^iiiBRARYQr ^immor^ m I' ea za ^"^(WnVJJO^ "%13DNVS0# i 1; 1 ^v in** cp ^ o '■'^imuy^w '^ojm S3 f*- U ^(?AM o IIFOR^ ^OfCAllFOMj^ ^(/Ad^^aaiH^ 5 i -JC^i % 'mim-i^'^ "^(aoiiivj-jo^' t # "-^^OillVJ-JO^ =3 3% ^ ''^ommi'^ ' ^^Aavaani^^^ ^^ilW'SOl^ «^1^EUNIVER% Hi iurri i^ ^jJuDNvsoi^^^ "^/iaiAiNn-av^^ ^H^ixm-i^ %)jmojo'^ i' CO ^oFCAiiFOff^ ^vmm^ ;^ ^ 5w ""^ .^'^ JLNHKHOVNVIM SmVS DIdlXNHIDS SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT A PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF THE PRINCIPLES OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT TO SELLING BY CHARLES WILSON HOYT 'Dispatch is the Soul of Business" NEW HAVEN, CONN. GEORGE B. WOOLSON&CO. 1913 COPYRIGHT, I912 GEORGE B. WOOLSON & CO. COPYRIGHT IN ENGLAND ALL RIGHTS RESERVED THE -PLIMPTON •PRESS [ W • D -o] NOP. WOOD'MASS'U'S'A S-^'b'i IET us draw a lesson from Nature, which always works by short ways. When the fruit is ripe it falls. When the fruit is dispatched the leaf falls. The circuit of the waters is mere falling. The walking of man and all animals is a falling forward. All our niamial labor and works of strength, as prying, splitting, digging, rowing, and so forth, are done by dint of continual falling; and the globe, earth, moon, comet, sun, star, fall forever and ever. — RALPH WALDO EMERSON 419470 AN APPRECIATION By HIRAM PERCY MAXIM O OME few days ago when Mr. Hoy t told me that he had written a book on Scientific Sales Manage- ment, I congratulated him. At the same time, I said that those who had occasion to spend money m sales work, were to be congratulated also. During the years I have known Mr. Hoyt, I have more and more admired his work. Our first meet- ing was purely on a business basis, but he quickly made our connections stronger by the excellence of his methods. In his experience Mr. Hoyt has had a most happy combination which has made him the really big advertising and sales director that he is. First, he was given the benefit of a scientific engi- neering training at a great university (Yale, 1894, S.S.S.). That probably made him the accurate, keen analyst that he is. He analyzes, reasons, and deduces in a clear-cut way. His mathematical training has made him exact. Then he did what seems strange for a university- trained man — what really made him the power that he is. He went from the University out on viii AN APPRECIATION the road as a traveling salesman. It was no ele- mentary short cut that he took. From 1894 until 1909 — fifteen years — he worked in a practical way on every phase of selling and, in the later years, on advertising also. So in 1909 he merely broadened his field when he engaged in business as a consulting sales and advertising manager. As a preliminary training he had worked as a travehng salesman two years before entering college and then fifteen years after graduating. Two years ago he came to me to help in mar- keting the Maxim Gun Silencer. Never have I seen him reach a wrong conclusion. Never has he offered advice that was not good. From his rich fund of experience he has helped me solve problems which I, with my own training and experience, could not have solved without costly experimenting. I am glad of the opportunity to write these few words which may induce the man who employs or directs salesmen to read Mr. Hoyt's book. The reader of this book has an opportunity to see in part and to profit by the accumulated results of twenty years of sales and advertising experience. You lose the benefit of the personal contact which I have enjoyed, but you will be well repaid by a perusal of the book. October 15th, igi2. CONTENTS I II III IV VI VII VIII IX X XI XII XIII XIV XV XVI XVII XVIII XIX XX XXI XXII XXIII PAGE Two Kinds of Salesmen — the Old and the New 3 The Principles of Scientific Management . . 9 What is Scientific Sales Management ? . . . 23 Co-operating with the Salesman Covering the Territory for the First Time 31 Co-OPERATnsrG with Salesmen Covering Territory Regularly 43 Spending One Dollar on a Prospect .... 51 Meeting the Objections to Mail Pieces ... 57 The Function of Salesmen in an Advertising Campaign 65 How to Secure the Salesmen's Co-operation in an Advertising Campaign 75 Councils, Meetings, and Conventions for Salesmen 89 Illustrations of Actual Meetings and Conven- tions 95 So-Called Ginger Talks 103 Contests for Salesmen 115 Contests for Salesmen on a Quota Basis . . 125 Judging and Stimulating Salesmen by Percent- age of Distpjbution 131 HmiNG Salesmen 139 How to Conduct a Trade Promotion Department 149 The Salesman's Expense Account 157 Standardizing the Salesman's Arguments or Sales Talks 165 The Comparative Feature in Sales Management 179 A Campaign Featuring the Manager or Salesman 185 Applying Scientific Sales Management to a Retail Business 191 Handling the United States by Territories or Zones , 199 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE With Scientific Sales Management the manager secures results from average salesmen facing 3 A mail piece which has been used with good results, .... 35 A mail piece which was read even in busy New York ... 40 These are salesmen's co-operative pieces which closed the sales when even the proprietor forgot to tell his story .... 45 The folder that brought five per cent of inquiries from a list of twelve hundred department stores 52 Examples of mail pieces which have secured results .... 62 Sales bulletin with two tables showing percentage of quotas sold 126 Illustrations of house organs issued by retail merchants . . . 195 Two Kinds of Salesmen — The Old and the New SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT Chapter I T'wo Kinds of Salesmen — "The Old and the New TODAY there are two kinds of salesmen. About twenty-five years ago, except in rare cases, there was only one kind. The old sort is rapidly de- creasing in number, but it is still the larger. It is not always the choice of the salesman to be in this old or first class. Often it is because the house for which he works shows no inclination to co-operate with him and he is obUged to work entirely for himself. Such a salesman stands ready to go into the new class, but his house is not ready. The old kuid of salesman is the "big me" species. He is the "little you" (meaning the house) sort. He works for himself and, so far as possible, according to his own ideas. He resents anything coming from the house except checks for salary and expenses. The house may tell him what territory to cover, even to the extent of naming the town. In many cases, however, the "big" salesman only permits the house to name the States or counties which he is to cover. In other words, they assign him a territory. 4 SCIKXriFIC SALKS MANAGEMENT Ho lias liis own customers. Mind you, I speak with wisdom when I say they are liis customers. At any rate, he considers them as such. If a newly appointed sales nianafier attempts to tell him of some firms on whom he must call, he is "peeved." Sometimes it is his practise to suggest that the sales manager better come out and do it, while he (the "big" salesman) will take his customers with him to another house. Yes, the old t>i)e of salesman is a big man. Unfor- tunately for commerce in general, he has his own way in many cases. Many jobbers and manufacturers are really afraid of him and do not interfere. Many such manufac- turers spend hours and hours, and much money, reducing the "cost-to-make," while they permit the " cost-to-sell " to rest in the palm of the inefficient old tyY)e of salesman. They are strong for Scientific Management in the shop and in the office, but in the sales force — " Well, you see we do not care to oppose Jones, who has traveled for us for forty years. He has a strong trade — they all like him and, if he left us, he would take all of his customers to our big competitor." "Besides," they say, "Jones really makes us a lot of money. We might try it on our new men, but never on Jones." Somebody said that it cost more to sell the goods of America than it does to make them. But we are rapidly learning in this country how to reduce the cost to sell our goods. We are not doing this by hiring lower-cost sales- men or less of them, but by distributing much larger quantities of goods with less lost motion. Fortunately there is another type of salesman. He is the new kind. At present he is in the minority, but he works for the fastest growing and most successful houses of the day. He works for the house and the house works TWO KINDS OF SALESMEN 5 for him. He welcomes and uses every bit of help the house sends him. He believes that he should be a closer and not a missionary. He expects the house to keep itself and its product constantly in the minds of his trade. He doesn't consider that in so doing they are robbing him of any prestige or glory. In the Manual put out by the National Cash Register Company the salesman is told to keep himself in the back- ground and the registers in the front. In one part of this book it says: "Do not intrude your personality on the notice of the prospect, but try to make him forget you and become absorbed in studying the Registers. To do this you must forget yourself." The territory by cities, towTis,and by individual customers and prospects is laid out for him. He expects it, and he co-operates with those who do the planning at headquarters so as to make the results of this work better and more efficient. He considers the sales manager his best friend and greatest helper. Let me repeat again my definition of the new type of salesman. He is the sort who works for a house which works intelligently for him. The sales manager may well ask himself which type of salesman is in his employ. If it is the first sort, he should ask himself whether it is the fault of the salesmen or the sales manager. "The Principles of Scientific Management chapter II "The Principles of Scientific Management MUCH has already been said and printed on Scien- tific Management. To some, a chapter in this book on the subject may seem unnecessary. It is introduced, however, to bring to the attention of those who have not looked into tlie matter a few of the principles and the results of this remarkable subject. Many excellent books have been printed on it, and if the reader is interested in Scientific Management at all, he will make no mistake if he reads some of them. One of the best is Mr. F. W. Taylor's book, " The Principles of Scientific Management," published by Harper & Brothers. I am in- debted to that book in part for the facts given in this chapter. It has been apparent for a long time that enormous losses occur in this coimtry due to the inefficiency in the daily acts of its people. How to correct part of this waste has been the work of the advocates of Scientific Management. The remedy lies in the correct sort of management and not in searching for unusual or extraordinary leaders. The successful users of Scientific Management have pointed out and proved that the correct sort of management is a true science which rests upon clearly defined laws, rules, and principles. If you desire, you can be shown and told of scores of successful concerns who have abandoned traditional methods lo Sril'MlllC SALKS MANAGEMENT of nianagonient because tliey have found that it has paid to do so. Vou can hear of concerns which a few years ago were running behind year after year, but today are carry- ing on businesses that are highly profitable. These are easily proved facts. Every body of men engaged in a common task requires a manager. It is true of a factory, a market, a store, a football team, or a college faculty. The followers of Scien- tific Management see two kinds of management only; namely, the old and the new. Others classify all types of management under three heads; namely, Unsystem.atized Management, Systematized Management, and Scientific Management. But what, after all, is the real object of management? Why have it at all? ]\Ir. Taylor says that the principal object of management should be to secure the maximum prosperity for each employer, coupled with the maximum prosperity for each employee. This means for the owner not only large dividends, but the development of the business to such a state of excellence that the prosperity may be permanent. It means for the employee hot only higher wages than are usually received by men in his class, but it also means the de\'elopment of each man to the state of maximum efficiency. It is certainly logical to say that no single indi\ddual can reach the state of greatest prosperity except when that indi\'idual has reached his highest state of efficiency; that is, when he is turning out his largest daily output. This being correct, the most important object of both the w'orkmen and the management should be the training and development of each man so that he can do (at his fastest pace and with maximum ot, efficiency) the highest class of work for which his natural ability fits him. But w'hat is the trouble with the old style of management SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT ii which has been used and has done service for years? Why change? One trouble has been in the selection, or effort to select, the so-called "born managers." These managers have been selected so as to secure the best possible work out of the workers. Under them have been placed subordinate bosses who, to a degree, have similar managerial instincts. The methods employed by these so-called managers have varied according to the character of the work. The reader is familiar with the type of manager that is employed on the railroad section. He is there because he can drive. The manager employed where a higher class of workman is used uses different methods. He encourages the workers by making suggestions, does everything to prevent friction, to increase the good fellowship, etc. The trouble ^\'ith both these types is that their success depends largely on the personal equation — if the mana- ger is changed the results change. Again the trouble with this style of management is that the worker is inclined to do as little work as he can without losing his recompense, and the management is inclined to get as much work as possible out of the worker without increasing his recompense. Another troul^le with this method of employing managers is that as a rule the workers know more about their work and the right way to do it than the bosses over them. They are in a position to seem to be accomplishing more than they really are. Another trouble is, as a rule, the boss or manager has so many important details to look after that he has to overlook things which are apparently of minor importance. The worker has to deal with these as best he can, although the aggregate loss of efficiency as a result of this necessary negligence on the part of the boss is large. In the past many remedies have been proposed and tried 12 SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT for getting around these things. These have included piece work bonuses, profit sharing devices, time checks, the use of inspectors, spotters, spies, etc. None of these things work out as they should. Perhaps it would be well to give here a few definitions of Scientific Management; then, in the brief space available to explain the meaning of the definitions, illustrating them by examples of results obtained from their application. Mr. Ernest H. Abbott of the Outlook, in an article which aj^pcarcd January 7, 191 1, gives the following as the four principles of Scientific Management: First, the planning department, with its various functions assigned to different agents, should be in full control of every part of the organism, determining exactly, and ordering by means of drafted directions, not only what the product shall be, but how the processes shall be carried on. Second, to this end the planning department must adhere to the laws of science (the science of the laboratory) in studying and deciding upon all the elements in the common enterprise, including in these elements not only things and their properties, but also men and their ways. Third, necessarily, therefore, the planning department must abandon the practise of classifying men according to the labels they wear, and instead must proceed scientifically in the selection of the workers and in the assignment of them to their tasks. Fourlh, the planning department must adopt such a system of dis- tributing responsibility and compensation as will make authority coin- cident wnVa knowledge and apportion reward according to service rendered. Mr. Taylor has put his definition in a different order, as follows : 15^ The development of a science in place of "rule of thumb" for each element of the work. 2nd. The scientific selection and training of the workman. 3rcn«:iicut Wo^'v nuhrwgi are not the o^y thin^ Connerticiil YarAe« It«v^ itiveiUed It i' a ier»>H queslkw v,4ieilj'j cr nol ihcy dnl inv.nt wood^Ti (mtim^s. btrt they enjoy ih^ \l'>r)' ju^t OS mucti M tlwic ivtio tell It about lh.-m. Il 11 fining that tlie fii'^st prj(tK»l add- mg and bc«lt-kc(-['in(; nwcMDr or ih^ mailxl liy^y should have stalled m i>ui Slate An Inventor's Idfia. Vtlicn Mr Fred M. C*noU ^vorItrd cut th^ Commcrctai Adding Machinr-, Ik did so m uU« diir-tard even ot ihc ticjilcotc of any olhcr raachuw !t pfmii tl'C toi.il aJ any time. It dishnguithss hy pnMJDg in red and alif I.v ptrolirig 3 miDU-. sisn, iKc wfcliactcd fn.n- l(,c adcW items. Il pftfis*'! when "*omed, dalts. page or rjtlici rnimbcT^ months, day^ of the w.teit ut tuct biisiiTOS icinu a*~inv.. Pd.. Mdw.. The Conuneitial iewi= ; i 4 follow. Mr- CaiioII believed iha' 1^ a live busincfts m Oils couutry there wm room (or an adding machlnt tt*i t^-ould itcblc ihii output ol a boolc-kecpei. pcreiilrag htm to inc hit time on moti; importiiol (Kings than iuch meclianicat vjofK a* iieuiing- The iciult o( his cfforu U a machme, peculiarly adaplMt to commcrciJ lervrce ^nd yej, ctjually valtiiit»t« in fenanciat institu lions. What It Ooes. To g.»e a I... ol ali It^ ^-a. that the Commcfcial dn-rs w.iJd l fufniih a bri-;! drscnplion imiiinj! are iBlCicUed to »ik (oi Furlltc' uif'" wod; 15 ai' Visibility *f iradf ilogans 16 ihal all thr 1 ill siuhl. This « stiicily I'lK* in all dflml>. ITk Hejn « .n -v^i belor.- (TfintijTg— the IijUI accmnuIaJed ii alw-ays Mnre vfiui cv«. The pfinied wort u s^cn afl iHc Umc. Th- npcralof s*-^ ihe lt-n« v^ np tcadj' fo; pnnlTnji;, th^ accumulatt-d (ootmn &f all pimoL? ifrcis and ihe printed hst s- (a*l at he produces it. h (epcsts any ilwn as ruMv times 4. (ktwed wtltioiir re«itn<;. Tlu* pci vo.k. Anv rwm}>^ '^ itnTi* may lie a!>tanj balancci- Kundiwi weigKl, Tbekcv* .ve usedth^ .ameiotit. Il rnAii ml monlUv lUlwrtnl . (inntog tlw i)»tcs, dtbiu and babiKW in o «c col«. with crediic oi tublnnlioni in red- to ute ni«iinl gymna'tiT* atd add tV plemeirt of the tubnaded item. It ij particuUrly weU adapted (or lA-ine off twil bJances. debits by addition, ctedts by subtract ton. It makes (uis in ^inijfc coiumni on roll paper, ot tcvcwl columns on wide bhetis oi \n^ kavc. li prejMtci pay (oi!f and cnvtlnp'^s. ^imullaneoustj' printing bulh. Simplicity of Key Board Mr. Carroll budt K* machine with only ntne key. The -Jnatl nim,b« >.f l;'>^. --a^b C'vccd by ofie hand, matr. n caw id train llie liogefi-so tKil the cpTTat-x ncd not look at \\h- key board II t- admirably adiiiHed lo Should ihe operator intert ibe wiong amouot he reed not ute he»d wort and pencil. He can tmmcdiately suhtraci il arid We Want You To Kr Two si^. Bui— and tlnj I! tivnl trnp-irt^n' — it lub- icii wl»-n reifuiKd 'Lh.i vhj cvc. .ec a .chirc that ^rti-ally mechanically wlrt...- Ird> The Connecticut Computing Machine Company, NEW HAVEN, CONN. A MAIL PIECE WHICH WAS READ EVEN IN BUSY NEW YORK Co-operating with Salesmen Covering T'erritory Regularly chapter V Co-operating with Salesmen Covering Territory Regularly THERE are many lines of business in which the salesman calls quite regularly on the trade. This might be several times a season or even several times a week. My first experience in salesman co-operation was in a business where the trade was called upon several times a week. Yet in all these cases the salesman's results may be increased by intelligent co-operation and planning. In the case mentioned above, I prepared a folder once a week. This was mailed regularly for five years with scarcely an intermission. During that time the business grew from $300,000 t«o over $600,000 per year. These folders were of what is known as tag board. They measured 5I x 14 and were printed on one side only. I varied sometimes and used larger ones and other times used a plain maiUng card about 5I x 7. Let us now consider the value of sending out something once a month or even eight times a year. The amount of money which should be spent is deter- mined to a large degree by the amount of sales which may be obtained from an average customer. As a rule, two things are being sought as a result of the work. For one thing we are trying to increase the amount sold to present customers, also at other times to sell more of certain things to these same customers. Salesmen as a rule do intend to follow instructions as to pushing certain articles, 44 SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT but they do not do it thoroughly, because they haven't the time. In many Hues of business, particularly that of a jobber, the salesmen have a long line of goods to sell. Such is the case with a wholesale grocery salesman. He is sorely pressed for time. It takes a lot of tact on his part to secure the necessary time from each customer. Now suppose the house really desires to sell a certain brand of corn. Suppose again they have some package coffee which for various reasons they desire to push. Often they have such an article which nets them a handsome profit, but which doesn't total big on volume. The big salesman is a tonnage man. He wants and needs volume. He can't, or at least he thinks he can't, devote the greater part of his call to talking up this specialty. If he does, something ^^•ill happen towards the end of the interview which vnH. end it abruptly and his order book will suffer. Another thing, he has a lot of things to remember. Unintentionally he forgets some items. I used to carry a little card in the palm of my hand on which I had five to ten items wTitten, so I would surely take them up. I recently saw a good illustration of this forgetting. I was spending a large sum of money in newspaper advertising for a jobber on two specialties. The jobber sold quite a line of staples. In addition to the newspaper advertising, I mailed, during a period of six months, eight mail pieces to about eight thousand merchants. I insisted on this latter feature, even though the salesmen (about twenty-five in number) called on the retailer once a week. These men covered about half of this list. These mail pieces really advertised to the retailer the advertising which we were doing to the consumer. Several salesmen at our convention had insisted that merchants did not read these folders. I insisted that many did, and stated that I didn't believe If you sell your customers oriilnary eegs. the Imu Eck will he satisfactory if the seal on the chtnces are tlml ttiov *ill be ditsatisfied vsilh cirloo ig iinhroWen. thequ»la>, n.cn: ia no Mt.-h *lK...t ttiis. We mcai. If you atU ti.em M^,:allcJ fresh country e^/-. every word when we tell the eu=l.>iner that we you have lo chnrce io mueh that joar . ,i..tuiiii rs -N»riiilr-e Blue ftilibon Erks to ite salUfaclor* . will be dissatisticd Mlth the frioe. W, h.i. k jou up In this guarantee. The best way is lo sell Blue Hihl...t, I „■;.'- \^ ■ li,t\e been ffoaran teeing and advertiwns The qnallty is -lUajB satisfactory anJ \.hi- [ n.^ lii,.-- kU)!..^n Krks for"a number of year*. Our is always rCJUonablc. -wii-;: fia^e fte-iJily gn-wii- Thw pn>%es beyond You do net take the slighte-st nsk--we «1>m>- ijtieHiun that the tEE^ Ei'^e wt.sfoctlon to tlie lutelf guarantee that ea<-h nnd f very Blue Rib- cv.i-:umer and stea^Iy sule^ to the dealer. Our Big Advertising Gimpaign Starts Sept . 8th '«: "i::": f Sept. SStli 1 .n>ke bis the niue .tuct d.s- ^.nl. ll.is • tKI ;!" li you want your name to appear in ^e pa^e and haif-p ape ads — if ureyour sha sed busmen re of the this ad- ---.