November, 19JU 



C, I, !■: A N I N (J S 1 N 11 K K C V I, T L' 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



LESSON IN HONEY SELLING 



The Efficient Direct Seller Goes Out of His Way 

 to Please a Customer 



"A l";iriiH'r callod on us yostoiday selling 

 honey,'' said the family man. "A man 

 . with enteiju-ise enough to sell direct always 

 lias my moral support, aside from my ex- 

 perienee that i>rotiuets bouglit of him usual- 

 ly represent some saving. So I said, 'Per- 

 haps I'll take some,' and went out to his 

 businesslike little auto truck drawn up by 

 the gate. 



"The farmer pulled a pail out of the 

 truck. 'Five })ounds, ' he explained, 'Five 

 pounds for $1.35. ' 



" 'Haven't you something smaller?' I 

 suggested. 'That's more than we can use, 

 really.' 



"'Pshaw!' grunted the farmer, near- 

 scorn in his voice, 'you can use five pounds! 

 Why, that ain't nothing. The stuff will 

 keep. Why, we — . ' 



"I was rather nettled. I told him we 

 doubtless could consume that quantity if 

 we had to, but our annual experience with 

 honey was the same. We had a great ap- 

 petite for it for a sliort time. Then the 

 product palled on us. The family did not 

 care for more. We could use a pint jar, 

 possibly even a quart, but that was our 

 limit. Didn't he ever put honey up in 

 those quantities.' 



"He didn't — never had. He persisted 

 in his astonishment that we were such poor 

 honey-eaters. He went away wrapped up 

 in that astonishment. 



"Say!" concluded the family man, "if 

 every direct seller was built like that chap, 

 do you suppose I 'd answer their door-bell 

 rings! I might, but I doubt it." 



Like this honey peddler, there are many 

 farmers who sense the profit-making oppor- 

 tunity in selling direct, and tentatively try 

 out the method, only to display critical 

 lack of salesmanship in their intercourse 

 with consumers. This honey-man did. He 

 had a sale practically made, with an oppor- 

 tunity to acquire a pernument annual cus- 

 tomer. He "fell down" miserably because 

 of an inability to grasp quickly the situ- 

 ation and adapt his tactics to it. 



There is a certain well - known slogan 

 which is rigidly lived up to in many large 

 menantile establishments. It is "The cus- 

 tomer is always right." Even when a 

 clerk knows the customer is in the wrong, 

 he is taught to abide by the slogan, "The 

 customer is always right." The customer, 

 whose gooil-will is absolutely essential to 

 success, is no person to argue with or dis- 

 pute with. At any rate, he is sincere — he 

 believes he is right, and any intimation to 

 the contrary is pretty sure to antagonize 

 him. 



It hajipencd that in this case the custom- 



er actually was right, lie knew what his 

 table reciuirements were, and there was 

 nothing strange about them, as the honey 

 peddler indelicately suggested. Some ]ieo- 

 ple don't care at all for honey. Others like 

 a little. Some like a lot. The peddler 

 should ha\'e recognized these varying de- 

 mands in putting up his honey. Pint jars, 

 (jiiart jars, five-pound i)ails and ten-pound 

 jtails would have been a good assortment. 

 It would have enalileil him better to satisfy 

 a retail trade. 



If he had wished to ]>ush for large sales, 

 he could still have done it in this case. He 

 should have been well primed with inform- 

 ation about the use of honey in cakes, 

 candy, and other cooking. Comparatively 

 few housewives know of the cooking value 

 of honey. The family man, acquainted 

 with this information, might have called 

 his wife out. There would have been a 

 clumce of converting the family who want- 

 ed a pint or quart into a five-pound pur- 

 chaser. 



It 1.5 certain that, if the direct seller had 

 used this selling point consistently in his 

 canvass, he would have increased to a 

 noticeable degree the total quantity sold. 



This would simply- have been using that 

 intinuite knowledge of his product which 

 every salesman is expected to have. Had 

 it not interested the family man and his 

 wife, there still remained ojien a success 

 ful termination to the interview. 



"I'm sorry I haven't a quart jar with 

 me," he should have said, smiling, "but 

 I'll put it up and bring it around. Glad 

 to fix you out. ' ' 



The merchant who goes out of his way 

 to "fix out" a customer, whether his prod- 

 uct be honey or baling-wire or poultry feed, 

 is laying the foundation for permanent 

 good-will and patronage. The honey man, 

 ten to one, could have sold the- family man 

 another year. That he did not see his op- 

 portunity and grasp it indicated an ignor- 

 ance of one principle as important in direct 

 selling of farm products as it is in many 

 mercantile enterprises — that " repeat 

 sales" are the side of the business where 

 profits hide. Permanent customers — they 

 should be considered indispensable, what- 

 ever the product sold. The efficient direct 

 seller is in business as i>ermanently as the 

 druggist, and like the druggist he needs a 

 jK'i-manent clientele. 



Huulder, Colo. .T. T. B:irtlett. 



BURYING BEES IN TRENCH 



Idaho Beekeeper Has Used Plan Successfully and 

 on Large Scale 



I was well pleased with the result last 

 winter of burying my bees, yet think I 

 might improve another time, I^or a locality 



