Let me cite just one concrete case of where the buying influence was just as great as or greater than the buying power. By buying influence, I mean the various employees of a firm, such as the department heads, assistants, secretaries, etc., while the buying power is represented by the owner or manager himself.
For obvious reasons, I have used fictitious names, but otherwise the sale is recorded as actually made. You see, it happened this way:
The Fowler Company operates a medium-sized department store in one of these commercial centers so common in a city the size of Minneapolis. The owner and manager is a self-made man, having risen from the bottom, and consequently is big-brained, hard-fisted and farsighted. I say that. He is big-minded because he admits that his assistants made him. And further, he is far-sighted because he always calls a war council of his assistants before he decides on any important question that will ultimately affect them.
The store was lighted throughout by gas because it was piped for gas when it was built, and although Mr. Fowler had not been unmindful of the advantages of electricity, he nevertheless hesitated to make the change on account of the high first cost to change the installation. Try as I might, present all the advantages I could think of, approach him in every way imaginable, it seemed absolutely impossible for me to get him to a final decision. In spite of all his success, he procrastinated for some reason.
At last I had it. I would appeal to him through his assistants—those in whom he had a great deal of confidence, which I learned from him in our last session together. It worked fine. His right-hand man was to be the means through which that store was going to have electric light.
Accordingly, this right-hand man received a very short, snappy letter, merely saying that I would call on him at a certain time to discuss a matter of vital importance, and this letter was signed by the Sales Manager himself—just to add a little tone, don’t you know.
At the stated time I was there and we went into the whole thing thoroughly, I being very careful to cater to his particular type, having learned this from the manager himself. Two other visits were necessary to bring this right-hand man up to the point of being my representative to the owner, and this is the way the right-hand man sold the owner on the idea of electric lighting of the whole store, at least as far as I could get it out of him after the deal had been closed.
“I’ll tell you, Mr. Fowler,” said the right-hand man, “we’re losing money every day we postpone the change from gas to electric lighting, and now that we have an opportunity to dispose of all our gas fixtures at a good price—right now is the time to make the decision. I’m thoroughly convinced that this is the thing to do, and I think the facts I have gathered will convince you, too.
“Our total investment in electric fixtures to get 50% more light than we now get would be very little more than we have invested in our existing outfit.
“We are using valuable money for maintenance of our present equipment that we need, and need badly, for the addition we are considering. Electric light, as far as maintenance is concerned, would be a drop in the bucket beside our present outlay for that item.
“I’ve spent a lot of time going into this matter, and the saving alone will more than pay for the installation in a very short time, to say nothing of the better color value we can get from electricity by using daylight lamps.
“So far as I can see, the only question to settle is: Who ought to do the work? I’ve investigated several of the leading wiring contractors and gone into the matter of fixtures, but this Sterling Electric Co. appeals to me. They do good work, and their prices are right.
“I really believe, based on my investigation, that we ought to get them on the job right away. That electric light man, too, can give us some valuable information. His experience ought to be able to help us. What do you think?”
“Well, Gilson,” says the owner to his right-hand man, “I guess you’re right. If we’re going to make the change, let’s make it before the Xmas trade begins. You go ahead and see what we need.”
Gilson ‘phoned me the next day and the upshot of the whole thing was that we got a 20-K.W. load.
All of which teaches that sometimes the buying influence is better to cultivate than the buying power.