MEN AND METHODS

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 287, 4 September 1928, Page 15

MEN AND METHODS

BUSINESS PLANS AND IDEAS (Conducted by “Observer") Long Service Medals. The Dutch Government bestows the Silver Medal of Orange Nassau on those of its subjects who have rendered long and faithful service to their employers. The medal was recently bestowed on two employees of a paper mill who had been jn the company’s service for 50 years. Personal Credit Accounts. A great deal of information is available about wholesale credit conditions in New Zealand. Little is known ot the great volume of retail credit which is now extended to ■ all sections of the community, particularly in the form ot instalment sales. Credit makes for increased sales, which in their turn bring about increased production and. more employment. To-day one of the principal requirements of the retail trade is not so much fewer debts as better debts. In consequence, retailers now want to know how much purchasers and their families owe merchants in the aggregate in a year. It is felt in business circles that an investigation which will bring these facts to light is necessary in the interests of the whole trading community. A co-operative clearing house, to which every retailer supplied particulars of all goods sold on credit, would soon repay its cost by. protecting retailers against the professional credit-seeker. . The “Help Yourself” Store. Stores in which there are no clerks k> persuade 'Customers what to buy, quote trices and wrap, are proving very popular overseas. In this age of advertised roods almost every household commodity is asked for by name, and many people resent the attentions of sales clerks who endeavour •to sell them something they do not want. The new vogue in retail merchandising. is particularly popular with women. In the “Help Yourself grocery store she walks along the store and carefully' selects the goods she requires. As everything is labelled, and priced - she can select the quality that appeals to her at the price she is prepared to pay. As she leaves the store she places her shopping basket on the cashier’s desk, where the value of her purchases is checked and she pays the bill. The saving in handling costs enables the “Help Yourself” store, to sell at very competitive prices., which are appreciated by the- careful housewife. A chain of “Help Yourself” stores now operates ■in over SOO cities and towns In America. [ More Sales Per Customer. It is not very often that a salesman, handling a variety of lines, sells every customer everything that he might. Most manufacturers and wholesalers can quote many instances where new salesmen have' sold old customers lines that they had not bought before. Cases are also on record where customers were found to be buying only a fraction of what, they should have bought, just because the salesmandid not acquaint the buyers with his whole line. It has long been recognised that where a salesman is. handling many lines, his sales on several items will drop. When he concentrates on fresh commodities, he unconsciously slackens off on others. Au importer who knew that his salesmen were not selling his whole line ns satisfactorily ns they might, devised n series of “sales helps” which materially increased his sales per customer. His clients were divided into four groups—stationers, fancy goods-dealers, drapers, mid tobacconists. One “sales helps was prepared for each group, which contained a list of the commodities that could be sold to each trade. The salesman handed a folder to each customer, and in going through the list with him, invariably unearthed a number of new commodities in which interest was aroused. The “sales help” was left with the customer, who could refer to it-from time to time, and as a result, many additional orders were received between the visits of the salesman. Defects of Quantity Production. The industrial progress of the United States has been largely credited to the development of mass production, but today many are of the opinion that the idea is 'being carried too far. Quantity production causes one effect which is frequently lost sight of, that is. the inability promptly to take care of inventions as they occur. When a factory is fully equipped with stamps,. dies, jigs, as well as the established routine which goes with them, it is a serious matter to scrap them and start all over on a few basis. The larger the production, the harder it is to make the change, for besides the cost of the new equipment comes, the falling off in output during the period of readjustment. It is reported that some American inventors have even been forced to take their inventions to England or to France, where the quantity production handicap is not so great, in order tefget them used. Although-.eventually America takes notice of these meritorious inventions, nevertheless, the delay, due to quantity production, which has been so thoroughly adopted, is a decided detriment to American inventors. . . ; . When Commencing Business. To • ensure success in business, the first requirement is. a stock of goods that people are likely to buy. Thousands of failures have been directly traceable to t*he fact that the owners of businesses offered for sale articles which they thought the public ought to want; without first finding out whether the public really wanted them; Having.. arrived at an understanding of. the buying habits of the community, get in touch with wholesalers and manufacturers, and learn from them the" profits that are made ' from different lines Of merchandise, for the profit is all that you will get for yourself out of your own business (says a writer in “Forbes’ Magazine”). As the choice narrows, keep your eye open for merchandise that is highly consumptive, articles that wear out, and which bring repeat sales. Study the competition you will have to meet. lu . some communities there are stores so' strongly en-. trenched that they have earned the goodwill and patronage of the public. To attempt to compete with such a store presents obstacles that are obvious. There are in every locality stores that are mismanaged, and are inadequately stocked, whose proprietors have no conception of the meaning of the word service. To compete with such a store should not be difficult for an active young man. Keeping in Touch. Don’t believe for a moment that sentiment plays no part in business. It does. The. opinion of that successful business veteran, Robert Dollar, creator of the round-the-world steamship service, contains a practical pointer,- based ou mature experience. Mr. Dollar, although 84, is now on a business tour round the world. “The older. I get,” lip writes, “the more I am convinced of the value of the personal touch. Sitting together at the same table, and discussing matters of mutual interest, in 99 cases out of 100 results in benefit to both parties. The best illustration I have of the personal touch was in starting our passenger line nround the world, when it was impossible to get much cargo, and passengers were few and far between. I made four trips nround the world at different times, and averaged close to 500 personal calls each voyage. These calls were on merchants and our competitors. The result was that we made friends out of our competitors, who had been aggressive, not. taking to our coming into their territory. Since then we have had no particular trouble with anyone about rates or prices. If it had not been for the personal touch and the calls I made, I claim that the results attained would have been impossible.

A newspaper publisher in another state offered a prize for the best answer to the conundrum: . “Why is a newspaper like a woman? The prize was won by a woman who Bent in this answer: “Because every man should have one of his owu and not run after his neighjour's.”