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School was never like this.
September 01, 1994

By TRUMFIO, GINGER

Crazy. Unpredictable. Intense. Five days of nonstop information, pure energy, and near-lethal doses of motivation. The Southwestern Company has turned training upside down and called it Sales School And there's no place else like it.

"Come on, come on, listen to the money talk."

A 20-foot video screen comes alive with the rock band AC/DC singing the praises of the dollar. Four hundred college students cheer and punch the air above their heads in time with the beat. Colored spotlights flash across the stage; billows of smoke surround the video screen. Donning a powder-blue sports coat, plaid tie, and mirrored sunglasses, Lee McCroskey emerges from the thickening smoke and struts across the stage, wailing on an electric guitar. In sync with the music his gyrations bring the audience to its feet. Students rush to the stage and wave their arms toward McCroskey, acting out the excitement of a real concert.

Welcome to Sales School. A tradition almost as old as its host, the 126-yearold Southwestern Company, Sales School is a national sales meeting, training seminar, and Tony Robbins motivational rally rolled into one.

From early May to mid-July nearly 4,000 college students will attend Sales School for five days of intensive study, then spend three months pounding the pavement of suburbia, selling Southwestern's books door-to-door. Each week a group of students--numbering from 50 to 1,500--makes the pilgrimage to Nashville, only days after they've finished cramming for finals. Each morning, the entire group of students attends seminars led by Southwestern executives. In the afternoon, students break into groups of 10 to 30 and attend team meetings where they have question-and-answer sessions with their Southwestern sales managers. Their evenings are spent rehearsing their sales talk.

Seminar subjects range from pre-call preparation to presentations to closing, and from how to find a place to live for the summer to how to be supportive to your teammates. But that's just the beginning. Sales School teaches students how to handle rejection, stay motivated, and keep their business records. The program is so thorough, it even includes a session entitled "Dogology" that takes a lighthearted approach to how to handle a surprise visit by Man's Best Friend.

To keep the students from getting antsy or bored, seminars are checkered with group cheers prompted by the speakers, humorous video commercials on subjects like "No" School for housewives, and rock videos such as Queen's "We Are the Champions."

For students, the Southwestern student-dealer program is not only a source of summer income, it's a training program designed to teach them how to be successful in sales and in life. "Students like the program because it sets them apart from other job applicants," says McCroskey, Southwestern's marketing manager. Corporate recruiters from companies such as ADP, Microsoft, and Dale Carnegie, like the program too, having plucked Southwestern alumni for their sales forces.

For Southwestern, the program is a proven way to sell their books--study guides (The Volume Library, The Student Handbook), children's dictionaries and reading books (My Fun With Words and My Fun With Reading), and a cookbook with more than 5,000 recipes.

The student-dealer program began in 1868, when company founder Reverend J.R. Graves hired and trained several hundred young men returning from the Civil War-who had no jobs and no money for college---to sell bibles door-to-door. The training program has evolved into Sales School, and-to meet the changing needs of the market-the books have become secular. But, to this day, the studentdealer program remains the only venue through which Southwestern sells its books. "As the program evolved, the student-dealer program remained a perfect match for selling our books," says McCroskey. "College students have their summers free and are youthful enough to work long, hard hours. It's just a tradition that continues to work." And work it does. Southwestern's revenue has grown an average of 10 percent every year for the past 15 years. In 1993, more than half a million families ordered Southwestern books, earning the company about $40 million.

Today, Southwestern recruits at 400 college campuses throughout the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and France. Its sales managers organize recruiting efforts with students planning to return to the program. The students do the bulk of the recruiting-in classes, at student organization meetings, even in their school library-often bringing family and friends into the program.

According to the students, Sales School is "intense," "grueling," even "overwhelming." "The training is long and it's really demanding," says John Carper, a junior at the University of Georgia, while seated on a ledge outside Southwestern's headquarters studying in the sweltering heat. "But it really gets you prepared."

Southwestern's goal is to educate the students as thoroughly as possible. "We can't teach someone to sell in a week," says Jerry Heffel, president of Southwestern. "But we can teach them essential success habits." Those habits include keeping to their schedules, setting goals, being ethical, motivated, and most important, giving 30 demonstrations a day. "If they do, they're guaranteed success," says Heffel.

One Southwestern alumna knows those rules are golden. Kelly Breslin, who holds the company record for most books sold in a summer, says there was no magic in her method. "You just need to be consistent and follow the guidelines set in the sales manual," says 23year-old Breslin, now a salesperson for Bank of America. Breslin took home a check for $46,022 after her fourth and final summer selling books. "I didn't do anything special. I just worked the numbers." The proof: the number of people who said no to Breslin her final summer-about 6,000--was higher than the number of people most student dealers even talked to.

"Books equal money!"

