Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-05-29

In the words Of the great Spencer it
Is organized knowledge"
In the words Of very practical
American it is classified common
sense"
And what is business building?
Business building is the making Of
each customer repeater-and. not
only that, but the making of each GUS
toner the first link In an endless
chain to bring more customers.
And there is more in business build
Ing than in business getting.
OF course we must first get bust
ness and get it right along, but we
must get it In such way that we can
build upon it, otherwise we are build.
ing upon the sand.
1t naturally follows from these two
definitions that the science of bust
ness building is organized knowledge
pertaining to the getting and building
Of business.
That there is much knowledge in the
world pertaining to the getting AMI
building of business, goes without say
ing.
If We can organize that knowledge
we have science, the Science of Rus-
mess Getting and Business Building.
Can we have such a science? To cor
Tectly answer this question we must
first inquire, can we arrive at basis
for classifying such knowledge? And
we find that we can and for the rea
son that in any deal, no matter what It
Is, whether it is the telephone business
or the coal business or the lumber
business or the dry goods business
or any other business under the sun,
there are four elements; there must
be four; but there cannot possibly be
any more.
And these four factors or elements
are: first, the salesman; second, the
customer; third, the thing sold; and
fourth, the abstract, invisible, intangi-
bic thing, the sale itself, the mental
condition OF mind meeting mind.
Let US stop and think moment and
we will see that If we had all the
| truths there are in the world, all the
facts, truths, laws and principles per-
tanning to the getting and building of
business, we could classify every one
of them under one of those four heads
Each would pertain directly or indl-
rectly to the salesman, the customer,
the thing sold or the sac itself
We therefore have basis for class
ificatiou which involves the POSSIBLE
ity of inclusivenass, therefore tile pos
sibility of true sciance.
Kindly bear this classification in
mind, because the balance of my re-
marks will be in the nature of an ear
nest endeavor to make plain to YOU
as | see them, few of the universal
truths pertaining to these four factors.
regardless of the business in which
one is engaged
When shall have finished, please
do not accuse me of having attempted
to encompass all of my limited knowl-
edge up this theme. At the very best,
In the brief space Of time at our COM
mand, we can only touch the high
places, as it WERE
The Salesman.
First of all. let us consider the
salesman. And let us first inquire, who
are the statesmen Of the world?
In the broad sense, everybody is a
salesman everyone has something
to SELL
Commercially, success in life de-
ponds upon salesmanship- it depends
upon ones ability to market whatever
he has for sale. The employee, no mat
ter what he is doing, is marketing his
services he is selling them and the
price that he gets for them ultimately
depends upon the quantity and the
quality of the goods which he delivers.
1t is very true that there Is limit
to the value of the service in any one
OF many certain capacities. But the
one who becomes master in any CIV
en- capacity is Immediately a candi-
date for a higher plane of effort where
the remuneration is correspondingly
higher.
The lawyer sells his services to the
public. He is not able to advertise
without violating the ethics Of his pro-
fession, that is, he cannot advertise
publicly in print. But indirectly
through the quality of service he rem
ders to his clients, he is advertising,
and whether he knows it or not, he is
a salesman.
The same is true of the teacher, the
preacher, the doctor. 1t is true of the
hewers of wood and the drawers Of
water. 1t is true of everyone.
But in the strictly commercial sense
iSOh upSh IuC SdiColuCiI VI luC WOliu
as the commercial institutions them
selves, The object of commercial
house in any line of public service
corporation is the sale of it's goods or
services at profit.
That's what craftsmanship is. It's
just not the disposing of goods; it's
the disposition of them at a profit.
AS society is organized today, and
probably will be for long time to
come, the item of profit in the balance
sheet at the end of the month or year
is the all-important item. And this
item of profit depends more than many
seem to realize upon how well each
and every one has done his or her
work.
Evedy one, say-every one CON
nected with the institution and this
includes everybody from the Office
boy up to the president
Yes, craftsmanship is the sale Of
goods for profit, and in the abstract it
is the power of persuasion; and as
man evolves in intelligence to wis
dom he perceives the fact that the
two most potent elements in persua-
sion are:
First, quality of goods; and second,