.
It is important that notices of departures should be
immediately recorded on the map with the loose string.
Reports of the business transacted and the sales made
are sent to the home office daily and the records are
handled along the general lines already explained.
PUTTING your finger on a salesman who is out on the
road is an easy matter if you are using map and
tack methods which constantly keep careful tab on him.
To locate a traveling man who is moving over a
tacked route, as for instance, Halpack, reference is made
to his card in the index file (Coldwater). Previous to
his departure from a town or city he wires his time of
departure and his hotel or mail address in the next town,
and sends this information as far in advance of his de-
parture as practicable. If circumstances will permit,
he sends this information by mail. As soon as I re-
ceive it I have the time of departure, date, name of the
next town and mail address recorded on the card, which
is available to any one who has occasion to communicate
with him. Form IV shows the form of card used for
this purpose. It indicates, for instance, that H. C. Hal-
pack left Schoolcraft July 11, 6:30 p. m., and that he
should be addressed at the Hess House, Kalamazoo, until
another notice arrives. In the case of a traveler mov-
ing too rapidly to permit the use of his departure
146
HANDLING THE SALE
notices, the addresses in the different towns are de-
termined upon and recorded in advance.
This plan is intended to cover the movements of Hal-
pack, who travels rapidly. In the case of a traveler
moving more slowly, the mails may be utilized instead
of the wires. If this is done, as much notice as pos-
sible in advance of departure should be given.
As fast as a town is cleared and the correspondence,
reports, and orders sent in, if unfinished or prospective
business remains, the black tack is restored.
If all business is cleaned up and there is no further
necessity for returning, and credits have been taken, a
blue tack is substituted for the black. A town may bear
a black and a blue tack-indicating prospective business
and sales consummated. The maps show where your
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
unprolific field. A change of representatives may alter
the situation, or the failure to get a satisfactory business
may be due to causes needing careful study.
♡
MANY years ago I conducted a general store in Connecti-
cut. I made it a point to impress on my clerks that
careful attendance and personal treatment must be accorded
every visitor to that store no matter what the amount of a pur-
chase or even if no purchase at all was made. I insisted that
a customer who spent ten cents should be given just as close
attention and as patient attendance as the customer who spent
ten dollars; for very often the ten-cent customer of today de-
velops into the buyer of tomorrow whose every bill totals far
more than that of the ten-dollar purchaser of the present. Now
the clerk who had that idea innately-who did not need to be
told—was the man with personality. He was the employee
who could attract customers and hold them.
George H. Barbour
First Vice-President, Michigan Stove Company
}
PART IV-SALES RECORDS
AND SYSTEMS
Efficiency as a Habit
IT is not the fellow who is jumping up and
down all the time who produces the best re-
sults. It is the fellow who keeps his human
machine in good shape, using his brain and doing
some good consistent thinking.
Just in proportion as we get ourselves trained
into habits of right thinking and the forming of
habits of accuracy, habits of sincerity, habits of
honesty, just so much have we got out of our
will power, leaving us free to do bigger things
that our brain ought to be doing. Old thoughts
are easy, because they go through the same
channel, but new thoughts are hard.
You know we sometimes get the wrong concep-
tion: that the way of increased efficiency is to
speed up and go a whole lot faster, but, really,
increased efficiency is going to be the careful,
thoughtful, systematic working out of these
things and the avoidance of waste.
The last fifty years was given to the improve-
ment of machinery. The next fifty years must
be given to the human machine.
EA preds


E. A. DEEDS
President, Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company
XVII
LEARNING TRADE CONDITIONS
FROM FIELD MEN
TⓇS
By Hugh K. Harris
O WRITE "ginger letters," post comparative
scores and award prizes, is comparatively easy
work, but that is not enough. The sales manager of to-
day must have specific and actual knowledge of condi-
tions in the field to make his help count. His difficulty
lies in getting salesmen's reports which, in condensed
form, accurately picture each customer with whom the
house deals.
A sales manager who makes his percentage of returns
climb steadily month by month, achieves results by a
system of daily reports which graphically give him a
bird's-eye view of business done, and which keep him
in close personal touch with his men and their customers
at all times. The house handles a wide variety of goods
and the reports permit him to study and know his cus-
tomer's business and to discern and instantly correct
errors of salesmen in handling trade.
The system shows the weakness of salesmen as well as
their strength. It is not based on lump sums of goods
sold, but shows the distribution of sales over the entire
line of goods handled by the house. Monthly tabulations
of the salesmen's sheets give the officers of the concern
opportunity to make an accurate survey of business
done. Places where profits exist and where losses lie
150
RECORDS AND SYSTEMS
loom up and suggest possibilities of expansion or re-
trenchment.
The customer report used, five by seven inches in
size, is indexed by salesmen's routes and by towns. Each
route has a separate drawer. Towns are divided alpha-
betically. The top of the sheet carries the name of the
salesman and time of call, together with the name and
address of the customer. The column at the left itemizes
the lines of goods sold by the house; the remaining ten
columns on the sheet are filled in by the salesmen. Trip
sales are recorded in their proper columns and prospect-
ive orders are indicated and kept track of.
EVERY sales manager has asked at one time or another
for this tested plan, which enables one house to
check on rivals' activity and shape its work accordingly.
If the dealer is heavily stocked, his leading lines are
given and the sales manager, by comparing the columns
"Leading Lines" and "Exclusive In," may gather daily
knowledge of his rivals' work in competing territory and
may organize his force to meet it. A check in the
catalog columns shows that the dealer is supplied, but
x" warns the office to forward the book. The most
important of all is the first column. Here every line on
which to write a letter is specified. With this informa-
tion before him, the correspondent can write letters on
specific topics and omit generalities which lead nowhere.
an
Financial standing, ability and responsibility, class
of trade and local business conditions, together with any
gossip of interest to the credit men or the sales man-
ager, are shown on the back of the sheet. The scheme
as tried out is practical and comprehensive from the sales
manager's point of view. The salesmen look upon it as
an effective aid and are glad to use it.
TRADE NEWS FROM FIELD MEN
151

SALESMAN
SALESMAN'S CUSTOMER REPORT
TOWN
DATE CALLED
STATE
NO.
CAN USE IN
OUR LINE
WRITE
HAS
WILL
LETTER BOUGHT ORDER
SOLD ON FUTURE
THIS TRIP❘ ORDERS
STOCKED
LEADING
LINES
CATA-
BUY
IN WHAT
LOGUES QUANTITY
X
EXCLUSIVE
IN
BUGGIES.
NAME
HARROWS, SPIKE
"
SPRING T
FINANCIAL STANDING
W. F..
CULTS, RIDING,
"
WALKING.
WEEDERS.
ROLLERS.
PLOWS.
CUTAWAY HARROWS.
FEED CUTTERS
HARNESS.
PROSPECTS
SIZE OF STORE AND ESTIMATED WORTH
CLASS OF TRADE
COLLARS
SADDLERY.
SWEAT PADS.
TRUNKS, BAGS,
GLOVES, MITTENS.
FUR COATS.
ROBES, BLANKETS
NETS, DUSTERS.
HAMMOCKS.
SLEIGH BELLS.
HORSE COVERS.
STRAP WORK
OTHER DEALERS IN TOWN
BUYER OR MANAGER
SUGGESTIONS
FORMS I and II: This customer report summarizes the purchaser's dealings, past, present and future. By glancing
over the check marks, the house correspondent can back the salesman's efforts with specialized letters and advertising.
The small form shows the reverse of the report, which gives detailed information about the customer and his business
152
RECORDS AND SYSTEMS
Easily adaptable to any manufacturer, jobber or
wholesaler by simply making the proper classification
of lines, the report gives an intimate index of actual
conditions at every point on a man's route.
The reports furnish topics for discussion at the sales-
men's quarterly conventions. Tabulation of the sheets
may show a wholesale grocery force that candy sales fall
below the average maintained in other lines. By getting
salesmen to compare notes, exchange experiences, repeat
criticism and explain failures and analyze their talk, the
cause of the trouble can be found. If it lies in selling,
emphasis can be placed on the candy sales campaign
and the leading lines' advertising and selling appropria-
tions reduced to make up the difference. If the trouble
lies in manufacturing or buying, steps are taken to cor-
rect the error.
The tabulated reports are an inspiration for head-
quarters and for the road man. They raise house con-
ventions above a dry, uninteresting routine level. But
most important of all the results achieved by the reports
on individual customers, is the close supervision of pros
pects' and customers' lists which they allow. They per-
mit the right sort of letters to be written-personal,
friendly, specific.
UNFORTUNATE, indeed, is the merchant who has not
learned that there is a kind of publicity more valuable
than that which he pays for in magazines and newspapers.
It is all a very simple problem to the modest merchant who
understands human nature and who naturally identifies him-
self conspicuously with those movements and enterprises which
attract favorable public attention.
-Truman A. De Weese
Director of Publicity, The Natural Food Company
XVIII
WHAT YOUR SALESMEN
SHOULD REPORT
By B. C. Bean
S
ALESMEN calling upon the trade, handle informa-
tion of use to the sales and credit departments.
Formerly this information was secured from the sales-
man's letters. In some cases it was necessary, in order
to get in complete data, for the salesman to send in his
orders, a route card, an expense book, and then write
one or two letters to report on special trade conditions.
The tendency now is to condense and compact informa-
tion as much as possible. This acts in two ways: (1)
it gives the salesman less writing to do, while greatly
extending the amount of information, and (2) compacts
records for easy and quick reference.
Specifically, modern business methods call for one or
more of the following: (1) a salesman's report showing
the day's work and the conditions of trade; (2) a list
of prospective customers, showing date of calls, sales,
and so on; (3) a catalog of customers and prospects,
secured from the combined sales force; (4) a report of
sales and collections, showing comparative records of
present and past business; (5) a weekly, monthly, or an-
nual compilation card.
Form I is designed as the simplest form of report ad-
missible. This is planned to check on the road man who
works from the sales manager's list. This list may be
154
RECORDS AND SYSTEMS
furnished to the traveler in typewritten form or the
report card may be partially filled out in the office and
sent out for completion.
After the salesman visits the town, he forwards his

NO. 2457
SALESMAN'S REPORT CARD
DATE 3-18-1912...
CLASS OF GOODS ORDERED
C
DE NO.
TOWN
Albert Lea, Minn. A
CALLS
C. A. Ransom
HP Woodward
Hanson & Mc Mann
ކ
SALESMAN
Thos Pinch
COMPLAINTS,INQUIRIES,ETC.
None
- Slow
Well pleased
FORM 1: When the salesman mails in a report card like this, he
gives the sales manager a detailed outline of conditions among his customers
in a town. The card serves also as a check on the salesman's activity
card to the home office, where it is checked and filed
under his guide card. A separate card is made for each
town, so if several towns are visited in a day, a corre-
sponding number of cards will be forwarded. The re-
verse side of the card may contain an itemized daily ex-
pense account, a summary or duplicate of orders, or both.
This one card system, though simple, is quite thor-
ough. It will be found a good system for introductory
use, or where a firm does not have many salesmen.
When it is desirable to itemize selling expenses care-
fully and make a comparative record to determine sell-
SALESMEN'S REPORTS
155
W. L. Culver
EXPENSE ACCOUNT
SALESMAN
FROM
March 13
TO
March 15
19/2
ing costs of certain lines, a two card record will be
found very satisfactory. This record is more detailed
than the one card system and can be made as searching
as desired.
The two card system may be used by any mercantile
house employing road men. The salesman makes his
report each week-or as desired either by the regular
expense book or on a card, and this account is compiled
on Form II, designed to show in the most compact form
the itemized expense, the total sales, and the grand total

W. L. Culver
M.J
Juness
Thos Pinch
F
S
SUN.
TO
3
DAY
T
ન
W
DATE
HOTEL BILLS
13 2.75
X
MILES USED
VALUE MILEAGE
CASH TRANSP'N
·BUS. BAGGAGE
& EXPRESS
EXCESS
BAGGAGE
PORTER &
POSTAGE
INCIDENTALS
TOTAL
X
.50
X
X
35.75 4.35
7.73
X
X
10
10
X
2.10.
14 2.75 50 1.80 x 45.38 .35 1.10
152.00 X
X
TAL
BALANCE
LAST REP'T
$
MON.
RECEIVED
AM'T ON HAND
MILES MILEAGE
O. H. $
$
$
$
FORM II:
The salesman's weekly
report is tabulated on this card.
Itemized expense, total sales, and a summary of the money in hand at the
end of each week can all be shown on such a card
for the week. If so desired this card may be taken as a
basis from which to make up the ledger charges against
individual lines of goods.
The back of this card (Form III) shows sales, col-
156
RECORDS AND SYSTEMS
lections, mailing points, and route. By comparing one
week's cards with another's, the comparative yield of
territory on various trips will be shown. When a new
salesman is given a territory or salesmen exchange terri-

TRIPS OF
MO. WEEK
N. L. Culver
SALES
COLL.
f
287590 15-9040
SOLD DURING WEEK
H. H. Downing It Louis $
C.H. Daglar
Stevens & Lorith
"
Harris & Conroy".
Darpan + Daniel
J J Ford
A Seatt
H. H. Pord
R. M. Husit
J. W. Hall
"
$
$
HULUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
2CM
2050
145.00
6590
EXPENSES PROFIT
21 05
WILL GET MAIL NEXT WEEK
WED. Saint Louis, Mo.
THUR.
12812 FRI.
3502
75580 SAT.
Elgin, Ill.
Chicago, Ill.
6610 MON. Detroit, Mich.
& H. Merresse
$
18.25
$
39560 SUN.
402.90
$
$
$
"
TUES.
$
COLLECTION ACC'T
$
$
$
$
Stevessa & Smith
Jayne & Davis
R. M. Hunt
250.00
$
500.00
$
20270
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
TO
TOTAL $
REMITTED $ 900 BY Dratt
952 70
26 WEEKS
SUMMARY
TOTAL SALES $
ROUTE FROM Louisville, My
Saint Louis. The
TOTAL
FORMS III and IV: The wider form is the reverse of FORM II. On
it you can show in a general way sales, collections, mailing points and
routes. The other card is used to summarize figures over twenty-six weeks
tories, the sales manager can obtain a line on the selling
ability of the man in the field.
Compilation of collections and expenses can be sum-
marized as desired on Form IV. In the form shown
there is room for twenty-six weeks, and one card printed
on both sides will be sufficient for the selling record of a
road man for a year. The special features of this two
card system are: (1) simplicity, requiring little extra
SALESMEN'S REPORTS
!
157
labor; (2) completeness and accessibility of records; (3)
exact information as to daily route and address of sales-
man; (4) elasticity, permitting subdivisions and classifi-
cations giving special information.
¶ONCENTRATING salesmen on the lines which
CONC
they habitually sell best can easily be accomplished
by this simple and successful plan for using colored cards.
By using cards of different colors, departmental classi-
fication may be made. For instance, if a house has two
classes of salesmen-those selling goods from one depart-
ment and those selling from more than one department
-the first class can be given a single color and the
second group a different color for each department. This
permits comparison of expenses to sales, enables the
sales manager to determine with what particular line a
certain salesman does the best, and allows close scrutiny
of the selling records in many other ways.
Lists of customers and prospects are of value to the
sales manager, and it is essential that they be compact,
accessible and accurate. In selling the city trade, Form
V, or some modification of it, is useful. Different colors
represent districts of a compact territory, as many
colors being used as there are selling districts. The card
is practically self-explanatory in its make-up and may
embody any special features desired. Thus the notations
"a," "f," and "g" after the date in the space for
"calls," refer to a code used to indicate the results of
salesmen's visits. The key to this code follows:
a-Not buying.
b-Buyer out.
f-Firm overstocked and not buying.
g-Secured promise from buyer to give us a fair
share of trade.
158
RECORDS AND SYSTEMS
Information not covered by a key letter goes under
"Remarks.'
The salesman routes his cards in the office, takes
them with him on his calls, makes his notations, and re-
turns his card each evening to the cabinet where 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

