The Detroit times., 1910-02-21
SALEsMANSH|P IN
THE AUTO WORLD
Hugh Chalmers Writes Interestingly
On This Vital Topic for Read
ers of The Times.
BY HUGH CHALMERS.
president Chalmers Motor Co.


facturer 10 the dealer. and the sales
OF cars by the dealer To the public
Or. broadly speaking, Wholesale aud
retail.
So far as the wholesale side is con
cerned, automobiles have been Dough.
rather than sold The demand from
dealers has been enormous. IL has
been too great for all of tho
factories IN the country 10 MI. hence
there has not been a careful applica-
otion by many manufacturers OF the
principles OF salesmanship in the dis.
tribution OF automobiles as there has
been in most other lines OF CONNER
cial activity.
Many companies seem 10 go on tde
principle that as soon as the factorys
output is spoken for by the dealers II
is sold. This IS far from true. Cars
are not really sold until they arc in
the hands of userr at a price that
gives a fair profit to both dealer and
manufacturers
Competition - strong among the
dealers and they know that II takes
Trains and hard work to sell cars no
matter what tn" Il an at the factory
may think.
ne FUNDAMENTALS.
There a,e certain fundamental prin
cipes in craftsmanship which apply
in the distribution Of clothing. farm
machinery pianos. talking machines,
or any other line Selling Is simply
the art OF influencing the human
mind. and the things which influence
the human mind ate pretty much the
same all over the world in all lines
4. tt,aff ..s
what you may be selling, is to find
out what these things are. and thea
rse them
The first potent factor in inilu-
encing IN, public - good goods. NO
possible amount al strenuous sales
manship and advertising will suffice
TO keep a poor article on the market.
II is possible by strong salesmansbip
and clever Advertising TO sell a first
edition Profitable business II mae
ter Of reoeat orders, and you cane
lave repeat orders when you put on,
poor goods A salesman with goOa
goods TO offer always makes a better
record in the lonc ran than the sales
man with inferior goods, even Though
the man with the poor goods may be-
superior 20 the oth,r man in the prac-
lice of the arts cf lis profession
The conditions in quite recen5
years. I'm the automobile industry
have been such that any factory thar
.ould turn Out car that had any
merit az all could sell it's output The
time is bound 10 come when only
those factories winch turn ont cars
of unusual and upquestioned merit
will be able To sell their output.
When one stops to think OF all the
. energy and all the brains concentrate
ed now on the pro faction end OF the
automobile business one is inevitably
forced to the conclusion that scOntr
or later production viii catch MP win
demand Then good salesmansh'p
ard good advertising will play mo;e
prominent part in the automobile
business than heretofore. II Is play-
ing a part now Dut that part Is no.
plain To everyone. have just been
saving that the fundamental principe
of craftsmanship Is good goods When
tie time comes that production equals
or passes demand then the manufac-
turers who have maintained nigh
standard in spite OF all temptations
"a lower the standard 70" the sake OF
turning out greater quantities. VIII
find that they have nuch better saies-
men than they knew They Will find
themselves sitting CO a solid rock OF
public confidence.
No Chance For Him.
The man. no matter wat his repu-
tation as salesman may be- who
would undertake the job OF selling
through a long term Of years a pro-
duet that was inferior would be *
iremely foolish He would be playing
game where he had absolutely nc
chance for final success
The second great fundamental priu-
chile i'm salesmauship aud advertising
is honest statement This apples
equally to salesmatship by word, and
10 all saiesmanship in print. which is
advertising
IL is my observation that you can
fool the American public very long.
You can't even fool part OF the peo-
ME part of the time. / have never
known of a business 10 survive con
tinual dishonest statement. There
has been a tendency | think. In auto
mobile advertising 10 make extraVd-
cant statements Automobile adver-
Using has not been dishonest, but
some of It undoubtedly has been care
less We are all. of course. too READY
10 Chilli tliN f"'NH+
A great many people do mot believe
many OF the extra3agant claims that
are made and this has an unfortunate
result on the industry as a whole.
| am a thorough believer In adyer-
Using. II Is sometimes possible 10
market good products without very
much advertising. But these are ex-
ceptions. There has been many
4, valuable invention or manufactured
product which the world did not ge;
the full benefit OF simply because "
was not advertised, and there has been
many a good product utterly spoiled
by poor advertising.
The automobile business. more than
any one know. lends Itself TO adver-
Using. am one OF those who sin
cerely believes that the automobile
business owes much OF It's present
high wave OF prosperity to newspaper
publicity.
There is no business In the world
aN right now which SO fully occupies the
mind OF the general public as the au-
tomobile business. There is nv bust
ness which receives so much FAVOR
able attention from the newspapers
as the automobile business. ! think
we can credit the newspapers very
al ~