Someone has said that of the four chief factors which enter a salesman's considerations, he himself comes first, the credit man fourth, and between these two the customer and the house. While it may be doing injustice to the salesman to accept this state ment as invariably true, it is nevertheless a matter of observation that in a large number of instances the salesnian's judgment is not to be fully trusted on ques tions relating to the customer's credit title. It is equally true, however, that the credit man may obtain thru the salesman information of a certain kind not easily obtained from other sources and that such in formation is a valuable supplement to the reports received thru the commercial agencies and other channels.
The information that may rightly be demanded of the salesman he can easily supply from his own ob servation and experience. So long as the salesman is not required to ask questions which would embarrass both him and the customer, it is perfectly proper to make use of his services in the compilation of credit data. The following form has been used in this con nection, the salesman filling out and attaching it to his order sheet.
Whenever conditions seem to warrant it, the credit man may ask for a revised report on the same form, thus keeping his information up to date.
Despite the denial of some credit men, there is no doubt that an observing salesman is in a position to furnish credit information of distinct value. He has the very important advantage of observing the custo mer in his business surroundings and is thereby en abled to draw first-hand conclusions, a privilege that is denied the distant credit man. It is more than probable that many credit men fail to avail them selves as fully as they might of the assistance which the sales department is able in this way to render a lack of sympathetic understanding often blocking the way.
For the existence of such a condition the credit man is as a rule chiefly to blame. It is a mistake to de mand of the salesman that he go prying into the af fairs of the customer as tho he were a mercantile agency reporter or a detective in quest of damaging evidence. The salesman's mission is primarily to sell goods. Any additional function which may conflict with sales is obviously distasteful to him and will not ordinarily be well performed.
There is nothing objectionable, however, in re questing the salesman to keep his eyes and ears open while in the customer's store and to gather all the in , formation he can about the character and volume of the merchant's trade, his sales methods or his store premises. The salesman will often be able, by a
casual question or two directed to the hotel clerk, the livery man or a salesman for another house, to learn a good deal about the merchant's social standing in the community. All information of that sort should be jotted down and forwarded to the credit man without delay.
A salesman's report differing in some respects from the one shown on a former page is reproduced here. This form is employed by a large shoe house in the Southwest and shows what information that house especially desires to obtain thru its salesmen.
11. Traveling credit man.—The practice of em ploying traveling credit representatives arose from the necessity on the part of large houses to obtain direct information about certain classes of accounts which because of their number and magnitude frequently be come not only heavy but doubtful risks. This method of gathering credit information is necessarily expen sive, but the extent and complexity of modern whole sale business seem to demand it more and more, since it is not usually possible for the credit manager to visit far-away customers except in cases of unusual importance.
The function of the traveling credit man may be said to be the complement of that of the traveling salesman. The responsibilities of the position of a traveling credit man call for a man of experience— one who can analyze critically the customer's books, examine his stocks, and if necessary make use of the information obtained from banks, local attorneys and commercial agencies. The visit of such a man is the best substitute for that of the credit manager himself for he brings to the investigation a knowledge of both sides of the situation since he is well acquainted with the details of the local business as well as with the policies of the credit department of his house. He is able to view any disputed point from the standpoint of both the customer and his house and can suggest mutually satisfactory settlement. His chief business is tactfully to learn the actual conditions of the dealer. Despite his best efforts, the traveling credit man finds that he is often regarded with mixed feelings by those on whom he calls, as his visits are likely to carry the suggestion that a doubt exists at headquarters with regard to the dealer's financial soundness.