can be guided so as to reveal the essential social ability required for handling a given situation within the experience of those participating, the conference is likely to reach new levels of thinking and understanding for all in the group.

Other outcomes of group discussions.-Having a regular time for the discussion of problems relating to the work of the group participating is a far more effective method of training than relying upon the department head to give the information needed by a new employee or for setting the standards to be maintained. The very fact that the group meets as a whole, that all can contribute, that all can agree upon what is to be done, that all can see what is the better way, and that all get the same thing in the same way promotes interest, gives satisfaction, and improves morale. The attitude of individuals and of the entire group toward their work, or toward certain customers, or toward certain customer situations can be changed through an opportunity to freely exchange opinions and profit by the agreements reached by all.

Group discussions can be used to help improve team work. When those in a team can get together to discuss their work, ideas will be suggested, misunderstandings will be cleared up, performance standards can be set, ways of improving the team work devised, and a spirit of cooperation in doing the work of the team can be aroused. Conducting conferences. Just how these discussions are best handled and managed can not be developed here. The "Manual for conference leaders," Part II, which has been prepared to guide those undertaking to lead conferences, contains some suggestions of value to those inexperienced in this kind of work. Thus much can be said, that whenever the laundry manager himself can be the leader, he can get his policies and ideas across to his group if he proceeds tactfully. However, it is not advisable to attempt this by direct instruction or lecturing. If the group, through their general discussion, develops the idea the manager wants them to gain, they will be more likely to realize its value and to follow what they think they themselves have discovered. In so far as these discussions can be conducted in an informal social spirit they are usually more effective.

Organized training improves selling ability.-Years of experience have convinced many merchants that the selling ability of their whole force whether salesmen, delivery men, telephone clerks, or office workers can be improved by organized training. Employees become more courteous, more considerate, more tactful in handling customers and in dealing with one another after they have realized the value of the traits indispensable for dealing more effectively with people, especially when the ways for satisfying people better are revealed to them through discussion and comparison of methods.

Organized training necessary for increasing sales.-Organized training courses can be of as much value to the laundry industry as to the retail merchant. Route men and service workers can learn more about the service the laundry sells, and how to use this infor mation when in contact with customers. Under proper guidance, service employees can learn how to study customers and how to adapt their speech, conduct, and attitude to their customers. An understanding of how to use both direct and indirect selling methods can be gained under good leadership. An understanding can be gained of laundering processing, or of danger points to be avoided when giving advice or laundering information to customers; and, more important than anything else, attitude toward work, toward customers, and toward fellow employees and superiors can be changed through organized training. In all these ways, training serves to increase sales, for the trained service worker can more thoroughly satisfy customers and so build more business.

Training help as a managerial problem.-As every manager knows,' he trains his own help either directly or indirectly. Those managers who realize that if sales are to be increased more training must be given, especially to the office and sales force, face the problem of increased costs in relation to increased income. Will the cost bring enough sales to more than carry the added overhead? After all which will be the most economical method: To provide organized training for present employees in the customer-service departments or to pay the increased wages necessary for getting employees with a better social background? If the manager decides to provide organized training, he faces a number of management problems in fields new to most laundry officials. Yet there can be no escape from the dilemma involved.

However, there is more to be said for organized training than the immediate increase in sales. The added interest, better teamwork, changed attitude, reduced labor turnover, and improved morale which come from organized training are worth more than the comparatively slight increase in cost and small amount of managerial time required. Laundries have learned through experience that some kind of organized training repays everyone included in the plan. Having learned this much through experience, the more progressive managers are now preparing to extend their training programs. Inevitably these men will get an even larger share of the local business. Their example will be followed by other laundries in other communities, who will of course reap the reward of their initiative. and foresight. Organized training programs in laundries are inevitable for their value is inestimable both in increasing quality of service and in increasing sales.

Those laundry managers who want to investigate the value of training for increasing sales will want answers probably to questions such as these

Are the processing or the customer-service departments in our plant giving the better quality of service to customers? How can this be determined?

If the processing departments are not doing satisfactory work, how can it be improved? Are the foremen and supervisors there responsible for the quality of the work? Can expert technical advice and assistance be obtained for improving the processing? Can more efficient machines be purchased? Do all these methods mean training of the operatives?

If the customer-service departments are not giving satisfaction to customers, how can this part of the work of these departments be improved? How far can department heads be held responsible for the way in which office workers talk to customers?

Can any technical advice or assistance be obtained for improving this part of their work? Can anything other than training improve it?

How do workers learn what to do on their jobs if they are not taught?

Is it true that the management of any plant is responsible for training the force?

Are most managers and their assistants, such as foremen, department heads, and supervisors, qualified to act as instructors or teachers? Is the man who can do a certain thing best, the one best qualified to teach it? Is teaching an art or skill apart from the practice of the thing taught?

Where do workers in the customer-service departments learn to deal pleasingly and effectively with people?

Can the ability to please and deal effectively with people be developed?

