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•Nine Greatest Selling Innovations 3

The success of the new system was measured in improved throughput, nearly
ten times the original capacity, and attracted the attention of no less an automator
that Henry Ford, who is reported to have studied Sears’ assembly line technique.

We have mentioned Richard Sears’ skills in writing advertising copy, and this
triggered the next piece of innovation into what was now a huge retailing company.
The copy had become more and more fanciful and flamboyant – more suited to
selling snake oil than a full list of everyday requirements. Once again the executives
reacted to the complaints of customers, and decisions on catalogue copy started to
favour the factual rather than the fanciful. In the early years of the twentieth century
it is probable that Sears himself was becoming less active in the copywriting room;
oh, and they dropped patent medicines in 1913, with a banner headline in the
catalogue reading ‘Why we have discontinued patent medicines.’

So by listening to the market Sears produced the whole mail-order concept,
and by paying attention to customer service the assembly line methodology was
born. There remained only quality. Once again customer demand was that mail-
order goods should be of no less quality than their more expensive rivals in retail
shops. The Sears response was the ‘watchdog of the catalogue.’ They set up the first
laboratory in 1911 to suggest minimum standards for a number of products and
conduct spot checks on mail-order plants. They also made scientific comparisons
between Sears and competitor products. The policy at Sears became an unequivocal
money-back guarantee.

If only an entrepreneur could do something about the weather, farmers would
have nothing to grouse about.

Ask yourself

How robust is your company against the customer’s plea to ‘Make it easy for
me to buy?’