The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1917-02-08
Talks
TO.
Fruit Growers
BY
Northwestern Fruit Exchange
No. 9
Sales Dept. Continued
TO FRUIT GROWERS: /:

10 tndt anu IL uOcSi fSpuiiS iiuSh VI
any organization. But to actually sell
the fruit and produce in car load lots
outright; to induce the trade to put
hard cash into the deal, requires sales
manship. Now it is one thing to have
bunch of statesmen working for you,
but it is another thing to DIRECT and
CONTROL those statesmen. They can't
be allowed to run wild; everything they
do has to be CONTROLLED by cen
tral authority. Hence, the need of a
SALES MANAGER at headquarters,
and a staff of competent assistants.
Management is the secret of success -
or failure-of any business. Hence,
the EXCHANGE has placed at the
head of each of each of it's departments
TRAINED PROFESSIONAL in his
particular line. The Sales Department
of the EXCHANGE is headed by HOW
ARD G. FLETCHER, one of the best
known and most widely experienced
sales managers in the fruit and vege-
table business. He has had Ia years of
practical experience in the boxed apple,
soft fruit and produce business. He
was formerly general manager of the
GRAND JUNCTION (Colo.) FRUIT
GROWERS ASSOCIATION, one of
the oldest and most successful growers
organizations in the country, with a
membership of about l,500 growers
He learned the business from the bot
tom up and understands every phase of
it, from the growing, through the pick
ing, packing, assembling, shipping and
ua hoe N xxyfIsa inf
ance with the different markets Of the
country and with the dealers in the
markets. MIR. Fletcher, with several
assistants, controls the sales organiza-
tion and personally directs their work,
largely by telegraph. Incidentally the
EXCH HANGE is the largest user of the
commercial telegraph in Seattle; its bills
for telegraph service amounting fire.
auently to 5000 per month. Every
salesman is under strict control; all
sales are made at prices named by the
sales manager and strictly subject to
his confirmation. The sales manager
has constantly at his command revised
up-to-date reports of the quantity and
quality of competitive crops, not only
of deciduous fruits and vegetables, but
of citrus fruits and bananas, and has
his finger on the pulse of the market
and knows to cent exactly what each
market will stand. And right here is a
point worth mentioning; there is con-
siderable difference In the buying power
and ability of the different markets,
and the local conditions in each have to
be carefully studied and analyzed in
order to make each market absorb its
share of the total supply. Hence, it is
necessary to do business at different
prices in different markets on the same
day, and this calls for expert judgment
and extremely delicate, skillful hand
ling. Then, too, each market has its
preference as to variety, grades and
sizes and these preferences must be
studied and understood if the best re-
suits are to follow. In the consignment
system of course the shipper can load
anything he happens to have and send
it along and the consignee will accept it
and sell it for what it will bring, but
under the T. 0, B. SALES SYSTEM
the buyer is very particular as to the
specifications; he wants what he wants
when he wants it, which is natural
enough. This means that the local as
sociations or units for which the EX-
CHANGE sells have to be much more
efficiently organized and managed than
those who simply assemble fruit and
produce for shipment on consignment.
The two systems are, in fact, so differ
ent in detail all along the line that they
can not be reconciled, hence, the ne
cessity of an association choosing either
one or the other and organizing its bus
iness to conform to the requirements of
the one selected. | remember case
that illustrates the point very well: 1t
was in the apple deal of 1911. That
year Eastern apples ran small sizes and
the domestic demand was for four-tier
and larger. 1t had been customary
pretty generally through the Northwest
up to the time the EXCHANGE::started
to base prices on four tier or larger and
voluntarily offer discount to the trade
on 43-tier or smaller. This system
never did appeal to the EXCHANGE,
as we thought that if all the markets of
the world were worked simultaneously,
special markets would be found that
PREFERRED the smaller sizes and
would pay q premium for them rather
than demand discount. Accordingly,
the EXCHANGES system has always
been to find out what each particular
buyer WANTS, and to sell him just
what he wants and to ask a full price
for what he wants. Well, as said, in
1911 the domestic buyers wanted four
tier or larger, especially in the Jona,
thans we were selling for the Cashmere
Union and pretty soon, before the fruit
was harvested, we had filed firm orders
with the Union for all the alter
larger Johathans, extra fancy and
fancy that they had They began to
complain, saying, "Why don't you
make the buyers take the stuff as it
runs? As it is, you have put us to the
trouble of segregating the sizes, have
sold US out of all desirable sizes, and
have left on our hands the undesirable
Sizes" We advised them to wait bit.
that they hadn't got their harvest we'll
under way yet and We thought we would
be able to hand them orders for the
other sizes. We were working the
European trade, and pretty soon found
a buyer who wanted certain number
of cars of Jonathans, but said: 1--WE
can't use the 4, tier larger except at a
discount; can't you load us straight
cars of a and 5-tier?" We said: eyes,
but that means segregation and ad.
ditional expense, so we shall have to
charge you full price for what you
want. They were satisfied at that,
and so we handed the Union orders for
the remainder of their Jonathan pack,
all before the fruit was shipped and all