R
N
1 3 6 7 9 11 13 16 17 19 21 23 26 27 29 31
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 28 28 30
NAME
•
* Co
H. L. Haynes
Successore to Haynes & Smith
BUSINESS
CALLS
Electrical Supplies
4/6/12 7/14/12/4/22/12
a e j
QUO'D
SALES
4/14/12
1/12/12/2.58
REMARKS
Want to buy
ADDRESS
275 Main St.
Branches: 54 Clark, 60 Lake
RATING
UC 23
BUYER
LH Daynor
all glass supplies of us.
FORM V: The cards here shown are used for city routes, each district
having a separate color. The "a," "c," and "j" after "calls" refer to a
code covering conditions encountered at each visit. The salesmen take the
cards with them, fill in the necessary notes on their routes, and file them away
each evening under follow-up date tabs
prospective customers can be arranged and the form
may be easily changed to suit the requirements of more
extended territories. Classification of sales may also be
effected by individual tabs on the cards and the colors
SALESMEN'S REPORTS
159
The
used to distinguish the salesmen's customers.
ordinary daily or monthly follow-up cards may be used,
too, in arranging for the care of prospective business.
There is no line of business that can not use one or
more of the foregoing records. They may be modified
and extended to suit the particular line you sell and will
be of direct use in keeping the sales manager in touch
with his salesmen, his buyers, and his expenses.
Selling records, unlike production records, are simple
and can be kept 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. The importance of
this is not to be under-rated. It has often been held
that the value of the salesman is an indeterminable or
inexact quantity. This has often been because the re-
sources of the territory in which a sales force worked
were unknown-the result of a lack of systematic records
in the past. No manager can get correct impressions.
except from sales summaries, and these should be com-
pact and in the best form for continuous study and
everyday contact.
DID you ever stop to think how much your own presence
every moment is required at your work; how dependent
your clerks are on you for prices, and marking bills; how many
kicks you have from your customers because no two clerks
ever charge the same for an off quantity of an odd article? The
merchant should avoid these petty irritations to himself and to
his customers.
-David W. Rintels
XIX
FOLLOWING AND REPORTING
CITY SALES
By Kendall Banning
ST
IMPLE systems by which each city salesman may be
made to conduct his own follow-up on prospects,
under the supervision of the company, are valuable time
savers. One tested out by an Eastern manufacturing
firm, has been adopted by the sales department of four
large companies.
This system centers in a small leather booklet, three
by five inches, which each salesman carries. In this
book are bound, in loose leaf form, one hundred or more
of the cards illustrated in Form I. These cards alter-
nate in color, yellow and white, throughout the book.
Every time the salesman encounters a firm he makes
a record of the interview on the yellow sheet and a car-
bon copy on the white sheet. On this sheet he writes,
with indelible pencil, the essential information to be
remembered, the name of the customer, the address, the
date of the interview, the name of the house buyer and
the kind of business followed. Since the forms repro-
duced here as examples of this system are used by a
firm manufacturing safes, provision is made on them for
information about the safe to be replaced or taken in
exchange.
Space is also provided for a brief comment on the
prospects of selling, and a note made of the prices
LINING UP CITY SALES
161
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 call should be made.
The salesman then signs this slip and deposits both the
original and the carbon in a basket.
Every day these slips 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

NAME
BUYER
BUSINESS
SIZE
BIZE
STYLE
STYLE
TOWN
STREET
SAFE IN USE
AGE
AGE
REMARKS REGARDING CONDITION OF SAFES AND PROSPECTS OF SELLING
QUOTED ON NO.
AT
DATE
כ
DELIVERED
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, FLOOR
ALLOWANCE ON O. S.
AT
SIZE
CALL AGAIN
MAKE
SALESMAN
FORM I:
file of prospects.
The card here' shown is filled out for the general follow-up
The manager is able to go over the file and visualize the
salesman's activity in a territory
from the file and 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
162
RECORDS AND SYSTEMS
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 handwriting. 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 Form
II. The first of these return call reports is made out on
a pink slip, on 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

NAME
BUYER
RETURN
CALL
1 2 3 4
FIRM NAME
REPORT
CALL
AGAIN
TOWN
STREET
DATE
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
NOW USING
ADDRESS
BUSINESS
BUYER
GALESMAN
REMARKS AND
QUOTATIONS
PHONE
HAVE OUR
CATALOG
DATE OF LAST CALL
FORMS II and III: The "return call report" (back card) shown here is
filled out after the salesman's second interview, and can be used as a follow-up
for a third talk. Form III (front card) is kept by the salesman—a check
mark by one of the numbers reminds him of the next call dale
slip a space is provided for a reference to the date of the
next call. These pink slips are then filed chronologically
in the same cabinet which contains the yellow slips.
They are brought to the attention of the salesman on the
date indicated.
LINING UP CITY SALES
163
•
In the same way a report on the 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, but 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.
G
ETTING a line on each salesman in this way im-
presses the men with your ability and establishes
a valuable bond between the home office and the field force.
This supervision by the company of the work of each
salesman is an advantage to both the sales force and the
company. 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. Secondly, 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 com-
mon, and that the assigned territories are not to be re-
garded solely as personal property, to be worked or neg-
lected at will, but must be cultivated by cooperation.
This system may be applied with modifications to the
sales force of every manufacturing house whose salesmen
make personal city solicitations. Whether these memo-
randa amount to one per cent or twenty-five per cent of
the total calls which are made, the follow-up slips are of
value in keeping the territory carefully covered.
164
RECORDS AND SYSTEMS
In cases when sharp lines are not drawn between
assigned territories, conflicts between salesmen who are
trying to interest the same prospect are brought to the
attention of the company mechanically, by means of the
geographical 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 follow-
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 memorandum for
a second call, a pink slip 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 sales-
man may plan his day's work in such a way as to give
his most careful attention to those firms to whom records
show that the greatest amount of care has already been
given.
ECORDS of prospects in his own possession and
under his control enable the salesman to use spare
moments for checking up and thinking out new approaches.
The salesman who wishes to keep in his own posses-
sion a permanent record of his prospects may be pro-
vided with cards like Form III, which remind him of
the time elapsed since the last call and furnish all
necessary 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 dis-
tributing them in a file with a set of guide cards num-
bered for each day of the month. The second method is
LINING UP CITY SALES
165
generally found to be the more satisfactory.
To be successful, a system of this kind does not need
a great amount of time, but rather faithfulness. Records
which call for daily memoranda should be attended to
every night. The salesman must obey his follow-up. If
he does, the system will do as much for him as an as-
sistant salesman.
This system, although somewhat similar in purpose to
follow-up systems used in other lines, is novel on ac-
count of 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 with-
out the supervision of the company.
!
♡
AS a principle of law, "caveat emptor" belongs to a bygone
day. Its very existence is a direct admission, never to
be erased from history's pages, that there was a time when the
seller of goods was unscrupulous, so unscrupulous that the
law gave the task of reforming him up as a bad job, and
said: “Let the buyer beware!”
But what the law would not even undertake, Business did.
What all the jails in Christendom could not do, Business
did. For Business, by making honesty pay, has made
"caveat emptor" a dead doctrine.
-John J. Roberts
XX
SHORT-CUT REAL ESTATE
RECORDS
By Z. F. Windes
Formerly of Windes and Marsh
P
ROSPECTS by the hundreds are annually met by
the real estate man. He makes hundreds of listing,
offering, selling transactions in a week. His brain is so
stocked with details of current business that he must
have either a phenomenal memory back of his forehead
or else he ought to have a system of written records.
which will act as a memory for him-records that he
can turn to and find what he wants when he wants it,
records that will do his remembering for him better than
he can ever do it himself.”
In about these words my partner and I summarized a
problem one night when neither of us was able to recall
whether a certain property had been offered to a certain
prospect. It was one of several incidents urging us to
find a method of keeping reliable and convenient data
about past and current transactions.
Such a method we found. Thousands of properties
and customers in all their multifarious relations to our
firm are through our numbering system condensed into
two volumes of records, our Property Book and Cus-
tomers' Book. Exact information about any of the
items we have handled since we installed these records
can be gained in a few minutes by turning to the proper
page in one or both of these books.
REAL ESTATE SHORT-CUTS
167
We devised a form to contain the name and address
of each prospective customer, with the offerings made
to that customer. At the top of this form is placed a
customer number. The use of a number for each prop-
erty and each customer applies also to our Property
Book. In this, each property number, in order, is placed
at the top of a column; underneath are written the
numbers of all the customers to whom that property has
been submitted and the day on which they saw the
property or were told of its location. Thus, we have a
constant record of the prospects to whom each property
has been submitted.
REAL estate dealers will appreciate the value of Windes"
system for telling the owner exactly what has been
done in the effort to sell his property.
More than once an owner has come in to demand why
his property wasn't selling. In such a case, we turn to
the records and give him the names and addresses of
persons who have had his property offered to them.
Such a record of selling efforts is convincing. A cus-
tomer's number under a property number in this book
means that the customer has either personally visited
the property, or, not having opportunity to make a
personal visit, has received a photograph and description
with the address.
In a Customer's Book, laid out in the same way, each
prospect enters numerically. When a property is sub-
mitted to him, the number of the property and the date
of the offering are entered. If a prospect's face is
familiar, he is looked up. The alphabetical card file of
customers tells us his number, and if he was formerly a
customer we look up the offerings made him. His real
estate disposition and methods may be recalled from the
168
RECORDS AND SYSTEMS
records of five or ten years back and the information
has sometimes proved of value. The few persons who
waste time by looking at many properties and never
buying are fairly well known. Such a person would
have to make his buying intentions clear before we
would go far with him. When we close the office to go
to dinner or to keep business appointments, as some-
times happens, the front windows go right on with their
selling function.
The Property Book records serve also as a protection.
Frequently we send owners a list of numbers indicating
the customers to whom his property has been submitted.
This informs the restless owner that we are busy show-
ing his property, and reminds him that should any of
these prospects purchase direct, without consulting us,
that we are entitled to the commission.
We estimate that our yearly loss is from $2,000 to
$3,000 through supposed prospects tipping off the owner-
ship of properties we have listed. If a relative or an
employer of one of our prospects makes a direct pur-
chase of a property we have listed, the probabilities are
that we effected the sale. If the owner is fair to us he
will pay us the commission. Sending a letter to an
owner giving him the numbers of all who have seen his
property acts as a check on the less scrupulous. Our
yearly loss in this respect is much less, we believe, be-
cause of our Property Book records.
A young man came in one day and asked about a
certain house and lot. He assumed a keen interest and
was told the location. A month later we learned that
the property had been sold. The buyer was a stranger
to us; we had no record of him. We did find out, how-
ever, that the buyer's stenographer was the same young
man who had come to us and shown such keen interest
REAL ESTATE SHORT-CUTS
169
in the property. We might have taken the case to court
had not the former owner been a neighbor of mine!
We can never tell what minute a little entry jotted
down among many others years ago may be lifted from a

CUSTOMERS'BOOK
1426
1427
1428
1429
1430
1431
PROPERTY BOOK
1261
1262
1263
1264
1265
1268
FORMS I and II: Records which show by numbers every property of-
fered to each customer are kept in the "Customers' Book" shown here
(above). All customers to whom a property has been offered are entered in
the "Property Book" (below). Exact information about any transaction
for years back can be gained in a few moments from these books
cold, dead record into a live item giving us the ad-
vantage in a business transaction today.
How much we are spending to push a property is
shown by these records and guides us. The amount of
our time and attention given a house and lot is fairly
well indicated by the list of customer numbers under a
property number in the Property Book. It is a hint to
170
RECORDS AND SYSTEMS.
us that either our method of presenting that particular
property is not correct, or that some other factor, per-
haps high price or architectural style or location, is
operating against the sale. Occasionally, it happens that
many customers have been offered a certain property;
my memory, "under my hat," then tells me nothing
definite and I turn to our office records and learn that
we are giving more attention, using up too many hours
and half days pushing that particular property. So we
have found that the records check time wastes.
FIVE
VE simple routine steps through which property
passes on his records are explained by this successful
Illinois real estate man who has made his methods pay.
Here are steps through which a property passes in
our records:
1. It is entered in either the "Improved Property"
or "Vacant Property" listing book and given the list
number which it retains ever afterward in all our rec-
ords.
2. It is located and marked by its number on our
large wall map.
3. It is photographed (if improved property) and a
description slip written to accompany it for display in
the window and wall racks.
4. It is entered serially in the Property Book and
under its number are entered the numbers of all cus-
tomers to whom it is offered.
5. Its number is entered in the Customers' Book
under the number of every customer to whom it is
offered.
"Isn't all this too much bother? Doesn't it lose time
with a lot of details whenever a place is offered for
sale?" These are questions I know occur to some sales-
REAL ESTATE SHORT-CUTS
171

