Analizing & organizing in salesmanship *

Market surveys

The whole matter of market surveys is one of increasing importance in modern distribution. Its primary purpose is to determine the existing and possible outlets for goods or service. No matter how much assistance may be given by the house, the salesman will find it necessary to study and organize the particular territory in which he is operating. There are so many changes constantly taking place in products and methods of distribution that no salesman can work to the best advantage without a thorough knowledge of these outlets. The salesman's work in this connection will be that of a fairly detailed market survey.

Such a survey includes a careful study of the territory to be covered and of the particular classes of business concerns or individuals constituting the natural or possible prospects for his offering. Among other things, a good market survey or territorial analysis should furnish answers to the following questions:

• How do the physical characteristics of this territory, its industries, its state of prosperity and the occupations of its population affect the demand and possible consumption of our goods or service?
• How can the territory be covered to the best advantage?
• What dealers or individuals are prospects because of the nature of their business, the kind of goods they sell, or the positions which they occupy?
• Who are now handling our goods or using our service?
• Who are not but ought to be?
• What particular classes of business concerns or individuals make our best prospects?

In many lines one of the acid tests of good salesmanship is the ability to build up a good prospect list from such an analysis or market survey as this.

This matter of market survey is not exclusively a salesman's job. In fact, there are many lines in which it is almost exclusively the job of the sales executive or sales department. The salesman needs and is entitled to the help of the sales executive in making a market survey. In large concerns where there is a sales promotion department, survey and analysis of markets constitute an important feature of its work but even then the cooperation of the salesman is necessary and valuable.

In some lines analysis of territory is comparatively simple. For example, where the salesman's offering is exclusively adapted to the retail grocery trade the survey is largely a matter of obtaining maps, time tables and pamphlets which give locations and descriptions of the towns as well as the various transportation routes and a list of the Dun & Bradstreet ratings of the grocers, such as can be gathered from a grocery directory.

Likewise in the case of a manufacturer of a staple line with distribution exclusively among jobbers whose number is comparatively limited, the market survey is rather simple so far as individual prospects are concerned. Here, however, it may become necessary to make an intelligent survey of the jobber's territory with reference to its possible additional retail outlets for the company's goods.

Surveying the territory

In the case of most offerings the following general program for making a survey will be found helpful. Whether the salesman's territory consists of a certain state or county or city, a territorial survey can be made by studying the physical layout of the territory. If it be a state or group of states, he will learn whether it is a mountainous or level section.

It will be found worth while to arrive at the distances between the various towns, the means of transportation such as railways, trolley lines, motor bus routes and automobile roads. In this way detailed information on moving about and covering the territory to the best advantage can be secured. The sources of information are state maps, city maps and plots, railroad time tables and automobile road maps.

The industries, financial resources and trade conditions

If the industries and business activities of the territory are well diversified, its financial resources sound, and trade in a wholesome condition, a good market is afforded for all kinds of staples or specialties. If, however, it be mainly an agricultural section, the general condition of agriculture and special conditions in this section will have an important bearing upon the buying habits and buying capacities of this market.

On the other hand, if the principal industries are manufacturing, the general condition of these industries and the buying habits and purchasing power of the factory workers will need to be investigated. For example, the general and special conditions of the farmers in the middle west, the factory conditions in New England towns, or mining or smelting conditions in such states as Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Idaho, California, Utah, Nevada, and Montana will have an important effect on the market existing in those sections for all kinds of goods and services and must be the subjects of careful analysis and study.

Many companies make such surveys in order to determine sales quotas. Some make only a rough survey and give the salesman specific directions for making a detailed survey of his own as applied to his territory. This is often done in the case of such specialties as gas stoves, oil burners, electric heaters, radio receiving sets, adding machines and automobiles, as well as in the case of branded staples such as certain lines of men's hats and food products.

The sales manager frequently will send to the salesman a resume of census reports, United States Department of Commerce reports, special surveys made by advertising agencies, magazines and daily newspapers, trade associations or others to aid and give direction to the salesman's analysis. The salesman can hardly be expected to make as thorough a study of markets and market surveys as the sales executive must, but frequently the ambitious salesman will examine some or all of these sources for himself.

