8

Recruiting,
Selecting, and
Training New
Sales Reps

For many field sales managers, recruitment occupies a considerable amount of time, keeping them from the other important tasks I have been discussing. (Not all field sales managers have this responsibility. Nevertheless, they often have to interview new sales reps before they are assigned and, because they are responsible for sales results in their districts, have the right to accept or reject the candidate.) Finding sources of eligible people, maintaining contact with them, and interviewing applicants is time-consuming. When this task becomes urgent because of an unstaffed territory, you may be pressed to drop everything else and devote yourself exclusively to the task of finding a sales rep to fill the vacancy. You cannot dodge this responsibility. You may put off recruiting by pleading the priority of other duties, but sooner or later it will catch up with you, and you will then be under tremendous pressure to fill one or more gaps in your district or region without delay.

How can you discharge this obligation without doing it under pressure and without slighting your other responsibilities? And another factor must also be considered. Because new sales reps are selected from those who have been recruited, the quality of the sales force under you will depend largely on the development potential of the people you recruit. Those recruited under pressure are not as likely to measure up to the necessary standards as are those recruited in a deliberate and planned manner. If you are not careful in this regard, you may find yourself saddled with a mediocre sales rep on whom you spend an inordinate amount of time trying to make “a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.” You will inevitably fail and then have the whole job to do over again. In the meantime your own performance in the entire district will have suffered.

What I am trying to emphasize is that the recruitment function is extremely important, not only to the field sales manager but to the company as well. The problem is to find methods whereby this job can be done thoroughly and well, yet without too great an expenditure of time. All companies have developed their own policies governing the recruitment and selection of salespeople and most expect their field sales managers to do the recruiting. Some companies have field recruiters who contact universities, employment agencies, and other sources; but even in these companies the field sales manager also is required to find good new sales material. Although many companies require a recruit to be interviewed at headquarters, where the final selection is made and the person is actually hired, still in the majority of cases the final selection will not be made unless the field sales manager approves it. So while there are instances where the field sales manager has nothing to do with recruitment or selection, this is unusual. Because the final selection is “your baby” to train and develop, you should be vitally interested in those recruited.

The average field sales manager requires only about two to four new reps a year. This is a very important statistic. Field sales managers who rationalize their failure to turn up suitable recruits by saying that good people are almost impossible to find or that college graduates “don’t go for selling as a career,” ignore the fact that they need find only three or four recruits in an entire year. Whatever the difficulties, any good recruitment program should be able to turn up that number without any trouble. It is not uncommon for a company to interview several hundred people initially and to eliminate by stages all but the three or four who will finally be employed. Because the number to be employed is low, the standards can be kept high. Although standards should never be lowered, it is understandable why they may inadvertently slip when large numbers of salespeople are being employed. But when only three or four are to be selected during an entire year, the field sales manager can be very selective and adhere rigidly to the established standards.

Just what is meant by standards? Either the company or the field sales manager must set some kind of standards. When you understand your stake in the person to be employed in terms of work load, training time, and field work at the sacrifice of other tasks, you will require standards for the person to be recruited regardless of whether your company has them. These standards, also called specifications, must be of two kinds. First, as field sales manager, you must have in writing what can be called job specifications. This is a list of all the things that the sales rep will be expected to do, with emphasis on the more important tasks. Figure 8-1 is such a list. Secondly, looking at this list, you might well ask yourself: “What kind of people must I find to perform all these tasks, what qualities must they possess, what sort of background?” If you were to write down your answers to these questions, they would be your staffing specifications. These are the two important tools you need before you can start recruiting. The people you want must have all or most of the qualities listed in the staffing specifications.

In key account selling, however, the specifications would be somewhat different because here it is mandatory for the salesperson to know quite a bit about the customer’s business. At this level of selling, the salesperson develops a relationship with a customer that could be described as a partnership, acting as an adviser and diagnostician to the customer. The sales rep is also an educator, and brings to the customer the newest ideas, technological findings, and skills relevant to that business. In this case, a high degree of knowledge and experience in a particular business, enabling the rep to diagnose, advise, inform, and educate a customer, would be more valuable than any past sales experience.

