Increasing Efficiency In Business by Walter Dill Scott (top 10 most read books in the world TXT) đź“–
- Author: Walter Dill Scott
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believed that competition when wisely handled
is very effective in stimulating the men.
Of course, most firms try in some way to
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encourage their men to excel their record of
previous years. The inquiry developed, however,
that a few are unwilling to employ competition
even in this mild form as a means to
increased efficiency. Most of the firms made
conscious use of this principle and were convinced
of its potency.
Competition between men in the same
department was approved by a majority of the
firms, and its adaptability to the selling
department was especially emphasized. But
some of the best houses will permit no such
competition. The diversity in opinion was
very pronounced in answering this question.
As to encouraging competition between departments
in the same firm, no general answer
is satisfactory. Organizations differ widely.
In many houses such competition is not practicable;
in others it certainly is not to be encouraged.
In many organizations which would
admit of such competition the experiment had
not been tried. In others it has become a
regular practice and is looked upon with favor.
In competition between members of the
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same department or between departments the
danger of jealousy and enmity seems to be so
real that the greatest caution has to be
observed in managing the contests. When
such caution is exercised, the results are
ordinarily reported upon favorably.
As to encouraging competition with departments
of rival establishments, the diversity
of business makes general statements un-illuminating. Even where such a course is
possible, some managers reject the practice
as unwise. They believe that it is not best
to recognize other houses or to consider them
in this particular. A few firms report that
they are able to stimulate their men successfully
in this way, even though the conditions for
such a contest are difficult to handle. Of those
who utilize competition a few houses employ
no handicaps to put their men on the same
level and make success equally possible to all.
_The principle of handicaps is so manifestly
fair that organizers of contests can hardly afford
to neglect this essential to the widest interest and
participation in the competition_.
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If the little man in a country territory
doesn’t feel that he has a fighting chance to
equal or surpass the man in the big agency,
he makes no attempt to qualify. And the
purpose of every contest, of course, is to get
every man into the game.
Touching monetary rewards for the winners,
there is practical unanimity of opinion.
The winner should receive a prize in cash or
its equivalent. Usually the effort is to distribute
the prizes so that all who excel their
average records receive compensation and
recognition for the additional work. In many
instances unusual increases in sales or output
are rewarded by a higher rate of compensation.
_That success in contests should influence
promotion was generally agreed. The knowledge
and energy shown are indications of capacity to
occupy a better position_.
The contest merely reveals such capacity;
the promotion might well follow as part of the
prize for the winner or winners.
Public commendation of winners in com-
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petitions is held by many firms to be bad
policy. There is fear that such commendation
might render the participant conceited
and unfit for further usefulness. A majority
of firms, however, give the widest possible
publicity to such commendation. This, indeed,
is the reward most generally used and
apparently most keenly desired by employees.
Reproduction of photographs of the winners
in the house organ with an account of their
achievements is the commonest acknowledgment
of their success, though posting the
names of the winners in various parts of the
establishment is the method employed by
smaller houses.
_Many important houses use competition as
part of their regular equipment for handling
and energizing men_.
Particularly is this true of manufacturers
and distributors of specialties, patented machines,
trademarked goods and lines, and
wholesalers whose travelers are selling in
territories where conditions are generally the
same. Several firms of this sort make con-
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scious and elaborate use of the instinct of
competition in their ordinary scheme of management.
A concrete and typical illustration of its
application to selling is afforded by the
experience and the undoubted success of one
of the largest specialty houses which distributes
its products direct to the consumer.
The sales force numbers about 500 men, and
executives of wide experience declare that the
organization is, of its size, the most efficient
in the United States. Analysis of this company’s
methods is most illuminating and suggestive
because every phase of the instinct
of competition has been exploited to the
advantage of both the house and its employees.
The medium of competition is a series of
contests—monthly, quarterly, even yearly which
bring into play all the motives urging
individuals to maximum effort and industry desire
to beat bogy, ambition to win in individual
contest with immediate neighbors and
against the whole organization, team spirit in
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the matching of one group of agencies against
another group, and finally organization spirit
in the battle of the whole force to equal or
surpass the mark which has been set for it.
_The first and basic contest here is that of the
individual salesman against his bogy or “sales
quota_.”