Is it necessary for a laundry manager to see that his route men, telephone operators, counter girls, adjusters, and other workers try to please and satisfy customers?

How can workers become interested in dealing more pleasingly with people? Will the conference method be effective for developing the ability to please customers?

Should service workers be asked to take an hour a week, or more, for a conference on how to satisfy customers? Will the results be worth while to those participating no matter where they work or what they do?

Will a program of conferences for each group of workers, such as route men one day, adjusters another day, other service workers another day, and so on according to size of the plant, involve too much time and effort? Should these be held during working hours?

Who should lead each of these conferences? Should experienced, capable workers be put in charge? Should the conference be allowed to formulate standards? Should the conference be allowed to suggest methods for carrying out the standards adopted? What should the manager do if the conference recommendations do not meet with his approval?

What will a conference program cost if held in the plant during working hours?

Can the Laundryowners National Association assist in organizing these conferences?

Can local school authorities assist?

Topic No. 13. How Route Men Increase Sales

Two problems in sales management.—When a laundry manager decides to make a vigorous effort to increase his sales he faces at

the outset two problems: Who is to do the actual selling required? and, How is the additional business to be secured? As everyone knows, the new business comes either from old customers who send more laundry or use a more complete service or from new customers. However, getting additional business which ambitious laundry managers are sure can be obtained, requires certain selling effort; so that the problem as to who shall be asked to make the necessary effort can not be answered until a study of the sales resistance to be overcome has been made and a decision has been reached as to how much sales effort will be required.

Some new business requires no selling effort.-Almost every laundry manager can expect some new business to come without any appreciable effort. As the number of people in a territory increases, a certain number of new customers can be expected by every laundry serving that territory. Whether or not a given laundry can obtain all of this business is beside the mark. Every laundry in that territory can expect some of it. Further, if the earning power of the people in the territory increases and if their standards of living are rising, then some additional business can be expected from these people also, be they new customers or old. The old customers in this fortunate group will send more laundry or buy a more complete service. Families not theretofore using power-laundry service will begin to send bundles. To get this new business requires no real selling effort. A certain laundry may get a larger share of it through its advertising, through its reputation for giving good service, or through the attractive appearance of its truck and route men. But practically every laundry serving that territory will get some larger bundles, and some new bundles will be offered to the route men by strangers, who may even ask the laundry office to have their bundles picked up. All this new business is ready and comes of its own accord.

Much new business comes for the asking.-In practically every territory some new business can be had by asking for it. The route man sees new families move in and gets their business by merely saying that he represents a laundry. Sometimes a customer, dissatisfied with the laundry service she is getting, will decide to send her bundle to another laundry so the route man who asks for her business frequently gets these bundles. At the right season of the year, a tactfully made request for an opportunity to show how well the laundry finishes blankets, draperies, or other articles in which it specializes will always get some new business. Advertising in the newspapers or some direct mail advertising may help, but, on the whole, little more is required to get this business than a request for it made at the right moment in the right way. This business is all ready for the picking.

Most new business requires selling effort. However, in most territories, getting any particular amount of new business, or getting the business of any particular persons, or getting certain customers to use an entirely new service requires real selling effort. Every person who uses a power laundry in a given territory is a potential prospect for every other laundry serving that territory. The laundry reprerentative who finally persuades a woman who is opposed to the idea of using power laundry service to send a bundle on trial gets this business only after some real selling effort. The route man who induces a customer, who sends only her husband's linen, to stop using her electric washing machine and to send all her laundry for damp wash service, and then later to try the flat finish also, and, finally, to use the full family finish, has to make real selling efforts. None of this kind of business will come without a struggle.

The attitude of the prospect determines the selling effort.-It is evident that in each of the situations sketched that the degree of sales effort required in each case is determined by the mental attitude of the person buying the service. The person whose sole interest is in getting someone to do her laundry for her is so absorbed in her desire for laundry service that she has no room for doubts, fears, or conflicting desires. As long as the appearance of the driver and truck are such that they do not arouse any suspicion she is willing to entrust her goods to that laundry. Customers in this frame of mind buy laundry service of whoever accepts their offered bundle in a reassuring way. A passive driver is just as effective as any other in getting new business from such customers providing an aggressive attractive salesman from another laundry has not gotten this business first.

The person who is asked to buy laundry service wants to be sure that her property will be satisfactorily handled before she entrusts it to a stranger. If the route man who asks for it looks clean, intelligent, speaks in the right way, and behaves acceptably, and, especially, if the prospect has read advertisements of that laundry, or heard good reports about its processing and service, or even seen the plant itself, she may have enough confidence in the laundy management as a whole to allow the route man to take her clothes. Prospects in this frame of mind usually need only that amount of selling ability which does nothing to destroy a confidence already existing. The salesman needs show only a slight amount of sales ability to get this new business. But he often needs to be very active in soliciting to get this bundle before some equally competent route man from another laundry asks for it first.

Sales resistance high in many people.-The woman who is satisfied with her plan of laundry management is likely to present a degree of sales resistance which only high-grade salesmanship can overcome.