Courtesy Photo
Peddling Books ’til Dusk
Mention of the tradition-rich Southwestern Co.
brings forth a wide range of opinions and reactions.
BY B.J THOMSEN
University student Steve Porter got a job with
Southwestern Co selling educational
material in the Midwe * two summers ago
He cleared $8,4(X), enough to carry him for the en
tire school year He returned the next year, worked
(or six weeks of the 12 week selling season before
returning home because of a broken knee Despite
the injury he still grossed more than $(>,800
"It's the best thing I've ever done, he says.
” that's what made my resume Porter recently
secured a job with Kodak Corp
University student Patrick Carey got a job with
Southwestern Co selling educational material in the
Midwest last summer He figures he lost a thousand
dollars When he was working he figures he made
SO 75 cents an hour
fen of 13 students in ( arey s team never tinlshed
the 12 week selling season Half quit within the first
two weeks Carey was picked up by police and drop
ped off at the county line twice for selling door to
door in Cherryvale. Kan From there he had to walk
back to Independence where he was living with a
family who agreed to take him and two others from
his team in for the summer They worked the sur
rounding area selling the Volume Library, essentially
a two volume condensed encyclopedia
Last summer several University students who
found summer work with Southwestern, a company
based in Nashville, Tenn that recruits college
students to sell door to door, had problems similar to
those of Carey The year before, during the summer
of 1985, all 14 University students that Southwestern
recruited finished the summer and grossed more than
$6,000
The company is not well known In the West
because only in the last 20 years or so has the com
pany extended its range beyond the Midwest, accor
ding to Jeff Rodgers, district sales manager for
Southwestern This, he says, is due largely to the fact
that more college students have cars than ever
before In the late 1960s, University graduate Dr
Kinley Snyder was the first student from the region to
sell for the company, according to Steve Davis,
district sales manager for the Northwest region
The Southwestern Co first became prominent in
the southeastern United States in 1861 when it
B J Thomsen is the politics editor lor the Oregon Daily Emerald
and covers the state legislature hi Salem A journalism major.
Thomsen calls Klamath Tails home *
printed bibles for Confederate soldiers during the
Civil War After the war the company began hiring
college students to sell books door to door, a practice
that has continued to the present day The earliest
copyright on the Volume l ibrary was ll)17. before
this the company primarily sold religious material,
which they still do in part of the country
Southwestern now recruits at IT universities in the
Northwest and employs d.2(X) students from 4(X)
universities across the nation each summer, accor
ding to Rodgers Davis says he works with around
2(H) college students from the Northwest each
summer
"Southwestern probably provides summer work for
more college students than any other company in the
nation." the sales manual boasts
THE
VOLUME
LIBRARY
Paul Squirt*, one of more than HO University
students who worked for the company last
summer, is returning tins summer as a student
manager With him lie will take .1 team of first year
dealers recruited throughout the year at the Universi
ty by him and others student managers
Students learn about the company in one of
several ways anonymous letter, word of mouth,
classified ad or by filling out an interest card after
which the student is contacted by a student manager
who invites them to a meeting
These introductory meetings are held each week
throughout the school year At the meetings Jeff
Rodgers lolls students about the program and the
product He stresses things like good money, good
experience, the chance to travel, advancement and
college credit as the advantages of working for
Southwestern He also tolls students they will be ox
peeled to work six days a week and that if they expect
to be successful they should sell until 9 SO p m
Directly after the meetings interested students meet
a student manager Some will Ik* hired on the spot
After a student signs .1 contract they meet each
week during the remaining school year with so
meone. usually their student manager, who has sold
for the company before At these meetings they begin
learning how to sell the product
finally, all students recruited from the University
during the year will meet on I hursday or I riday of
finals week and from there they begin a marathon 50
hour plus journey to sales school in Nashville
Students make the journey non stop in their own cars
and .it their own expense, and are required to bring
an additional $2.r>0 to cover traveling expenses and
lodging while- at the school
(Jnce m Nashville students undergo live days 01 in
tense instruction on sales techniques to be used dur
iny twelve. HO hour weeks of door to door selliny
during the summer in their designated area
According to Davis, the company will conduct
eight sales school sessions this spring More than ‘XK)
students from around the nation are attending the
school this week, he says
The students from the University who went last
year were divided primarily between Kansas and
Texas This year Rodgers says the group will either
head for upstate New York or the Dallas I’ort Worth
area
At sales school students learn how to answer every
objection from a potential customer for example, in
the sales and business management manual that
students are given at sales school, there are six
responses to "I can t afford it
Students are taught how to approach certain situa
lions and are given step by step detailed written in
structions on how to make each presentation.
There are seven distinct steps to making each
presentation and following it through to the end
The "pre approach" step consists of finding out
from each family visited the particulars of who lives
down the street, the number of children in each farm
ly. their names, where they go to school, where the
family goes to church and so on This way when the
student dealer moves to the next house lie or she
knows all about the family And talking to other peo
pie in the neighborhood puts prospective customers