Proud to have been a Door-to-Door Salesman

Becky Bauman — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 19:19:14 +0000

Pounding the pavement as a door-to-door salesman definitely comes with more than its share of rejection. However, if you stick with it long enough you learn how to put that aside and enjoy the rewards. Through my years of selling books with the Southwestern Company I was commonly asked: Does that still work? Even in the computer age? I am proud to say, “Yes It Does!” Even in today’s fast paced information age, a salesman with a good product, that works hard and treats people right will find success.The Los Angeles Times recently ran a story on possibly the oldest Fuller Brush man, “Fuller Brush Man: A 90-year old foot in the door”. It is the story of Art Pearson, who as has been selling Fuller products for 71 years throughout Washington. Art is well versed in what many of us learned from the Southwestern bookfield.

“Pearson looks at the door-in-the-face as a simple matter of mathematics. If he stops at five houses, one will buy.

‘One thing you’ll never survive with in this business is trying to plan your time or your money,’ he says. ‘I’ve gone out and worked, and sometimes I don’t get any business till noon. And then after noon, it all just falls into place. What would have happened if I’d have quit at noon?

‘The trouble today is, people don’t want to work.’”

Reading Art’s story gave me a sense of pride in how I chose to make my living for those eight years I worked with Southwestern. Door-to-door selling is most often viewed with the perception of the shady magazine crew operating out of a white van that quickly moves from town to town. I know that many of us that carried the Southwestern samplecase can go back to those communities we worked in and, as we drive down those familiar streets, recall the names of the many people that touched our lives. When you treat people right your sales area becomes your community filled with people you consider family.

Former Mississippi Governor Ronnie Musgrove once told me that twenty-five years after he had sold with Southwestern he happened to be going by the town he had sold in his fourth summer. He decided to visit his host family from that summer. The little old lady he had stayed with was now quite elderly, but fondly remembered Ronnie and the summer he spent there. Having no idea he was at the time the Governor of Mississippi, she looked him dead in the eye and asked what he had done with his life.

I am so thankful for the people I met on the bookfield. From my amazing and generous host families, to my customers and even those who simply shut their doors–they all served a purpose in the lessons I learned. I am also thankful there are salesman like Art that allow me to say with pride that I was a door-to-door salesman.

Click here to read the full LA times article on Art Pearson. You’ll be glad you did.

The Southwestern Company Alumni Blog » Ronnie Musgrove

Proud to have been a Door-to-Door Salesman