Gbe IRational IBurscr^man. 
FOR GROWERS AND DEALERS IN NURSERY STOCK 
The National Nurseryman Publishing Co., Incorporated 
Vol.XXIX. HATBORO, PENNA., FEBRUARY 1921 No. 2 
Salesmen, the Greatest Asset to the Nursery Business 
By Michael B. Cashman, Owatonna, Minn. 
There is no greater force for development in any line 
of business in America today than salesmanship—it is 
salesmanship that usually measures the progress and 
success of any firm or organization handling products 
necessary for food or the construction of industries. 
Men go into business for the primary reason of making 
money, they either manufacture their line or they buy 
it and in turn undertake to sell it to the public at a mar¬ 
gin of profit sufficiently large to not only pay their over¬ 
head and initial expense, but also to secure a margin of 
profit sufficiently large to not only pay their overhead 
and initial expense, but also to secure a margin of profit 
for reserve. The supply in ordinary times is always 
ample but the demand is materially influenced by sub¬ 
stantial and efficient methods of selling. 
There are many products finding ready market in this 
country today that a few years ago were scarcely known 
and unprofitably produced on account of a poor market. 
We cannot say that such products are of any more value 
or have become any more a necessity, consequently we 
must attribute the increased demand for them to more ef¬ 
ficient methods of selling. Necessity is stated to be the 
mother of invention—we admit that it is, but in this gen¬ 
eration we more often find invention the mother of ne¬ 
cessity. Primitive living demands only enough food to 
sustain life, but 20th century living brought about by 
salesmanship demands scientific feeding, elegant cloth¬ 
ing, palatial housing with every comfort and convenience 
conceived by the mind of man for our daily accommoda¬ 
tion. 
Great changes have been wrought during the past de¬ 
cade and today we stand convinced that we have been 
sold our habits, our customs and our extravagant tastes; 
we have even been sold our religion for the preachers of 
the gospel are salesmen and their greatness and salary is 
measured by the effectiveness of their salesmanship. The 
teachers in our public schools are salesmen and mold 
the minds and characters of our future citizens. Our 
lecturers, public speakers, editors and politicians are all 
salesmen contributing either in a good or bad way to¬ 
ward molding public sentiment. Salesmanship is the 
potent factor not only in shaping our destiny but also in 
developing the business of the world. 
The nursery business is no exception in the require¬ 
ment of salesmanship, in fact, the nurserymen are 
wholly dependent upon the success of well organized 
selling campaigns for the marketing of their product. 
We have not often been confronted with an under-pro¬ 
duction of horticultural stocks, but we have very often 
found the market over-supplied and the demand insul- 
ficient to absorb the surplus. I feel sure that the matter 
of production is not the problem confronting the nur¬ 
sery business today and production can be effected only 
by the energies expended in the marketing of our pro¬ 
duct. Nurserymen have been concerned in market de¬ 
velopment for sometime past and we have every reason 
to expect that through the combined efforts of growers 
and dealers, nursery sales will be materially enlarged. 
Most Effective Selling Methods: Many retail nursery¬ 
men depend entirely upon publicity and a catalog 
through which to sell their product, while others use tra¬ 
veling salesmen with both liberal or limited publicity as 
the case may be. Both methods employ salesmanship 
and we have examples of success and failure in each, 
but my observation leads me to believe that a personal 
interview with a prospective buyer is unquestionably the 
most effective method of getting business. The salesman 
on the ground has all the advantage in putting over a 
sale, he is there to answer all questions and comply with 
all requirements—not only that, but his personal in¬ 
fluence if he has proper salesmanship qualifications 
usually results in a larger order than the purchaser 
originally intended to buy. 
The traveling salesman brings the nurseryman and 
the buyer in closer contact and if he is the right kind, 
he establishes a friendly relation that creates more and 
increased business year after year. A satisfied customer 
is usually pleased to have the salesman make his annual 
call and very seldom refuses to give another order that 
would not be given were it not for the fact that the sales¬ 
man made a personal visit. The traveling salesman makes 
a thorough house-to-house canvass in the territory he is 
assigned to and by intelligent arguments used in his 
canvass, creates a more lasting impression in favor of 
fruit-growing and ornamental planting than could pos¬ 
sibly be done in any other manner. 
I do not mean to imply that the personal interview 
would not be augmented by newspaper or other pub¬ 
licity, but I can safely say without fear of contradiction 
that the salesman on the ground not only dispels all hesi¬ 
tation on the part of the buyer to give an order, but he 
usually enlarges it very materially over the original 
quantity the purchaser planned to buy. There are thou¬ 
sands of orchards, groves and landscape plantings flour¬ 
ishing in all sections of the country that would never 
have been planted were it not for the traveling sales¬ 
man. The salesman is really the main avenue ol out-put 
for nursery products. Sometimes he fails to make a sale, 
but often where he fails to secure an order, he creates a 
demand for fruit trees or ornamental stock that results 
