Business Marketing Advertising

Dr. George B. Pegram, dean of the Columbia University schools of engineering, stated in public that whereas a few years ago most of the graduates of engineering schools went into production work, the number of this year’s graduates who will go into sales work will probably be larger than in any preceding year.

“From talks I have had with employers in regard to the use of engineers as sales people,” said the dean, “I find that selling is becoming more and more a matter of training and knowledge. . . . Since the determination of the most economical methods of obtaining a given result is an engineering problem, it is natural engineers are well equipped to sell goods that are bought on that basis.”

A salesman for the Sealy Mattress Company has a plan for disposing of the greatest obstacle the very first thing in his sales talk, usually the matter of price. For example:
A recent deal involving upwards of fifty thousand dollars was put up to the buyer by laying the contract before him in the approach. The entire proposition was there before the buyer in black and white including price in bold figures.
“What’s this? Fifty thousand dollars?” exclaimed the buyer as soon as he saw the figure. “Why, yes,” answered the salesman. “Can’t you handle it?” The buyer hesitated an instant, then said: “I suppose I could if I wanted to. But it wouldn’t be worth while at that price.”
The salesman then proceeded to sell him on the proposition. The price was disposed of. There was no leading up to a point where the price would be sprung. No constant fear that the buyer was going to break in and ask price. The salesman put the reverse English on ordinary selling tactics and having the contract on the desk, the desired signature was easily secured.
The same plan was used in an eastern sale, considered one of the largest ever put over in the indus?try. The buyer was very difficult to see. The sales man phoned but was informed that they were not interested. He replied:
“It really doesn’t make any difference to me whether or not you are interested. Every place I go I hear about you. It’s Mr. Waltham did this and Mr. Waltham said that. I’ve heard so much of you that I just want to get a look at you.”
Waltham ?whose real name is widely known ?just laughed and said the salesman might come in for a couple of minutes. The salesman called and told the buyer that he heard of him in every large city he visited endeavoring to find someone big enough to put over a dozen carload mattress deal. He added that he had come to the conclusion that there was no one capable of doing it. The buyer wanted to know what the proposition was. The salesman sold him on the idea and left with the order.

You have probably read in the newspapers about the big mergers that are being formed. One of the difficulties which the accountants working on one merger have had to solve is determining the figure at which the good will of each concern should be capitalized.

One plan considered was to multiply the average earnings over a period of five years by five, and set that amount up as good will. But objections have been raised that such an amount is far too small ?that the earnings should be extended over at least a ten-year period. Others wanted to put the profits on a 6 per cent basis, and so on.

Marketing to win during the recession

Successful marketing of a dental practice takes on special importance during a recession. You’ve got big decisions to make: How to save money and maintain your business at the appropriate level to keep cash flow heathy?

We see many dental practices taking a hatchet to their marketing budget in an attempt to save dollars, but this is misguided in the extreme. Removing your name from your prospective patients mind will likely have three detrimental effects for your practice: you’ll lose current patients, miss out on gaining new ones, and damage your future prospects because of a smaller pool of clients.

The other day one of the large soap companies raised its prices for the fourth time in two years. The raise was fully justified by raw material advances, but the usual howl went up.

One salesman got so excited that he wrote a long letter to the president of the company. He said that the policy of raising prices without notice was going to ruin the business. He wanted time so he could “protect” his customers.

The president was a man of few words. He took the salesman’s letter and wrote across the bottom:
“Are you the representative of this company or the purchasing agent for your customers?”

Claude Hopkins, one of the foremost writers of advertising in the country, advises the people about to prepare an advertisement to always keep in mind that it may cost $10 a word to insert the advertisement.

“Platitudes and generalities,” he says, “roll off the human understanding like water from a duck. They leave no impression whatever. ‘Lowest prices in existence’ is set down by the buyer as loose exaggeration ? causing the reader to discount every other statement you make.

Among the relics found several years ago in King Tut’s tomb was a scarab recording his frequent changes of religious belief.
In that respect he was not unlike some salesmen we all know who change their connections almost as often as Old King Tut used to change his religion and with about as much compunction or reason.
An advertising salesman, who recently died, is reputed to have advocated and sold five different kinds of competitive advertising during a ten-year career. He started out as a newspaper advertising solicitor. He would go from advertiser to advertiser and take business from the magazines on the strength of newspaper advertising being better than magazine advertising.
A few years later he took a position with a company publishing a “small town” magazine. He went back to the same people and solicited their business on the grounds that magazine advertising was much better than billboard advertising, better than newspaper advertising or better than any other kind of advertising.
No sooner had he established himself as a solicitor of magazine advertising, than he changed religion again, and took a position with a street car advertising concern. Here his inconsistency proved a boomerang, for he failed to measure up. He changed again and failed again. He died discredited and penniless – the laughing-stock of the advertising world!
The foundation of all selling is confidence. Unless your have confidence in yourself, and unless your customers have confidence in you, permanent success is not possible. Nobody can possibly have confidence in a man who changes his beliefs to suit his fancy.
Some day you, too, may be tempted to accept a position with a competitor who holds out a promise or greater earnings. Before deciding, carefully consider the effect such a move is going to have on the good will you now enjoy. Changing religions as you would a suit of clothes may have been all right in King Tut’s day, but it won’t go in present-day business.