One of the most successful sales managers in the automobile business recruited his sales force in the early stages of the industry by sending inquiries in regard to specialties, such as safes, typewriters or adding machines, and having the salesmen call upon him. If, in the course of the presentation, he recog nized the ear-marks of a real salesman, he would offer the man a connection.
Mr. J. K. Fraser, who had a good deal to do with the early success of Sapolio, used to make it a point ta ask friendly customers about the men who called upon them from houses in other lines, and quite often lie picked salesmen in this way.
8. Obtaining salesmen thru missionary work of the sales force.—If the members of an organization are proud of their connections and loyal to them, they will continually be on the lookout for fecruits among the men whom they meet on the road selling other articles, among clerks or other office men whom they meet in the course of their work, and among their friends. In many lines experience has indicated that this is the best method of securing new members for the selling force. To quote Mr. J. K. Fraser : I think it is safe to say that in most cases the best men are recruited thru the missionary work of the selling organi zation. The best men we get come from the recommenda tions of our salesmen and are in most cases their personal friends, attracted by the success they are meeting in selling our line. On the assumption that "birds of a feather flock together," we find it pays when we get one strong salesman to look up his friends. In most cases they are of the same caliber and have the same qualifications, so that when they are employed they make equally good salesmen.
The National Biscuit Company finds some of its best men in the grocery stores where its products are sold over the counter. Salesmen of the company are instructed to keep a weather eye open, wherever they go, for good selling timber. When men are secured in this way they feel that they have made a step for ward, and most of them are satisfied to remain with the organization a considerable length of time.
Some specialty houses which require a particularly high grade of salesmen, offer the members of their forces a bonus for securing a recruit who mak-es good.
9. College men as salesmen.—Some concerns de
sire to secure college men for their sales force. With this end in view they place advertisements in the col lege papers which are read by both the students and the alumni. They write to college secretaries to se cure information with regard to recent college gradu ates, especially men who worked their way thru college. One firm whose work- calls for salesmen pos sessed of a broad-gauge knowledge of business, keeps in close touch with the employment bureaus at the various university schools of commerce thruout the country. Another concern secures the university year-books published by the student bodies, which contain the pictures and biographies of the members of the graduating classes. This information fur nishes a basis for selecting the men to whom a selling connection is offered.
10. Previous selling experience.—Men recruited from the colleges can have had little or no previous experience in salesmanship, except possibly in the sell ing of small specialties during vacations. Men se lected from inside the organization will have had no previous selling experience whatever. The lawyers whom the Buck Stove and Range Company might secure thru the advertisement already mentioned, would have had no previous experience that would be of value in selling, other than the practice in the art of persuasion that they have obtained in courts of law. To insist upon previous selling experience was formerly a hard and fast rule in many concerns, and still is in some. A great many progressive houses, on the other hand, have come to look upon an applicant's lack of previous selling experience as an advantage rather than a drawback, for, in such case, the pros pective salesman has no false ideas or mistak-en im pressions that must be routed out before he can be instilled with the principles, ideals and policies of the house. His mind is virgin soil.
A man who is trained to sell one thing and who has never sold any other is not so likely to change from one organization to another as the man who has had a varied experience, which gives him confidence in his ability to sell any commodity. Finally, and per haps most important of all, the firm that trains the man of no previous selling experience gets his first loyalty and enthusiasm.