WINTRY WEATHER AS SALESMAN.
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Frost and Snow as Factors in Selling Commercial Vehicles.
By "Vim."
As, write, the weather is as balmy as a day in spring; and although it is nearly Christmas, we have had, in the south of England anyway, no snow and very little frost to speak of. But in many parts of the country snow has fallen heavily,
and even in my own. more genial climate we can hardly expect to get through the season without winter's traditional accompaniment of ice and snowbound roads. My present text is not the need for garages to lay in stocks of non-skid chains and similar appliances. I take it that most motor agents have had some experience of snow, and are aware that, while the motor vehicle is the only kind of road transport which can get about when snow on the roads has been compressed into ice, its smooth rubber tyres must be roughened before they can get a driving grip. So, presumably, sensible traders will have provided themselves with such grips, for their own demonstration vehicles at least, if they have not laid in something of a stock for re-sale to their customers.
No, I want to draw the attention of any agents who may happen never to have been struck by the fact that a spell of real winter can be turned to excellent account in converting the adherents of the horse and push-barrow to motor delivery. It is now several years since the revelation that snow is a. first-rate salesman for the commercial car agent first came to me in. very practical fashion. During the winters that have followed I have made a point of being ready with a snow-time selling campaign, from which I have never failed to gain some imme diate advantage, the results depending on how long the snow has remained on the ground. Fortunately for me, unfortunately for tradesmen who have de pended on old forms of transport, I have had hills around me ; and these have, undoubtedly, been of help in accentuating the difficulty that a man or a horse has in keeping right side up on ice, while endeavouring to exert any tractive effort. Not many months after I had turned my eyesAowards the selling and repairing of commercial cars as a branch of the garage business that was bound to become very important, and had bought a demonstration lorry, our neighbourhood awoke one morn
ing to find some 6 ins, of snow on the ground and the mercury well below freezing point. Equipped with non-skid chains, our lorry went forth to deliver several lots of petrol, which it managed without troubling much about the condition of the road.
When the driver came in from his journey he was full of amusing tales of incidents he had seen on his way, and gave a particularly hilarious sketch of the scene on a near-by hill, which ran up from the shopping quarter to the residential district. The hill, it appeared, was liberally besprinkled with the emissaries of the tradesmen in various stages of collapse, owing to their having been striving since early in the day to push milk and bread barrows to
the top—while two coal wagons rested against the kerb, their horses gone home, and a butcher's cart could get neither up nor down, its horse having "got the wind up " properly!
To any business man such news, although amusing to hear at first, was bound to arouse a fellow-feeling and a wish to help ; so we loaded our lorry with such stuff as we could put our hands on to give the back exle weight, took same rope with us, and went off to the hill. In a very little time we had the hand harrows and the butcher's carts at the top. By then the news that we were on the succouring business spread. The coal carters came back with their B28 horses, and we assisted them to complete the climb. One or two other tradesmen, who had been afraid to send out their deliveries, come along and asked whether we would oblige them with a tow up. On the following morning, the snow still holding and the council's efforts to cope with the situation being confined to salt or something of the kind, which not only turned the snow to icy slush, that was, if anything, more slippery than snow, but also made the going very heavy for wheels, our leading milkman and principal baker were waiting for me when I arrived at the office. Would our firm please quote for towing their barrows to the high level each day while the hard weather lasted'? We did, and, what is more, before the weather broke, we had booked an order from the baker for a large van for delivering his bread from his bakery to his branch shops, of which be had three or four. He confessed that, until the snow brought him face to face with the all-round usefulness of motor transport, he had barely given it a thought, it was after that that I, too,. began to think about snow, and how to make it my salesman. During the succeeding days our lorry was on duty on the hill whenever it could be spared, giving free assistance to whoever passed (or, rather, tried to pass) that way, and: if a. vehicle belonged to a strange tradesman we took a. note of his name and address. We then wrote a letter to each recipient of our help, expressing our pleasure because we had been able to render him some small service, and rubbing in, hot and strong, the superiority of a motor vehicle over any animal-propelled affair, finally winding up with an offer to place our experience at his disposal at any time. We did not stop with those we had helped, however, for, acting on the belief that every tradesman who had no motorvan or lorry must have bad his business affected by the snow, we sent_ cir cular letters all over the place, ramming home the same argument. Being strictly topical, those letters were read, and for many months afterwards I traced inquiries to them. IN ow, as winter approaches each year, we circularize everybody on our list of posaible buyers, reminding them of what has occurred in winters gone by, and telling them not to delay buying until too late to secure prompt delivery. Ours is a practical argument, which impresses any tradesman who has been caught napping onceIt has often proved to be the clinching point that has made a, prospect say, "Well, I've, been considering buying for a. good while, and if I'm going to do it. at all, it might as well be at once, in case we get stuck again this year with our deliveries."
When snow lies very deep, or lies in country districts in treacherous drifts, a, motor vehicle is admittedly as useless as a horse—if not more so, for a horse, if it can move at all, will employ its own intelligence to avoid plunging into a ditch. But, in anything like a populous area the council's snowploughs or roadmen can gener`ally be depended upon to keep clear some sort of a negotiable path "for vehicular traffic, and under such conditions it is indisputable that motorvans are the last to give up and the first to resume wOrk. When there has been only a slight fall, followed by a quick thaw and a sharp frost, so that the road surface is coated with a sheet of ice, it is then that the motor vehicle which carries chains on its wheels really triumphs. Topicalness in. one's sales methods is as vital to sales-promotion as it is to newspaper production, yet it is seldom used in any but the drapery and clothing trades. Why, nobody knows!