A Creed of Sales Management Standards
Coming out of World War II in 1945, the United States economy was rebuilding itself. The continued success of the country relied on the success of small businesses, and a great many veterans of the war were finding their “peacetime vocation in some phase of selling and distribution” (William C. Foster, then Under Secretary of Commerce)
A group of sales managers and leaders across the country created a group called The National Federation of Sales Executives. It was created to help ensure the success of those businesses and the standards by which to ensure that, as was the case before World War I, salespeople doing right by their customers helped everyone. When salespeople focused on helping customers achieve their desired outcomes, those companies would succeed. When those companies succeeded, they hired more people, the economy grew, and everyone benefited…not just the salesperson. How best to ensure salespeople were consistently at their best, focused on the customer? It had to start with their leaders.
The need for a consistent set of standards for sales leaders was clear – resulting in this list below: The “Creed of Standards” adopted by the National Federation of Sales Executives in 1946.
“Evidence of the high ethics on which modern selling is premised and the high standards to which employment of salesmen has already risen.”
A CREED OF STANDARDS
I subscribe to this Salesmanager’s Creed, which I believe to be in the best interests of American Business:
1. All salesmen shall receive fair compensation during their initial or subsequent training periods.
2. While recognizing changes in compensation or territory to be functions of sales management, salesmen shall be consulted prior to establishing such changes and given reasonable notice of the effective date.
3. Earnings of commission or bonus salesmen shall be unlimited, unless otherwise specified at the time of their employment. Should basic changes in a business justify modifying this policy, all salesmen affected shall be advised of the fact a reasonable time prior to establishing such ceilings as become necessary.
4. When evaluating the ability of salesmen, conditions beyond their control, such as differences in the sales potentials of their territories, shall be given full consideration.
5. Salesmen shall be offered the same vacation, job or income security, and other employee benefits as are enjoyed by other employees in comparable positions in the same company.
6. The only “house” or “no commission” accounts shall be those clearly defined in advance of solicitation.
7. The paperwork required of salesmen shall be held down to a minimum and its value clearly justified.
8. Salesmen’s expense reimbursement policies shall be uniform, after taking all variations of conditions into consideration.
9. A sharp distinction shall be drawn between salesmen’s earnings and expense allowance, and any system which affords salesmen either a substantial profit or loss on expense accounts, shall be corrected.
10. Salesman shall be given either a contract, agreement, or letter covering those conditions of his employment which might otherwise be the basis for later misunderstandings.
11. If quotas are used (a) salesmen should know how their figures have been determined, and (b) the quotas shall be based on reliable seasoned personal evaluation of accurate and adequate criteria.
12. A salesman whose health of well-being gives evidence of being prejudiced by the nervous tensions involved in his work, shall be given such relief as may be possible.
13. Pressure to achieve results shall be of a constructive nature, avoiding the use of “fear” psychology or threatened loss of employment.
14. No matter where a salesman may be located, he shall be provided with a simple means of stating his grievances, which shall be promptly considered and answered.
I can’t help but read these and think, when done correctly, this is The Transparent Sales Leader before the book.
Which ones speak to you? Should any not be absolutely applied to today? Which are your favorite?
The ones that stand out for me?
As far as I can find, salesperson compensation and quotas were designed considerably different than today. We, as a selling profession, went off-the-rails at some point in the last 75 years, which I’ll be writing about more soon (and likely dedicating an episode of The Sales History Podcast to, too). With that in mind, I find creed point #1 & #11 very interesting and necessary. Given the way compensation was designed previously, a concerted effort and focus on ensuring salespeople were provided an adequate and well compensation period from which to train was quite important. Today, we also are seeing a great deal of consternation around the setting of sales quotas. I also find creed points #12 & #13 interesting, given what many believe to be a new focus on mental health. However, in the sales profession, mental health was clearly a vital element with which to set sales leadership standards in hopes of preventing such issues.
Is it time to issue a new creed? What would you add, subtract or modify in today’s version?
I speak and teach revenue organizations on how to leverage transparency and decision science to maximize their revenue capacity. It’s what I do…teach sellers, their leaders, and really entire revenue organizations the how we as human beings make decisions, then how to use that knowledge for good (not evil) in their messaging (informal and formal), negotiations and leadership. I wrote a 3x award-winning book (𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘺 𝘚𝘢𝘭𝘦), and have a newish book out (𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘚𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘓𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳) now that just won its first award!
Reach out if you want to discuss The Transparency Sale sales methodology, or really…anything else (sales kickoffs, workshops, keynotes, the economy, etc.)! Email info@toddcaponi.com or call 847-999-0420.
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