200.

CHAPTER XV.

BUYING AND SELLING MERCHANDISE.

5. SELLING GOODS AT WHOLESALE.

HAT is the true theory of selling goods at wholesale?

To regard the interests of the buyer, and to sell him goods that are adapted to his market, or such as he can resell again quickly and advantageously. It was a maxim of the late Gideon Lee that no trade can be sound that is not beneficial to both parties—to the buyer as well as to the seller. A man may obtain a temporary advantage by selling unsalable fabrics or articles for more than they are worth, but the recoil of such operations is felt in the shape of bad debts and increased risks.

[An old merchant, eminently successful, says, he thinks more traders fail through a lack of interest in their customer's welfare than for want of devotion to what they selfishly consider their own advantage. When in the retail trade, this merchant was noted for his candor in advising his customers against any purchase which he thought would not give them permanent satisfaction. He would always forego a sale if he believed the article under examination was not the one which the buyer really required. When he left the retail trade, and engaged in a large wholesale business, he continued to practise upon the same principle. He did it conscientiously as a matter

of duty; but he always insisted that it was also the true mercantile policy. His customers could pay him because they were enabled to sell everything they bought of him at a profit. They liked to trade with him because he sought their interest, advised them what to purchase, and would not, to clear out his own stock, transfer to their shelves any article he did not believe they could turn to advantage. He would often take back, to his own present loss, some fabric which proved unsalable. He called such dead stock "shopkeepers," and he often declared that he would rather dig a hole in the ground and bury them than to have them lie year after year on the shelves of his patrons, a continual reminder that they had made a bad bargain in the purchase.

This may sound strangely to some of the young merchants of our day, but it is the true theory of business.]

201. Upon what agencies does success in the wholesale trade mainly depend?

Upon good salesmen, men who know both how to sell and to whom to sell. In a retail trade it is generally considered that business follows the stand rather than the man, but in the wholesale trade the converse is generally true. It is becoming more and more the practice in the United States, as it has long been in England, for wholesale firms to employ commercial travellers, who visit buyers at their homes, either to sell them goods there by sample or to cultivate their acquaintance, and these salesmen often hold in their hands the prosperity, as well as the honor, of the houses they represent. Where sales are principally effected through these agencies, the store becomes little more than a warehouse in which goods are packed to order, and its location is a secondary consideration, while everything depends upon the efficiency of the salesman.

202. What are the qualifications of a good salesman in the wholesale trade?

A man who would control the custom and retain the confidence of those who buy to sell again must himself be a merchant. He must possess a varied and comprehensive knowledge both of human nature and of merchandise, knowing not only the market value of the articles he deals in, but the sources of their supply and the circumstances that are likely to deteriorate or improve their value. Among the fundamental maxims in their creed the masters of their profession contend that a good salesman must believe:

That the life of business is profit; and as a general rule, he will not make sales without profit. "To sell low for cash, never mind profits," is not his maxim.

He will sell to a punctual payer at less profit than to an unpunctual one; and on a short credit, lower than on a long one.

He will use every precaution with a stranger that he would wish he had taken, should he turn out to be a villain, and yet treat every man as an honest man until he proves him to be otherwise.

He believes in the Italian proverb, "There is commonly less money, less wisdom, and less good faith, than men do account upon."

It is not all that can be sold to a customer that is well sold, but only what he can conveniently pay for. A past due-bill is a detestable object, and goods not paid for are not sold but thanklessly given away.

But the chiefest qualification that fits a man to influence and deal successfully with country merchants is a social, sympathetic nature and genuine frankness of manner, that can welcome a buyer more as a friend than as a merchant.

In trade, as in love, the heart is often superior to the head:

["It is sometimes said," says Professor Sizer, "there is no friendship in trade." There never was a greater fallacy. Suppose a man has travelled night and day among strangers, a thousand miles, to a great market town. He has left his family and friends, and his heart is hungry. He remembers, perhaps, a salesman who is cheerful and has shown himself friendly; and when he crosses his threshold, his heart bounds with delight as, with a smile like a burst of sunshine, that man takes him heartily by the hand, and in a moment becomes to him as it were a substitute for the family and friends that he has left behind, and it only remains to select the goods; they are already sold, and if the man be honest and name only fair prices for the goods, why should not that man be a life-long customer? Who could win him away or prevent him from bringing his own friends to be well treated and become permanent customers? Suppose a salesman has five hundred such. They cannot be coaxed away from him, unless goods are offered at prices below their market value by others.

The cold, stern, stanch, dignified man, grim and severe in his manners, may be able to sell drugs to sick people, or articles of necessity where there is little or no competition, but in a large market town such a man would freeze out his prosperity.]

203. What should be the rule ooserved with reference to retaining or changing employees?

When merchants have secured efficient clerks or salesmen, they should endeavor to keep them. An employee with brains is all the while gaining in experience, and is worth more to his employer each succeeding year. An old and faithful clerk should not be parted with for slight causes, provided his habits remain good. But sometimes it happens that an employee, who knows that his services are valuable and are appreciated, demands an exorbitant increase of salary; in such cases, there seems to be no alternative but to discharge him, for a man who thinks he is invaluable and cannot be spared soon becomes good for nothing.

Merchants, as a general rule, do not value brain-power and intelligence in their employees as highly as they ought to do. They have not the sagacity of the bank manager, who, in advocating libraries in banks for the use of the clerks, remarked, "Their superior knowledge is always useful; the mental discipline they have acquired improves their business habits; and, possessing within themselves a constant source of enjoyment, they are less likely to indulge in those expensive pleasures which are the usual temptations to neglect and dishonesty." Every store and bank and office and workshop should have a select BUSINESS LIBRARY, to which the employees should have access in their hours of leisure.

204. What is the secret of obtaining and retaining efficient colaborers?

This has been already revealed, and stated to be liberal pay and fair treatment.

With regard to salaries, it may be said that competition among those soliciting situations should not be allowed to reduce a clerk's salary below a certain point, but it would seem a better policy to fix an amount sufficient to insure contentment in the situation, and then require qualifications of zeal and efficiency that will be worth it. There are salesmen who are cheaper at a yearly salary of $2500, than others at $500, and it is better to employ ten firstclass men than fifteen medium men at the same aggregate amount of compensation. Some firms pay stipulated wages, and then at the end of the year give premiums to those who have cheerfully done their best, and they find the few hundred dollars thus spent are well invested, in making the young men more saving, prompt and vigilant. In public offices in England, the rule is to offer a moderate