The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1911-04-21
NE of the most attractive of

~ NE of the most attractive of
NlM business men to the aver
L0fNb3 age youth is the drummer,
V$tN or travelling man, or COM
iNKV mercial traveller, or COM
mercial salesman, or tray
cling salesman, as he is called in va
rious parts of the country. This ad-
m1ration on the part of the American
boy, who is always on the lookout
for some lifework that appeals strong
ly to his idea of what Is both agree
able and profitable, is cue to the ap-
pearance of comfort and prosperity
which the travelling man presents
when ION the road" This, of course,
is only a surface feature of the bust
ness and does not do away with the
fact that underneath this apparently
care-free exterior there is the same
necessity for the exercise of good bust
ness ability and application that char
acterize most other occupations.
Your boy who has an ambition to
adopt this calling should be made &C.
quainted at once with the facts in the
case. He should be convinced right at
the start that the travelling mans gold
Is not all glitter, and that he IS one of
the hardest worked individuals to be
get on in the world.
That wagon load Of trunks which he
so blandly orders sent to the sample
rooms of the hotel has to be unpacked,
every one of them, and the contents
attractively spread out on counters
himself, because it is his taste and
knowledge of goods which must be
used in arranging them so attractively
as to hypnotic the local customer
into buying. After few hours these
samples must all be packed again
travelling mans easy affability and
happy-go-lucky expression Is not as
sumed much for pastime, but for the
purpose of selling goods, and to sell
goods in these days of strenuous CON-
petition means the hardest kind of
work and study and acuteness. And,
furthermore, as he works on a CON-
mission basis, either directly or indi-
rectly, his success depends entirely
upon his own efforts. This is more
GENERAL in his case than in most &C.
equations.
i But If your boy still insists on being
drummer it is quite possible for him
kr h1 ole ~ r;
the prospect of as great success as at
tends the other branches of mercan-
tile life.
: The best way for him to begin is
with some wholesale house, the larger
the institution the better. However,
unless in the rarest of instances, he
will not be able to earn his living the
first year; for this time will be spent
largely in getting acquainted with the
rudiments of the business. Say he is
good, healthy lad Of 16 or so, with
the ordinary common school educa-
ton. He had better choose the par
ticular line of mercantile business he
wishes to follow before he makes his
beginning, as 1t will be somewhat diff
ticult to make change afterward.
He will be paid anywhere from $50
to $3.50 for the first years work, or
from 81 to $3.50 a month, and will be
put to work in the stock room
Let us, for example, say that he
has chosen a wholesale grocery firm
and that he is assigned to the soap
department. Here he will see an al
most endless variety Of soaps, from
the high priced dainty kind used in
my lady's boudoir to the yellow
laundry soap, and it will be his
duty to see that this stock is kept
. up and is always in order. When
ever any of the goods are depleted, he
will report to the head of the depart
ment and they will be replenished
Then he should be careful to note
Of the way visiting customers are at
tended to by resident statesmen, and
after a year or so he will have oppor-
tunity of waiting upon somebody him.
self. If he makes good at this, he
will have more of the same work to
do. and after awhile will, perhaps, be
able to show that he can take care OF
the most troublesome of customers.
Then-it may be after four or five
years. work-he can realize his ambi-
ton to be sent on the road.
During all this time he will have
been absorbing everything he possibly
can from the regular travelling men
when they come back to headquar-
tiers, studying their methods of ap-
preaching and handling the retailers
and the general technical phases of
the business. He will also find that
pne of the fundamentals of a travelling
salesman is to know all about the
goods he handles. This includes a
close analysis of the soap itself, a
knowledge of the process of manufac'
lure, of where the raw material comes
from, of it's chemical composition, of
the prices at which 1t Is sold and the
lowest price at which it can be sold
profitably, of what the freight rates
will be to the town of the customer, OF
the terms Of sale, Of the financial
standing of the merchants he will en-
counter In his search for trade, OF
what competitors are able to offer In
The way of prices, quality, etc.
In short, he must be able to answer
satisfactorily every possible question
Ind argument that may be offered by
\ nrosnactivo hnver And finallV-