Servicing Retoil Lumber Deolers ond Wholesqle Distribution Yords

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"How to Measure and Evaluate Salesmen's performance."

He said that one very important place to start_in rating a salesman's performance--is to develop a comprete job descript-ion that is, a detailed breakdown of his selling duties, his routine non-selling duties, his executive duties, and his good_will duties.

"If you do not have job descriptions,', Tonning said, ,,that flt the varied sales jobs represented within your firm,1'd suggest that you compile one before proceeding any further. Occasionaior regu_ lar appraisals can offer only a poor excuse for correctiv" a"tion unless the appraiser knows what to look for.

"More_ consistency results when the attributes, operations, and accomplishments of salesmen are compared with his assigned sales tasks. If a sales supervisor does not know what his sales_ men are supposed to do, the salesman cannot very well know what is expected."

"What Will Distribution Be Like in 196b?,' was the question discusigd F riday morning by A. W. creene, editor, Distiibution Age, Philadelphia.

Greene said that the population .,mis" finds fewer persons, numerically, in the 18 to 24 age group; however, he pre&icted a larger number of housing starts in the period from t9-60 to 19?0.

A study of statlstlcal informafion, he iald, showed a dovrrnwa,rd trend for the next several years on single-fa,mily unlts, wlth two_ flptly dwelllngs and multi-famlly dwelltngs on the lncrease. Ife advoc.ated aiming sales appeals to thesJ builders in the next decade.

Harold I.. Birnberg, Wolf Management Engineering Co., Chicago, spoke at Friday afternoon's session on nprofit bontrol_yJ r Secret Weapon."

. Birnberg made the important potnt that whllo both the manufac_ turer and the retall dealer may try to ellmlnate the wholesale dlstrlbutor, he cannot elimlnate the ie".rtce performed by the dts_ trlbutor nor the cost.

Birnberg said profit control starts with:

1. Purchase for profit-buy what the market will absorb. Don,t over-purchase. Keep inventories at a profitable minimum.

2. Price for Profit.

3. Promote the product for profit.

4. Plan for Profit.

"With salesmen," Birnberg said, .,we should control the results thro-ugh a compensation plan based upon the proflts their sales produce. This assures that the salesman will do his best to sell items that yield profits to the firm. He will concentrate more evenly upon our mix of high and low profit items.

"!f the man is paid a percentage oi his sales and not his sales protrts, he will concentrate upon selling the items that are easiest to. sell. Most generally, these are the low profit items. Under this situation, he continues to do well as long is he sells but the com- pany may not share in his good fortune. If he is paid a percentage of gross profit, both the._r-ran and the company lnare iavorabtyl,; F'red A. Palmer, Worthington, Ohio, a s-ales_training and saies consultant, spoke on "The Power of Purpose" at the afternoon session of the third day and said ,.the biggest single loss in our distribution gconomy today is our inability to tell what we know so that the customer understands it."

Palmer said the wisest money a firm can spend on sales is for the purchase of a tape recorder that the salesmen can talk into and hear themselves as customers hear them. One company, he said, has equipped each salesman with a tape recorder and sends him tapes that he has to re-record in his own voice and return to

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