Fuller’s Top Man : He Sweeps Buyers Off Their Feet

Salesman! Aaaaahh! --Pee-wee Herman

If David Ofner can’t sell you a broom, he might just pull up your lawn.

No need to call the cops, though. The mayhem is strictly for demonstration purposes.

Ofner, you see, is the No. 1 Fuller Brush salesman in the universe, and he can’t very well demonstrate a sweeper unless there’s something to sweep.

So when none of his other sales pitches are working with an elderly Orange County couple, Ofner pulls up the grass, tosses it on the porch and starts using a Fuller carpet sweeper.

No Sale This Time

The sweeper doesn’t quite get all the grassy clumps. No sale this time, but the couple ends up spending $61.44 anyway on laundry soap, moth blocks, toothbrushes and toilet cleaner.

It was yet another small victory for Ofner, a 58-year-old Anaheim resident who has maintained a prosperous door-to-door career in an era of shopping malls and working women who are not at home to buy mops and soap.

Despite the shrinking base of homebodies, the number of direct sales reps in the United States has climbed every year except 1985, when the ranks of door-to-door pitchmen dipped 11% to 4.5 million from the previous year’s record of 5.1 million, according to Direct Selling Assn., a Washington trade group.

And in 1985, the last year for which data is available, direct sales reps in the United States collectively generated revenue of $8.3 billion. And “early indications are that we may be looking at a banner year” in 1987 when sales could climb to more than $8.85 billion, said Neil H. Offen, association president.

Wins Company Award

Ofner personally contributed more than $100,000 to the U.S. total last year. The Fuller Brush phenom walked off with the company award for most sales ($102,590) and largest increase in sales ($10,405) and also managed to penetrate the most exclusive of Orange County’s “no solicitors” neighborhoods with toilet scrubbers and mops in hand. And he is aiming to retain his title again this year.

Ofner’s success springs from a mix of basic business savvy--like buying low, selling high--the careful cultivation of regular customers and his roving front-door vaudeville act for audiences of one or two.

There are homey bon mots for adoring “domesticated engineers” and regular customers of the last 17 years.

“I’ve got wet mops, dry mops and dirty mops,” the perpetually friendly Ofner tells a customer.

Dirty mops?

“Just wanted to see if you’re listening.”

The customers almost always are. The short, stout man in front of them is persistent and charming but also has done his homework. A former aerospace engineer, Ofner keeps extensive card files on the buying habits and lives of about 1,500 to 2,000 customers in Orange County so he seems to know each one personally.

And Ofner’s energy is unflagging. It has to be; most Fuller Brush men or women service only 50 to 100 regulars, compared with Ofner’s hundreds.

That is only one of the things that makes Ofner stand out within a company that has undergone radical changes and a series of management upheavals in recent years. Fuller has evolved from a sales force of about 26,000 in the mid-1960s to 13,000 today, most of them part-timers.

But if times are not what they used to be for Fuller, they are as good as ever for Ofner. He began his brush sales career at the age of 41 in 1969 after being laid off by North American Rockwell.

Bought Starter Sales Kit

Ofner was supervising 35 other engineers when he suddenly found himself unemployed. With a wife and two sons to support, he answered a Fuller Brush ad and invested $25 in a starter sales kit.

Since then he has made Fuller history.

His sales have averaged more than $100,000 for the last five years, and so far this year he is among the top 3% of Fuller’s reps in sales. But the company’s top producer achieved his success more by bending Fuller’s formula than by following its advice.

“He’s a real entrepreneur,” said Len Dunlap, chairman of the Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Fuller Brush Co. “I don’t believe 1% of our U.S. reps run an operation like David.”

Ofner’s operation, in part, consists of selling goods he has purchased in bulk during the company’s bimonthly sales. The Ofner garage is constantly stuffed with merchandise--about $15,000 worth--that he resells for as much as 30% over Fuller’s suggested retail price.

Two wet mops and a handle, for instance, usually sell to reps for $12.75 and are sometimes offered at Fuller’s sale price of $9.73. Ofner buys them in bulk, then offers the sets at his own “sale” price of $15.98.

Ofner’s profit margin is also increased because he receives Fuller’s maximum commission of 50% due to his bulk orders. Sales reps who order less receive as little as 25%.

But even though his customers are paying more than they might if they ordered their mops, soap and moth blocks through the Fuller catalogue, Ofner said the mail-order service cannot compete with the personal service and quick delivery he provides.

“As an independent dealer,” he added, “I can charge anything I want. These are the prices that I have to live with in order to make this thing work.”

Ofner’s warehouse approach does not entirely have Fuller’s approval. “Dave may charge some prices we may not like,” said Derek J. Stryker, vice president with Fuller’s household division, “but when a customer calls, he has . . . anything she may want.”

Resales to Other Reps

He also has anything another Fuller sales rep may want. About $10,000 to $20,000 of Ofner’s sales last year were resales to other reps, he said.