^ vertisi/iR will cr »te nil > >ou,. id moU the attached v^ Provide DOUGLASS New Haven Conn. THESE ARE SALESMEN S CO-OPERATIVE PIECES WHICH CLOSED THE SALE WHEN EVEN THE PROPRIETOR FORGOT TO TELL HIS STORY COVERING TERRITORY REGULARLY 45 the salesmen always, that is at each call, talked up our specialties. At the time the follo\\ang incident happened we were about to run a rather large Ad in each city telling about one of our specialties. One of the members of the firm was a salesman. He was himself a wonder as a salesman. He called me into his ofl5ce a few days before the big Ad appeared. He told me that the day before he had walked into a merchant's store. He had personally been insisting that every one of his sales- men push the specialty. He had been looking over their orders and criticizing those which did not include it. Yet, as he told me, he went into this store and took a good order on the full Une, thanked the merchant, and started to go. The merchant called after liim as he was leaving, "Say, how about those which you are talking so much about? " He turned around quickly, reahzed that he himself had been negligent, and took an order from the man for a big amount of the specialty. He said to me, "Why, Mr. Hoyt, think of it, here I am permitting you to spend a lot of money advertising. I am telling my salesmen to push for orders. Yet I walk out of a store forgetting to ask for an order myself, and your mail pieces sold the goods for me." This is a good illustration of why it pays to help the salesman. It shows very well the value of co-operation to increase the sales to present customers and to increase the sale of desirable articles or specialties. The other use of salesmen's co-operation is to secure new customers. I daresay many proprietors feel that the field is thoroughly covered. Yet time and time again I have demonstrated to such people the fact that there were scores and hundreds in their territory to whom they should be selling, but who were not buying. Regardless of whom the salesman calls upon, I advise the 46 SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT compiling of a mailinj^ list which is complete. Have every possible buyer on the list. The very act of compilinj]; such a list and giving co]:)ies of it to salesmen will help secure new customers. But send to all these names, both customers FOR TRADE PROMOTION DEPT. information from Salesmen and Canvassers NoTi:— This forr ment to assist tbcm ■alnmen's reportt. Xame of prospects Business^ _ Name •/ man who decides Advertising and soles policy- Street Address . Ctty „ State . (PUT CHECK.MARKS OPPOSITE THE THINGS WHICH YOU WANT) I.' RecommeDd continuing to send mail pieces tive list. I recommend that it he even after we complete promotion pieces. restored to the active list. 2. Recommend after we finish the promotion 6. This name now on the active list, series wc stop. Belter stop sending pieces^ marking it 3. No use sending more mail pieces to this inactive. firm. Will never be advertisers. 7, Would mail this firm two or three of 4. No use sending mail pieces to this fir^n. the best pieces per year but jiol full Have no money. series. 5. I think, this name is now on the inac- 8. This firm has gone out of business. TO TRADE PROMOTION DEPARTMENT: Do not write on your cards the things mwittoned here but simply put on the number and then lollow the instructions, markinR active or inactive a^ reiuested. None of these things are to be acted on by the Trade Promotion Department until this slip has been initialed by Mr. Hoyt. Suppose you should write 7 on the card. Then the c^rd would he marked inactive but from time to time you would send the better pieces, acting under instuictions. We would issue instructions to send all the cards marked 7 in addition to the regular active cards. TO CANVASSERS: If yon wish to make any further remarks write them on the other side of this slip. Reverse side of original form used by trade promotion or mailing de- partment. Salesmen return this with their recommendations. and non-customers, intelligent sales talk. The result will be many new accounts. A very good way in connection with mailing lists is to have a duplicate or triplicate form for each name on the mailing list. Your trade promotion, or mailing department, copies the names on this form. The sales manager keeps one copy and hands the salesman the other two copies. The salesman turns in the first copy with notations for use COVERING TERRITORY REGULARLY 47 in editing the mailing list. On the reverse side of this copy are printed notations for the mailing department. The other copy he keeps for his own use when filing a sales Jkite 9-19-12. Salaman JObO P06 City Mew York, B . Y » Street 4545 BroadwaT Name of Wr m RiflhaPd Roft ft CQ. , Name of Manager JR^^_J^ HOA^ jE/> BusinesK Promotion ^^.Zea Active Tnactivti. Salesman's Notation Have macU< out tales report .- Femarku: Yet No ORIGINAL— Tbi* tana to l>e returned to trade promotion departmeoL DUPLICATE— TVh form t« hm r«tain«l by talfnman for hi* informatiaa. TRIPLICATE— TU* form to be retained by salea maaae«r mttil s alc tm aa retoTM originaL Triplicate form used by trade promotion department and sales man- agers for checking ui> mailing lists through salesmen's calls. report and to be used for his own memoranda. If the sales manager keeps his copies together by towns or dis- tricts, he has a good record of the possibilities in each place. After all, the great advantage is the information 4S SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT which the salesman sends in to the maihng department and the fact that the salesman in receiving these forms realizes that he is expected to call on each name. Consider for a moment this phase of the work only. Sup- pose a business sells an average customer $25 a week, or say $1000 per year. Assume that the profit on such average yearly sales is $100. Now, if as a result of going twelve times you secure one half of one per cent of the list as average customers, the results will figure this w^ay. Say the hst is 2000 names. It will cost you fifty cents each to go twelve times, so $1000 for the year's work. If you secure as a result of mailing twelve times the 2000, or 24,000, pieces, just one half of one per cent of the list, w^hich is ten average customers, you wall have your money back. What else will you have? Possibly only twenty replies or inquiries each time (too low, but let us be conservative). That means 240 inquiries to be handed to salesmen. These inquiries have a money value. But 1760 have never replied. They have had once each month for a year good, well- expressed sales letters. The inquiries and this publicity have cost you nothing. But I wouldn't give up salesmen — not by a good deal. If I had six men and couldn't afford to do it any other way, I'd discharge the weakest salesman, send out the mail work, and I beheve the five salesmen would sell more goods than the six. I'd go over the territory with a fine tooth comb and locate every possible buyer in it. Then I'd fire at him every month or of tener a good reason why he should buy from me. Sooner or later I'd send one of my five salesmen to see him. If you don't really believe it will work, try two territories about alike in their possibilities and conditions. Charge all the sales ex-pense up to each. In one territory charge also the expense of sales co-operation. See which territory earns the most money. See which has the lowest cost-to-sell. spending One Dollar on a Prospect chapter VI Spending One Dollar on a Prospect To spend a dollar on a prospect in advertising^ or sales co-operation looks like overdoing the thing. Yet where the sales are, say, $1000 for one article, or the same amount for a year's business from an average customer, it is not at all a foolish amount, although the merchandise carries a profit of only ten per cent. If a manufacturer selling a $1000 article knew that a prospective, or rather possible, customer had come to his town, he wouldn't hesitate to buy him a dinner. He might afterwards take him to the theater and show him the sights of the town. He'd gladly hand him full value in cigars or drinkables. And even then he wouldn't be sure of the sale, and the prospect would fully understand why he was being entertained. The manufacturer wouldn't hesitate to buy a one dollar railroad ticket to go to visit the prospect. Let us consider the manufacturer of or the agent for an automobile truck. It sells for $2500. The profit is, say, only $500. Here is one way to sell the truck in a certain territory. It would be perfectly easy and practical to select certain types of business organizations for whom the use of this truck would be commercially practical. These ty]3es of S2 SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT firnis could and would use the truck if they were educated up to its quaUties and vahic. Under the usual method the salesman calls as often as he can, as often perhaps as he can secure a hearing. He tells the good qualities of the truck. He shows the prospect how' it would save liim money on his deliveries. These calls cost somebody, the salesman or his employer, at least fifty cents, if not one dollar each. A better way would be to make up a list of 2000 pos- sible buyers. To these 2000 firms let us go twenty-five times during the year with a good printed sales talk, carry- ing nearly every time a reply card for an inquiry. This work will cost complete one dollar per name for the twenty- five mailings. This means that every other week, say every other Tuesday, we will land on each prospect's desk a talk about our truck. We TAiU do this for a whole year. How many answers will we receive? I never count on over one per cent per mailing. I had a case of an auto truck matiufacturer who wanted to go to department stores. The reader will realize the complexity of a department store mail. We had only the name of the firm, not the name of the delivery superintend- ent. I told this manufacturer that we ought not to count on over one half per cent of replies per mailing. The first piece we mailed produced five per cent of answers or requests for catalogues and more information. Suppose we receive one per cent. We will have twenty answers each time, or 500, as the result of one year's work. Now let us consider how little we must do in order to break even on our advertising. If the car makes $500 profit, we must sell four of our 500 inquirers to cover the total cost of the sales co-operation. Then what will we have left? We will have 496 in- The "Perfect Service" Wagon Ic. Paid New Haven, Ct. Permit No. 3 For the head of your delivery department POSTMASTER ■. If tlie party to whom this is addressed cannut be lound, noti- fy Box 124. New Haven, Conn., and return postage will be sent. THE FOLDER THAT BROUGHT FIVE PER CENT OF INQUIRIES FROM A LIST OF TWELVE HUNDRED DEPARTMENT STORES SPENDING MONEY ON A PROSPECT 53 quiries which didn't cost us a cent. What are such inquiries worth? They are from selected firms, because we selected every name on the original list. We didn't go to small, impossible firms. Are they worth $1 or $5 each — or $25 each? They didn't cost us anything. Suppose we say that they are worth nothing — what else have we? We have 1500 firms who have never replied in any way, but every fortnight for a year we have talked to them about our truck. Suppose you now send salesmen to call on these people. Will they be a little more receptive than if you had just sent salesmen without the missionary work? Try it and see. Do this — use two territories. Send the same salesmen first into the territory where you have done nothing. Figure the cost of his sales. About the ninth mailing, or sooner, send him into the territory where you have circularized. Figure the cost-to-sell in this territory. Meeting the Objections to Mail Pieces Chapter VII Meeting the Objections to Mail Pieces OFTEN when I talk mail pieces for salesmen's co-opera- tion somebody tells me that such things are wasted because people do not read them. They say: "I never read them. I throw them into the waste basket as soon as they arrive." There was a time when I believed that they were right, but after having spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on this work I know that they are wrong. But you must put out the right sort of printed pieces. This does not necessarily mean expensively printed pieces. It does not require elaborate, high-priced pictures. It does require one thing without any question; that is, common-sense copy. It isn't necessarily the high- priced piece that does the work. If you write general stuff with no point or appeal, the elaborate printing will not save it. An incident which occurred in the office of Mr. Hiram Percy Maxim, the inventor of the Gun Silencer, will illus- trate to a degree the value of having good rather than commonplace folders. Mr. Hiram Percy Maxim is a very busy man. He is much more concerned with things that pertain to engineering than he is with selling propositions. Yet one day after I had induced him to let me do some work for him in advertising his famous Silencer this incident SS sriKNTIFlC SALES MANAGEMENT occurrcil. Anionic other thinji;s we were to send mailing pieces to dealers. This work was to supplement magazine work where we directed our appeal to the consumer. Then Mr. Maxim said to me: "Mr. Hoyt, the success of your mail work for me will rest entirely on the quality and attractiveness of these pieces. Many mail pieces or TRJPUCATE-T.b.,.^^.,„^o^ ^„ DUPUCATE-T.w^^^3'.',ZrHVJoi^ ORIGINAL— To b« unl U> S^n—n uxl .<,1^|>«J l>7 bin Date Inquiry from {CXly) (State) Street Xame , Due to what pc^er For uhatt -Date of answer Quolatiotk Name of dealer given Name of dealer to whom salesman it referred^ Remarkt. SALESMAN'S NOTATION ONLY 1 Followed up pertonaUy (yea or no) and ichent- Remartu. ^{If necessary write on other side) BEACON FALLS RUBBER SHOE CO. NEW YORK Form for furnishing salesmen wilh copies of inquiries. See page 71. folders come in my mail, but very few of them receive my attention. The majority go into the waste basket." He reached over to a little drawer in the top of his desk, remarking: "I have been keeping a few pieces lately which I considered good. They are the kind I do notice." Then he laid in front of me six different printed pieces which in the preceding few weeks he had saved as ex- amples of good printed salesmanship. MEETING OBJECTIONS TO MAIL PIECES 59 It was a compliment to me, because, as I pointed out to him, four of these six pieces were written, designed, and printed by my organization. He didn't know this until I told him. In other words, these pieces were of the sort which I believe will produce results. They were the right sort. To test the value absolutely of good copy without de- pending in any way on high cost or unusual printing, I once mailed to New England manufacturers a folder printed in one color only on plain tag board. The smallest possible amount of money was spent on the printing and stock, but I had a story — a real message — and the piece produced marvelous results. It might have been more attractive if I had printed it better and illustrated it. No matter how well I printed it, it would not have produced results if there had not been a point of appeal. Although the subject matter of this folder was an adver- tisement of my own business, nevertheless to illustrate the point it is printed below. Here is a real story which has an appeal and which secured results without the aid of expensive pictures, printing, or paper. It stayed out of enough waste baskets to make it profitable. MY EXPERIENCE You would not select a salesman by a " pig in the bag " method. You would inquire into his experience, his ability to sell goods, his recommendations. You would look him over critically. In offering my services as a sales and advertising manager, my business history may be of interest. 1889-1890 Traveling salesman in New England. 1891-1894 Yale University. Graduated from course in mechanical engineering. Same time, and continuing four years, started and published a maga- zine for a college fraternity. Was the whole thing, editor, publisher, and chief contributor. Incidentally I earned money writing advertisements for retailers. 6o SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT 1894-1899 Traveling salesman calling on wholesale and retail grocers. 1899-1904 Secretary and treasurer of large wholesale firm. It was here that I began advertising for big results. Our trade mail list was 2000. For one year we sent out mail cards, then a paper called Hoyt's Band Wagon. It was a cheap affair, but it did things. Within two years we increased the business from $300,000.00 per year to $550,000.00. I advertised one of our branded articles direct to the consumers, using news- papers and street cars. I had the advertising bee in my bonnet. I wanted to devote all my time to it. When the railroad bought the entire plant, I decided it was a good time to start. Since 1903 I have directed the sales and advertising for George B. Woolson and Company, publishers of personal ac- count books. The advertisements that I have written for them have paid. Four "ads" in Everybody's cost $1300.00. We had our money back in three months and the rest was velvet and on a single $1.50 book. To 1500 retail booksellers and stationers we sent eight times a year a manila folder, called Woolson's Talk. It carried with it a reply postal. It cost $25.00 to print and mail it. Of 26 issues mailed, everyone has shown a profit from direct orders. The September 1 906 issue brought back in direct orders on the postal over $325.00 in orders; profit easily $200.00. 1904 Arranged to open an advertising office in New York. Armour & Company crossed my path. They offered me a job. I declined. The boss telegraphed me to come to Chicago at his expense. I went. I took the job. 1904 Nine months Manager Branch House Armour & Company, New Haven, Conn. Appointed Superintendent of 1 4 houses — later 1 7 houses. I was in sole charge of their business in my part of the country. I employed all the men. My force included 50 managers and salesmen. Armour & Company are the biggest in their line. They deserve this position because they know how to do business. I learned a lot from them. Business grew in my territory — so did my salary. All conceivable plans were followed to boom business on Star Hams, Simon Pure Lard, Armour's Soaps. Extract of Beef, Veribest Canned Meats, Mince Meat, etc. I issued weekly bulletins, salesmen's papers, ginger talks, held conventions and met bodies of salesmen all over the territory. I ran direct to trade campaigns mailing to all the retail dealers, strong business-bringing stuff. The more success I had, the more I was convinced that I should devote my time exclusively to advertising and sales. I had the fever, chronic of 15 years standing. It burned me up. I had been handling big things — sales over four million MEETING OBJECTIONS TO MAIL PIECES 6i per year. To specialize on sales and advertising, to drop all the other details, was my ambition. The time seemed ripe — I resigned. April 3, 1909, I hung out my sign thus, CHARLES W. HOYT CONSULTING SALES AND ADVERTISING MANAGER When you are doing co-operative work by mail do not think too much about the people who do not read your advertising. Your concern is with those who do read it. It isn't how many calls a salesman makes. It is how many sales he makes. Read over the previous chapter. Consider this automobile sales problem. I estimate only one per cent of answers. I know this is too low because I have actual cases to prove it, but I can afford to be satisfied with one per cent (if I really cannot secure more). I know that this one per cent will make me money. Now why throw away these good results just because of a possible 99 out of a 100 who did not answer. Do not be too sure, moreover, that the "99" have thrown away your pieces and forgotten you. One day a mail card came to my desk from a nearby city. I went to see the inquirer myself and sold him over $500 worth of work at that first call. I was curious to learn at about what time he had received my mail piece. I could not find his name on the active list, but I found it in our inactive or rejected Kst. His card showed that, seven months before the day he had mailed back the inquiry, the folder which carried the reply card had been sent to him. He was one of the "99." I have seen scores of cases of calls on this "99" — the people who have not replied. Weeks and months after the mailing has stopped, salesmen have called and sold them, often seeing evidence of the influence of the mail co-operation. 62 SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT Sometimes objections are made to the use of mail pieces, like folders and cards, because they go out with a one cent stamp. It is my opinion that letters in an envelope under two cent stamp should be used also, but they do not take the place of the folders. Moreover, I am thoroughly of the opinion, based on many tests, that one cent folders, if mailed to the proi^cr sort of people and with the right sort of story, will bring a response equal to those received by two cent letters under the same conditions. Just because you place an ordinary advertisement in an envelope, having it mas- querade as a letter, seal it up, and place a two cent stamp on the envelope is no assurance that it will be read any more than a folder. Why? Because, for one thing, the recipient is a bit annoyed to open it and discover an ordinary advertisement. It depends after all whether you send out a good letter or a good folder. The stamp does not make any difference. If you have an ordinary advertisement do not attempt to disguise it in the form of a letter. Better make up an attractive mail piece with an illustra- tion of the article to be sold. Print it well, using a good color combination, and you will secure the required attention. Securing interest, desire, and ultimate action by the use of forcible English is then up to you. If you cannot do this in the folder, you cannot do it in the letter, no matter if you place a ten cent stamp on it. The less a man knows about advertising based on actual experi- ence with it, the more apt he is to put up this one cent versus two cent argument. Write your co-operative sales talk just as you would talk to the person. He will read your story, provided you have one worth reading or listening to, without much reference to whether it goes out in the form of a letter or a folder. The Function of Salesmen in an Advertising Campaign Chapter VIII "The Function of Salesmen in an Advertising Campaign CONSIDER the history of any great advertising suc- cess (excluding mail order campaigns) and look into the inside of it. You can't find a single such great success without finding alongside of the advertising, as good as it may be, an equally well-conceived sales plan or use of salesmen. I make this statement advisedly. The bigger and better the advertising has been, even so much the bigger and better has been the salesmen's work and the sales plan behind it. I have knowTi and participated in many, but never has there been any real success obtained without good intelligent work by the sales force. The advertising to the consumer is important, but equally important is the work that the advertiser does with his own salesmen. If you are considering advertising an article which is to be sold to the consumer by retailers, look well to your sales plan before you start. If you propose to sell direct to the jobber, you still need intelligent sales work. The important thing is to link all the factors together. In conducting an advertising campaign arrange so that every salesman is thoroughly informed in full detail of the adver- tising plan. This sounds almost too elementary to mention, yet it is constantly ignored by advertisers. 66 SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT To illustrate. I talked last December to the New York salesman for a large advertiser. This advertiser featured in his consumer advertising, month after month, different styles of his goods. The salesman complained to me because he had not received advance proofs since September, or three months before. He showed most conclusively that he had made many sales of styles as results of having proofs, and FUNCTIOxX OF S.