Gifts for Young Men to Give to Girls

 Gifts for Young Men to Give to Girls 

    THERE are certain specialties manufactured today that open a wide range of money-making opportunities for men and women. Some of these are luxuries; others combine utility with novelty. George Lehman decided a cigarette case, which kicks out a lighted cigarette when you press a button, was a good money-making idea. His commissions from the sale of this lighter exceeded $1,000 in three months! Here is his story: “This cigarette case appealed to me as one of the things many men would go for, but I’ll admit that my first efforts to sell it were a washout. Everyone liked its appearance. They thought it was novel and all that, but they didn’t seem to have the money to buy. Then I realized I was not calling on the right people. Those I talked with were men working on a small salary and barely making a living. I sought out younger men. One gave me a cue by buying a case for his ‘girl friend’ as a birthday gift, and she was delighted with it. He was so pleased that he phoned me and said a pal of his wanted one for his girl. I followed up the idea of selling the cigarette case to young men for gifts and began immediately to make money. “I found that the fellow about twenty or twenty-five, who isn’t married, likes to flash a novel cigarette case of this kind. No matter where you are, you’re sure to have someone ask to see the case when you press that button and a lighted cigarette jumps out. I soon exhausted most of the young men prospects I knew, but by that time I had decided to go after sales in a more efficient way. Any man who has driven a car knows how awkward it is to light a cigarette in traffic. With one of my cases, the auto-driver merely presses the button, and a lighted cigarette immediately pops between his lips. So I devoted most of my energy to showing this case to auto-drivers. I didn’t have to do much talking. I’d stand at popular gasoline stations and, when a man stopped for gas, show the lighter and explain it. One out of every twelve asked me the price of the lighter, and when I mentioned it, bought without any further urging. “Experience taught me that the best place to show the lighter was at the gas station while the man was behind the wheel. He is most easily sold then because he is driving. He, no doubt, wanted a cigarette and in fishing first in one pocket for a package, and then in another for a match, probably came near going off the road. Naturally, he welcomed a cigarette case such as I was selling. It is quite a different matter in his home or office, however. The motorist at home forgets all about the inconvenience of lighting a cigarette while driving, and when in his office his mind is on other things. Thus, the best place to catch him is at one of the many gasoline stations at busy intersections. The gas station attendants usually don’t mind having me hang around. There’s always some little thing I can do to help around there, and I am someone to talk to when business slumps off.” Lehman sells as high as sixteen cigarette cases daily, netting him a profit of $17.37. On days when the traffic is unusually heavy, he sells as many as thirty-five cases. The selling price, $2.50, does not seem too high to prospects. Lehman’s success with this case is typical of the success of many specialty men, once they find the right spot to sell their products, and the right way of introducing and demonstrating them. 

Greeting Cards Made Money for Ettinger 

   LAST year, James J. Ettinger needed some extra money. He knew that hundreds of men and women make good money around the holidays selling greeting cards. But instead of trying to sell his cards house to house, he concentrated on two special fields—the professional and the service station field. By concentrating his calls on these types of prospects, he not only made a maximum number of calls in a minimum of time, but he spent his efforts on two practically unworked fields. His campaign was mapped out to cover only the office buildings in his town —particularly those buildings which housed doctors’ and dentists’ offices. For these prospects, he carried two kinds of cards—one for personal and another for business use. In order to get in to see the doctor, he concentrated on selling the office girl first. When he had sold her, he would ask to see the doctor or the dentist. Usually the office girl was impressed with his sincerity and his evident desire to please, as well as with the excellent line of greeting cards he carried. Having reached the doctor or the dentist and succeeding in making a sale, the next step in his campaign was to sell the wives of these men. Generally, he would get permission to telephone from the doctor’s office making an appointment to show the line of greeting cards. His success with this “endless chain” method of selling was due to making the prospect feel that he was an important customer and impressing him with his need, as a professional man, of the right type of greeting card. After making a few sales, he found it fairly easy to size up his prospect and decide whether he would like something conservative, something radically different or something showy. Most professional men do not like to be rushed and when they are not busy they like to talk. This talkativeness gives Ettinger a chance to get the names of other prospects, and he never fails to ask whether the doctor’s brother, or uncle, or sister, or aunt, or any other member of the family he may mention would be interested in selecting Christmas cards. It wasn’t long before Ettinger found that most of the doctors’ offices are pretty busy in the afternoons. Furthermore, they close early. So he decided to cover the service stations in the afternoons, evenings, Saturdays and Sundays. This was a field that also needed what Ettinger was selling and a field that few salesmen approached. Nearly every service station in a residential section depends upon the business received from the immediate area surrounding it. This steady day-after-day trade is the backbone of the business and, naturally, the operator wants to keep in touch with his customers. Ettinger found that these men were glad to buy greeting card remembrances from him. The first efforts Ettinger made to sell greeting cards at the holiday season netted him $295 in five weeks! He doesn’t believe he could have made this much money selling house to house, although others have done well with the house-to-house plan. Ettinger prefers the highly specialized field and the quick sales results. This year he expects to make considerably more money because he not only knows how to go about getting prospects, but he has a number of customers’ names on his calling list. He will also start earlier and get in another week’s work.