OCTUBKU HI. 1»07. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review^ 



MIDDLEMAN AND SALESMAN. 



[A paper by Win. H. McKisslck, of Philadel- 

 phia, Pa., read before the Florists' Club of 

 Philadelphia, October 1. 15)07.] 



This paper, gentlemen, is not written 

 with an antagonistic spirit, for we whole- 

 salers are far from hunting trouble. A 

 full share is already portioned out for 

 us, and we are pretty sure to get it 

 without looking for it. But it is written 

 with a hope that it may in a measure 

 bring the middleman and the storekeeper, 

 or the buyer, into closer touch with each 

 other, and with the idea that it will 

 help each to more fully realize and ap- 

 preciate what one is doing for the 

 other. 



Some Bygone Salesmen. 



Some of you will probably remember 

 how, twelve or fifteen years ago, the few 

 wholesale houses which were in existence 

 at that time employed men and boys at 

 from $8 to $12 per week and called 

 them salesmen. Their business was to 

 sign for express packages, check up the 

 contents, wait on a customer or answer 

 the telephone — which was first installed 

 about this time in one of our houses. 

 In other words, these men were a sort 

 of jack of all trades and master of none. 

 As a rule their employer was a frank, 

 open-hearted, honest sort of man him- 

 self, and one who felt that his employees 

 were equally so whether he was on deck 

 or not, and he never thought it neces- 

 sary to see whether these so-called sales- 

 men were handing out $1 worth for $1, or 

 $10 worth. He simply took their word 

 for it, and when the end of the week 

 came he possibly sat down and figured 

 for hours and hours in his efforts to lo- 

 cate the sale of certain material which 

 he was positive he had received from 

 his growers and for which he found no 

 bill of sale. Finally, after all his ef- 

 forts had been exhausted, he would go 

 down in his pocket to pay for the goods 

 and take chances of finding the leak 

 later. Another week would go around, 

 with possibly the same experience and 

 the leak still unfound. 



Mysterious Disappearance of Stock. 



Now, in other markets, I am told, it 

 is customary for the buyer, in order 

 to secure a bargain, to pass slyly to the 

 80-called salesman a piece of money, pos- 

 sibly 50 cents or $1, and if he did not 

 resort to this method he would probably 

 have to pay an exorbitant price, or, to 

 use a common phrase, be burned. The 

 word "burned" needs no explanation; 

 we all know too well the meaning of it. 

 Now, while conditions were in days past 

 nearly as bad on this market, it never 

 came down, to my knowledge, to the de- 

 liberate handing out of cold money. To 

 be sure, there were times when material 

 disappeared mysteriously from the 

 wholesale houses. After accepting a ci- 

 gar or a dinner on the quiet, or after 

 visiting some neighboring grog shop at 

 the invitation of some of the buyers who 

 were not burdened with an oversupply of 

 principle, the so-called salesman did the 

 work, and should these buyers have sud- 

 denly gotten religion, and on the impulse 

 of the moment revealed what they knew 

 to the proprietor, he would probably have 

 had a solution to the leak in his sales. 



Another bad feature of the business 

 at that time was the overgenerous spirit 

 of the wholesaler in allowing his em- 

 ployees and others what was known as a 

 donation. When Saturday night came it 

 was not considered out of place by the 

 employer to allow an employee a portion 



Villiam E. McKissick. 



of the flowers left over as a donation. 

 But this privilege became sadly abused, 

 so much so that flowers at times took 

 wings, and the privilege had to be 

 stopped. 



Selling From Wagons. 



Another ancient idea was the sale of 

 flowers from the wholesale houses by 

 wagon. This custom you are all familiar 

 with, and while at one time a success, of 

 late years, since we have had the tele- 

 phone and understand more thoroughly 

 what could >je accomplished by it, the 

 wagon has almost entirely been aban- 

 doned. If it were not for the fact that 

 one of our wholesalers, whom I have 

 the honor to regard as a good neighbor 

 and a close friend, still persists in using 

 his wagon, I would be inclined to say 

 about such a man, as our friend Mr. 

 Meehan said about the grower who still 

 carries his own stock, that "he was ten 

 years behind the times. ' ' 



But today, gentlemen, things are dif- 

 ferent. The wholesaler, profiting by his 

 past experience and that of others, and 

 awakening to the call which competition 

 has made, is running his business direct 

 from the shoulder and on the most up- 

 to-date principles and methods. The day 

 of the donation is past; he has discovered 

 that the flowers in his possession are not 

 his own but the property of some grow- 

 er. If his employees want them they are 

 welcome to them at the lowest market 

 price; but they must be paid for. The 

 day of the would-be salesman is done, 

 and in his place we have those who have 

 stood the test and have proven them- 

 selves to be capable salesmen without 

 a question of doubt. The wholesaler of 

 today employs the most fully experi- 

 enced men he can get. systematizes his 

 business, puts the men in their respective 



places according to their knowledge and 

 ability as salesmen, packers, graders and 

 delivery clerks, paid them their price, 

 and demands results. He has an eagle 

 eye on the goods coming in — where they 

 come from, how they are handled and 

 gr.ided, how sold and at what price, how 

 packed and delivered — thus keeping in 

 touch with the stock he is handling from 

 the time it reaches his place of business 

 until it is handed over to the store- 

 keeper and the bill is O. K.'d, or is de- 

 livered to the express company for ship- 

 ment. 



The Modern Salesman. 



The salesmen in our wholesale houises 

 today are a class of experienced and 

 energetic young men of whom our store- 

 keepers should feel proud. As compared 

 with the salesman of fifteen years ago, 

 these are real salesmen and real men, 

 who are fully capable of selling material 

 at its market value and who do not have 

 to stoop to the low standard of giving 

 the buyer more than a dollar's worth for 

 a dollar, with the idea of securing his 

 business and making a large book or 

 appearing to be more than he is to his 

 employer as a salesman. 



Philadelphia's middlemen, I am giad 

 to say, are all progressive and have m^de 

 wonderful strides along the lines of ad- 

 vancement, credit for which has been 

 handed out to them in various forms. 

 One will say, "He's a wise, shrewd 

 business fellow." Another will say, 

 ' ' Mr. Blank, his former employer, taught 

 him all he ever knew," And still an- 

 other will say, "His financial backing 

 is his whole success, and without that 

 he would be lost." But, gentlemen, let 

 me put you right; all of these things 

 are in a measure responsible. A man 

 must have a good, level head to man- 



