Business screen magazine (1938)

On a continuing release basis of one production per month, the International Association of Milk Dealers has embarked on an ambitious sound slide film program. The headquarters of the Association is in Chicago, but its membership, drawn from leading milk distributing companies, reaches from coast to coast. The first film of the series, Collection Time Is Selling Time is already in the field and has been outstandingly successful, according to R. E. Little, executive secretary of the Association. The second production, Knoiv 'Em and Hold 'Em is being released this month. Two more films. The Road That Leads To Sates and Winning Back Lost Customers are now in production. "Interest in the slide film program has been remarkably keen," Mr. Little says. "The success of the first picture has convinced us that we have found the ideal medium for getting across to milkmen the basic principles and methods that will win and hold the good will of the customers on their routes. Reports from our members indicate that their milkmen have evidenced remarkable interest in the slide film program." Route sales training has been one of the major activities of the Association for several years. A survey just completed by the association reveals an astonishing degree of sales effectiveness resulting from the use of "The Balanced Job" manual issued by the Association in 1937. Sales reports A scene from one of the recent sound slide films released by the Milk Dealers Association. were received by the Association last year from a group of milk companies who were not using the Association's 1937 sales training program. Records were also received from a group of companies of similar size, location and sales potential who did use the program. The result was that the group using the training program showed a sales increase of more than fifteen per cent over the group of non-users within five months after the start of the program. "The result of this analysis." Mr. Little says, "convinced us that money spent on sales training is a very profitable investment. It was on the basis of this survey that we decided to proceed in 1938 with a more ambitious program of driver training and to experiment with sound slide films as the training medium, as a complement to our training program. "Reports received from our members as the result of the first showings convince us that we have made no mistake in co-ordinating this highly dramatic, human interest form of training with our regular program based on "The Balanced Job." We have letters from various parts of the country stating that milkmen have found it extremely easy to put into actual practice on their routes the sales methods and ideas they see in the pictures. One letter from a milk company in Pasadena, California, says: 'One of our routemen decided to try out the ideas he had seen in the picture. Before noon on the day after the showing, this man had phoned in for eleven extra cartons of cheese and eight of buttermilk.' "There is no doubt, in my mind, that our slide film program will result in some very marked sales increases for the companies that use it." Members of the Association's committee that has responsibility for the program are: W. A. Baril, Borden-Wieland, Chicago; Allen S. French, French-Bauer, Inc., Cincinnati; E. F. Hagemann, St. Louis Dairy Co., St. Louis; T. K. Hamilton, Diamond Milk Products, Columbus, O.; E. J. Larson. Bowman Dairy Company, Chicago; Gerald Meeker, McDonald Dairy Co., Flint, Mich.; and E. V. Mitchell, Polk Sanitary Milk Co., Indianapolis. 1938 BUDGETS LEAVE NO ROOM FOR UNTRIED EXPERIMENTS IN SALES TRAINING THAT'S WHY fhiee hundred industrial concerns — large and small — selling everything from soft drinks at a nickel to tractors at a thousand dollars have purchased over 20,000 Illustravox projectors and are getting greater value from sound-slide films this year than in any year since 1933. They know from experience that sound-slide films make better salesmen at lower cost. They know, too, that Illustravox tells the story of their product as they want it fold every time. It never forgets, never gets tired, never gives up. If you have five or five hundred salesmen — twenty or two thousand dealers — you will want to INVESTIGATE ILLUSTRAVOX NOW! 41