I jisi summrr, University students employed by Southwestern Co. worked in Kansas and I exas. I his year they will head to
either upstate New York or the I)alla'.-Kort Worth area.
at t-ast*
After the first step comes the ap
proach, the introduction, the
demonstration, the close, answering
objections and collecting the money
This whole process is rehearsed over
and over at sales school and at the first
few Sunday meetings, according to
John McBarron, a University student
who sold for Southwestern last sum
mer He describes sales school as
reminiscent of military indoctrination
Role playing and video tapes of
sales techniques also play a big
role in the five clay school, ac
cording to Susan Douglass, a Universi
ty student on McBarron's team last
summer
Sales school is described by Carey
and Douglass as a sort of "brain
washing" session
Although he says that brainwashing J
is pretty strong language. Paul Squire |
believes its partly true because of the j
company’s message that one can sue
ceed if one works hard, keeps a |
positive mental attitude and doesn't j
quit "You could call it training too. |
Squire says
"It is sort of like finals week." accor
ding to Squire, who says at times he felt I
like he was suffering from the strain of j
an "information overload
During sales school students also at
tend talks by motivational speakers )
who have sold for the company in the |
past All people who work for the com
pany began as dealers selling for
Southwestern during summers while in
college
The speaker on the last day of school
is the vice president of the company,
Allen "A C " Clemens, described by
McBarron. who saw him speak at the
school, as resembling an evangelical
preacher
Friday afternoon, after A C gives
them their last talk, the students once
again pile into cars and caravan to their
designated sales areas
Motivation is stressed as the key to a
successful summer An entire section of
the sales manual is devoted to motiva
tion The section in the manual on
positive mental attitude suggests that
between each house the dealer say j
aloud "This is the best day I've ever i
had I can. I will. I'm going to help JO
people a day live a richer, fuller more
meaningful life because I stopped by
and showed them my books I can, I
will, I'm going to become, day by day,
one of the greatest salesmen the
Southwestern Company has ever
had
The manual goes on to say that by
repeating that phrase one can not help
but maintain a positive mental attitude
and an enthusiastic outkiok
Mi Barron says that each team is also
expected to make up a name for
themselves to create team spirit and
unity McBarron's team was the
KAMS Rams Attitude Means Success
Each morning after the team eats
breakfast together they do the
bookman song and dance in the park
ing lot of the cafe or restaurant,
something McBarron refused to
recreate during the interview
Peer pressure, according to
Douglass, is used as a strong tool to
keep students from quitting and to
keep students motivated and willing to
put in long grueling hours
In the Midwest, temperatures of 1(H)
degrees and humidity readings of 1(K)
percent are common during the sum
mer
The company and student managers
expect dealers to be knocking on doors
from Sam to 9:30 p m and even
later if one wants to be successful they
tell students
Douglass says at times she would sell
until 10 30 p m
At the Sunday meetings, according
to Douglass, everyone who worked
more than SO hours is asked to stand
and be recognized "They make you
feel really small if you, God forbid, only
worked 70 hours that week she says
There are other incentives For ex
ample she got a pie in the face at a
Sunday meeting for losing a selling
contest to another dealer, she says
"They were going to do it again but I
refused" to allow it to happen a second
time, she says
McBarron says he also experienced
strong peer pressure not to quit from
his teammates when he suggested he
might leave He eventually did,
reqardless
Squire says that he admires anyone
who sells hooks door to door, even it
they only do it for a week and then
quit "You get a lot of 'no's' for every
yes'," he says, noting how hard it is to
continue while being constantly re
jected "I don't think anyone can really
fathom how hard it really is," Douglass
says
Almost everyone interviewed agreed
that selling door-to-door was one the
hardest things they had ever done
Opinions on why sellers are given
areas so far from home vary Rodgers
says it is due to simple geographical
logistics Students corning from the
West sell relatively close to Nashville so
they don't have to make the long trip
from Oregon, for example, four times:
once to sales school, once back to
Oregon to sell, once to Nashville to
pick up their check and then home If
Oregon dealers sell closer to Nashville,
he says, they only have to make the
long trip twice, once out and once
back
Conversely. McBarron me! students
from Georgia who were being sent to
Oregon to sell for the summer
McBarron. who sold for about three
weeks last summer before borrowing
money from his land lady so he could
afford the 48 hour bus trip back to
Oregon, says he thinks the reason for
locating students far from home is so
they will have little incentive to quit
once they reach their sales turf That
did not deter McBarron and nearly 40
other University students from quitting
last summer, however
"I don’t care if people are on the
moon, if they want to go home they’re
gonna find a way home," says Rick
Schyer of Seattle, who sold for
Southwestern for summers and was a
student manager
Of the 12 student team McBar
ron was with, three finished the
summer Others including
Carey believe dealers are placed far
from home so there will be few if any
distractions to prevent them from sell
ing Ten of 13 in Carey’s team left
early
Once a team gets to the area they are
assigned they are on their own in fin
ding living quaiters Some teams are
given names of potential pldtes to stay.