\LESMEN 67 that he could seU by the means of advance proofs those goods which were to appear in the advertising. Nobody had made it his duty to supply the traveling men regularly with proofs, and for that reason this New York man had not received them. It should have been made a part of the formal plan at the beginning. I will give here a list of the things which ought to be con- sidered with reference to salesmen when advertising. I. Typewritten Letter. Very often, particularly with a small sales force, tyi^ewritten letters will serve to carry advertising news and to keep the salesmen interested. I do not refer to letters on sales, but to letters which are virtually bulletins of the advertising. In making up the formal plan it is well to provide for a certain number of letters and to set the dates for their niaiUng. This insures getting them out and is much better than leaving the matter to chance, II. Mimeograph Bulletins. These have enormous possi- bilities. I believe in them thoroughly. I have generally used these with illustrations. It is easy to put pictures on them and it livens up the copy. One of my old associates used illustrated mimeograph bulletins to bolster up the sales of his department. His concern had about tw^o thousand men selling goods. His department was a minor one among a score. Yet within a year he secured enormous response from the sales force as the result of his unique announcements. These bulletins are taken up and discussed in a later chapter. III. Proofs of Advertisements. These can be published in a book or pamphlet form or they can be sent loose from time to time as they are received from the various publications. IV. Mail Pieces. If the advertiser is mailing folders, cards, etc., to the trade, every salesman should receive copies of these pieces. V. Contest Bulletins. Salesmen's contests are often valu- able factors of an advertising campaign. If contests are to ()S sfii'M'iiR' saij:s maxa(;i:.mi-:\t Examples of mimeographed bulletins sent to sales force of 2,000 men. FUNCTION OF SALESMEN 69 These mimeograph bulletins were made up weekly and mailed to 2,000 salesmen. 70 SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT W run, bulletins should be issued regularly for the salesmen. I will speak of the use of contests in a later chapter. Examples of daily and weekly reports for salesmen as mentioned in article 6. FUNCTION OF SALESMEN 71 VI. Reports for Salesmen. As distinct from their regular orders and reports, it is a very good thing to provide blanks on which salesmen report sales of the advertised articles. It is a stimulant to the men as well as valuable information. Of course the information could be (and should be) obtained from sales records, but the asking of the salesmen to make special reports on something being featured always helps the sales. VII. Meetings of Salesmen. At the beginning of a cam- paign, and sometimes later, meetings or conventions are most beneficial. I shall say more on this subject later. VIII. Proofs of Local Ads. Provide salesmen with a book in which are proofs of advertisements which may be used by the local dealer in his newspaper. IX. Mailing Lists. Supply your salesmen with copies of the mailing list to which you are sending printed matter. Instruct them to report on this in two ways. Let them send in a report for your mailing department covering the accuracy of the list, using some such form as is shown here. Then, in addition to this report, you can have a regular sales report sent in telling what they were able to accomphsh as a result of the call. X. Copies of Inquiries. A duplicate or triplicate form should be provided. When making records of inquiries, either from retailers or from consumers (which may be re- ferred to local retailers), provide a carbon duplicate and send to salesmen covering locality where inquirers live. Salesmen can keep their records by towns and use them when in such towns. It also serves to show salesmen that the adver- tising is really doing things. Do not under any consideration engage in advertising without availing yourself of maximum co-operation from the sales force. You can secure it if you go about it correctly and in the right spirit. How to Secure the SalesmerP s Co-operation in an Advertising Campaign Chapter IX How to Secure the Salesmen^ s Co-operation in an Advertising Campaign o N the wall of my den at home hangs a hand illumined motto which reads: "We are all children in the Kindergarten of God." And so, too, salesmen are all boys, big boys grown up, but with the boy's fine instincts. You may have to dig to find those instincts in some salesmen, but they are there. And the better boy a salesman was, the better salesman he is now. If you can put into the day's work something of interest, something that partakes of the spirit of the game or sport, the work goes easier. The results are much larger. In Connecticut, located up in the hills, outside of a large city, I own a piece of land. At times we go there for picnics or frolics. There are many stones in the lot, which is typical of Connecticut. Suppose that there is a pile of stones in a certain part of the lot which I desire to move one hundred feet away — say over the fence into the next field. If I asked one of my salesmen to go out there to move those stones, he would think I was unreasonable. Suppose, however, I invite several of the salesmen out there for an outing. During the day I go to the pile of stones, pick up one, throw it and try to hit a can perched on the 76 SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT fence one liundred feet away. I miss, but I try again. Along comes one man laughing at me. He says he can beat me as a marksman. Then another of the party joins us. Soon all are busy throwing stones at the mark. It is not long before all the stones are located where I wanted them to be, and the men are trying to find more stones to throw. I do not bring up this figure to show that I deceived the man, but to illustrate the spirit of the game which entered into it. I have always believed that you can secure a lot of fun from selling goods. But salesmen, like ourselves, are big grown up boys. They need a ringleader to start the game. By nature all of us are good sports; we all enjoy a game. Something that creates competition is necessary to make the game enjoyable. We can play golf alone, but it's the playing against bogey or our own previous score which makes it a real game. We enjoy the game even more if we have two or three competitors. Keeping salesmen interested is the problem of every sales manager. It is of vital importance when advertising is being considered. "How shall I secure the salesmen's co-opera- tion?" is the question which confronts many an advertising manager. The part which the salesman plays in an adver- tising campaign is just as important as the consumer adver- tising or the appeal to the retailer. To be without the salesmen's intelligent co-operation means failure to secure anywhere near maximum results. Do not understand that it is merely sufficient to secure the salesman's interest and enthusiasm. As has been pointed out by the advocates of Scientific Management, this has been the trouble with the old types of management. It has been the practise to go ahead with the idea that all which was needed was to secure the salesman's interest and his initiative, basing this assumption on the idea that the man already knows what is the best way to proceed. The SECURING SALESMEN'S CO-OPERATION 77 things which I discuss here as a means to securing the sales- man's co-operation will also be of use in teaching him the right way. I would divide the methods to be employed into five parts ; namely: 1. Meetings, councils, or conventions. 2. Letters to salesmen. 3. Bulletins, printed, typewritten, etc. 4. Reports of Comparative Results, which really are a part of No. 3. 5. Salesmen's contests. Some of these are taken up separately in other chapters. The Ust represents about all the things at the disposal of the sales and advertising manager. It is almost useless to divide the work of these two officials. You can't separate the sales from the advertising. They belong together. They are one. If there are two men, one the sales manager and the other the advertising manager, they must pull together. Indeed I favor the having of one office or having it so arranged that either the sales or the advertising manager is the head of the department. Then the other man is his assistant and constant fellow-worker. In some organizations it is understood that the advertising manager is also the assistant sales manager, and vice versa. They are members of the same department. The use of meetings, councils, etc., is a great help in hand- ling salesmen. This subject is treated in another chapter. Under letters might be included the so-called "ginger talks." This subject is treated in another chapter. To secure a man's co-operation you must take him into your confidence, keeping him well posted, informed, and enthused. Letters are one way to do this. When a salesman is out on the road or working in a store, you may be sure that he is a much better salesman if he reahzes that his good work is seen and appreciated, or his poor work noticed. 7S SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT I have always been a great believer in sending an actual personal letter to the different salesmen. There is nothing difficult about this if you have a good office organization. You need a competent stenographer who can take instruc- tions with a few words. To illustrate. At one time I had about seventy-five -sales- men. My stenographer had a list of these names. It was divided into various kinds and classes. With only a few words from me the stenographer could address any particular class wanted. It took only a few minutes for me to dictate a letter, telling the stenographer to send it to such and such a class (for instance, men who had sold the past week sixty per cent of a certain article, etc., etc.). Our records on Monday were always in complete form. On that morning my assistant would dig out the names of those w^ho had done particularly well on some article. Then my stenographer would run off a ten or fifteen word note to each, which I signed. Thus: "Mr. Jones, you certainly did well with those cambrics last week. I am watching yoiir good work." On the other hand, we often had salesmen who didn't make a good showing during a certain period. To these I'd write a different note. Thus: "Jones, did you forget us last week? I cannot secure desired results if men like you do not help. Please write me and tell me W'hat is the trouble." It was a favorite play of mine to take telegraph blanks and wTite a note of a dozen words on them with a lead pencil. This was in my own handwriting. I'd mail them to the salesmen. It's easy. You may have plenty of other things to do, but it can be done and it secures what you are after; namely, the co-operation of salesmen. Once we had a big prize contest. It embraced the United States and over two thousand salesmen took part. I picked four of my men SECURING SALESMEN'S CO-OPERATION 79 whom I believe were possible winners of this contest. To each one I sent a rough pencil note about Like this, "Dear Jones — I am depending on you in this prize contest. Please do your best.". Incidentally, I might tell you here that one of these four men took second prize for the country. He sent me back a similar note and said he'd try. Trying meant an enormous amount of work, but he did it. Bulletins of Comparative Results: Regularly on Mondays we always had reports from our different branch houses showing the amount of various articles sold. From these reports we made up a mimeograph bulletin showing in various columns the sales of certain specialties by branch houses and by salesmen. For over five years we sent out these bulletins each week. The entire force was interested in them. Each man was keen to see his position or the position of his branch house. We changed the articles Hsted from time to time, making a feature of the thing we wished most to push. Sometimes it is difficult to convince an old firm that such bulletins are good. Indeed there are some good objections. For instance, these bulletins may give too much information to competitors. On that account I really prefer the cjuota system described in another chapter. I find sometimes that old firms disUke to do these things because it might offend some salesmen. I don't believe it will hurt the right sort of salesmen. The fellows who will object to this sort of thing are in my opinion those who are afraid of their positions — the men who are in a rut and fear being shown up. Furthermore, and best of all, these things all add to the selling that desirable spirit of the game and competition. The horse makes the best record when it has a pace maker. Men do better if they are paced. The sprinter does better in competition than in practise. We all need it — either in business or in a game. So SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT Examples of printed house organs or bulletins for use with salesmen. SECURING SALESMEN'S CO-OPERATION 8i Many golfers coming in with a poor score will explain it by the fact that their opponents were not good enough to push them. The player really tries to do his best, but he needs hard competition to achieve it. Another bulletin which may be used and which is dis- tinctive from the letters or from the tables of results is a bulletin giving general information. These may be printed where there is a large body of salesmen, or in the case of a small organization may be mimeographed. Some ten years ago I was making up a salesman's mimeograph bulletin. It occurred to me that by the means of a needle or stylus a picture might be drawn on a wax stencil. We tried it with great success. I had never seen it before and believe it was the first use of such work. This was the beginning of illus- trated bulletins in my sales work. From that time I always placed pictures on my salesmen's bulletins. I beheve they add a lot to the value. You can make them resemble a magazine or newspaper. The illustrations on the pages following show some of the possibilities. The printed house organ or bulletin is excellent, but is practical only for a large organization. The illustrations shown are very successful ones. The use of the Quizzer was to cover the United States. The country was divided into twenty-seven sales territories, of about fifteen Branch Houses each. A superintendent was in charge of each Territory. The plan was to play one Territory against the other and to feature the superintendent who won. The results were figured on a quota basis, which was based on the business of previous years. The publication wasn't very expensive, considering the size of the sales, but it produced enormous results and interest. Of course the use of mail pieces mailed to the trade is a great feature in securing the salesmen's co-operation. They appreciate this work, particularly after they see results such 82 SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT Examples of bulletins issued to secure a salesman's interest. SECURING SALESMEN'S CO-OPERATION 83 1 Crude yet effective bulletins for holding the salesman's interest in an advertising campaign. 84 SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT as inquiries. This sort of work is taken up in a number of other chapters. A very gootl iUust ration of the vakie of mail pieces to help salesmen is that of the work done by a publishing house. They manufacture a cash book for keeping personal house- hold accounts which is sold by the bookseller and stationers. For sbc years they have mailed out about eight mail pieces per year to the retail trade. These mail pieces have always of themselves paid; that is, they have secured enough direct orders to be profitable. At the same time, their work has been of great help to the salesmen who call on stationers and booksellers. The adver- tising has always been done by the author. At least twenty- five times in a few years a letter something like the following has come to me from a salesman : Mr. Hoyt: The names which I enclose have not been receiving Woolson^s Talks. They are not on our maihng hst. I couldn't sell them, but if j'ou will put them on the list I am sure I can sell them on the next trip. To illustrate what sort of talk went out in these bulletins, I give below three paragraphs from one issued some years ago. This was printed on ordinary tag board in one color. At- tached to the folder was a reply postal. This particular issue from which these three paragraphs are taken went to 1500 names and cost approximately $30. Orders to the extent of $112 were received on the reply postal. The last issue of Woolson's Talks bore much fruit. We are inclined to shake the same tree again. There are at least one thousand stationers and booksellers on our list, from whom an order is due. The hardest thing is to secure the first order. If the writer could only meet each stationer face to face, he feels sure he could sell ninety per cent of them. He might be a failure selling something else, but on Woolson's Economy Expense Book he is so full of enthusiasm, confidence, and knowledge of their seUing qualities, that failure would be almost impossible. SECURING SALESMEN'S CO-OPERATION 85 Since our last issue we have heard from a large number of our good friends. Henry R. Johnson, of Springfield, Mass., sends an order for 50 Economy Expense Books and 24 of the 25-cent books, telling us that our books continue to sell as well as ever. The Plimpton Mfg. Co., of Hart- ford, send an order for three dozen, telhng us to be sure and send more sample page circulars. They say, "Every time we mail out your circu- lars, we sell a lot of books." The Burrows Brothers Co. order 100 Economy Expense Books and 100 of the little books. They ordered 100 last year and write that they have sold all of them, besides several smaller orders that they have sent since. From Boston we received orders aggregating 200 books from Samuel Ward Co., Hobbs & Warren Co., and Thorp & Martin Co. These Boston people know how our books sell. Millington Lockwood, of Buffalo, Nims & Paaschen, of Troy, WilHam G. Johnston & Co., of Pittsburg, and over twenty others sent us large orders. Best of all, they each send encouraging letters commend- ing our books. They are all good friends on whom we can depend for business, yet we have never personally met one quarter of them. We want your order. Even if it is only for 6 books, send in the order. With an order for 6 books we will furnish you 250 sample page circulars printed in three colors, bearing your imprint. We will give you S33 per cent discount and prepay the express. Some of my readers will ask here, what sort of a salesman is it who cannot go into a store, present his card, and sell his product except when the dealer has been hearing of it for a long time through the mail or in some other way. He is just the same as any other salesman; that is, he is an average salesman. Send him out without any prelimi- nary work (where product of firm is new to the prospect) and you curtail the results of his work a great many times. These Woolson men have time and time again demonstrated this to me. So it is in the case of my present business of service in advertising and selling. I would not think of personally calling on a firm without first sending preliminary mail pieces. So far as average salesmen are concerned, in my business their results are increased certainly ten fold by work in advance. 86 SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT The use of contests to aid in securing salesmen's co-opera- tion is discussed in a later chapter. You must sell your advertising first to the salesman. If a salesman believes in his advertised goods and believes in the advertising itself, he can accomplish big things. You must realize that the average retail merchant is not particularly keen on adver- tising — partictdarly national advertising. Frequently he throws cold water on it when a salesman attempts to talk about it. You should sell your advertising to your salesmen if you expect them, to sell it to the retailer. One of the hardest things that I have to do is to talk to a body of salesmen for the first time, asking them for co-operation on an advertising campaign. I can see the pitchers of ice water in their hands. I can see them glance knowingly at each other as I talk. But once convince them that you understand your business, that you know what you are talking about, that you have been through the mill yourself, and that you can do the very things that you are asking them to do, then they will join with you and work hard for you. There is no finer body of men in the world than the salesmen who travel the United States. Show them; explain what you are trying to accomplish and why; make them see and beheve in it, then you will have their co-operation. In other words, first sell them your goods, then sell them your advertising. In turn they will sell to the trade with the best arguments which you have given them. These same argimients, if you have handled the details properly, will be left by the salesmen and your sales aids with the merchant and the clerks, who in turn will pass them along to the consumer. Don't think, don't hope that advertising can supplant or take the place of salesmen. Use all three — advertising, salesmen, and the retailer. Then you are bound to win the consumer. Councils^ Meetings^ and Conventions for Salesmen chapter X Councils^ Meetings J and Conventions for Salesmen THERE is no more eflfective way to secure the co- operation and confidence of salesmen than by the use of meetings or councils. Conditions dififer in various sorts of industries as to the frequency with which salesmen may be brought into the home ofl&ce. These things modify the program as to the use of meetings with salesmen. Many Unes of business have the salesmen at the home office once a week. In such cases it pays to hold a council every Satiu^day. The meeting may be short if nothing of importance is to be discussed. Have the sales results for the week in your hands by noon of Saturday. It can be done, if you will insist upon it, and you will then have some- thing which is of much use to you. It doesn't pay to discuss results which are too old. About ten years ago the writer was appointed manager of a branch house doing a business of about $400,000 per year. When I arrived to take up my position I found a great deal of opposition to the new administration. This appeared as an evidence of loyalty to the retiring (or rather retired) manager. I was confronted at the outset by resigna- tions from men holding important positions. To say the least, I was not popular as a new manager. I quickly arranged for a meeting to which I invited all go SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT the salesmen and other important men. At this meeting I told them that it was my intention to make that branch house the best of its kind in the United States. I asked them for their co-operation to attain that result and told them how I proposed to do it. I finally told them that, if any man couldn't give me his co-operation, to tender his resignation at the end of that day. Every man stayed. Then followed a series of Saturday noon meetings. At this house I had the sales results for the past week made up in comparison with the same week of a year before. This was drawTi up by departments showing comparative results in at least thirty different lines. These salesmen were soon even more interested in the figures than I was. They took part in the fight or game and understood it. The results of nine months' work with this organization were above anything that had ever been done in this concern. Then I was moved to a larger field. The weekly meetings are not always practical. Some- times it is advisable to hold a