“Dear Madam: This card entitles you to one of our 15-cent sink brushes, which our agent will deliver to you at your home tomorrow. You don’t have to buy a thing—just let him show you our full line of brushes.”
The next day after mailing this card, the agent calls with the brush, and of course Madam is civil enough to accept it and “look at the others.”
That “look” nearly always means a sale, and this happens at almost every house, so the agent finds himself admitted to every home and a chance to have a popular hearing.
This is given as a tip to other agents who have had the cold reception usually accorded agents and peddlers.
PLAN No. 249. ASSIST MUSICAL COMPOSERS
This plan, which was successfully operated by a Chicago man, not only brought many struggling authors of musical compositions into considerable prominence, but proved a profitable business for himself. He was engaged in publishing sheet music, and was in close touch with musical people all over the country.
He inserted an ad. in the classified columns of the big city dailies, addressed to composers who had failed as their own publishers, the ad. asking them to write for a proposition. Hundreds of them did so, and he made them the following offer: If they would send the plates of their composition, and sign over their rights in the same to him, he would publish them, with their names prominently displayed as authors, send the authors fifty copies of each composition, and give a wide distribution to the main issue of the same; that he would also prominently mention their names in his publicity matter, and thus greatly increase their reputations as authors.
Practically all of them accepted this offer, and he faithfully carried out his part of the contract, so that, just as he said, they became widely known in the musical world, and were soon doing business with the leading music publishers of the country. He realized a good income from publishing their compositions, as some of their compositions met with good sale while he sold some of all the rest.
PLAN No. 250. HONING RAZORS BY MAIL
A Seattle man who carried a line of barbers’ supplies, decided to increase his mail-order business by making it an object for men in the country and small towns to have their old-style razors honed, at no cost if not satisfactory.