LIMITS MEMORANDA
'BROWNE, WINDES & CO.
REAL ESTATE AND LOANS
CHICAGO
FARMS
COUNTRY
HOMES
SUMMER
RESORTS
SITES
ADVISE US. WE CAN MORE INTELLIGENTLY SERVE YOU
WE ASK YOU TO GIVE US THIS INFORMATION. FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE OF LEARNING YOUR DESIRES
AND THUS MORE EASILY FINDING A PROPERTY TO SUIT YOU. WE KNOW OF AND have on OUR
LISTS MANY PROPERTIES SUCH AS WẸ SUPPOSE YOU WANT, BUT, WE ENDEAVOR TO SAVE ANNOY-
ING OUR PATRONG With UNINTERESTING · OFFERS AND INTERVIEWS. NOTHING TO BE HERE
STATED IS BINDING ON YOU. GIVE US AS GENEROUS LIMITS AS YOU CONSISTENTLY CAN.
BE SURE TO FILL IN ALL SPACES
191
WHAT WILL PROPERTY BE USED FOR?
HOME, FARM, RESORT OR INVESTMENT
WHAT IS PREFERRED AS TO TOWNS, RAILWAYS OR DIRECTIONS FROM CHICAGO?
MUST THE LAND HAVE WATER FRONT?
LAKE OR RIVER?
YES OR NO
MUST THE LAND HAVE HOUSE?
HOW MANY ROOMS?
YES OR NO
WHAT IS THE SMALLEST TRACT OF LAND YOU WOULD CONSIDER?
WHAT IS THE LARGEST TRACT OF LAND YOU WOULD CONSIDER?
ACRES
ACRES
WHAT IS THE OUTSIDE LIMIT OF SATISFACTORY DISTANCE FROM CHICAGO?
MILES
WHAT IS THE OUTSIDE LIMIT OF SATISFACTORY DISTANCE FROM DEPOT TO PROPERTY?
MILES
WHAT IS THE OUTSIDE LIMIT OF TOTAL PRICE YOU WILL PAY?
WHAT IS THE OUTSIDE LIMIT OF CASH FOR FIRST PAYMENT?
WHAT IS THE BEST WE CAN PROMISE ON PAYMÉNT OP BALANCE PER YEAR, INCLUDING INTEREST
AND TAXES?
REMARKS:
I WILL BE PREPARED TO INSPECT YOUR OFFERINGS ABOUT
NAME
BUSINESS ADDRESS
CARE OF
RESIDENCE
OCCUPATION
PHONE
HOURS
PHONE
HOURS
NO. C
FORM III:
When a real estate prospect puts down in words and figures
on this form the "limits" of what is wanted, time is saved. It is a reliable
record of what he does not want and the agent knows exactly what not to
show, which minimizes useless trips over farming country
172
RECORDS AND SYSTEMS
men. However, the office stenographer makes all entries
into the Customers' Book and Property Book, copying
from the card file. In the card file each day my partner
and I enter the offerings of that day, this requiring but
a few minutes, not more than two hours in a month.
Anything we find to work as a selling aid we add to
our system. We are seeking new helps. For instance,
we wanted to get a panoramic photograph of our terri-
tory. It would show landscape and lake view features
of interest to prospective customers but impossible for
us adequately to describe. We arranged with an enter-
prising photographer to send a captive balloon above the
suburb and get a bird's-eye view picture for us. We
were to pay him $600 for the negative. He spent $1,200
on three attempts, all three of the prints showing more
water than land. This is cited as an instance of how we
failed to obtain a selling aid we were after then and are
still looking for.
Until we get it, we must continue to
show the topography with a map.
One of our short-cut methods that grew out of ex-
perience is a Limits Memoranda. This form is sent to
prospective buyers of farm property. The minds of
city people frequently are not clear on what kind of
land, buildings, and surroundings they want in the
country. Occasionally we had a prospect with only
vague notions and fantastic dreams about life "far from
the madding crowd" of the city; days and weeks of
time were wasted in taking him from one neighborhood
to another.
When such a prospect now reads our Limits Memo-
randa he is pinned down mentally as to the size of the
farm and house desired, what he is going to use it for,
whether he will specialize on chickens, squabs, celery, as-
paragus, or other produce to which a property may be
REAL ESTATE SHORT-CUTS
173
adaptable. To focus the mind of the prospect and get
him to think clearly about how much he can spend, what
are his "limits," to have him while in the city write it
down in black and white, results for us in a guide which
tells instantly what it would be useless to show him.
Some of our prospects, we are sure, do more definite
thinking over the country life problem when they sit
down to fill our "Limits" than they ever did before.
BLIND deals
deals are everyday events in the real estate
dealer's life, and specific information from the tax
warrants at small cost is often worth having.
It pays to have at hand specific information. For
this reason we keep a book which records the lot and
block numbers of every piece of property in our terri-
tory. Each year our stenographer goes to the county
court house and examines all the tax warrants for that
year. The names and addresses of those who pay taxes
on the various items are copied.
This book proves a valuable friend on occasion. In
the real estate business, there is always more or less
working in the dark. Few other lines have so many
"blind deals," so much buying and selling through a
second and third or even fourth agent. Johnson, for
all we know, is buying that corner lot for his friend
Hamilton, who is acting under instructions from his em-
ployer, John Macey, who is a close associate of Hobbs.
Hobbs, perhaps has important business reasons why no-
body should know he is after that corner lot.
The information copied from tax warrants tells us:
1. When the property last changed hands.
2. Whether taxes are paid.
3.
Who paid the last taxes.
4.
Whether the title is bad or good.
174
RECORDS AND SYSTEMS
To know these things about a property when a man
comes in to list it for sale is always an advantage. In
nearly all cases the owner tells the full truth. Once in
a while it happens, however, that an owner does not
have accurate information about his own property. We
have, at times, warned clients of taxes not paid. In any
case, if we are in doubt we turn to these records. If we
find the title bad, we refuse to list the property and we
save (1) costs of litigation over a bad title and (2)
costs of advertising and otherwise pushing a property
which is not salable.
By having our stenographer go to the county court
house and copy from the tax warrants, we eliminate the
fee of the companies who specialize on that service.
Their fee would amount to several times what it costs
us.
The customer entering our office meets a system that
has been nearly twenty years in the building and is not
yet completed. On the walls are the racks of photo-
graphs of properties and descriptions of properties, a
map for instant location and comparison of properties.
At one side is a long desk. Back of it on shelves within
quick reach, are the separate lists of vacant and im-
proved property, the Property Book, the Customers'
Book, the card files containing names of live customers
and current offerings made to them.

THE time is passing when a business house can depend
for its maintenance on the transient trade. In the large
cities a small store may rise in a crowded section and flourish
for a while on the purchases of those who casually drop in.
But unless that store "delivers the goods" it will fail to attract
most valuable of all buyers, the regular customer, and will
eventually fail.
-Rufus Gilmore
XXI
HOLDING DEALER TRADE
UP TO QUOTA
By W. S. Zimmerman
C
OMPACT sales records enable the owner and man-
ager of a small wholesale grocery house on the
Pacific coast to keep in personal touch with his cus-
tomers, to check over the work of his five traveling
salesmen and to hold his office force to a comparatively
small unit. Two simple card systems and a ledger sup-
ply every necessary detail of this information.
The record is divided into five parts, each one of
which represents the customers in a salesman's terri-
tory. The cards of each section are distinguished by a
number and by a color so that there is no possibility
of confusion or error. All the correspondence folders
are kept by a numerical system and are numbered with
their section and consecutive number besides having a
distinctive color.
Two classes of records are kept. The first (Form
I) lists the customers by towns and shows each cus-
tomer's monthly purchases. The manager, at any time,
may look over these sales records and see at a glance
what customers are reducing purchases and what new
accounts have been procured. If questions arise about
any customer, his card is laid aside, either for personal
attention or for discussion with the salesman when he
next visits the office. The cards also serve as route
176
RECORDS AND SYSTEMS
cards for the traveling men; in the event of one's ill-
ness or resignation, the manager can meet the situation
with a good knowledge of the territory. This enables
him to distribute the work among his other salesmen
until a new man can be secured and broken in.
The second card (Form II) is the customer's indi-
vidual record. The top line on the face of the card is
divided into squares carrying the numbers 1 to 31 so
that signals can be clipped to the proper number when
a customer is to be followed by mail. The second
line bears the customer's name and address and the
terms of sale. The lower portion of the card is used
for a classification of sales. These are analyzed under
reference letters, each letter representing a product
sold by the company. By looking over this record, the

191
CITY
NAME
ADDRESS
JAN FEB MAR | APA MAY JUNE JULY AUG|SEPT| OCT | NOV | DEC TOTAL
FORM I: On this card are listed all the customers in each town with
their monthly purchases for a year.
every salesman's territory has its own
The cards are indexed by towns and
set of cards, each of a distinctive color
sales manager, on his return from a trip, can tell in a
few minutes the exact amount of gain or loss in sales in
any particular line.
The back of the card serves as a record of over-due
accounts (should such occur) and shows the means
HOLDING DEALERS TO QUOTA
177
which have been adopted for getting payment. The
card is ruled into columns which show the amount due,
the date of the order, the plan of payment, and the date
and amount of last payment. Plenty of space is allowed

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 |10|11|12|13|14|15|18|17|19|19|20|21|22|23|24|26|26|27|28|29|30|31| NO.
NAME
191
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P
AMOUNT
OUT-
STANDING
ADDRESS
CREDIT
R S T U V W X Y Z TOTAL 191
DATE
HOW DEALT WITH
WHEN
PAID
AMOUNT
CORRESPONDENCE
FORM II: The customer's individual record is here shown. The
face of the card (at the top) gives his name, address, reference number and
credit rating, with sales classified according to lines or products. If his
account becomes overdue, collection progress is recorded on the reverse side
of the same card (lower form)
for records of letters sent. When a collection letter is
mailed, a signal is clipped over the next date on which
the card needs attention. The use of these signals auto-
matically brings customers to notice on the day o
which each should be followed up.
VITAL information, if concentrated in a simple,
systematic way, will enable you carefully to watch
both salesmen and collections during spare moments.
The man who designed the system has found that these
cards enable him to keep in close touch with and direct
the operation of his salesmen, and to follow his cus-
tomers and collections in spite of the facts that he has to
178
RECORDS AND SYSTEMS
1
be on the road much of his time and that the time which
he can give to office work is limited. Vital information
is concentrated in a small space; the colors and numbers
minimize the chances of error, keep the system within
reasonable limits and save a large amount of the clerical
labor involved in handling customer records.
Trials of the scheme by other houses have shown that
it is satisfactory for businesses which have small sales
forces, yet distribute varied lines of products. With
very few modifications, however, the system can be made
applicable to almost any concern, to provide efficient
records in the selling departments.
♡
EVERY salesman at some time or other believes that "the
other fellow's" territory is better than his own; that is part
of the salesman's creed.
A man who had been reading books on mineralogy and the
origin of oil, finally decided that far away up in Canada there
was a strata of rock that indicated the hidden source of all
pe-
troleum. So he moved away and sold his farm in Titusville,
Pennsylvania.
The purchaser of the farm, on the day of taking possession,
took his cattle behind the barn to water in a brook that had
been partly boarded up by his predecessor to divert the flow of
a thick scum which polluted the stream.
The scum was petroleum. The previous owner for twenty-
three years had literally made efforts to discard it. That
stream has since poured hundreds of millions of dollars into
the pockets of its subsequent owners.
-Harlow E. Bundy
General Manager, International Time Recorder Company
XXII
HOW FACTS AND RECORDS
INCREASED SALES
By H. A. Ballou
Proprietor, The Ballou Paint Store
ONE
NE DAY a customer came into my store and asked
the price of a certain brand of paint. I told him
that it was $2.25 a gallon.
"You're too high-priced," he said, as he turned to
go out. "I can get So-and-So's paint for $1.25."
"Wait a minute," I requested. "Do you know what
you are getting when you buy the paint you mention?"
"Well," he said, "it's paint, isn't it?”
For answer, I stepped to a file and produced a table
showing the chemical analysis of the paint he had spe-
cified at the lower price. The test had been made by the
United States Government, through the Department of
Agriculture. The formula showed the stuff to contain
about seven per cent of vegetable oil, three per cent of
benzine drier, and twenty-four per cent of water, be-
sides various other ingredients. There was no linseed
oil whatever.
Now, I stepped back to the file and got the formula
for the paint which I had offered him. It showed almost
ninety-three per cent of linseed oil, seven per cent of tur-
pentine drier, and one-tenth of one per cent of water.
The customer was amazed. "What kind of files do you
keep in this store," he asked. "Is this a bureau of sta-
tistics?" He finished by purchasing my paint. He
180
RECORDS AND SYSTEMS
I
could scarcely do otherwise in the face of my facts.
I mention this incident to illustrate my system.
have a small paint store. Counting myself there are five
salesmen in the store, while the clerical staff comprises
only two persons. Yet I have found system very valu-
able-quite as much so, I believe, as it is to the big busi-
ness.
Without this ready reference file for paint formulas
I should have lost this sale-and a great many others. I
believe in systematizing and listing and indexing every-
thing I know that pertains to my business, so that I can
get hold of it instantly in an emergency. There is noth-
ing like knowledge, right from the shoulder, to take a
man off his feet.
Another customer came in one day to buy painting
material. When I quoted prices and figured up the
whole lot he balked. "That's too much," he declared.
"Why, when I painted my house the last time it cost me
only ninety dollars."
Now, if it hadn't been for my indexed knowledge,
this customer would have walked out and gone some-
where else, thinking me a robber. But I stepped to my
file and get out a chart, of my own construction, show-
ing graphically just how much each ingredient had in-
creased in price since the last time this man had painted
his house. The showing was something like this:
Tin Cans.
Silica
•
Zinc oxide
Japan drier
18 per cent
21 per cent
30 per cent
22 per cent
Linseed oil
White lead
•
Turpentine
30 per cent
45 per cent
101 per cent
In the face of this evidence, the customer was con-
vinced that the increase did not go into my pockets
FACTS AND FIGURES THAT SELL 181
and he bought his stuff without another word.
Still another customer, on being given the price on a
certain product, declared he could get another brand
little cheaper. Again I looked in my file and discovered

KNOWLEDGE
OF GOODS
A SELLING
OPERATIONS
STORE AND
STOCK
PROCEDURE
QUALITY
ARRANGEMENT
OF GOODS
CARE OF STOCK
MEASURES
0000
SYSTEM
ADVERTISING
OFFICE
PROCEDURE
COMPARATIVE
RECORDS
FINANCING
BOOKD
TABLKO
BUYING
WASTE MOTION
BEST WAYS OF
HANDLING STOCK
FOLLOW-UP
FILEO
CHARTS
SURPLUS
WEIGHTS
IMPROVED
DEVICES
STOCK LIMITS
BELLING PLANS
IMPLEMENTS
EXPENSE
CORTO
OIBDIPUNE
KEEPING TRACK
OF STOCK
WINDOWS
CORRES-
FONDENCE
CAPITAL
INVESTED
HANDLING
'QUSTOMEAB
CLEANING STORE
NEWSPAPERS
CIRCULARS
FIGURE IV: How Ballou analyzes the factors that enter into successful
retail selling is shown by this chart. Notice that he gives "knowledge of
goods" first place and puts it before selling operations, store methods, stock
records, advertising and the other functions of store management
that the brand he quoted was put up in packages ma-
terially smaller than my own. The exact size of both
packages I furnished him, in cubic inches, and he
bought.
This is the sort of salesmanship I have cultivated. It
is the kind that is indisputable, and no one can put
over any bluff on you. In the first place, I have made
it part of my business to study the goods on the market
—my own and the other fellow's-and then to write down
my discoveries and put them away where I can get them
out quickly. I have not sought to discriminate against
my own goods if they showed any failing. But if they
did-well, the manufacturers always heard from me
mighty quick.
182
RECORDS AND SYSTEMS
My files show not only good qualities, measurements
and weights, but prices. I keep posted on the prices of
competing goods, and if a man comes in and tells me he
can buy such-and-such an article at a given figure, I
know, by referring to my files, whether he is speaking
from actual knowledge or from hearsay. Other things
being equal, price is an important consideration, and no
merchant should neglect to keep himself advised, by
some systematic procedure, as to the figures his com-
petitors are quoting.
BALLOU has simple records which make it possible
to check complaints quickly but accurately and pro-
tect his interests to the customer's satisfaction.
Then there is another kind of indexed information
that has proved valuable to me. A farmer came into my
store and made a complaint that the paint I had sold
him was scaling off. "Did you put it on right away?"
I asked him. "Yes," he said, "the very next day."
This was all I needed. I went to the file where all the
charge tickets are kept, and soon found the record of
the sale in question. All the tickets for that day were
grouped and fastened together, and on the outside ticket
was written: "Weather, threatening." Then I turned
to the day following and found, "Weather, rain."
This was enough. "You put on your paint in wet
weather," I told him. "Even the best paint fails to
give satisfaction under those conditions."
He remembered, then, that he had painted over wet
boards, and withdrew his complaint without argument.
All paint manufacturers send out color cards, bear-
ing samples of the different shades. Often these cards
are rather elaborate and expensive, yet many retail paint
dealers toss them into a heap. When they have an in-
FACTS AND FIGURES THAT SELL 183
quiry, they spend from five to twenty minutes hunting
for the proper card, and often fail to find it. To obvi-
ate this difficulty, I spent $20 for a special cabinet, made
to order. It contained about one hundred pigeon-holes,
and from them I am able to furnish customers almost
instantly any color card desired. The cabinet is divided
into labeled sections, and, in addition, has an index at-
tached to one end.
We count the waste of motion. For instance, through
the installation of a self-measuring device, we can now
draw fifteen gallons of oil in forty-two seconds. By
the old method it required fifteen minutes. And, with

