The Harvester World: Volume 1, number 4, January 1910

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The Harvester World
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By William Browning
Assistant Manager, Domestic Sales Department
WHEN I stop and look back over the thirty odd years of my service in the harvesting machine business, I cannot help but exclaim, "How times do change." In no branch of the harvester business can there, in my judg¬ ment, be noted a more marked change than has taken place in the methods of the block- man of years gone by and of to-day. Many of the "old timers" would to-day be con¬ sidered "a knocker. "   They did not con¬
fine their knocking, either, to an occasion when entering a dealer's office. Their knocking continued until they had con¬ vinced the dealer that it was by this method that business was most easily obtained.
In the early history of the harvester busi¬ ness, the average blockman rarely made a trip of less than one month and often spent three months or more on the road and met with many hardships by staging it for weeks before returning to the railroad, and some¬ times rode horseback for several weeks. This caused him to accomplish much of his work in a sort of "hammer and tongs" fashion. He did not feel the necessity nor have the opportunity of being well posted. The general agent or manager was the only man on the territory who was supposed to be informed or concerned in the general results of the business. As everyone knows, there wasn't, in those days, an extensive line of machines to be posted on. The binder was the only machine considered important, or the least bit complicated, and the argu¬ ment often used in establishing agencies was that the  manufacturer furnished an
expert for every binder sold; so what matter if this particular machine was complicated, neither the blockman nor the dealer need worry. It was the custom for the "old time " blockman to make his record entirely on sales. Expenses, credits and future effects on the business were many' times entirely lost sight of.
What of the present day blockman ? He seldom gets away from the railroad and is so situated that he usually gets home every Saturday, which makes his job one of the most pleasant of any traveler on the road. He has learned that it is not alone the big¬ gest hustler for orders who is the most suc¬ cessful, but that it is the best posted man on the entire business—the best all-rounder, that runs up the best general score for the year. And it is this general score upon which, in the modern systematized business, is based the final record or showing, the total volume of business being, of course, a dominant factor.
It was the practice of many of the "old time" blockmen to discredit a rival, a practice that not only hurt the individual blockman, but the firm he represented. Men are now learning every day that the way to gain respect for themselves is to respect their rival or competitor. The block- man of to-day who is a success is one who doesn't try to do business by questionable arguments, or when the customer is off his guard. It has been found that to persuade a dealer intelligently, in the "show me" style, that he wants or needs your contract, then he in turn will sell his trade intelli¬ gently and with profit, all of which means a continuation of satisfactory business re- . lations between the dealer and your com¬ pany.
A famous statesman once said: "The safeguard of the republic lies in the intelli¬ gence of its citizens.'' Likewise the safety, and I might add, the success, of your (our) company lies in the intelligence of its selling organization, of which the blockmen are an important part. Keep posted on the machine and implement business, on the various lines you represent, and the purposes for which the various machines and implements are intended.
Supplement what might be considered your regular work by every sort of intelli¬ gent thought and service that may benefit our company and its business. As an illus¬ tration, thousands and thousands of dollars are expended by our company annually in producing valuable advertising and printed matter. Much of this is educational and for the direct benefit of the farmers. Upon , (Continued on page 11)