Classes of customers

The next step is to gain a fairly definite line upon the general classes of concerns or individuals among which the salesman should look for prospects. In the case of many products or services this is a comparatively easy matter. If one is selling a line of clothing or hardware or machinery, the class of prospects is easily determined in each case. On the other hand, in the case of life insurance, securities, educational courses, calculating machines and similar specialties, the task is not so easy.

The number of logical prospects is much greater and they are not so readily classified. It may be stated as a general rule that classes of prospects are more easily located in selling staple lines than in selling specialties. Even in the case of staples, however, so many changes are taking place in methods of retail distribution that classifying prospects is becoming increasingly difficult as well as increasingly important.

In determining the general classes of prospective customers the salesman should ascertain those classes of concerns or individuals which at present constitute the usual outlets for his goods or services and the classes of concerns which, because of current changes in their methods of retailing, could be induced to take on these goods as a relative or subsidiary line.

Consideration should be given to classes of concerns or individuals who, by special cultivation, could be made more profitable customers : their financial conditions, buying habits, and needs. In gaining this information one should investigate and analyze the records of one's own company. Some concerns do not permit direct access to records on the part of the salesman, whereas others encourage it. In those cases where it is not permitted the sales manager will usually furnish data along this line.

Some corporations send out men periodically to make such surveys. The National Lead Company, whose headquarters are in New York and whose branch companies are located in various parts of the country, will send a man out from headquarters to make a detailed survey of a state or group of states.

He calls upon dealers and individual painters to learn what National Lead products they are handling and what they are not handling, and why; what competing products they are handling, and why; and the local condition of the paint industry. His objects are to ascertain how the industry in general and the distribution of National Lead Company products in particular can be improved and how the company's salesman can best cooperate. This information is passed on to a general sales committee and the branch sales managers and salesmen.

Sources of information

The Department of Commerce of the United States has made certain surveys which can materially help the salesman, such as the Distribution Census Reports, Market Data Handbooks, and regional Commercial Surveys. These aids to business give marketing information concerning retail and wholesale distribution, the type or character and income of a community, the number of purchasing units therein, how the community spends its retail dollar, and various factors which indicate its purchasing power.

This is an example of the many sources of information available to fit into the requirements of any particular market survey and the tendency toward the increase of data of this kind as the importance of territorial and sales analysis grows. The progressive salesman will have little difficulty in getting in touch with such helpful surveys pertinent to his business and will utilize them to advantage.

It will be found that many daily newspapers generally throughout the country have prepared careful and detailed analyses of the trading areas in which their papers circulate, classifying the various sections according to average income and purchasing power and listing all retail outlets for practically every class of commodity. These have been prepared to lend assistance to large advertisers in securing distribution. It will be found that, in many cases, the retail outlets are laid out in definite routes so that the advertiser's salesmen can cover them quickly and efficiently.

Building an individual prospect list

Most important of all to the salesman is the matter of working up, and keeping up, a list of individual prospects. So far as the individual salesman is concerned it is the object of all his analysing and organizing efforts. More than any other one thing it enables a salesman to utilize the "law of averages." This law is a familiar one and it is a big thing in salesmanship. We might repeat it here.

Given a salesman of good average personality and intelligence with a good average offering and territory, if he will line up his prospects in advance for each day and then fill the day with good average intelligent work, he will become at least a good average producer. In short, a man can absolutely depend upon the results of well-planned, steady and intelligent work. That is the law of averages. It is worth a small fortune to the salesman who will utilize it. But he cannot do this unless he keeps a good prospect list. He cannot fill his days with steady, intelligent work unless he knows in advance upon whom he is going to call and why.

Sometimes the company, through its sales-promotion department, will make investigations and prepare such lists for the salesman. The New York Edison Company, in some of its separate bureaus, sends out men whose sole work is to locate individual prospects. Each morning the salesmen are furnished with lists of prospects for the day, and the salesmen are expected to devote their entire time to selling. However, in most lines the salesmen must build up their own lists.

There are really no cut-and-dried methods for building a prospect list. To a very large extent the salesman must rely upon his ingenuity and, in many lines, he must have a "nose for prospects," just as a newspaper reporter has a "nose for news." Following is a suggested line of procedure capable of general application. Obtain from the records of the company a list of present customers. The salesman will plan to cultivate them, service them, and use them as a source of endorsement and cooperation in making new sales.

