Fuller Brush: Chapter 11
February 23, 2012 § Leave a comment
Yesterday, the Fuller Brush Company announced that it had filed protection from its creditors under Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code.
According to the WSJ, the company has 180 full time employees, and around 10,000 independent salespeople.
Fuller Brush was founded in 1906, and at one time was the epitome of door-to-door sales practice.
The Ben Franklin Close
January 29, 2012 § Leave a comment
What follows is a copy of a letter written by Benjamin Franklin to Joseph Priestly [the man usually credited with the discovery of oxygen]. Priestly was trying to decide whether to accept a new position or not and had sought Franklin’s advice. The letter is dated 19th September 1772.
In affairs of such importance to you, wherein you ask my advice, I cannot, for want of sufficient premises, counsel you what to determine; but, if you please, I will tell you how.
When these difficult cases occur, they are difficult chiefly because while we have them under consideration, all the reasons – pros and cons – are not present to the mind at the same time. Hence the various purposes or inclinations that alternatively prevail, and the uncertainty that perplexes us.
To get this over, my way is to half a sheet of paper by a line, into two columns; writing over the one ‘pro’ and over the other ‘con’. Then, during three or four days’ consideration, I put down under the different heads, short hints of the different motives that at different times occur to me for or against the measure.
When I have got these together in one view, I endeavour to estimate their respective weights, and, where I find two (one on each side) that seem equal, I strike them both out. If I find a reason ‘pro’ equals to some two reasons ‘con’, I strike out the three. If I judge some two reasons ‘con’ equal to some three reasons ‘pro’, I strike out the five; and thus proceeding, I find, at length, where the balance lies; and if, after a day or two of further consideration, nothing new that is of importance occurs on either side, I come to a determination accordingly.
And, although the weight of reasons cannot be taken with algebraic quantities, yet, when each is thus considered separately and comparatively, and the whole lies before me, I think I can judge better, and am less liable to make a rash step; in fact, I have found great advantage from this kind of equation in what may be called moral or prudential algebra.
Wishing sincerely that you may determine for the best, I am ever, my dear friend,
Yours most affectionately,
Benjamin Franklin
Note: While there are many places where this letter can be found, this version comes from ‘Benjamin Franklin and Prudential Algebra’, an article by W L Etter in Decision Sciences published in 1974, Volume 5(1).
Elbert Hubbard: Buyer
December 30, 2011 § Leave a comment
Not long ago I called on a great corporation president, who is also the president of a great corporation.
“You are a student of human nature,” he said, “the pergola of pelludicity, and I want to show you a curiosity.” He pressed a button, and in about a minute a man entered. This man was past middle life; tall, spare, wrinkled, intelligent, cold, passive, non-committal, with eyes like a codfish.
The president introduced us.
I was offered a cold, clammy mitt.
There was no smile of recognition, no attempt to thaw the social ice.
He was as cool, calm and damnably composed as a concrete post or a plaster-of-paris cat.
I tried a pleasantry, but it fell flat.
“What can I do for you?” asked the human petrifaction.
Just then, I glanced at the president, and I saw he was laughing behind a newspaper. He came to my rescue and excused the cold storage.
When the man had gone, he asked, “What do you think of him?”
“Well, he is not exactly effusive,” I answered.
“Why should he be? He is a buyer. Been here forty years, and has worked at the one job until he has lost his soul. His brain is a mass of mathematics, and his heart is feldspar. A buyer never cultivates courtesy. Charm of manner doesn’t count. Salesmen are decent, but buyers don’t have to be.”
“Buyers are inhuman, without bowels, passions or sense of humour. Happily they never reproduce. They are minus the friendly germ.”
“There is no promotion for an exclusive buyer. He gets where he is and stays there. This man, though, is valuable, but if he went on the road to sell goods he would divert trade from the house to our competitors. We couldn’t do without him – but all buyers go to hell.”
And I took his word for it.
And the moral seems to be that if you would preserve your brain balance and not devolve into a measly malamute you must do more than one thing.
Note #1: It’s not clear when this piece was first published. This version comes from Modern Business: Elbert Hubbard’s Selected Writings #8 published some few years after Hubbard’s death. Hubbard was on board the RMS Lusitania when it was torpedoed by a German U-boat in 1915. Over 1,000 passengers and crew died, including Elbert Hubbard and his wife, Alice.
Note #2: Sometimes, versions of this piece can be found with the word Buyer replaced with the word Auditor.
Birth
November 22, 2011 § Leave a comment
Modern selling was born one hundred and twenty seven years ago today. That was the day when John Henry Patterson took control of what was then called the National Manufacturing Company, but shortly afterwards became National Cash Register, or NCR, or just ‘The Cash’.
This blog will look at the history of contemporary sales practice from the pioneering days of NCR right up to the present day. We may occasionally look back to times before NCR – the days of hawkers and walkers, peddlers and canvassers – but for the most part, we will be tracing the history of sales ideas from way back to right now.
Updated: 25 Aug 2012