Another tool the field sales manager must have for recruiting purposes is some document or brochure describing the company—its history, the kinds of products it makes, the markets it serves—as well as the job its salespeople are expected to do. In addition, this literature should outline the growth opportunities afforded sales reps within the company. Many companies prepare elaborate booklets for recruiting purposes. Whether or not the company furnishes such material, you as field sales manager should have something of this type. It may be just three or four mimeographed pages stapled together and headed “The Jones Manufacturing Company and Its Opportunities” or “A Future With Jones.” If you prepare it yourself, you should send it “upstairs” for higher-level approval first.

Figure 8–1. A listing for job specifications for sales reps.

Reprinted with permission from the 3M Corporation, St. Paul, Minnesota.

Sources of Recruits

Where does one find recruits? It’s not hard for recruiters working out of headquarters to answer this question. Recruiting is their full-time job, and they can exhaust all known sources. But as field sales manager you just don’t have the time to cover every possible source. You must understand that you cannot possibly do the job on a “crisis” basis. Recruitment must have continuity so that at all times you have a pool or reservoir of applicants, one or more of whom will be available when you need a new sales rep in your district or region.

How can you set up a continuous recruitment program that will not consume too much of your time and yet will produce the desired number of qualified new people? First, you limit the job and pare it down to a size you can supervise and control. You yourself must be a recruiter twenty-four hours a day and 365 days of the year, including Sundays and holidays. Wherever you go, you must keep an eye peeled for good sales material—in the office, on planes or trains, at church, at the club, on the golf course. Wherever you are, you must be continually on the lookout for sales talent and for ways of bringing it into the service of the company. You must be selling your company and its opportunities at all times. You cannot expect to turn up good prospects every day or every week. Keeping in mind that you will need only three or four new people each year, you will be patient but ever alert in your search for them. You are in fact your own best source of good material for the sales force.

Second, you should enlist the help of those salespeople whose judgment you respect and whom you feel are capable of spotting good sales material. These individuals should be used to bird-dog good prospective sales reps, flush them out, and then arrange for you to interview interested applicants. After all, who knows the job better than the sales reps themselves? If they are successful and enthusiastic about the job and company, they can impart this feeling to applicants. They can answer questions about the job and what it involves. They can even take applicants home and let them see how well successful company sales reps live. Sales reps also get into areas that recruiters rarely reach. In covering their assigned territory, they probably visit outlying sections for some of their calls. Some of the very best salespeople may be found buried in rural areas awaiting an opportunity that often never comes. Consider the young man in a small town who goes to work in a local factory, gets married and settles down. He cannot get out of his rut because he must work every weekday and does not want his boss to learn that he is looking for another job. On weekends when he is free, the interviewers in the big cities are not working. And so he remains where he is, awaiting an opportunity that may come only through a chance meeting with some sales rep. The job offered to him may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and he will make every effort to succeed in it. If the company is recruiting only people with technical backgrounds, this procedure may be much more difficult. Many companies have so thorough a training program that they can recruit people with little or no sales experience provided they have the basic qualifications. Sales reps may turn up excellent potential sales people among factory workers or reps employed in fields other than selling. The use of sales reps to comb the rural or small communities for good sales material constitutes an important part of any program of continuous recruiting.

Some companies compensate their sales reps for recruiting people. This is normally a policy matter determined at a level above the field sales manager. In any event, recruitment efforts are a valuable experience for sales reps, and you should point this out to those you select for this extra work. Here is a way for sales reps to learn some of the skills that prepare them for advancement—how to handle a responsibility beyond their primary responsibilities, and how to find and interview good sales material. You can encourage this activity by discussing each applicant with the sales rep who referred him and by using the experience to show the rep how to appraise and select salespeople. The point is that, even without monetary compensation to the sales rep for this help, the experience may be of such value as to make it interesting and worthwhile.

