Run counter to these, and the best advertisements in the best mediums will

strike resistance.

Parallel them, and you build up greater resistance for your competitor.

The Sales Plan is the first thing-the vital thing to be considered in preparing a Mail-Order Advertising Campaign.

The ability to recognize and measure the resistance to the sale of a given article is rare indeed.

A thorough knowledge of merchandising, a deep understanding of human nature, an acquaintance with the habit-ofthought and purchasing peculiarities of different classes, and unusual initiative are necessary to formulate Sales Plans, even after the resistance to sales is recognized and weighed.

That is why the so-called "advertising expert" usually makes his strongest stand on Copy and Media.

He has neither a realization of his own shortcomings, nor an appreciation of the magnitude of the profits he sacrifices.

The Sales Plan, Copy and Media constitute an advertising campaign and should be considered in the order named.

The best Copy and the best Media can never produce real success without the Right Sales Plan behind them.

If you do not get the Right Sales Plan, a competitor-mayhap with an inferior article, but a better idea of merchandising the Right Sales Plan, can reap a rich harvest-from your advertising. Think that over.

T

HE money you are spending for advertising is discounted at least fifty per cent, if you do not have the proper connection between your advertising and sales force.

This is a strong statement, but it is the result of several investigations made by the writer in the hope of discovering the reason why an advertising plan would be a howling success in one town and a failure in another town of about the same size, where conditions are similar.

I have before me a statement showing the results obtained from our "30 Days' Free Trial Plan" that was adopted by one hundred per cent more of our customers than any other similar campaign.

It was the most satisfactory and pronounced success, from the standpoint of actual sales, ever offered to the hardware and house furnishing trade, and

yet a few towns in which this plan was used show a loss.

Reports from Our Sales Managers show that almost without an exception the loss is due to two causes:

First-the lack of a proper understanding and connection between the Advertising and Sales Departments.

Second-an uneducated and inexperienced sales force.

As a matter of fact the advertising done in these towns created the same favorable comment and brought into the store as many prospective purchasers as it did in the towns which showed over one hundred per cent increase, but the trouble was that the advertising was not backed up and the sales were not made after the advertising had performed its mission.

Do you know how many calls you have for stoves each day?

What per cent was sold?

Whether or not they are fourteen or eighteen-inch ovens, etc.?

If you are not getting $2 in return for every $1 spent in advertising, I would suggest that you begin a quiet investigation by asking yourself the following questions:

"Is my advertising copy what it should be?"

"Do I make good every offer and back up every statement made in my advertising?"

"Does the front of my store and my show windows present an inviting appearance?"

"Is my store and stock of goods CLEAN?"

"Does a jealousy exist among my salesmen, or do they pull together for the interest of my business?"

"Is my sales force thoroughly familiar with the distinctive features of every line in my house?"

"Do my salesmen understand the advertising campaign mapped out for the next thirty days, and the part they are supposed to play?"

"Have I done everything in my power to educate my sales force and keep them in daily touch with what is being done from my advertising department ?"

If I were opening up a hardware or house furnishing store and had appropriated $5,000 for advertising, if necessary I would spend $2,500 of my appropriation in educating my sales force before putting a single dollar into advertising.

Can you imagine anything more ridiculous, or as silly, as a man renting an expensive store building, buying a fine

stock of goods and spending a large amount of money in inviting the people to visit his store, when he has for a sales force a conglomeration of men who are not organized, who have never been given the opportunity of thoroughly understanding the policy of the business, the distinctive features in the different lines handled, and who have been selected or picked up from different places where each man has been educated to do business in a different way?

If you were going to fight a great battle wouldn't you select an army of the best men you could find and then proceed to drill and thoroughly educate and organize them before going into battle? The organization of your sales force and the team work among your men, in my estimation, means more toward the success and profit of your business than any other one thing I know of.

You can rent buildings, you can buy goods, you can buy newspaper space, you can hire advertising agencies to write your copy, but unfortunately there is no market in which you can go to purchase the kind of salesmanship you require for your individual business. It must be made, and made by you; therefore, I again make the statement that were I beginning a new business today I would devote more of my time to the perfecting of my sales force than any other feature of my business.

The only way to make advertising an investment instead of an expense, is to have your sales force so well organized and educated that they will convert the lookers into purchasers after advertising has induced them to cross your door-sill. -Buck's Shot.

I

N this day of scientific, expert salesmanship it is not so difficult to sell, or even load up, the average country dealer. Manufacturers, therefore, are interested in any proposition that will assist the dealer in disposing of the goods bought. Competition is becoming stronger every day, and the live manufacturer is no longer content to just sell a man, and then quit. It used to be that the traveling representative would sell his man as much as he could, or wanted to, and then forget all about him until the next trip. If the merchant succeeded in disposing of his goods, well and good. If not, well, it was too bad, and he would give him the go-by for a few trips and try to load up his competitor by way of compensation.

Today the real work of the manufacturer commences after he has sold the dealer-not before. His idea now is not so much to sell Smith, the dealer, a big line, but how to assist Smith to get rid of the goods rapidly in order to be able to sell him again, sell him more and sell him oftener.

