COOPERATION, INFLUENCE AND FRIENDSHIP 1. 11Ieaning of cooperation.—The word coopera tion embodies one of the biggest ideas in salesman ship. We have already spoken of the value of co operation in gaining an audience with the prospect. We shall look at it here in its broader aspects, for cooperation is the order of the day—the house co operates with the salesman and with the customer, and looks for their cooperation in return. The cus tomer extends his cooperation to the house, and more especially to the salesman. The salesman cooperates both with the house and with the customer.
Cooperation means working together with other men and having them work together with you, for mutual assistance and benefit. For no man of his own unaided efforts can accomplish much.
2. Salesman's cooperation with the house.—In a certain Indiana town, on a river-front street in a neighborhood frequented principally by river men and roustabouts, is a dingy windowed shop which is designated a custom-tailoring establishment, because it keeps in stock a few wisps of cloth, and because its proprietor devotes himself to the repairing and press ing of the commonest kind of clothing. There, in the midst of sordid surroundings, is a neat, bright sign proclaiming this place to be the exclusive agency in that town for a nationally-advertised article of cloth ing. The salesman who placed that exclusive agency was not cooperating with his house. He was not doing his honest best to make his company's enormous investment in advertising pay dividends. His half hearted efforts to place the exclusive agency with a worthy house probably failed, and, not wanting to admit the failure, he hit upon this poor, makeshift method of making things look all right at the home office.
An honest salesman who is loyal and has a right conception of the meaning of cooperation, will do nothing that is not to the best interests of his house. He feels that, in a sense, he is a partner of the house. He travels about the country with no direct super vision, performing acts for which his principals are responsible and upon which their profits depend. He feels that he owes the house the same sort of cooper ation that one partner owes another.
3. Securing valuable inforination.—In times gone by, salesmen felt that their following—those to whom they sold—was their own chief asset. They jealously
guarded the information that they possessed concern ing their customers. When they left one house to make a new connection, they switched their trade to the new house with them. All this has changed, and today customers are considered as an asset of the house rather than of the salesman. For the most part, the trade remains with the house even tho the salesmen in the territory are changed. The salesman no longer withholds information about the customers. He secures all he can and passes it along to his house in order that the house may cooperate with him most effectively in keeping and increasing trade in his ter ritory.
Tbis information will take many forms. A sales man's suggestion to his firm that a certain dealer's window display is poor will bring, in the firm's letter to that house acknowledging the order,, a suggestion as to the dollars and cents value of competent window dressers, including definite information as to how and where to procure them. A report on the prospect's advertising will bring suggestions for improvement as well as help in the way of advertising cuts.
4. Cooperating with credit man and with advertis ing manager.—A matter of much importance is coop eration with the credit man. While the latter makes use of the usual credit-information agencies, he must look to the salesman to supplement this if he is to handle credits with a minimum loss and. a maximum amount of business. Ratings change More rapidly than credit books can be issued. Many of the smaller business.men have a prejudice against disclosing their financial condition to Dun's or Bradstre,et's. As a consequence, their ratings are lower than they should be. But financial standing is not the only index to reliability. A business of very limited capital but with large capacity to grow may be a better credit risk and may be better worth developing than one with a large capital whose business is beginning to suffer frotn dry-rot. The credit man of today aims to know these things. He can secure a knowledge of them in just two ways; either he must obtain the knowledge at first hand, or he must depend on the cooperation of the salesman.