meeting only once a month. These may be made most profitable, particularly if com- parative sales reports are shown. For a period of five years I had a group of fifteen sales managers meet once a month for an afternoon meeting. These monthly meetings had more to do with the success of the proposition than any other one thing. These managers represented fifteen branch houses and fifteen groups of their owti salesmen. One week pre\dous to the meeting I received from the bookkeeper of each house a comparative sales report. These were assembled into a territory report by my own office. This gave us a detailed statement of the month's business covering from fifty to sixty t>^ewTitten pages. At the meeting we went over every detail of business, taking up every department The results were shown in two ways; namely, by tonnage and dollars. COUNCILS, MEETINGS, AND CONVENTIONS 91 To illustrate the method, suppose, covering the entire territory, we showed an increase in some one department of 350,000 pounds and $1800. I would read over the hst of branch houses, naming first the house which led in the increase. I would compliment the leaders. Then I would read the names of the houses who showed decreases. The house which made the poorest showing was called off first in these lists. To these managers assembled together I would say many things quite bluntly. I would criticize severely those who had fallen behind, at the same time putting in a good word for those who had gone ahead. It generally happened after I had said something critical about a manager who had fallen down in one department, that within a few minutes I found another place in which he had done well. Then I complimented him. These meetings were very successful. All the managers beUeved in them,' enjoyed them, and looked forward to attending them. Another excellent way of meetings for a sales manager is at hotels with groups of salesmen. Often I started off for a trip of a number of days, during which I held meetings in different cities. I called in all the salesmen within a con- venient radius for an evening meeting at the hotel. We generally talked up one specialty, depending on what particu- lar thing we were advertising and featuring. In holding these, both the hotel and the other meetings with salesmen, I really carried out the idea of the functional foreman used in Scientific Management. Nearly always when holding such meetings I had with me a man who was interested in some particular department. He talked to the men, telling them how to sell the goods which that de- partment made. Sometimes at salesmen's meetings I have had a number of special men who would talk on various phases of the salesman's problem. Suppose, for instance, the salesman has to be accountable 92 SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT for credits. The credit man could very well go before a group of salesmen and explain his point of view and give most helpful advice to the salesmen as to how they should protect themselves when taking on new accounts, telHng them the sort of information they wanted, etc., etc. Everybody may not find it so, but I have always found it easier to secure results by talking to a group of salesmen instead of to one. Moreover and most important, to do the subject full justice would take too much time if each sales- man was talked to separately. I believe in the enthusiasm of the mass meeting. Illustrations of Actual Meetings and Conventions chapter XI Illustrations of Actual Meetings and Conventions IN order to show in a practical way how different meet- ings and conventions are conducted, accounts of several are given in this chapter. A large jobber employing about twenty-five salesmen was about to start a campaign on a package food product. Ad- vertising this product was a new idea. In all probability not one in five of his salesmen really believed it was a judi- cious use of the money. The advertising was to appear in newspapers, street cars, and on the billboards. After the newspaper advertising had appeared about sixty days, large space was to be used in which would appear the names of all the retail distributors in the towns served by each newspaper. A meeting of the salesmen was called for a Saturday after- noon in the general offices of the company. It was my function to sell the campaign to the sales force. First I carefully explained to them what advertising was and why their concern proposed to advertise. Many salesmen have an idea when a concern starts to advertise that it is either a step toward doing away with salesmen or hiring men at a lower price. I brought this idea up at once and exploded the theory. I laid a lot of stress on the co-ordination of sales with advertising. Then, step by step, I explained the campaign, taking up 96 SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT each link from the product to the consumer. We had a name and trade-mark for the product and a distinctive pack- age. I told them that was so because it was necessary to identify the article for the consumer. I pointed out how in our consumer advertising we constantly printed the name and pictured the package. Then I told the salesmen of their part in the work — that we wanted them to be posted thoroughly on every detail of the advertising — the mediums to be used, the size of space, the dates of insertions, the copy itself, etc. I told them how we were going to keep them informed. I told them that their part was a link as important or even more important than any other in the chain. Then I told of our plans to reach the retailer, and explained how we were co-operating with the salesmen in order to make them the closers rather than missionaries. The importance of the store signs, of the mndow displays was brought up. Sales to the consumers were closed, not when they read the advertisement in the paper, but after reading it, when they saw the displays in the stores. The salesmen were told that we needed their co-operation to secure these displays. Books containing all the newspaper copy were given to the salesmen. They were asked to use these and show them when selling the retailer. Then the consumer's part in the work was brought in. Advertisements were read aloud so they could hear what we were saying to the consumers. The signs, street car cards, posters, etc., were exhibited and the reasons for their use explained. The advertising to the consmner did not start until a month after the meeting. The salesmen were told the importance of their work for the next thirty days. Now it would be unfair to say every salesman enthused. ACTUAL MEETINGS AND CONVENTIONS 97 Of the twenty-five men present all but two were absolutely sold to the plan. Two of the older men were skeptical. They required more work. But, as a body, they went out beheving in the proposition. They were in such shape that they were able to sell the product and the advertising to the dealer in an intelligent way. During the first six months two other meetings were held. Surely such a meeting was a big step towards securing salesmen's co-operation in an advertising campaign. A very interesting affair is held by one concern in the nature of an annual banquet. This is preceded in the afternoon by a series of individual talks to the salesmen by members of the firm. For this day the results of the year are at hand. Salary changes are generally made at this time. The banquet is held in the evening, one of the firm presiding. After the dinner he reads statistics sho^^'ing the results of the year. He reads figures showing the number of pounds or cases of specialties sold by each salesman, the percentage of bad debts lost by each salesman, the number of the new accounts obtained, etc. He generally talks in an informal way about the past year and the plans for the next year. Then each man is called upon for remarks. The men are told that honest, frank criticism of the methods of the firm or of its members is expected and solicited. It has been my duty for three years back, for instance, to listen to these salesmen as they criticize the advertising and suggest improvements. The firm which holds this annual meeting is head and shoulders above any firm doing a similar business in the country. They are the largest in their Une and it is gener- ally conceded that they make the most money. They apply every known principle of Scientific Sales Management to their sales work. Another style of meeting which is useful is held by a con- 98 SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT cem which operates three distinct sales organizations, under three sales managers located at Chicago, Boston, and New York. In January a new season of about five months starts. This is the important season when new prices, styles, etc., are announced. It is the season when the retailer gives his big order for future shipment. It is the practise of this firm to hold meetings at the three headquarters on the day pre- vious to starting out the men. These meetings last all day and are followed by an evening banquet. The manager of the parent concern, the factory superintendent, the local sales manager, and the advertising agent, which is the author, attend these three meetings as far as possible. I feel sure that they are a fine start for the salesmen. A more elaborate affair is a salesmen's convention. One firm does this in a most complete and effective way. The session opens INIonday morning and closes Friday night. Three months before the convention about fifteen ques- tions are mailed to each salesman. He is expected to send in his ideas and answers to them one month before the con- vention. These questions refer to various changes which might be made in the goods. This firm manufactures almost hundreds of styles, shapes, etc., of its product. One ques- tion often is: "We desire to cut out some of our numbers, to reduce the line. WTiat styles do you recommend that we drop?" Again they might ask: "We are thinking of chan- ging number , maldng it of heavier material and adding a reinforcement at the back. What is your opinion of this? " Another might be: "Is there any style or article not made by us which you think we should make for next year? In what way do our competitors hurt you in your territory and how can we get around this? " The answers are all carefully tabulated. During the sessions these questions are read aloud. Then the answers are read. Discussions are allowed and asked for. Finally, ACTUAL MEETINGS AND CONVENTIONS 99 and sometimes it takes hours to thresh it all out, the presiding ofl&cer, who is the secretary of the company, announces the decision on the part of the company. Sometimes, although rarely, the decision is reserved for later announcement. The arrangements for the convention are well handled. One of the storage rooms in the mill is fitted up as a hall. Sufficient space is divided off and cheese-cloth partitions put up to make it attractive. On tables around the side of the room are a complete Une of samples of the products. Each man has a small table for his desk. This desk is fitted with a full line of stationery, clean blotters, pens, ink, etc. The name of the man who is to sit at the desk is stenciled in large letters on the desk blotter. The men are seated in groups. The New England men are at one side, the Middle Atlantic men in the middle, and the Western men at the other side. A platform is erected at the front with several desks, at which are seated the officers of the company, including the various factory superintendents. A most unique and serviceable idea is the plan of the hall, which lies before the chairman. This is a diagram showing each desk and the name of the salesman occupying it. This makes it most easy for the chairman and stenographers to know who is speaking from the floor. A telephone is run into the hall. Stenographers are present and they keep account of all rulings and decisions. The advertising matter, such as signs, new packages, proofs, etc., are displayed. Two sessions are held each day, morning and afternoon. One day or one session is given up to advertising. At this session the author explains the plans for the following year. Afterwards questions are asked by the men. The final affair is a dinner held on Friday evening. Printed menus are provided, containing many songs with local hits, etc. loo SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT It is remarkable to see the big differences, disputes, etc., gradually settled and then disappear. At this convention the officials of the company have a chance to hear what the trade outside want and say. The salesmen hear the factory side. Finally, results are obtained by combining their ideas. It is another case of the salesmen who work for the house and the house which works for the salesmen. Also it is a case of a firm which makes money ard carries on a big business in an easy way in the face of enormous competition. So- Called Ginger 'Talks chapter XII So-Called Ginger Talks 1 DON'T know who invented the phrase "ginger talks," but he is innocently responsible for a lot of sin in sales work. Salesmen are sensible men. They may be boys grown up, but they are canny, keen, and analytical. They are open to the spirit of competition and may be inspired, but — The stuff that is put out under the term "ginger talks" wouldn't inspire a camp-meeting Methodist. Indeed, some of it is enough to cause nausea. At times some young, green, raw, newly arrived youngster sits in the chair of the sales manager. He reads a few papers on the subject of selUng and then proceeds to put out what he calls "ginger" or "inspirational" talks. It's all very well to write " Every man will put his shoulder to the wheel " ; "England expects every man to do his duty " ; "Beat 'em to a frazzle"; "Eat 'em alive," etc., but if little intelligence and no real heart and spirit is i)ut into it, the stuff doesn't go. I suppose that the authors of these epistles really think (or do they?) that the recipient is thrilled as he reads them. I have seen the recipient receive some of them. He doesn't thrill. Years ago when I was sort of territory superintendent, the salesmen under me received various bulletins from a score of department sales managers. Some of these were good. I04 SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT Many wore poor. I was naturally much interested that they should have a good effect because I needed aggregate results. NcN'ertheless, at times, it was enough to cause one to weep to see the waste of postage and stationery. Some of these poor efforts were no doubt due to the fact that the big department sales manager was directing his assistants under him to send out what they considered ginger or inspiration talks. Even at that I always felt that they were better than notliing, and some of them were better than others. A sales manager ought to be very sure of the printed or written matter which is sent out to salesmen over his signa- ture. I think it is worth while for him to see nearly every- thing that goes out, particularly if it is of the type of a boost or pusliing piece. I recall two different instances which came to my attention where salesmen were being injured by unfortunate communications from the main ofl&ce. I recol- lect in one instance, after I had taken another man's position, that I found one salesman who was somewhat irritated and sore over the former administration. The sole reason was certain letters which he was receiving urging him to sell one product. On investigation I foimd that these particular letters were entirely in the hands of the sales manager's stenographer, a middle-aged woman. She was keeping the records and sending out the letters, etc., urging men for results. She was not showing good judgment in the tone of these letters. In another case I talked to a salesman whom I met up in the woods while on a fishing trip. He was very sore on his chief because of certain contests that were being run in which he was ridiculed a little bit. I had a good chance to look into the matter, and again it was a case of a clerk who was handling this particular feature of the sales manager's work, but who was not showing good judgment. A man who sends letters to salesmen should talk common SO-CALLED GINGER TALKS 105 sense. He shouldn't preach to them. He should be careful not to ridicule tail-enders. He shouldn't attempt to be flowery because, in most instances, he can't be if he tries. Give them the news. Appeal to the best side of their nature. Show them, try to lead them. Cut out all tommyrot — the "give me liberty or give me death" stuff. No men (except fools and they die early) kill themselves over selling. Don't take yourself or your job too seriously. From the subhme to the ridiculous is but a step, and your ginger talks will be in the latter class unless you take care. It is rather difficult to give good examples of this sort of talks. It has been suggested that in this chapter there should be shown several good ginger talks and some of the other kind. Below are given extracts from a bulletin that was mailed to salesmen some time ago. Some of the facts are purposely omitted, as they pertain to private business. The job was mimeographed and the headline was in large letters at the top. WHAT ABOUT NEXT YEAR? It was a few days ago, and I had Ijeen talking with one of my man- agers about liis business of this past year. He had showoi increases for every one of the eleven past periods, and was counting on making a glorious finish. Then I asked him, "What about next year?" All day long I thought about the question — "What about next year? " It meant a whole lot to me as well as to every manager, Branch House salesman, and specialty salesman who travels on this territory. That afternoon I read the four page advertisement of our company as it appears in the November magazines. (See The American Magazine, Munsey's, and others for November.) It is not necessary for me to repeat the advertisement here. You have probably read it. If you have not, I wish you would do so. That advertisement is the raw material from which your ammunition must be made this next year. There is meat for every man in that advertisement. I wish I could take the time and space to dissect those four pages and point out the io6 SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT numerous sermons and ideas that are in it for all of us. That advertise- ment may well be your creed for next year. A great deal has happened in the industry this past year. Much history has been made. It marks an epoch in the business, but now we are looking ahead, not behind. What about next year? Ne.xt j-ear? \\'e are to go forward, to grow as we have never grown before. The business is to increase in a marvelous manner. Our busi- ness — Blank & Company's business — is to maintain the lead. Read that November advertisement. It \vi[\ tell you why we are to maintain the lead. It is for you now to question yourself as to whether you arc ready to grow also. In making my own plans for this next 3'ear, I am obliged to consider the qualifications of every man employed on the territory. I realize that this year we must have broad men, and give them opportunities to show their strength. There is one kind of a man that we do not want this year. I must use a big word to describe him, but it expresses exactly the meaning. My motto for this territory must be "No pessimists wanted." If you are not sure what I mean by that, please get all the definitions of the word "pessimist" you can find; put them together and they will show you my meaning. What Kind of Managers do we Need for the Next Ye.ar? We need managers who do not think they have all the milk out of the cocoanut so far as their own towns are concerned. We need managers who wtII be keenly alive to the possibilities of the business. If they study the November advertising, they will realize that this is to be "an open door period," as it always has been. Your Branch House is now not only open to the public, but we invite people to visit it by our advertising. It is to the manager who runs the Branch House that we must look to have model stores. It is to him that we must look, not only for the appearance of the house itself, but also for the appearance of the stock. If he is to grow, every manager must be alive to all the possibilities of doing business in his section. Every prospective customer must be looked after. We have many kinds of products. To sell them, a manager must be an all-round man. He must show interest in every product. He must not be a specialty man. He must not be one-sided. Blank & Company look to him, so far as his towns are concerned, to sell all products intelligently. He must be in earnest. He must believe implicitly that Blank & Company's quality and Blank & Company's policy stand for all that is good. SO-CALLED GINGER TALKS 107 The Br.