The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1913-06-01
IRVING R.ALLEn.

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large enough to yield certain amount o
money
The good man would hardly touch myprop
osition. 1t did not offer the opportunities.
MY only alternative was to get hold o,
mediocre men who were willing to put VI
their time and travelling expenses agains
my proposition and then train them-mak,
them good men. To do this had to havs
selling plan Of some kind. 80 began t.
formulate one
Price usually In the easiest thing for q me.
diocre salesman to sell on. The good sales
man sells at high price, the poor man ha,
to have low one. Now I absolutely would
not consider selling my goods at Q lower hg.
ure than silas Crabb's
IT had been a source Of pride to me when
on the road that always got the price-that
my sales were saies-not bargain counter
orders. But realized that the men would
have to put ont could not be depended upon
to sen goods at high figure.
Allows Unusual Commission.
So was confronted with the problem of
how to cut the price to the grocer and still
sell at list figures. That sounds like joke
or an impossibility. but It was not. Ny win
dow exhibit solved the problem and gave me
the necessary material to work with .
Now consider this carefully. There was .
margin Of 20 per cent between the price
the grocer paid for the goods and what they
actually cost me.
Out OF this 40 per cent allowed 10 per cent
as commission to the man who sold the bill
Salaries were usually based at o per cent
on sales. but I figured that a man who was
risking his own money was entitled to 10
50 set 1t at that ngure.
But here was where the kicker came in
here was the way made It easytor q sales
man to seIl-here 10 the method used to cut
my price and still sell at list.
In consideration Of a dealer giving us ex-
elusive use Of one Of his show windows for
SIX months . year We agreed to pay or re-
bate him an amount equivalent to % per cent
of the price at which We sold him the goods!
Do you get that? Right there was where
made my ten strike. The % per cent rebate
to the dealer was not q discount-it was pay
cash money in return for the use Of his
windows. II not only accomplished the price
cutting end. but insured US . continuous. in
dividual advertising campaign In the store of
every dealer We sold.
The 20 per cent for the dealer plus the 10
per cent for the salesman left 10 per cent net
out Of the 40 per cent gross profit for yours
truly. And while q little less than the av-
erase net profit in this line. IL was enough,
considering the shoestring was doing busi-
ness On.
The next thing was to get statesmen. Ihad
been successful IN selling goods and show
;1- afb harr IN nd fart ebok n
could sell dealer merchandise I could sell
men my proposition strongly enough to get
them to try II out at their own expense.
/ inserted an ad In the local paper with
the idea Of seeing how salesman took to the
proposition. The nrst man who responded to
my advertisement was sent by Silas Crabb
The old fox wanted to find out what had I'D
my sleeve.
Goes to New York for Statesmen.
had better put my men out from some other
point. So packed UP and went to New
York City
secured q suite Of rooms at q good hotel
and inserted my " Statesmen Wanted adver.
tisement In the classified columns Of practi-
caIly every good Newspaper in New York
City. And had . perfect flood of applicants.
Seems as II all the statesmen In the world
were at my door.
But two days OF soul "a cking heartrendinr
work convinced me that my proposition was
hopeless-I could not get statesmen to 10 ON,
on my straight commission propositiop-at
least not the men wanted. They were accus-
toned to getting salaries and were suspicion.
of the man who wouldn't back his PROPOSE
tion with his own money
And talking about money. my FUNDS AT ,hi.
time were alarmingly low. / only had s5p
left of my original $500. Pretty slim bank
roll and prospects Of getting statesmen very
poor.
I came down to breakfast next morn,ne
pretty well discouraged. A boy came IN par.
ing me and I called him over and opened
the telegram he proffered.
"win pay you $1s, 900 a year and buy Won,
corporation at $4,000, cash. Wire answer
srLAs CRABB.-
I was dumfounded. Right when things
were at the lowest sbb. this offer came as a
life saver.
Esn was II a life saver? No. II was
worth $4,000 a year 10 Sflas Crabb. was
worth that to myself-nany times over.
Many years before. q wire from Silas Crabb
had proved the turning point for me. This
me had the same e1ect-the message parity
and the remembrance Of what he had said
over the phone mostly
I wrote my answer while the boy waited
. No.
But my refusal Of this offer put me In a
position where something had to be done-at
,nce I went back to my room to receive
ZONE more appltcants
The nrst fellow who applied was a bright,
lean Appearing chap Of about Is. He talked
we'll. but admitted he had no experience in
selling. Was employed In an insurance Of
ice, but wanted to get on the road. as he
,eAevnd his opportunity bay in the selling
ieid
Up to this time 7 had been CURLY Diminishing
applicants with no sxpsrience. I. like many
,ther sales managers, preferred TO let the
,ther fellow do the preliminary training
Gets Competent Sales Force.
Beggars can't Be choosers. To all intents
md purposes was q beggar, and anyway
something struck me about this fellow. He
,a1 the making Of . salesmsn. Upon further
ak he expressed himself - willing to 70
nut on the road on his own money for two or