The Mail Order Merchant

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The Mail Order Merchant

Exercise 266

Oral

1. Suppose you were starting a mail order business. Would it make any difference in possible profits if your center of operations were in a large or a small city? Give your reasons.

   
   

2. Would you try to be near good transportation?

1. What kind of stock would you advertise principally: bulky articles or those easily handled? expensive goods or those of more moderate price?

   
   

2. Your catalogue is your salesman. What would this statement suggest about the cost of running your business as compared with that of Peabody, Harper & Co., who employ five salesmen?

   
   

3. How would you bring special attention to your leaders in your catalogue?

   
   

4. Why is it advisable not to give your catalogue away free, but to charge a nominal sum for it?

   
   

5. Would you sell as cheaply as you could or would you try to sell for as high a price as possible even if you sold less?

   
   

6. Is it profitable for a mail order merchant to sell one spool of thread or one pocket-knife? Consider the handling and the packing.

   
   

7. Why can the mail order merchant sell more cheaply than the country dealer?

   
   

8. a. How is the parcel post favorable to the mail order dealer?

   b. Why did the country merchant object so strenuously to the passage of the parcel post law?

   
   

9. Some distributors who handle only one kind of article sometimes pay the freight. Would this plan be advisable for a mail order house to adopt?

   
   

10. Since the purchaser pays the freight, is it advisable for him to buy a large or a small order at one time?

    
    

Exercise 267

Written

1. A customer who wishes to buy some furniture complains that he can purchase what he wishes from another firm that will pay the freight. Write a letter meeting his objection.

   
   

2. You have just added a new clothing department and have published a special clothing catalogue, which you will be glad to send to your customers free of charge. Write a letter telling of the new department and drawing special attention to your three-piece serge suit for $15. Enclose a sample of the cloth.

   
   

3. Write, especially to farmers, saying that with the facilities now offered by the parcel post you are able to supply their wants quickly; as, for example, for a broken part of a piece of farm machinery. Write a fairly long letter in a friendly tone.

   
   

4. In the fall write a letter, addressing the farmers' wives, saying that, as winter is at hand, it would be well for them to put in a supply of groceries when prices are reasonable. Enclose a folder giving some attractive bargains. Write the folder.

   
   

5. Write a letter, saying that you have just put up a new building. Invite your customer to come to see it. Explain that every afternoon from 2 to 4 o'clock there will be a band concert in your large visitors' hall.

   
   

Exercise 268

1. Let one pupil be chosen to dictate to the class each of the letters outlined below. He is to use no notes. The class will represent stenographers.

   
   

2. Discuss and improve the letters that have been dictated.

   
   

3. Borroughs & Brown, a mail order firm at N. 11th and Callowhill Streets, Philadelphia, send you their catalogue and an advertising letter. Write the letter.

   
   

4. Write, stating that in their catalogue No. 6, page 673, Borroughs & Brown list a washing machine such as you wish, called the "Pride Swing" washing machine, No. 4-A-459. The measurements as listed are: depth 13 inches, diameter 21 inches. The price is $5.25. This is too small for your purpose. Ask if they can supply you with the same style 30 inches in diameter. Ask the price.

   
   

5. Borroughs & Brown write that they have no such machine in stock, but, since there have been many requests lately for a larger machine, they have decided to consult the factory, and if it is advisable, they will reproduce the "Pride Swing" machine in larger size. (Letter head.)

   
   

6. Borroughs & Brown, Dept. 18, House Furnishings, write to the W. F. Wiggins Mfg. Co.,

   Saginaw, Mich., stating that they have had several orders for a larger "Pride Swing" washing machine which the Wiggins Company manufacture. Burroughs & Brown ask concerning a 30-inch machine. Write the letter.

   
   

7. The W. F. Wiggins Mfg. Co. telegraph Borroughs & Brown that before they can state a price on a 30-inch "Pride Swing" machine, they must make samples, calculating cost of materials and workmanship. Write the telegram. Confirm by letter. Write the letter.

   
   

8. Borroughs & Brown write you, giving the information contained in (5) above.

   
   

9. The W. F. Wiggins Mfg. Co. write Borroughs & Brown, stating that after several experiments they find that the coil springs by which the "Pride Swing" machine is operated are too weak for the larger sized tub. The manufacture of suitable springs will cause some delay in their final report.

