Such an arrangement appeals particularly to the smaller manufacturer or merchant in that it brings his goods to the attention of the foreign dealer at a minimum of cost with a maximum of efficiency and paves the way for developing the market. Many of the leading sellers in Latin America to-day had their start along this line of co-operative selling.
Whatever medium you may feel it wise to select in entering these fields, bear in mind the fact that under no circumstances should your representative overstock the buyer with goods. It is far better to receive small orders at first than to sell large ones which may move slowly. Climatic conditions are such that in Latin America many goods, unless sold quickly, rapidly deteriorate and the consequent loss will fall on the individual merchant and result in complaints from the buyer if he becomes the possessor of damaged goods, thereby prejudicing your article in his sight. The salesman in thus cautioning a dealer will exhibit his material interest in the future welfare of the merchant and more thoroughly establish a substantial business friendship with his client.
In many of the countries of Latin America, owing to their enormous extent and lack of travel facility, as well as the exorbitant local freight rates and great distances to be traversed it is often wise to establish more than one agency. In Brazil for example, it might be well to place agencies in Rio de Janeiro, Santos, Bahia, Pernambuco, and Para, for the simple but sufficient reason that the freight on goods from New York to any of these ports direct, is less than the local freights between many of these cities. To get from Callao, Peru, on the west coast to Iquitos on the eastern boundary of that republic is a difficult problem. It is really quicker, cheaper and far more convenient and comfortable to come first to New York, then go to Brazil and up the Amazon, to Iquitos, than to undertake the hazardous journey of many weeks across the risky overland trails through the interior of Peru. Assuming that you were desirous of giving an agency for some special line of merchandise liable to be a good seller in the eastern frontier of Peru as well as throughout the republic, one agency should be placed in Callao, or Lima and the other in Iquitos. In Chile, it is likewise often advisable to place an agency for goods in one of the northern ports of the republic as well as in Valparaiso, or Santiago, either Iquique or Antofagasta being selected for this purpose, as being best adapted to reach the center of the nitrate industries.
Photograph by Underwood & Underwood
Drying hides and skins in Argentine
Many of the Central American countries, particularly Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Honduras, as well as Mexico, having seaboards on both coasts will present problems for determining the location of agencies accessible to both oceans. These and other conditions will be continually arising. After discussing the matter with your factor or your representative, common business judgment will be the only safe and sane rule to warrant you in reaching a decision.
XXII
THE SALESMAN AND THE CUSTOMER
The success or failure of a business venture in Latin America depends materially on the character of the representative sent to these marts of trade. Never having seen or heard of you or your goods, it is most natural for the foreign merchant to make his deductions from your emissary.
The typical ambassador of commerce for South American fields should combine elegance of dress and courtliness of manners; be a linguist; a scholar; a diplomat; a philosopher; always a student and a business man as well. He should continually bear in mind that his visit is unsolicited—that in a sense he is an aggressor, an intruder, and above everything he should conform to the usages that custom has established in this part of the world.
European merchants and their travellers, with the hope of strengthening their position have spread about the unwarranted idea that the Yankee is tricky in all his dealings and this condition must at all times be combated not theoretically but obviously and practically. Be frank with prospective customers. Do not try to load them up with goods. Keep your agreements to the letter. Live up to your contract even if you lose money by doing so. Follow exactly whatever shipping instructions are given.