In building a continuous program of recruitment, the field sales manager can turn to a third excellent source of sales material—the small college. Within the district of almost every field sales manager, there are probably a number of small colleges. These schools are not inundated by recruiters coming to interview their graduating classes. They do not have highly sophisticated placement offices. But they often do have men and women with the best possible backgrounds for sales careers. I suggest that you establish a close relationship with just two such schools in your area. By this I mean that you should contact the placement officer, the deans, and perhaps the heads of the departments of economics, engineering, or business. Your purpose is to sell these people on the idea that your company is the best in its field, that it offers great opportunities, and that the school could do no better than to refer its top students to the field sales manager for an interview. This “hard sell” should lead the school’s placement people to refer every promising graduate with the proper qualifications to you for an interview. The school’s placement officials will also be alerted to refer to you any alumni who returned to the school for assistance in securing better employment. You should leave with the school authorities some copies of the company’s application blank and some of the brochures that describe the company and the opportunities it offers. You might also ask the local sales rep, if qualified, to drop in occasionally to maintain contact with the school people and to keep the name of the company before them. This person should offer to talk with all applicants and answer any questions they might have before formally applying to you. This sort of contact with two small colleges should produce at least one good salesperson a year.

Another recruiting source is the employment agency. There has been much unfavorable comment on agencies as a source of manpower. Those who have had good results attribute this to their special relationship with the agency. I suggest that you select just two reputable agencies within your area and in each case speak to the head of the agency first. Adopting the same methods as those used for the interview with small colleges, you should sell the employment agency head on the wonderful opportunities offered by your company to people of high caliber who can meet its requirements. You should then speak to other agency personnel and sell them too. It is important not only to review carefully the qualifications for the job with agency personnel but also to supply them with application forms, company brochures, and the staffing specifications for the job.

This relationship should be renewed whenever you are in town, if only by a noon luncheon meeting with the agency personnel. If an agency habitually sends poor material, you should change agencies, always limiting yourself to two good agencies at any one time.

You have now developed a plan for continuous recruitment that is designed to produce up to five new salespeople a year. Hopefully you will not require that many, but in any case you have a pool of people who have been interviewed, have indicated an interest in working for the company, and who, even though presently employed elsewhere, will probably be available when a job opportunity opens.

If you can develop a pool of from five to ten such people, you will usually be on safe ground. When an opening occurs, you may find that your first and second choices in the pool are not available but that your third choice is also a sound selection. There is, of course, no guarantee that every individual in the pool will be available when wanted, but it is almost certain that at least one qualified person will be found. Handled this way, recruitment will no longer be on a “putting out a fire” basis but will be so designed as to fit in with your work load and time schedule.

Selecting Sales Reps

Selection begins with an interview. As field sales manager you will probably find these selection interviews highly disruptive of your schedule because they are time-consuming. However, there is a method that will conserve your time without diminishing the quality of the interview.

The first interview with the applicant is usually referred to as a screening interview. Its purpose is to eliminate applicants you do not wish to consider further and to lay a foundation for subsequent interviews with those in whom you are interested. How should this first interview be planned and executed? A good interview is a two-way affair. You want to learn the extent to which the applicant’s qualifications meet the staffing specifications for the job. The applicant wishes to learn how well the job meets his or her requirements for security, opportunity for growth, valuable work experience, and job satisfaction. Both parties are interviewing; therefore, it should not be a one-sided affair. Nevertheless, as manager you should be in command of the interview, guiding and directing it from the very start.

Some preparation is expected of both individuals. You will have before you an application form giving information about the applicant. The applicant should have studied in advance the material describing the history of the company, the kind of business it conducts, the products it makes, the people to whom it sells, the duties and training of its salespeople, and their opportunities for advancement. I suggest, therefore, that when you receive the application form from a promising applicant you respond by setting an appointment for an interview at least ten days in advance and enclose a copy of the company’s brochure. This appointment may be at your office or at a hotel in the town where the applicant resides. You can conserve time by making the appointment for late afternoon after your other work is concluded. If you are on the road, you can make the appointment for an evening so that it will not interfere with your other duties.

