The Notes of John Patterson to The Sales Team – May of 1893

Can you imagine…

It’s the Spring of 1893. You’re working for the NCR Corporation (National Cash Register) in a sales role – and your ultimate boss, the CEO, is John Patterson.

John Henry Patterson – the individual responsible for almost every core element of the way we all sell today. He was the first to hire his own salespeople, train them, give them dedicated territories, have a sales kickoff, along with his brother-in-law wrote the first sales playbook (The “NCR Primer” and the “Book of Arguments”), etc.

Patterson wrote a series of notes to the sales team. I found them in something called The N.C.R. from May 1st, 1893. The N.C.R. was a regularly published newsletter sent out to the organization’s salespeople twice monthly. They’re incredible!

In one edition, Patterson writes that they will “send a postal card, which we want everyone who reads The N.C.R. to sign and return to us.” And basically, if you don’t confirm via the card, you’re not getting the information. 

By way of a little additional background, from what I can tell:

• “P.P.” stands for “Probable Purchaser” (thank you Richard Nockolds for your clarification in the comments at the bottom – and read his comment for more background)
• A Sales Agent appears to be a bit of a player coach. They run the office, but also seem to sell.
• A Salesman works for the Sales Agent.
• The “Primer” was the playbook. It had a script, along with a method. The script was to be memorized word-for-word by everyone. You’ll see below in Patterson’s notes, that wasn’t always the case.
• The “Primer” included suggestions around how to secure a demonstration room at a local hotel, how to set up registers, how to cover and uncover them. Where to stand. But, these local offices also had demonstration stations, so it was possible for Salesmen in more metropolitan areas to just invite prospects to the office, and the Sales Agents would do the demonstrating.

I’m just going to share a few here. Remember, this is 1893!

Success:

“One of our most successful Salesmen, who is in a large city and who uses a wagon constantly, hires a driver for his wagon, and pays him out of his own pocket. This gives the Salesman time to attend to selling registers. He does not have to bother with carrying the registers in or out of the wagon, looking out for his horse, or such details, and does nothing but sell; consequently he sends in, on an average, about fifteen orders per month.”

Health:

“I find, upon examination, that the Sales Agents and Salesmen are greatly hindered in their results from their bad habits. I mean too much smoking, too much drinking, and lack of every-day bathing. We cannot afford to have the territories occupied by sick men. Some think it is necessary to drink about five drinks of whisky every day. I find the Salesmen are not neat in their appearance. They shave only two or three times a week, when they should shave every day. Their collars and cuffs are worn more than once, their shoes not blackened, and their shirt fronts are stained with tobacco spit.”

Day’s Work:

“Most of our Salesmen work an average of five and one-half hours a day, when they should work at least nine hours. They spend their nights in carousing, instead of resting, and, when morning comes, they are in no condition to go to business.”

Too Much Territory:

“Salesmen all have too much territory. They will not work it. They spend fifteen minutes in giving arguments to a P.P., and do not take time to demonstrate the register. They skip from one P.P. to another, devote but a few minutes to each, and the consequence is, that the customer gets but a vague idea of the machine. In fact, the sale is spoiled for the next Salesman, for, when the next Salesman comes along, the customer says, “I have heard all about that machine,” and refuses to listen to the new man. This would not be the case if all Salesmen used the “Primer”, because they would then demonstrate the machine in first-class shape.”

Recruiting:

“The late consolidation of the leading sewing machine companies of this country, will throw a large number of bright, active Salesmen out of employment. In one city, eighty sewing machine Salesmen will be thrown out of employment. Four general offices will be closed in Chicago alone. Now is the time to get good cash register Salesmen. These Salesmen have a knowledge of machinery, and are accustomed to canvassing, and, on that account, would make good cash register men. We have written to a number of these sewing machine companies, asking fot the names and addresses of Salesmen thrown out of employment by the consolidation, and hope, by this means, to fill the growing demand for Salesmen of cash registers.”