NAME
RESIDENCE
ADDRESS
H A BALLOU, WORCESTER, MASS.
SHEET NO.
TERMS
BUSINESS
ADDRESS
DATE
191
REMARKS
FOLIO CHARGES CREDITS
BALANCE
DAY
CASH BOOK
H A BALLOU, WORCESTER, MASS.
MEMORANDUM
FOR MONTH OF
CASH
DISCOUNT
MDSE
RETURNED
TOTAL
CREDIT
191
FORMS I and II:
Cash book, ledger and bill book are combined by
Ballou, as here shown, into a single loose-leaf volume. From the usual
duplicate sales slip, a credit account payment is first entered, itemized, at
the front of this volume, in the cash book (lower fom), and a moment later
on the customer's ledger sheet (at the top), in th, second half of the book
an elevator to the basement and a system of piping,
one man can accomplish in an hour and a half work that
formerly required two men eight and a half hours.
We have a very complete system of racks and self-
184
RECORDS AND SYSTEMS
sealing oil cans, and on all of these we have figured out
our saving in time. I know by these reckonings that
labor is often more costly than improved facilities. The
waste labor in the average store is tremendous. I offer
a standing reward of a dollar for every improvement
suggested whereby we can cut out unnecessary motion.
A recent rearrangement of some of our shelving was
made on such a suggestion; in another instance, a lot of
stuff that was selling well was moved and made instantly
accessible. We calculated the trips saved and found
that the total distance reduction in selling a given quan-
tity was a mile.
On the same principle, we aim to reduce to the mini-
mum the physical labor and time involved in any given
sale, and to this end we study the various operations
themselves. For instance, take the item of paint
brushes. Go into the average store and ask for a brush,
and the clerk will lay out one or two on the counter.
But before he completes the sale he will have to retrace
his steps to and fro perhaps many times, each time bring-
ing another brush or two. The whole operation requires
three or four times the number of minutes needed in my
store, where the brushes are arranged in drawer-com-
partments. A whole drawer is taken out and put on
the counter, and the customer makes his choice from
the lot.
Then we have reduced to a schedule, so far as possible,
many of the routine operations connected with the store,
such as the replenishment of stock, the cleaning and so
on. We find it better to have fixed times for doing these
things. Even the window washing is done on a schedule,
an outside man coming at a specified time for that pur-
pose. And every Saturday the store is cleaned through-
out thoroughly. You will not find either in the store it-
FACTS AND FIGURES THAT SELL
185

DAY BOOK
PAGE
LOCAL DISTRIBUTOR OF
SHERWIN-WILLIAMS PAINT
ESTABLISHED 1848
H. A. BALLOU
143 MAIN STREET
DEALER IN
PAINTS, OILS, VARNISHES, GLASS & BRUSHES
WORCESTER, MASS..
SOLD TO
ADDRESS
TERMS: 30 DAYS. 67% INTEREST
ON OVERDUE ACCOUNTS
TELEPHONE CONNECTION.
DATE
ARTICLES
DATE
191
RECEIVED OF
($
191.
LOOK FOR THE BLUE STORE
* DOLLARS
CHARGES CREDITS BALANCE
each_charge
FORMS III and IV: Opposite the ledger page given each charge customer, on Ballou's characteristic blue paper,
is the statement blank, with perforated stub, shown above. The small form is the duplicate receipt used by Ballou
186
RECORDS AND SYSTEMS
self or in the basement or outer store-house any of the
rubbish or general uncleanliness that usually attaches
to a paint store. All the drip-pans are cleaned and all
accumulations removed from oil cans and other re-
ceptacles.
We make it a special point to keep our mailing lists.
as complete as possible. At periodic intervals, for in-
stance, a man goes out in a buggy and makes a tour
of every street, and of every road in the surrounding
country. He notes the condition of the houses, and when
he finds one that needs painting he records the fact on
his list. Then, when he gets in, the names are trans-
ferred to our regular follow-up system. From our vari-
ous records and from the social register we get the names
of owners when we are in doubt.
THEN a building has been painted, Ballou uses a
WHEN
system which looks three years ahead to the time
for another coat and then jogs his customer's memory.
Whenever we sell paint for a house, barn, factory, or
any other building, we enter the name on our follow-up
three years ahead.
Of all our systems, however, the most interesting and,
in a way, the most useful, are those which show our
comparative records. I believe in comparisons, and in
percentages. My comparative sales records show the
goods that have gone out of my store by weeks, months,
and years, arranged in quantities and percentages of in-
crease. Not only do I keep these figures on the main
products, such as paints and lead and oil, but on all the
minor items. The different varnishes are itemized in
percentages of their own, and so are the various other
goods. I show gains in black ink and losses in red.
These records not only tell me what I have done, but
FACTS AND FIGURES THAT SELL
187
they indicate the most advantageous goods to handle in
the future. Goods that have sold slowly may be dis-
placed for more profitable stock. A merchant ought to
know just where his profits are coming from, so that he
can push the good things.
All these comparative sales records are aggregated at
the end of the year, and the result, in the form of a
heavy black line drawn to a scale, is transferred to a
chart that shows my annual increase in sales. I have
this graphic chart-record for each year since I acquired
the store.
♡
PLACE the catalog houses on an equal footing with the re-
tailer, large or small, and they could not do business.
And this condition is coming. The country merchant is a
necessity. The 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 catalog house direct to the consumer,
cheaper, quicker, and more satisfactorily than through the re-
tailer, then that is the way to market it. With all the facilities
at hand for buying, it must not be forgotten that the more pro-
gressive 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 catalog 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.
-Frank B. Lomas
Secretary, Lomas Hardware Company
XXIII
RETAIL CONTROL THROUGH
FLU
SALES RECORDS
By A. W. Montgomery
LUCTUATION in the volume of business by de-
partments is the one objective on which the gen-
eral manager of a many line store constantly keeps his
eye. There may be many side issues, such as adjusting
complaints, encouraging employees and altering methods
and plans, but constantly his attention reverts to the
barometer of trade. What does it register? If below a
certain mark, what is the trouble? If above, why? He
must know the reason for variations. His ability to ex-
pand the business largely depends upon the accuracy
with which he senses the cause of conditions.
Department One may show by its daily report sales of
$1,100 in excess of the sales for the corresponding day
a year previous. This gain may have been due to any
one of several causes: an advanced season on the line
carried, heavier advertising, special sales and so forth;
or it may have been due to a combination of causes. On
the other hand, Department Two may show sales $900
less than last season. The reason for the loss may have
been a backward season, generally depressed business,
insufficient advertising and so forth. In either event
the actual causes for the gain or loss must be de-
termined.
Furthermore, for the previous season, a period that
SUMMARIZING STORE SALES
189
covers six months, Department One may have failed by
fifteen per cent to equal the sales of the season prior to
it. Department Two, conversely, may have gained
twenty per cent over the preceding season. In com-
parison with the one daily report already mentioned,
this is paradoxical, but averages taken over long periods
will explain.
ATCHING the daily sales fluctuations enables you
WATCHING
to get a line on the trend which will loom big at the
year's end, and take in time the proper precautions.
A summary of the causes underlying daily fluctua-
tions for the entire season serves as a basis for determin-
ing the reasons for a total gain or loss. And these
season-causes must be determined by watching daily sales
in each department. The daily sale is the index; its
total for any period-a week, ten days, thirty days, six
months-gauges the fluctuation. It tells the percentage
of gains and losses by departments. These indicate the
need of cause prescriptions that reach business building
policies.
In this respect, there is no difference between a
single line and a many line store, so far as the manage-
ment is concerned. In the former there are the same
problems to be met and solved, only fewer of them. In
the latter, each department is a store, and it is but
necessary to treat these departments as individual stores
to obtain the same result.
If there is any difference, it is this: the small mer-
chant has the one final word when it comes to saying
definitely what merchandise shall go on the shelves. The
general manager of the big store is often the head mer-
chandise man and must keep his hand on the merchan-
dise for all departments, indirectly through assistants.
190
RECORDS AND SYSTEMS
It is at this very point that the fluctuation in sales
must guide him in whatever adjustments he makes.
Fluctuation in business makes it necessary for the
general manager to keep track of daily sales; this can
be done only by watching each department as a unit and
adding for a total, to ascertain the general increase or
decrease in trade.
Each morning at nine o'clock in one store, the gen-
eral manager gets a daily department report that sum-
marizes each of the fifty-five departments; the sales, say,
for 1912 and 1913, the purchases for 1913, and the esti-
mated stock for the same periods. This also gauges the
merchandise purchased in comparison with the sales, the
bills on file, the orders for the current month, the month
ahead, and those for a longer period.
Sales form the background against which purchases
are built. Merchandise may be bought for delivery at a
certain time, and may be countermanded if the loss in
sales is marked; or, of course, additional purchases may
be made if the sales show a decided increase. The gen-
eral manager must know each morning how far to go,
because purchases are made daily.
This daily report starts with the sales check, which is
either charge, cash or C. O. D. It matters not which,
for each must fulfill its function in the total. That func-
tion is to show the charge and cash business separate
from the C. O. D., which is too hazardous to rely upon.
Sales checks reach the auditing department every
hour of the day. If a charge or C. O. D. slip, it makes a
slight detour by way of the inspector, shipping and
credit departments. If a cash slip, it goes direct to the
cashier by way of the inspector and then to the auditing
department.
The cash sales check is sent with money through the
SUMMARIZING STORE SALES
191

DATE
DAY
COATS
SUITS
DRESSES
TEMP.
WEATHER
SKIRTS PETTICOATS FURS
COST SALE COST | SALE COSTSALECOST SALE COST |SALE COST SALE
DAILY SALES SHEET
AD, LEADER
NO. VISITORS
.NAME
DESCRIPTION
LOT CASH
NO. SALES
C. O. D.
CHARGE
ACCOUNT
FORM I: Each day's sales are entered on the sheet shown here from the clerks' sales slips. Division is made into cash,
charge and C. O. D. sales, and columns giving both cost and selling prices are provided for each line of garments carried
192
RECORDS AND SYSTEMS
tubes to the cashier. The customer receives a receipt
and the salesman, simply as a protection, gets a voucher
bearing the cashier's stamp.
The charge check is authorized by a representative of
the credit department and by the inspector who trans-
mits it to the auditing department.
The sales check clearly gives the purchaser and his
address, the department number, the article bought and
the amount. It is essential for salesmen to make an ac-
curate record of each sale. Failure to give correct data
often creates confusion in the auditing department,
which is responsible for the daily summary.
OTAL daily sales figures can be kept sufficiently
TOTAL
secret by this tested method, which also enables you
to use the salesmen for summarizing sales and returns.
To avoid further confusion, the salesmen summarize
their sales each day. These totals are given to the head
of stock, who then figures all the sales in his department
and turns the report over to the department buyer or
assistant buyer. The buyer then forwards it to the head
bookkeeper. He and the general manager alone know
the total daily sales.
The daily sales report from buyer to the auditing de-
partment is confirmed before it becomes official. The
reports of sales checks and the summary are unofficial
because they are subject to correction by the auditing
department. After corrections are made, and any miss-
ing checks or dead C. O. D. slips traced by the auditing
department, the report becomes official and is ready to
form its part in the final department report to the gen-
eral manager.
The department report is held until after the close of
business each day to go with the final summary, which
SUMMARIZING STORE SALES
193

CARAICO
FORWARO
3
7
10
11
12
QUITO
OVERCOATS
CASH
BALES COST
CHARGE
SALES | COST
CASH
CHARGE
SALES COST BALES COST
14
15
10
17
10
19
20
21
22
2.3
24
23
24
27
28
29
30
31
TOTAL
CASH
TOTAL
CHARGE
DAILY SALES SUMMARY
MATS
CASM
CHARGE
BHOES
CASH
CHARGE
UNDERWEAR
CASH
CHARGE
MONTH OF
HOSIERY
CASH
CHARGE
FURNISHINGS
CASH
CHARGE
JEWELRY
CASH
CHARGE
CASH
TOTALS
CHARGE
SALES, COST SALES COST ||SALCE| COST | BALES | COST. SALES | COST | SALES [COST||BALES| COST SALES | COST||SALES | COST | SALES|COST |TALES | GOST | SALES|COST]|SALES| COSTÍ SALES | cost..
"
FORM II: For the small or medium-sized store which is not divided into departments, this "Daily Sales Summary,'
arranged for lines of goods, takes the place of a daily sales sheet. It is kept at the cash register and sales are entered on
it when made. At the close of the day, the figures are totaled and carried to the permanent daily record
194
RECORDS AND SYSTEMS
is given to the general manager in the morning. It is
only an estimate, for the dead C. O. D. business, which
often amounts to a thousand dollars or more in a big
store, will not appear until a day or two later. It usu-
ally takes two or three days for this business to adjust
itself. Then the general manager gets his final depart-
ment report.
The sales report by departments would not give the
general manager a sufficient basis for finding the cause
of fluctuation in business and for ascertaining the net
gains, if a strict watch were not kept on the current pay
roll. The absence of two salespersons in this depart-
ment or that, lateness in arrival at the department, and
so forth these facts suggest incompetency or ineffi-
ciency, and might handicap the service to the extent
that business in the end would show a heavy decrease.
This, of course, is cared for by the superintendent.
Sales reports would also be less important as a barom-
eter of trade if the cost of doing business for each
week were not known. Just as sales fix present and
future purchases, so does the cost of doing business
govern them. Therefore, the general manager gets each
Saturday a report of all wages and all sales for the
week. Each must have its own percentage of fixed ex-
penses and the sales must bear a fixed ratio to the pay.
But the daily department report is the real barometer of
business. The daily report on department organization
indicates the capacity to handle business. The report on
individual salaries and sales determines the cost of han-
dling it. The three must be considered together in
order to read the store's profit.
Forty-eight hours after a tornado, a Nebraska clothier
who lost his stock in a fire following the storm, col-
lected his insurance in full and had new goods on the
SUMMARIZING STORE SALES
195
way to the temporary place of business which he opened.
Neighboring storekeepers labored with adjusters for days
before getting their settlements; in more than one case
it was impossible for them to establish their claims to
anything like the damage they thought they had suf-
fered.
The sales records of the fortunate merchant helped
to secure this quick action from the insurance company.
Sales records, although always maintained by the larger
stores, are generally avoided by small dealers who have
found cost prohibitive. A solution which makes them
worth their keep has been developed by a western dealer
who carries a $50,000 clothing stock. His system is
simple and inexpensive to maintain. With the changes
individual conditions suggest it can be adapted to a
store of any size.
The plan calls for daily and monthly sales records.
This permits exhaustive analysis. Live lines may be
distinguished from "stickers." Inquiries which lead to
better business are suggested. Failures may be picked
apart and successful plans may be intelligently followed
to a satisfying conclusion. And profits put back into
the business may be invested where they are certain to
increase and multiply.
IMPLE and inexpensive to maintain, this system used
SIM
by a western retailer permits exhaustive analysis
which points the live lines and the stickers.
Daily sales cards lead the system for store billing.
Sales for the day are divided as cash and credit items
and listed by departments. Columns are provided for
recording the cost of articles sold either on cash or credit.
At the right of the card, daily store totals are taken.
At the end of the month the totals for departments are
196
RECORDS AND SYSTEMS
calculated and recorded at the bottom of the card. If
a weekly balance is wanted, the sum of business done

