ON A TOWN LOT. 39 



Building Up a Good Cl^aracter 



If we want to be successful In life we should build up a good 

 character, which is more important than building a bank account. 

 I am here addressing the young man just starting out in life. The 

 older man with experience knows that it pays to be honest. The 

 earlier in life that we find we have something to live for besides 

 making money, and feel an interest in a customer besides getting 

 his coin or making a sale, the sooner we start on the road to success. 

 The more I mingle with the largest and most successful poultry 

 breeders of the country, the more convinced I am that the average 

 man in the chicken business is of sterling character. You cannot 

 build a successful business without giving every man or woman a 

 square deal. You will aKvays find that it pays to be liberal. I do not 

 mean to hand over all you have when you run across a customer 

 who is not reasonable. In my experience in other lines I did not 

 find it possible to please every customer. The policy of my firm 

 was to be liberal, but I occasionally found men who could not be 

 pleased, no matter what kind of a reasonable concession was made. 

 I am not surprised to occasionally find such men in the chicken 

 business. They are found in all lines. Do your best to please your 

 trade, and then failure will not be your fault. As I discuss the 

 importance of a good character I find myself leading up to another 

 important qualification of a successful chicken man, which is 

 salesmanship. 



The Science of Salesmanship 



The science of salesmanship is as of much interest to a success- 

 ful poultryman as it is to a successful traveling salesman. This 

 is a subject that interests all men in nearly all avocations of life. 

 The banker has his stocks and bonds to sell, the insurance company 

 has its insurance to sell, the manufacturer has his wares to dispose 

 of, the farmer has his products to market, and so on down the line. 

 There are two ways to make sales: first, by personal interview, and, 

 second, by letter. The man on the ground finds it much easier to 

 make sales than the man who has to sell by letter, because he can 

 talk with and size up his prospective customers, while the absent 

 salesman has to read between the lines the kind of buyer he is 

 dealing with. The average experienced drummer knows how to 

 approach a buyer almost the moment he sees him. With the mail 

 system this must be acquired by reading between the lines of the 

 letter. It behooves him to conduct his correspondence to get the 

 best results. It is here where many a beginner fails. 



In preceding pages I have told of the importance of advertising. 



