NOVEMBER
10, 1923
THE
MUSIC
TRADE
5
REVIEW
Maintaining a Proper Prospect File
No Element Is of More Importance in Creating a Satisfied Sales Force Than a Prospect File Which Eliminates
the Possibilities of Disputes Among Salesmen Regarding the Credit for Sales-- -Isolation
and Centralized Responsibility the Necessary Factors
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it is give n to another man. We th ink that if
Nothin g keeps a gre ate r deg ree of ha rmony
a m a n ca nnot clo se a s,ti e in th at time and the
in a retail sa les force th a n a properly h a ndl ed
prosp ect has no t bO\l ,~' ht somewhe re el,e the
p ro spect file, and, co nverse ly, nothing creates a
trouble is w it h the man an d sw itchin g ,ales men
g r ea ter disturb ance than a prospect file which
o ften lead s to closillg the sa le.
is not properl y supervised and kept accurately.
"vVh en we: fir,t started this sy stem we had
When two sa les m en both claim a sa le and th e
a good deal of co mplaint.
.'\ salesm a n, for
prospect file is ill such co nfll s ion that the justice
in sta nce, would see a prospect give n to another
to each o f their claims may not be immedi a tely
man who clo se d ' h ill! a lmost immediately and
give n a con dition ari ses th at at on ce reac ts
would bel ieve we had deprived hi m of a com
upon the e nti re se llin g for ce to its detr im e nt
missi on. But thi, did not last long. Fo r he
and which is reflected in a lowe r vo lum e of
soon found that he abo r ecei, ed prospects of
sa le s. For it must be rememb ered that sal es
this t ype and t hat he m ade up what he lost on
m e n, t hat is, good salesmen, are particularly
th e first by clos in g on the second.
sensiti ve, and a di ssa ti sfied ment a l s ta te im
Eliminates Split Commissions
mediately lowers tht: efficiency of their wo rk.
" .\n ot her thin g th a t this system has don e
A Successful Example
There is a cer tai n pia no house in o ne o f the
mis s io ns betwe en t wo sa les m en, usu a ll y between
larger cities wh ich has a tot a l of four retail sa les
a fl oor m a n and an outs id e ma n. This is always
branches in th e district cov e red fro m the cen
a real sour ce of ar g ument and does much to
tral office. Salesmen who have wo rked in th e
cut down the e fficiency of the selling force.
organization som et im es ha ve a goo d deal to
The floor man, when he knows h e can sp lit
say about it after th ey leave; but there is one
a commission with an outside man, lays down
thing they arc all un animo us on and that is
0n th e prospects of th e sales man who refus es
there is never a dispute abo ut the credit for a
to give him his and in man y cases t he house
sale . Even if a salesman in o ne branch may
loses the sale e ntir ely. Of course, there may
develop a pros pec t to the point of buyin g a nd
be som e private a rran gements w hich we know
that prospect buy s from the floor force of an
nothing about , b ut that is na turally beyond our
other branch, th e sa le is always promptly cred
cont r ol. \V e have eliminated the necessity for
ited to the man who has created it, without
thi s as far as po ss ible and as a result we have
argument and without it being necessa ry for
bett e r sa lesmen, both inside and outs id e.
him to find th a t the prospect has bou g ht by
A Difficult Question
calling at h is home and di scove ring the in st ru
"This question of relations bdw een in side and
me nt already there which he has been tryin g to
outside men is a tough one, Most of th e dif
se ll.
ficulty ari ses fro m the fact that som e dealers
The advantage of s uch a sy s t em is at once
s till pay th eir floor men comm ission o n their
appa re nt. Firs t of a ll, it makes the salesman
di rec t sa les. Now, it is hum an nature,' und er
perfe ct ly willing to give his full co-operation
this sys tem, for the floor man to cons.i der every
to the house, for he knows that his rights are
sa le he closes a s e ntirely his own and put up
properly pro,tected. Secondly, he spends no
a stiff fight to receive the entire commission
time in usel ess calls which could be much more
on it. It is ju s t as much human natur e for the
profitably ut ilized in workin g on new sa les.
outs id e man to tak e every pre caution to pro
T hirdly , there ar e no dispute s amo n g the sales
tec t himself on w hat is really hi s propert y, a nd
m en , an d no feelin g that sin ce so-and-so got a
to spe nd a good deal more tim e tha n h e ~hou ld
sal e away from him he is going t o pay the
abo ut .the war e rooms, waitin g patie ntly for
fonner back in his own coin one of these da ys.
pro spects to keep appointmen ts which th ey
This house has a problem that exceeds in
ne ver, so m ehow or other, do. Result is again
com plexity that of the average dealer who has
lost sa les both for the house and the indi vi dual
but the one s tor e or at most two war erooms.
sa lesm an , to say nothing of a constant s tate of
Yet it has s ucc eede d in solvin g it successfully,
quarreling and fighting w hich does nob ody any
which is all t he more reason why the deale r
goo d.
should leave no room for confusion in hi s store
"The soluti on for this is a properly kept
and among his selling force ..
pro spec t file, first o f a ll, and th e payment of
Isolation and Responsibility
"The secret of maintaining a proper prospect
sa lar ie s and not commissio n to the floor men.
