Shown here a hundred years ago is a service man from Dreher Radio Company, New York, or possibly the proprietor himself, Fred Dreher, shown in the May 1926 issue of Radio Retailing. Dreher had originally considered the service side of the business to be a necessity, but not necessarily a profit center. But after crunching the numbers, he came to the realization that, if done right, service could be a big profit center for the company. It wasn’t just the service itself. But when the customer was in the home, it was the perfect opportunity to sell accessories, such as batteries and tubes.

The key takeaway was that the service man, in order to make the endeavor profitable, had to see himself as a salesman of accessories, and not just a service man.