The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1921-04-19
STOP DAWDLING-SELL

TO make good IN this new period,
business men will have to transfer
their affections from engineering
and factory efficiency to sales eff
cheney, declares Homer Mckee in the
current issue of Forbes Magazine IN.
W
mo matter whether you like it or
not" says this forceful writer, "you
have to get into the sales end and
make yourself felt.
The concerns that are to use this
depression, which we are just leaving,
as n stepping-stone under their feet,
instead of a milestone around their
necks, and who are to be the million
aire powers of tomorrow are those
who catch the big idea of the moment
and concentrate on the selling end.
What is your first selling job?
obviously It is to get your produce
into the hands of the consumer at the
lowest possible retail price
THAT may mean redesigning your
whole selling machine.
eff there is any serious waste in
your present sales method, you will
have, to discard it.
study carefully your present
method of distribution!
DO too many people take a slice
before the goods get to the customer?
Are there too many profits and dis
counts between your shipping plat
form ana the consumers back door?
DO YOU make tho consumer pay too
many travelling expense accounts?
Are you running up extravagant ho-
tel bills, taxicab bills and long jump
K~1a
sumner? How much value is there in
the retail price he pays for your
product: and how much of that price
he pays for your product; and how
much of that price represents waste
full expense in your distribution
method?
These are things to think about.
Are your dealers taking a fair price
from you, and lacking on reasonably
high price tickets? If this is being
done, what protection have you? How
can you stop retailers from overcharg-
ing the public? How can you make
sure. that your brand gets to the con-
sumner at a just and fair cost to him?
There is but one aswer: Take the
consumer into your confidence. Sell
him concretely and definitely on the
sincerity of the factory behind the
goods, on the integrity of your institu-
ton. and on the value of your brand.
Only known brands turn over
quickly. The known brand is always
the first to leave the shelves. Quick
turnover. quick sales, quick profits
that's what the trade channels are
looking for. They won't buy your stuff
unless its sale is insured by user con-
fidence and good will.
Have l made Ii clear that the man
who holds your destiny in his hand
Is not the jobber, or the retailer-but
the consumer?
'rf you have caught that one idea.
and have the good sense to apply Il
they'll never lick you.
"All Of which means that you must
develop new and a wholesome re-
spect for advertising.
Advertising is to be the automatic
machine in this new period that will
save a dollar for every added factory
dollar entaiied by expensive labor, high
freight rates, and raw material costs
that refuse to return all the way 20
the pre-war basis.
Gust a word in conclusion: Adver-
Using does not increase costs or de-
crease profits. II costs nobody any
thing because it is a creative force
within itself--not parasitic.
WHO pays for advertising?' you
ask.
Answer me this-who pays for am
other kind OF automatic. ost-cutting
machinery? The answer is simple
advertising pays for itself. Otherwise
IL is not good advertising. 1t not only
pays for Itself out OF the wealth II
creates, but 1t makes every other de-
partment OF your business profitable
that is. II It's the right kind of adj
and Is correctly applied"