A Side Line:

“I found that one of our Sales Agents, a man who had neglected his territory, was not familiar with the “Primer” or the “Book of Arguments,” had an upstairs office, and kept no P.P. list, had written letters to a number of Salesmen, advising them to sell a “nickel-in-the-slot” gambling machine, for which he was agent. He told them in these letters, not to let the company know he had written to them, and they could sell these gambling machines as a side line. We have an original letter of his to one of his Salesmen, to prove these statements, and yet this same Sales Agent had the nerve to say that business was dull, and that he did not have enough territory.”

His Visit:

“I have been surprised to find how many Salesmen and Sales Agents were sick just the day I happened to be there. It was the most singular occurrence, that they should have been sick the night before, or had been up until 12:00 or 1:00 o’clock, try to sell machines, and that that was the only morning they had been late for a weeks past.”

A Performance Improvement Plan?:

“This agent said the reason he lived in a neighboring city, an hour’s ride from his territory, was, that he had some friends in that city that he wanted to meet in the evening. This Agent was the worst of all. I had examined and ascertained that his territory consisted of a population of 200,000. He had his office run by an assistant, at $75.00 a month. We cut down his territory one-half, and placed him on trial for the next few weeks. He had no system of selling, admitted that the “Primer” was a good thing, but he was too lazy to learn it. He never spent any time in his territory in the evening. We told him that he was a back number. He had not time to shave every day; he could not affort to wear clean linen every day; he had no money to buy a Star razor outfit; his beard looked like a music box cylinder, be he was spending $2.00 a day for cigars. After we had proven these things to him, he still argued that he was right.”

Rules from one of the offices (I selected a few of the good ones):

“Below will be found the rules adopted by one of our Sales Agents, for use in his office. We believe some of these rules could be used to advantage by our other Sales Agents:

1. All Agents must be at the roll call in Salesmen’s office at 8:15 A.M., make reports, turn in P.P. cards and receive instructions.
2. All Agents must be on and working their territory by 9:00 A.M. and work same all day. All reports must be made at the meeting in the morning. This saves the Salesmen from loss of time in coming to the office three or four times a day.
4. All teams must be in the stable at 6:00 P.M.
7. Any employe coming into the office under the influence of liquor, will be subject to discharge at once, without notice.
12. Money will only be paid on Mondays.
13. There will be a convention of the Salesmen at the office, every Monday at 8:00 A.M.”

Agent Rules

In the same May 1st, 1893 edition of “The N.C.R.”, the editor, E.D. Gibbs, published the rules for the Agents. So, while this was not a part of Patterson’s notes, they provide an interesting perspective on what these player-coach type sales managers were responsible for.

“There are five things that we insist upon every Sales Agent doing. They are the foundational principles of success, and it is absolutely necessary that they be adopted at once. Don’t deceive yourself by thinking you can get along without them. You cannot.

1. Give Guaranteed Territory: Every Salesman must be given a certain territory, and receive credit for all orders from that territory, whether taken by him or at the salesrooms.
2. Use the “Primer”: By this we mean, commit the “Primer”, word for word, and have every one of the Salesmen and office men do so. Not commit ti partly, but commit it so as to be able to repeat it exactly as it is printed.
3. Use Book of Arguments: Have everyone familiarize himself with the arguments in the book. “Arguments on the Price,” so as to be able to repeat them.
4. Decorate Windows and Offices: Use the illuminated pictures, the registers operated by electricity, and other novel devices to attract passers-by.
5. Hustle: Have your men start out early; send out advertising matter; keep a good P.P. list; mail circular letters, and, above all, take advantage of the many suggestions published in the N.C.R.

Do all the above, and you will make money.”

There are so many additional gems throughout the 1892 & 1893 editions of The N.C.R. I have over 400 pages that I’m continuing to read through. Incredible insight into what it must have been like to sell in the 1890s, and especially for someone like John Patterson.

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I’m a sales keynote speaker (CSP®) who also teaches revenue organizations how to leverage transparency and decision science to maximize their revenue capacity. It’s what I do…teach sellers, their leaders, well…entire revenue organizations 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 revenue leadership. I wrote a book Book Authority listed as the 6th best sales book of all time (𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘺 𝘚𝘢𝘭𝘦), and a second award-winning book (𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘚𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘓𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳).

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