SALESMANSHIP.

Waikato Times, Volume 108, Issue 18165, 1 November 1930, Page 9

SALESMANSHIP.

WHEN TIMES ARE HARD. “When business is harder to get than normally, no forward-thinking business executive would ,■ consider weakening his sales force. At such times greater sales effort is needed. It must be recognised that the advertising pound has a harder job to do', that it must do more work to accomplish the same result. However, the facts are that more intensive effort, applied when many competitors are shortening sail to ‘ride out’ the depression, turns a difficult situation to advantage. Gains made in the face of adverse business conditions, even at' a temporary sacrifice in profits, establish the basis for. tremendous future returns. , “The timid advertiser and the exe;utive who considers this year’s profits of prirriary concern are prone to inaxigurate short-sighted economies, and one of the most harmful of these is a drastic reduction in advertising. Such a policy may show a favourable relation between volume of sales and profits during the period of depression, but it automatically places the •concern in a relatively unfavourable position to take advantage of the period of expansion immediately following.

“In most highly successful organisations it is a fixed policy to exert the greatest efforts' towards increasing business during such periods when many concerns feel satisfied to hold their own, or even to accept a less powerful position.”—John H. Dunham.