Men and Methods

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 218, 11 June 1929, Page 15

Men and Methods

BUSINESS PLANS AND IDEAS

(Conducted by •• OBSERVER”)

Hints For Salesmen. " A certain young salesman who is now travelling for a large concern has a method which illustrates what is meant by the “enthusiastic salesman.” He pushes hard on one item until he gets just what he wants in quantity. Then on the next item he relaxes, and gives the buyer a chance to do likewise. On he will turn on the enthusiasm again, and push him hard. When he goes to his next customer, he reverses the items on which he has been enthusiastic with the former buyer. Thus he gives his whole line the benefit.cf his enthusiasm. Needless to say, he is a successful salesman. This is a good method to pursue. A customer will grow suspicious if a salesman pushes every article in his line, and will be apt to think that the salesman is trying to overload him. If an item is not quite so good as it should be, it is best to tell the customer so, and not let him buy largely of it and have a quantity left over. It is a great mistake for a salesman to oversell his customers. It only results in their losing confidence in him, and they will be loth to take his word in future. Travellers’ Sample Display. . When starting out on a trip, the salesman should always take with him enough samples to make an attractive display m his sample-room. If the salesman has a line of delicate and artistic articles, such as hand-painted china, cut glass, fancy box stationery, perfumes, and the like, it would be well for him to carry with him coverings of such colour and mater?, ial as will show off his line to the best advantage. For instance, ' black velvet displays cut glass well, and some dark cloth shows off perfume and stationery to good advantage. An attractive sample-display makes a lasting impression on a buyer, just as a beautiful window-display in one of the large city stores does upon the passer-by; Window-dressers are paid enormous salaries, and it must surely bring good returns or it "would not be.done. _ So it is with a sample-display." If it is attractive, it will aid greatly in selling the line. The" salesman should take with him also soma of -the .advertisements of lines his-firm expects tb rub, mount them on cardboard, and.stand .them.around in his sample-room.. Anything that is attractive will add to the appearance of -his display. If he is making a town display, he. must get his material in "such "form"that it can" be easily packed and will not take up too much room. ■ ? . ■ 1 • Britain’s Superiority. “Sky-scrapers are not the only- criterion of progress,” says Mr. Herbert N. Casson, the English efficiency expert,, in an American newspaper. It is his opinion that Great Britain is -still- far ahead ofall. the countries in most of the.matters that create a solid prosperity,. . ‘.‘What. Britain does lack,’’, he Aays, “is training in the art of self-advertisement.” ’ Mr.' Casson enumerates nine things, which," he says, are not to be found either-in the United States or anywhere else, and each of which, he declares to be .“.the highest point of human achievement in its own line!” They are: (1) The Midland Bank.—This is the largest bank in the world. It has deposits of over £2,000,000,000. Its total assets now stand at the unparalleled figure of £2,200,000,000. (2) London Stock Exchange.—This exchange is unique, not only in its size, but in the fact that it is international. . , (3) Lloyds.-—This famous Maritime Exchange, too, is unique. ' There is" both- " ing that even slightly resembles it in any other country. It dates back as an organisation to 1771, and as a group of brokers ’ to 1689. sit has stood the shocks of eight a generations, and it has never broken down. ’ ■ • .■ ' .•- '■ (4) “Daily Mail.”—This morning paper now has a circulation of 2,000,000 copies a day; .’the largest circulation, by far, of any daily, paper in thfe world. (5) Dispatching-room of the Midland " Railroad.—The British railroad service comes nearest to perfection. In no other country do trains run 300 miles without a stop, and in no other countries are there so few accidents. (6) Shipyards.—The . three greatest shipyards of the world are in the British Isles—at Glasgow,. Newcastle and Belfast. " ’ , (7) A London Tobacco Factory.—This factory is an industrialised copy of the Temple of Bubastes, a goddess of ancient E"" T it. It manufactures its own climate. It has created new standards of comfort and hygiene for its workers;.. . (8) A Chocolate Factory.—This is the only factory, as far as the author knows, that is managed-by the brain-power and: heart-power of its rank and file. (9) Underground Station'at Piccadilly. —lt handles 50,000,000, passengers a year. It is a subterannean marvel, so deep that it could hold the highe'st statue in London—the Nelson Monument in Trafalgar Square.

