Life — September 8, 1921 — page 14: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

With apologies to SYSTEM ‘1ST HALF YEAR PERIOD 2ND QUARTERLY PERIOD FEB MAR IAPR 1ST QUARTERLY PERIOD JAN ENTIRE YEAR 2ND_ HALF YEAR PERIOD _ | 3RD QUARTERLY PERIOD MAY JUNE |JULY AUG SEPT!OCT NOV Shaded portion shows business done by Gonnick Cantilever Bridge Co. for year 1908, compared with Himalaya Mountains (indicated by dotted line) during same period. HOW I TRAIN MY MEN TO SELL CANTILEVER BRIDGES PRESIDENT, JOSEPH L. GONNICK By JOSEPH L. GONNICK CANTILEVER BRIDGE COMPANY In this article Mr. Gonnick tells how his salesmen are trained to sell bridges salesmen with a Southern terri- tory asked to see me personally. I bade him come to my office. As soon as we were seated he began: “Mr. Gonnick, I am discouraged and worried. Business in my district is ter- rible as you probably know by my report charts. I am afraid,” he added jokingly, “T could not sell a bridge in my territory at a price of $1.” I had been tempted to discharge the man as his reports showed he had not sold a bridge for several weeks, but his remark made me stop and think. His territory had always been a very profit- able one for us and his familiarity with A BOUT seven months ago one of our well continued, “there is practically no co-operation between the factory and the field sales force. Let me give you an ex- ample. After I have talked and talked and finally made him believe in our bridges, a customer gives me an order. Hoping to keep his fine faith in our bridges I ask our factory to be careful. But the order department merely ob- serves the distance to be covered by the bridge and sends him Railroad Trestle, Model 3 D, or any other type in our over- stock. Mr. Gonnick, this is nothing but downright impoliteness to our patrons and we cannot succeed along such lines.” I saw his point and steps were taken. ‘To-day we have monthly dinner dances where the sales force and order depart- ment meet to exchange experiences and establish mutual good will. The sales force is in a particularly thriving condi- tion, the gross sales during last August, a month which usually offers slack trade in our line, averaging 22% long and short bridges per salesman. Another motto that has helped me a lot is the one that goes: “Men Are Noth- ing But Little Boys Grown Up.” It oc curred to me one day while reading the motto that most little boys like to have better toys than their comrades. The idea came that the same principle could be applied to goods a salesman sells. the trade had for- merly made us con- sider him one of our best men. “Coggswell,” I said. “You have been one of our best men. Have you any solution for the problem?” “Yes, I have,” he replied. “It is there.” He pointed to one of the mottoes above my desk. I turned around and read: “No Matter How Small the Dealer He Ought to Get a Little Politeness.” “TI mean,” Coggs- “MR. GONNICK, BUSINESS IS TERRIBLE!” Weekly letters re- newing the faith in our products now keep the lonely sales- man far away from his family from being discouraged. A bonus and prize system has also been evolved from the idea. Every month a free pair of movie seats is given the man showing the best re- port card. The sales- man who sells the longest bridge during the year goes with me to the circus as my guest. comicbooks.com len ex] the suy Tai wh the