DEATH OF THE SALESMEN

An Old Calling Needs New Life

COMMERCE Secretary Sinclair Weeks needs two new cars, but he has vowed not to buy them until a salesman calls on him and "sells" him.

Complained Weeks: "I have not heard from an automobile salesman for at least four years." All over the U.S., businessmen would agree with the Secretary that the great American salesman, if not dead, is fast asleep.

While billions are spent each year on advertising to get customers into the tent, little is being done to sell goods at the retail level. Says President George P. F. Smith of Borg-Warner's Norge appliance division: "Retail salesmen? There are no such animals.

The present crop of salesmen never had to sell, and the oldtimers who did are now in executive positions or have retired." The shortage of salesmen is apparent everywhere, from the auto showroom, where a prospective buyer can often spend half an hour without anyone even bothering to take his name, to the smallest counter in a department store. Once upon a time, department-store salesmen used to break into a sprint the minute the elevator door slid open. Now, after more than a decade of mere order-taking and shelf-straightening, many of them wait until called by the floor supervisor. As Manager John Glick, of Robinson's department store in Beverly Hills, pointed out: "These days, the salesmen say, 'Why work when the customer is going to sell himself anyway?' " Furthermore, the salesman, once a glamorous figure, has been too often satirized as a loud-mouthed backslapper with low humor and morals.

Thus, many young people have such a low opinion of selling that they want no part of it. In addition, the pay in many selling jobs is low: the average weekly wage in retailing is only $54, v. $72 in manufacturing. With steadily shrinking profit margins, retailers feel that they cannot afford to meet the going rates of other industries, even though higher wages for better salespeople might be more than made up by increased sales.

Much of the blame lies with retail management. Often, top retail management does not spend enough time teaching salesmen the qualities of their products. The average department store spends no more than two or three days in the basic training of new salespeople, and much of that time is spent simply showing them where the rest room is and how to fill out forms in quadruplicate. Such red tape is in itself a barrier to sales. Customers will often pass up an item they can use rather than wait ten minutes while the clerk fusses with an order book and change. Furthermore, big stores carry so many competing lines of equipment that they hardly dare plug any single brand. Instead of helping a customer to buy, a clerk often merely confuses him with such generalities as "they're all good," without bothering to point out the qualities that might fit a buyer's specific needs.

In Denver, when Daniels & Fisher scattered its fire on five makes of appliances, sales were slow. Recently, it has concentrated on one, and appliance sales have soared 345%.

Usually, where selling improves, aggressive management is responsible.

President David Mayer of Chicago's Maurice L. Rothschild Co. not only pays his salesmen well (average of $150 a week) and keeps no time clocks, but has worked out a new gimmick in his sales contests, similar to those that aggressive retailers now run. The store antes up $1 for every garment of a certain make that a salesman can sell.

For every five sales, the salesman is entitled to draw a playing card; at week's end the salesmen with five cards or more show their hands for a high-low split of the pot. Thor Corp.

works on salesmen's wives to spur their husbands: the company keeps the wives closely informed about sales contests so that they can nag their husbands to greater efforts to win such prizes as a trip to Paris with the wife.

Some of the biggest steps toward improving salesmanship have been taken by the manufacturers. A big West Coast maker of women's coats and suits keeps five sales teams on the road at all times. When a team visits a town, it rents a topnotch hotel suite, puts on a dinner and fashion show for the salesgirls of its retail outlet, tells them all about the products they are selling. After such a show, sales jump 20% to 40% almost immediately. But many businessmen have been slow to adopt such tactics.

With $200 billion in liquid assets and an annual income of $285 billion, there is no doubt that U.S. consumers have plenty of money to buy and keep business humming at high levels.

But, like Secretary Weeks, they are no longer willing to go hunt someone to sell them something. Since most of their pressing needs have been filled, many consumers are in a mood to buy only if a salesman is willing to take the trouble to sell them.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.