The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1922-05-18


cal intensity applies just as thorough
ly to selling, does it not t? Sales vol
ume always must equal sales pressure
divided by sales resistance.
81 like to compare the process of
the distribution to the creation of a
vast pipeline leading from a great
tank into which the producer pours
his manufactured article. The first
link in the pipe line of distribution is
the merchandise broker. Then there
is joint of transportation, carrying
on to the second link, the wholesale
house. Another joint of transporta-
ton carries that link on to the great
jobbing house, and again there is a
joint of transportation which carries
on to the last link in the pipe line
which is the retailer. Now any man.
ufacturer who thinks that he has
made sale because he has moved his
merchandise out of this tank along to
one or the other links of that pipe is
making great mistake. Brokers,
wholesalers, jobbers and retailers do
not use merchandise; they merely
handle it., Let manufacturer move
a thousand cases of hs merchandise
into the warehouse of wholesaler
and until that merchandise moves
along the pipeline of distribution to
the ultimate consumer, the only effect
is to clog the pipeline at that point.
''The only sale that really counts is
a sale made to the person who will
wear the stuff out or eat it or in some
way render the reproduction Of that
merchandise necessary. The merchan-
disc must pass clear out through the
end of the pipe before the sale has
really been completely made. At the
end of the link in this pipe line of
distribution, we have tap, and thru
that tap, ninety-odd percent of all
merchandise sold in America must
pass and does pass into the hands of
the ultimate consumer. That tap is
the retail sales person behind the
counter. Experiments made recently
have shown US (in the case of our ex-
periments at least) that this tap is
just As percent open today; that SIS
out of 100 sales made by advertising
are killed by salespeople.
advertising seldom sells goods.
Advertising does not sell goods ex-
cept in the case of the great mail
order houses, perhaps, and the COM
panies that deal directly with the GUS
toners. All that advertising may do
for most of us is to bring the GUS
toners into stores where salespeople
may either sell them goods or kill the
sales, as they did in SIS percent of
the cases of our test.
"We don't sell articles, we sell the
need for or the use of an article. 20
years ago Mr.. Simmons of the Sim
mons Hardware Company said to the
salemen in hardware stores: "Don't
try to sell augers; sell the customers
holes and he will have to buy an
auger to make them The same thing
is true of everything that you and I
try to sell. For example, let's take
the case of mems overcoats. Perhaps
you think you bought an overcoat last
fall? You didn't buy an overcoat.
What you bought was warmth, COM
fort, protection, style, fit, appearance.
You bought the functions of the over
coat. Every woman who buys clothes
buys style first and the other consid-
erations afterwards-shed does not buy
a cloak or suit; she buys the func-
tions of the cloak or suit to her. 1t
is always true that what we must sell
is the use to which an article is to be
put. To find that use we must look
at the article through the eyes of the
prospective customer and consider
what could the customer do with this
article if she or he bought it.
"It is fact that the good will of
our customers on which the success of
our business depends no less than the
of 55 percent of sales
which might be and are not made as
the result of our advertising, rests in
the hands of the retail salespeople.
What are we going to do about it?
How are we going to realize that 55
percent of lost sales? The answer
must be found in education.
The Associated Advertising Clubs
of the World are, without question,
the greatest marketing organization
in the world, and therefore, we have
felt that it was our duty to not only
get in back of movement for better
advertising, but to enable the retail
ers using this better advertising to
secure it's full benefit through back
ing it up by better craftsmanship.
Therefore. orr Educational Depart-