Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-11-29
BUSINESS CAREER
OF PETER FLINT
A Story Of Salesmanship by
Harold Whitehead
(CopyriohtJ

II HdrOtd w httoHedd
II (CopvriohD
NJ; Whitehead tOill ans,ccr pour business
Questions on bnytnO. selling. advertising aud
! employment. ASK pour questions clearly and
| circ all the facts. Your correct name and
lnn address must be otven to oil inquiries.
| Those Uhich ore anonymous must be ignored.
bv maH. Other questions WNn be anSpcrcd
lens Of inquircrs tchi DC tcouem into the
| story Of Peter Flint.
, Nov to state the proposition that old
~ Lucas Kellett made me yesterday
Assuming your references are substan-
tial. I'd entertain this plan. I'd sell you
that land for $3.50. SITS and 5000 lot.
= The lots average 80 by 115 feet. You
sell the lots for 5000. $500 and $3.50.
Wait a minute. He opened n drawer In
his old desk and to my surprise I saw a
card index fitted in II. He referred to Il,
touched. buzzer on the floor which
brought In a|middle-aged woman and he
said to her. Bring me map 17C."
In minute she returned with nc,
which was. of course, n map of the
Clearvale subdivision. He pointed out to
me the locations of the different priced
lots and showed why the difference was
made. I noticed all this data was neatly
typed In the corner of the map.
Now. you can pay me half of all you
get till you've paid for the lots. Then
I'll Issue a deed to the purchaser as soon
as he's paid you In full. or else to you If
he falls to fulfill his contract. but pays
enough SO that half of 1t gives me my
money. II he don't pay enough to do
that, we each have half Of what hes
paid for our trouble.
And you'll give me the sole selling
rights?" l asked.
ITO a certain extent I've two or
three people interested in lot or so but
as there are 71S lots altogether, the two
or three l might sell couldn't make any
difference. outside Of that you can have
It oil to yourself I'll give you an option
for three months anyhow and thereafter
so long as you sell six lots every week.
That should be easy and you'll have 1t
all cleared up inside of two years.
There's just one or two other little
items" he went on after a pause. I'D
want my bookkeeper to check up your
payments every month and you'd have
to pay me every week half of what you
received. With your check I'd want a
statement saying who paid you and
what lots, the price paid and the total
amount paid to date Also, you ought
to have an office close to here-you
could perhaps get right into this build
ing
We ch'nned along bit more and
then / left with the understanding that
I was to call again on Saturday. and II
he found that I was o. X. the deal
could go through as planned.
certainly think It's going to be big
slice Of luck for me. 1t just shows that
everything we do-even II we don't like
it-seems to lead naturally to something
else. II Id never worked for Lee. I'd
| never have known of Clearrale-so
there you are. that's how 1t goes.
Francis brought Bruno Duke home
with him to dinner. I hadn't seen Duke
since my illness and It certainly seemed
good to hear him laugh again. He'd
lust been working on the sales problem
OF a stationery jobb'ng house which had
been losing money slowly for few
years 1t had taken all his "pep." so
he was easing up for n few days before
settling down to writing up-settling up.
to write down--a series CT sales letters
for ladies' waist concern.
He told us OF a clever buying stunt
that's worth repeating.
"Ive told you of several good selling
stunts in the past. so for change I'll
give you good buying stunt" that's
how he began.
"a certain Los Angeles manufacturer
never mind of what-used a tremen-
dous lot Of white paper every year He
had found out that the buyer had given
the order to the same house for several
years and that he had received graft
all the time.
"Of course, the buyer and his job
were pried apart and new buyer In
stalled. He was one OF those blue-eyed
Willie boys to look at, but he had the
real works under his tympanum.
There were only four firms Uet's call
'em A. B. c. d., who could make the
kind Of paper they used. so this young
ster wrote to all four firms for prices
and requested that their statesmen call
on him after prices and samples had
been submitted.
1.-TWO statesmen called at once. but he
wouldn't see 'em till prices and samples
were sent. Then. and not till then, was
he to be reached
"The statesmen for house A called first
and the following conversation took
place:
"Buyer-'Your paper and price Is ex-
cellent and I think you are due to re-
ceive an order
Salesman (all tickled with himself)-
I'm very glad to hear that. We pride
ourselves on our leadership In produc-
ing special paper like this
"Buyer--'Yes, SO I understand. Now.
this Is the situation. It's my first big
buy for this firm. and as past supplies
have been poor, I've decided to split the
order In two so as to protect our inter-
ests and know 1t will please the big
chief. Now, want you to help me. II
you have half the order. that leaves 1t
for me to decide which OF the other
three houses Is the next best to yours.
so that It can have the other half
Which Of these three firms do you con-
slider best. next to your own, OF course?'
C Is next to ours for quality and price
'Buyer-'Thank you very much. I
can't give you the order right now. but
you'n hear from me in a few days
"A few days later"
Francis is bowling that he wants to