   
   

10. Ten days later. Telegram. The W. F. Wiggins Mfg. Co. to Borroughs & Brown, stating that they have now perfected a "Pride Swing Special" machine; width 30 inches, depth 18 inches; price $8, with a discount of 50%.

    
    

11. Borroughs & Brown write you that they have perfected a "Pride Swing Special" washing machine, No. 4-B-459, 30 inches in diameter, 18 inches in depth, price $7. Add a courteous close.

    
    

12. Order five machines. Give full shipping directions. Say that you will pay according to the offer made on page 25, catalogue No. 6; viz., $20 upon receipt of the goods and $5 per month until they are paid for. Give two references.

    
    

13. Borroughs & Brown telegraph the W. F. Wiggins Mfg. Co. ordering 100 machines, five of which are to be sent directly to you. Write, confirming the telegram.

    
    

14. Two weeks later than letter (10) write again, explaining that you have not received the machines you ordered. Ask the reason for the delay.

    
    

15. Two weeks later than (11) write a telegram from Borroughs & Brown to the W. F. Wiggins Mfg. Co., asking why the machines have not been sent.

    
    

16. Send a telegram from the W. F. Wiggins Mfg. Co. to Borroughs & Brown, saying that, owing to a teamsters' and shipping clerks' strike, they have not been able to fill any of their orders for the last two weeks. The machines have been sent. (State how and when.) Write a letter, confirming the telegram

    
    

17. Borroughs & Brown write to inform you that the strike was the cause of the delay in the shipment of the machines you ordered ——. The machines were shipped ——. Add a courteous close.

    
    

Exercise 269

Conduct a transaction of your own, using the above as a model, except in the method of payment.

IV.—The Salesman

Salesmanship is a branch of distribution about which many volumes have been written. We cannot consider it minutely from the personal view of the salesman, but can only touch upon it from the point of view of distribution. The salesman is merely a force in distribution like correspondence, circulars, and advertising. But the salesman has the advantage over these in that he is able to bring his personality to bear in the problem of getting business. It is by means of his personality that the salesman gets the attention and confidence of the customer,—a thing which is extremely hard to do in a letter, a circular, or an advertisement. Securing a buyer's confidence is very important, because no suspicious customer has ever yet bought anything.

In addition to a pleasing personality a good salesman must have a wide and thorough knowledge of his wares. If he does not know his goods, the sale drags; whereas, if he knows everything good there is to be known about them, his enthusiasm instills enthusiasm into the customer.

After bringing his knowledge and his enthusiasm into play, he must next call on his perseverance and his tact; perseverance to keep at the customer until he gets the order, and tact to know in each case just how to go about getting the order and just when to stop. Many salesmen talk too much; many more do not talk enough.

Exercise 270

Oral

In talking on any of the following subjects be sure you know just what you are going to say before you begin, and then say it clearly and convincingly. Don't say too much and don't say too little. Just exactly how much you should say no one can tell you. You must watch your audience. If they look puzzled, give more details; if they look bored, try shorter, more concise sentences, or bring your talk to a close. After you have explained all your points, sum them up briefly at the end. Remember that your talk must, first, attract attention; second, hold the interest; and third, create enthusiasm and desire to buy.

To supplement what facts you get from observation, study advertisements and catalogues to get material for (9) to (20) below:

1. To persuade girls to contribute to a fund to be used to buy suits for the football team.

   
   

2. To induce particularly uninterested freshmen to buy tickets for a school activity; for example, a debate.

   
   

3. As a real estate agent induce a classmate to establish a home in your neighborhood.

   
   

4. Try to sell the manager of the baseball team a new line of athletic goods.

   
   

5. Try to sell a set of Dickens' (or any other author's) works to a boy who is not fond of reading. You must enjoy the books that you recommend.

   
   

6. Try to sell the class or the teacher a new kind of loose leaf note book for science or English work.

   
   

7. As an agent for the publishers try to sell this text book to your English class or to your English teacher.

   
   

8. You are trying to sell an automobile to a farmer. By means of concrete examples develop the following items into a talk:

   a. The business opportunities to be gained. b. The social opportunities to be gained.