This quota, the monthly amount of business
which each agency should produce, has
been worked out with great care and has a
scientific foundation. Since the great bulk
of sales are made to retail merchants, the
possibilities of each territory are determined
by reckoning the total population of all towns
containing three retailers rated by commercial
agencies. For normal months there is a standard
quota, a little above the monthly average
of all agencies the previous year, reckoned
against their total urban populations. In
“rush” months, this quota is advanced from
fifteen to forty per cent, as the judgment of the
sales manager dictates. If general and trade
conditions lead him to believe, for instance,
that the month of May should produce
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$1,000,000 in orders, while the sum of the
usual quotas is $800,000, he calls for an overplus of twenty per cent. The territory containing
one per cent of the total urban population
of the country, as reckoned, would then be
expected to make sales equal to $10,000. This
would be the agency quota for the month,
and the first and most important task of the
agent would be to secure it.
_Because all quotas, both normal and special,
are figured on the productive population of the
territories and standings may be calculated by
percentages, it follows that all agents are on terms
of equality_.
This is essential in a contest for individual
leadership as well as in team or organization
matches. For at least eight months of the
year, there is such a competition for the best
selling record in the entire force. Variety
is given to these contests and the interest of
the men sustained by changing the terms of
the competition. One month the chief prize
will be given to the salesman who secures his
quota at the earliest date; next month the
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award will be for the individual who first obtains
a fixed sum in orders, usually $2500;
leadership the third month will go to the man
who gets the highest per cent of his quota
during the entire period; again, the honor will
fall to the agent whose net sales total the
greatest for the month.
_Further changes are rung and the inspirational
effect of the contest immensely increased by enlarging
the conditions so that every third or
fourth agent is able to qualify for the month’s
honors and a prize_.
Here, for instance, besides the prize for
the first agent selling $2500, there will be
prizes—like hats, umbrellas, and so on—for
every man who closes $2500 in orders before
the twentieth of the month, with the attendant
publicity of having his portrait and his record
printed in the house organ which goes to
every agent in the field and every department
and executive at the factory. Before leaving
the individual contests, mention should be
made of the “star” club of agents who sell
$30,000 or more during the year; the presi-
<p 68>
dency going to the agent who first secures
that total, the other official positions falling
to his nearest rivals in the order in which
they finish.
The team and organization contests are
usually carried on simultaneously with the
individual competitions. These range from
matches between the forces of the big city
offices, like New York, Chicago, and St. Louis,
upward to district contests in which each team
represents from thirty to fifty salesmen and
finally to international “wars” where the
American organization is pitted against all
the agents abroad. Challenges from one
district to another usually precipitate the
district competitions; once a year there is a
three months’ general contest in which all the
districts take part for the championship of the
whole selling force.
_To announce contests is a simple matter;
to organize and execute them so that they are of
benefit is much more difficult_.
Unless the interest of the men is focused on
the contests, they are not worth while. To
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make them successful the firm under consideration
utilized the following devices:—
During the contest the house organ appeared
often and was devoted almost exclusively
to the contest. In it the record of
each salesman was printed, his quota, his
sales to date, and other pertinent information.
The sheet was edited by a “sporting editor,”
and great tact and skill were displayed in giving
the contest the atmosphere of an actual
race or game. In addition the sales manager,
the district managers, and the house executives
wrote letters and telegrams of encouragement,
and even made trips to the agencies that got
under way too slowly.
The unique feature of the contest was the
manner in which the “sporting editor” gave
actuality to the contests by pictorial
representations. One competition took the form
of a shooting match. The house organ contained
an enormous target with two rings
and a bull’s eye. When a salesman qualified
with orders for $625, he was credited with a
shot inside the outer ring and his name was
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printed there. With $1250 in sales, he moved
into the inner ring, and when his orders
amounted to $2500, he was credited with a
bull’s eye and his name blazoned in the center
space.
Another contest was represented as a balloon
race between the different districts.
Each district was given a balloon, and as sales
increased, the airship mounted higher. On
the balloon the name of the district leader in
sales was printed, while cartoons enlivened
the race by showing the expedients, in terms
of orders, by which the district managers and
their crews sought to drive their airships
higher. Each issue of the house organ showed
the current standing of the districts by the
heights of their balloons. This conception of
the selling contest was very successful.
“Going up—going up—how far are you up
now?” was used as a call, and it seemed to
strike the men and inspire them. It became
the greeting of the salesmen when they met, and
irresistibly produced a feeling of competition and
a desire to have the district balloon go higher.
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Other ingenious fancies by which the contests
were given the appeal and interest of
popular sports was their conception as a baseball
game, a football game, an automobile
race, a Marathon run, and so on.
In providing prizes, the firm was rather
generous, though the expense was never great.
While the contest was in progress, all those
who were really “in the running” had the
satisfaction of honorable
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