p. 22 | How to Sell Our Magazines

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 29, 1909

How to Sell Our Magazines

THE following suggestions will be found helpful in the sale of Life and Health, Liberty magazine, the Temperance number of the Youth's Instructor, the Protestant Magazine, or any of our ten-cent magazines:—

1. Read the magazine. Each number has a peculiar individuality. Know what you sell. Impress yourself with its value.

2. Hold your head high. Be proud of your work. You are a philanthropist, doing mankind a great service. Wear a smile.

3. Be brief. Make a ten-cent talk. Don't tell all you know. Leave the dollar and two-dollar speeches to our friend, the book agent. Arouse curiosity, and create the desire to buy. Let the magazine do the rest.

4. Don't argue. You may (may not) win the debate. If you do, remember that a defeated customer seldom buys. Refer all arguments, queries, etc., to the magazine itself. Make a SALE!

5. Use tact. Read your customer's attitude. Agree with him, if possible. You can do so on many points. Suit your talk to his needs. But, make a SALE!

6. Be courteous. If the lady refuses to buy, thank her cheerily, and assure her that there is some one just around the corner waiting to buy the magazine. Such an attitude will frequently surprise the customer and provoke a sale, after all.

7. Develop regular customers. The grocer, the milkman, and the baker sell regularly. Why not you? If your territory is limited, learn to handle several magazines, selling them in rotation each month. Try Life and Health, Liberty magazine, the Protestant Magazine, or the Temperance number of the Youth's Instructor. Handle only one at a time, however.

8. Improve special opportunities. Sell to crowds attending conventions, to those going to or from lectures or the theater. Sell on the streets Saturday nights; and in the public parks (if permissible and advisable) on Sunday afternoons. Good sales are also frequently made near post-offices week-days and Sunday forenoons.

9. Work your territory thoroughly. Visit every house. Don't avoid the rich. Many of them long for, and need, just what you have to offer. Do not skip the business district. Our experienced agents now consider it the best field for sales.

10. Don't give up! To fall is no crime, but the failure to rise again. Continue to call at the houses where you failed. The Japanese charged Two Hundred Three Meter Hill a dozen times, we are told, before they finally carried it; then they lost it—and regained it. After that they held it. Instead of giving up, proceed to analyze the causes of your defeats. Stop and sell yourself a copy of the magazine. Blame not the work nor the magazine, if you fail. Other agents are piling up good sales records in all parts of the country.

While, of course, all are not equally adapted to this work, all classes of people seem to be able to do something in the sale of the magazines. Some of the very best records have been made by those who, heretofore, have not been considered good salesmen or salesladies. Boys and girls, young men and young ladies, old men and old ladies,—all seem to enjoy the work, and are able to report at least some degree of success.

If at all possible, please order your magazines through, and arrange for territory with, your State tract society. If you must order direct, send cash with order.

Prices

Single copies, 10 cents; 5 to 20 copies, 5 cents each; 25 to 400 copies, 4 cents; 500 to 800 copies, 3½ cents; 1,000 or more, 3 cents.

The Temperance number of the Youth's Instructor varies slightly in price, as follows: 25 to 99 copies, 4 cents each; 100 to 499 copies, 3½ cents. Other prices the same.

Join our large force of nearly 1,000 agents now handling Life and Health, Liberty magazine, and the Temperance number of the Youth's Instructor, or perhaps you would prefer to handle the new quarterly, the Protestant Magazine. Try 25 copies of any of the four magazines for $1. Sell them to your neighbors, friends, and townspeople. Or, send sixteen cents in stamps for one sample copy of each of the four magazines.

In applying for agency, kindly send a written recommendation from your pastor, teacher, banker, State tract society, or leading business firm of your town. Address your tract society, or Periodical Department, Review and Herald Publishing Assn., Takoma Park, Washington, D. C.