PLAN No. 258. NOVEL CANVASSING METHOD
An enterprising agent who had secured several formulas, had them printed separately on good paper, with the selling price marked at 50 cents each.
He made up a small quantity of each article mentioned, for demonstration purposes, and bought a gross of cheap silverene sugar spoons at a cost of less than 5 cents each, to be used as premiums, and started out on a house-to-house canvassing expedition.
He would call at a house and ask the lady if she had any clothing that was soiled with grease or paint or a soiled glove that she would allow him to clean without charge. Almost every housewife had exactly what he mentioned, and quickly brought it out, as it would cost her nothing to have it cleaned. Having thoroughly cleaned the clothing or gloves he would then rub a little of the furniture polish on a chair, and clean a silver spoon or the nickel on the stove with his metal polish, and by this time he would have her deeply interested. Then he took from his grip one of the silverene spoons, with the remark that he was not selling the cleaners or polishers but simply the formulas for making them from ingredients procurable at any drug store, and that she could have any two of the 50-cent formulas for 50 cents and he would throw in the sugar spoon as a premium. Usually he got the half dollar without further argument, but if the lady hesitated he would add another formula or two more if necessary, as they cost him nothing but the printing, and the spoon cost but 5 cents, so he would have been away ahead if he had given her one each of all the formulas and the sugar spoon besides.
PLAN No. 259. A CIRCULATING LIBRARY IN SMALL TOWN
There are several ways of establishing circulating libraries, but probably the best plan yet devised is one worked out by a young man living in a middle-western city.
Going into a town of not less than 800 or 1,000 people, he first arranges with some trustworthy merchant, usually the local druggist, to handle the books and make his place the library headquarters. The druggist is glad to do this without charge, as it will bring many people to his store who have not been coming there before, and probably mean a number of new customers.
He then canvasses the town for members, on a basis as follows: The membership fee to be $1.75, and for two years will entitle the members or their families to the use of any of the books in the circulating library, one book to be placed therein for each member secured, but at least fifty members must be secured, thus giving each one the chance to read the fifty books in the two years for $1.75. Of course, more than fifty members are secured, if possible, and the membership fee is to be paid to the druggist or merchant handling the same, upon the arrival of the books.
When all the members possible have been secured, the originator of this plan orders the books forwarded to the resident manager, who is the druggist or merchant already mentioned, and the membership fee is collected and sent to the home address of the man who established the library, while he goes on to the next town to start another library. It does not require more than a week in each town, and as the books are bought in quantities at a very low figure, he makes a good living each year from this plan.