Film and Radio Guide (Oct 1945-Jun 1946)

34 FILM AND RADIO GUIDE Volume XII, No. 6 tempted to try the card system, but they have generally been glad to come back to the good, old-fashioned route book. Now we’re ready for business. The question is, where are we going to get our customers? The campaign to secure customers divides itself into two main parts; namely, the mail campaign and the personal-solicitation campaign. A good classified mailing-list is essential. The classifications s h o u 1 d include school prospects, church prospects, roadshow prospects, club prospects, industrial prospects and home prospects. The local situation will determine to some extent the classification in the mailing list, although the first three referred to above are essential to any well-established film library. At least once every year literature should be sent to every one on the mailing list. This could be in the form of a new catalog or a new list of films of general interest. During the balance of the year, segments of the mailing list should be circularized on pictures particularly suitable for that segment. For example, if you secure a new religious picture, circularize the churches on your list. Note, however, that such a picture might be suitable for only part of your church group. It is good business to divide your church list into Catholic and Protestant churches and to see that each of these is circularized only on the pictures that are suitable for that group. In circularizing schools, bear in mind that they use not only textfilms in classrooms but also good, clean entertainment features in assembly halls and auditoriums. In the early days of the film libraries, when potential customers were few and far between, about the only practical method for securing new customers was through the mail-order system. The situation has somewhat changed today. Now there are many customers and prospects in almost any given community. Thus the traveling salesman has a place, and an important place, in our industry. Under normal conditions, the mission of a traveling salesman is two-fold ; first, to sell equipment whenever possible, because most libraries also handle equipment; second, to book films to projector owners. Where does the traveling salesman get his prospects? Some of them come through the mail, in the nature of inquiries. Such inquiries may be the basis of his visiting certain communities ; but while in those communities he m u s t recognize that all schools, churches, clubs, factories, training centers, etc., are his prospects. In fact, wherever people gather together he may find a prospect. A good salesman will tabulate his prospects in the community in which he finds himself. He will then go into a telephone booth and call up these prospects. He will follow up, by a personal call, every one who has given him any encouragement over the telephone. When he visits a projector owner, he will inquire about the condition of the machine, and no detail will be too small to demand his attention. Often a large film order can be traced to supplying a projector owner with a small item like a fuse, an exciter lamp, or a belt or helping him to realign his machine. Service is the keynote of success in our business. The attitude of a library operator toward his competitors is very important. It is here, frequently, that success or failure is determined. Wise competitors recognize that the success of one is related to the success of another. I strongly recommend that, whenever possible, competitors cooperate with each other, even to the extent of subleasing prints from one another. This fosters a friendly atmosphere, which is reflected in the attitude of the customer. Many a customer has stuck to a library representative or operator because “he always spoke well of his competitors.’’ The quickest way to fail as a library operator is to commence to cut prices. The salesman who can secure business only on the ground that he can sell the same pictures at a lower price than his competitor is destined to fail. He may succeed temporarily, but he will soon find that price-cutting is a whirlpool game that two can play. His profits will become less and less, until finally they vanish. The main requisite to success is service. If you send your customers prints in bad physical condition, you will not keep those customers long. If you send customers substitutions instead of what they want, you will lose those customers. On the other hand, if you go out of your way to get the right picture to your customer on time, even though this necessitates personally delivering the picture to him at a loss, you keep that customer. Service pays. CIO Labor Union Films The CIO Department of Research and Education, 718 Jackson Place, N.W., Washington 6, offers a list of films on labor problems and “Union Hall Films,’’ a 32-page annotated guide that may be secured for 10 cents.