FROM NO..
TO NO..
OATE.
SO. AMBOY LUMBER & SUPPLY CO.
DAILY CASH AND CHARGE SALES SLIPS
CREDITS
CASH SALES
NUMBER
AM'T
NUMBER
AM'T
NUMBER
AM'T
NUMBER
AM'T
+
NO..
DATE.
TIME.
M
19
THE SOUTH AMBOY LUMBER & SUPPLY CO
PLEASE DELIVER THE FOLLOWING MATERIAL AT
TIME WANTED
QUANTITY
JOB
CONTRACTOR
DESCRIPTION
MARK ITEMS TO BE CHECKED AGAINST CONTRACT IN NARROW COLUMN
RECEIVED
TICKET NO.
DRIVER
TALLY BOOK PAGE.
CHECKED BY..
FILLED.
CASH
DEPOSIT
VOUCHERS
TOTAL
TOTAL
TOTAL
TOTAL CREDITS
TOTAL CASH SALES
TOTAL
FORMS III and IV: This daily cash and charge slip (larger
form) lightens bookkeeping duties in a lumber dealer's office, much as the
other forms illustrated help storekeepers, and gives an accurate record of
business transacted over the counter. The contractor's order blanks (smaller
form) are gladly used by this dealer's customers, who find in them an ef-
fective way of checking against losses due to various causes
during that period is written in red in one of the spaces
left vacant by Sunday.
Daily totals are taken from sales tickets. These are
SUMMARIZING STORE SALES
197
segregated by departments as they are received. Late in
the afternoon, the amounts on the slips received are
added by the bookkeeper. This partial list may then be
completed in a few minutes after store closing. Conse-
quently the manager has on his desk a complete record
of the day's business before he starts home for the night.