file," said one of the mana gers of this organiza
Persona ll y, I , believe (he only way to pay a
tion recently in di sc ussin g this Ifuestion with
sa lesm an. on the floor is throu g h the quota
The Review, "is iso la tion and co'n cen trati o n of
system; that is, his salar y s hould be based on
res po n si bility. Noon e sh ould h ave access to
the sales he makes with a bo nu s on his gross
the file save the perso n in direct c~rge oJ.: ; i·t
volume of busin ess as it exceeds his quo ta. In
and th e manager, and th e former must carr y the
this way every sa le h e closes counts in his
entire r espo ns ibility. On ce t he sa les!l1~~'~_~~o ws , ~ n come, no .matte r what outside ma n may ha ve
that th ese two conditions exis t t!! ere rs a re
ha ndl ed the prospect and really laid th e g round
markable dro ppin g off of dispu!~ regarding · 'Work of't he sale. l:nder this system h e must
th e cr edit for sales, for he know s that we regard
work for th e house when he is working for
Ih e information in the file as final and th at
him se lf and there can b e no divided interes t
to di v ide his effor t s.
beyond it there is no appeal. O n ce he has thi s
No System Perfect
fact fi xe d in his mind he takes a ll th e care in
"Of course, I want you to under s t a nd th at
the w o rld to give us full informati on, for he
there is no prospe ct file system so pe rfect that
knows th a t by doing this h e protects hi s own
dispu tes will not come up at times. B ut most
inte rest.
of tho se we have to deal w it h are cl ue to th e
"A saksman who turns a prospect into the
ca reles s ness of the men th e,mselves in making
house niakes out two' cards, one for the hou se
out their r epor ts an d one experience is usually
and ont: for him self. If he is in a branch a
tno ugh to cur e them of this ca reless ness. Th'e
third ca rd is made out for its own file. The
prospect file may be a small thin g, but it exert s
ma ster fil e is kept in th e 'main office. Every
a grea t deal of effect up on the me n when it is
thirt y day s we require a re port on the progress
wron g and ca uses a loss of busine ss every time
the sale is mak in g. If at the end of ninety
it doe s th a t. No dea ler , w hether he b e large
days the sale ha s not been closed or the pros
or small, so lo ng as he has men sell ing for
p ec t reported dead he loses his right in it and
him , can afford to ha ve suc h a condition, espe
cia ll y when, afte r all , it onl y requires a littl e
ti m e and care t o r em edy it com plet ely."
\nd here it is proper to tell the stor y of
what happe ned in. a certai n wareroom, w here
by th e sa le of a r ep roducing pi ano was lost,
first throu g h the carelessness of th e floor man
an d second thr o u gh an inadequ ate pro spect file.
A n outside m a n in thi s organization had a
prospec t for s uch an in st rum en t. He r eporte d
th a t he thought he co uld close a sale for th e
leader of the lin e, a n ins trum e nt t hat retailed
at $3,500. Four or fi ve calls led to hi m being
con vinced he had ~o lcl (he prospect on the in
,tr um en t, that is, th e idea o f owning it, but
that the entire difficult y was the price. Finally
the prospect came to the ·warerooms . H e was
han dled by a floo r man who stood by the hi gher
priced in strum e llt and who let the prospect go
without s howi n g the next olle in the line. Te n
days la ter the outside man made a call and
found that his prosp ect had bought fr om an
other house wh ich had an instr ument that sol d
for $1,000 le ss, but whi ch w as exac tly paralleled
in the line of the first hou se. No report had
been made by the floor man an d the sale was
entirely lost. Carelessness was the only basis
for it an d an inad equate prospect fil e. This is
one case that is known, but how many more
have th ere been th at have been lo s t the same
way and wh ich have never bee n reported? And
how many sa les me n are th er e who are nu rsi n g
a sec r et injury regarding ju s t s uc h happenin gs?
Efficiency Depen-ds on Satisfaction
An efficient selling force is alw ays a sa tisfied
<;elling force. Now, there can be no sa tisfied
selling forc e unless every man in it is con
vinced that his interests are being protected at
all tim es and that every sale which is legiti
mately his will be credited to him. The dea ler
or manager may say that th e sales men will
not co-operate , but se lf-i nterest alone will mak e
the m do it.
And the salesman can not co
operate unl ess the h ouse g ives him something
10 co-operate with.
That, in this case, is a
prope r file, isolated and supe rvised by some
one who car ries the full responsibility fo r it.
WANTS MORE TRADE COMMISSIONERS
Secretary of Commerce Hoover Asks Appro
priations to Ai-d American Foreign Tra-de
W ASlUNGTON, D. C, Nov ember 6. - ·In order that
America n bu s in ess men may havt: better r ep re
se ntation in al l p ~rt s o f the world, Secretary
of Commerce Hoo ~' has asked th(' Director of
th e Budget (0 apPj ove an appro priatio n to be
mack by the ne x1 Congres s providing for the
addition of so me twenty trade commiss io ners.
Seve ral of t he pro posed pos itions would be in
SO llth Ame ri ca in cou ntri es with which the de
partment is an x ious to in creas e American busi
Hess. It i, th e hope of Secretary Hoo ver that
eventu a ll y the d e partment may ha ve a trad e
repr esentat ive in eve r y important port through
out the wo rld .
HEARING ON SHONINGER CASE
NE W HAVE N , CONN., 1\ ovember 3.- -J udg e Edwin
S. Thom as, of the United States District Court,
has iss ued an order for a li' creditors a nd tho se
interested in the bank r upt cy of the bldB . S hon
in ger Co., of thi s cit y, to ap pear befor e him
o n November 15 'to show ca u se w hy, after dis
tribution of th e ass ets of the corpora ti on in
bankruptcy, th e receiver in equit y s hould no t be
di sc har ged.