By H. W. Brown of the Tabor Mfg. Co., Philadelphia
Formerly each salesman was given a certain territory, and as is customary practice, was allowed to cover it as he pleased. An investigation of each salesman’s territory and reports showed that the salesmen were reaching but a fraction of the prospects in their respective territories.
To date, the application of scientific management principles consist in the development of a routing system with a moderate attempt to set tasks for the salesmen in that they are given a certain number of calls to make in each town that they visit, which calls must be made within the period allotted for the salesman’s stay in that territory. The basis of the system is a route map showing the most convenient routes by which the salesmen can reach the different towns in his territory, these routes being arranged not only in reference to the geographical situation of the various cities to be visited, but with regard to the railroad connections both for entering and leaving the town. Thus, although one town might logically from its geographical position be on the same route with a nearby town, the train connections between the two might easily be such as to render it advisable to place the town upon an entirely different route.
The several possible customers in each town are listed upon report blanks, which contain the essential information which it is necessary for the home office to have regarding the customer. Among this information there is included the names of the various officials of the company with whom the salesmen can do business, number of men employed, nature of product, character of equipment in the factory, etc. Blank spaces are provided with appropriate notations, so that the salesmen will give to the home office exactly the information it needs without omitting anything important and yet omitting all matter irrelevant to the subject of making sales. Attached to the report blanks is a tickler slip on which is entered by the salesmen the time at which the prospects should be interviewed attain. The tickler slip is filed in the home office to come up at the proper time and indicate to the office that the salesman should be routed so as to call on that particular prospect at about the time needed. The cards are posted upon a bulletin board in the home office representing the “jobs ahead” exactly as jobs ahead arc represented upon the shop bulletin board. At the time that the salesman should visit the prospect on the given route, the cards for this route are taken from the bulletin board, at the same time as the series of slips giving the salesman’s address and work for the next two or three days are posted, so that it is always possible for the office to get in touch with him, if necessary, at any time during his trip.
The salesman’s reports, which afterwards become the cards upon the bulletin board, are filed in the envelope which carries upon its face a duplicate of the information on the card. Thus, when the cards are forwarded to the salesman as his order to start upon a trip, the office still retains in its possession all the information relating to the prospects which the salesman has. The system is extremely flexible and is so arranged that a salesman may be stopped at any point in his trip and started upon another route to cover an emergency, which may have arisen after he started on the trip originally planned. When this event takes place, the salesman returns to the office all the cards relating to the prospects which he has not visited, and the office arranges a new route for him which will include those possible customers at the earliest practicable date. The clerical labor involved in the routing of salesmen by this method consists of a stenographer and a boy. The cost is certainly no more, and is, probably less, than the former methods of handling salesmen, inasmuch as the amount of high priced executive’s time which must be devoted to the sales department is much diminished.
Considering the greater number of customers visited and the natural increase in sales which should result from the greater activity of the sales force, the cost per sale of running the sales department should be materially diminished. Unfortunately the business situation in the country has not been such since this system was instituted as to exhibit the full possibilities of it, and therefore comparisons between it and the former methods of handling salesmen are not possible.
The bonus system takes into account a number of factors, among them the number of calls made per day, the closeness with which the calls are kept to schedule, the amount of business secured, etc. This feature of the work has been developed to a smaller extent than the routing and scheduling, although it is thought that it is capable of much further extension. It is felt that the application of the principles of scientific management to sales work is hardly started as yet, and that it is capable of extremely wide development.
