Productive evening in the selling game

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I got much of my business education under the tutorship of Harold A. Lufkin, who was vice president of sales. He was a firm believer in “on-the-job” training for youngsters like me who wanted to grow into a business. With two years already at Newton Manufacturing Co. part time while in school, I decided to stay on, and give my best to this business for a few years. Looking back, I’m mighty glad for this decision.

Two ladies who ran Hamilton & Church Real Estate in Marshalltown purchased 144 “Vue-Riter” advertising stick pens at 29 cents each for $41.76 with my commission of $10.44. Not bad in those days for an hour’s work after 4 p.m. when the office closed. My selling experience was limited to after-hours during the week and Saturday afternoons... probably the worst time you can imagine for obvious reasons. But these activities helped cut my teeth in the sales field.

I will never forget the evening that fall when I drove to Baxter to contact the elementary school principal who wanted to purchase four different items with their school name for students in various grade levels. Collectively, the teachers had contributed about $250 for the gifts, and I was able to solve their needs in less than half an hour. Wow... what a streak of good luck!

Since it was still only about 5 p.m., I decided to make some other “cold turkey” contacts around Baxter. My next order was from Dale Wastier of the Baxter Mercantile for calendars. Then an order of sports booster pens for the Baxter Sundry... followed with an order of 500 of the new unbreakable combs for the barber shop. I was on a “roll”, so why quit when it was only a little after 6 p.m. My last stop was at Dwight DeJong’s DX service station at the east edge of town. He bought about $60 worth of heavy duty sleet scrapers, and then asked... “What do you have for about $10 to give my good farm customers who buy bulk gasoline through the year?” It took only a few minutes for him to decide on three dozen black walnut bowl sets, for $360.

You can be sure I drove back toward Newton feeling mighty good. It was my most successful evening with nine orders and more than $800 in business. The commission was twice my weekly salary of $100 per week at that time. I decided then and there that I would try and salt away my part-time sales commissions in the bank to invest in a house when the beautiful girl of my dreams Mary Doris Rosenberger and I were married. Our big day was July 17, 1954.

But, then Uncle Sam called me into the Army in March of 1956. I had to give up my sales work along with my newly created position of Assistant Sales Promotion Manager at Newton Manufacturing. The understanding was that my job would be waiting two years hence, which it was. Part of my sales commissions were later invested in a beautiful new little blue Volkswagen ($1,310) which Mary and I shipped back from Germany. With an early-out, I was back on the job in January 1958.

Our first home at 304 E. 13th St. N. for $12,500 was paid for with my part-time sales commissions. So was our new two-story $27,000 home just four blocks away in Franklin Park, which we had built in 1966. I well remember having both homes paid off in short of three years’ time.

I guess it would have been easier to put these sideline commissions into a new car every couple of years or something else. But, aside from mortgage payments for a home, we always felt it was best to set the money aside for other major purchases such as cars or furniture. This was the way my dear Mary and I did things back in the “Olden Days” and the habit stuck with us.

There are lots of other memories about my part-time sales ventures, but my first order, and the big Baxter adventure shine brightly in my memory.