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The Builders' Club
By F.W. Jones
Kerosene—The New Engine Salesman
When a dealer's engine business shows a large, steady increase for three months or more, there is usually a story behind it—just the kind of story that the live readers of this page want to hear. That is what happened to a dealer of our acquaintance this year and when we got to him we found that it was just another case of a good man getting an idea and putting it to work. But here is the storj'. Read it. The dealer, one of these quiet fellows who do things rather than talk about them, took his increased engine business very much as a matter of course. "There is nothing much to tell," he said. "I am selling your engines. They burn kerosene instead of gasoline. The difference in running cost is bigger than most engine buyers realize, because they never sat down and figured it out. I simply show my prospects some figures on fuel costs I worked out one day and those figures sell an Inter¬ national engine. That's all there is to it." If he had not done so very much more business than the average, we might have taken his modest explanation at its face value, but an increase of several hundred per cent, in a little over three months' time could not be passed over so lightly, so we e.xpressed a desire to see his magic figures. And this is what he told us: "Gasoline now costs seventeen cents a gallon here, tank wagon price, and is going up right along. The kerosene that International engines will burn costs seven and one-half cents per gallon — a spread of nine and one-half cents in favor of kerosene. I have had to revise my figures twice in three months' time on account of an increased price on gasoline. A farm engine burns about a pint of fuel per horse power per hour. To do the work on an aver¬ age farm the engine runs about a thousand hours each year — one hundred days of ten hours each. Knowing these facts, it is an easy matter to figure the difference in fuel cost per year between gasoline and kerosene. That difference is my argument for the kerosene engine. Here's the way it works out: "Say a farmer comes in to buy a six-horse skidded engine. I show him the International engine, explain that it is a kerosene burner, and quote him a price of $225 at the store. I always get to the price of the engine quickly because it brings the discussion right down to business at once. I never yet quoted the price on an International engine without getting a landslide of quotations on lower-priced engines made by other concerns. In some cases there is not much difference—$10 or so — but in many cases I get quotations running a hundred dollars less than my price. But competitive prices, no matter how low, don't bother me any more. My answer is the question—' What fuel does that engine burn.'" If the prospect says gasoline, as he must in most cases, I nail him then and there with my figures. If he says kerosene, I take another tack, but come back to the figures later. I have lost but one sale since I adopted this plan and the man who bought that gasoline engine about three months ago, after I had showed him my figures, was in here the other day to see what he could do on a trade. They cannot get away from me now.
Object Description
Title | The Harvester World: Volume 7, number 2, February 1916 |
Object Type | Periodical |
Language | English |
Source | McCormick Mss 6z |
Electronic Publisher | Wisconsin Historical Society |
Physical Description | 7.5 x 9.5 inches |
Electronic Publication Date | 2008 |
Year | 1916 |
Volume | 007 |
Issue | 02 |
Date | 1916-02 |
Rights | © Copyright 2008 by the Wisconsin Historical Society (Madison, Wisconsin) |
Series | The Harvester World ; v. 7, no. 2 |
Format | TIF |
Description | Harvester World magazine was first published by International Harvester Company in October of 1909. From 1909 to 1946, Harvester World functioned primarily as an employee magazine, carrying news from various factories, branch houses and dealerships around the world. The magazine included biographical sketches of employees; notices of retirements and promotions; announcements regarding new company initiatives or building projects; and a variety of other news relating to nearly every facet of the company’s world wide operations. The magazine was published by the company’s Advertising Department, and also functioned as a way for headquarters to communicate with dealerships. In 1946, the magazine was redesigned and eventually shifted from an employee magazine to a more customer-oriented focus. By the 1950s, most Harvester Articles were human interest stories centering on the people and organizations who used International Harvester products. At the same time, photography became an increasingly important element in the content and presentation of the magazine. The magazine was discontinued in 1969. |
CONTENTdm file name | 10106.cpd |
Date created | 2008-12-18 |
Date modified | 2010-02-19 |
Description
Title | page 8 |
Object Type | Periodical |
Source | The Harvester World, February 1916 |
Page Number | 8 |
Electronic Publisher | Wisconsin Historical Society |
Physical Description | 7.5 x 9.5 inches |
Electronic Publication Date | 2008 |
Year | 1916 |
Volume | 007 |
Issue | 02 |
Date | 1916-02 |
Rights | © Copyright 2008 by the Wisconsin Historical Society (Madison, Wisconsin) |
Series | The Harvester World ; v. 7, no. 2 |
Full Text |
The Builders' Club By F.W. Jones Kerosene—The New Engine Salesman When a dealer's engine business shows a large, steady increase for three months or more, there is usually a story behind it—just the kind of story that the live readers of this page want to hear. That is what happened to a dealer of our acquaintance this year and when we got to him we found that it was just another case of a good man getting an idea and putting it to work. But here is the storj'. Read it. The dealer, one of these quiet fellows who do things rather than talk about them, took his increased engine business very much as a matter of course. "There is nothing much to tell" he said. "I am selling your engines. They burn kerosene instead of gasoline. The difference in running cost is bigger than most engine buyers realize, because they never sat down and figured it out. I simply show my prospects some figures on fuel costs I worked out one day and those figures sell an Inter¬ national engine. That's all there is to it." If he had not done so very much more business than the average, we might have taken his modest explanation at its face value, but an increase of several hundred per cent, in a little over three months' time could not be passed over so lightly, so we e.xpressed a desire to see his magic figures. And this is what he told us: "Gasoline now costs seventeen cents a gallon here, tank wagon price, and is going up right along. The kerosene that International engines will burn costs seven and one-half cents per gallon — a spread of nine and one-half cents in favor of kerosene. I have had to revise my figures twice in three months' time on account of an increased price on gasoline. A farm engine burns about a pint of fuel per horse power per hour. To do the work on an aver¬ age farm the engine runs about a thousand hours each year — one hundred days of ten hours each. Knowing these facts, it is an easy matter to figure the difference in fuel cost per year between gasoline and kerosene. That difference is my argument for the kerosene engine. Here's the way it works out: "Say a farmer comes in to buy a six-horse skidded engine. I show him the International engine, explain that it is a kerosene burner, and quote him a price of $225 at the store. I always get to the price of the engine quickly because it brings the discussion right down to business at once. I never yet quoted the price on an International engine without getting a landslide of quotations on lower-priced engines made by other concerns. In some cases there is not much difference—$10 or so — but in many cases I get quotations running a hundred dollars less than my price. But competitive prices, no matter how low, don't bother me any more. My answer is the question—' What fuel does that engine burn.'" If the prospect says gasoline, as he must in most cases, I nail him then and there with my figures. If he says kerosene, I take another tack, but come back to the figures later. I have lost but one sale since I adopted this plan and the man who bought that gasoline engine about three months ago, after I had showed him my figures, was in here the other day to see what he could do on a trade. They cannot get away from me now. |
Format | TIF |
Full resolution | Volume592\1_IH220048.tif |
CONTENTdm file name | 10087.jpg |
Date created | 2008-12-18 |
Date modified | 2008-12-19 |