[March 20, 2012] The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio, Joe Blundo column Tweet Mar 20, 2012 (The Columbus Dispatch - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- No one will ever break his record now. David Goetz of Columbus is the U.S. record holder for Encyclopaedia Britannica sales. In a 27-year career in New York and Ohio, he sold more than 10,000 sets of books. (He might also hold the world record, but the company can't confirm that.) Britannica, a Chicago company that has been shifting to a digital product for years, announced last week that it would no longer print what Goetz sold so well: an encyclopedia on paper. It's going all-electronic. The latest 32-volume set, which sells for $1,395, will be the company's last. "I knew it was inevitable," said Goetz, 65. The bigger shock for him came in 1996, when Britannica -- founded in 1768 in Scotland -- disbanded its consumer-sales force, leaving him out of a job. (He switched to selling insurance before retiring.) He still thinks that doing away with the people who made sales pitches in homes was a bad move by Britannica. "They thought they didn't need us -- which I think was a mistake....We would go to the home and lightly encourage . . . (consumers) to cross the finish line." Goetz might also hold a record for encyclopedia-salesman stories. A couple of favorites: --One evening in upstate New York, he was halfway into his presentation to a farm family before he realized he was in the wrong house. Apologizing, he began to pack up when the farmer said, "I didn't say I wasn't interested, son." The family bought his encyclopedias, fed Goetz dinner, then called the owner of the right house. That man bought a set, too. --After moving to Ohio in 1994, he found that the Midwestern reputation for niceness was no myth. "One particular family, I called on the phone, and . . . (the wife) said: 'Well, tonight's our anniversary. We're going to go out to dinner. But since you drove out here, we can go out to dinner tomorrow night.' That was an easy sale." Goetz began his sales career while in college in New York. Salespeople, who earned commissions of about 25 percent, worked from leads generated by an 800 number or a postcard. He just kept knocking on the doors of prospects, knowing that, if he gave enough presentations, sales were bound to follow. But not always. He once had a presentation interrupted when the child of the couple he was wooing fell off his bike in the street. Because they were newcomers, Goetz drove the child and his parents to an emergency room. After the boy was treated, he drove them home. They still didn't buy the encyclopedias. And he once lost a sale because the books were slightly too big for the homeowner's new shelves. Still, he made a good living. Goetz was earning a six-figure income, he said, by the end of the 1970s. He sent two children to college and enjoyed regular vacations. And, yes, he has a set of Britannicas. "I'm proud of my association with them, for sure. At least the company's not going out of business. They're just going in a different direction." Joe Blundo is a Dispatch columnist. [email protected] ___ (c)2012 The Columbus Dispatch (Columbus, Ohio) Visit The Columbus Dispatch (Columbus, Ohio) at www.dispatch.com Distributed by MCT Information Services [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]