DAILY DEPARTMENT REPORT
DATE.
191
DATE
191.
[DEPT.Į SALES
NO.
1911
SALES
1912
PUR-
EST.
CHASES STOCK
1912
1911
EST.
STOCK
1912
DILLS ON
FILE
ORDERS
CURRENT|
MONTH
OADERS DEPT.
DEL'Y NO.
2
"
7
2
FORM V: Each morning a store manager can compare by means
of the report here shown, the previous day's sales with those of the corre-
sponding date a year before, as well as the stocks on hand, the bills on file,
and the orders delivered
Or he can leave it to be analyzed in the first fresh hour
of the morning, as he chooses.
Careful scrutiny of this card is one of his most im-
portant tasks. Falling off of business in one department
may prompt him to the invention of new sales plans.
Rush of business in another department may act as a
reminder to prompt buying. The effect of business
changes may be shown in another column. The day's
work may be reviewed in the light of past performance.
In all the card is practically a daily written report from
department heads.
198
RECORDS AND SYSTEMS
In the form, a column for returned goods is omitted
as it is the custom to deduct the sales value of goods re-
turned from each department's total on the day's busi-
ness. If such a plan is insufficient, a fourth column
may be added alongside the charge sales under each de-
partment heading for handling returns.
Other features which may be added to the sales card
with effect, are advertising and weather columns. The
advertising column shows the space and the mediums
used for the day. These facts are useful in checking up
the efficiency of advertising and assist the manager in
analyzing and comparing past sales records. The
weather column has a similar purpose. The letter “R”
for rain serves without further analysis to explain the
poor sales on a day which ought to have shown a good
average of returns.
MONTHLY
ONTHLY sales sheets are the basic records of the
storekeeper who uses his experience, expressed in
sales figures, to guide his progress and routine.
At the end of the month, the totals of the daily sales
cards are transferred to the monthly sales sheet. This
is the basic record of the storekeeper who operates on a
knowledge of past performances. In making it up, the
total sales, cash and credit, for each department are
carefully forwarded. Total costs are noted in the
proper column, and from this data percentages are fig-
ured and a gross profit and per cent of gross profit ob-
tained. Then expenses for the month are taken from the
expense sheets and net profit and per cent of net profit
for the month figured. At the end of the season or the
half year, figures for the period are totaled in the
column at the right.
With slight alterations, the system outlined may be
SUMMARIZING STORE SALES
199
applied to smaller stores. For dealers carrying a stock
of $10,000 or less, the permanent daily sales summary
can be filled in according to the goods sold. Subdivi-
sions of stock take the place of departments. In addi-
tion, the daily sheet with the day of the month given,
but omitting the horizontal rulings, must be kept. This
remains at the cash register and clerks enter sales on it
as they make them. At the close of the day the figures
are totaled and carried to the permanent daily record.
The monthly sales record is similar to the form used by
the larger stores. Departments, however, are omitted
and sales are listed on the permanent daily record.
An eastern retailer uses a system for recording sales
which can be adapted to small store needs and also dove-
tailed into short-cut bookkeeping plans. When a sale is
made, his clerk detaches the stub of the price ticket and
places it in a box provided for that purpose. Every
morning these stubs are collected and the number of
sales marked in the proper columns on the card index.
The clerk enters the cost, selling price and lot number
on the sales ticket, so it is a simple matter for the
bookkeeper to follow in dollars the number of sales
shown on the card index. Figures on the sales slips are
carried to a combined cash book and journal and the
totals are used in securing each day the daily gross
profits. These daily totals are then transferred to
monthly sheets. Charges and C. O. D. items are posted
directly from a daily sales sheet to the journal, which
carries columns for general accounts, customers' ac-
counts and creditors' accounts. To save the bookkeeper
the trouble of re-entering the individual items posted
from the daily sales sheet, only the totals of these col-
umns are transferred to ledger accounts.
The journal is ruled to economize work. The de-
200
RECORDS AND SYSTEMS
scriptive spaces are in the center, and to the left are
columns which care for items to be posted to the general
ledger. Green lines divide the debits from the credits;
faint red and blue lines across the sheet enable the
bookkeeper quickly to follow and locate place and line.
This division of the ledger entries into three parts
affords a daily showing of amounts due on accounts
payable (credit balance of creditors' ledger column),
and amounts due on accounts receivable (debit balance
of customers' accounts).
The debit balance of the cash column shows the cash
balance in the house and in the bank, the balance of
the latter item being carried on the check stub as cash.
The separation of merchandise purchases and sales is
carried to avoid the too common error of padding sales
with merchandise returned to manufacturers, which, in
the case of large items, is enough to disturb percentage
calculations on profits and expenses.
The retailer who uses such a system need not depend
upon the word of his assistants, or upon his memory,
for details in any section or department. He has at
hand, when he needs it, an up-to-the-hour picture of his
store. Variations continually suggest themselves. The
system is flexible enough to meet all conditions and is
limited only by the ingenuity of the user.
♡
THE average cost of a sale and the average profit are factors
which we carefully work out. Daily reports of the travel-
ing men, including sales, traveling expenses and so on, to-
gether with the cost systems and data collected at the factory,
enable the manufacturer to figure these out in a rough way
every day. At the end of each month these same items, cover-
ing a long period, can be averaged up, and the average cost of
each sale and the profit determined.
-John V. Steger
Founder, Steger & Sons Piano Manufacturing Company
INDEX
(Complete for the four volumes)
Abbreviations, how to make in
-advertising literature, how
filing
III-194
to use
II-116
Ability, use of inborn
I-81
-bulletin boards in the store,
Absences, how to check on
IV-194
how to use
II-161
Acceptance of contract terms, when
-follow-up letters, getting the
valid
III-160
most from
II-178
ACCOUNTING
-"lettergram," winning at-
-BOOKS AND ACCOUNTS
tention with
II-169
cash entry methods
IV-183,
196, 200
-charge accounts
II-196
מן
IV-185, 200
-journal, entering accounts
-sales records, methods of
keeping I-25; IV-149, 190, 193, 199
Accounts, how to avoid uncertainty
in new
Acknowledgments, value of prompt
Action
I-35
III-170
-how to make a letter get III-17
-using sales letters that make
it easy for dealers to get III-93, 94
-specimen advertisement
-urging immediate
Address
-how to arrange the, on sta-
-house organ, how to edit
and develop a I-151; II-97, 100, 101
-magazines, when to use
II-45, 51
-newspapers, when to use II-54,
57, 63, 157, 178
-novelties, plans and meth-
ods for using I-53, 55, 59; II-65,
68, 70, 105
-outdoor advertising, making
the most of
II-76, 87, 181
-space waste, putting it to
work
II-90
-street car space, how to use II-188
-window displays, designing
I-56, 74; II-156;
IV-118, 136
-advertising literature, II-114, 125
-articles in use, specimen ad-
successful
II-19
-COPY
tionery
III-50-52
vertisements showing
II-147
-how to secure an, over a
-billboards, specimens of copy II-85
telephone
I-70
-booklet covers, examples to
II-28
Addressing machines, how to make
-booklet title pages
II-27
the most of
III-68
-booklet, unique plan for a
II-128
Advance letters to dealers, methods
--color, right use of
II-122
of helping salesmen by
III-149
-desires, specimen of adver-
ADVERTISING
-ESSENTIALS
tisements which awaken
-distinction, how to secure
II-20
II-30,
-analysis as a business bid
II-13,
38, 56
36, 172
-cost of, judging value by
II-83, 103
point by
-helping salesmen
-demonstration, proving your
form and motive chart,
method of using
-point of contact, how to
make
-problems of advertising, how
to analyze
-retail advertising, how the
manufacturer encourages
-testing, methods of II-26, 143, 175
-MEDIUMS
II-154
cessfully
-headlines, how to write
II-13, 18
I-148
II-10, 25, 31, 35, 40
-essentials, how to insure II-46, 49,
55, 109, 159, 170
-guarantee, how to use suc-
-house organ covers, examples II-86
-illustrations, vital points in
the use of II-54, 87, 121, 146, 159
-interest, tested methods of
II-39
II-50
rousing
II-127
II-15
-layout sheet for booklets
II-141
-layout, standardized, for
I-12
store advertisement
II-61
-local events, building adver-
tising on
1-58
202 LIBRARY OF SALES AND ADVERTISING
-luxuries, specimens that ad-
vertise attractively
-clothing manufacturer
II-72
II-123
-coal dealer
II-72
-magazine advertisement,
-collection agency
II-168
specimen of a multipage
II-19
-country storekeeper
IV-64
-motive, finding and build-
-dentist
II-166
ing copy on the strongest
-department store
II-74, 153,
buying
II-9, 13, 21, 118, 160
157, 191
-outdoor, how to get up ef-
-department store (Wm.
fective
II-84, 182
Filene's Sons Company)
II-95
-public utility advertise-
ments, planning
II-60
-drug store II-74, 153, 192; IV-121
-farm implement dealer
II-190
-quality of product, speci-
-grocer
II-90
mens that play up
II-59
-haberdashery (Frank M.
-"reasons why," showing
II-48
Low Company)
II-159
-simplicity in layout, speci-
-bardware dealer
II-194; IV-64
mens showing value of
-slogan, selection and use of a II-87
-street-car cards, effective II-80
-street car card, "Spearmint"
specimens
II-79
-title page,designing II-129, 130
-timeliness in an advertise-
ment
II-124
-hotel, featuring service in II-165
-jeweler's, a, for getting closer
to customers
II-113
-laundry
II-164
-lumber yard
II-177
men's furnishing store (Moe
Levy & Company)
II-32
II-56, 177
-necktie manufacturer
II-29
-trade-mark, choosing
II-182
-newspapers-when the man-
-type, selecting the right
II-127
ufacturer uses
II-56
type, without illustration
II-54
-novelties, how to use
IV-89
waste space, how to use
II-94
-novelty manufacturer
II-70
writing rules and suggestions II-50
-paint store
I-54
-DEALER
-physical culture expert
II-40
-how to advertise
I-40
-pianos
II-41
-manufacturer and dealer co-
-professions, maintaining dig-
operation, methods in I-57; II-57,
nity in advertising the
II-166
82, 202
-real estate
II-88, 169
-RECORDS
-restaurant
II-164
-advertising results
II-147
-service features, making
-composing room instruc-
most of
II-168
tions, method of handling
-contract records, how to
II-216
-soup manufacturer
II-143
"Spearmint"
II-88
keep
II-197, 198,
213, 214
-toilet goods
II-70
-copy records, how to keep
II-197,
-traction engine manufac-
199, 215
turer
II-9
-copy schedule
II-136
-watches
I-44
-cuts in stock, card showing
-daily advertising record,
II-205
good
card on which to keep
II-146
-daily inquiry record,
II-145
-department advertising rec-
ord, sheet showing
II-200
dealer helps, record of dis-
tribution
II-203
-dealer's use of advertising,
card on which salesman re-
ports
II-206
description of cuts, form on
which to keep
II-211
Advertisement, four essentials of a
Advertising agency, handling out-
door campaigns in a
-service, how to sell by mail
III-12, 49
Advertising contract, how the pub-
lisher checks up the II-213, 214
Advertising service bureau, used by
a wholesaler to help dealers
sell
III-152
Advice, how the banker should give IV-30
Agent
II-170, 171
II-82
-file record of cuts, form for
-effect of prestige on
I-29
keeping
II-209
-results, sheet on which to
summarize
II-149
-exclusive, how to handle IV-139
Aisles, how to lay out in the store IV-135
Ambition
-sales record, how to test re-
sults by
II-147; IV-37
-how to arouse the salesman's I-95
-how to profit through
-CAMPAIGN
Analysis
-bakery
-building materials
II-20
-Bull Durham sales methods II-88
-cleaning company
II-12, 163
-automobile manufacturer's II-115
-bank II-68, 94, 185, IV-25
-in setting quotas
II-38, 73, 95
-need in advertising
-sales increases due to
Appeals, sure, in letter writing
Approval sales, how to get
IV-80, 181
IV-71
I-144
I-96
II-13,
30, 36, 172
III-20
INDEX
203
Argument
Auction advertising
II-175
-how to distribute through a
Audit service, selling by mail
III-111
letter series
III-24
Auditor, service
-in insurance sales, how to
locate the right
-selling letters used by
III-112
IV-41
II-115
Association, retail merchants as a
means of collecting money III-187
Assortments
-effect of large on county trade I-64
-importance of in selling I-83
Attention
-advertising, winning in II-56, 88
-how to center the customer's IV-112
Automobile manufacturer
-advertising methods of a
-outdoor advertising used by II-78
Automobiles
-a letter paragraph that at-
tracted rural prospects for III-44
-used to attract customers to
the display room
II-179, 180
Bakery
-advertising methods
Back file in complaint correspond-
ence, how to use
Backgrounds, window, how to plan IV-135
BAILEY, MARSHALL J.
-chapter on store fixtures IV-110
--how one man attracts new
II-38, 95
trade to his dealers' shops
II-73
Balances
-cost, how to record
IV-200
B
Bicycle, delivering by
III-167
Billboards
-advertising campaign uses
IV-121
II-85
-points in the use and design II-182
-specimens of effective copy
-using to meet competition
Billing in the store, methods of
Bills, how to give personality to
Bins, how to make your own
Bond issues, how used to advertise
banks
II-85
II-81
IV-195
I-54
IV-134
IV-29
-weekly, how to get easily
IV-196
Booklets
BALLOU, HERBERT A.
-as advertising mediums
II-128
chapter on retail records
IV-179
-covers for, designing
ら
​II-28
-chapter on retail selling
I-52
-how to plan for
I-18
BANKING
-putting sales value into
II-116
-BANKER
-right and wrong use
III-27-28
-maintaining right relation to
Bookseller
the community
IV-23, 29
-complaints, handling a house
-good, judging a
IV-30
blunder tactfully
III-166
BANKS
—sales methods
IV-103
-accounts, how to get
III-125
Borrowers, how to handle
IV-23
-advertising methods IV-125; II-68,
Boxes
94. 185
-prejudices, overcoming
IV-22
-corrugated, how to select for
mailing samples
IV-74, 76
-selling methods
IV-26
Brands
-LETTERS
-increasing business by
III-120
-interest in, how to arouse
III-129
-savings bank customers,
method of educating
III-125
-services, value of featuring III-121
BANNING, KENDALL
chapter on city sales
-chapter on retail advertising II-153
-chapter on stationery selec-
tion
III-47
Bargain counters, how to establish IV-88
Bargains
-bringing mail orders for III-104, 105
-how to buy
-how to feature
Basement store, how to plan a IV-132
BEAN, B. C.
-analyses of, how to use
-establishing by advertising
Bread, how a new talking point was
-successful advertising of II-94, 95
-chapter on mailing lists and
follow-up
-chapter on outdoor adver-
tising
III-190
II-76
Builders, how to reach with samples IV-75
Building materials, manufacture of,
advertising campaign for II-20
IV-88
IV-88
Building
-construction details
-department store, housing IV-129
Bulletin board, used to advertise a
store
IV-130
salesman
I-103
Buyers
-groups of, how to analyze
I-20
-chapter on dealer advertising II-190
-chapter on letter details III-68
-chapter on salesmen's re-
ports
IV-158
-chapter on training salesmen I-146
II-134; II-161
Bulletins, importance of to the
IV-181
II-16
Brass goods, how to sell
IV-73
found for
BROWN, HARLOW B.
IV-160
II-38, 39
A
204 LIBRARY OF SALES AND ADVERTISING
-how to attract more
IV-85
Buying motives
-position of in a trade
I-9
-prospective, value of, card
records of
IV-83
-how letters arouse
-how touched on in some
III-196
chewing gum advertisements II-79
C
Cabinet show window, how to IV-112
CAKE, CHARLES E.
Christmas trade, by parcel post IV-62
CHURCHILL, CHARLES E.
-chapter on showing samples
by mail
-chapter on magazine adver-
IV-73
tising
II-52
Calendar, monthly, used as an ad-
vertising novelty
-chapter on market develop-
II-72
ment
I-17
Calls
-chapter on newspaper ad-
-first, importance of,
vertising
II-52
to insurance agents
IV-39
Cigar store
-how to use to get names
IV-89
-sales methods
IV-75
Campaign
-salesman's, keeping track of IV-162
advertising, planning a
-service, selling by mail
III-117
Circulars
II-35
-large size, when to use
II-121
-bank
II-187, 188
-putting sales value into
II-116
Carbon sheets, how to use with
Circularizing
sales letters
IV-77
-how the lumber dealer keeps
Cards
track of
II-177
-colored, how to file with
III-192
—how to get names for
IV-84
-dealer, for the manufac-
City
turer's advertising man
II-59
-market possibilities in
I-35
-display, how to secure from
jobbers
-when salesmen should go to
I-47
I-12
CLARK, NEIL M.
CARPENTER, J. T.
-chapter on letter arrange-
ment
III-58
Catalog
-how to mail promptly
III-191
-putting sales value into
II-116
when should be accompanied
by letter
III-78
Catalog house
-chief drawing powers
IV-83
-how to meet the competition
of
IV-78
-retailers' needless fear of
IV-79
why people buy from
IV-84
CHALMERS, HUGH
-editorial, "contact and con-
fidence"
I-7
Chamber of commerce, how to use
a, in collecting money
Character study, importance of, to
III-187
salesmen
I-140
Charge sales, how to debit
IV-199
Charts for letters, how to use
III-200
Checks, how to give personality to
Checking
I-54
-local advertising, how the
manufacturer proceeds III-57, 58
-space charges and contracts II-199
Children
-a letter that appeals to par-
ents through
-how the bank profits from IV-26
-secure information about
-chapter on advertising costs II-143
-chapter on service advertis-
ing
-departmental, how to make IV-157
-sales methods
-advertising campaign
-services, selling by mail III-119
-average sales of, in shoe store I-132
-how to uniform distinctively I-54
-reading and signing the store
advertising
CLIFFORD, W. G.
-chapter on novelty adver-
in mail sales campaign, a
-in poster advertising
-sales letter, how to write III-17
-specimen advertisement il-II-19
-used in a furniture dealer's
sales letters
Clock, as an advertising novelty II-69, 70
Clothier
-advertising methods
-policies of the Frank M.
Low Company
-sales methods
III-14, 15
IV-19
-use of house organ by
Coal dealer
