Sales agent

“ Those goods are yours, Red—you’ve only then started them in the channel of distribution and the REAL WORK for your think-tank has only commenced. You must think up schemes—selling plans—watch stocks and keep them moving—give advice and counsel to your managers—in a word, you must be the dynamo that generates the sell-juice and believe me, it’s your job to see there are no broken connections.
There are a lot of things about a product sales manager’s job that can be well or poorly done, but I cannot begin to comment on all of them in this letter. ”

“ WORKING IN HARMONY WITH THE STORE SYSTEM In every organization, business or otherwise where there are a number of people working together it is essential that there be provided a certain fixed method of operation to insure the best results throughout. A transaction is not 190complete when the salesman makes the sale. It must be followed up, for instance, with certain very important work in the office department. Records of sales and customers’ charge accounts, stock records and reports of various kinds must be prepared for the management. ”

“ When I gave you that job I was following out a plan that has proven successful in many cases as shown by magazine articles. I thought you would make a good Sales Manager because you knew nothing about Selling, just as the best [152] organizers of Business Men’s Associations are Kendallville Professors who know nothing about Business, and the best writers of Efficiency Stuff are men who file their correspondence on a hook, and the most dazzling Shop Management Talksters those who heave a wheelbarrow over a fence and never see the gate. ”

“ A real missionary goes into the highways and byways; as the old fisherman says, “he ketches ’em where they ain’t.” He generates enthusiasm in the salesmen he comes in contact with; his sales work is educational; he sets an example for industry, sales ability, loyalty; he teaches the salesman to use superior judgment in not selling too little or too much to a customer; he irons out petty difficulties; he’s an exponent of the sales theory that contemplates holding your head up, but not so high as to let a lot of little orders go by under your nose without seeing them. ”

“ The salesman is dealing with a live subject. He is called upon to present facts concerning his goods in such a way that the customer will recognize them as being facts rather than mere opinions. This means that the selling talk must be made to live—it must be freshened-up. The salesman must continually guard against becoming mechanical or stereotyped either in his manner or his sales talk. ”

“ All have known salesmen who have talked themselves out of sales. This is a fault common to many. Some types evidently believe that if they talk fast enough, do not permit the prospect to bring up objections or say anything, and put the pen in the prospect's fingers and get him to sign on the dotted line, a good sale has been made. The day for this kind of selling is gone. Today's buyer wants information and she wants a chance to think about that information after she gets it. Make your statement about your product and let your customer think about it. ”

“ Give each salesman a list of the towns which you intend to post in his territory, and do it in advance in order that he may acquaint the dealer with the fact and use the publicity as a sales argument. The salesmen or members of your advertising crew, if you have one, should also be able to use the fact that you are going to post a town to secure window displays in advance from the local dealers, in order that their stores may be connected with the advertising and secure a certain portion of the demand. ”

“ The human element enters so much into sales that it is still quite an important part of salesmanship for the salesman to make personal visits, so as to get the orders. To be sure, we have the department stores and specialty houses which have built up a well-known reputation for merchandise of high quality and reasonable price. These will continue to draw customers, with the help of wise advertising, but they must employ the right kind of sales-force to handle properly the customers who visit their places of business. ”

“ They are sales of the kind the professional salesman makes with complete confidence every day. His methods, applied to the marketing of your goods of sale, will work such wonders for you that you soon should build up self-confidence equal to the matter-of-fact assurance of the master salesman of clothing, insurance, and other materials of sale. He knows when he begins a season or starts on a trip that he will make a good batting average. ”

“ This is how important the salesman is to his firm.
I put hiring and handling of salesmen before having a strong line of goods, because if the proper salesmen are hired and are handled right, they will soon compel the house to put out the right line of goods. Just as a retail merchant should consult with his clerks about what he should buy, so, likewise, should the head of the wholesale house find out from his men on the road what they think will sell best. The salesman rubs up against the consumer and knows at first hand what the customer actually wants. ”

“ Here the buying is further specialized, for one man buys for one, or at most three or four departments. The same men act as sales managers and buyers in the departments for which they are responsible. The manager of a department in a big store is selected as much for his ability as a buyer as for his salesmanship. But we do not get away from fundamental principles, for in buying and selling the manager is performing two entirely separate and distinct functions. ”

“ The General Sales Manager of a company like yours, which does business in all parts of the world, has a pretty big task cut out for him. You may be a conscientious, intelligent, hard-working manager, but you’re human, Red, and being human, you’re not always one hundred per cent right and it’s his job to know all about you and the way you’re handling your business, all the time. ”

“ In some lines more specific information is needed in each case to enable the sales manager to judge intelligently the chances for future business. Fig. 34 represents a card used in one business for a specific report on each call made. The form shown in Fig. 35 provides for a brief report including suggestions regarding the date of the next call.
Follow-up of Dealers and Salesmen. In the modern advertising campaigns of manufacturers in many lines, an effort is made to secure inquiries from consumers, though the goods are sold through dealers only. ”

“ This check was the entering wedge for a $250,000.00 life insurance policy, which this resourceful salesman soon after wrote for the man whose pet hobby was the big hospital in question.
The main trouble with most salesmen is that they put the problem of finding customers up to the sales manager or heads of the company. They want them to do all the thinking in the matter of where to go, and how to proceed in this difficult business. Let me say right at the start; there is no iron-clad rule for finding customers. ”