And to save just a bit more money, Ofner eschews the Fuller tradition of handing out free handy gadgets--from pastry brushes to spatulas--as a sales incentive when he begins his pitch. Instead, he tosses in the goodies as a thank-you after a customer buys.

Customers are not complaining, though. Along with his wares, Ofner offers simple, good-natured fun.

“He’s like the big brother coming home,” said fellow Fuller man C. J. Willbrand of La Habra. “He gets the gals to laugh. You wonder why more people don’t do Fuller Brush when it’s so easy. You have to remember Dave has spent a lot of sweat and blood building up those customers.”

The typical Ofner schmooze does look easy, even if it isn’t.

“Helloooo, Mrs. Smith,” he’ll begin as if greeting an old friend. Then he’ll offer a personal tidbit based on a quick review of one of thousands of 3-by-5 cards he keeps in plastic recipe boxes. The cards have a brief history of a customer’s past buys, the hours that the person is likely to be home, and personal details such as “getting a divorce,” “pregnant” or “daughter in college.”

“Next time, I say, ‘How are you enjoying living alone?’ or ‘Did you have a boy or a girl?’ or ‘How’s your daughter in college?’ ” Ofner explained. “I want to inject some personal things. That’s part of selling.”

Another part is the cracker-barrel humor, delivered in the accent of his native Brooklyn with Ofner pushing “Fulla” brushes.

‘Keep Me Young’

“All my customers are young women,” he said in front of one customer who maybe is not all that young. “They keep me young.”

The products receive their share of flattery, too.

On a recent day, Ofner glibly peddled an “insecticide that kills anything that crawls or flies except husbands and children,” “a low-calorie air freshener--because you’re smelling it, not eating it,” and “a medicated foot spray--use it for athlete’s foot, sore feet, tired feet or melly feet.”

Melly feet? “I’m just cleaning it up a little bit.”

Despite the friendliness, Ofner does not stay long at any house. He tries to limit visits to five or 10 minutes because he knows he will not sell any more by lingering--or using up time that could be spent with the next customer.

“I tell them, ‘I’ve got a wife who makes me work. I’ve got to get out of here,’ ” Ofner said.

He also does not worry about how to get his foot in the door. He always stays outside.

“People know what they want or they don’t. When you go into a house, you’re going to waste more time.”

But that does not mean Ofner will stint on time servicing a customer with a complaint or a big order.

“Rule No. 1 is service,” he said. So if the handles on a customer’s sweeper bend, he will put on new handles for free--even years later.

That sort of service and Ofner’s familiarity with his customers pay off in more than just sales. For one thing, about 75% of his customers trust him enough to pay for their purchases in advance, he said.

He is also able to convince many customers to give him their phone numbers. “I tell her that because of the gas situation, we’re implementing using the phone,” he said. “Ninety-five percent say, ‘Yes, you can have my phone number.’ ” Ofner, however, uses the number only if he has not been able to find the customer at home.

“How can I sell you non-slip slack hangers on the phone? How can I sell you a carpet sweeper over the phone?”

They are impossible to demonstrate that way, and that is another critical technique--assuming the product really works.

Don’t Always Work

Every now and then, Ofner admits, it does not.

“I have a liquid bowl cleaner that’s supposed to remove rust from the driveway,” he said. “In some cases, it didn’t. So I stopped giving that demonstration. I would say, ‘Mrs. Jones, let’s see if it removes your rust. If it doesn’t, I don’t want to sell it to you.’ ”

Potential rivals are another hazard now that Fuller territories are no longer exclusive. Ofner, though, does not worry about them. He knows they will not hurt business where he works in Huntington Harbor, East Bluff, Spy Glass, Big Canyon and Turtle Rock.

After 19 years, Ofner’s customers are loyal.

“I don’t buy from door-to-door salesmen, but I buy from Dave,” said Margaret Boss, a Corona del Mar customer, during a recent visit from Ofner.

Often customers have good reason to avoid door-to-door salesmen.

“This particular gentleman,” Ofner said about a rival seller who tried to invade his turf, “is an asset to my business. He’s obnoxious.”

Another rival pretending to be Ofner’s son did not get far either--loyal customers checked with Ofner to get the real story.

Although Ofner is often welcome where other salespeople fear to tread, secured areas such as Big Canyon in Newport Beach can be a problem. Ofner said he had about 150 accounts there in the 1970s. Then the guards told him he could no longer solicit.

“I don’t want to go into security areas. You waste too much time, and I don’t want anyone to stop me and ask what I’m doing. I respect people’s privacy.” So Ofner still knocks at well-to-do addresses but limits his pitches to longtime customers.

Of course, people are not the only ones jealous of their privacy. There are also beasts out there to watch out for.

Ofner has been bitten by dogs twice so far. Once, it was his own fault since the customer had warned him, he said.

“The other time, it was a little scrungy thing that gave me a nip. Now I pat the dog and let him smell me, then go my merry way.”

Assuming, of course, that the dog does not need a little sweeper to take care of the season’s shedding.