\nch House Salesman for Next Year — What About Him? He must be an intelligent, thinking, business man. There is no place this year for bluffs or hot-air salesmanship. Downright earnest- ness, sincerity, enthusiasm, and loyalty are needed. His eyes must sparkle and snap with enthusiasm when he talks • , , • , , , or any of our products. By his earnestness, enthusi- asm, and sincerity he must sweep before him all prejudice and objec- tions of the customer. He must be loyal. However any rulings may affect him, he must believe and understand thoroughly that Blank & Company's policy make it necessary. He must understand that these various rulings have built up one of the largest and most successful business organizations in the world. The specialty man must also have all the qualifications of the Branch House salesman. Of course his main issue is his specialty, but he must never forget that first, last, and always, he is employed by Blank & Com- pany. He must be proud of this. He must protect Blank & Company's interests at every point. He should never in any way show any disap- proval of their methods, whether they concern his department or some other. Now then, take an inventory of yourself. If you do not look good to yourself, strengthen up on the weak points — then start in. We are going to do it. Each and every one of us is to have the best year that we ever put in for Blank & Company. If you do not feel just this way, there is something wrong with you. The Sales Manager Below are given extracts from another ginger talk which has some merit. It is a little overdone, however, and lacks sincerity. It was issued by an Assistant Sales Manager who always secured results in his department and has pro- gressed a great deal in the past few years. In a mimeograph bulletin he says: Since our last issue there has been little change in the position of the several contestants. We are now nearing the "home stretch," two and one half periods to go. Everybody is bubbling over with enthusiasm and the dope sheet convinces us that it's anybody's race. From infor- loS SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT mation at hand, there are several "Live Wires," heretofore "unknown quantities," that are about ready to set a pace that will make some of the so-called "Sure Things" dig. NOW FOR THE HURDLES Britt still heads the list, but has fallen away. Wonder if he's shot his bolt? Remember, fellows, his quota is a big one and he'll have to travel to be in the money. Bhvan coming strong — has gained on Britt. Manager Austin says, "You can't stop his wind." iSIcDonnell third, and writes in to watch him; for, as he says, "I'm going through the line." Watch out, men, or this boy will Sting you. Richards fourth and sticking like glue (the " " kind too). Do you realize just what this means? Richards says he's going to wear Miss "Veribest" on his finger — and he may turn the trick at that. Ahern fifth — Jim has just returned from the "Windy City" — at- tended the soap convention, you know, and had the time of his life. Don't overlook this bet, for he's apt to hand us all one juicy Lemon on the last lap. Haskell next — take our word for it, this fellow is to be reckoned with. He can and will Do Things. Backus seventh — fire up, Sam, don't let the steam get low, youi reputation is at stake. Remember "Special Mention." Keatley follows close behind. Dave knows no such thing as defeat. Take it from us he's a stayer, and a strong contender all the time. We know what we're talking about too. Then comes Hayes, full of confidence, even though he was nosed out of the Soap Contest. That's the sort of real stuff " "men are made of. Hats off to Hayes. Dodd, old boy, number ten in the running. Those of you who want a Hunch get next to this performer. Bernhardt close behind, bunched with Leonard and Hallett. Come on, boys, we need your best efforts. Adams number fourteen. Our guess is he'll show well up with the leaders before another period has passed. Fradd shows next, with lots of speed in reserve. Feinn and Brown, both of Derby, can be seen close by. Take a brace and turn the trick. You both could if you would. Do things and give Manager Rogers that "Veribest" feeling. Lutz, Daggett, Killeen, Riley and Wilbur bring up the rear. Why SO-CALLED GINGER TALKS 109 can't you pull yourselves together and get up with the Big Show? Every one of you can make the goal. Get out of that Rut and Deliver. Yours for success, Sales Manager The following talk or letter was sent out by a sales manager a few weeks after he had assumed his position. TO ALL SALESMEN I wish that it were possible for me to meet and talk to each salesman upon this territory as often as once a week. If I could do this I feel that I could be of considerable help to you, and I am sure that the results all over the territory would be bettered. There are a whole lot of salesmen selling goods in this country who ought to hand in their resignations and then look for a job driving coal teams. I mean by this that there are a lot of fellows who call themselves salesmen who have no interest in their business, who have no confidence or faith in their boss or in the house which they represent. Now if there are any fellows on this territory of ours who have not faith and confidence in their manager, who don't beUeve that their superintendent knows his business, and who don't beheve that Blank & Company are the best people in this fine of business and that Blank & Company know how to do business, I want these gentlemen to send in their resignations at once or to change their frame of mind in equally short order. I have spent the past month getting acquainted with the men who are going to help me make this territory a Successful Territory. I have not looked at results as much as I am going to in the future. I have not asked anybody to resign. I have not suggested to anyone that his job was no good. I have endeavored to give every man a show. Tliis period I expect to see business coming in. I expect every sales- man to show by his work that he wants to do what we ask him to do. Blank & Company by certain methods of doing business have been very successful. It is not for us to criticize those methods or in other words, to use a slang phrase, "knock." We propose this month to spend some time searching out the "knockers." Let me suggest that you devote a considerable lot of thought this period to digging out something a little unusual in the line of business. If you will think about this, watching your trade, studying your price lists and your line of goods, you will be able to find a great many out- lets for goods of which before you did not avail yourself. Make up your no SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT mind that you are going to show unusual business rather than the usual amount and kind. Do j'ou grasp my thought? And also, if you get next to a large or unusual order and you want special prices, have the manager get them for you. The wires are at your disposal and we will, everyone of us, do everything possible to help you land the business. Now read this letter through once more and think it over. Yours truly. The Superintendent Here is another example of a letter which does not say anything specific and yet gives some very good facts. Dear Sir: Salesmen have a way of cracking up other men's territories and taking a knock at their own. It is always the far pasture that looks greenest, but you will generally find, when you actually set foot on the distant field, that the color turns out to be about the same shade of dull green, verging on brown, that tinted the patch that you left. It isn't the terri- tory that gets orders — it's the man. There is a tale extant of a soldier who broke his sword in a battle. He had been putting up a poor sort of a fight anyway, and when his blade broke off in the middle, he threw the remaining half of the sword away and took to his heels, remarking, "I can't fight with that thing." A fellow-soldier, who had been defending himself as best he could with a short dagger, seized the discarded sword with a whoop of joy and made such rattling good play with it that he put to rout both his own antag- onist and the man who had fought with his runaway companion. Some men can do more with a broken sword than others with a com- plete arsenal of perfect weapons. The opportunities that some of us throw away as useless, other men would find it impossible to fail with. Every sales manager can point to scores of territories where four, five, or six men failed, one after the other, before the right man came along and made a barrel of money. The possibilities of those territories were there all the time; but the men that failed couldn't see them. They didn't look hard enough. Someone has truly said that while Opportunity knocks at least once at every man's door, the party inside has no right to expect the panels to be kicked in. And it may be added that if the expectant party is a salesman he had best not wait inside at all. The only way in which he can ever hope to catch a glimpse of Opportunity is to get outside the door and do a lot of active searching for her up and dowm the street. SO-CALLED GINGER TALKS iii We adNase you to begin your search today. When we balance up our books at the end of the month, you want to be on the right side of the ledger. The first essential in the process of getting there is to start now. You can't secure orders in the past or in the future; you must get them Today. Respectfully, Here is a common sense letter. AIM AT A CERTAIN MARK — THEN STRIVE FOR IT A salesman who fails to Estimate and lay out his work is in the same class with the himter who shuts his eyes and fires into the brush where he "thinks" the bird is hidden. He stands just about as big a chance of getting results as the hunter does of getting game. On the other hand, everything favors the salesman or himter who aims at a certain standard or object. He gets "more for his money," much better results for the effort put forth, a wiser distribution of time, more time to devote to unusual and difficult business, and he reduces waste of time and energy to a minimum. In putting this plan into effect I would suggest the following ideas. Take the hst of Blank & Company's products as they appear on the Monthly Salesman's Report, and after careful study set opposite each item the amount which you will endeavor to sell during the entire month. For instance, in barrels. "I will try to sell $300 worth this month. That means 20 barrels. Can I do it and how much time can I devote to it? " Well, that's just what your estimate is for — to give you an idea of what you ought to do and then-arouse the determination to Do It. Don't overestimate, though it is far better to overestimate than it is to place j'our mark so low that it requires no skill or work to exceed it. "Aim high, the arrows will fall short enough." Then go through the entire line — from nuts to raisins, silks to calicoes, and so on down the list. Now this letter is written merely to suggest a line of thought with the hope that it will prove of help to you in the building up of your trade following and consequently making you a more valuable man for your- self and for Blank & Company. I would be very glad to receive from you a letter in reply, giving me your ideas and containing, if you desire, your estimate of what you will accomplish this j)resent month. Respectfully, 112 SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT Here is a letter, dictated hurriedly and mailed to a force of salesmen. A PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL TALK WITH OUR SALES FORCE Dear Sir: Sometimes it may seem as though we were everlastingly at our sales- men to do this or that, but the results prove that our efforts are not in vain. Three or four months ago we had one or two men who were running in what might be called the "two minute" class, or among the big fel- lows. Today we can count up at least six men who are pushing hard towards the front and who are now in the company of the original "two minute" class. My plan for securing greater success at these Branch Houses is not very complicated. I want to secure one, if not two, salesmen at each house whom I can count on as being big sellers. It is all very well to come in with sales of $2500 to $3500. Possibly sales of this sort wiU just keep your job — for a little while. But the fellow who comes along with $5000 to $6500 per month is the man who is going to attract our attention and fill the bill. Now to consider a few real things and not to talk in a general way. I have just offered a , and I wonder how many of the salesmen who received that letter have actually made up their minds that they were going to \\in the prize. In my opinion winning this ten dollars in money is equivalent to winning one hundred dollars, if not five hun- dred dollars, in reputation so far as Blank & Company are concerned. Somebody has said, "The reason men do not do more is because they do not attempt more." Now this applies to things like this contest. It is the fellow who says "I will" and goes and does it that we are look- ing for. If you think that your territory is not quite as good as some other fellow's, just remember the letter we sent you some little time ago, because that expresses our ideas on the territory question. . . . The two propositions mentioned above might be called the "Unusual Business" for this period. We expect the customary volume of regular business from all the other lines. Contests for Salesmen Chapter XIII Contests for Salesmen TN Chapter II the matter of a Set Task has been men- tioned and illustrated by the case of the teacher who gives a set task day by day to the boy at school. Sales- men also Mill work to better advantage if there is a definite goal not too far ahead of them. The schoolboy is pleased when he has finished translating his three pages of Latin or ten sums in arithmetic. So with the salesman. If he works on some definite quota or has some definite object to accomplish within a reasonably short time, he has a sense of satisfaction when he accomplishes it or does more. So perhaps along this line of reasoning lies the merit of contests. Contests are really nothing but setting tasks which are reasonably sure of accomplishment by a good salesman. Contests are often spoiled because the prize is made the biggest feature of them. Once I attended a salesmen's convention, at which the head of the concern announced that for the next year the salesman who did the best in a certain Une would receive a prize of $500. The announce- ment fell flat. During the recess the salesmen discussed this point. I heard many of them say that they didn't like it. They said they were now doing the best they possibly could and no matter if the boss offered several prizes of $500, it wouldn't make them work any harder than they were working now. Indeed there was so much opposition to this ii6 SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT prize that the offer was withdrawn at the next day's session of that convention. Now had there been a game for the sake of the game or a contest for the sake of the contest, based on a definite amount of goods to be sold for a stated period, I feel sure this thing would not have fallen through. Often when I suggest contests the management is afraid of them. Executives feel that their salesmen are not boys and are too old to be put in such a class. I am not in favor of prize contests where the prize is big or where the prize is made the main feature. At any rate I am not in favor of this except where I am very sure of my men. It isn't for the prize that I run a contest. It is for the game. I have secured better results when the prize was nothing but some joke than when there has been a valuable one at stake. However, I ha\'e seen and have nm both kinds. Let me illustrate this by two different con- tests in which the prizes were distinctly different. Some years ago a company with which I was connected was not selling very much of a certain sort of product. It was rather out of the general line which their men sold. We o^^^led a lot of this product, however, and we wanted to secure business. We didn't seem to know how to sell it, or at any rate our salesmen didn't know how to sell it. It wasn't in their line of work. One day I made up a mimeograph bulletin which showed a picture of a road race course, such as you would see dowTi in Long Island for the Vanderbilt Cup Race. It was just about the time that one of these races was being run. I announced in this bulletin that we would run an automobile endurance race. The picture showed a track which ran all around the paper. It was Hke a map of the com-se. In the corner we printed some pictures of automobiles with the name of a salesman on each one. The race course showed CONTESTS FOR SALESMEN 117 50,000 units. We called a pound a unit. We announced that the man who first sold 50,000 pounds would be the winner and that the prize was to be an automobile. Now I might tell you that the selling price of this product was so small that nobody supposed for a minute that we were going to give an automobile to the salesman who sold 50,000 pounds, particularly as our organization was only about 25 salesmen. We picked off the data as to the number of pounds sold by each man at the end of a week and we sent out a new bulletin. This showed the same race course, but this time the automobiles were on the track. The man who had sold 500 pounds was at the 500 pound mark, and the man who had sold 1000 pounds was at the 1000 pound mark. We kept this up for six weeks, at the end of which time one man reached the 50,000 poimd mark and secured the prize. This Uttle contest excited a lot of interest and sold a lot of the product. The prize in this case was a little mechanical, toy automobile. On the other hand, another department of this concern wished to make a big showing on one of their products. They announced that they would send the winner from each territory to the main office. It averaged to cost $200 per man to do this. This meant that virtually the' prizes were worth $200. Out of the seventy odd men in my territory, there was only one man who could go; namely, the man who could sell the most of this product. We worked hard on this and boosted it all we could, but I think I am quite fair when I say that there wasn't a particle more interest in it than there was in the other contest which was merely a joke. In making up contests of this sort where there are a num- ber of things to be sold, it is sometimes wise to allow extra count for the hard-selUng things. I remember a certain contest in which the prize was a magnificent hand-tooled gold ring. In this contest we gave double credit for seUing ii8 SCIENTIFIC S.\LES MANAGEMENT ^Mimeograph bulletin issued by a packer for New York City salesmen. This is one of a series which came out every few daN-s during the contest. The prize was not of great value, but the game was made interesting. CONTESTS FOR SALESMEN iig certain specialties. This is a good point and will help wonderfully in inducing the salesman to push the things which are harder to sell. Perhaps the greatest contest I ever pulled off was when I offered a big silver cup as a trophy to my managers. This was offered to the manager who each month showed in- creases in the greatest number of departments. The beauty of this thing was that equal credit was given to each sales department without reference to its size. That is, in some departments there were very large sales, whereas in others, which for the purposes of bookkeeping were kept separate, the sales were very small. It was announced, however, that the cup would be awarded to the branch house which showed the greatest number of increases each month. Furthermore, the manager who won it three times in suc- cession would owTi it. There were exceptional advantages in this. The big departments, the sales of which would amount to a large amount of money per month, had to be pulled out in order to secure a good score and the manager had to win out in the smaller ones also. The scores of "the A\inners were nearly always perfect. That is to say, the winners showed in- creases in every department. Imagine the effect upon the business in the aggregate. Here were about seventeen branch houses trying to score perfect in every department. This contest lasted seven months, when it was finally won three times in succession by one house. Its merit was that there was a set task ; namely, an in- crease in each department that could be accompHshed each month. It was possible at the end of each month for the participant to see and realize his success. Moreover, he was rewarded by the cup. * I have mentioned in another part of this book the sales- I20 SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT man on whom I called to win a national prize. This particu- lar result illustrates very well the value of having a salesman who believes in your advertising. The headquarters of this man was in a city of less than 20,000. He had one other city on his territory with a population of 28,000. Aside from that, his entire territory was small towns. This man, however, believed thoroughly in the advertising which was being done on that particular product. He was enthusiastic and he understood his goods. He wasn't a brilliant fellow. He wasn't a flashy man — he was a conscientious plodder. The company was spending a barrel of money to advertise the product. I am frank to say in certain cities very Uttle of it was being sold. Many salesmen in my employ were doing Uttle with it. We couldn't seem to start either the salesmen or the mer- chants. From headquarters, the head of the company offered a gold watch to the salesman east of Buffalo who sold the most of the product. The sales to new customers counted double. I sent one of my little scribbled telegram notes down to this man in his small town in which I said: "Jim, I am depending upon you to win that prize." He sent back to me a similar note which read: "I'll do my best." Bear in mind this man was competing with salesmen in cities like Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Albany, etc. He didn't have a city in his territory over 28,000. I will tell you the end of the story first by saying he came out second, being beaten by a very narrow margin by a man in Boston who sold the big stores there, such as department stores. After the contest was over I asked him to tell the other salesmen how he did it. He gave them a very earnest talk as he explained his methods. He said he always carried with him copies of the magazines in which those advertise- ments were running. It was his method first to tell the CONTESTS FOR SALESMEN 121 merchant the names of these different magazines and to make some general remarks about their circulation. Then, by some method peculiarly his own, he succeeded in making THE CBKIsrJAS PXIZ7. COillSST- E1ID3 TO.lOSEb« 1!J THE ilNNEftS MLL BE /iSNOUKOSD KKXI (VEEXM! Ecturduy, Docoobar 19th, ondfl th» prlzo Oonte«t In th» Butterlna Department, and *a wlil annoiinoB st &b early a dat» aa poa»lble tha ncjas of the :vlnners. From « rough eatlmate of th9 outooms, W6 art) pr^ •urn tuat the prlzea i\lll be well aoatterad Kaot, Wiot, north and Sou' wlah we ;»6ra going to distribute a hundred boxoa of the olga/ of the few ^e are, because there are one hundred ealosaen - "^ UB hearty and liberal support ^ euppjrt whlcl; ^appre^ Unique and crude cartoon printed on mimeograph in connection with a Christmas Prize Contest. the merchant wait while he read one advertisement aloud. That was the keynote. The copy was elegant — indeed it was about as good as I ever read — and the salesman would say to the merchant: "This is what the woman reads in the Ladies^ Home Journal about this product." He made a list of the merchants in the whole district. If he didn't sell a merchant the first time, he went a second and a third time. If he couldn't sell him alone, he would have his manager write him a letter. Finally, if this didn't work, he would have the manager go to sec him. 122 SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT The Sidesman made it his business to talk to the clerks in these stores whenever it was possible. At the end of the contest he had sold ninety-eight out of every hundred possi- bilities. I have always considered that this was a marvelous showing, considering the fact that he was up against men in such big cities. There was no quota about this contest. It was volume against volume. Nobody reaUzes better than the ^^Titer that retailers are not particularly keen on national advertising campaigns. I know how they throw cold water on it when a salesman attempts to tell them about it. Nevertheless, it is a fact that, if you sell your advertising to the salesmen, they in turn can and will sell it to the retailer. Contests for Salesmen on a ^lota Basis Chapter XI F Contests for Salesmen on a §luota Basis SALESMEN should not be classed on a flat basis if you are to secure a maximum of response from them. It is not fair to expect the new salesman to sell so many goods as the veteran whose salary is probably double that of the new man's. It is not to be expected that the salesman covering crossroad towns, making very few calls per day, should sell so much as the salesman in a metropolitan district. Yet, because of this unequal condition in affairs, it is not necessary to sacrifice all the good of the spirit of competition. Two biUiard or pool players, or two golf players of unequal skill, can arrange an interesting game to their mutual satis- faction. Salesmen should be handicapped in a fair way. There are generally available some figures on which to estimate a basis of expectation. If nothing else exists, use the salaries as a basis. You may find that these salaries need adjusting after you have used them as quotas for a time. As a matter of fact, nearly always, the sales manager himself can, with fairness to everybody, assign a quota on whatever he wishes to sell. It's a great thing, this quota arrangement. It will secure response and results when everything else fails. I have time and time again worked a body of salesmen on this basis with great success. Suppose for instance, you have a certain product which you desire to push. Perhaps 126 SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT at present little of it is being sold by the men. You may have talked about it and written about it, but results have not come. Assign to each man a definite amount which is to be his quota per week or month. Fix this so that, if every man sells his quota, you will have a most satisfactory aggregate. In assigning these quotas give the new, green men a chance. Make their quotas comparatively small. Give your top- notch man a rather stiff quota. As a rule I do not pubHsh each man's quota, but I publish a general bulletin on the percentages and privately inform each man of his quota. Nobody knows the other man's. In all my experience I do not recall a single complaint that I had been unfair in assigning quotas. At the end of some period publish a bulletin showing the percentage of sales; that is, the percentage of quota sales. Furnish a table showing the standing of each man. In most cases this will work out about as follows. The older, more conservative men with the larger quotas will not respond big at the start. When the first bulletin appears, the little fellows will lead. Probably one of the new men will shine out way ahead of the others. Often he isn't, as a whole, a successful salesman, but he sees a chance here and he works. In the second bulletin these weaker men lead again. But sooner or later the veterans realize that you mean business. In fact they have been loafing a bit, believing that they could spurt when near the home stretch. Then something generally happens. One or two of the big men begin to sell — they wake up. The bulletin becomes more interesting. The little fellows are being pressed. At the end of the contest, as a rule, one of the better sales- men wins. Sometimes, however, the small man strikes a good gait and he wins out. Incidentally, this work will PEBCEHlACB^jy^TOIJU— CAaraDJ£KAIS- trrel-vT: BrEoch He uses, who bear the name of salesran, to averat;9 two Kershaw . - - -161^ Ahern,- - - - -loo^ Bloom; ~ . - - -144,=? Crowell - . - -154;6 Hall 1555 Daergett - - . . 