* * * * *
This makes the prospect stop and think if not stop and figure.
Another carriage manufacturing company uses a somewhat similar method of comparison but introduces it at a different point. Between the first and second pages of a three-page follow-up, a sheet in facsimile handwriting is introduced forming a marked comparison, mechanically, to the typewriting preceding and following it:
* * * * * *
Problems of Dollars and Cents saving easily solved.
Retail Dealer's plan of figuring selling price.
Actual factory cost of buggy……………….. $46.25
Expense and salary, traveling salesman, about 10% 4.50
Jobber's profit—at least 15% ……………… 7.00
Retail dealer's profit (figured very low)……. 20.00
Losses from bad debts……………………… 2.50
——-
RETAIL DEALER'S SELLING PRICE………………. $80.25
My Plan of Figuring Selling Price.
Actual factory cost of buggy……………….. $46.25
Expense and salary of traveling salesman…….. nothing
Jobber's profit…………………………… nothing
Retail dealer's profit…………………….. nothing
Losses from bad debts……………………… nothing
My one small gross profit……………. 8.50
——-
MY SELLING PRICE………………………….. $54.75
* * * * *
This "saving sheet" can not fail to attract greater attention by means of its form and place of introduction than though it were typewritten and in regular order.
Right-out-from-the-shoulder arguments and facts may also be used to good advantage in handling competition. What the farmer wants is to know whether the other goods are as represented; whether the proposition has any holes in it. If the seller can give him facts that prove his product better than others, honestly and fairly, it does not boost the competitor but helps to sell his own goods.
A cream separator manufacturer claiming a simple machine now presents in his catalogue illustrations of the parts of other machines used in the actual separation of the cream from the milk. This comparison shows that his machine has fewer parts and consequently will stay in repair longer and clean easier—two important talking points.
Where a competing firm enters the field with a cheap quality of goods that would react against the trade, it is sometimes policy to put the facts before the prospective buyers.
This was done by a Winnipeg manufacturer of metal culverts after the following plan: