Business Marketing Advertising

In an effort to determine the comparative buying activity of various localities, The Dartnell Corporation, of Chicago, once analyzed the records of sales people in nearly one hundred and fifty sales organizations.
Some strange facts were uncovered. A food product person making the upper Missouri territory declared that business was absolutely dead. A muslin underwear salesman felt the same way about the Dakotas.

At the death of Woodrow Wilson, the Springfield (Mass.) “Republican” made public a letter he wrote to its editor on June 5, 1918, explaining why General Wood had been kept away from the front during the late war.
In this letter President Wilson said: “I have had a great deal of experience with General Wood. He is a man of unusual ability, but absolutely unable to submit his judgment to those who are superior to him in command.”
When I read this letter I could not help but think of salesmen I know who are being kept out of more responsible positions for the same reason. They can subordinate their judgment to that of the man who is responsible for their success.
Fortunately there are few men in a successful sales force thus afflicted. Yet, there comes to all of us at times, the thought that certain instructions or certain borders should be different. Because we think so, we act indifferently. We don’t push as we should.
Instead of going about talking against the plan, and telling everyone how much better our own ideas are, let us regard ourselves as generals, serving just its Dawes and Butler served under Pershing, and just its Pershing served under Foch. Let us remember that before a man can give orders he must first prove his ability to take orders.

Frank B. Thomas and Andrew MacLain are salesmen employed by one of the large St. Paul jobbing houses. They started as house salesmen, but when the slump came there was a general upheaval in the sales organization and they were promoted to road jobs.
Thomas was always considered a better salesman than MacLain. He had a keener mind, for one thing. He never let a chance go by to remind the customer of something else that he ought to have. And to his credit let it be said that he knew his business better, although each had been in the employ of the company about the same time.
After the men had been on their territories for a few months it was evident that MacLain was beginning to pull away from Thomas so far as volume of business was concerned. This lead steadily increased so that now, after the lapse of a year, it looks as though Thomas will finish with only one-half the business that MacLain will show.
Three weeks ago, the sales manager for this company happened to be in the neighborhood of MacLain’s strip of territory and stopped off to call on a few of his customers. It didn’t take him long to dis?cover the secret of Mac’s success. Mac had built up the greatest crowd of boosters for MacLain that the sales manager had ever seen. The dealers couldn’t sing Mac’s praises loud enough. To hear them tell it, MacLain was the best friend they had in the world.
And how do you suppose Mac had recruited this army of boosters? Why, by the simple expedient of going out of his way to say nice things about his customers to everybody he met. Very simple, isn’t it? Yet, what a world of sales wisdom lies concealed in that simple plan!
If Mac happened to be killing a few minutes at the hotel waiting for supper or a train, he made it a point to say some pleasant things to the clerk about his customer, Mr. Briggs, of the Briggs Hardware Company. If he were talking with some fellow salesman he deliberately chose the same line of conversation. He even followed the plan in talking with local mer?chants, except when they happened to be competitors.
What is more natural than that these pleasant things he spread around about his customers should drift back to them? And what is more natural than that the customer should repay the salesman in the shape of increased consideration? Is it any wonder Mac’s business increased?

While looking over some old clippings the other day I came across one dated January 6, 1923.
It was a letter written by the vice president of the New York Life Insurance Company, commenting upon the work of Harry B. Rosen, who had just died.
Up to Rosen’s time a man who sold $3,000,000 worth of life insurance a year was a phenomenon. One year Rosen sold more than $35,000,000. He exceeded every quota ever set for him by his company and by himself. He wrote more insurance than any other agent in the world.
“While it is true, Rosen worked among big men, he never scorned a small policy. Whereas most sales?men cannot interest themselves in what they call ?piker? business, Rosen would take just as much pains and get just as much satisfaction over a $5,000 sale as he would over a $50,000 sale.”
If Rosen’s success means anything it means that we are never so successful that we can afford to lose interest in the small orders. We can never afford to sit back and say: “What is the use of my wasting my time on that outfit ? they are too small.”
Out of the small orders of today grow the big orders of tomorrow. Out of the little customers of this year grow the big customers of next.