9. Get up a talk to sell a runabout to a physician who has a small practice. Suppose that he owns a horse and a buggy. Be tactful.

   
   

10. You are a salesman for an automobile house and are trying to sell a gasoline car to a man who is partial to an electric car. Meet the objections to the gasoline car and put forward its advantages.

    
    

11. You are trying to sell an electric runabout to a woman. Develop the following into a talk:

    a. Ease of operation. b. Noiselessness and comfort. c. Elegant appearance.

    
    

12. You are trying to sell the manager of a local express company a motor truck. Gather all the data you can and present it in a talk on why he should replace his horses and wagons with motor trucks. Be as specific as possible.

    
    

13. Get up a talk showing why a man with considerable means should trade his two year old car as part payment for the latest model.

    
    

14. Get up a talk to sell a phonograph.

    
    

15. To sell an electric washing machine.

    
    

16. To sell a piano.

    
    

17. To sell a vacuum cleaner.

    
    

18. To sell a subscription to a magazine.

    
    

19. To obtain an order for groceries or teas and coffees. The offer of premiums might add to the effectiveness of your talk.

    
    

Exercise 271

The following paragraph was adapted from William C. Freeman's Advertising Talks.

George Washington's Cherry Tree Story has served a good purpose through all of these years. "I cannot tell a lie" is a phrase that has been used in every schoolroom in America to impress upon young minds the importance of truth telling. The phrase is also serving its purpose outside the schoolroom. In all professions and in all kinds of business, men know that in order to make good they must tell the truth. There never was, in all the history of the country, a greater movement than now toward universal truth telling. There is not even that winking at "white" lies that used to prevail. The man who does not make a direct statement, who does not earn a reputation for being honest, has no chance of succeeding. Time was when the trickster was regarded as shrewd and was accepted in the community as being right both socially and commercially. To-day the man who has money without a reputation for integrity is a bankrupt, as far as real friends and public opinion are concerned. The expression "I cannot tell a lie" has been changed to-day to "I will not tell a lie even if the lie seems more expedient than the blunt truth." So George Washington's Cherry Tree Story is as good to-day as it ever was.

Prepare paragraphs on the following suggestions, expanding each by examples:

1. As a salesman, be honest with your customers.

   
   

2. Cultivate tact.

   
   

3. Cultivate a conscience.

   
   

4. Learn to avoid friction.

   
   

5. Acknowledge your mistakes.

   
   

6. Don't criticise.

   
   

7. Don't procrastinate.

   
   

8. Don't boast.

   
   

9. Don't buy your clothes on time.

   
   

10. Don't borrow from fellow clerks.

    
    

11. Don't think your employer can't see whether you are working.

    
    

12. Don't sell a merchant a larger order than he can move.

    
    

13. Study the duties of the man ahead of you.

    
    

14. New ideas count with your employer.

    
    

15. He can who thinks he can.

    
    

Exercise 272

Written

1. A request has come in from your territory for your automobile catalogue. Write a letter to accompany the catalogue, inviting the inspection of your cars. Make it as personal as possible.

   
   

2. You have just been talking with a prospective buyer. Drive home some of the strong points of your car in a letter exploiting strength, reliability, and speed. Use the following as a basis of your letter: The Up-to-the-minute car breaks the record from New York to San Francisco, making the trip in ten days, fifteen hours, and thirteen seconds.

   
   

3. You have just shown your motor truck to a business man. Strengthen the impression you made on him by writing him a letter summing up the important advantages of the motor truck. Use the following extract from a letter:

   
   

"It has not missed a single trip since I have had it, and it takes the place of three wagons and twelve horses. My route from Waltham is so long that a pair of horses going over it one day has to be laid off the next."

"This truck makes three trips each day. I have had it on the road nearly four months and have covered over four thousand (4,000) miles with no expense for repairs."

4. A prospective customer has lost interest. Try to arouse him once more by telling him of a particularly good sale recently made, or of a new model just received, or of a new device lately perfected. Your object is to get him to inspect your cars again.

   
   

5. Write a letter to a wealthy man who bought one of your cars two years ago, offering him half of what he paid for the car in exchange for a new model. Make him see that it would be to his advantage to accept the offer.

