118 



FIFTEENTH ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE 



from home, it may not be convenient 

 to go home. 



I think both plans are good, but it 

 depends on circumstances. 



I use the cellar for wintering. 



In one yard I built a cement block 

 house at a cost of $800; a cement floor, 

 cement cellar, and all that, and the 

 bees paid for it in one season; I had 

 a net profit on that yard; of about 95 

 colonies. 



The other two yards, one house is 

 larger, the other not quite so large. 

 Furthermore, I have an outfit of tools 

 at each yard. I have an extractor at 

 each yard and the small tools, a set of 

 carpenter tools, saws, etc.; I have a 

 full outfit of supers at each yard, to- 

 gether with all other necessaries. 



President France — Don't forget the 

 question box; Mr. Bull and Mr. Wheel- 

 er are on that committee. 



President France — Among the papers 

 on our program is "The Marketing of 

 Honey," by Mr. H. C. Ahlers. 



It was told at our Wisconsin State 

 Convention last Thursday, as this Wis- 

 consin brother was on our program, a 

 party announced that last week or a 

 week ago yesterday he was at Mr. 

 Ahlers' funeral. He was making ready 

 for another southern trip to Louisiana 

 and was taken ill and has gone. 



President France — "Selling Honey," 

 by John Kneser, of Hales Corners, Wis- 

 consin. I will allow our secretary to 

 read Mr. Kneser's paper. 



"MY EXPERIENCE IN SELLING 

 HONEY AT HIGHER PRICES." 



I have had considerable experience 

 in the selling of honey, both to the 

 wholesale and retail trade. I have sold 

 this commodity since 1908 in the great- 

 er part of northern Illinois and the 

 southeastern part of Wisconsin, to di- 

 versified nationalities. The variation 

 in price fluctuated, of course, as to sea- 

 sons and to localities; but the effort 

 to sell the product always has been 

 about as great in one place as in an- 

 other, regardless of the season. 



Since the theme of my paper is 

 prices, I shall state briefly my experi- 

 ence why unreasonably low prices ex- 

 ist, and, if possible, the remedy for in- 

 creasing prices. While quality is, of 

 course, an important factor, I have al- 

 ways found the real reason for low 

 prices to be the lack of experience in 

 salesmanship. Subordinate reasons 



are, fear of even asking for a fair 

 price, desire to meet the price of, or 

 rather to undersell the competitor, ig- 

 norance of cost of product, cost to sell 

 and what is a good price for a useful, 

 wholesome and pure commodity, and 

 last, but not least, the peddling of an 

 actual inferior article. Perhaps a little 

 personal experience, which is quite 

 vivid in my mind just now, may be of 

 interest. A farmer from whom I pur- 

 chased bees threw into the bargain his 

 three or four patrons to whom he had 

 been selling honey for years at lie per 

 pound. I went to these people and sold 

 them at my price, needless to say, by 

 my usual line of argument. 



The citation of this little concrete 

 cage proves what was said in the fore- 

 going paragraphs. My experience has 

 always proved that the^thing to keep 

 uppermost in mind is, at all times, to 

 talk quality and to impress upon the 

 prospect that the highest quality al- 

 ways demands the highest price. 



This line of argument has always 

 worked out most successfully to the 

 retail trade or to the house to house 

 trade, to which I usually sell in pack- 

 ages of the so-called two and one- 

 half-, five- and ten-pound pails at the 

 following prices: One 2% -lb. pail, 19c 

 per lb; one 5% -lb. pail, 85c, and one 

 10 2-3-lb. pail, $1.60; comb honey 23c 

 per lb. To the wholesale trade, I sell 

 little comb honey, but considerable ex- 

 tracted put up mostly in twelve and 

 twenty-three ounce paper bottles, 

 which I find very convenient and at- 

 tractive, being just the thing for quick 

 sales. 



For a possible remedy, if this has not 

 already been gone into sufficiently in 

 the preceding paragraphs, I would sug- 

 gest a few don'ts: Don't sell honey 

 without first studying the elementary 

 principles of salesmanship. Don't talk 

 price until you have studied your cus- 

 tomer or prospective purchaser, and 

 don't talk price until the purchaser 

 wants the article, and above all, have 

 quality, talk quality and get a quality 



P"*^^- JOHN KNESER. 



Hales Corners, Wis., 



R. F. D. No. 19, 

 December 14th, 1915. 



Mr. Stone — That is all very good but 

 who can be a salesman like that? 



Mr. Bull — If there is a person in this 

 room who was a poorer salesman than 

 I six years ago I would like to shake 



