One day a new kind of visitor showed up and sent in the card of a large oil company.  He was not a salesman, but an investigator of oil problems.  The superintendent took him through the plant.  He studied the work being done by screw-cutting machines, lathes and other equipment operated with cutting oil.  Where salesmen had recommended brands without technical knowledge of either the work to be done or the composition of the oil, this stranger wrote specifications that cut down the percentage of costly lard oil used on some work; and he eliminated it altogether on others.

Moreover, he pointed out sheer losses of oil by picking up a handful of metal cuttings from a box, letting them drip, measuring the oil that accumulated and recommending a simple device for reclaiming that oil before the waste metal was sold.

This new viewpoint in selling is developing in so many lines that to enumerate them would be to make a national directory of business concerns manufacturing milling machinery, office devices, manufacturing and structural materials, equipment for the farm and the mine.

People who purchase such products have been accustomed to meeting two different representatives of manufacturers:  First, the salesman skilled in selling, but deficient in technical knowledge.

“This chap is here to see how much he can get out of me,” said the prospective consumer to himself; and he was on his guard to see that the visitor got as little as possible, either in the way of orders or information.

The other representative came from the mechanical department to see how present equipment was running, or perhaps to “shoot trouble.”  He was long on technical knowledge, but probably dumb when it came to salesmanship.

“This fellow is here to help me out of my troubles,” said the customer.  “I’ll see how much I can get out of him.”

Presently manufacturers of equipment woke up to the fact that their mechanical men—­inspectors and trouble shooters—­had a basis of confidence which the salesman pure and simple was rapidly losing.  Moreover, the technical man gained a knowledge of the customer’s requirements that furnished the best foundation for selling new equipment.

The salesman discovered the technical man and went to him for tips on new equipment needed by customers whose plants he had visited.  The technical man also discovered the salesman, for it was plain enough that equipment well sold—­skillfully adjusted to the customer’s needs—­gave the least margin for trouble shooting.

So there has been a meeting of minds; and to-day the salesman studies the technicalities, and the technical man is learning salesmanship, and their boss is standing behind them both with a new policy.  This is the policy of performance, not promises—­service before sales.  Under that policy the very terms salesmanship and sales department are beginning to disappear, to be replaced by new nomenclature, which more accurately indicates what a manufacturer’s representative can do for the customer, and gives him access to the latter on the basis of confidence and good will.