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The experiences of others
tell what you can expect as a
Harper Brush distributor.

	Taking on the Harper line was “the best advice I ever had.” Hibbard Davis of Wichita, Kansas started selling Fuller Brushes door to door in 1967. He added the Harper line in 1978. “A dealer in Bakersfield, California told me I should take on the Harper line,” he remembers. “It was the best advice I ever had, next to starting with Fuller and learning to sell from some really topnotch salesmen.” Did Harper help him get started? “If you take on a distributorship, Harper will give you good advice,” adds Hibbard. What about compensation? “I raised and helped four sons get their college educations, so I made some money. It’s no get-rich-quick scheme, but yes, it’s profitable. Generally, my Harper sales are considerably larger than my Fuller sales,” he says. “It’s a lot of work…but it’s been consistently a pleasant way to go through life. I think Harper has really good, down-to-Earth people earnestly striving to support their sales force.”
	A product I could believe in. A business I could run on my own. A business he could run on his own. That’s what Rich Beasley of Greenwood, Indiana was looking for. Plus, he wanted to sell a “good, simple” product that he could “become excited about.” He struck pay dirt when he discovered Harper Brush. Only about 25 percent of his time is now spent on cold calls. He spends the rest of his time strengthening his relationships with established customers. His first year, he sent out 500 Christmas cards. This year, it was 1,200 cards. That indicates how much his business has grown since he started, just 21 months ago. His biggest investment was his truck. He bought a substantial one to reinforce his image as a professional. “It separates me from peddlers,” he claims. Rich’s only complaint is lack of time to talk to all the customers he would like to speak with. He feels that spending time with them builds rapport and loyalty. “I never get as far as I want when traveling my areas,” he admits, because he gets involved in conversations. That’s the mark of a man who enjoys his job.
	Didn’t want someone else “dictating if I had a job or not.” When Lloyd Gjervik of Eden Prairie, Minnesota was laid off from his previous job, he wanted an independent position that he could stay with as long as he wanted. Lloyd was drawn to Harper after talking to his brother. “He told me he knew someone at headquarters that I should talk to. I spent three days at Harper and talked to other distributors before deciding to go ahead.” He admits to being cautious. He liked not having to buy his franchise, although he did have to invest in a truck and inventory. “That commitment made me work harder at succeeding,” he explains. Lloyd took over a “virgin territory” with no existing customers. “I set a goal of visiting 10 to 20 potential customers per day and getting sales from two to five of them”, Lloyd remembers. Of course, as an independent business person, Lloyd is free to set his own schedule. That flexibility is one of the advantages of owning his business. He now has 1,000 customers and is in the process of setting up sub-distributors. With that many customers, Lloyd will be in business with Harper for a long, long time.
	Virtually everyone is a potential customer. Mike Siesel of New Washington, Ohio has distributed Harper products for 21 years. He was aware that Harper Brush makes quality products. Upon learning that a territory was open, he became a distributor. Who is a potential customer? “As Topper Tastad, a fellow distributor, told me, anyone with a door and a floor is a potential customer. He was right,” Mike affirms. Mike believes that service is an important advantage he offers over the big chain stores. “My customers know I will fix their brooms if that service is ever needed. They can’t get that from a retailer,” he says. Building a solid reputation for service after the sale has helped make Mike a successful distributor.
	“I don’t sell products. I solve problems.” In his former job as a floor covering installer, Topper Tastad of Groton, South Dakota gave Harper brooms to his customers. His customers liked the brooms so much, he decided to become a full-time Harper distributor 12 years ago. Most of his customers are commercial businesses – including automotive businesses and grain businesses. Topper likes what he does because he enjoys helping people. He says he feels “like a steward who helps solve problems.” Part of that is having the selection and expertise to recommend the right broom – two things most retailers don’t have. He believes that making an initial investment of ten to twenty thousand dollars is a good thing “because it provides new distributors with a real incentive to perform. Their money is on the line,” he says. Topper is constantly “putting out feelers” to recruit sub-distributors who are “looking for a purpose in life…who want to make a nice living serving others.” He describes the people he recruits as “self-motivated.”