Although each manager will conduct the interview in his own way, there are certain guidelines that must be followed if the interview is to be of value. It is desirable to let the applicant do most of the talking. You need not be in a hurry to tell your story. The right kind of applicant will find out about the company by asking questions. The important thing is to listen attentively to what the applicant has to say. The applicant must be put at ease at the very start of the interview. You should greet him or her cordially, offer a chair (some interviewers come from behind their desk and sit casually beside the applicant), and place an ashtray nearby in case the applicant smokes. You should strike an informal note along these lines:

Let’s make this interview very informal. Please feel that this is your interview as much as mine. Your future is involved in whatever decision you make about this job. You might start by telling me what your long- and short-term goals are. Tell me anything about yourself and your history you feel I should know. Feel free to ask me any questions that come to mind about our company, its operations, and the job you are applying for. If this is satisfactory to you, suppose you start by telling me your reasons for applying for this job.

Now you must sit back and listen. What are you listening for? What are the things that should influence your decision on the applicant? Let’s consider a few. A good sales rep is down-to-earth, realistic, with common sense. Are the applicant’s goals realistic? Do they indicate an understanding of the painfully slow climb up through an organization, the need to work hard to achieve recognition by supervisors? Do the applicant’s short-range goals suggest that he will stay with the job, or would he tend to become dissatisfied? Do his long-range goals take into consideration his family, his general growth and improvement? Does he show a real interest in making money and getting the things that money will buy? Is he ambitious to rise above his present level? A good salesperson is thorough. Does the applicant describe himself thoroughly? A sales rep must thoroughly inform customers about his products. If a product has eight key selling points, the manager wants all eight brought to the customer’s attention. The applicant’s thoroughness and ability in selling himself to you tell much about his potential as a sales rep.

A good sales rep works hard physically. Is the applicant a hard worker and does he come from a family of hard workers? Good salespeople are more likely to come from such backgrounds. Did the applicant work as a boy, during summer vacations or while at school? Did he earn at least part of his expenses if he went to college? A good sales rep must be energetic and capable of hard physical work. A good sales rep is “money hungry.” He likes to be on top and to be a winner. Is the applicant competitive? Good sales reps usually are. Does the applicant want to make money, to lead the procession? Did he try to be a leader when he was at school? Does he seek prestige, recognition? A good sales rep is articulate. He can communicate well. How will the applicant sound in front of a customer? He need not speak “the King’s English,” but it is important that he be articulate and persuasive, that his voice be pleasant and well modulated. A good sales rep loves to sell. Does the applicant really want to be a salesman or is he just applying for a job—any job? Most successful salespeople would not take any other than a selling job. You can sound out the applicant by asking him whether he would be interested in a fine inside job.

Finally, a good sales rep is a good planner. Is the applicant one? Has she prepared for this interview by making a list of questions to be answered? She has had ten days or more to think about this interview and to prepare for it. Did she do any planning during this time? Sharp, penetrating questions by the applicant are a favorable sign—for example, “Do you promote from within?” “How will I be trained to do my job?” “How do you measure the expected growth rate of a rep starting out like myself?” On the other hand, if the questions mostly have to do with fringe benefits, the applicant is hardly worth interviewing further. When she is questioning you, she can be expected to ask many specific questions about the company and the job opening. If she has no such questions to ask, there is no point to your volunteering the information. Unless the applicant indicates genuine interest, you might just as well save the time required for an exposition of the company, its opportunities and policies.

If your reaction is unfavorable, you can easily terminate the interview whenever the applicant says that she has no further questions. You may either tell the applicant at this point that she does not get the job or you may say that you wish to consider the matter and that the applicant will hear from you later on. Thus the screening interview has been considerably shortened without in any way reducing its quality. An unsatisfactory applicant has been eliminated with a minimum loss of time. If, on the other hand, the interview has aroused your interest in the applicant, you should respond by giving a complete exposition of the company, its opportunities, and the job itself. At this point the interviewer actually sells the job to the applicant. Figure 8-2 lists some questions that can be used to draw out the details of the candidate’s background and work experience.