Obtain from the company all prospective customers in the territory as indicated by general correspondence and inquiries sent in response to the company's advertising. Make a study of general directories, and telephone directories, particularly classified directories, in new territories.

Read carefully local newspapers and any other local publications. Keep in close touch with clubs, travel information bureaus and other organized activities in the territory and, if possible, secure lists of club and Board of Trade or Chamber of Commerce memberships. Really, there is no substitute for the salesman's being ever on the alert for new prospects to add to his list. In high-grade specialty selling work, prospect list building is one of the salesman's most important tasks.

Securing cooperation

Probably the most important thing in keeping up a good prospect list in many lines of selling is the securing of cooperation, suggestions as to other prospects, and introductions to them. There is probably no line of selling in which the aid of customers and friends in contacting other customers is not of importance to the salesman. In some lines, it is more apparent than in others. Methods of sincerely developing this friendship and cooperation are discussed on other pages, but some angles of it can advantageously be discussed here.

A salesman who was being complimented on his wonderful record in selling a new office device, replied that his record might be remarkable if he were the only representative of his firm in his territory. He was only the chief representative, it seemed. Every customer, he explained, was an active assistant of his, operating under his direction and working up leads, cooperation, and enthusiasm.

Considering that he had one hundred and fifty representatives, he concluded it was not so surprising that he was getting big results. Some salesmen have developed to a remarkable degree this ability to get others in a community actively boosting for them and cooperating with them.

There is a salesman selling a personal service who makes it a definite rule never to dispose of a prospect, either by selling him or failing to sell him, without getting from that man the names of at least two who can be added to his prospect list. At the end of his first year in his territory he remarked that, starting with nothing, he then had the names of over 2,000 prospects. He expected to dispose of those and more during his second year, and end that year with a list of at least 4,000.

One of his favourite remarks is that his most logical prospect is the man at the desk next to the customer whom he has just sold. Following this principle, he always, at the close of the sale, asks for the suggestion of names of friends, business acquaintances who might be interested in his offering, including the names of those who are logical prospects in the organization in which he happens to be at the moment. He has discovered that the time when one is most willing and enthusiastic to recommend a proposition to another is right after he has spent his own good money for it. This is not the only time he secures cooperation from his customers, but he never fails to request it at that time.

This method is comparatively simple when he has sold a man and secured his cooperation and friendship. Let us see how he proceeds with the prospect he fails to sell. When he has concluded that his cause is hopeless, has put his selling equipment away and made his preparations to leave, he turns to the prospect just before going, and asks : "Mr. Brown, who is your advertising manager here?" And upon receiving the name, he follows up with: "How old a man is he?" When this information is given him, he asks two or three other short questions, "College man?", "How long has he been with the company?" and the like. He makes these questions very brief and easy to answer. When he has jotted down the information he proceeds : "And who is your credit man?"

He follows the receipt of this information with two or three similar quick but tactful questions. He might, if the circumstances seemed propitious, continue until he has the names of three or four members of the organization. Ordinarily, however, he stops at two because he does not want to tire or bore his informant and he feels that it will be just as easy to get two more from one of those whose names he has just received.

He states that even though the prospect has not been particularly friendly to him during the selling interview he has no trouble in getting this information and the prospect who has just turned down his proposition seems glad to give it. Thus simply, he has replaced the one prospect of whom he has just disposed with two new ones. Furthermore, note that they are not merely names but that in addition he has secured some little information regarding the new prospects prior to contacting them.

A woman representing a children's encyclopaedia in a suburban town near New York, having learned that a woman she had just sold was a member of a parents' association of a private school in town, secured her telephoned introduction to three of her closest friends in the association.

Eventually, simply by following this procedure with each member of the association upon whom she called, she had sold practically every member and had the names of numerous other prospects outside the club's membership. A salesman operating in the same way sold his products to 98 per cent of the entire membership of the Rotary Club of his town. He purposely refrained from joining, himself, until he felt that his direct selling to its membership was completed.

