Business screen magazine (1938)

It SLIDEFILMS Digest-Reviews of New Business Programs Sound & Silent WIl.DINC; nc PFUtD. • The best selling plan ever produced will bring results only if the idea is put across. The men who are to use that selling plan must first of all understand it and want to use it. However good an idea is. it must be sold first! When The Pure Oil Company developed the plans for its "Balanced Selling" program recently. it was faced with just this problem. Before "Balanced Selling" could be put into effect, thousands of Pure Oil dealers and their employees had to be educated. Although the carefully thought-out system would help the dealer to set objectives for reasonable cpiotas, keep track of accomplishment from day to day and thus raise his earnings, it was a deviation from his usual loose ways of handling his business, so he actually had to be sold on the idea. Because of Pure Oil's decentralized marketing system, dealers could not be grouped in gatherings large enough to justify the use of a motion picture. Therefore, it was decided by Sales Promotion Manager W. P. Marquam that the story should be told by a dramatized sound slidefilm, supported by printed media. (It is quite important to mention here that Pure Oil although an extensive motion picture user, has used sound slidefilms only during the past year so the choice of this medium to present the story of one of the company's most important merchandising plans is significant of the results derived from the past year's productions.) The picture. Raise Your Sights, is a .'30-minute dramatized film of 274 frames. About twenty frames at the beginning and the end are devoted to an introduction and a summary, both of which are recorded on a separate record. Number Seven RE.SULTS BEING REPORTED ♦ To date the picture has performed its purpose to the extent that the "Balanced Selling" plan is under way in almost all territories now and there is "every indication that it will be the biggest selling factor yet devised in raising dealers' earnings." Phenomenal results are being reported from all quarters, according to Mr. Marquam, who has just returned from meetings in the field around Birmingham, Memphis and Atlanta. Here is an example of increa.ses in one area as reported by a Mississippi company: Commodities sold in addition to gasoline. Month of March. 1938 (Before BALANCED SELLING) Motor Oil Greases Tires 33,160 gals, 2I.'200lbs, $8,136. .\/<i7i//i of March. 1939 (After BALANTED SELLING) Motor Oil Greases Tires 88.563 gals. 24,685 lbs. $10,037. The Sales Promotion department of The Pure Oil Company has become thoroughly sold on the many uses of the sound slidefilm and feels this medium to be "more flexible than any other for the Pure Oil purpose, since it is easy to handle and to show to relatively small groups. Since first employing screen methods of educating and training dealers. Pure Oil has used seven sound slidefilms and two talking pictures — nine productions in all. Another slidefilm, now in production, will soon be released to introduce a new product to Pure Oil salesmen and their dealers. Almost every phase of service station work has been covered in these films. The following are the order of the slidefilms and the purpose for which each was made: 1. Dealer-training film instructing men in the "Island Service routine." 2. A sales promotion film selling dealers on starting a flat rate "bumper to bumper" service. 3. A technical dealer-training film on batteries and their construction. i. "Go Under the Hood" — training dealers on checking the oil. 5. Humorous 14 minute film "selling" dealers on clean rest rooms. 6. A color film selling the dealer on Pure Oil advertising and ways of using it. SYNOPSIS OF STORY ♦ In the dramatic story of Raise Your Sights, two filling station owners decide that business is so slow they might as well go hunting. At the last moment they each lose use of their car (to the wives) and they have to take along Phil, the lazy, younger brother, in order to get his car. On the drive to their destination they drive in several service stations for gas and are sold nothing else. Later, they admitted that with balanced selling they would have made ten other wellneeded purchases. These dealers on vacation then begin to wonder if they really are sufl'ering because of too much competition. From what they have seen on this trip there isn't any selling that could be called competition! The "Balanced Selling" program is based on the principle that every gallon of motor fuel represents an average of 15 miles of travel. Every mile of travel creates a "market" for the sale of oil, lubrication service, tires, tubes, batteries and accessories. Driving into service stations every day, the folks who make up this market make Pure Oil outlets the logical place to take care of all of the car owners' ordinary needs. With the help of the Pure Oil "Balanced Selling" chart, the Pure Oil dealer can see exactly what his potential market is in terms of the merchandise and services that the average motorist needs as compared to every gallon of motor fuel that he sells. In addition to being able to tell at a glance the exact amount of business that his station should be doing in relation to motor fuel sold, the Pure Oil dealer can see the gross profit that should come from the sale of each type of merchandise and service, as well as the daily sales quota that must be met to enjoy a profitable business. Promotional Booklets ♦ The unquestioned value of tying up the production of slidefilm material with the publication of the excellent handbooks and guidance material for the audience to carry away has never been better demonstrated than in three recent examples shown below. Lucien LeLong, the Illinois Bell Telephone Company and the American Newspaper Publishers' (Continued on Page 28)