Business Marketing Advertising

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?”

The salesman got the point. It dawned on him that the reason his company employed sales people instead of price lists was for just such occasions. It had never occurred to him that when he “protected” a customer at the expense of the company he was acting against his own interests.

And this salesman is not alone. Even in this organization there are men who have yet to realize that their own personal interests and the interests of the business are one and the same.