Birth of a Salesman

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Of course, they also met with a good deal of customer skepticism and were often seen as disruptive by local merchants and politicians. Friedman skillfully covers all of this with a large dose of amusing and informative anecdotal evidence from peddlers of this era. The book continues though the latter half of the s explicating the roles of the canvasser, a salesman of petty goods, who traveled from farmhouse to farmhouse, and the drummer, a salesman either employed by a large wholesale house or who worked independently calling on businessmen to establish long term customer relationships.

Both of these sales types were at their peak in the s and both were the predecessors of the more modern salesman that was to come in the twentieth century. These sales forces were primarily the product of mass manufacturing operations that attempted to produce uniform salesmen using uniform arguments. Contrary to the drummers and canvassers, these salesmen represented the manufacturer not themselves. This led to the creation of the sales manager position — someone who was responsible for the training and managing of the sales force through quotas, commission rates and territorial assignments.

Friedman extensively covers the selling activities at companies such as Heinz and National Cash Register NCR , among others, as well as the dynamic and innovative personalities behind these extremely successful sales organizations. Scott, to the sales profession are cited.

Birth of a Salesman - Walter A. FRIEDMAN - Google Книги

Scott, who became head of the Bureau of Salesmanship Research at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in , worked on various projects that resulted in isolating the characteristics of the successful salesman and systematizing the sales personnel selection process. Friedman highlights this era with examples from companies such as General Motors and the Fuller Brush Company and includes details about the leading sales personalities at these organizations and many of their sales tactics and strategies.

With Birth of a Salesman , he has certainly gone a long way toward fostering a greater awareness and appreciation of this often-maligned profession. Brady Philadelphia Inquirer Would you like to tell us about a lower price? If you are a seller for this product, would you like to suggest updates through seller support? Learn more about Amazon Prime. Read more Read less. Prime Book Box for Kids.

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Birth of a Salesman

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Please try again later. Instead of individual salespeople, the book focuses much more on people who have brought about changes in the area of sales. Specific people mentioned include: The chapter included techniques salespeople used to promote and sell the memoirs. Henry Heinz - Sold vegetables and eventually led to the Heinz Company. Walter Scott - Developed studies on sales psychology and research. The book covers many more figures in addition to those listed above. Birth Of A Salesman also describes various topices such as: Various sales trends and how the sales field has changed over the years.

Importance and influence of sales today. The general public's overall negative perception of sales that salespeople have had to overcome. A good read for anyone who may be in sales and wants to learn more about sales history, famous sales leaders in USA history, and many other topics pertaining to sales.

This is the first serious historical study of salesmanship that I know of, and it's terrific. What do you see as the distinction between sales and advertising?

Birth of a Salesman

The entrepreneurs who built large mass manufacturing businesses usually relied on both selling and advertising. But the salesman's role in promoting goods was different from that of advertising. To use a military analogy common in the early twentieth century, advertising was a weapon for waging an air war, while salesmen were deployed as foot soldiers in a ground campaign. Sales workers performed a range of different tasks: Salesmen learned to answer specific questions about a product and its application, and to grant credit to buyers and make arrangements for delivery.

The industries that traditionally invested heavily in salesmen—insurance, automobiles, office machines, branded foods, and pharmaceuticals—did so because they believed salesmen were effective and persuasive in creating demand. Salesmen pushed customers to buy products or services that they might not have otherwise purchased. They were particularly good at introducing new products to customers.

For instance, the cost of selling the first electric refrigerators in the early twentieth century was very high as salesmen worked to convince homeowners of the value of the new machine over the traditional delivery of ice. After the demand for refrigerators was established, manufacturers concentrated on advertising, on differentiating their product from other makes, and on price competition.

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Salesmen also persuaded customers to buy their company's product rather than a competitor's, championing an Electrolux vacuum cleaner rather than a Hoover, for instance. Salesmen could be effective in this regard, pointing out marginal differences between one product and another. If two cars or two refrigerators were similar in performance and design, salesmen might be able to sway the customer toward one brand or another. This was not a trivial accomplishment. The consequence of this type of marginal ability to influence consumers could be great.

Once "prospects" purchased one company's product over another's, they became customers of that company and were targeted for follow-up calls or for more promotional material. They also became familiar with the product and were likely, unless disappointed with it, to continue to purchase from the company again, as this was less risky than trying something new.

Who do you think was the most significant figure in the history of sales? Patterson, who lived from to , was a contemporary of the Henry J. Burroughs, and other founders of great sales organizations.

Birth of the American Salesman

More than any of his contemporaries, however, he strove to make an all-encompassing system of sales management. He created a global sales force that constantly sought new customers and tried to sell replacement merchandise to existing ones and strove to quash competitors. Beginning in the mids and continuing to his death, Patterson promoted "scientific" salesmanship. Taylor, the founder of scientific management in production, Patterson carefully analyzed business processes and tried to perfect them. He created carefully written sales scripts, drew up detailed maps of sales territories, and tested different methods of compensation.

Also, like Taylor, he placed the pace of work under managerial control by demanding that salesmen meet monthly quotas.

The Transformation of Selling in America

Patterson was not a likeable person. He believed in the need to break men down, treat them cruelly at times, and then rebuild them as good agents or executives for NCR. But he was influential. He was a great promoter of himself and of the idea that sales management had to be handled systematically, even "scientifically. A remarkable number of former NCR executives became presidents of other concerns, many in the field of automobiles, office machinery, and other mass-production industries.

NCR alumni included Charles F. Watson of International Business Machines. The well-known IBM motto "Think! The salesman is perhaps the most familiar and consistent image of American business particularly in literature. George Babbitt and Willy Loman are familiar names to many Americans. Why do you think the salesman has become the symbol of American business?

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