other teams, like the one Susan
Douglass was in. are given no
references Carey's team's list contain
ed one name The people were no
longer interested in putting up college
students in their home for a whole
summer
McBarron's team was assigned
Salina, Kan What they weren't told
before they left Nashville was that
Salina has a Green River Ordinance
prohibiting door to door selling They
had a few run-ins with the police.
When McBarron called Nashville for
advice he was told to either sell in the
outlying areas, not a feasable option for
him since he didn’t have a car. or risk
being arrested and continue to sell in
Salina McBarron says company of
ficials kept telling him “to have that
problem solving attitude "
Students had been selling in Salina
for several summers before McBarron's
team was sent there. Davis says, and
had experienced no problems selling
door to door By the time the com
pany sent someone to discuss the pro
biem with the Salina City Council,
students had “discontinued their work
with us." according to Davis.
Dealers, college students after sales
school indoctrination, will sell the
Volume Library, a two volume set of
educational books designed as
reference material for school age
children Dealers get 40 percent of
what they sell, around $56 for each full
set of books sold
The full set includes a cookbook
which can be purchased separately,
although students are encouraged to
pitch the books as a set If the prospec
tive buyers are not interested the dealer
then informs them that the library can
be bought without the cookbook for
about $30 less Whether this is an
underhanded sales technique is a mat
ter of interpretation, according to
Squire "The extra thirty bucks isn't go
ing to hurt anybody, he says. He
notes that if dealers wish they can sell
the Volume Library and the cookbook
separately "Nobody is forcing anyone
to sell both together," he says "You
can do what you want I’m trying to
make money for school and you can
make a little bit more money that way
The average amount of money that
students from the University made
three years ago was extraordinary.
Rodgers says Every student made
money and every student completed
the entire IT weeks The average gross
profit for each student was more than
$6,(XX) for the summer of 1985,
Rodgers says Prospective sellers for
the ’86 season were told they could
make that much if they considered
themselves average Naturally most
went to Nashville expecting they could
make at least that much Susan
Douglass, who finished last summer
and netted about $2.1(X). says the ex
perience was good but that she could
have made more money and worked
less if she had stayed home and took
on two full time jobs
"I did well at it but its not something I
enjoy enough to put myself through
again," she says
Of the unrealistic expectations,
Douglass says. "I did second best of
everyone from Oregon and I didn't
even do average "
The exceptional first year, Schyer
says, no doubt helped raise expecta
tions of success too high
The group that went in 1985 was
tiny compared to the 1986 group, ac
cording to Rodgers Rodgers says he
opposed recruiting so heavily the se
cond year and believes that may have
been a contributing factor to the high
attrition rate suffered by the Oregon
group last year Even second year sales
people were leaving, Douglass says
Barbara Bending's student manager