Usually the work of the coach either makes the new man enthusiastic and develops him into a pro ducer, or it discourages him and leaves him a non-pro ducer. The coach should guard against the latter possibility, and should endeavor to impress upon the new man the importance of loyalty and bard work, as well as the necessity of devoting thought and study especially to the commodity.
13. Use of a special coach.—Salesmen who orig inally worked out the selling methods for the product are in many instances used to train the new men. Frequently, however, these men may not be suitable for tbis work. Some houses, on the other hand, have men who do nothing but coach. When they are not breaking in new men they help any of the older sales men who may be running a little low in volume of sales. If such a coach can be kept busy, this is a good method. The disadvantage of the plan is that it will be impossible for one or even two or three men to coach all the members of a class of ten or twelve men within a reasonable time.
14. Use of the salesman in the territory as coach.— A method more generally followed is to use the best salesmen as coaches. 'The new man stays with the older salesman for a week, and the latter receives extra compensation for giving this instruction. For exam ple, in high-class specialty lines, the older salesman is paid a fixed sum for a week's coaching, in addition to his commission for any sales that he makes while he is demonstrating. While this method has worked satis factorily, it has some disadvantages. The salesman to whom the new man is sent may not work hard, regu larly, or systematically, and if this is the case, he will set a bad example. He may be careless about carry ing out the instructions of the house. He may sell on personality or by different methods from those taught the new man. He may not be able to sell with a third man present, or he may dislike having to do so. Fur thermore, the average salesman is unable to sit calmly by while a cub practises on a good prospect.
15. Group methods of field of the right kind renders it possible to coach the class in a body. Under this method a town, or a closely knit territory, containing a sufficient number of pros pects to keep a dozen men busy for a week, is selected.
The assistant sales manager or possibly the sales man ager himself takes charge of the class and generally calls at least one other good salesman from the field to assist him in the coaching work.
Arrangements should be made to have the party reach the territory Saturday evening or Sunday morn ing, for thus the point can be emphasized that each individual salesman should always plan to reach a town early enough to be able to do the necessary pre liminary organization work without using for the pur pose any of the time that he should spend weing pros pects. The territory is organized just as the indi vidual salesman will be expected to organize his ter ritory when he reaches it. Names of prospects are secured from the general directory, the telephone di rectory and other sources, and put on the prospect cards.
In some cases the coach will secure a file of local newspapers for at least two weeks past and instruct his charges to read several of them so as to become acquainted with the general atmosphere of the town and secure a knowledge of its activities and its people. Sometimes a reading of the newspapers will suggest definite leads, or will give additional information on those secured from other sources.
16. Laying out the field.—A map of the town should be cut up according to districts, and prospects in each district noted. Then each salesman should be assigned a district. A map of his district should be given to each man so that Ile will lose no time in get ting' acquainted with the geog,raphy of the town, or travel long distances between prospects. If the party arrives Saturday night or Sunday morning, all of this preliminary organization work can be finished in time to allow the party to go out Sunday afternoon in several different groups to get a knowledge of the territory by actual observation.
The whole party will thus be ready to start work without delay the first thing Monday morning. The leader and the salesman who is assisting him will each take one of' the new men for the day. Each day fol lowing they will take different men. Every day the men who are not working with the assistant sales manager or the other coach, will work by themselves.