BUILDING AN ORGANIZATION-TRAINING SALESMEN 1. Need for training methods.—A sales manager for a cotton-print house who had been ridiculing the idea of spending time and money to give new sales men a definite training course, states that on an aver age only one in ten of the men he added-to his selling organization eventually made good. In strong con trast to this the sales manager of a certain high-grade specialty business, whose training methods were un der discussion, was able to point to a class of twenty men turned out six months before, all the members of which were still with the concern and producing business. There was a time when a man with more or less natural selling ability was hired, given a sample case and started for his territory with a few parting instructions. This method is recognized today as being wasteful of both salesmanship material and territory. The salesman as well as the sales manager realizes the advantages of formal training prepara tory to field work and, with few exceptions, the able salesman who joins a new organization will welcome the opportunity to enter the training class.
2. The man in charge of training.—Too great em phasis cannot be laid on the necessity of having in charge of the training class a leader who will win the respect and friendship of its members. He should be a man who has seen active service in selling the com pany's product. He should have a thoro knowledge of the product ; a thoro knowledge of the best selling methods as they have been worked out by the men in the field and a thoro knowledge of the fundamental principles of salesmanship. In addition, he should possess a teacher's mind and the ability to lay out comprehensive and interesting lectures. The train ing class is of sufficient importance to warrant the sales manager's taking charge of it himself if he cannot find an assistant who measures up to these requirements.
3. Divisions of training.—There should be two main divisions of the course of training: instruction at the home office, and coaching in field work. The
house instruction may be divided into a study of the fundamental principles of salesmanship and a con sideration of the selling methods of the particular product in question, the house policies, and any other special subject a knowledge of which may have been found essential in the selling of the product. The coaching in the field :nay also have two subdivisions ; the making of presentations to actual prospects by the recruit, and a criticism of' his methods by,the coach; and the making of presentations by the coach, while the new salesman carefully observes his methods.
Little need be said here of training new men in the principles of salesmanship. It is enough to say that a course of instruction can be planned from the ma terial contained in this book. But the methods of handling the other parts of the house training and of conducting the field instruction, we shall look into in some detail.
4. House training; preparing recruits for class work.—The best practice in connection with the house instruction, is to convene training classes at those times of the year when the prospect of a busy season or the planning of an extensive campaign renders the training of new men particularly important. It is obviously unwise to complete the training of the new men during a period when business is dull or selling is difficult. For example, the month of July is a low peak month in specialty selling, and to place new salesmen in their territories at this time might. dis courage good men at the outset. Experience has proved that the best results will be obtained by bring ing the new men into the annual sales convention and convening the training class immediately afterward. The enthusiasm and knowledge gained at the conven tion will thus supplement that secured in the training class. New men instructed in this manner get started much more quickly and do a larger volume of business than men trained at other periods of the year.