When this has been done and the applicant is ready to accept the job, you then back away gently, making the applicant follow after you and fight for the job. This is accomplished by making a statement such as:

You have a very good job right now where you can probably move ahead. You have a wife and two small children to support. Considering your present nice income and family responsibilities, I wonder whether it is wise for you to change jobs, especially when you would, in coming with us, be getting into an entirely new field, where you have no assurance of success and might conceivably find yourself out of a job and in a tight spot financially. You had better consider the seriousness of the move you are making and be sure you want to take the risks involved.

Now you are testing the aggressiveness of the applicant. You want a salesperson who will not easily take no from a customer and who will fight back and try to get the order. Will the applicant now show this quality?

Figure 8–2. Questions calculated to reveal an applicant’s motivation and background.

1. Why have you applied for this job?

2. What is there in your past experience that you want to tell me about, that you feel would add to your qualifications for this job?

3. What do you know about this company and its products and services?

4. You are about to change jobs. This involves some adjustment on your part. How do you see yourself coming into a new organization? What steps do you see as important? What possible obstacles or difficulties concern you?

5. Is there anything in your life-style that would make it unpleasant for you to travel frequently or even to be transferred to another territory?

6. As a salesperson, how would you be helpful to our customers?

7. What questions do you wish to ask me about this job?

8. Even though you know very little about this company, try to tell me how you see yourself working at this job on a typical day.

9. What did you like and dislike about your previous job, and why did you leave?

10. Did you earn money during your school years? How?

As has been demonstrated, a good interview can bring to the surface some of the intangible qualities so important to success in selling: thoroughness, ability to plan, drive or competitive spirit, aggressiveness, articulateness. Above all other qualities, a company must insist that the person who represents it have character. No company can afford to be represented by someone lacking in personal integrity.

Another important consideration that you must always keep in mind when interviewing is the cost of employing, training, and developing a new sales rep; nor must you forget the many hours required by preparing for and actually giving such instruction. Many companies spend in excess of 25,000 on a new sales rep during the first year, and as field sales manager you make great sacrifices in rearranging your work load and schedules to find the time to work with the new salespeople. While interviewing an applicant, you might well ask yourself: “Would I spend 25,000 of my own money on this person if I were in business for myself and he came to me for a job? Is he the kind of person I would be willing to eat my heart out for training and developing?”

Many companies use psychological tests of one kind or another. The use of such tests is a decision for higher management, and as field sales manager you usually have no say in the matter. You must follow company policy. Yet it is your responsibility to make the final decision on a job applicant. Test results may help you but are seldom a substitute for sound judgment. Tests can effectively screen out the least qualified, but they often cannot select the best people from among those who are acceptable. You must base your ultimate decision on what you have seen and heard in your interviews with the applicant, giving some weight to test results. In all cases this decision should be yours alone.

Before a final decision is made, the applicant’s references must be thoroughly investigated. References should not be solicited by letter or printed form; a personal call should be made upon the applicant’s previous employer. Where this is not feasible, a telephone interview may be substituted. Such an interview should be as carefully planned as an interview with an important account (see Figure 8-3). Most businesspeople hesitate to say anything that may keep a former employee from landing a good job. They want to be honest but at the same time they do not want to hurt the chances of the applicant. As interviewing manager you must therefore read between the lines, searching out the gray areas that you want to probe for more definite information. For instance, the previous employer may say that he considers the applicant to have been a good sales rep and to have performed very well under competent supervision. Further questioning, prepared in advance, may reveal that, while the applicant was a pretty fair salesperson, he wasn’t good enough to measure up to their standards and that, although he did all right when someone was breathing down his neck, he did not perform as well without supervision. Thus the value of a reference depends, to a considerable degree, on how well the person checking the reference prepared for the interview.