96^ AdamB ----- 90^ Eritt ----- Q5;C Eliven 72^' Biteault - - . .55^ Brown - ... - 2=?? • Bernhort - - - -14^ Biley 6^ This loolie pretty good for the majority of the saleeaen. There are a few aalesmen, whose showing is not creditable. roreover, these men, who are well do-m to the botton, are the men who have th9 amall quotas. We do not want to say aipleasant thingo in this paper, so w win Just leave it to those on the bottom of the list to study out t.he situation for thcmselTee. The Canned Ifeat business is booming. Our good Canned Heat men, Br. Dorus and Mr. Parker, are turning in bi^ orders now. This is the harTest tine. There is no reason why the Branch House aales- men should not bo doing as well. Loolc at our position in the Veribest Qulzier. Are you satiafled to have us any where except at the top? cases of the Tvins weekly during the twenty-six weeks of this half yor.r. There will te nothing pleasant said to ar/body who falls down. This is the easiest pro- position the Soap Tforke have ever put up to us. Mr. Ahem of Horwioh is doing very fine work with the ready made "ads". Almost every week he mails to this Office several nswsp^ers, oontain- int advertisements of his ouEtomera on Simon Pure lard or Star Hams. Jim is a great believer in advertis- ing. Judging from his success wltii Star Hams and Simon Pure lard, he muot have the rig)it idea. PEReB;'T:AGE or 9.U0IA i ?.io;sd meass SOAP The last issue of the little Soap paper gives the on the Twins up to date. The Branch House saleeman who leads sold 171 casee and the bottom man sold 52 oQses. We want to see some of our men in this list the »ext time the paper appears. We have two or three men on the pay roll of this territory who can go out and sell ae majiy boxes of Ahem - - - . .178X Crowell - - - .I4l3^ Sturm II5X Bibeault - - . lOS^f Daggett - - . - 9^ Berrthart - - . -mg, Hall ^t,i Bliven 8^2 Leonard - - - - 8^ Bloom ----- 7% Brltt 7^' Adams ----- 6}^ Kershaw . - - - 60j^ 2"™ 53X Wain 44^ Debee . . - - . 44^ rnii ,^^• ^„„»- ^J'^^'" ^^^ *^''^ cuamer trade on roll of honor star Hams going a little brisker. "o matter what fancy ham any local packer in your to.»n may be putting out, one of our STARS la fully as good aa it. If you Kuit to have a big day on Star Hams, take one out cf your Smoked .-leat room, cut in two and carry half of it with on your travels. vrake Jt a There ia nothing to Star Ham day. j:^?Sari?:i"-Th^:ra?n T.i'^ziiT. iri?-r-"vrw^?!'^r:n posaibly two or three, whom le box «f .<„.-. .V,. T.® . . _:^.J'", "?_? box Of cigars that this method will give you Burpriaing results. ibly two or three, whom believe in one week can Dell an many of the Twins as a.ny man in Br. Atnour-B organization. They Bon.t forget the ftm-v Bacon hHve proved it in oth-.r things and star Braokffst BaSon is a fi? thlB-Soap. Remember, yojr Supt. Boll Star Bacon exf/^ctB avery man connect. list ualne product insosla 65 Z2 25 ^ WatBrtai7 401 57 13 Bridgeport 471 6X 12 tern HaTen 676 133 20 Stamford 146 42 28 Port Chester 69 IB 26 Creenwioh 6a 7 10 East Borwlk 10 Horwalk 46 9 20 S. KoiTWlk «2 7 21 Westport i 1 16 SaneBtnrtIr 4 Sew Boohelle 108 Ht. Vernon 96 UasaLroneak 86 EarrlsOBl 14 i^e Vi Collin BTlllo 9 2 u Hew Hllf ord 17 3 27 Stratford- £0 e 20 Eerlden 1S7 13 e Sew London 82 15 18 Sorvioii 99 12 u Slddletown 64 13 20 Eo< s w O < o H < o S ■ o Bj fa < a o HIRING SALESMEN 145 IS o < 8 < m Oi Q Id a 146 SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT of care. It is from this good seed that he harvests the best crops. So with the dairyman who is interested in upbuild- ing a herd. He is very careful that the stock which he brings into his herd is of the right sort. The sales manager may well hesitate before taking into his sales force any but the right sort of men. He need not hesitate a minute to weed them out when he finds he has the wrong sort. How to Conduct a Trade Promotion Department Chapter XFII How to Conduct a Tirade Promotion Department IN Scientific Sales Management it is well to watch old customers as well as to try for new trade. This is, of course, self-evident, and everybody intends to do it. Nevertheless, in many businesses an investigation has revealed the fact that there is nothing done to automatically bring to the attention of the proper parties the fact that old customers have reduced their purchases or stopped buying entirely. Perhaps in a small business the old trade can be looked after without system, although in any busi- ness a regular mode of procedure is better than haphazard work. The sales manager who desires to look after a large number of accounts can easily do so with the aid of the auditor or the ledger clerk. Sheets of paper should be ruled to carry a list of names. Such sheets might carry from twenty-five to fifty names. Opposite the names should be from twelve to fifteen columns. The nature of the business determines how frequent it is well to have information on amount of purchases. Suppose that the sales manager desires information covering each quarter. The auditor or ledger clerk copies in the space provided on the trade promotion sheets all the names on the ledger. Opposite each name in one of ISO SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT the columns he writes the amount purchased during the last three months. This is not a big task, but it is worth many times the cost of the labor. The bookkeeper does not have to do the entire ledger in one month. The list may be divided into three di\dsions and one third of the list covered each month, so that the sales manager has, every three months, a state- ment of the purchases for all customers. With this information in hand the sales manager can accomplish great things. In case of a large business he should use a set of form letters which his stenographer will send out to certain names on the Hst. Thus he may decide to write only to those who failed to buy anything. A letter is then sent out to such names. It is advisable to have this letter go out from the largest, or home office. It should apparently be signed by the highest man in authority who could with propriety sign such a letter. The letter should express regret that the merchant has failed to buy. It should inquire if anything has occurred in his relations with the house which has been unsatisfactory. It offers to correct such shortcomings if the merchant will kindly state them, etc. It generally ends by some positive state- ments about the goods sold by the house, the service it ofifers, etc. Again the sales manager may decide to have another style of letter go out to those whose purchases have been less than the same three months of a year ago. These letters, if done properly, will bring a large per- centage of answers. At least two more letters should be sent to, those who do not answer. Many interesting and profitable things will be developed by the answers. , Sometimes there is nothing the trouble and the letter merely starts the customer buying. I have seen many instances where a letter from the home office TRADE PROMOTION DEPARTMENT 151 pleases the retail merchant. On the other hand, there is sometimes something the matter and the sales manager has a chance to dig into it. After about everything has been done by the home office which can be done, then the next step in the work is to put the answers and the results into the j&eld. A synopsis of the answers is sent to the branch house or to the salesmen covering the territory. Comments on the various cases are made by the main office and a reply requested from the salesmah or local sales manager. This again often develops interesting things. The cost of this sort of work is comparatively little. There is no way, however, in which an equal amount of money will produce similar results. I will describe an actual department which illustrates the workings. This department was installed about five years ago by one of the largest and most successful sales organiza- tions in America. It operates about two hundred and fifty local branch houses, each running its own ledger with an average six hundred accounts. It was proposed that, from the main office, a trade promotion department should cover every ledger in the country. A bright young man who had graduated from the ranks of the stenographers was placed in charge. He was not by any means a big or expensive man. He was faithful, careful, and persistent. He used from two to three stenog- raphers only, covered the United States, and accomplished big results. The traveling auditors handled the trade promotion data. This was on sheets similar to those mentioned above. They used these about every other audit, which means that about once in five months they secured the trade promotion information. All the names on the ledger arc placed on the sheets opposite the twelve columns, because the fiscal year is di- 152 SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT vided into twelve periods. The auditor writes opposite each name the number of goods bought during each period since the last time that he compiled the information. If nothing has been bought, he leaves the name on and shows a blank space. From the main office the trade promotion department sends out the letters, signing them in longhand merely with the name of the company. Imitation t3q3ewritten letters are used and the salutation is matched in. It is a fact that the receipt of these letters from the main office in many cases flatters the recipient. He has bought in the past from the branch house, but he has probably known only a salesman. His business may not be very big, but he realizes for the first time that, miles away at the home office, the company has noticed that he failed to buy for a month or two. Once when I was the local manager for a large concern a letter similar to this was sent out from the main office to a small German merchant. I shall never forget the enthu- siasm which he displayed in coming to me and telling me about this matter. He was not buying of us chiefly because he could not pay his bills as promptly as we would require, and our local credit man was obliged to be short with him. He told me that he answered the letter and told the company that it was not because he did not like me, or that he did not want to buy through me. The result was that we were able to sell this man in a limited way and secure our money promptly. Under the system described, if no answer is received, the department mails out a second and third letter. They are able to secure answers from a large percentage. Then the answers, or synopsis of them, are mailed to the local manager vnih a request that he straighten out whatever needs attention. Finally, after the manager has reported, TRADE PROMOTION DEPARTMENT 153 a summary is mailed to the territory superintendent. Many loose strings are discovered and tied. I recollect an instance in my own work while I was general sales manager that considerable correspondence was sent to me about a case in a Massachusetts city. A merchant in that city had written that our local men were not cour- teous. He said that they had insulted his son. I wrote the man a tactful note, stating that I wished to meet him the next time I was in the city. I told him that I had instructed our local manager to call in the meantime and talk it over with him. As a matter of fact, the local manager fixed the matter up. Even so, in a few weeks I was in the city and I met the man. The whole affair was simple, but he had been genuinely mad. He had ordered a small amount of goods late one afternoon. Our deliveries had stopped and our wagons were all out. One of the merchant's own wagons happened to be within a few doors of our place and our shipping clerk bundled up the order and placed it in the merchant's wagon, which was in charge of his son. Probably the son and our shipper had passed a few words, and, as a result, the man had stopped buying. But by a little system worked thousands of miles away something had been accomplished. We had discovered that the man had stopped buying, that he was angry, that our shipper had used poor judgment, and finally we im- pressed upon the merchant that we wanted to do business with him in the correct way. As a result we secured his business. Under ordinary methods that man might have stayed away several years, if not permanently. This department does other things similar to the work mentioned in this book. When they are working a locality with their trade promotion letters they search the mer- cantile agency book for all possible buyers. They dis- cover many names which are not on the ledger at all. They 154 SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT send lists of these possible buyers to the local manager, co\^ering every city, town, village, or hamlet in his territory. They ask him why these names are not being sold. This develops new accounts. Virtually the territory is gone o\-er with a fine tooth comb. Try this work in the w^ay adapted to your own business. Install a modest trade promotion department and see the results. The Salesman's Expense Account Chapter XVIII The Salesman's Expense Account EXPENSE accounts have much to do with sales efficiency because sales efficiency is measured by cost-to-sell, and the expense account enters into it largely. As a rule, the troubles with expense accounts occur because the salesmen are not properly instructed as to what it is proper to call expense. A definite set of rules as to the poUcy of the house should be made. The salesmen should know and understand these. It isn't necessary to tell here what the legitimate traveling expenses for each line of business should be. A few general ideas may be of value. In the first place, a salesman should have a city or town which is called his headquarters. This may or may not be the same city as the office to which he reports. When he is at his headquarters he is supposed to board and house himself. On this account good judgment in selecting head- quarters will effect large economy and at the same time make living pleasanter for a salesman. If a man covers a territory which is some distance from the main office, and reports to this main office only once a month or once a week, it will be much better to give that man a headquarters in the center of his territory. It is at this point that he should have his home. Then he would ISS SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT be home more nights than if he lived in the city occupied by the main office. Moreover, the cost of having him report to the office at stated periods will be less than the amount sa\-ed. In numerous cases after looking over a salesman's terri- tory and talking with him I have changed his headquarters to advantage. I have even paid the expenses of moving his family and have saved this extra cost in a few months. Whenever a salesman's cost-to-sell is too high, it is my practise to look into this matter of headquarters most carefully. When a man is away from his headquarters, the firm pays for his meals. If he is away over night, it pays for his room. Of course it pays his traveling expenses or railroad fare. The question of what should be done on car fares, bus hire, etc., should be gone into carefully and be well under- stood by the salesman and the management. Whether a man should use parlor car seats, compartments in sleeping cars, rooms with bath, expensive hotels, etc., is easily decided by the nature of the business. Then there are incidentals like laundry, cost of traveling bags, etc., which can be settled once for all. These points ought to be incorporated in the rules at the outset. Many unpleasant misunderstandings will be avoided if the house clearly defines its policy. I ad\'ocate placing one person nominally in charge of the expense accounts. He should figure at least as being the one who is responsible for all rulings on such matters. He may consult his chief over certain salesmen, but he is the one who really appears at least to finally settle such matters. The method employed by one large corporation is an excellent one. They have a Travelers' Expense Depart- ment which is in charge of a competent man. This man issues all the funds used for expenses, no matter SALESMAN'S EXPENSE ACCOUNTS 159 who the traveler is. Everybody who needs expense money goes to him. Even if the head of the concern himself were to take a business trip, he would call on this man for funds and would account to him at the end of the month for these funds. Once each month the department mails one of its own expense books to every traveling man. This is accompanied by a letter of credit for about the amount the salesman will need. Because this concern is very large and has numerous branches the salesman easily draws money with his letter of credit as he needs it. The proposition would be just the same if he were mailed a check. Of course in the case of this big corporation they save the use of an enormous amount of money by giving the traveling man a letter of credit to be drawn as he needs it. Should the salesman need more money than has been provided by the department, he is supposed to call for it in arhple time. He is told in the rules that he is expected to foresee this and not to telegraph for money except at his own expense. At the end of each month the salesman makes up his expense account. In the meantime the money for the following month and a new expense book has been sent him. If the salesman has drawn more money than he used, he encloses his check for the balance. If he has spent more money than he has drawn, the department sends liim a check to balance as soon as the monthly account is received. It is not necessary for the salesman to have money due him, because he should foresee before the end of the fiscal period what money he requires. In the case of a traveling man working under a local manager he turns over his expense account to that manager. His chief looks it over and approves it. Then he mails it to the department in the main office. i6o SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT One page taken from daily expense book. Also a double page taken from monthly expense book. If the traveling man has no local chief to whom he reports, he mails it direct to the department. For this purpose he uses a special heavy envelope which is sent to him monthly by the department. SALESMAN'S EXPENSE ACCOUNTS i6i 1 Form SOS A 4M 6 weeks 10 H U 196086 pp4 | File No._ Letter of Credit No No. of Days . TRAVELING EXPENSE STATEMENT OF Name Employed as Headquarters Period from To_ SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS. AU choneys drawn on Letters of Credit must be accounted for promptly the last day corered by samei on this form and in accordance with the following instructions: 1, In chargine items in this statement in the railroad column give the points from and to which you travel. 2. Specify in column headed "Car Fares and Livery" lor whicHi service the money was spent. Itemire same day by day. Livery receipts are required lor charges ol ttial nature. Forms for this pur- pose will be supplied from Chicago on application. . 3; In the hotel column, give the name of the town, the name of the hotel and the rate per diem. If jou are stopping on^the European plan, you must specifiy the amount paid for each meal and lodging in the space provided for same on statement {Bkf.. Dm.. Sup.. Ldg., meaning breakfast, dinner, supper nnd lodging). Laundry, shaving, boot-blacking, cigars, and other personal items o( expense are not allowed. No trade expcQSC allowed. 4. When in that city which we have designated as your headquarters, we do not pay your living expense whether at the hotel or elsewhere. 5. Always give as lull an explanation as possible of all iteff where bills ofany nature— not being strictly traveling expense receipted btU must tnT&riablr be attached. 6. L'se miieaee ir» all cases where it costs the same or less than Cash fares, providing you will travel enough on one issue of book to use 500 miles or more in a year. When purchasing mileage charge same in the railroad column at lull purchase price; the same as for any other expenditure o( money: tbowins the date of purchase, form and number of mUease book, the total mile* and value, thus: "Jan. 10. NYC mileage, fann F.No. 1 1123. 1000 mile*. $20.00." Be aure and give in the column headed "miles" the number of miles used from point to point— for example: " Chicago to Streator, 94 mites: Streator to La Salle, 2(i miles." Report must be made in mileaee summary of the number of miles used out of each book during the period, as well as the number ofmiles on hand in each book at the end of the period. This information is very important for our records at this end. The total miles used as shown from point to point must agree will) the total miles used as shown in the mileage summary. The traveler will be expected to see that the mileage balances in this way before the state- ment leaves his hands or explain discrepancies. Receipts for mileage purchased must accompany expense statements. 7. Mileage Ticket coTert on which there i« a rebate, should be returnAd to the L*ttars of Oedit Department, Chicago, for collection, by registered mail. 8. Telearapbing for remittances will be at your own expense. Travelers must ndt carry un* necessarily l^irge amounts ot our money wiili tht-m. Draw only in sufficient amounts to cover your immediate wants. 9. We are not to be put to anv extra expense for compartment cars for night travel, or chatr can* (or day travel. Pullman receipts required. 10. Branch House manager's approval required on statements of men working under his jurisdic- tion. The manager should satisfy himself that every item charged by the salesman is correct before he approves statements. Before the Branch House cashier's approval is placed on statement he must verify the salesman's mileage report by actual examination of^ mileage books. The cashier must see that all footings and extensions on statements turned in by him are O. K. "Instructions as to the gen- eral form and make up of expense statements to new Branch House salesmen should be given by Branch House officials. ^ 11. Hat the end of the period, more monev has been spent tl an dr.iwn. draw for the amount to b.Tlance the account, providing the Letter of Credit will allow '^r same. Do not require us to send small checks to balance out statements. 