Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1919-03-30
THERE IS A WRONG AND RIGHT WAY TO SELL
TRACTORS JUST 4 FEW SUGGESTIONS

which should have influenced him
largely have been obscured. He has
too often been ignorant or indifferent
to the sort of tractor he ought to sell.
He has not understood his local condi-
lions and he has not been apt in adapt
ing a tractor to those conditions. He
and his customers have not analysed
the individual need of each and the
result has been that a lot of misfit-
ting has taken place.
Take a typical instance. certain
dealer in southern Wisconsin took the
agency for Il well known tractor line.
This dealer conceived the notion that
one size of tractor namely, one with a
three or four bottom capacity, accord
ing to soil conditions, was the one no
ought to push regardless. A farmer
in that vicinity got II INTO his head in
turn that he needed tractor, and he
went to this dealer to buy it. The
dealer sold him one OF the big ma
chimes taking $500 as payment tho
agreement that the balance should be
paid after the tractor had proved it
self on the farm.
A BAD SALE.
Just at present this particular case
is in the courts because the farmer re-
fused to pay the balance of the pur-
chase price and the dealer sued him.
Why? The purchasers farm confined
only IS acres, and the tractor the deal
err sold him was entirely too large and
was impossibly uneconomic on a farm
of that size. Maybe the farmer did
not know any better. 1t is to be pre-
sumed that he did not, anyway or
else he never would have made such a
foolish purchase. Maybe the dealer
didn't know any better either. Then
again, maybe he did, but was indif-
ferent as to what the results might be
just so he sold the tractor There are
dealers like that, you know. But the
dealer ought to have known, and he
never should have made the sale under
any circumstances. In this case there
was no excuse for the dealer, because
there are two smaller tractors in the ,
line which he represented, either one of
which. admitting that farmer with
only rs acres needs tractor at all, !
would have come far nearer meeting
the case.
There are dealers who go at this sort
of thing differently. Take Dave Elder
at Stanford, Neb., for instance. Dave
is not alone a dealer. He is also
farmer, and some farmer at that. This
year he will plow at least 1000 acres
on his own farm and something like |
1000 acres additional for his neighbors. !
In his capacity as a farmer he operates |
a $3.50 ylor tractor, a 20 |
40 Case and 1920 Feider.
In his capacity as dealer last year
he sold tractors and tractor equipment |
to value of above 100000. His per-
2entage of expense for selling was |
about 10 per cent. The rate range of |
the tractors Dave sells is about the !
same as that of the machines he owns |
and operates himself. Maybe the fact |
that he is an experienced farmer him
self and tractor operator first os all |
tells him what he ought to do when he |
sells. At any rate he does not in his |
selling settle arbitrarily on certain |
size of tractor and then push that re-
CARELESS. Oh, no; that's not Dawes |
Method at all. Upon the contrary, he |
its he tractor to the job.
Th"ro are lots of big farms in his