6. Ability to maintain discipline.—While the sales manager must rule film love and not thru fear, he must be able to maintain discipline in his organization. Otherwise, he will have men routing themselves thru their territories in a haphazard manner, making any arrangements they please with their customers, going outside the bounds of their territories for business, and running into the house for trivial reasons when they should be out selling. The sales manager's- position, however, is no place for the over-strict disciplinarian. Good salesmen do not need many instructions. They resent being hedged about with many restrictions. They question the wisdom of the sales manager's directing their work too minutely. The sales man ager should as far as possible throw the men on their own resources and hold them responsible for results. Rules should be few, and not too stringent. Such a method, if it includes broad-gauged supervision, gives a freedom of action that encourages self-reliance, de velops strong men and weeds out weak ones. The successful sales manager never has to drive his men; they stand ready to fight for him to the last ditch.
7. Organizing ability.—The sales manager must have a "teacher's mind." He must not only be able carefully to select men who can successfully sell his proposition, but he must labor continually with the or ganization and with each individual salesman, giving detailed instructions and showing how sales can be made. This is a difficult and tedious task, requiring no small amount of tact and infinite patience.
Furthermore, the sales manager must be a man who not only overflows with ideas himself, but who also has the talent to use the ideas of others. His desk should be a clearing-house for selling ideas and argu ments. His knowledge of the goods sold should be superior to that of any other man in the organization.
The sales manager must not only be able to develop men for the selling work, but he must have a thoro grasp of the details of his department and must be able to develop capable assistants in his own office. He should encourage those under him to exercise in telligent initiative, in order that they may take the de tail work off his shoulders, so that he himself can at tend to the large problems of his department.
8. Broad-gauged knowledge of business.—If the sales manager is the right kind, his influence on the product of the house will be great, for he is in a posi tion to avail himself of the suggestions sent in by the salesmen, and thus to judge what will sell. He should be able to discuss advertising with the adver tising man and, if necessary, to direct the advertising himself. He should be able to discuss finances with the financial man, and should be able to give a close estimate of the amount of business that can be counted on for a given period. This estimate will be based on
his knowledge of the selling force, man by man, con sidering their past performances as well as their pres ent accomplishment, and on his knowledge of the gen eral business conditions existing in the various terri tories where his men are operating. This implies that he should have a sufficiently broad knowledge of eco nomics, money and banking, and trade conditions to read the financial signs of the times. In addition, he should have a sufficient knowledge of the fundamental principles of accounting to enable him intelligently to discuss financial statements with the auditor.
9. True test of efficiency.—Finally—and this is extremely important—the sales manager should re alize that his one excuse for being a sales manager is to get business. In order to do so he must keep his men in the right frame of mind so that they will give the house the best that is in them. It is all too easy for the manager in his office to lose sight of the difficulties of the men on the road. It is easy to get out of patience and to become critical. When it be comes necessary to admonish a salesman, it is easy to dictate a sarcastic or "clever" letter. Every com munication that goes out to a salesman, and every conference that the sales manager has with any of his men, should be gauged by the question: "Will this put the salesman in a frame of mind to get business ?" If the answer is not an emphatic "yes" the manager should adopt different tactics.
10. Necessity of inter-departmental cooperation.— To sell goods at a profit is the ultimate purpose of every organization, whether its primary purpose is the production of such goods, or whether it is concerned with the distribution of articles that are produced by others. Accordingly, the efficiency of the sales de partment is a matter of great importance to every other department. This efficiency cannot reach its highest development unless every other department cooperates with the selling organization to bring about an administration of the selling activities that will be the most economical and efficient possible.
Selling itself, does not create value ; it does not pro duce the kind of article that customers want ; it does not insure prompt delivery, harmonious credit rela tions, or the right kind of service for the customers. All these things must be secured thru the cooperation of the other departments of the business, and it is just as much a part of the sales manager's work to secure this cooperation as it is to manage his men.