Ordinarily, some two or three interviews are conducted before a person is employed. An applicant who looks very good at the first interview may seem less impressive on a subsequent one. Similarly, an applicant about whom you initially had some grave doubts may become your first choice after a second interview. Where the final choice is made at headquarters, it is very helpful if you send a thorough evaluation of the candidate to headquarters so that top management may have the benefit of your judgment. The second and third interviews are critical because this is when you willingly take the time to dig deeply into the applicant’s work history, personal background, and general characteristics. No part of the applicant’s past should escape thorough investigation, and the sales job should be explained to him or her in detail so that you have a clear picture of the person for whose services you are bargaining, and the applicant knows in detail the kind of job that is being offered.

Figure 8–3. Sample letter and questions useful in checking references.

Training New Sales Reps

Now that you have found and employed a promising salesperson, what are the methods you use to make sure that this new sales rep has every opportunity to succeed? In most companies there is a period of orientation and product training, which precedes the formal sales training conducted by the field sales manager. In some companies the newly employed sales rep is brought into headquarters for this orientation period. In other companies the new sales rep is trained wholly in the field and only brought into headquarters after having qualified for more costly and intensive training. It is almost universal, however, to assign the new rep to the field sales manager for sales training. In some cases this means that the newly employed sales rep travels with and works under a senior sales rep. This permits the new salesperson to observe the senior in action, to learn that the job can be done and just how it is done. With confidence bolstered by having observed another sales rep perform effectively, the new rep is ready to go out and try the job alone. In other cases the new sales rep is put directly to work and expected to produce sales at once.

There is a growing feeling in sales management circles that many good new salespeople are lost to the company because of inept handling during their first week or two in the field under the field sales manager. There is thought to be a widespread lack of understanding of new sales reps and the pressures under which they are working. To illustrate the problems facing the new sales rep, let’s take as an example one who has received product training at headquarters and has been given some orientation as to the company and its policies, as well as some familiarity with the various forms used by salespeople such as order books, daily reports, expense reports, intracompany and intradepartmental correspondence. Let’s further suppose that he is being relocated and that, although previously employed in St. Louis, he is to report to his field sales manager in Kansas City upon his return from headquarters training. His wife has taken care of having the furniture moved by van after flying down to Kansas City and locating an apartment. They plan to live in a motel until the furniture arrives. They have a baby, who is staying with the new sales rep’s mother-in-law while all this is taking place. The couple are complete strangers to Kansas City. They have given their address to the company and find that there are several large cartons awaiting them at the empty apartment. These cartons were sent by the company and contain various samples to be used in selling, a large supply of literature covering some fifty different products, various special data sheets, policy and procedure manuals, order books, supply requisitions, expense reports, daily, weekly, and monthly reports and route sheets, and other stationery of various kinds. Add to this formidable array of material the fact that the new sales rep is under great tension to make good at his new job. He has given up a good position with another company and has moved to a strange city with his wife and baby. He wants very much to succeed. He feels lost being with a strange company in a new location. The van with his furniture has not arrived and his motel room is uncomfortably small. On top of this, his boss is busy and wants him to get going. His manager expects to start his formal training “next week” if he can find the time. In the situation just described, the new sales rep may easily be lost to the company. The vital learning readiness of the new salesperson is achieved partially through his own determination to learn and succeed but also as a result of his manager preparing him for the training experience in such a manner that his mind is not burdened with worries about his wife, his baby, his new apartment, his territory, his paperwork, his sales equipment, and so on.

When a new sales rep first arrives on the job, it is desirable that you make sure that learning readiness is present before he starts the training process. The following considerations are involved in such preparation for training. First, you should make sure that the new salesperson is comfortably settled in the new residence. If there is no relocation involved, this problem of course does not exist. On the other hand, in a situation like the example just given, you should instruct the new sales rep first to get his living arrangements straightened out and then to report for work. There is a corollary advantage in this course of action in that it will give you a preview of the new sales rep’s ability to handle a problem quickly, decisively, and effectively. A resettlement that drags on for too long is not a good sign. Experience indicates that new salespeople should not require more than a few days to get settled domestically. They need not find perfect living quarters. They can use weekends to look for something more to their taste after they have lived in the new city long enough to learn a bit about the various locations and accommodations available. Once the new sales rep is settled domestically, I further suggest that you help him unpack all the equipment and material sent from headquarters and show him how to organize it for effective use. You will explain to the sales rep which of this material should remain in his home, which belongs in his car, how best to distribute it through the car, how to keep samples in good condition, and how to use the various forms properly.

