dbe national IRurser^imatu 
FOR GROWERS AND DEALERS IN NURSERY STOCK 
The National Nurseryman Publishing Co., Incorporated. 
VoL XX. ROCHESTER, N. Y., DECEMBER, 1912 No. 12 
GETTING ORDERS AND BUSINESS BUILDING 
One of our subscribers writes as follows: 
“Would like to see a discussion upon the subject ‘How to 
get orders without agents expense of successful nurserymen.’ 
This would be indeed an interesting subject.’’ 
It would be hard to imagine a subject of more vital interest 
to the Nurserymen or in fact any business man. While no 
statistics are available it is a pretty safe guess that it costs 
most business houses from 15 to 30 per cent to sell their goods 
or in the case of the landscape gardener their services. It 
matters very little whether the sales are made through agents, 
the mail or any other method. It is really a problem that 
every business man has to work out for himself, but there is 
no question that if the different nurserymen would give 
their experiences and opinions it would be of great mutual 
benefit. 
A nurseryman’s product is not a finished one, his goods 
have a potential value rather than a real one, he can seldom 
display his wares. He has to bring his customer to his nur¬ 
sery, which is usually away from the haunts of men, or he 
has the other alternative of showing pictures or giving word 
pictures either written or verbal describing his goods. He is 
further put in the disadvantage when catering to the retail 
trade of having to describe the possibilities of his stock rather 
than what it is. A rose bush in March at the time of planting 
is very different to the rose bush in June when it cannot be 
delivered. 
There is no business calling for more faith on behalf of 
the customer and it naturally follows that there is no 
business calling for more integrity on behalf of the 
merchant. 
It is not common for a man to enter the nursery business 
and by modem merchandising methods make a fortune, as is 
often done in other lines. It is rather a business that is built 
slowly by knowledge of the business, skill in growing, confi¬ 
dence begotten by honest saying and doing and an intelligence 
that takes advantage of every opportunity. 
The fmit tree growers have the advantage over the 
growers of ornamental, to the extent that their products are 
standardized and commercialized and for which there is a 
well defined market in supplying the orchardist and fmit 
grower. 
The ornamental grower has to create his own market, in 
fact, educate the public except for the help he receives from 
the Landscape Gardener, and this is a costly undertaking. 
The bi-annual catalogue, proficient salesman, mailing cam¬ 
paigns are all problems that require a great deal of thought. 
Many minds working on the same problem eventiially bring a 
solution. It may not be until the result of the experiments 
are recorded and the resulting knowledge systematized and 
organized until it becomes a science. 
Here is where the hope of the nurseryman lies “By becom¬ 
ing a scientific salesman.’’ 
The word salesman is used in its broadest sense and 
includes the corporation or firms as well as the individual 
tree agent. The catalogue as well as the letter offering trees 
for sale. 
How many when offering their goods do it scientifically, 
study the field of operation and make their offers accordingly ? 
You cannot make a sale unless you attract the prospects 
attention. Will your catalogue, letter, salesman or adver¬ 
tisement do that? After attracting attention will they 
arouse an interest? A jokey advertisement may attract 
attention and arouse interest but not create the desire to buy. 
If they do all three is your equipment ready to clinch the 
order in such a way that both the buyer and seller profit? 
An advertisement in the form of a business card may keep 
your name before the public but in these days of competition 
it requires more than that. You must convince the buyer 
that you have the stock he needs. 
Perhaps many attribute low prices to the competition in 
the nursery business. Cut-throat competition is bad, but 
competition that forces the nurseryman to grow better stock, 
expand his market and give his customers the very best 
service is good and what a market the nurseryman has if he 
will collectively develop it. Every home in the United States 
with a yard 50 feet by 100 feet is a prospect for five dollars up 
and what is more the customer would be benefitted and the 
country benefitted by the purchase. 
The real problem before the nurseryman is the develop¬ 
ment of the market for his goods. Although we may rail at 
the trusts and combines, it would be worth our while to 
emulate their methods in the development of a market. 
Take for instance the National Cash Register Co., their 
product is not a necessity as compared ^vith bread and beef, 
but by salesmanship they proved to nearly every storekeeper 
in the land their products were needed and it is up to the 
nurseryman to prove to everyone who has a place to plant, 
that it needs planting. This is a large order but it will come 
with co-operation and good management. 
Many nursery firms are doing more than their share in 
educating the public by expensive catalogues and literature 
and other forms of advertising, but they may feel grateful to 
know that every new planter is an advance in the welfare of 
the nursery business at large. 