What is the use in selling Smith a lot of incubators, for instance, making him tie up a lot of money, and taking a chance of his not being able to dispose of them? Any manufacturer with a halfway meritorious line can employ good traveling salesmen, good advertising and other means that will induce the dealer to place an order; but, that is a poor place to stop. The dealer must be helped to dispose of the goods after he has bought them—and at a profit. Here are some practical suggestions:

1st. After selling a dealer no traveling representative should consider his work finished until he has thoroughly drilled the dealer and his clerks schooled them in any and every possible manner that will assist them in selling his line. Every possible talking point in

favor of the line should be explained and illustrated. The dealer and his clerks should be treated as though they were the retail customer or consumer, while the traveling man should impersonate the store salesman. Then, the dealer and each clerk should in turn act as the retail salesman, while the traveling man should be the prospective purchaser or consumer. Schooling of this kind takes up but very little time, there is no expense attached to it, and it cannot help but post the dealer and his clerks so that they can talk the goods intelligently and convincingly when they have a prospective customer in the store. These talks are usually held after business hours, and clerks that are sincere and worth while will not object to the extra half hour, as they can be shown where they personally are benefited.

2nd. No line or article of any consequence should ever be shipped a dealer without proper explanatory literature accompanying it. Nor must it be argued that all the information the dealer or his clerks may need is embodied in the catalogue. The average catalogue is kept as a book of reference-for prices, sizes, discounts, etc., and it usually does not give the talking points that help the clerks sell the goods. Even when it does the clerk does not get the opportunity to look it over. A little booklet or pamphlet that the clerk can put in his pocket and read at his leisure, one that can also be handed out to "lookers" is the proper thing. Advertising money cannot be spent to better advantage than when put in a well printed and properly illustrated booklet or folder. The clerks appreciate this help, too. A new line is put on the floor and it stands to reason that they want to know all about it in order to be able to talk it intelligently.

3rd. It is of the utmost importance that the dealer be assisted by the manu

facturer in every possible manner in his advertising, whether he uses newspaper space, handbills, signs or any other form. Any fair-minded dealer will admit that he does not know as much about advertising as the advertising department of the large factory or the advertising agency employed by the factory, and nine times out of ten he welcomes any assistance that may be offered him.

If the dealer uses newspaper space, as he usually does, he should be furnished with electrotypes and good convincing advertising "talks" that will tend to create a demand and result in a sale for the goods. Some factories handling trademark lines even go so far as to furnish cuts and copy not only on the article they themselves sell the dealer, but on anything and everything the dealer wishes to advertise. They, of course, embody their trademark in all cuts so furnished. In this manner they really secure the newspaper space bought by the dealer for the mere cost of a tencent electrotype. It is a matter of amazement that more of the larger factories do not see this opportunity. The dealer is perfectly willing to have his space filled by any individual or company that can get results for him. There are a few large institutions that secure whole pages of newspapers in cities of all sizes for the mere cost of a matrix or electrotype.

In order to render a service of this character to a large list of customers the manufacturer must of course have a system. The traveling representative must take out at each visit what is practically an advertising report. The report is turned over to the advertising department in the factory or the advertising agency employed, and contains such information as to how many papers are used, size of space used, number of ads wanted, etc. It should also contain information as to whether or not customer uses a mailing list, and if so booklets and suggestions for letters to be mailed with same should be ordered out

with goods. If the factory furnishes signs, window cards, etc., these should also be ordered out on the advertising report. Advertising matter must, of course, not be ordered out indiscriminately. The traveling man must use his judgment and feel reasonably certain that the dealer is enthused and will use everything sent him. A Wisconsin hardware dealer was once discovered wrapping up nails in 1-sheets furnished him by a factory at a cost of about eight cents a piece. This is an extreme case of neglect, but it illustrates that judgment must be used in furnishing advertising matter of any kind.

4th. It has been found exceedingly profitable by a number of manufacturers to keep in close touch with customers and their clerks, as well as prospective customers and their clerks, by issuing monthly a little house organ. This is usually edited by the advertising department or agency, and in order to make it pay must be original, newsy, breezy; not heavy or dry, and must contain business talks that will be a help in selling goods on the floor. The value of house organs, with practical information as to cost, etc., has been the subject of an article in a previous issue of AGRICULTURAL ADVER

TISING.

If the manufacturer reading this will place himself in the position of the dealer for a moment-consider that he has purchased two lines of any article, and was furnished the service above referred to by one of the factories, and nothing by the other factory, he can soon figure which line he would be apt to sell the quickest.

Another immense advantage is that the dealer can always ask and secure a higher price for a well advertised article. The result is that he makes more money on the line, he is pleased with it because of the profit it brings him, and he is easier to sell to and hold.

Summed up, the manufacturer assisting the dealer has the best of it, any way that you can figure it out.

recently appeared in booklet form. Blake is a young man, but old in

Tank up with happiness if you want busi

ness.

You like to do business with the man who

greets you with a smile. Kindness and

the glad-hand is a combination that makes a hit with you.

You and the other fellow do not differ so very much. The other

fellow won't stand for a vinegar shower any quicker than you will-and right here is a great truth which should be drummed into every male citizen from the time he lets loose of the Castoria bottle until his friends provide him with a coffin. This then is the idea:

The people of this country will pay for what they really want-and they all want happiness.

You

may

think that

you can succeed in business without being a salesman, but you

will

change your mind after the sheriff gets through with you.

While the best advertisement is a chance

to tell your story, in your Own way, right on your sample-room floor with the goods in front of you and your customer in a good humor-you must first get the customer into your sample-room. It's like the recipe for