“_That good old Ship—Salesmanship_”
Sales results depend upon advertising and the advertising results upon
salesmanship. The two are so closely allied as to be all but inseparable,
and the Advertising and Sales Managers should pull together as one team.
If you have salesmen on the road keep them thoroughly informed about the
advertising you are doing in their territories. Give each salesman a
list of the towns which you intend to post in his territory, and do it
in advance in order that he may acquaint the dealer with the fact and
use the publicity as a sales argument. The salesmen or members of your
advertising crew, if you have one, should also be able to use the fact
that you are going to post a town to secure window displays in advance
from the local dealers, in order that their stores may be connected with
the advertising and secure a certain portion of the demand.
Give your salesmen either a sample of the poster to be used—or, better
still, a small reproduction of it which he can carry around and show the
dealer as Exhibit “A.”
A splendid method of connecting your posting and window displays is
to get out a one sheet poster, hanger or banner for window use, the
same being a miniature of the poster itself. The repetition of the
poster design in the store window at the place where the article can be
purchased will be strongly supplemental, will tend to freshen the mind of
the consumer as having seen the poster and create a desire to buy and try
at just the right moment.
I have found in a long experience with advertising and salesmen that a
good live traveller is always awake to the benefits of advertising, and
that nine times out of ten it is the result-producing salesman who uses
your advertising matter intelligently rather than wastefully and who
takes advantage of all your local advertising to use as a lever on the
merchant for bigger business.
Checking your local posting by salesmen is of two-fold value. Where
the work is honestly and intelligently handled, you not only get an
above-the-ordinary checking report, but you impress the salesman,
especially if he seeks out each individual location, and spur him on to
more active sales work.
The live-wire salesman realizes that in these modern days of fierce
competition the aid of advertising is of vital importance and that
without it his work would be anything but easy sledding.
To sum up this chapter in a nut-shell:
Acquaint your salesman fully about your local advertising.
Give him a small reproduction or print of the poster itself.
Furnish him, wherever practicable, with small posters or hanger of the
same design for store work.
Urge him to secure window displays from the dealer to remain during the
life of the posting.
Give him a check list for each of his towns and insist upon him
personally inspecting the showing.
Suggest his getting acquainted with the local bill-poster, with the idea
that the personal equation almost invariably insures better service. It
is but human to do your best for those you know.
_Many an advertiser has killed a thousand dollar space with a
twenty dollar sketch._