III-60
III-37
Christmas letter
good opening for
-shoe dealer's
Christmas novelty, how distributed II-74
-advertising campaign
C. O. D. items, how to handle
Coins, to advertise a men's store
II-32, 72
II-159
IV-73
II-99
I-69
IV-199
II-161
II-163
Classification
Cleaner and dyer
I-25
II-23, 163
Clubs
tising
Clincher
-good and bad
telegram used as
II-154, 155
II-63
IV-28, 29
III-136
II-87
III-26
INDEX
205
COLDEN, C. J.
-chapter on bank advertising IV-22
-advertisements that secure
II-27
Consignment
Collection agency, methods
II-68
how to vary stipulations
I-12
COLLECTIONS
-methods of using
I-10
-Collection Agencies
-selling on
I-10
-advertising methods
II-69
Construction
-Collection Department.
how to handle
IV-130
-other departments, how to
-how to specify for
I-17
cooperate with
III-174
-Drafts
Consulting expert, services of a,
selling by mail
III-118
-methods in using sight draft III-181
Consumers
-Letters
-how to best convince
I-10
-commission merchant
III-181
-how to direct the buying
-concessions, cleaning ac-
policies of
I-42
counts by
III-179
how to influence with labels
I-14
-follow-up, how to use
IV-177
-how magazine advertising
-instalment accounts
III-184
influences
II-45
-retail store methods
III-177
-unusual contact of with deal-
-Retail
ers in small towns
I-36
-instalment accounts, secur-
-contact with, personal
IV-22
ing by legal notes
III-186
Contracts
-parcel post, how it affects
IV-72
-accepting by mail
III-163
Color
-advertising, how to record II-198
-how to quicken journal en-
-closed usually when accept-
tries by means of
IV-200
ance is mailed
III-157, 158
-in printed matter
II-122, 125
-how to make binding
III-171
-when to use in stationery
III-50
-how to protect yourself on
COMEFORD, THOMAS P.
acceptance of
III-158
-chapter on contract and copy
records
-legal points, when accept-
II-199
ance varies the terms of
III-159
Commercial clubs, to build trade
IV-55
-making conditional
III-162
Commercial literature
-when and how revoked
III-158
-giving permanent value to
-shaping and designing
II-119
Convenience
II-118
-where to begin in planning II-116
Commissions, paying salesmen
Comparisons, making in sales contests I-96
Competition
based on appeals to different
classes
-catalog house, how to meet IV-78
-fire insurance, of intensity IV-46
-how to gauge the salesman's I-143
-mail order house, advan-
-effect of on parcel post sale IV-66
-of as sales argument
IV-15
I-45
Conversations
-controlling
I-122
-how to epitomize
I-92
-how to handle by telephone
I-65
II-21
-sales, a typical example
I-66
COOK, FRED
-chapter on store layout
IV-129
COOK, TYSON
tages retailers have over
IV-83
Cooperation
-value of creating spirit of
among salesmen
I-98
Competitors
ufacturer
-checking sales methods of
1-22
-fire insurance, how to handle IV-51
-how to gauge sales of
I-47
-how to study
I-148
-value of knowing stocks of
I-56
---chapter on selling by telephone I-63
-among retailers, value of IV-55, 71
-between merchant and man-
-between personal and mail
sales department, testing
the value of
-how to use in retail sales force I-163
-methods of dealer I-57; II-57,
II-82, 202
III-147
COMPLAINTS
82, 202
-adjusting, methods of
I-167:
COPY IN ADVERTISING
III-166
-and illustration, related
-how to analyze
III-171
-how to classify
III-169
-how to handle
III-166
Conditions
-effect of local on sales quotas I-29
-how to secure business facts on I-26
Confidence
-best way to secure
I-10
-how secured by the old-time
salesman
I-148
-how the professional men
and tradesmen win
III-114
functions of in advertisement II-46
-complete, for booklet II-126, 127
-essentials in getting II-46, 49, 55,
109, 159, 170
-for house organ, how to get
in by a schedule
II-187
good and bad in II-171, 172
-how the publisher handles II-213
-testing for style and appeal III-18
-writing for outdoor space II-84, 87
-magazine, essentials
II-57
-making it seasonable II-177-179
206 LIBRARY OF SALES AND ADVERTISING
-picking up for a store paper II-101
-pointers in writing
II-94
II-58
-schedule of, how to keep II-136
-versus electrotypes, as an
advertising help to dealers
-writing and layout, handle II-117
-writing, dominant thought II-15, 16
-writing, where to begin
-chapter on efficiency in
II-110
Cost of doing business-how to
check on
IV-194
COTTINGHAM, WALTER H.
salesmen
I-95
-editorial,
Things"
I-77
Counters
II-156, 157
"Men-Not
-display, how to link up with
advertising
-displays, securing from dealers I-12
-how to get along without IV-112
-how to lay out at times IV-135
-value of re-arranging
IV-85
Country advertising mediums II-180, 181
Country store advertising methods IV-64
Coupon books, how to use
Coupons, how to key
IV-57
II-144, 145
-an example of the value of IV-101
-how to insure for telephone
purchasers
-Curiosity
-an example of the value of
satisfying the customer's IV-102
-arousing in advertising II-26, 29
-how to arouse in opening
paragraphs of sales letters III-141
how to use
-value of to retailers
CUSTOMERS
I-33
IV-85
-accommodating profitably IV-101
-claims, how to check up IV-182
-competitors', getting your IV-101
-examples of value of showing
interest in
how to advertise to
-how to assign salesmen to
-how to get into a pleasant
mood
IV-102
II-91, 93
I-135
I-61
IV-89
from
III-170
how to handle more satis-
factorily
IV-33
-how to regain lost
I-49
-how to get names from
-how to handle complaints
I-169
-how you can handle many IV-32
-how you can tactfully hand
them over to salespeople
-keeping a record of I-49; II-177,
153, 193; IV-18
-method of handling real
estate information of
-store, a periodic reminder to II-98
Customer's book, real estate
IV-169
Courtesy
I-72
Cover designs for house organs,
II-86
CREDIT
-ESSENTIALS
IV-157
-merchants' credit associa-
Cuts
tion, value of a
III-187
-advertising, checking, on re-
-Credit department
turned
I-212
-information, how to file
IV-150
-advertising, insuring the re-
-Credit man
turn of
II-201
-handling the day's work
IV-192
-for store advertising, how
-Retail
-telephone sales, problems in I-75;
to handle and file
-keeping a record of
II-106
II-209, 212
IV-63
D
DAY, JOSEPH P.
-chapter on real estate ad-
vertising !!
-how to secure greater activity I-12
-identity, to preserve under
II-169
nationalized distribution
I-42
-editorial, “Reaching Live
Prospects"
II-43
-persuading to use the manu-
facturer's sales helps
II-63
Dealer
-advertising, getting a sales-
man's report on
II-206
-strong letter addressed to
-urging him to confer with
salesmen
III-87
I-47
-advertising helps for
II-57
Debtors
-campaigns for the manu-
facturer
II-57
-follow-up to, as a help to
salesmen
III-145, 147
-giving individuality to the I-39
-helps, keeping record of II 59, 203
-helps, printing the retailer's
name on
-how magazine advertising
influences
II-204
II-45
how to arouse selling energies I-11
-how to handle consignments to I-11
country, how to collect from III-181
-effect of third parties upon III-188
-how to arouse their sports-
manship
III-176
-how to get the attitude of III-174
—how to handle, inability to
pay among
III-183
-impressing quickly by mail III-175
DEEDS, E. A.
-editorial, "Efficiency as a
Habit"
Delays
IV-147
INDEX
207
-effect on acceptance of offers III-160
-letter paragraphs that over-
-box for, used to advertise a
bank's safety vaults
II-185
come
III-29
-effect of on contracts
III-164
-effect of on telephone cus-
-how a bank's were increased
tomers
1-71
-how they increase com-
by form letters and circulars II-188
-how to get more
plaints and often lose val-
Desire, how to awaken
IV-27
I-33
uable trade
III-17
-how at times avoided by us-
Detail, importance of to salesmen I-202
Directories, use of for getting names IV-84
ing parcel post
IV-63
Discounts
-when they are refusals of
contracts
III-162
-acceptance of in small towns I-36
-cooperative purchases,
IV-57
Delivery
-danger of giving unfairly
I-175
-free, how to schedule
IV-69
-when to follow
I-175
-how retailers can profitably
Displays
cooperate to makê
IV-123
-how often to change
I-57
one way to reduce cost of IV-123
-connecting with local events
I-57
-sub-stations, value of
IV-128
Distribution
-Sunday, making
IV-123
-getting new
I-20
-uses of special
I-72
-handling when established
I-20
-value of filling completely
I-183
-how aided by manufactur-
Demand
-analyzing
II-22
ers cooperating with dealers
-how to concentrate
I-43
I-21
-made a big problem by ma-
chine production
-how to handle when scattered I-21
II-89
-how to make stable
I-81
Demonstration
-value of novel
paign of a
-outdoor advertising suited to II-78
-and sales talk, handling to-
gether in an advertisement II-19
-for bankers
-making an advertisement
give
Dentist, dignified advertising cam-
Department, how to mention a, in
telephone conversations I-169
-new standards in
I-31
-place of the jobber in
I-45
-problems in future
I-31
-retail, how changing
IV-120
IV-23
-through the retailer
I-32
-knowing methods of
I-44
II-47, 48
Drafts
IV-14
II-166, 167
Deposits
Department store
-advertising, a standardized
layout for
II-59
-advertising methods
II-95
-building construction
IV-126
-how to collect money for
IV-177
-sales policies I-52; IV-69, 127, 188
-services, selling by mail
III-116
--knowing if legally mailed
-when to use
Drayage, in expense accounts
DRUGGIST
-advertising, methods
II-74, 121
153, 192
-finding the point of contact
in letters to customers III-33, 34
-novelties, using to win the
trade of housewives
-selling methods
IV-74
I-73; IV-65,
103, 121
-service, selling by mail
III-15
-uses of house organs
II-99
-window displays
II-153, 154
E
܀
· III-160
III-181
I-110
ment
IV-12
EARLE, J. W.
-editorial, "Assets in Men" III-39
Economy, securing through equip-
together in a sales follow-up III-22
how to arrange and insert III-70
-novel, for sales letters
Entertainments
III-60
Editing a house organ
II-135, 142
Electrical display signs,
II-78
-for conventions, how to plan I-126
-on the expense account,
I-110
Electrotypes versus copy
II-58
Enthusiasm
Elevator company, service letter
-how to arouse in business
used by an
III-120
conversations
I-116
EMPLOYING AND TRAINING HELP
-how handled by one retailer I-162
-how to get efficiency from men I-93
-paying, plans for
Enclosures
-and circular mailings,
-and form letters, how linked
arousing among salesmen
I-98
-how to spread
I-93
-in copy writing
II-40
I-155
-what it means in business
I-157
Envelopes
III-67, 68
-and letter paper
III-48
-how to buy for house organ II-140
208 LIBRARY OF SALES AND ADVERTISING
-for mailing samples
IV-74
Equipment
-enclosed, value of
IV-113
-how to rearrange to reduce
insurance charges
V-54I
-importance of adequate
IV-11
Errors
-to neighboring towns
Expense
I-67
-accounts, how to record IV-154
-low, as an advertising appeal II-34
-methods of control I-109; IV-155
-selling, how to control I-129;
IV-169
-how to avoid
IV-200
-salesmen's, how to check on IV-149
—real estate, how to check on IV-169
-total, how to figure
IV-198
Expansion
-making it a routine matter
Experience
-how to profit from salesman's I-135
I-25
F
Facts, importance of in forecasting I-24
FISK, J. W.
Failures
-chapter on retail selling
III-95
-how to profit from them
I-138
Fixtures
-in advertising, explained
-significance of to salesmen
II-16
-how to make your own
IV-11
I-82
-side wall, how to plan for IV-196
Farmers
Floor space
-preparing to sell by mail to III-133
successful advertising to
-successful sales letters ad-
dressed to
II-10
-how to lay out in the store IV-135
-when to rent more
I-162
III-36, 137, 139
Fluctuations in sales, how to check IV-188
Folders as a record of advertising
Farm implement dealer, advertis-
II-148, 149
ing methods of a
II-190
Follow-up
FARWELL, JOHN V.
-for the house organ editor
-editorial, "Gaining Confi-
dence"
II-137, 138
III-143
-how often to use
III-76, 77
Figures
-how to use in advertising
II-38
-putting letters to work II-178
-recording results from II-147, 148
-value of comparative
I-27
Food stuffs, distribution of
I-82
FILENE, EDWARD A.
Form letters
-editorial, "We are Respon-
sible"
-how to get out promptly
III-26
IV-59
-making up a series
III-22
Filing
-methods
III-192
Firm name, how a merchant won
good will for a
Fisheries company, talking points II-168
II-34
-sales information IV-140, 150, 157,
170, 180
Garage
how to collect money for a III-184
-sales letters used by a III-118, 119
Gas company
-sales letters used by a III-117, 118
Goods
-danger of carrying inferior I-50
-five-and-ten-cent
-new, value of
IV-135
IV-85
-popular priced, how to sell IV-88
Good will
G
-proper place in correspond-
Free trial coupon in advertising, the II-12
Freight bills
-charges, how to cover
-how to handle in the store IV-130
Furniture dealer, use of house organ II-99
-how form letters collected
accounts for a
III-37, 38
-letter paragraph used by a III-11
-parcel post trade built up III-108
-sales policies, determining IV-65
-sales records, how to keep IV-175
-services, selling by mail III-116
-telephone service of a, ad-
vertised by form letter III-116, 117
-order slip for advertising II-93-94
Gross sales, how to figure when
ence
III-62, 63, 69, 197
IV-81
-expressing with novelty ad-
estimating
I-99
vertising
II-65
Guarantee
-how concerned with maga-
-form, used by a concern
zine advertising
II-45
selling to farmers
III-140
-value of
I-29
-importance of backing
I-11
GOSSARD, H. W.
-ineffectiveness of general
I-11
-editorial, "Thoughts"-The
-one way of advertising
I-11
Plain, Simple, Kind”
III-9
GROCER
-putting in strongest form
-use of an absolute
III-100
I-14
-advertising methods
II-90
-value of in advertising
II-39
INDEX
209
HARRIS, HUGH K.
Haberdasher
Hardware dealer
-policies, how to fix
-local interest, advertising by II-194
-use of house organ by
-chapter on salesmen's report
II-16, 126
II-99
House organ
IV-140
Health, as a basis for a successful
advertising campaign
II-18, 21
H
ing salesmen, how to secure
from home office
I-113
II-165, 166
-advertising, how made dis-
tinctive
-covers, schemes of layouts II-86
-functions and routine of a II-101
-getting value from a II-97, 100
how to edit and produce II-100, 106
-how to mail out
II-142
HINCE, HUGH S.
-production schedule
II-139
-chapter on house organs
II-135
HINES, EDWARD
-editorial "Standards For
-six months' schedule for II-138
-sources of material for II-135, 136
-vital points in the use of II-49
Salesmen"
III-85
Humor
Holiday sales, by parcel post
IV-62
-in the house organ
II-103
Holidays, legal effect on notes
III-160
-in newspaper advertising
II-181
HOLMAN, W. C.
Hotel
-accommodations for travel-
-in sales letters
III-16, 17
-chapter on retail selling
-chapter on sales conventions I-112
IV-78
-in a retail display
I-58
HYPES, WILLIAM F.
-chapter on getting orders
I-179
-chapter on salesmanship
I-102
I
Ideas, testing in copy writing II-109-110
Illustrations
and copy, related functions
of in advertising
II-46
-file record of, keeping II-209, 211
-in advertising, a test for II-112
-in advertising, handling II-121, 122
-in newspaper advertising II-54
-in store advertising II-159, 160
-use of in advertisements II-20
-use of on booklet covers
-value of to insurance men
-when to use II-46, 54, 87, 121, 159
how to handle
II-92
-how to answer general
III-196
-how to give special atten-
tion to certain
III-196
-how to handle
III-191
-card, used by a retailer for
mail order prospects
III-104
-record of for the advertiser II-145
Inspection of goods, how helpful to
retailers
IV-82
II-28
Instalment houses
IV-39
III-185
I-15
-collection methods
-sales policies, successful
-agent, sales letter used by a III-120
-life, selling a million a year IV-38
-municipal fire, selling
IV-48
-services, selling by mail III-120
Increases
INSURANCE
-in sales, how to follow
I-26
-learning, reasons for
1-27
Indentation
-hanging, attention value of
in letters
III-64
Interest
-unnecessary, to mark letter
paragraphs
III-63
Index, how to make up a
II-133
Individuality
-value of to salesmen
-how secured in form letters III-198
Inducement, planning an, for your
sales letter
Information
I-92
III-134, 131
-about stock, value to retailer I-56
-about stock, how to record IV-179
-government, using profitably IV-76
how to secure from agents
-a letter that secures
-how aroused by the old-time
salesman
III-14
I-148
-how a sales letter aroused II-70, 71
-awakened for the salesman I-148
-how to arouse in employees 1-33
-in advertising, securing II26, 29
Interest (bank)
how considered by depositors IV-23
on savings account, how a
bank advertised
III-126
Interviews
I-27
-how to record
IV-160
-local, value of to retailers
-insurance, value of short
IV-88
when meeting catalog houses IV-83
Inventions, how to market
IV-10
INGERSOLL, ROBERT H.
Inventory, card for one of adver-
-chapter on selling to jobbers
I-44
tising matter
II-205
Inquiries
Invoices
-as a test of advertising II-144 145
-from billboard advertising,
-showing terms on
III-179
-use of in parcel post
IV-72
210 LIBRARY OF SALES AND ADVERTISING
J
JAMES, H. WENTWORTH
-chapter on selling for future
business
I-173
-Jobbers
JEWELER
-advertising methods of a
II-113
-advertising methods, used to
establish a store
II-193, 194
-sales letter methods of a
III-101, 102
MANUFACTURING
-watch, how one brand was
advertised
-how to follow up on corre-
spondence of
I-41
III-194
-ways parcel post can be used IV-67
Journal posting, right methods for IV-199
JOY, HENRY B.
-editorial, "In the Customer's
Place"
K
KINGMAN, LEWIS E.
-chapter on dealer helps
LENNEN, PHILIP W.
Label, novel use of a
Land, reclamation of as an adver-
tising plan
LAUNDRY
-advertising schemes
-selling methods
LAY, DAVID
II-202
L
I-14
IV-22
II-164
-place of on expense accounts I-110
IV-69, 106
-talking points used by a II-164
-chapter on building up the
bank
Layout
-for booklet covers, five types II-28
-how to plan for a store paper II-105
-inexpensive and effective II-124
-sheet for the house organ
editor, the
>
Ledger, how to use
-chapter on letter salesmanship III-9
-writing, touching motives in II-22
-writing, salesmanship into
-writing, what decides rules
necessary in
LEWIS, E. ST. ELMO
III-9
III-32, 33
-chapter on copy writing III-109
Life insurance, selling a million a
IV-38
LIGGETT, LOUIS K.
II-185
-editorial, "The Spirit of Dis-
tribution"
II-151
Light, how to plan for in a store
IV-132
Limit
-free delivery, how to fix
-real estate sales, how to
record
IV-69
IV-172
II-140, 141
IV-185, 200
Lists
-country assessors, how to
use for getting names
-real estate, that push special
IV-84
Letterheads
properties
IV-37
-color in, how to use
III-50
Literature
-personal tone, putting in
III-49,
-commercial, how to plan
51, 55
II-114, 125
Letter