12. In remitting unexpended balances don't send coin or currency. Send check, New York draft or postal ordtT. pra\v checks and drafts to the iirder of the Company, not to individuals. Expens* uled promptly on the lait day of tlie period, and b« accOBipanied by Letter ceipts and remittance to balance. Front page of monthly expense statement with special instructions. J i62 SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT In the end, all of the expense accounts for the company reach the desk of the expense account department manager. Some have the OK of the local manager and some have not. In either case the department checks up very carefully. The manager asks questions if he sees fit. He investigates whatever he pleases. It is a fact, however, that very few or no questions are required of a man who is honest and systematic. It is true that questions will be asked of what might be called an "expense account piker." Sooner or later this t}^e, if he is doing the wrong thing, will be called to account. There are many details in this work which can be used where they seem necessary. For instance, it is often a good thing to make men use mileage books and give an account of the condition of these books each month. I have seen some startling cases run down on this mileage book rule. It is strange, but some men are weak and they will do peculiar things. The sooner you find out this t^pe of man the better. The traveling men are pro\'ided ■v\ith a small pocket expense book in which they can keep their expenses and from which they are copied into the form that is mailed in at the end of the period. ,An illustration is given of the daily book. Also the front page of the expense statement is shown. Note the special instructions which are printed on it. I know that the department described above has saved vast sums of money. IMoreover, it has cut out a lot of unnecessary friction and hard feelings. When it was first installed it created a little disturbance, but as soon as everybody knew what was expected there was little trouble except where trouble should be found. Standardizing the Salesman'* s Arguments or Sales Talks Chapter XIX Standardizing the Salesman* s Arguments or Sales Talks ONE of the first principles of Scientific Management provides scientific methods in place of rule-of- thumb methods for each element, of the workman's work. You have read that before instalhng Scientific Management in different industries, the motions and meth- ods of the workmen have been studied. It is well illus- trated by the experiments in bricklaying. Scientific Sales Management also provides for a careful study of the salesman's individual efforts. Beyond any question, in every sales proposition the individual work of the salesman can be improved. Many may think that to tell a salesman always to answer an objection in a certain way will make a wooden man of the salesman. There are few really great sales organizations in America which have not standardized the salesman's individual work. They have told him how to handle him- self when he is alone in the field. • The famous Primer of the National Cash Register Com- pany was based on the motto: "What is good for one is good for all." Why should we be content to let every sales- man think out his own talk when we can combine the wisdom of all with the best ideas of the management? Why shouldn't these ideas through frequent councils, correspondence, etc., be boiled down into the one best way? Why shouldn't i66 SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT the sales manager or somebody employed by him go out witli salesmen and observe their methods of working, in exactly the same way as the man installing Scientific Man- agement in a shop watches with a stop watch in his hand the motions of the workmen? Finally, why shouldn't the results of this interchange of ideas, of observation, be assembled in a permanent form for future use? Surely there is one best way to answer every question. The problem is to find that best way. To every sales proposition there are certain objections which the salesman almost invariably hears. For instance, in some propositions the customer answers in the majority of cases: "I cannot afford it." There are probably a hundred ways that this objection might be answered. But why not consider these hundred ways and select the two or three best ones for thcuse of present and future salesmen? Why not hand your new salesman this information at the beginning of his work and insist that he learn these things before he starts? Under the old type of sales management the beginner has gone out into the field, has heard the objections put up to him, and has had to exercise his own ingenuity to answer them. Unfortunately for him and for his employer the answers which he has given have not been the best. That is probably the reason why for a long while he has been inefficient as a salesman. It takes him a long time to think out or find out the best ways to meet the objections. It takes him a long time to think out the best affirmative points to present on his proposition. It is so in my present business. I find that at least three or four objections are made at ninety-nine interviews out of one hundred.' Why shouldn't these objections be con- sidered in advance, discussed at a council of salesmen, and the ways to answer them considered? Why not finally STANDARDIZING SALES ARGUMENTS 167 select the best answers and keep these in permanent form for the use of the entire force? Many successful sales managers and salesmen will scoff at such an idea. Yet the history and experience of the really successful big sales propositions of America prove that this method produces the biggest results. One of the most interesting articles on securing sales efhciency appeared in Printer^ s Ink inigii. Mr. E. D. Gibbs contributed a series of articles entitled: "How N. C. R. Gets One Hundred Per Cent Efficiency Out of Its Men." These articles are based on the actual experience which Mr. Gibbs had when he was the trainer of salesmen for the National Cash Register Company. There are three things which the National Cash Register Company has instituted in connection with their sales department which have been wonderfully successful. They are the Primer, the Training Schools for Salesmen, and the Manual which they now use. In another chapter the value of councils and meetings has been mentioned. Personally, I feel that nothing has been more responsible for the success of my own sales work than these meetings. One reason is because they have produced a certain standardization of the salesman's indi- vidual methods. So Mr. Gibbs describes the meetings which Mr. Patterson and himself held in 1892 with various groups of salesmen. He states that in the Spring of 1893 he and Mr. Patterson visited fifty towns in fifty-one days, holding a meeting in each town. These meetings secured results and also revealed to Mr. Patterson many interesting things as to the efl&ciency or rather the lack of efficiency in the sales force. This company started its schools for training salesmen about the time of the World's Fair at Chicago. They had a number of exhibits at the Fair. The President used to i68 SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT stand around and listen to the explanation of the Register as made by the different attendants. He was clearly dis- satisfied with the way this was done. There was no system in the way the men worked. No two of them said the same thing. Accordingly Mr. Patterson formed a little night school at Chicago. At this school the men were instructed as to how to demonstrate the Register. A little book or Primer was printed, and the men were compelled to learn its contents. The results of this early work in training schools were remarkable. The exhibits were crowded and the men described the machines in an interesting way. Before, the talk of the demonstrator had been left to chance. As he told the same story from day to day, he was very apt to omit many of the essential things. After the school was organized and the Primer was printed, nothing was omitted from the arguments. The demonstrators were obliged to cover the ground. Since then there has been much said and heard of this training school of the National Cash Register Company. In nearly every city of the United States you wiU find an efficient representative of that company who has attended a six weeks course at one of their schools. Any sales manager who is interested would do well to look up such a man and have a talk with him as to the training which he has had in connection with these schools. It was about this time that they started their now famous Primer. The reason for the Primer was the desire to collect the ideas of all the different salesmen so that the indi\adual salesman might have the benefit of the thoughts of many. These arguments were collected, boiled down, and put into Primer form. It was not easy at first to make the men memorize or STANDARDIZING SALES ARGUMENTS 169 learn the contents of this Primer. At the beginning a re- quest was issued that the men memorize the contents. Later investigation revealed the fact that very few had done so. Then instructions were issued. At the end it took quite a number of orders, followed by examinations, before the result was secured. Nevertheless, Mr. Gibbs makes the statement without any hesitation that no single thing of which he knows helped the sales of these Registers more than the learning of that Primer. Later, instead of the Primer, the Company's Manual, as they now use it, was pubhshed. This was virtually a com- plete book of instructions for the Cash Register salesmen. It has been printed in numerous editions and in various sizes. Every bit of information which could be required by a man who desired to sell Cash Registers is to be found in it. The book is divided into four parts; namely: Salesman- ship, Approach, Demonstration, and Closing Arguments. I do not know whether it is possible to secure a copy of this Manual, but a sales manager might study it with profit. Objections like the following appear in the Manual: "I do not need one in my business." "I cannot spare the money." "My present system is satisfactory." "It is not suited to my business." Think of the difference between sending a salesman out to answer these objections as best he can and giving him a good solid six to ten weeks training in learning how to answer such objections. I wish there were room here to give some of the answers to the objections. There are many good practical sug- gestions on telling the salesman how to act under certain conditions. He is told how to handle the prospect; he is given a lot of excellent ideas on salesmanship in general. I70 SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT A very interesting page is one containing fifty Don'ts. If any sales manager doubts the thoroughness with which these men have been trained, if he doubts whether or not these men beheve in and practise the principles laid down in the Manual, let him try to buy a Cash Register at one of their offices. Let him have a machine demon- strated to him and see how the salesman handles himself. Another very interesting book of the same sort has been issued by the International Correspondence School of Scranton, Pa. The name of their book is: "Common Objections and Questions Answered." This really wonder- ful organization at Scranton has standardized its salesmen's methods to a remarkable degree. There are many people who probably do not realize the enormous business which this concern does. They are rapidly coming to a point, if they have not already arrived there, where it is safe to say that they have more influence on the educational problems of the country than any one institution. This book tells the canvasser what he should say in answer to objections. It also gives many affirmative points. The salesman is obliged to learn these things and to pass an examination before he is allowed to soHcit business. Perhaps one of the points where salesmen fall down the most is at the closing, and it is interesting to see in this book the numerous answers to certain excuses. Some of the excuses listed with answers are: "Hasn't time." "Can't afford it." "Will see." "Too warm to study." "Too old." "Has been out of school too long." "Too young." "Knows some unsuccessful student," etc., etc. STANDARDIZING SALES ARGUMENTS 171 All large concerns should have a book or manual on this principle. Some lines of business do not require specific instructions for salesmen — others do. I do not think that there is any business employing salesmen, the results of which could not be improved by having some sort of a book or manual of instructions. Of course a small concern need not have a printed book, but the matter should be put into some permanent form, possibly on typewritten sheets. The best thought of all the salesmen and of the management should be collected and recorded for the use of present and future men. The recent great campaign of Proctor & Gamble, who introduced and sold Crisco through grocers, gives an example of standardized methods of selling. There are many differ- ent sorts of salesmen's work in this proposition. I will explain only the work of the demonstrators who called from house to house. There was an exceedingly well con- ceived and successful sales plan beneath the use of these house to house demonstrators which need not be explained here. It was necessary for a salesman to show Crisco to the housekeeper. The men employed were all a certain type. No booksellers, broken down canvassers, or failures were taken on. Such places as local Y. M. C. A.'s, etc., were searched for young men who had never done any canvassing. These young men were obliged to be clean-shaven and to wear clean linen. They were carefully coached in their talk beforehand by the field superintendent. The canvasser knocked at the door of the house. When the door was opened, the canvasser immediately removed his hat, placing it on the floor of the piazza or on the rail if one were handy. Using a set phrase such as: "Madam, I am here to show you Crisco, the new shortening," he offered her with his two hands a pail of Crisco. At the 172 SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT same instant he tore from the pail the parchment paper wrapper which enclosed it, removed the cover, and handed it to her exposed. There is a delicate little touch in this of apparently spoiling a package to show it to the prospect. I might say that these pails were being rewrapped in parch- ment as needed, outside in the foreman's wagon. The instant that the woman took the pail from the canvasser's hands he drew a pencil from one pocket and held it in his right hand. At the same time, he drew from another pocket a coupon which he held in his left hand. This was done so that the woman could not hand back the pail to the canvasser. The most she could do was to drop or place it on the floor. Then the conversation started. There are a lot of interesting reasons why the dialogue that followed was used. It is a fact that the Crisco people were able as a result of the experiments which they made and of the standardizing of their talk to compute with almost absolute accuracy beforehand the results of canvassers' calls. It would be a breach of confidence for me to give here these statistics, but to an almost accurate degree they have figured and substantiated it by results the percentage of people that would be out between the hours of eight and five, the number called upon per hundred who would buy an article costing 25 cents, 35 cents, 50 cents, etc. In this way they know beforehand just what amount of goods may be placed in a town by these canvassers. Another large concern recently introduced a preparation that has to do -^-ith the softening of water. They sent their salesmen into a city to sell these goods to the grocer. These salesmen were very carefully instructed as to how to sell the water softener. The idea was to have the grocer respond to any inquiry for a water softener by naming their particu- lar product. About a month after this work had been done STANDARDIZING SALES ARGUMENTS 173 in a city of 125,000, the advertising manager and two others went to that city and made inquiries of about fifty grocers, asking the same question of each grocer. The way the grocer was approached was with a question about Hke this: "What can I buy to soften water?" The figures showed that out of fifty grocers called upon, all but six gave the name of this new softener. Then the advertising manager felt that his work was being done as he wanted it and he felt justified in beginning to advertise the product in that city, knowing that if the grocers had inquiries they would answer in the proper way. This no doubt was due to the way in wliich the manufacturer's salesmen talked to the grocer. The sales manager can see that there is a tremendous room for him in this fine of work. He can improve the efficiency of his sales force most wonderfvilly by proper work along these lines. Test it out, Mr. Sales Manager, in a small way. For instance, find out from all your sales- men what is the real reason, as they will give it to you, why a man does not really buy some particular article from them. Suppose you are selling an ofi&ce device, ask each of your men what in his opinion is the real reason why he fails to secure an order every time. The reasons given may be that the customer cannot afford it, or thinks he cannot afford it, or that he has no use for the article, etc., etc. Take up any one of these objec- tions, particularly the thing which the majority of the men say is the real reason for not closing a sale. Ask for the arguments as given by all the salesmen to meet this objec- tion. Then assemble these and select the best answers. Now insist that every salesman use this best answer for this objection. Then go through all other points of objections until you have good arguments to answer them. Study the points in favor of the macliine. Observe the 174 SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT methods employed in selling by your salesmen. Invite suggestions from them. Ask them for any particular happy phrase or ways of putting up the story which they have noticed has been effective. As a salesman, I have often stumbled on to something which apparently took very well with the trade and then have used it for a long time. Try to locate these things and assemble them. Having assembled all these different things, put them in permanent form and pass them along to your entire force. Go further than that. If you are satisfied that they are good, insist that the men learn them and use them. Make them pass examinations, if necessary, on such points. Many manufacturers say that if they could control the talk which the retail clerks employ when selling their goods, they would largely increase their sales. At nearly every conference of salesmen that I have attended, some salesman states that if we could secure the intelligent co-operation of the retail clerks the results would be much better. So the question of the manufacturer who sells goods through retail clerks often is: "How shall I educate the clerk behind the counter to sell my goods?" One little plan which I have employed and which admits of great expansion is this: Advertise to the retail trade in various ways, probably by mail pieces and through a house organ, or in any other way that suggests itself, that you will give a series of prizes to the retail clerk who writes the best five hundred word story on how to sell your goods. It does not make much difference what you manufacture, provided it is something to be sold by the retailer. You may be the manufacturer of a corset or of a prepared dessert. Reach the clerk through the mail pieces to the retail firm and in other ways. Tell him that you will give a series of prizes to the person employed in his store where your goods STANDARDIZING SALES ARGUMENTS 175 are sold who writes the best story, telling how he sells your goods or would sell your goods if he had a chance. Announce that the best ten stories will be published and that you will give ten prizes for these ten stories. State that the announcement of the prizes and copies of the win- ning stories will be mailed to every contestant or to any other clerk who will ask for it. Lay a good deal of stress on the value of this booklet, telling how many interesting things it will have in it, so that you will have many inquiries for the booklet. Now when the answers are all in and the prize winners have been selected, put your ten stories in booklet form. Of course, these stories themselves will be excellent arguments which other clerks can use. In addition to that you should have a number of pages giving ideas on selling your goods, hints for displaying them, suggestions for price tickets, etc., etc. You can see that you have not only secured from retail clerks many ideas, but you have had a chance to distribute to these clerks your best ideas as to how to talk up your goods. To make this thing a success, the manufacturer ought to advertise the contest quite liberally. You must spend time and money making the contest well known. There is no reason at all why the sales talk and the indi- vidual methods of salesmen in retail stores should not be standardized by the proprietor. Surely there is an atmos- sphere about the big successful retail stores which is due to some personal force behind it. The clerks of the United Cigar Stores do not forget to say "Thank you." The reason for this is that they have been trained to say it and are made to say it. One day the president of the United Cigar Stores sent a telegraph message to every clerk em- ployed in the stores which read: "Did you forget to say 'Thank you ' today?" It isn't only the saying of "Thank 176 SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT you" that has made the United Cigar Stores a success, but it is carrying out all the other details to the same degree of efficiency. Any proprietor, whether he owns one store or one hundred, can educate his salesmen to do their work in the one best way. 