6. 
   

7. Write an advertisement to appear in a local newspaper asking for an automobile salesman.

   
   

8. Answer the advertisement, telling why you think you could sell cars, although you have had no experience.

   
   

9. Write a letter to a friend telling him you have been offered the agency for the Up-to-the-minute car. Ask him to be your partner, and try to show him why you will succeed. He will be expected to bear half the office expenses, and he will get half the commissions.

   
   

Exercise 273—Suggestions for Debates

1. The mail order house ruins the trade of the country merchant.

   
   

2. The giving of free samples does not attract desirable purchasers.

   
   

3. The use of trading stamps should be abolished.

   
   

4. The motor wagon is more advantageous for the average grocer than the horse and wagon.

   
   

5. All manufactured food products should be sold in sanitary, sealed packages.

   
   

Exercise 274

Oral or Written

Prepare paragraphs on the following:

1. A merchant must know his neighborhood before he buys his stock.

   
   

2. Selling by weight rather than by measure benefits dealer and consumer.

   
   

3. Giving short weights does not prove profitable.

   
   

4. The price of a certain kind of goods, or of an article, that is going out of style should be reduced to move it quickly.

   
   

5. If merchants did not deliver purchases, goods would be cheaper.

   
   

6. Hard work and patience spell the merchant's success.

   
   

7. The middle man gets the bulk of the profit.

   
   

8. The telegraph is a great aid to the business man.

   
   

9. There is a difference between day and night telegraphic rates.

   
   

10. Money may be sent by telegraph.

    
    

11. The night letter is very useful to the merchant.

    
    

12. The parcel post is a great help to the farmer.

    
    

13. The parcel post tends to increase the business of the mail order firms.

    
    

14. The object of an automobile exhibit is to sell cars.

    
    

15. The five-and-ten-cent stores have succeeded because ——.

    
    

Exercise 275

Prepare paragraphs on the following:

1. The importance of transportation facilities to the farmer.

   
   

2. The importance of transportation facilities to the manufacturer.

   
   

3. The steamship in international trade.

   
   

4. Transportation before the days of the railroad.

   
   

5. The influence of the railroad in the advance of civilization.

   
   

6. Electrifying the railroads.

   
   

7. Speed, the cause of railroad accidents.

   
   

8. The observation car.

   
   

9. The care of food in the refrigerator car.

   
   

10. The work of the railroad repair-shop.

11. The advantage of railroad transportation over water transportation.

    
    

12. The advantage of water transportation over railroad transportation.

    
    

13. Why the larger railroads in our country run east and west.

    
    

14. The advantages of the pay-as-you-enter car.

    
    

15. The importance of the interurban electric railroads in country trade.

    
    

16. The disadvantages of the elevated system in large cities.

    
    

17. Congestion in the business district of a large city.

    
    

18. The underground system as a solution for congested traffic.

    
    

19. The work of a transfer company.

    
    

20. The motor truck decreases the business of the express companies.

    
    

21. The automobile decreases railroad suburban business.

    
    

Exercise 276

Topics for Investigation and Discussion

1. The work of the Interstate Commerce Commission.

   
   

2. How railroads control other railroads.

   
   

3. Railroad earnings.

   
   

4. Different kinds of railroad traffic.

   
   

5. The relation between the express companies and the railroads.

   
   

6. Railroad rates and rebates.

   
   

7. Government ownership of railroads.

   
   

8. The influence of the Panama canal in the growth of business in the southern states.

   
   

9. The influence of the canal in the growth of business in the central West.

   
   

10. The influence of the canal in the growth of business in South America.

    
    

11. The deep water way.

    
    

12. The parcel post zones.

    
    

Exercise 277

Books that will Suggest Topics for Talks

Bolton, S. K., Successful Women.

Chamberlain, J. F., How We Travel.

Drysdale, W., Helps for Ambitious Boys; Helps for Ambitious Girls.

Fowler, N. C., Practical Salesmanship; Starting in Life.

Hale, E. E., What Career?

Higinbotham, H. N., The Making of a Merchant.

Laselle, M. A. and Wiley, K. E., Vocations for Girls.

Lundgren, Charles, The New Salesmanship.