-arrangement, correct
III-58
Loans, farm, how to secure
Locals
IV-26
-form, keeping answers
III-199
-how a correspondent phrased
for country trade
III-41, 42
Location
-how to begin
III-10, 11
-how to "chart"
III-200
-for a store paper,
-how to advertise with
-geographical, place of, in
sales campaigns
II-102
II-181
I-20
-how to fold
III-70
-new, drawing store trade to a
-how to map out
III-200
II-192, 193
-layout, showing false and
correct practice in
III-62, 63
-length tests of
III-15, 16, 76
III-64, 65
-standardizing the typing of
-to dealers, a test showing
how it helped salesmen III-145, 147
-used by salesmen between
-to dealers, basis for a
calls on their trade
-writing, points on
-remote, how to overcome
difficulties of a
-side street, making valuable
Lodges, value to bankers in joining IV-23
LOOMIS, W. W.
-chapter on quick deliveries IV-121
-insurance, adjusting quickly IV-195
-when to take a
III-92
Loss
III-153
III-89, 90
LOUIS, GEORGE L.
IV-85
IV-73
II-32, 34
INDEX
211
chapter on conviction in
LUMBER YARD
selling
I-9
-advertising methods
II-177
-chapter on making one pur-
-country trade, how to secure II-180
chase sell another
I-193
-newspapers, pulling trade
LOW, FRANK M.
through
II-178
-chapter on advertising a
-novelties, winning customers
men's store
II-159
with
II-178
-chapter on cooperation with
outdoor signs, using
II-181
a sales force
I-160
-selling methods for
IV-76
M
-advertising, allotting various
MACBAIN, A. L.
-chapter on goods that sell
themselves
IV-9
-chapter on selling specialties
I-85
Magazines
propositions
II-49
Mediums
-chart of selling
men by correspondence
-chapter on store papers
-chapter on mail sales
farmers
MCKINNEY, FRANK C.
III-146
II-95
to
III-132
-chapter on mail contracts III-156
II-49
-effectiveness of, how to judge II-149
-how to use in publicity work I-20
-record of advertising in II-198
Meetings
-advertising in, methods for II-45, 51
-advertisements, how to key
II-145, 146
-sales force for, how to build a I-150
Mailing, legal definition of
Mailing lists
for a store paper, how to
compile and revise
-how the retailer can make up
III-158
II-104
III-95, 96
—of prospects, bank made up III-124
-one way to secure for a store IV-55
Mail sales
-four essentials in getting___III-108
-how a plan was tested III-78, 79
-how a retailer handles III-105, 106
-necessity of advertising rec-
ords
II-149, 150
-planning a complete cam-
-use of magazines in
paign
MANAGEMENT
-Men
-effectiveness, increasing
-conducting, methods of
I-91,
116, 134
-value of, to salesmen
I-91
Men
-organizing, methods of
-store advertising
I-28
I-80; II-159
I-165
Minimum wage system
MIX, MELVILLE W.
-chapter on planning sales I-23
Money
-motive, in advertising and
similar publicity
-refunding, as a guarantee in
advertising
III-30
MONTGOMERY, A. W.
II-45
chapter on sales records
MORRON, JOHN R.
I-93
Motives
116, 134
-meetings, how to conduct I-91,
-minimum wage, adopting a I-165
II-12
II-34
*
IV-188
II-195
I -9
-editorial, "Every Sale a
Sample"
-how to appeal correctly to
the buyer's
-specimen advertisements
appealing to through pictures II-20
MURPHY, CARROLL D.
-chapter on advertising ap-
peals
-paying, methods of
I-35
-profit sharing, getting work by I-164
-retail, how to handle
I-79
Motor trucks, methods of using
IV-128
-Methods
-details, reports that sift
I-26;
IV-149, 197, 198
II-9
MANUFACTURING
-chapter on commercial lit-
-advertising, newspaper
II-56
erature
II-114
Map and tack systems, guiding
salesmen by
IV-13
-chapter in fire insurance
sales
IV-46
Market
-chapter on holding custom-
-analysis, how to prepare a
-daily reports, how profitably
used by a bank
McJOHNSTON, HARRISON
-chapter on backing up sales-
I-19
ers through service
IV-101
IV-26
-chapter on lumber yard ad-
vertising
II-17
-chapter on satisfying com-
plaints by letter
III-166
N
National Cash Register Company,
-advertising methods
-sales methods
I-150
-111 Newspaper space
212 LIBRARY OF SALES AND ADVERTISING
-record of advertising
-methods of advertising in
II-198
II-54,
-covering legally by mail III-160
-how to follow up non-pay-
57, 63, 178
ment of
III-186
-testing sales value of
II-143
counts
store
—to advertise a men's store
-used to attract savings ac-
-vital points in the use of II-49
New Year's advertising by a men's
Notary public, instance of the value
of one in banks
II-159
safe, how secured by one
banker
IV-27
Novelties
II-188, 189
-advertising
II-65, 70, 185
-eight uses of, in advertising II-67
-how to sell
IV-89
II-161
-used by salesmen as busi-
ness cards
II-71
IV-27
Novelty manufacturer, advertis-
Notes
ing, methods of a
II-70
-how instalment accounts are
protected by
III-186
O
OFFICE MANAGEMENT
-Handling correspondence
MEN
-organizing methods
III-68
I-82, 88
ality in
Offers
-addressing methods
-form letters, getting essen-
tial details in III-62, 63, 69, 197
-letterheads, putting person-
-testing methods
-how to accept by mail or
telegraph
-how to key so as to always
trail results
-BUILDINGS
-department store,
IV-129
-details, construction
IV-130
-STOCK ROOM
III-49, 51, 55
-limits, maximum and mini-
III-81, 102
mum
IV-98
-locate, where to
IV-120
-RETAIL
III-163
-methods, paying
I-162
Outdoor advertising
I-35
—how to revoke
III-164
-distinctive specimens of II-85
using against local competitionII-81
-how to record binding
III-162
-space rates for
II-84
-suggestions for mail
III-162
-success in
II-76, 77
-suggestions for making by
-writing copy for
II-84, 87
telegraph
III-164
-Cuts
Order blank
-how the salesmen should re-
-colored, in sales letter tests III-79
cord
I-105
-designing
III-127, 145
-how to find
IV-96
Orders
Overhead
-due to advertising
II-146
-dangers of, if excessive
IV-100
-how to tabulate
I-25
-how to estimate
IV-99
-legal effects of filling
III-164
OWINGS, M. R. D.
-why some mean failure
I-173
-chapter on filing cuts and
ORGANIZATION
copy
II-208
P
PAINT STORE
-advertising the
I-54
-novelties, advertising with
I-53, 55, 59
-sales methods, adapting I-54;
IV-179
Paper stock
-in advertising
—for booklets and covers
II-120
-quality suited to corre-
spondence
III-50
Paragraph
ing plans of a
how to plan series of,
III-191
-in sales letters, short
III-62, 63
Parcel post
plans for a
-building sales through
-increasing sales with
IV-6
III-106
Pictures
Partners, how two worked together IV-37
Payroll, different wage payment
Personality
-how to analyze
-importance of, to salesmen
-in letters
-in stationery, specimens
Physical culture expert, advertis-
Piano dealer, follow-up for a III-193, 198
Piano manufacturer, advertising
-advertising with III-101, 102
I-45
I-154
I-97, 143
II-112
III-9, 196
III-55
III-40
II-41
INDEX
213
-specimens showing use of
product in advertisements II-47
-for collections
-for construction work, how
III-175
to frame
I-17
Playground, how a banker profit-
ably established one
IV-29
Plumber, collection method and
letter series for a
III-184
Point of contact
in
-advertisements, building up
II-10, 25, 31, 35, 40, 160
-letters, how to get in
-how to use to advantage in
retail selling
PRINTING
I-199
-advertising records, keeping II-216
-house organ, by contract II-142
-mail, selling service by III-120
-sales methods for, planning IV-70
-schedule for
II-139
Production order
-how to fit to increased quotas I-30
Professions
III-37
-advertising methods used by II-166
-advertising to
I-21
-used by salesmen in letters
Profit
to trade
III-154, 155
-as a buying motive
II-15, 17
Policy
-diminishing under heavy
-collection, how to frame III-180
-credit insurance, effect of III-49
-importance of explaining to
volume of sales
I-30
-gross, how to figure your
IV-198
-net, how to figure
IV-198
fire insurance clients
IV-52
-percentage of gross,
IV-198
-insurance, how to fit to
-percentage of net,
IV-198
prospects
IV-43
-planning for next year
I-23
Postage, on expense account
I-10
Profit sharing, rousing employees by I-163
Posters
Proof
-how to plan for
II-18
-compelling attention by thor-
-how to use
II-82
ough
I-10, 189; IV-9, 115
-place of in selling
II-49
Property
Posting, how to shorten in store
-improved, how to record in
accounts
IV-199
the real estate office
IV-170
Postmark, its bearing on the suc-
cess of a letter campaign
III-71
-vacant, how to record in the
real estate office
IV-170
Premiums, fire insurance,
IV-49
Prospects
Presiding officer, importance of se-
lecting right, in conventions I-116
Price lists, keeping up to date
I-103
Prices
-advances, explaining to your
trade
II-103
-cutting,
II-11
-how they determine your
class of trade
II-22
-how to establish the rea-
sonableness of your
IV-179
-how to get dealers to com-
pare
I-34
how to set
I-18
-how to treat competitors
I-176
-how varied to get mail or-
Psychology
ders
III-136, 137
-how it is helpful to the mod-
-when to cut
-when to display
Price tickets
-importance of, to women I-197
-lower, used by catalog houses IV-84
-using in newspaper copy II-55
-in the store, omitting
-show cards used to bring in
store trade
ern salesman
I-149
-principles of, used in letter
writing
III-18
IV-85
Public utilities
II-155, 156
-advertising methods
II-60
-mail, selling service by
III-117
I-199
Purchases, cooperative, how han-
dled by retailers
IV-56
II-155
PUTNAM, GEORGE E. B.
Price
-as a buying motive
II-15, 17
-chapter on helping custom-
ers buy more
IV-18
Q
Quality
Quota
-in advertising
II-27
-in goods, importance of
I-87
-how to fix for next year
-setting the right selling
I-27
I-24, 99,
-the seller's duty to demon-
128; IV-94
strate
I-10
Quotations
I-103
-focusing a letter series on
various
-how manufacturers locate
them by letter
-how the bank divides III-123, 124
-how the sales letter writer
puts himself in the place of III-132
-list of, how to handle in a
letter test
III-80
III-140
II-177
IV-37
II-172, 173
-list of, securing by letter
-lists for the lumber dealer
-real estate, how to classify
-selecting for the real estate
advertiser
-testing mediums for different II-52
III-24, 25
III-148, 150
A
214 LIBRARY OF SALES AND ADVERTISING
R
II-166
-displaying goods, methods
of I-61; II-155; IV-85, 99, 185
-employees, handling
I-79
II-62
-floor plans, laying out
IV-31
II-172, 174
-letters, elements of success in III-97
-mail order campaigns III-95, 96
RAILROAD
-advertising, distinctive talk-
ing points used in
service,
REAL ESTATE
-advertising
-poster advertising used for II-88
-records, keeping right IV-36, 166
-sales campaigns, how to plan
IV-109, 175; IV-32, 76, 172
-salesmen, making efficient 1-131
-turnover, securing rapid rate IV-87
-window display, selling
through
I-56
-selecting prospects for II-171, 172
Returns
Receipts, how to handle
IV-192
-advertising
II-13
Records
-daily sales, how to get
-monthly sales, how to get
Reduction price, in advertising
Reflectors, bonnet
IV-197
-goods, burdens resulting from I-11
how to account for
IV-198
IV-198
-how to regulate
I-18
II-17, 18
-talking point in advertise-
IV-136
ments
I-14
Refund slip, used for retail sales
Remittances, on how to make
Re-orders, value of frequent
Reports, following salesmen with
Restaurant advertising plans
RETAILING
IV-56
REVELL, ALEXANDER H.
III-73, 74
I-40
selling
IV-151
-chapter on personality in
Routes, how to record salesmen's IV-150
I-154
II-164
Rural clients
-how to handle
-advertising methods
-bulletin boards, how to use II-161
-collections, problems of IV-72
-competition, fighting mail
order
I-12, 60
-recognizing
RUSSELL, THOMAS
-chapter on distinctive ad-
vertising points
·IV-26
I-28
II-84
IV-72
S
SAKS, ISADORE
-how a paint manufacturer
editorial, "Tomorrow's
used
III-100
Profits First"
IV-91
-keeping up to date
I-108
Sales
-expense, how to establish a
-post cards to encourage re-
quests for
III-120
standard for
I-133
SANDBURG, CARL
-how long to make
IV-93
-chapter on advertising in
-how to classify
I-25
waste space
II-88
-how to standardize cost of
I-186
SAMMONS, WHEELER
trade
-plan in specialty advertising,
six fundamentals of
-plan, the vital feature of a
form letter campaign III-142
-Saturday, to win country
-sheets, how to handle
II-65, 66
-chapter on letter collections III-174
-chapter on selling service by
letter
III-109
Savings
II-157, 158
-special, when to hold
I-26
IV-90
-accounts, how two banks
made it easy for depositors
to open
III-125
-summary, getting daily
IV-191
ing for
-telephone, how to plan
IV-64
-ticket using
II-91;
IV-199
Schools for salesmen
Salesmanship
-accounts, summer advertis-
-in sales campaigns
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT
II-187
I-23
I-146, 152
-essentials of
I-173
-time studies
I-135; IV-93
-stationery that carries
III-59
Seasons, how to plan for the
I-23
Salesmen
SELLING
-how one copywriter gets
-POLICIES
points from
II-113
-how to estimate the value of IV-159
-how to record facts about
I-27
Sales slips
-how to audit
IV-190
-how used to draw trade
II-91
future of
Samples
-campaign, planning the I-20, 173
-consignment
cooperation in, how to get IV-55
-discounts, when to give I-175
-distribution, studying the
-expense of, finding I-129, 133;
I-10
I-31
INDEX
215
IV-169
-market, analyzing the
I-19
-plans, how to prove I-10, 14, 189;
II-115; IV-9
-problems, analyzing IV-80, 181, 195
-quota, setting the I-24, 27, 99,
128; IV-94
-small orders. policy of
-inquiries
III-23, 191, 196
III-15, 59
-length, fitting to your propo-
sition
-mailing lists, planning and
keeping up II-104, 138, 149, 152,
190; IV-186
-phrasing, effective
-postscripts, adding personal
I-40
-small town, problems of
-specialty selling, overcom-
ing problems in
I-36
touches in
-selling plan, place in
I-185
-SALESMEN
-advertising helps for, planning I-148
-appeal, choosing the right
-control, methods of
I-33,
101, 197
I-97
-conventions, conducting I-116
-customers, how to handle
tactfully I-155, 174, 180; II-156;
duties, how to define
-enthusiasm, place of I-29, 90, 157
-exclusive territory, when to
III-41
III-61
I-33
-service, how to sell III-109, 115
--special inducements, how to
clinch sales with
III-43, 135
-stationery, helping sales with
III-47, 48, 50, 52, 53
-testing, methods of III-76, 78, 81
-COMPLAINTS
-adjusting, methods of I-167;
III-166
IV-18, 86
I-103
-correspondence, using back
file in
III-167
-handling, routine of
III-170
-replies to, making courteous III-169
allow
I-126; IV-164
-RETAIL
-expense, how to control
IV-155
-customers, keeping in line
IV-78
-hiring and handling
I-79
-letters, getting contact in
III-98
•
-house bargains, how the
-letters, how to use
III-36
salesman uses
III-153
-mailing lists, getting live
III-95
III-106
value of
IV-44
-personality, how to develop
I-53
-introductions, judging the
-keeping in touch with IV-139
-letters, gingering salesmen
with
-personal appearance, impor-
III-146
tance of keeping up I-158, 187
-personality
-presents
-parcel post, using the
-samples, when to give III-100
-selling plan, how to work out I-42
-special sales, announcing
III-104
-telephone, selling by
I-63
-testimonials, how to get
III-106
I-80, 154, 161, 188
-trial order, getting the
III-103
I-76
-WHOLESALE
-advertising, cooperating with
dealers in
III-91
-office, keeping in touch with I-178
-reports, how to make out
-retail
I-46;
IV-158
I-160
-routing, I-47; IV-143, 156, 158
-self-training, methods of I-141, 144
-suggestion, power of I-194;
-tactics, employing success- IV-42
ful
I-142, 185, 191; IV-39
-talking points
-telephone, how to sell suc-
cessfully by I-72, 79, 84, 90, 94,
132, 139, 192; IV-106
IV-14
-trade conditions, learning IV-149
-training, best methods I-80, 88,
147, 150, 162; II-133, 137, 154;
IV-108
-confining sales to one store I-38
-dealer, keeping on cordial
footing with the I-39; III-92;
-sales to dealers, increasing I-10,37;
IV-67, 74
-profit, when to talk
about
in letters
III-85
-sales records, grocery
IV-176
III-83; IV-73
studying the dealer
I-32
"you interest," how to get III-94
SELZ, J. HARRY
-chapter on reorders
I-49
SHEDD, JOHN G.
-editorial, "Retail and Whole-
sale Service"
IV-7
SIMMONS, E. C.
-editorial, "My First Rule
of Salesmanship"
I-137
Simplicity
-in layout
II-124
Slogans
-advertising, samples of
II-87
II-79
"Small orders," adopting as a sell-
ing policy
10-4
III-42, 132
SMITH, GEORGE O.
-chapter on bank letters
III-128
Specialties
I-185
-LETTERS
-arguments that make men
buy, how to develop III-12, 24,
32, 59, 66, 70, 110, 136
-attention, openings that win III-37
-campaigns, plans for III-34, 133
-clinchers that get action III-17, 26
--details, strengthening letter
by care in III-58, 60, 61, 63, 66, 112
-enclosures, how to handle III-24, 70
-farmers, methods that win
with
-follow-up series, how to plan
I-84; III-22, 23, 25, 30, 153,
190, 193
-in street car advertising
-how to sell
216 LIBRARY OF SALES AND ADVERTISING
-sales plan
II-65, 66
Specifications
-for making up booklets and
Stenographers, at sales conventions I-122
STEPHENS, GEORGE L.
-chapter on filing contracts
III-23
printing matter
II-125, 126
Street car advertising
-how to use
I-17
-how to test and check
II-144,
STARRETT, L. S.
183, 184
-Editorial, "My Working
-how to use
11-82
Rules"
IV-63
T
Talking points
Testimonials
-advertising, finding new
-advertising, how to meas-
II-29,
30, 131
ure up
II-26, 143, 175
-demand, how to judge by
I-21
-letters, methods of proving III-76;
Trade-mark
-advertising, how to use in
-exploiting by window signs
-how magazine advertising
has established
-how to build a retail
-street car cards exploiting
81, 102
II-182
II-88
II-45, 46
I-54
II-80
U
Unit type fixtures, how to use
IV-112
UPHAM, FRED W.
-editorial, "What Customers
Appreciate Most"
Utility as a buying motive
II-9
II-15, 17
V
Venders, automatic, future of in
retailing
IV-120
1
Volume of business, how to predict I-27
W
WATERBURY, W. A.
-chapter on expense accounts I-110
WINDES, Z. F.
-chapter on real estate short
-chapter on hiring and han-
dling salesmen
.cuts
IV-166
I-79
-chapter on map and tack
-chapter on selling real es-
tate
IV-32
systems
IV-137
WOOD, FRANKLIN W.
-chapter on self-training in
chapter on dealer sales
III-85
salesmanship
I-139
--chapter on team work among
salesmen
-chapter on form letters
-chapter on letter phrasing
III-22
III-41
I-88
WOOLLEY, EDWARD MOTT
WEINFIELD, CHARLES
-chapter on advertising
-chapter on selling life
insurance
points of contact
II-23
IV-38
WILKINSON, M. L.
-chapter on retail selling by
quotas
I-128
-editorial, "Service"
II-107
-chapter on selling methods IV-93
Ꮓ
ZIMMERMAN, W. S.
-chapter on dealer coopera-
tion
IV-55
1
cel post
-chapter on retailing by par-
-chapter on selling to dealers IV-175
IV-59

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UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
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