How to Sell 100 Copies Weekly
A training booklet from the Curtis Publishing Company's circulation department, decorated by F. G. Cooper, for the boys who sold The Saturday Evening Post, The Ladies' Home Journal and The Country Gentleman door to door and on the street.
What it is
A training booklet from the Curtis Publishing Company's circulation department, decorated by F. G. Cooper, for the boys who sold The Saturday Evening Post, The Ladies' Home Journal and The Country Gentleman door to door and on the street. It sets a target of 100 Posts and 50 Gentlemen a week and builds toward it in steps: start with relatives and neighbours, prefer steady customers to chance sales, and open every approach with one article chosen for that person. Chapter II scripts answers to common refusals, from "Call again" to "Too many advertisements". Chapter III lists selling plans, including trading orders with the family's grocer and barber and an "endless chain" of referrals. Later chapters cover 16 causes of lost customers, a five-step sale, record keeping, cutting unsold returns, and the voucher prize scheme. A survey of 519 customers shows why each one bought.
Why read it now
The booklet's own survey is its strongest page. Of 519 new customers, the largest group, 53, bought because the boy knew and talked about that week's contents; only 9 bought because of a prize appeal. The rule behind it still holds: give each person one reason that fits them, not your reason for selling. Its referral plan fits later evidence; a 2011 Journal of Marketing study of a German bank found referred customers were more loyal and more valuable. Two claims need care. The retention chapter works as a checklist, but its idea that holding customers matters more than winning new ones is weaker than it sounds; Ehrenberg-Bass research finds brands grow mainly by adding buyers. And the survey asked only people who ended up buying, so it cannot explain those who never did. What has dated: a child sales force, praise for a boy who kept entering an office after being threatened, and a revolver among the prizes. Use: list the ten objections your team hears most, write one answer each that points to a specific benefit, then ask your last 500 customers why they bought.
Passages worth keeping
Fifty-three customers bought because the boys who served them knew the contents of that issue and talked about that.
أكبر فئة من المشترين اشترت لأن البائع عرف محتوى العدد وتحدث عنه، فمعرفة المنتج أقوى حجة بيع.
Only nine bought from boys who made a prize appeal.
قليلون اشتروا لأن البائع طلب مساعدته للفوز بجائزة، فدوافع البائع لا تعني العميل كثيرًا.
The question, Mr. Jones, is not ‘Do you want The Post,’ but ‘Do you need The Post?’
الرد على الرفض ينقل الحديث من الرغبة إلى الحاجة، ثم يدعم ذلك بمقال محدد في العدد.
If you think you can make good the loss of an old customer by getting a new one you are mistaken.
خسارة عميل قائم لا يعوضها كسب عميل جديد، لأنك بذلت الجهد مرتين وعدت إلى النقطة نفسها.
Peddlers ask lots of people to buy our magazines and in that way do a lot of good advertising, BUT THEY TAKE VERY FEW ORDERS.
من يعرض على الجميع بالطريقة نفسها ينشر اسم المنتج لكنه يحصد طلبات قليلة، والفرق يصنعه فهم كل عميل على حدة.
What it teaches best
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