TITLE : SALES MEETINGS THAT SELL.

The strength of religion is never equal throughout the land: There are always some areas, some classes who need it more than others. In industry it is the sales force whose need is greatest. They go out on their own amongst the heathen, they are the corporation missionaries. Other members of the corporation see only each other it is easy to be a good Catholic in the Vatican. But the salesman travels alone to a spiritual Limpopo with only the strength of his faith to sustain him. He meets men who laugh at his god and deride his priests with tales of missed delivery dates and unmet specifications.

-Antony Jay, Management and Machiavelli

It is hardly a coincidence that the first big sales meetings paralleled in fervor the revivalist gatherings of the early l900s. The company meetings did provide spiritual renewal. And they still do.

But sales get togethers do more than restore the faith. They are management's most effective medium for communicating with its staff. Unfortunately, while most large sales meetings are worthwhile, few come close to performing their functions as well as they could.

Today we have found ways to make the medium extremely controllable. It is now possible for management-given a reasonable budget, the time to develop a program, and a knowledge of the audience-to inform and motivate salesmen to a high degree. How that can best be done is the subject of this book.

We define a sales meeting as any meeting in which sales-men comprise most of the audience. This book, however, focuses on major meetings, averaging in size from 200 to 500 persons. (Actually, for a small firm a major meeting could involve 100, while one of the corporate giants might well enroll several thousand for its annual sales club sessions.) We decided to concentrate on large meetings because millions of dollars are spent on them each year and because it is for this type of meeting that the ratio of return to investment can be vastly improved.

This book does not concern itself with the thousands of trade association conventions, professional gatherings, and industrywide assemblages. We usually discuss big sales meetings as though the attendees are employees of the sponsoring company. However, it should be pointed out most of the principles discussed in the book apply to dealer and distributor meetings as well. Salesmen who are franchised dealers or distributors as in many appliance and automotive industries-do have a marketing relationship with the corporation.

Readers should also note that in spite of our emphasis on big regional or national meetings, some of the observations do relate to branch and local gatherings, and the whole of Chapter 7 is devoted to small meetings. This chapter, while not purporting to be a training manual, summarizes some techniques of teaching and group involvement.

The book is organized so that the first two chapters offer some perspective and basic insights into the medium, particularly for the nonprofessional meeting planner. Chapter 3

*Some salesmen, of course, are female. But because most of them are not, we opt for grammatical simplicity and refer to them generically as "men."

moves into the realm of such vital practical considerations as site selection, travel, and accommodations.

The next two chapters, 4 and 5, concern themselves with meeting content. The executive who must give a speech (or the writer who must write one) will find suggestions in Chapter 4. Chapter 5 weighs the relative merits of films, slides, and live performers and considers their technical requirements.

Chapter 6 tells how some of the country's great corporations implement their philosophy of recognition-of honoring superior sales performance. And the last two chapters move from evaluation, followup, and salesmen's reactions to a summary of what is most likely to go wrong at big sales meetings. Finally, the appendix gives a list of specific suggestions for the meeting planner.

Aside from persons mentioned in the text, several others gave us counsel in their areas of expertise. Among those we wish to thank are Mort Feld, vice president and general manager of Harry McCune Sound Services, San Francisco; Robert Goethals, corporate director of communications of Federated Department Stores, Inc., Cincinnati; Roger Gorski of Wemecke Studios, Chicago; William Martin of Janmar Productions, New York; and Richard R. Packer of Travel Consultants, Inc., of Washington, D.C. Special credit and the authors'appreciation are due lErnest Dickinson of Chappaqua, N.Y., for the considerable research, writing, and editorial skills he has invested in this book.

Merrill H. Gerstner Thomas J. Deegan, Jr.