FIELD SALES MANAGEMENT

W/S success in field sales can be greatly attributed to the management of its field sales force, in the US and abroad. I
can quickly recall some of these men, not necessarily in the correct order, during my service with the company, with their field spots before going in to Cleveland:

Noble Clark - Europe, I think
Tom Stilwell - ?
Les Cole - from TX
Baxter Fullerton - ?
George Herkner - NJ Office
Dick Shively - New Eng - then Chicago
John Long - Iowa Office
Dick Hopkins - ?
Mark Leeser - ?

Almost all of these men had served as District Manager in one of the many field offices scattered around the country. Some had worked their way up from cub saleman to manager of a small field office, then to manager of a larger field office, then on to the job of running the whole sales show from Cleveland.

Craig Smith managed the important Chicago office prior to being called to Cleveland. I cannot recall the details of his first assignment when he got there, but I thinki it was a special job dealing with the acquisition of W/S and then on as President.

Just as the two year Special Apprentice Program was a necessity for a sales job in 95% cases, time in top field sales management was almost always necessary for one to become a candidate for President.

Sorry if my recollection of some W/S history is not correct. I do know these were great guys to work with and for. One method of communication between the District Offices and Branch Offices included a Weekly Letter written by every District Manager, sent to Cleveland and sent on to all the other field offices. This letter reported all new orders booked, business lost to competition, and a general summary of sales and service events during that week in the area covered. In this manner, all in the field and back at HQ had a good sense of developments for the whole country.

Hy Worstell was a legend in Houston. He was so trusted and so highly thought of that he was often invited by customers to help them analyze the bids on machinery by W/S and the competitors. He would see what others were offering and I suppose had a chance to refute claims by others in favor of W/S. He was friends with his competitors. I once went to a dinner with him and the Monarch Rep. in Houston. W/S was never the low bidder but got their business on salesmanship, quality and service..

Add Dick Erickson to the list of notable sales people. An old timer " Mike Martanovic" once told me a story that Erickson brought in a lot of orders and some people said " well he was in a good territory " , he was sent to a low volume sales area, "bingo", the orders rolled in.