Gone with the Glad-Hander

The stage version of the salesman--depicted with pity by Arthur Miller, or sympathetically by Meredith Willson--is of a glib, boisterous glad-hander who rides on a shoeshine and a spicy story. There are still some of the old breed around, and proud of it, but today's big-time industrial salesman is more likely to be a technician who advises his company on new products and counsels customers on how to use them. He has more authority and responsibility and, with a boost from jets, covers more territory than ever before. Even his name has changed, to avoid the old stigma. At Ford, he is a "field manager"; at Wyandotte Chemicals, a "market specialist"; Burroughs, a "sales engineer"; Parke Davis, a "medical service representative." By any name, today's salesman is better schooled, if less colorful, than his forebears. Engineering graduates are favored for the job, but says a Kaiser Aluminum recruiter, "We've got everything from metallurgists to medieval-Spanish majors out in the field."

Expensive Luxury. The new salesman is a product of the increasingly technological nature of U.S. business and the kind of corporate bigness that toughens competition. The simple metal lathe that a salesman used to sell has turned into an automated electronic marvel that costs thousands more, but does everything except serve the coffee break. The salesman has become a front man for a costly team of engineers, chemists and market researchers back at the home office who realize that it is often easier to make something than to sell it. With stakes so high, no company can afford to have a man in the field whose chief qualifications are bright luncheon chatter and a low golf score. Some companies even use computers to check which salesmen are earning most at least cost.

The hard realities of costs and competition have also produced a more demanding buyer, who may himself turn to a computer in deciding which product to choose. Often a higher executive than a purchasing agent makes the ultimate buying decision, and dealing with a corporate vice president calls for a sophisticated salesman. "A 22-year-old salesman out in the market is a luxury that we cannot afford and the customer resents," says Robert Appling, a marketing executive for Crown Zellerbach, which grooms men for three years before sending them out to sell. Olin Mathieson has two training programs: one for engineers to learn selling, the other for salesmen to learn engineering.

Open Road. It often takes an engineer to understand and describe how his own product differs subtly from the competitors', and to anticipate what the customer really wants. Electric Storage Battery sends its salesmen to Michigan State University to study the "need-satisfaction theory," which delves into methods of drawing out a customer on what he needs. Often a salesman induces his company to tailor a new product for a customer. Kaiser Aluminum researchers are striving to answer a salesman's call for a shiny, dent-resistant aluminum alloy that auto companies can use for bumpers.

Companies find it hard to sell the career of selling. A survey of 123 colleges by Sales Management magazine shows that only one in 17 college men would be willing to try selling. Students tend to view the selling life as dreary insecurity, with most of the week spent away from the family. To add luster and a measure of security, most companies have switched from paying commissions only to paying salaries plus incentive bonuses. Total pay ranges from $5,000, for a beginner, to upward of $30,000 for high-powered men at the top. One of the recruiters' strongest selling points is that more than one-quarter of the chiefs of U.S. companies with sales over $500 million came up through marketing and sales.

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