'The Comparative Feature in Sales Management chapter XX The Comparative Feature in Sales Management THE use of the comparative feature in sales manage- ment is a great thing. Its value must not be over- looked. Comparisons should be secured in every possible sort of way and for various periods. The satisfaction of accomplishing the Set Task as shown in Scientific Management is secured in a similar way by comparison. Comparisons are a great spur to increase efficiency. It is very important for successful sales management that the records be kept thoroughly up to date. A proper system of sales records should be right up to the minute. Post mortems do not amount to much if they are held a long time after the occurrence. Obituaries deal only with dead ones, and the sales manager should not read obitu- aries. He should have a thoroughly live record of sales kept ready by clerks for daily reference. When the clocks strike the closing hour of any definite period, then at that moment the sales manager should know what has been accomplished. Many of the failures in all kinds of com- mercial enterprises would have been avoided if the records had been up to date. If you are thoroughly in earnest about being a successful sales manager and in following the principles of Scientific Sales Management, be sure your records are kept not only complete, but that they are ready on time. iSo SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT There are six foundries doing business in the eastern part of the country which have uniform accounting methods. The results of these different plants are compared in numer- ous ways every month. There is a stimulation afforded by these comparisons. A certain group of department stores, each doing business in a different city and not competitive, have found such good results from uniform accounting methods and the information which comes from comparisons that they jointly employ an accountant who collects the monthly reports in details from these stores. He makes comparisons by items and supplies the management of each store with the data. For instance, one manager finds that Department A in his store did $50,000 worth of business in the preceding month, has $35,000 worth of stock on hand, and is shown in detail what the labor and other expense items of that store were. He sees that another store did $55,000 worth of business in Department A and had a stock of but $10,000. Such records help the sales manager. They brace him up. It's the competition which he needs. He is playing the game. He knows how much he must do to win. Then he passes statistics of interest to his men and they are helped. They are in a game. And the more complete and minute you make these sales records, the more interesting will be the game. Don't accept aggregate figures; that is, simply totals of sales. If you sell only three things, know the sales in a comparative w^ay for each one. If 5'ou have fifty sales departments, know the totals of each. Don't stop with sales. Know the comparative results of discounts allowed for various causes. Know traveUng ex- penses for every man in a comparative way. Know each man's cost-to-sell and see it compared with that of the other men and compared with his ow^n of a year ago. USE OF COMPARISONS i8i Know, know, insist on accurate information. Cut out guesswork. Soon you will have your men keenly interested, striving intelligently, moving and arriving. Play the game intelligently. It pays. It's the knowledge of what can be done and is being done which stimulates men to do what they might otherwise consider impossible. I beUeve in dividing the year into uniform periods. Com- parisons year by year, if compiled by calendar months, are of little value. This is because of the variance. Some months have an extra pay day, which destroys the value of figures for comparison to sell, etc. True this can be adjusted, but the practise of the firms who are doing big things in selling is to divide the year into fiscal periods. One concern divides the year into twelve periods, of which the first and seventh periods have six weeks each and the other ten have four weeks each. Another concern uses thirteen periods of four weeks each. By this method you can run valuable sales comparisons. Do not be satisfied with period showings. Each week have your reports show comparisons with the same week of one year and two years before. In compiUng comparative figures, it is well not to be governed too much by figures which show only money value. It is well to show tonnage or units also. If you are selling cases of canned goods, show the number of cases for the periods which you are comparing. If you are selling cloth, show the number of yards for the period. If you are selling coal, show the number of tons sold. In addition, of course, you would show the total value in money. Fluc- tuations in the market will injure the value of your com- parisons if you depend entirely on money figures. The illustration shows a comparative report for one week covering about twenty-five different departments. lS2 SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT COMPARATIVE STATEMENT nnn' K H""*' "' l^Turtn, Ohin. , ., _. W«-te ivrinil »n.1,n« SBnt.BmhBr afif.h 1«_2 II "" -rt^s VEIAH 1 """^ 1 * U~T "•"^ wE«mr 1 ^-lourt 1 72 5 49 * 142 136 945 S 582 12 541 43 92 65 67 7 L56 46 6 130 390 39G 3 865 37 720 35 05 44 5 12 540 698 fl09 }■ 45 74 473 90 08 03 11 1 10 210 545 229 ; lUb 92 B78 90 65 62 272 603 19 64 04 27 87 907 9 81 78 63 1 7 B 885 229 448 161 578 337 42 32 92 2 e 421 957 576 217 660 25 89 91 92 12 000 960 00 15 000 1 iOO 00 600 72 00 900 2 108 GO 16 7 135 606 354 2 10 36 209 80 36 20 1 24 360 f44 95 59 40 20 84 37 10 6 29 75 39 19 6 1 29 04 2 240 743 14 301 40 73 1 48 739 3 226 84 07 4 358 695 620 62 12 47 2 527 535 2 379 590 05 96 16 80 24 1 20 8 756 400 46 168 36 00 ^ 633 645 97 12 98 90 8 35 12 54 124 863 11 386 60 235 899 11 882 60 TONNAGE MONEY I49&.C0 IlOUU _— WEEKLY COMPARATI\'E STATEMENT WITH NAMES OF PRODUCTS OMITTED Then at the end of each period show the same thing for the period of the current year and the preceding years. It is not difficult to secure this. It means, chiefly, setting out to do it — starting. In a few years you will have statistics of great value. A Campaign Featuring the Manager or Salesman chapter XXI A Campaign Featuring the Manager or Salesman SOMETIMES, in co-operative mail work, it is well to feature the manager or salesman. Salesmen, of course, do this themselves, but bigger and quicker results can be obtained if it is handled for them by the management. Secure a Hst of each salesman's possible customers. To these names send letters signed with the salesman's name, telling about the product, its merit, etc. State that the writer desires to make a good showing on sales. Ask the customer if he is wiUing to give him an order, etc. If it seems best, 3'ou can have the stationery printed with the salesman's name on it. Use the personal pronoun just as though the salesman were writing the letter. I have used this with great effect. It has pleased the salesman and brought surprising results from the trade. Once I desired to increase the business of a certain product which was one of a line of a hundred other tilings. To sell the product in the form which we desired, a merchant had to own a certain machine for dispensing it. About one in ten had these machines, the others selling the product in a different form. We were not securing the business from these machine owners. About ninety per cent of their business went to one firm who specialized on this product. I decided to go after this business, using for distribution twelve different branch houses covering the territory. iS6 SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT Accordin<;ly I sent a bullelin to each salesman, giving him two weeks in wliich to collect the names of the merchants on his territory who owned the machines. He didn't have to ask. All he had to do was to look when he called on a merchant. In two weeks I had a list of about two thousand names. This then w^as my field. I had all the possibilities and it w-as up to me to secure the business. I asked every manager to send me a supply of his branch house letter paper. Si.x mail pieces were prepared. Four were printed folders carrying reply postals. Two were letters with the salutation matched in and signed with the signature of the local manager. These letters were written in the first person. Room was provided at the bottom for the merchant to write an order. The first letter had such phrases as "I am sending you this personal letter because it is up to me to increase the business at my branch house." In the second letter was this paragraph: "I am sending you this personal letter, asldng you to favor me, if you possibly can. We are trying to break the record at our branch house on sales during these two weeks. All the managers in this vicinity are doing the same thing. Nat- urally I am anxious to have my house show up well, because these sales are to be tabulated and sent to headquarters." Full details of this plan were sent to each salesman, and at the same time that the advertising was going out, the salesmen were \'igorously soliciting business. Weekly com- parative bulletins were mailed to them. Did we secure a response? We secured a big one. I heard of scores of instances of tangible results from these personal letters. One manager said that a customer who bought other products, but not this particular thing, tele- phoned the morning after the letter was mailed, saying that he had received the letter and that he was very glad to give FEATURING 187 the manager the business. This man telephoned from a suburb into town just to give him that message and not to order anything else. You might ask why I didn't make this manager solicit the business in the first place. There were so many other more important things to do that the manager hadn't done it. The tonnage on this particular product was small, and while it might have been his intention to ask every one of his customers to buy, he wasn't doing it. My letters in- sured everyone being asked to buy. It did the missionary work for the manager. The competitor mentioned above was so sore that he wrote to our headquarters saying that I was unfair. He said that I had gone out of my way asking for business in this line and had selected only his customers for my work. He overlooked the fact that I had selected all the possi- bilities; namely, the owners of machines. Of course, there are dangers in featuring the salesmen too much. I do not believe that it is a good plan to have orders mailed regularly to individual salesmen. I don't believe it is a good plan for salesmen to encourage the trade in always sending orders direct to them. Elbert Hubbard in a recent article on co-operation says: In an enterprise that amounts to anything, all transactions should be in the name of the firm, because the firm is more than any person con- nected with it. Clerks or salesmen who have private letter heads and ask customers to send letters to them personally are on the wrong track. To lose your identity in the business is one of the penalties of working for a great institution. Don't protest — it is no new thing — -all big concerns are confronted by the same situations. Get in line; it is a necessity. If you want to do business individually and in your own name, stay in the country or do business for yourself. Peanut stands are individ- ualistic. When the peanut man goes the stand also croaks. Successful corporations are something else. iSS SCIENTIFIC S.\LES MANAGEMENT Of course, the excuse is, if you send me the order direct, I, knowing you and your needs, can take much better care of your wants than that disputed and intangible thing "the house." Besides, sending it through the circumlocution olVice takes time. There is something more to say. First, long experience has shown that the "saving of time" is exceedingly problematical. For, while in some instances a rush order can be gotten ofif the same night by sending it to an individual, yet when your individual has gone fishing, is at the ball game, or is sick, or else has given up his job and gone with the oppo- sition house, there are great and vexatious delays, dire confusions, and a great strain of vocabularies. Notwithstanding these facts, I am of the opinion that the personal element can be often introduced with profit. At any rate, it is worth trying. Applying Scientific Sales Man- agement to a Retail Business Chapter XXII Applying Scientific Sales Man- agement to a Retail Business MOST of the ideas in this book have dealt with the business of the manufacturer and jobber. Never- theless, the principles may be as easily and com- paratively as profitably applied to a retail business. Under the old method of employing salesmen for a grocery, laundry, or bakery, a young man is employed as a soHcitor and is told or expected to secure customers. He has what is generally known as his route. My observation of this method is that his work is done in a somewhat scattering way. He has customers in various parts of the town and does not concentrate on any particular section. The head of the firm does not, except to a very slight degree, lay out his movements. Let us see if we cannot apply the principles of Scientific Sales Management to this salesman. We will proceed along the same lines as have been mentioned in other chapters. For one thing wc will employ a central planning department. In other words, we will divide the responsibihty of securing the business more evenly between the salesmen and the management. The superintendent, who is in all probability the head of the concern, will arrange to have a list made of all the possible buyers of his goods in certain communities. The use of the tax list or voters' list is a good basis for compiling neighborhood lists. 192 SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT This list sliould be made up geographically so that the names of people li\ing together will be grouped. Let us assume that he succeeds in making up a list of two thou- sand people who are possible buyers of liis goods. Let him have a sufBcient number of boys or salesmen to cover these two thousand people. To carry out the idea of specializing, or, as is used in Scientific Management, to give the workmen the services of a functional foreman, it might be well to have one man whose sole duty is to call on new people. He would be the specialist. After he has started an account, then a regular salesman could call. Now, instead of sending out the salesman at the begin- ning, expecting them to do all the missionary work, suppose the proprietor makes up from three to six letters, or two letters and four maiHng pieces. The first letter goes out as a sort of an introduction asking for permission to have a man call, or soliciting an order, etc. Then perhaps four folders go out telling about the dififerent things carried by the merchant, in some cases giving definite prices. Finally a sixth piece, which will consist of a letter, goes out, en- closing a post card and asking readers to reply whether or not there is any chance of their being interested, whether they care to continue receiving the mail pieces, etc. Of course these mail pieces must say something or they will not be read. A retail merchant can tell some very interesting things about his business. He should talk naturally. He should give the news of his store. In my own town one of the most interesting things that go through the mails is a bulletin issued by a retail grocer. Practically everybody reads everything that this man prints. In the meantime, inquiries have come in. Perhaps only twenty came in from the first piece — perhaps one hundred came in. These inquiries should be turned over to the APPLIED TO THE RETAIL BUSINESS 193 salesmen. The salesmen will call on these prospects and endeavor to turn them into regular customers. The merchant generally thinks, when considering a plan of tliis sort, that he cannot afford to do it, but let us consider the expense and the probable income, applying the problem in this case to a retail grocer. Suppose the retail grocer mails out six pieces of this sort. This will cost him 25 cents per name, or for one hundred people, $25. What would be the amount of groceries and meat bought by an average family? Surely $7 per week is not too high, in which case it means that an average customer secured would buy $350 worth in a year. The grocer's profits are about twenty per cent on an average customer. Therefore, on an average customer he would make $70. If these figures are approximately correct, the grocer would secure his publicity and salesmen co-operation for nothing if he secured an average customer out of every three hundred people to whom he mailed these pieces. Out of the two thousand names he would have to secure about seven regular customers to pay for his adver- tising. Assuming that he secured these, he would have the advantage of the inquiries which were left over, these ha\'ing cost him nothing. In addition he would have the advantage of having gone to two thousand people six times without cost. It is with this latter class that we now have to deal. He should instruct his best canvasser to call on these people, hand him the mailing list which is arranged geographically, and see to it that this man makes a call on every one of these people within a few weeks after the mailing work has stopped. The retail merchant ought, in my opinion, to have a check on every possible purchaser of his goods. He should have a card index with the name and address of every possibility. He should from time to time look these cards over and insist 194 SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT on knowing from his men why certain people are not buying from liim. So far I have appHed the principles of Scientific Manage- ment only to the matter of securing new customers. There is another phase to the question which is equally if not more important. Why shouldn't the retail merchant send his message at least twelve times per year to two thou- sand or more people in his community? With some of them he may be doing business. With others he may not be doing business, but possibly one of his men calls on them regularly. Why not try to increase the business done with his present customers? Why not try to sell some of the things that provide good profits? Suppose he decides to spend fifty cents per year on each such possibility in his territory. Then he is carrying exactly the message which he wants to carry. He delivers the mes- sage about the things on which he wants to deliver a message. He knows that if he wishes to push a certain brand of tea, he is at least certain to bring it to the attention of his field. Under the old system, by which he depended exclusively on salesmen to carry his message, he was not sure of this. He also knows that his message goes to those to whom he wanted it to go. Under the old system he was never sure that all the calls which he required were being made. Furthermore, an important thing is that he increases the efficiency of his salesmen. These men are being made closers and not missionaries. He, the merchant, or rather the head of the planning department, is constantly bringing to the attention of the reader the merits of the store, the good quality of the goods sold, the prices of certain goods — leaving, for the most part, to the salesman the task of taking orders. A retailer who has a field of about two thousand names might consider the advisability of issuing a small newspaper C ri . Much CourlMy A Tr.idi- Pullei ILLUSTRATIONS OF HOUSE ORGANS ISSUED BY RETAIL MERCHANTS APPLIED TO THE RETAIL BUSINESS 195 or magazine. Nothing in advertising which he could do would serve to create better feehng toward his business on the part of his customers. A retail stationer and ofi5ce outfitter three years ago started a monthly paper. This was only a four sheet one color affair, but during the three years that he has issued it he has seen many e\ddences of tangible results. Several others in the same line of business have issued house organs similar in size and shape to the small magazines Hke The Philistine. On the opposite insert are shown a few examples of this sort of papers. Handling the United States by T'erritories or Zjones Chapter XXIII Handling the United States by Territories or Zjones MANY of the most successful large concerns in this country divide the United States into territories or zones. They handle each zone as a unit. A division superintendent or manager is at the head of each territory. Under him are local managers with their various forces of local salesmen. This is a very useful and economical way to carry on sales over a large area. As a guide to any who may be interested in considering the value of this work, I give below the division of the territory into twenty-four zones as used by a most successful concern. Superintendents' Headquarters, Toledo, Ohio Branch Houses Akron, Ohio Oil City, Pa. Canton, Ohio Parkersburg, Pa. Cincinnati, Ohio Sandusky, Ohio Cleveland, Ohio South Bend, Ind. Columbus, Ohio Toledo, Ohio Erie, Pa. Zanesville, Ohio Jackson, Mich. Detroit, Mich. Kalamazoo, Mich. Main Office, Chicago, III. Handling direct from main office, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Racine, San Francisco, Seallle, and Tacoma. These offices report direct to the home office. 200 SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT superintentjents' headquarters, denver, colo. Branch Houses Billings, Mont. Boise, Idaho Butte, Mont. Colorado Springs, Colo. Deadwood, S. D. Denver, Colo. El Paso, Tex. Great Falls, Mont. Phcenix, Ariz. Portland, Ore. Pueblo, Colo. Salt Lake City, Utah Spokane, Wash. Trinidad, Colo. Superintendents' Headquarters, Portlai^, IVIe. Branch Houses Bangor, Me. Biddeford, Me. Calais, Me. Fitchburg, Mass. Gardiner, Mass. Lewiston, Me. Lowell, Mass. Portland, Me. Waterville, Me. Woodsville, N. H. Superintendents' Headquarters, Memphis, Tenn, Branch Houses Alexandria, La. Baton Rouge, La. Cairo, Mo. Clarksdale, Mo. El Dorado, Ark. Greenville, Tenn. Greenwood, Tenn. Hattiesburg, Miss. Helena, Mont. Hot Springs, Ark. Jackson, Miss. Jackson, Tenn. Lake Pro\adence, La. Little Rock, Ark. Memphis, Tenn. Meridian, Miss. Monroe, Mich. " Natchez, Miss. New Orleans, La. Paducah, Ky. Pine Bluff, Ark. Vicksburg, Miss. Yazoo City, Miss. Nashville, Tenn. Superintendents' Headquarters, St. Louis, Mo. Branch Houses from main office operating in territory adjacent to St. Louis TERRITORIES OR ZONES 201 Superintendents' Headquarters, Richmond, Va. Branch Houses Asheville, N. C. Newport News, Va. Charlotte, N. C. Norfolk, Va. Greensboro, N. C. Wilmington, N. C. Lynchburg, Va. StrPERINTENDENTS' HEADQUARTERS, PeORIA, IlL. Branch Houses Aurora, 111. Johet, 111. Bloomington, 111. La Salle, 111. Cedar Rapids, 111. Lexington, Ky. Danville, 111. Marion, Ind. Davenport, HI. Muncie, Ind. Decatur, 111. Peoria, 111. Dubuque, la. Quincy, 111. Freeport, III. St. Joseph, Mo. Galesburg, 111. Streator, 111. Superintendents' Headquarters, Jacksonville, Fla. Branch Houses Havana, Cuba Tampa, Fla. Jacksonville, Fla. Valdosta, Ga. Key West, Fla. Superintendents' Headquarters, Bristol, Tenn. Branch Houses Bristol, Tenn. Northfork, Ky. Charleston, W. Va. Norton, Va. Huntington, W. Va. Thurmond, W. Va. Knoxville, Tenn. Siiperintendents' Headquarters, Philadelphia, Pa. Branch Houses Alexandria, Va. Philadelphia, Pa. Baltimore, Md. Washington, D. C. Chester, Pa. Wilmington, Del. 202 SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT Superintendents' Headquarters, Albany, N. Y. Branch Houses Albany, N. Y. Amsterdam, N. Y. Auburn, N. Y. Cohoes, N. Y. Faust, N. Y. Glens Falls, N. Y. Gloversville, N. Y. Little Falls, N. Y. Malone, N. Y. North Adams, Mass. Ogdensburg, N. Y. Oswego, N. Y. Plattsburg, N. Y. Rome, N. Y. Saratoga, N. Y. Syracuse, N. Y. Utica, N. Y. Watertown, N. Y. Troy, N. Y. Superintendents' Headquarters, New York Office Branch Houses Elizabeth, N. J. Hackensack, N. J. Kingston, N. Y. Long Branch, L. I. Middletown, N. Y. Mt. HoUy, N. Y. Mt. Vernon, N. Y. New Brunswick, N. J. Newburgh, N. Y. Norwalk, Conn. Ossining, N. Y. New York Office No. Also Newark, Jersey Paterson, N. J. PeekskiU, N. Y. Poughkeepsie, N. Y. Stamford, Conn. Tarry town, N. Y. Trenton, N. J. Yonkers, N. Y. Bridgeport, Conn. Burlington, N. J. Plainfield, N. J. 2. Operating New York sales office City, atid East Orange, N. J. Superintendents' Headquarters, Minneapolis, Minn. Branch Houses Ashland, Minn. Duluth, Minn. Escanaba, Minn. Fargo, N. D. Grand Forks, N. D. Lron Wood, Minn. TERRITORIES OR ZONES 203 Marquette, Minn. Minneapolis, Minn. Merrill, Minn. St. Paul, Minn. SXJPERINTENDENTS' HEADQUARTERS, WlLKES BaREE, Pa. Branch Houses Batavia, N. Y. Nanticoke, N. Y. Binghamton, N. Y. Olean, N. Y. Buffalo, N. Y. Rochester, N. Y. Elrnira, N. Y. Scranton, Pa. Freeland, N. Y. Shenandoah, Pa. Geneva, N. Y. Wilkes Barre, Pa. Lockport, N. Y. Hazelton Pa. Superintendents' Headquarters, Allegheny, Pa. Branch Houses Allegheny, Pa. Pittsburg, Pa. Altoona, Pa. Steubenville, Ohio Beaver Falls, Pa. Uniontovm, Pa. East Liverpool, Ohio Washington, Pa. Grafton, Pa. Youngstown, Ohio Johnstown, Pa. Dubois, Pa. New Castle, Pa. Punxsuta\vney, Pa. Piedmont, W. Va. Ridgway, Pa. Superintendents' Headquarters, Atlanta, Ga. Branch Houses Albany, Ga. Columbus, Ga. Anniston, Ala. Cordele, Ga. Atlanta, Ga. Huntsville, Ala. Augusta, Ga. Macon, Ga. Bessemer, Ala. Mobile, Ala. Birmingham, Ala. Montgomery, Ala. Charleston, S. C. Pensacola, Fla. Chattanooga, Tenn. Savannah, Ga. Columbia, Ala. Selma, Ala. 204 SCIENTIFIC SALES MANAGEMENT Superintendents' Headquarters, Boston, Mass. Branch Houses Boston, Mass. Derby, Conn. Fall River, Mass . Hartford, Conn. Holyoke, Mass. Lynn, Mass. Marlboro, Mass. Meriden, Conn. Milford, Mass. New Bedford, Mass. New Britain, Conn. New Haven, Conn. Newport, R. I. Northampton, Mass. Norwich, Conn. Palmer, Mass. Pawtucket, R. I. Plymouth, Mass. Providence, R. I. Rockville, Conn. S. Framingham, Mass. Springfield, IMass. Waltham, ]SIass. Waterbm-y, Conn. Westboro, Mass. Westerly, R. I. Wobum, Mass. Worcester, Mass. StiTPERINTENDENTS' HEADQUARTERS, Ft. WoRTH, TeXAS CD AmaCUb, Tex. Austiji-J Tex. Beaumont, Tex. Corsicana, Tex. Dallas, Tex. Ft. Smith, Tex. Galveston, Tex. Guthrie, Okla. Houston, Tex. Lake Charles, La. Branch Houses McAlester, Okla. Muskogee, Okla. Oklahoma City, Okla. Paris, Tex. San Antonio, Tex. Sherman, Tex. Shreveport, La. Stamford, Tex. Texarkana, Tex. Waco, Tex. Superintendents' Headquarters, Omaha, Neb. Branch Houses Des Moines, la. Lincoln, Neb. Omaha, Neb. ■)i ;jivsoi^ IJiSjflAiNniW^^ >^OFCALIF0% ^^ yo/:, li IL^ i.i ^WEUNIVERS/^ oslOSANCFlfj> ^ c? ■^/iHaAINflJV^ ,^MEUNIVERS//i ^IDSANCEl^^ ■MSOl^ %jaAINft-3V^^ 1# 0/^ ^lU y ^A — 0/?^ ^OFCAIIFOI?^ n S 5 LllT 33 '^JJUDflVSai'^ %JUAIHfl-3tf^^ ivaaiw^ ^5JAEUNIVER% ^wsMEier^ f ^lOSANCElfx^ ^OFCAIIFO/?^ ^OPCAlIFOftj^, university Ot California, LOS Ang^^^^^^ 007 450 811 ^lllBRARYQ<- o ^ 1 ir" ^ S , I ^^Wf■UNIVm!^. ^ Or '^ o -^tUBRAR' "^uaNysov^"^ <^1««UNIVER%. ^•UBRARYO^ %UAINn-3\ft^ -55^t-UBRARY<7/. m-i^^ \oi\m- iHriiillr ^53i\EUNIVFR% ^IMCE