Finally, you should show the sales rep how to cover the territory, acquaint him with its geography, and make sure that he knows how to identify a prospect so that he won’t waste time on valueless calls. When the new sales rep’s mind is at ease with regard to (1) domestic matters, (2) organization of tools, equipment, and office work, and (3) knowledge of the territory and how to work it, he is ready for instruction in sound sales techniques. It is now reasonably likely that he will absorb training, be able to apply the instruction, and make normal progress toward the goals that have been set for him.

There is quite a divergence of opinion concerning the relative effectiveness of learning by doing. To many people in management, it is inconceivable that much can be learned merely by observing another person in action. Let’s take a very simple example—learning to drive an automobile. To an experienced driver, the automobile seems almost a part of him. He performs the necessary operations mechanically without consciously thinking about putting a key in the lock, releasing the emergency bake, setting the lever that puts the car in gear, turning the wheel, accelerating, or applying the brakes. Yet when this same driver tries to teach a teenager how to drive, he finds that the only way to do it properly is to place the teenager at the wheel and instruct him while sitting next to him, observing what he does wrong and correcting his mistakes. The student will never learn to drive the car simply by sitting next to the driver and observing him. Observation will never give him the feel of the car and the confidence that comes with experience.

It is generally accepted today that people learn best by doing and that teachers teach best by observing their students perform a function, correcting and encouraging them, and repeating the process until they can perform the task without any need for correction. During World War II the government developed a teaching procedure called Job Instruction Training (JIT) that proved extremely effective in imparting skills to unskilled workers. The principles employed in this technique are entirely applicable to the training of salespeople. In essence this is how it works. First, place the trainee in front of the job she is to do and put her at ease. Then tell her exactly what the job is and have her repeat the description so that you know she understands what you have told her. Next, perform the task yourself exactly as you have explained it while she observes you. After the job is completed, review what you have done and have her tell you how to do the job and actually do it. Correct her when she makes a mistake, explaining her error and repeating the procedure as often as necessary. When she has completed the task, repeat the process until she is able to go through the entire operation without error.

How can this technique be applied to selling? When you are ready to teach sales techniques to the new sales rep, you both go to call on a prospect. On the way, you explain why this account is a prospect and why you have selected it for a call. The sales rep is put at ease while you explain exactly how you plan to make the call. You talk about each detail of the interview from the approach to the receptionist to the conclusion of the interview and the achievement of whatever objective was set for this call. As you talk, you arrange your equipment and sales tools for use in the interview. When you have completely planned the call, you ask the sales rep to review the steps briefly to determine how well your approach to planning has been absorbed. You and the sales rep then make the call together, but you conduct the entire interview; the sales rep acts only as an observer. After the interview you and the sales rep hold a curbstone conference to review all that happened during the interview, the extent to which the planning of the interview was followed, and the effectiveness of the planning. On the next call, you encourage the sales rep to do the planning out loud, correcting him until a fairly good finished plan is developed, and then tell him to make the call. The sales rep introduces you but without using your title. He then proceeds with the interview, paying no attention to you (who are now sitting a short distance away where you can follow the conversation without participating in it). The same technique of entering and withdrawing, described earlier as a training device for use with senior salespeople, may be employed with the new sales rep to “pick him up” should he stumble. In no case should you take the interview away from the new rep unless he “collapses” under tension or unless some other critical situation arises where, in your judgment, the welfare of the sales rep demands that you take control. Only the welfare of the new sales rep should be considered when you are deciding whether to take over. You must remember that more may be learned through failure than from success. It is often justifiable to let a rep fail and then point out his errors, show him how to overcome them, and let him try again and succeed through his own efforts.

