Los Angeles herald., 1910-03-01


lW GH in the forthcoming census
W#I Ten years ago Uncle sam
/ IA vi counted $4,000 of them, but
44lRta4 they declared that his count
was not i'll accordance with
their statistics. They think that If all
of them had been counted, those who
solicit sales for the buyer as well as
those who act for the seller, the count
would have shown more than quar-
ter million There are two organiza-
tions of drummers which are national
in their scope. One is the Travellers
Protective association, known as the
T. p. a. 1t has a membership of
about $4,000. The other is the order
of United Commercial Travellers. It's
membership list amounts to about
$4,000. Each of these organizations
have liberal benevolent features.
Modern methods of business getting
are planned as carefully as military
campaign. Not long afo "A typewriter
manufacturer received an inquiry from
prospective buyer thousand miles
away. Within twenty-four hours, al
though there was not a branch house
within a hundred miles, a representa-
tive of that manufacturer had called
on the prospective customer and sold
him a machine. How all this could be
done with such dispatch becomes clear
when one looks in-o that manufacture
er's system. For each state he has q
large map mounted so that he can stick
thumb tacks into it. These tacks rep
resent all the colors of the rainbow
and they are connected with strings as
vari- -colored. One kind of tack repre-
sents his statesmen in that territory
Another tack represents the rival
statesmen. Still another tells what
kind of machines predominant in a
given town, and SO on. The strings
also tell their story by their colors-
how the salesman is reached, how soon
he can get to q given point, and a
dozen other things. on the whole,
that map and its equipment tell the
home office everything that Is essen
tial for it to know in directing a SELL
ing campaign, and it's representatives
have a decided advantage over their
competitors on account OF 1t.
All large houses now keep system
attic tab on their travelling men. They
| are always in telegraphic communica-
! tion and the fellow who goes off on a
| three days spree may be sure his sins
will find him out. The expenses of a
travelling man always have been none
! too low, and yet 1t is estimated that
| during the past ten years they have
increased at least 40 per cent. In fact,
| every kind of selling expense from the
! 11dnuldCIuIGI TO inc GOISuIiltT HAS III
| creased, and when one comes to read
the literature of trade he cannot but
be impressed with the additions of
| cost between the manufacturer and
| the consumer.
Recently a man bought a certain
machine for $3.50. Not long thereafter
| he saw an account of a suit brought
against the manufacturer of the ma
| chine, and the testimony showed that
| the actual manufacturers cost was
| only $5S.46. He was surprised and
shocked, thinking he had paid just
| about twice as much as he ought.
! However,, a commercial writer who is
an authority on costs, says this rep
! resents about the true condition of
| everything except certain staples. The
price the consumer pays for most
| things is made up of one-third for
manufacturer cost, one-third for
profits and accounting and the other
third for selling expenses. In making
UP the charge of selling expenses
! against the drummers, not only must
their expenses while selling to good
customers be added to the price, but
the cost of calls that were failures
also must be added.
Germany is now leading the world in
| the matter of international drummers.
1t educates them as we educate law
yers and doctors. 1t maintains
schools which have worked wonders
| in turning out statesmen who have gone
into every cline and taken trade out
of the very hands of other nations.
To its schools for international sales
men, more than to any other one
thing, Germany owes the rapid rise II
has had in the commercial world