The Washington herald., 1916-05-13

Hugh Chalmers, president of the auto
| mobile manufacturing corporation bear
ing his name, recently said:
Il have found in my limited business
experience that the average business man
deals with FIVE Ms-Monday, Materials,
Machinery, Markets and Men. 1t is not
so hard to get money, materials and ma
chinery. Each OF these is a given quanti-
ty, and with each and all Of them a given
result can be accomplished. The big
thing is to get men! Men are not such
certain quantities as money, materials
and machinery. A machine will do a
known quantity of work in a known time.
a man will do such work as he is willing
and capable Of doing. Men. then. are
the most important factors in the con-
duct of any business.
The big problem in business today is
the problem OF dlstribution-the getting
OF the goods from where they are to
where they ought to be. The chief fac
tors in distribution are advertising and
salesmanship. Advertising is salesman
ship. plus publicity. SalesmanshIp is ad-
vertising plus getting the order signed.
If you want one word that takes the
place of both of these, that word is teach
ing, because in all advertising and in all
| salesmanship you are trying TO teach
people to believe in you and the things
you have to sell
I'm salesmanship the salesman rarely
ever talks to more than one or two peo-
pie at a time, while in advertising you
are talking to thousands. Advertising
conducts a public school; salesmanship
gives individual lessons.
Every business man is an advertiser.
whether he admits 1t or not. Our man.
ners, our clothes, our appearance, our
| speech. everything that we do or say ad-
vertises US, and We cannot deny IT, Since
you have to advertise. why not do it
right
"A good deal is said and written now
adays about the psychology Of advertis-
ing Now. I don't know much about the
psychology OF it-I hardly know what
| the word means-but if I were asked to
define advertising I would do 1t in one
sentence by saying 1t is having the right
luea ana using II at the rlgnt GTne 10
my mind. there are just three funda-
mental principles in advertising: First,
be honest; second, be sensible; third, be
persistent
Il say. Be honest because advertising
does not create value; it merely tells OF
it. The goods you advertise must pos
sess the merit IN themselves; all the
printers ink in the world will not add to
nor detract from the quality Of the goods.
Il say, BE sensible because most peo-
pie who read advertisements have good
common sense. and yet it is strange that
q great many people, when they write ad-
vertisins copy, talk about everything else
but the thing they should talk about to
interest people in the thing they have to
sell. I believe the main thing to do is to
put down on paper what you would be
likely to say orally If you were talking
to a person.
II say BE persistent because people
soon forget The hardest thing to find
today is yesterdays newspaper. If you
don't think so, try to find one. When
gone too, so that yesterdays advertise
ments will not sell today's goods
Il am frequently asked what are the
best mediums for advertising OF course
that depends somewhat upon what you
are going to sell. think, on the whole,
that newspapers are the best advertising
mediums, because people buy newspapers
to read the news, and they stumble into
the advertising.
1T is easier to make goods than to sell
them. I have been in the manufacturing
business all my life. but 1t took me some
time to find that out. Any man with
money can buy machinery and hire men
to run it. and make goods, but It does
not follow that because he can do that,
he can sell those goods. It took me some
time to find out that the making Of goods
is the least When you are manufactur-
ing goods you are dealing with men and
metals, and you can put thousand more
men to work and make more goods, but
when you cross the line and attempt to
sell those goods you will meet a differ
ent proposition.
mo sale was ever made until a man
Is convinced. He is not convinced until
he understands. He can't understand un-
less in the explanation he can understand
what you mean, and the average human
being has a considerable amount of pride.
We dislike to own up to thing We don't
understand
You can't sell to anybody unless he
understands what you are talking about.
Be sure your explanation Is plain, be-
cause half of the people DO not know
technical terms The man in business is
so close to It that he does not take the
other fellows viewpoint. SO we must give
it from this standpoint.
II believe in all OF the problems of
advertising and salesmanship that It is
nine-tenths man and one-tenth business.
believe that some men can succeed in
any business, which proves that 1t is the
man and not the business.
The salesman must be honest There
Is an old maxim, Honesty Ia ths best