The thunder of 400 voices rocks the auditorium. Cheers and applause are at once deafening and inspiring. Everyone is on their feet. The lights are low; a spotlight shines on Wanda Dickens, vice president of sales administration, who stands--tailored suit, coiffed blonde hair, blues eyes staring intently-waiting for the noise to die down. When it does, she lifts her right arm once again and squeezes the trigger of her air horn. "Books equal money!" is the shouted Pavlovian response. It's 92 degrees outside on this sunny June morning, but the heat from the students' intensity is blistering in comparison.

Selling books for Southwestern isn't your normal summer job. Student dealers spend their six-day, 80-hour work week on their feet, laden with a sample bag full of about 15 pounds of hardcover books, knocking on doors, rain or shine.

Why do they do it? "I'm from a small town in Alaska, where I knew I could easily make $8,000 in a summer," says Kelly O'Connor, who graduated from Stanford University a week before Sales School and is back for her third summer. "But I wanted an opportunity somewhere away from home, where I could make at least the same amount of money." O'Connor brought home a check for $14,500 her first summer. "I'm really glad I'm here, this experience has changed my life," says the petite blonde, full of smiles and confidence. "I learned a lot about people, and about myself."

For Jerry Morales, who just graduated from Western Washington University, the Southwestern program was a chance to excel. "I said no to the recruiter twice," he says, "but I decided I wanted a challenge. I was tired of being average." Morales is now well above average. Back for his fourth summer, Morales is an assistant organizational leader, has won the President's Club, Gold-Seal Gold, and Big Check awards, and last year took home a check for about $14,000.

Most of the students who join the Southwestern program are looking to excel; many alumni have become sales executives, company presidents, lawyers, physicians, even politicians. "When you're an outstanding student in grade school, you're the teacher's pet. If you go the extra mile on a sports team in high school, you're kissing up to the coach," says Ralph Mosley, chairman and CEO of Southwestern, who started with the company selling books in the 1960s. "But at Southwestern it's okay to succeed. Everyone, from your sales managers to your peers, is supportive."

For the 70 percent of students who finish the summer, success is imminent. The average income for a first year dealer is $5,600. Experienced dealers earn anywhere from $9,00040,000 (or more) in one summer.

Students can also excel by winning one or more of the many awards and incentives that Southwestern offers. There are awards for individual and team performance (President's Club); number of students recruited by an individual (Wall of Greats); number of hours worked per week (Gold Award, Guts Club); even business management awards (Tough-Minded Business Award, Superstar Sample Case).

"Two thousand five hundred problem-solving pages!"

The students are shouting, standing on tiptoe, straining toward the stage. Regional Sales Manager J.T. Olson wants to know the main benefit of the Volume Library--a three-volume study guide. And he wants everyone in Nashville to know, too. "Two thousand five hundred problem-solving pages!" Students are pushing their voices to their limits. The auditorium walls rumble with the sound. Olson is still not satisfied. "Two thousand five hundred problem-solving pages!" He urges them on, repeating their declaration until it becomes a chant.

The key to Southwestern's success is its ability to teach the students how to deal with rejection and stay motivated. Southwestern execufives, all alumni of the bookfield, take the stage and give the students advice and instruction, with examples from their own experiences. For example, Dan Moore, vice president of marketing, recalls his first year selling books, and the day his car broke down on the bookfield. He explains how he was able to make the best of the situation by taking a problem-solving approach, then advises the students to do the same: find three benefits to every problem. That way, he says, they won't magnify the problem, they will be working toward a solution.

Moore explains that "there will be times when fear, loneliness, rejection, and frustration will come crashing down on you all at once." But when it happens, "you will be too emotional to deal with the situation rationally." So the best way to deal with emotional meltdown, he says, is to have a plan for handling the situation.

One way Southwestern teaches students to avoid those tough moments is to use affirmations. Most students create their own affirmations, but are supplied with a few to get them started. For example, "I like pressure. It brings out the best in me." Or, "It's like me to meet my goals on a daily basis."

Keeping to a strict schedule helps student dealers avoid the doldrums. Briskly moving from house to house doesn't allow them the time to get lonely or wallow in negative thoughts. "When you're feeling the pressure, the best thing is to keep moving. As long as you're moving or are in homes talking to families you'll be okay," McCroskey tells the students. "Because sometimes the worst person you can spend time with is yourself."

Southwestern also stresses that the students remember that they're providing a service. "My best memories of my summers with Southwestern are the times I felt like I was truly helping people," says Kelly O'Connor. "One person who stands out is Frank. He had gone to a vocational high school, always expecting to go right to work after he graduated. I met him the week after his graduation. He had derided to go to the University of Connecticut, but was a bit worried about succeeding there. I knew the study guides were perfect for him because he was shy and he could study without having to ask for much help. I was so pumped that day. It was an incredible feeling knowing I really made a difference."

