Door-to-door sales persist as dying art

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Southwestern Co. started selling Bibles just after the Civil War, and the sales model hasn’t changed much since.

They don’t sell many Bibles anymore, but determined students still tramp around neighborhoods and knock on doors, even though the door-to-door book sales model is nearly extinct.

Those who have gone through the experience say Southwestern prepared them for the brutal world of business and politics. As proof, the company boasts a surprising list of alumni who have risen to prominence in conservative circles — including Sen. Jeff Sessions, Alabama Republican, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Clinton special prosecutor Kenneth W. Starr.

“You learn persistence, endurance, dogged determination. To keep on going even though the going is a little rough,” said Mr. Starr, a Southwestern salesman in 1966.

“You’re getting told ’no,’ ” said Mr. Starr, whose son also sold books for Southwestern in 1998. “The door is slammed in your face, but you keep on going.”

Southwestern recruits on college campuses, and its sales force represents about 390 schools in North America and Europe. The students often work up to 80 hours a week and make 20 to 30 presentations a day.

Toting a satchel full of books house to house in 90-degree heat can pay off for the students, who get the merchandise wholesale from the company and then resell it for about 40 percent more.

Last summer, the average gross profit per month for a first-year student dealer was $2,733, while second-year sellers made $5,131. Students in their fourth year earned about $9,500. In total, students made $24 million in 2004.

Southwestern was founded in Nashville as a Bible publishing company and didn’t start its book-selling program for college-age men until 1868.

Since that time, it has been privately owned except for a 13-year period in which it was part of the Times Mirror Communications Group, until management and employees took it private again in 1982.

Door-to-door book sales started to wane when the publishing industry began to consolidate about 15 years ago — about the same time encyclopedia salesmen stopped going door to door, said Robert Baensch, director of New York University’s Center for Publishing.

Major chains such as Barnes & Noble and Borders represent half of all retail sales of books in the U.S., while a significant portion of the other half goes to less traditional outlets such as Wal-Mart, Costco and Price Club. Online book sales account for about 9 percent of the market. Door-to-door sales account for 1 percent.

Southwestern, a subsidiary of the fundraising company Great American Opportunities Inc., accounted for 15 percent of its parent company’s total revenue last year, with $60 million in retail sales — its biggest year yet. Revenue for the private business was $36 million, said Dan Moore, vice president of marketing.

Door-to-door sales is a dying practice, Mr. Baensch said.

“It doesn’t pay for itself. It made sense when you could sell encyclopedias because the purchase made was large enough to make a viable commission. Today it’s difficult for consumer titles unless they have an education value,” he said.

Part of what keeps Southwestern successful, its company leaders and student book dealers say, are good products — which include educational books and computer software at every grade level, from SAT study guides to U.S. history books.

Another key element to success is the company’s legacy of producing leaders in business, entertainment, medicine, sales and politics — particularly conservative politics. Alumni include Rep. Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee Republican, and Dortch Oldham, Republican candidate for Tennessee governor in 1974.

Mrs. Blackburn, who sold books for four years while attending Mississippi State University in the early 1970s, said she was the first woman to sell books for Southwestern in the South.

“I can remember you would have people literally screaming at you,” said Mrs. Blackburn. “Sometimes people would be unkind, and you choke back the tears and you say to yourself, ’That’s another no.’ But hearing that repeatedly builds a resilience and tenacity within you.”

Why this small publishing company attracted so many people who went on to become conservative political heavyweights has to do with the company’s public mission, Mr. Baensch said.

“Their thinking is, ’I’m helping families get their kids to read,’” he said.

Matt Aschoff, a 23-year-old University of Nebraska student, is in his fifth summer selling books for Southwestern. His first summer, he made about $13,000, but he built that up to nearly $20,000 his third summer.

It was more than money that kept Mr. Aschoff selling.

“I was having a horrible day. I was asking, ’Why I am doing this?’ because you hear all these ’nos.’” Then, Mr. Aschoff said, he visited a Douglas, Mass., mother and her five children, who bought several items: “It made my day. I still get Christmas cards from them. The families you have an effect on is amazing. I do feel like we make a difference with what we do.”