SALES DEPARTMENT
The sales department proper is in charge of a sales manager, who has immediate authority over his subordinates and is responsible for the results secured by his department. No position in the business organization carries with it greater responsibilities, for on the sales manager rests the burden of marketing the goods at a profit.
Without entering into a discussion of the science of salesmanship, the writer takes the liberty of suggesting some necessary qualifications of a sales manager.
He must be thoroughly imbued with the importance of his work and have an abiding faith in his ability to get the very best results out of his department. He must be enthusiastic and capable of imparting his enthusiasm to others.
He must know the goods, be they pianos or investment bonds. He must believe in his goods and his house. Unless he feels that his house is the best on earth and offers goods second to none, he cannot produce the full measure of results of which he is capable.
He must know the goods of his competitor and what methods his competitors are using. He must be willing to abandon his own pet schemes when they fail to produce, or to adopt a new plan, even though originated by another.
He must be a close student of human nature with the capacity for judging men. He must be a salesman in every sense else he is in no position to judge the qualifications of those in his employ.
On the other hand, the sales manager should be given full control of his department, until he proves to be incompetent. While other members of the organization will be consulted before a new campaign is launched, when the plans have been approved he should be permitted to try them out without interference. Assuming that he is a competent man in the first place, he will be the first to detect the weak points and set about to find a way to strengthen them.
Many a sales manager has had his usefulness impaired by the interference of others before he has had an opportunity to give a selling plan a fair trial. Selling campaigns have been discontinued before the turning point was reached, because someone higher in authority lacked faith; when they would have proved successful, if carried out as originally planned.
This is not an argument for a stubborn adherence to plans, regardless of consequence—any sales committee is liable to make errors—but before the campaign is launched the extent to which it shall be tried out should be decided. If the sales manager is given an appropriation of $500.00, or $5,000.00, for a trial, he can work intelligently, but if told to go ahead, and then ordered to stop before his campaign is well under way, he should not be charged with a failure.
Another thing that the sales manager should control is the question of salaries paid to the salesmen. We maintain that the amount of salary paid to a salesman is of no moment provided he is a profitable man. A $10,000.00 man who sells goods at a cost of 10% is more profitable than the $5,000.00 man who sells at 10%, or even 9%, because of the greater volumes of his business. The management should gauge the sales department by net costs, not by the amount of individual salaries.