Business And Education - 2

Today no life insurance company of any significance will license and authorize an agent to sell its policies without completion of a comprehensive educational program.

Few men are aware, I think, of the fact that subscription book companies were the originators of scientific selling methods. They originated the "Selling Talk," way back in the seventies, and ever since have done an excellent job of training their salesmen - a fact to which I can personally attest.

As I have stated previously, during my senior year in college, as an extracurricular  interest, I studied and trained to be a book salesman for the F. B. Dickerson Company, a sales subsidiary of the R. C. Barnum Company, at that time a well-known subscription book company. Every Monday night I was obligated to attend a one-hour lecture on salesmanship, and every Saturday I spent a full hour in the company's office practicing a selling talk. That the training was thorough and expert may be deduced from the fact that, during the summer of 1920, I averaged a net profit of $32 per day selling a war book with atlas, at $8.75 each.

The first great commercial organization to fall in line with the subscription book organizations in the education and training of its salesmen, was the National Cash Register Company of Dayton, Ohio. This happened way back in 1887, at least a decade after book salesmen had put aside the haphazard method of selling, and taken on the scientific method. The way it happened is both interesting and illuminating.
In 1887, the company's attention was attracted to one of its salesmen by the name of J. C. Crane, whose sales were many times greater than those of any of the other men. Mr. Patterson, the late great founder and president of the company, called Mr. Crane to his office and asked him to explain and demonstrate his methods. Mr. Crane gladly complied.   When he had finished his demonstration, Mr. Patterson was so impressed that he offered him ten dollars - a good fee in those days - if he would repeat his demonstration. This Mr. Crane did, and meanwhile a secretary took down his selling talk verbatim.

Mr. Patterson then asked, "How did you discover it?" Mr. Crane explained that he had been losing a lot of sales, which he felt should have been closed. This set him to thinking. Analyzing his methods carefully, he finally came to the conclusion that these sales were lost because he had failed to mention certain very important facts about the cash register. He then began a systematic study of the machine and listed on paper all its good points in the sequence he felt would be most effective in making a sale.

Mr. Patterson recognized the merit of Mr. Crane's methods and immediately arranged for a meeting of his leading salesmen, to whom he explained Mr. Crane's methods. Mr. Crane then demonstrated his selling presentation, and Mr. Patterson announced that the selling talk had been printed so all National Cash Register Company salesmen could use it. They immediately rebelled - they did not want to be parrots. They would use their own methods and depend upon the spur of the moment for their inspiration, and not upon another man's previously cut-and-dried selling talk.

Mr. Patterson was a wise man and did not argue the point. Instead he quietly arranged for each man to demonstrate his method before the group. Secretly a stenographer was placed behind a screen back of the platform, and took down each selling talk, word for word.

Mr. Patterson then went over every selling talk carefully and blue-pencilled all statements which, as the lawyers put it, were "incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial." Thereupon he conferred with his salesmen, one by one, and said, "Mr. Doe, in your demonstration day before yesterday you said "  In every case the salesman took issue, and one replied rather belligerently, "I'm sure I didn't make any such statement. I'm not such a fool as to make a statement like that!"

Mr. Patterson replied, "Perhaps you'd like to know exactly what you did say," and handed the man a copy of his selling talk.

Each of the other salesmen also received a copy of his sales presentation.

• The Brain
• The Power Of The Mind
• The Importance Of Formal Education
• Five Reasons For A College Education
  
  
  1. A College Education Brings A Fuller Life...
  2. A College Education Opens The Door To Distinction
  3. A College Education Brings Job Security....
  4. A College Education Enhances Earning Power
  
  
• An Educated Citizenry Is A Vital Requisite For Our Survival As A Free People
• Learning - A Continuous Process
• Never Too Old To Learn
• Business And Education - 1
• Business And Education - 3