"Must get this stuff insured," remarked a business man who had just established a new office. "Have you anyone particular in mind to whom you would like to give the business?" asked a visitor. "No," was the reply. "Well," continued the visitor, "I have an awfully nice chap handling my insurance. Give him a ring on the 'phone and he will fix you up. He has taken very good care of me." The call was made and a binder put on over the telephone. Not much trouble about getting that business. That insurance man subsequently handled all the automobile, fidelity, liability and burglar insurance for that man and, you may be sure, through him contacted many other new prospects.

Cooperation such as has been illustrated is not only a method for keeping prospects lined up ahead. In addition, it insures interviews on a friendly basis and a larger percentage of them.

Complete campaign

To illustrate this problem of analysing and organizing territory and of building a prospect list, let us observe, in detail, the procedure of one salesman in entering and taking up work in his territory. The territory was a large Midwestern city where he was to remain for about two years. He had never been to the city in question.

The salesman visited the public library in his home city and spent a few hours reading a brief history of the community in which he was to sell. He wrote to the Chamber of Commerce and obtained a good supply of booklets and pamphlets giving information about the city, its physical layout, transportation lines, outlying automobile roads, population, industries, institutions, people and financial resources. These he studied carefully. He obtained a state map, a county map and a city map with which he familiarized himself.

He obtained from the records of his company and the correspondence files a list of present customers and the advertising inquiries which had come in from the territory, former customers and prospective customers. He made from these a classified list showing the classes and occupations which furnished the largest number of customers and prospects.

Arriving in the city he spent one day making a personal survey of the town. He read the local newspapers, especially the local items and advertisements. He rode the trolley lines to the suburbs and back and visited the manufacturing, jobbing, retailing and residential sections. In the evening he made up a list of calls for the following day which included a list of present customers who were friendly to the company.

These customers were not prospects and the offering was of such a nature that a customer could be sold only once, but these satisfied customers were to be used as sources of prospects. The next day he called first upon three concerns in each of which there was a prominent executive who was a customer. In one of these the executive gave the salesman the names of two men connected with the company who were good prospects. In each organization he was given the privilege of using the executive as a reference. He constantly used this method of building a prospect list.

Each time he made a sale he endeavoured to obtain the name of some friend or acquaintance of the purchaser who might be a likely prospect. Each time that he made a presentation which seemed to produce a favourable impression but which for some reasons did not result in a sale he sought to obtain the name of some friend or acquaintance upon whom he might call.

He mingled with the business clubs and organizations of the city such as the Rotary Club and the Chamber of Commerce. He also made social contacts through a fraternity of which he was a member. He obtained from these sources numerous suggestions regarding possible prospects. He made investigations into the special needs of different types of prospects according to the positions which they occupied as president, general manager, department head or assistant. For the professions and other occupations or lines of work similar tabulations were made.

His own company had made some investigations along this line. He supplemented them by personal study of his own. In this way he was able to approach the individual prospect armed with a good knowledge of that man's special needs in relation to his offering.

Analysis of types of prospects

In many large concerns sales executives have given special attention to analysing different types of prospects with reference to their special needs. For example, the Equitable Life Assurance Society provides its salesmen with complete analyses of certain types of business men. These reports cover the matters of business status, family status, income, expenditures, savings, investments and total cash needs, and the insurance protection needs indicated.

The Dennison Manufacturing Company provides a most exhaustive analysis of different types of business with reference to their special requirements for the Dennison products. The Burroughs Adding Machine Company, the Monroe Calculating Machine Company, the National Cash Register Company and other like concerns furnish complete analyses of the different office operations of banks, manufacturing industries, jobbers, railroads, etc., showing the different needs of each with reference to their machines. Ordinarily, however, the salesman must do a large part of this work himself. The analysis of the prospects' needs is a vital element in good salesmanship.

Advantages of the survey to salesman

A market survey and analysis of his territory such as we have indicated on this page will increase the effectiveness and earning capacity of any salesman. It will definitely aid him in covering his territory more quickly and in selecting prospects more intelligently because he can uncover more outlets for his goods ; in approaching prospects more easily, by getting on good terms with them more quickly; in stimulating confidence and enthusiasm and in enabling him to take advantage of the "law of averages."

Advantages to executives

Market surveys also assist in the intelligent determination of the policies of the company and in the development of efficient cooperation with the salesman.