While the new sales rep is getting started, you should keep in close touch with him. I suggest that first field contacts be at frequent intervals, but be spaced further apart as the sales rep progresses. For instance, after the first day, you might contact the sales rep again in three days. Or you might ask him to phone in every evening to report on what he has done each day, what problems he has run into, and what help he needs in overcoming sales resistance or other difficulties. The third contact may be a full week after the second, the fourth ten days later, the fifth after two or three weeks, until finally one field contact a month seems sufficient. If serious problems develop, it may become necessary to resume more frequent field contacts. During this entire period you are doing two things. First, you are trying to speed the growth, development, and productivity of this new salesperson; second, you are evaluating the sales rep to determine whether he continues to look as promising as he did at first. When a new salesperson is sincere, energetic, and honest, it is sometimes difficult to make a sound evaluation. Yet the company relies upon you to appraise his performance. The following procedure may help you in this connection.

At the conclusion of your first field contact, you and the sales rep reach agreement regarding the areas where the rep has shown strength and those where he must work harder to overcome apparent failings. This agreement on objectives for development is confirmed by your writing to the sales rep. At your next field contact, you carefully observe the degree to which the sales rep has tried to improve his performance. If he has ignored the areas of personal development that were agreed upon at the conclusion of the prior contact, you discuss this with him to find out why. If he has no good reason for failing to follow through on his training, you must again tell the sales rep what is expected of him; the same objectives must be set for your next field contact and again confirmed in writing. If on the next field contact there is still no evidence of any sincere effort by the sales rep to improve his performance in these same areas, you are obligated to explain to him that his success and his very continuance with the company depend on his ability to grow and develop. You explain that your role is one of teacher and helper to the sales rep, but that your effectiveness depends on the degree to which he applies himself to his own improvement. Thus the sales rep is warned that he had better make a real effort to master the training he is receiving. If by the next field contact you can still find no evidence of any real effort by the sales rep to follow your instructions, there is justification for discharging him. The deciding factor is the degree to which the sales rep is applying himself to the improvement of his weaknesses. The vital question is, Is he really trying? There is no purpose in butting your head against a stone wall by training a salesperson who isn’t interested enough even to try to follow your guidance.

The second consideration is whether the salesperson has the ability to absorb and apply the training. Perhaps he is trying but is incapable of following instructions or of applying what he has been taught. Perhaps he isn’t bright enough; perhaps he is emotionally disturbed by some personal matter. Whatever the reason, if the sales rep is not trying or appears incapable of learning and applying what he has learned, you and the company will be far better off without his services.

It has been said that new salespeople are like hurdlers in a race. They must jump a number of hurdles beginning with the first recruitment interview and continuing throughout their employment until they are fully integrated into the sales organization and given a senior’s territory. Anywhere along the line they may fail to clear a hurdle and be separated. They can’t win after they have knocked over a hurdle so it is pointless to let them keep running. It is the manager’s responsibility to determine whether an important hurdle has been knocked over and then to act accordingly. Too often the manager is subject to wishful thinking about his salespeople. The rep about to be discharged may secure a lucky order, and the manager begins to hope that he may make good after all, in spite of his unfavorable performance rating. This is a mistake. You ought not to base a judgment on a single incident, good or bad. When the sales rep’s overall performance indicates a course of action, then that action should be taken. Thousands of dollars have been lost by keeping poor salespeople on the payroll too long.

A Final Word

I have now come full circle in my discussion of the field sales manager’s many areas of responsibility. Rather than summarize what has already been stated at length in the preceding chapters, it would be more helpful to conclude this book with a brief checklist that will help you to answer that all-important question: “Am I doing my job well?” You can be satisfied that you are performing your job as field sales manager well when:

1.You have a plan of action for yourself and for each of your salespeople.

2.You know that your plan is being carried out and that each of your reps wants to carry it out.

3.You know how well you are doing with regard to every task that has been assigned you.

4.You know the next step that you and each of your people must take to achieve your personal objectives.

5.You strive constantly to improve your own performance and that of your salespeople.

6.Your salespeople realize that they are doing a better job because of the help you have given them.