SELLING ELECTRICITY

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 297, 12 September 1934, Page 11

SELLING ELECTRICITY

Large Margin of Supply

Over Demand

INITIATIVE NECESSARY Proposals for a campaign to stimulate the sale of electricity and electric appliances in view of the margin of supply over demand which would result from the Waitaki scheme and the extension of Arapuiil, were put forward by Mr. C Campbel), Southland, in an address on “Selling’s the Thing” at the annual conference of the secretaries branch, Electric Power Boards and Supply Authoritles’ Association of New Zealand, which concluded In Wellington yestera The British Minister of Transport recently argued in favour of merging the Electricity Commissioners, the Central Electricity Board, the power companies, the joint boards, the joint electricity authorities, and the whole of the supply undertakings into one national electrical corporation, which would be a public authority organising and directing the industry for public ends, Mr. Campbell said. He would establish also regional boards to undertake aggtessive consolidation and development of distribution.” “By such a policy,” says the British Minister, “we should evolve the highest standard in publicity, and we should enable publicity to deliver the goods by seeing that It was accompanied by the highest standard of management on the technical side,. and what is no less important, the highest standard of direction on the side of sales.” The Minister stressed the importance of initiative by way of new moves to induce greater use of electricity, and he defined sales as "the art of presenting a proposition in such a why that the customer will buy.”

Urge for Initiative. An urge for initiative was also expressed by the chairman of a recent American electrical conference when, referring to the importance of the selling of electricity, of wiring, and of appliances, he appealed to all of the members of the conference to seek out and contribute ideas, and’ he predicted that the Rocky Mountain region; by reason of the “creative imagination” applied to the industry there, would be the first to emerge from the depression. Mr. Campbell taibmltted the following suggestions to assist in initiating plans for the sale of power and. appliances : — (a) That tho secretaries’ branch promote an enthusiastic effort to obtain suggestions for the specific purpose of selling more electricity, getting new business, building up old accounts, and gathering together suggestions and. methods from local and overseas experience. (b) That, initially, the Suggestions and ideas be referred to a committee to assemble and arrange them for distribution to the boards and members of the assbciatioii. (c) That the members of conference undertake to put forward information and invite the members of their respective staffs to submit suggestions. (d) That consideration be given to the question of broadening the invitation for suggestions by sending them to the secretary of the State Electricity Commission of Victoria with the request that. he bring tlie matter under the notice of his appropriate staff. . , , , . (c) That in the event of this being approved consideration be given to t lid question of making awards for the best ideas and suggestions submitted. “Selling’s the Thing.” The putting into service of the Wilttakl scheme and the extension of Arnpuni meant a large margin of supply over demand, said Mr. Campbell. Tliiw alone 'justified exceptional measures toward the sale of electricity, and it was our privilege—our responsibility—to l>e very tiiuch “awake at the switch” in the matter of initiating activities for the increased use of electricity in New Zealand.

“How many Ideas or, ns they say in America, ‘employee tips,’ can we assemble for the purpose of accelerating the pace of soiling more electricity and more electrical appliances? Low rates and low priced products will not sell themselves.

“Let us join in, an effort to obtain Ideas and information on the best media to be employed, and let us remember the slogan, ‘Selling’s the Thing,’ ” Mr. Campbell concluded.