The Recommended Restaurant. “A surprising amount of good will and advertising of restaurants,’’ a cafe proprietor tells us, “is unconsciously stirred up by actors. Because good digestion is important to an actor, and also because most actors on the road are compelled to be economical, travelling players pass on word to one another when they discover good food at reasonable price’s. Actors also mention such places to friends outside of the profession in whatever town they happen to be. This carries more weight than if an ordinary person made the recommendation, because everybody knows that actors ■ become exceptionally good judges of eating places.” * *. • Choice of Occupation. Work and the choice of work cause great anxiety among people, especially young people. If they would just go ahead and do the thing that they really wanted to do, most of their difficulties would vanish, because they would not have time to think about them. If they cannot make a living by doing what they want to do, then. Jet them do it as a sideline, make an avocation or hobby of it. Perhaps it will come in handy some day. There are dozens of cases .in which a hobby or avocation has helped people to solve vocational difficulties. Most people have ideas about things they think they would like to do, but they have never actually tried to do any of them. The person who is/fortunate enough to find out one thing he likes to do and does do it, is sure to gain in some way. It may not prove to be an open sesame to great ,ambitions; but in any case, doing anything that one wants to is worth while -for its own sake. ■ i ■ " » • » • A Helping Misfits. '■ A ,young woman in New York follows the unusual profession of helping people to find themselves in their work. “I come across many people who do not know/ what they want to do,” she said. “Many of them have tried a variety of occupations without making a success of any of them. But if, with all their changes from this to that, they have been .seriously, cultivating an avocation, or perhaps several of them, that they really like, I can be of help to them. She recounts a case of a man who had studied medicine to please his family, but had never practised'it. He had various artistic interests which he had followed with 'considerable persistence. Music, writing, and painting were among them. Finding that he was interested in various forms of cookery, and especially in the ' art bf giving an" "attractive appearance to food, ’ it was arranged for him to meet ■neople- in the advertising profession who had • similar interests. Eventually he secured a good position, .writing advertisements for food products. And as it turned out, his training in medicine gave "him additional useful background for such a" profession. So works this young ■woman -who helps people to find the right job. A strange occupation, but surely an interesting onex Value of Containers. .. A man hates shopping—and loathes parcels. ‘A man, homeward bound at Saturday' noon, or Friday evening, with his .weekend purchases of flowers, fruit and little household luxuries, is a picture of complete misery. In the whole of the retailer’s sales-armoury there is one weapon that can sweep away this man’s prejudice. . It is the container—the container used in ways that have not before been considered, or have been adopted only half-heartedly. Take one concrete example of a container that would convert men to the pleasure of shopping; 'Many men like to take home flowers or fruit at the week-end. Many more men would do so, if it were not for the awkward parcels entailed by a kindly thought Brown-uaper bags, bulging with oranges and apples—long paper sheaves of flowers, with wet stalks completing the disintegration of the blue tissue paper, and blooms battered by the jostling crowd of shoppers—these are things which often persuade a man to cross on the other side of the road when he approaches the florist’s shop. Why not light containers, made of 41b. or 61b.- board, made in the form, of long loose-chocolate containers? These light boxes would be narrow at one end, wide at the other, with fold-in flaps at the latter end. Made of the lightest board and wire-stitched, the cartons would cost in the neighbourhood of Id. or lid., but the shop that adopted them would attract the custom of men who. shudder at the sight of blue tissue paper. And the same applies to fruit. Two or three sizes in light boxes would be sufficient to provide a big selling point for men. Dates and figs and muscatels and almonds are not the only type of fruit that lend themselves to being packed in containers.