“ Characteristics of the Buyer.—To perform his functions properly, the buyer must be a man of broad experience, with a keen sense of values and the marketing possibilities of merchandise. On the buying side he must have complete information as to the available sources of the merchandise he desires to secure, both in staple and in novelty lines. On the selling side he must know the demands of his customers and the possibility of creating new demands. The best index of the buying power of his customers is the volume of sales made in previous years. ”

“ Almost all modern selling involves providing some ancillary services in connection with making the sale-delivery, installation, supplying fixtures, servicing, training of the customer's personnel in use of the material sold, furnishing display material and sales aids, extension of credit. Customarily indeed lmost invariably-the seller offers these ancillary services only in connection with the sale of his own products, and they are often offered without cost or at bargain rates. ”

“ True, the president of companies like yours does those things, but not alone, Boy, not alone. He has a lot of high-class men like yourself specializing and directing certain ends of it. Don’t be too big, however, to detect a good idea or suggestion from those in other ends of the business. I once knew a great sales manager who got the best sales lead of his experience from an office boy.
And, Red, be human—keep away from the clouds—keep your feet on terra firma. ”

“ For example, a manufacturer of hardware selling direct to the retail trade found that his strongest competitor's policy was to sell to every dealer who would buy and to offer no exclusive sales arrangements, while he himself made a success by offering his goods only under exclusive sales agencies. ”

“ The sales department proper is in charge of a sales manager, who has immediate authority over his subordinates and is responsible for the results secured by his department. No position in the business organization carries with it greater responsibilities, for on the sales manager rests the burden of marketing the goods at a profit. ”

“ Whatever you are selling, whether books or pianos, hardware or drygoods, your manner will largely determine the amount of your sales. There are salesmen who approach prospective customers just as though they not only did not expect an order, but rather expected, if not to get kicked out, at least a polite invitation to get out. ”

“ Selling goods that give perfect satisfaction in such a pleasing, attractive way that the customer comes back; leaving a pleasant taste in the customer’s mouth, pleasant pictures in his memory of the way you treated him, so that he will put himself out to look you up the next time, this is the salesmanship which every one can cultivate. One doesn’t need to be a born salesman to do this. Every one can treat a customer kindly, pleasantly, with a cheerful, helpful manner, in an accommodating spirit. ”

“ In retail selling the matter of attracting attention is to some extent, but not all by any means, taken care of by newspaper advertising, window and store displays, the customer’s acquaintance 80with the store, and the like. It is for the salesman, however, if he is to sell rather than simply to take orders, to guide the customer’s attention and build a genuine interest in the goods; to sell so that the customer will listen and respond to his selling talk, examine the goods and agree perhaps to try them on. ”

“ Indeed, the word salesman tends to disappear under this new viewpoint, for the organization which was once charged largely with disposing of goods may now be so intimately involved in technical studies of the customers' problems that selling is a secondary part of its work. The Sales Department is being renamed, and known as the Advisory Department or the Research Staff; while the salesman himself becomes a Technical Counsel or Engineering Adviser. ”

“ A wide-awake, progressive salesman, without violating confidences, can help his customers wonderfully by keeping them posted on what his competitors are doing, on the latest ideas in his line, the new and original methods. You may know of some novel and striking methods of reaching the public, of displaying merchandise and arranging store windows, or of reaching customers through unique local advertising. Give your customer every suggestion you can. You may see that he is a good business man in many respects, but seriously lacks something which you could help him to supply. ”

“ A word from the customer concerning the kind of service he has received may contain a suggestion to the salesman to give more attention to a feature of his work he may have been overlooking and which may have been responsible for loss of sales.
A great many stores today take advantage of customers’ criticisms by requiring the salesman to prepare a record of each sale that is lost and the reason why it was lost. Every man, regardless of his position, can afford to consider carefully any comments having to do with the quality of his work. ”

“ MAKING TWO SALES OUT OF ONE Just as it is possible for a man, by mixing brains with his effort, to make two blades of 163grass grow where one grew before, or to grow two bushels of wheat on the plot that formerly produced but one, so also the salesman may increase his production of sales. With him it is a matter of seasoning his effort with ideas and suggestions that will appeal to the customer and stir-up the desire to buy. ”

“ The good salesman studies the other side of the question. He acquaints himself with the method used by the customer in disposing of his goods. He does not talk his own side of the case all the time. He works with the customer, tries to give him good advice and shows an interest in the customer's business. Such a salesman gets close to the customer, and retains his patronage long after the good fellow has passed away. ”

“ They have the product, the samples, the salesmen and the enthusiasm, but they don’t analyze the possibilities—they don’t compare the sales with the available prospects in a territory—they allow their salesmen to take a turn-down from a buyer who should buy big, without attempting to make another trial. ”

“ The older, more experienced salesmen and the sales managers, usually, have thought out the most effective answers to the objections that are ordinarily made. The young inexperienced salesman must go to them for advice. ”

“ The advertising man introduces the possible customer; the salesman makes the sale. But in some businesses, the advertising man goes one step farther and actually makes the sale—as in advertising intended to secure direct orders, by mail. Also, the salesman, when the customer has been introduced, makes use of other forms of advertising, to further stimulate desire and assist in making the sale. ”