The manufacturer who is analyzing an established business can start with definite facts regarding pres ent costs; he needs to estimate only the expected in crease in business and the cost of obtaining it. The manufacturer entering the field, however, must deal entirely in estimates, except when he can learn the manufacturing and selling costs of a competing or sim ilar line. These estimates are not easy to make, and yet they are possibly the most important single part of the whole plan for the campaign. Many a cam paign has gone on the rocks because the costs of getting business were greater than any reasonable expectation of sales would warrant; because manufac turing costs had not been adequately studied before prices and profits were determined; because sufficient capital was not available to tide over an emergency ; or because of some other failure to study the finances of the enterprise and to prepare properly for the fu ture.
14. Organization of salesmen and of advertising.— After the manufacturer has decided what he is to do in order to sell his product, he must make detailed plans for putting his decision into effect. This means or ganizing his selling force if he is to use salesmen, and organizing the advertising if he is to use advertising. The former includes planning for the organization of the sales department, hiring the salesmen, training them, dividing the territory, fixing upon a method of compensation, preparing salesmen's reports, writing a sales manual, perfecting standard methods of pres entation, arranging for samples, models, and demon strations, selecting proper methods of keeping in touch with the salesmen, planning methods of induc ing the men to do their best, and a hundred other de tails that are considered in the Text on "Salesman ship and Sales Management." Organizing the ad vertising includes similar items, discussed in the Texts on "A.dvertising Principles" and "Advertising Cam paigns"—for example, choosing agency connections, organizing the advertising department, selecting the proper advertising appeal, choosing mediums, writ ing copy, obtaining illustrations, placing copy, check ing returns, etc.
There should be a chronological schedule of factory production and delivery, a chronological schedule of sales organization work, a chronological schedule of all the kinds of advertising and follow-up that are to be used, and a chronological schedule of the aid to be given dealers if dealers are to be used in the marketing plan. The purpose of referring here to the myriad
details of selling and advertising is to emphasize the necessity of giving them all careful consideration, and of definitely planning for everything to be done in the campaign before any of the machinery of the cam paign is actually set in motion.
15. Coordinating the salesmanship and advertising. —Coincident with .the organization of the salesmen and of the advertising should be plans for linking to gether all of the selling activities. Salesmen must often be taught how to use the advertising; sometimes their antagonism to it must be overcome; and always there must be definite plans for making personal salesmanship and advertising work together for the common end. This is best accomplished by proper internal organization of the company, in which the men who plan and write the advertising are in the closest possible touch with the men who train and di rect the salesmen.
16. Getting distribution qnd cooperating with deal ers.—No attempt should be made to sell anything thru dealers unless careful analysis has shown that dealers will be receptive to it. Their receptivity is usually a matter of education, and the manufacturer must make careful plans to insure getting proper dis tribution of his product among the stores in which he wishes it to be sold. If these stores are carefully se lected and if they reach a class of people among whom a demand for the product exists or can be created, dealers as a rule are glad to handle it. They demand only three things: real salability in the article, the opportunity to make a reasonable profit for them selves, and sensible cooperation from the manufac turer.
Few manufacturers try for any length of time to market an article that is not salable, but many of them neglect the profit of the dealer, or antagonize the trade by so-called dealer helps. that are not really helps at all. The profit to the dealer must enable him to cover his costs of doing business and also to re turn to him something to pay him for the risk he runs by acting as distributor. Some manufacturers use the demand created by their advertising as a club to force dealers to handle their goods at a very small profit. This is an exceedingly expensive policy.
Most dealers have opportunity to influence sales, and it is certain that they will sell as little as possible of an article on which their profits, rate of turnover considered, are not satisfactory.