Don't Ring Me!….

 In the days before marketing was called marketing, the most successful companies were sales orientated and structured to support and service the men who sold their products. I say men because in those days there were few saleswomen. This was true of not just the manufacturing industries, but the service industries too. Everyone knew their local ‘Man From The Pru’. From his personal contact with customers came the orders that meant success or failure. I first joined such a company in the late fifties, it was the brand leader in the field of typewriter supplies, manufacturing and selling direct to the customer a range of products that were of high quality and, generally speaking, more expensive than competitive products. The basic salary was low but the commission levels made it possible to earn a high yearly wage. I took advantage of it and enjoyed the fruits of my efforts.
 
The company was organised into branch offices within areas across the country; each branch had a manager, a given number of salesman and some office staff. One or more of those in the office were called service representatives and were usually women. Each salesman was allocated a territory, each territory divided into routes, he was expected to work on foot and make in the region of thirty calls a day. It was called “Intensive working” and believe me it was! Those calls he was unable to reach that day would be given to the service representative the following day and she would ring the customer to apologise for the non appearance of their representative and go on to make the sales pitch he would have made if he had been there. The system worked and the office based saleswoman was often as well known to the major customers as the salesman. I wonder if anyone reading this worked for the same company?
 
Keeping close and frequent contact with the customer was considered the highest priority and everyone in the organisation worked on that basis. From the top of the firm to the bottom, all considered themselves to be involved in the sales activity. The only way to achieve any seniority in any part of the business was to start as a salesman and work upwards to the board, unless of course you were a member of the Chairman’s family, in which case you worked harder still to set an example.
 
But that’s all gone now, the world has changed beyond all recognition; the functions performed by the products are now dealt with in a fraction of the time and cost by high tech machines, and the company is now as obsolete as the horse and cart. So why mention it? Well apart from being quite a pleasant trip down memory lane there are echoes of the system that survive in modern industry and are currently causing heated comment. In the banking world they don’t call it commission they call it a bonus…. And efforts are being made to dispense with it, to be replaced by… what? I have never been one to begrudge suitable rewards for success, if the head of a great company generates great profit for the organisation then the reward should reflect the value of that revenue. On the other hand, to be fair, a lack of success should have it’s price too. On balance I think I am in favour of high rewards for high achievement. I become uncomfortable when politicians get involved and seek to regulate areas in which they have never had to earn a living and about which in practical terms they know very little,
 
There is another part of that system that survives too, the telephone contact. I can see it’s value in the classified departments of newspapers and suchlike places, I worked in the Classified Advertisement Department of the old “London Evening News.” It did and still does account for an important level of business for any paper. Likewise it’s use in the merchandising departments of the major companies is probably of great value. But what about those phone calls you get at home just as you are about to sit down to a meal? How do you as a consumer react to them?
 
Surely the object of any contact with a potential customer is to offer, or be, of some sort of service? These calls simply irritate. Double Glazing firms that call umpteen times despite being told you have just installed what they are selling, recorded messages that invite you to return their call, even BT, who ring to suggest you change your contract to a more advantageous agreement that they have just introduced, and pseudo ‘official’ announcements. They all ring at meal times, on a Sunday evening, or when you are in the bath, always at the most inconvenient time. And they expect you to listen? I am constantly astonished that such calls, made from lists that must be expensive and that must cost a small fortune in phone bills, continue, but I suppose they must somehow be effective or they would stop. So, I say to those who are looking at my name on their list and contemplating making a call to me, what directors are believed to say at auditions……don’t ring me!…..I promise I won’t ring you.