Lyde, L. W., Man and his Markets.

Mallon, I. A. S., The Business Girl.

Manson, G. J., Ready for Business.

Marsden, O. S., The Secret of Achievement; The Young Man Entering Business.

Mitten, G. E., The Book of the Railway.

Moody, W. D., Men Who Sell Things.

Reed, et al., Careers for the Coming Men.

Rocheleau, W. F., Transportation.

Rollins, F. W., What can a Young Man do?

Stockwell, H. G., Essential Elements of Business Character.

Stoddard, W. O., Men of Business.

The Vocation Bureau, Boston, Vocations for Boys. (Pamphlets on The Grocer, The Machinist, The Architect, etc.)

White, S. J., Business Openings for Girls.

Exercise 278

Write the following from dictation:

1 Transportation is a great business as well as manufacturing or farming. History tells us that very early people did not have a settled home, but, when the grass began to give out in one part of the country, several members of the community, perhaps whole tribes, took their belongings on their backs and sought for a new place to settle. It is reasonable to suppose that they wished to keep up some sort of intercourse with their friends. At once difficulties arose, since hostile tribes lived between them and their old home. It was a brave man, indeed, who ventured to encounter the dangers of the trip between the settlements. Such a set of men arose in the peddlers, who set out alone or in caravans with articles of produce or manufacture and braved the dangers even of a desert to exchange what they carried for the produce of the old home. This is the earliest form of transportation. Compare this simple form with the modern railroad, steamship, and express service.

2 Capturing the Latin American Trade

No empty iteration of the Monroe doctrine, no reservation of canal privileges, will capture the trade of Latin America. This will be accomplished only by efforts to produce and to sell those countries the kind of goods that they want; measured, labeled, and packed their way; offered in the language that they understand; and, moreover, sold at attractive prices. Our consuls abroad report that in all these essentials American dealers are deficient and that British, French, and German manufacturers fill the South American markets.

To these rivals must be added another, for, in spite of old South American prejudices against Spain and Spanish goods, the Spaniards are quietly regaining their footing in those republics of whose trade a century ago the home country enjoyed the monopoly. Her advantages, we know, are a common language and familiarity with the ways of life and the tastes of the buyers. Spain produces just the kind of wine, olive oil, and canned goods that South America wants; she turns out the kind of paper, the patterns of cotton goods, the styles of tools and implements, the clothing, shoes, and weapons used in Latin America; and the result is that she gets the trade. One-sixth, at least, of her entire exports goes to her former possessions.

3 South Africa has been successfully operating an agricultural parcel post. By its instrumentality gold, diamonds, minerals, wool, feathers, saddlery, boots and shoes, confectionery, fruit, plants, seed, butter and eggs suitably packed, and other farm products are transported, and the producer and consumer have been brought together. From the report of the Department of Posts and Telegraphs we learn that the scheme has worked well, is a recognized and popular feature of the postal system, and is entirely feasible. The sparse settlements and widely scattered population have not operated to bar its success, as was feared at the time of its introduction.

4 The duty of applying the remedy for wrecks rests, primarily, with the railroad managers. And what is the remedy, and how is it to be applied? It would seem that there can be but one answer: there must be stern discipline for taking risks. There must be thorough instruction as to what risks are and how to avoid them, just such instruction as the "safety first" movement is leading up to, but extended to every man in every department of every road. In addition, the promise that no engineman will be censured for losing or not making up time or for not running fast when it is not considered safe to do so must be changed to the positive, unequivocal statement that there will be a substantial penalty for every case of running fast when it is not safe to do so.—Railway Age Gazette.

5 More and more attention, each year, is being given by the railroad managers to the locating of new kinds of industry along their lines. The roads in the West and the South nearly all have efficient industrial departments, land departments, or immigration departments. Their men seek out new industries, meet the steamers to tempt immigrants into their region, arrange for the purchase or rental of lands, and get together reports of the soil, the products, and the advantages of any desired location. Perhaps the greatest effort, however, is bent upon the location of new factories along the route. In one year one southern railroad induced more than seven hundred men to establish industries along its lines, after the railroads had made complete and painstaking investigation of all the conditions that would confront the prospective manufacturers.

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