7. Studying selling methods.—The new salesman should be taught the best selling plans and selling talks worked out by the men in the field. The usual objec tions of the prospects should be brought up and the best answers to them given. The appeals that have proved most successful with special classes of pros pects should be clearly set forth. If these matters have been put into a selling manual, as is generally the case, the manual may be used as a textbook for this portion of the course.
During the week each member of the class should be required to make at least two presentations of his proposition to one of the other class members. When a presentation is finished, the man who has made it should be given the first opportunity to criticize. Then the instructor in charge of the class should make his criticisms. After that open discussion might be in order.
8. Talks from the star salesmen.—One or two of the best salesmen—men who have been responsible for working out some of the sales methods, and who are big producers—should address the men. Care should be taken that the men selected for this purpose should be able to impart information to others, and be capable of making a strong, enthusiastic presentation of their subject. Such men in telling the new salesmen how to sell will carry far more weight than the instructor or even the sales manager.
9. Length of course and size of class.—The length of the course of house training differs widely with different companies; a week is about the average length. When highly technical knowledge must be imparted, the period will be much longer. This is true even of the recruit picked from inside the or ganization, if his duties have not made hiin familiar with the manufacturing processes. The general tend ency is to allow whatever time may be necessary to equip the men thoroly before they go to their terri tories.
On the last day of the house training the sales man ager should call each of the members into his office for individual consultation. After that the class may be closed formally by an address from the sales man ager or some other executive. When possible, a pleasant touch is added to a meeting of the entire in side organization in honor of the new men. During tbe meeting each of the new men may be called upon to talk, while members of the office organization wish them god-speed and assure them of hearty cooper ation.
10. Field training.—Organizations that have local managers in various territories often depend upon these managers to train the new salesmen in their work in the field. This method works well since the local branch managers are generally good salesmen, good teachers and men who insist that the rules of the house be strictly observed by the new salesman.
1.1. Essential qualifications of the coach.—The coach should be an expert salesman who can be de VII-18 pended upon to secure a satisfactory volume of busi ness while he is demonstrating salesmanship. He should be able to make sales with the new man sit ting behind him during the interviews. It is also necessary that he work according to the methods taught by the house. The man who sells chiefly by reason of a forceful personality, can as a coach do the new man little good. The man who has worked out methods of his own will only confuse the new sales man. The coach should be a hard worker, otherwise the opportunity to inculcate habits of hard work at the outset will be lost.
12. Principles of coaching.—The new man is coached by being brought right into the prospect's place of business where he can hear the coach make an actual presentation. The coach, after having greeted the prospect and introduced himself, should introduce the beginner. He will have previously given the be ginner instructions to get into the background imme diately after the introduction, preferably somewhere behind the prospect where he will not be seen during the interview. The coach then proceeds just as if the beginner were not with him. He must become adept at forgetting that the third man is present.
A fundamental principle of coaching requires that the coach stay with the new man until the latter has produced satisfactory business and made some head way in opening the territory. For this reason, it is not well to set a definite time limit on the coaching period. The coach's task is not, however, merely to make sales in the presence of the new man. It is just as important for him to allow the new man to make presentations and endeavor to close business. After each of these presentations, the coach should criticize the beginner's methods and make suggestions for their improvement. The beginner should, if possible, have taken some business himself before the coach leaves him.