The talking machine world (Apr-June 1921)

44 THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD Aprii. is, 1921 T <^ MAKES EXTENSIVE STUDY OF EDISON SALES PORTFOLIO Geo. H. Wicker Tells in a Most Interesting Way in Printers' Ink Monthly of the Results Accomplished by the Edison Sales Portfolio — Calls It Mine of Information In the March issue of Printers' Ink Monthly George H. Wicker gives the results of his extensive study of the Sales Portfolio, which is the joint work of William Maxwell and his associates at the Edison Laboratories and which has taken rank as a masterpiece of its kind. Mr. Wicker analyzes each proposition in turn and demonstrates what a perfect mine of information and inspiration they may be to the dealer. Incidentally, Mr. Wicker has some interesting things to say about salesmen as "missionaries" and quotes William Maxwell on the subject. The following extracts from the Printers' Ink article are unusually illuminating: "One of the commonest sins in modern merchandising is the so-called missionary work of the sales force. There is much popular misconception about it. The definition of the term ii taken for granted too many times. With many sales managers it has become a sort of pet fetish which has lost its potency without their knowledge. Rites are still observed and indulgence granted to its blessed memory. Many a salesman has covered up many a delinquency b}^ appending to a lean and hungry sal?s report a memo that "he was doing missionary' work among the dealers' and. has been able to get away with it because he knows his boss belitves in missionary v/ork. "What the n;anufacturer needs to do, therefore, is to merchandise his ideas about his product to the jobber just as he would merchandise his product. " 'For many years,' said Wm. Maxwell, vicepresident of Thomas A. Edison, Inc., the other day, T had attempted unsuccessfully to make missionaries of salesm.en. It occurred to me in this connection that the only way to get salesmen to promote sales ideas was to put the ideas into such shape that they could be sold, virtually, as merchandise. " 'There are probably few manufacturers who have more trade gospel to spread among dealers than we have, or less adequate facilities for doing it, owing to the fact that we distribute our phonographs through jobbers and have to rely to a great extent i^pon the jobber's traveling salesmen. " 'One of the first things I did, therefore, was to have every one of our sales promotion plans for dealers gone over and worked up into a definite "proposition." We found many of our ll^lllilllllHy «/l»***M|IM^% *^t«Ullt»M»««5 «im'»«»»i-.^ sales promotion plans were pretty indefinite. About all they amounted to was a set of instructions that required the dealer to do everything, while we sat on the fence and watched him work. 'We took each one of our plans, drew a perpendicular line, set down on one side of it tlie things the dealer could and should do, and on the other side the things that we could and sliould do to make the plan effective. The result was a "proposition" which could be sold to the dealer, provided it met his requirements. This caused me to incorporate the following principle into our sales policy: " ' "Each dealer's needs must be studied as an individual case and sales aids offered to him according to his actual needs. Each sales aid will be presented to the dealer in the form of a definite proposition, a'B if it were a piece of ruerchandise. Sales promotion plans will be put into self-serve packages'." "The work that Mr. Maxwell's idea entailed nearly threw his advertising and sales organization out of joint. The scheme was altogether the most stupendous thing of its kind ever undertaken by the company. The idea, at conception, seemed to be innocent enough, and everybody greeted it wiih much acclaim because it looked to be so delightfully simple and easy to do. . "It was like the simple proposition of saving money by depositing a dollar on the first day of the month and dollars for the sum bf days on each day following, which apparently gui'eless proceeding runs up to an alarming total in the course of thirty days. "But to-day, after the work has been done and the plan ha.= been tested in actual operation, the company looks back to the preliminary work that had to be undertaken as one of the important factors in its present success, for the Edison merchandising plan embodies features that distinguish it from most plans and has made history in the phonograph world." ROHEN STONE We are the only miners and manufacturers in this country of Rotten Stone for use in Phonograph Record making. Our product is now in use by practically every record manufacturer in this country. We are also headquarters for all other minerals for record making and everything we handle is made especially for this purpose and absolutely guaranteed. Expert advice given upon any formula. KEYSTONE MINERALS CO. 41 Union Square, Naw York City