120 



FIFTEENTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE 



can sell anything on earth if I believe 

 in it. 



Mr. Bull — Whenever you try to sell 

 to the consumer anything that you 

 don't believe in yourself he will know 

 it every time. 



Mr. Ufman — There is another point 

 that comes out there about the price of 

 the article: Mr. Bull mentioned a little 

 while ago that the first thing a per- 

 son asked was the price: 



Show people your goods — and then 

 tell them the price; never tell them 

 the price first. 



Mr. Bull— If they ask the price too 

 soon, I keep on talking. 



Mr. Smith — There is a difference in 

 the ability of men to sell goods. Today 

 I believe we should have the best ex- 

 pert salesmen for selling crops of honey 

 that are to be had, and I believe they 

 should devote their entire time to sell- 

 ing honey. 



We may have a man who can pro- 

 duce from 20 per cent to 50 per cent 

 more honey than, if you will excuse me, 

 I will say, Mr. Bull can, but that same 

 man might not sell 10 per cent as much 

 honey as Mr. Bull; those two men 

 would make good partners. 



If he can get a partner who could 

 produce more honey than he could 

 produce, but who cannot sell one-fourth 

 as much honey, it would be a good 

 combination. 



We know an organization of men 

 who can sell the product. 



It is -ciuite evident that the produc- 

 ers as a whole are not good salesmen. 

 It is a trade — it is a profession, and a ■ 

 great many people could never really 

 acquire the ability. 



Some men can sell honey and they 

 can sell anything while others can 

 sell hardly anything. 



Mr. Bull — In regard to a bee-keeper's 

 selling his crop of honey or having 

 some one else sell it for him, I agree 

 with this gentleman perfectly. 



As far as I, myself, am concerned, 

 I sell a very small percentage of my 

 crop personally; I don't have time; that 

 Is where most of us fall down; we have 

 not gone into the selling game and 

 don't know how much it will cost to 

 sell. We think we know how much it 

 will cost to produce. We want to put 

 some one out to selling honey for us. 



Salesmen, I don't care what they are 

 selling, will not work unless you are 



paying them. It costs as much to sell 

 honey as to produce it. 



If your honey is worth 10 cents to 

 produce, it is worth 20 cents- to put 

 it on the table. 



When you are paying a salesman to 

 do that work you can get a salesman; 

 you are not going to get much out of 

 that 10 cents. You have to give most 

 of that to a salesman. 



Another thing: Don't send that 

 salesman out and give him a price of 

 13 cents or 14 cents on that honey, 

 and then go on selling by mail or any 

 other way for 15 cents or 16 cents in 

 the same locality he is selling in. 



Right there is the whole thing in a 

 nut shell; you hold up the other fel- 

 low. You don't know what it costs to 

 sell honey until you go out to try to 

 sell it. 



If you sell to your grocer so that he 

 has to retail it for 20 cents, and you 

 sell all around him for' 15 cents, what 

 chance has he to sell? 



Protect the fellow who is working for 

 you, your grocer or salesman, and your 

 problem is solved. 



President France— I think there is a 

 point that we, as producers, should 

 take note of. 



In learning bee-keeping: We take, 

 as it were, a book, and learn it page by 

 page; after we master the first page, 

 we turn to the next and, after we have 

 gone through the book far enough, we 

 have pretty well learned how to pro- 

 duce. Some of us have learned how to 

 manufacture and put it in marketable 

 shape; a lot of us have not turned over 

 to the marketing proposition. 



Many of us do not know whether we 

 are salesmen or not. 



We have asked one or two to buy 

 honey and they do not buy and we take 

 it for granted we are not a salesman. 

 . I am sorry to say that in Wisconsin 

 — some bee-keepers are willing to sell 

 to some wholesale man and sell to 

 some one else at the same price. You 

 cut your throat every time you do that. 



We are trying to get it all and have 

 the other fellow do the work for us. 



President France^Marketing honey! 



Could we have Mr. Dadant with us 

 who could handle this subject? But, 

 as I announced before, it seems that 

 sometimes calamities do not come 

 singly; they have illness at their home 

 and one of their family is in the hos- 

 pital, and Mr. Dadant cannot be with 