Southwestern also keeps the students motivated by teaching them the value of commitment. "None of you signed your dealer agreement to come here and quit," says Alan Clements, senior vice president of recruiting and sales. "Everyone will want to quit, and that's okay. Just don't act on it. Because quitting is a habit just like winning is a habit, and you don't want to start a bad habit so early in life."

Not everyone who trains works the entire summer; about 30 percent quit, "usually within the first few weeks," says McCroskey. "It takes twenty-one days to form a habit, so we encourage the students to think of the first three weeks as field training." The main reasons students leave, he says, are: they feel they were put in a bad territory, the work was harder than they thought it would be, or they were homesick. "You can accomplish something someday, but when are you going to start?"

Clements asks, in the final speech of Sales School. His tone is solemn as he tells his rapt audience the words his father said to him when he was leaving for his first summer with Southwestern. The auditorium is hushed as he goes on to tell the story of that first summer: how his best friend quit, and how he, too, wanted to quit, but knew he had to stay. "You can accomplish something someday," he repeats, now directing those words to his audience, "but when are you going to start?"

Students who complete a summer, or two, or three, with Southwestern are often success-bound. "It takes a very special person," says Flora Riley, associate director of the Career Center at Clemson University, who came to experience Sales School last June because her position now includes placing students in internships and summer jobs, '"but those who finish are very marketable." John Cleveland, the regional sales executive for the Carolinas for ADP, agrees. He has hired four Southwestern alumni in the past year and a half. "Southwestern's students understand sales," he says. "And they are excellent at goal setting-they can even break goals down to half-day goal periods."

Many alumni credit the Southwestern student-dealer program for their success. "The Southwestern experience made me what I am today," says Stan Ellis, founder and partner of First Meridian, Inc., a financial consulting firm in Houston. Ellis, who grew up on an Idaho farm, knew the meaning of hard work, but "more important was learning the ability to sell concepts and to motivate people to action," he says. "In my business you can be a financial whiz, but if you don't know how to sell those concepts you're doomed to failure." To ensure his company's success, six of the nine partners and about 80 percent of the sales staff are Southwestern alumni.

Ellis has also brought his Southwestern experience home. This summer his three children and his future sonin-law are all selling books for Southwestern. Says Ellis: "It's the best summer job there is."

Leading by Example

It doesn't get any easier, you just get stronger," says Jerry Morales, addressing fellow student managers-- students who have returned for their second, third, or fourth summer. His audience nods in agreement. They are all as scared as they are prepared. Southwestern's training doesn't stop at how to sell and stay motivated, it goes on to teach its 1,000 student managers how to manage. While first-year student dealers attend seminars on how to fill out their sales records, keep inventory, and figure out sales tax, student managers learn how to coach their firstyear dealers, lead a team, run sales meetings, and help other students through rough times. The most important thing they're taught is how to lead by example: If they follow their schedule and sell books, their first-year students will keep to their schedule and eventually sail books. "I have to work hard and do well," says Brad Ledwith, a graduate of CalPoly at San Luis Obispo, who is back for his fourth summer. "Because the more books I sell, the more books the team will sell." (Although students work their territories alone, they are sent to a sales area in teams of three to 10 students. These teams, which are grouped to make up an organization--20 to 30 students--meet at an area conference for Sunday sales meetings.)

A Day on the Bookfield

The air is a mat of cool gray. Misty rain drifts to the grass. None of the residents of Yorkville, New York will go to the beach this June Saturday, which is just fine for Brad Ledwith, a graduate of CalPoly at San Luis Obispo who is new an associate sales manager for Sauthwestern, back for his fourth summer selling books.

7:28 a.m. Ledwith pulls into the parking lot of a local deli. He rushes inside, orders a bagel---toasted, with cream cheese and glances at the newspapers on display. "That's how I get my news," he says. "I read the headlines every morning."

7:58 a.m. Not yet in his sales area, Ledwith is determined to stick with his schedule-knocking on the first door before 9 a.m. He drives up to a house where a woman is gardening. He jumps out of his car and pitches the woman. She isn't interested, but gives him vital information about the families who live on the block. He jumps back in the car and tells himself, "Gonna be a great day."

8:06 a,m. to 9:47 p,m. Lechwith, now in his sales area, trots from house to house repeating affirmations aloud-- "Love my job, love people." "Today is a great day."--while crossing damp lawns, his sneakers becoming more and more saturated. His day is a mix of "no thank you's," door demos, and sit-down demos. He gets a lot of information on neighbors who are out, and in the afternoon and evening makes a few sales.

10:03 p.m. Ledwith arrives back at his headquarters, takes off his "salesperson hat" and puts on his "sales manager hat." He spends the next hour on the phone with his team, helping smooth rough spots and taking sales figures to call in to Nashville. Before bed, he plans what he will discuss at the area sales meeting the next day. "The first few weeks as a manager are the roughest, you just give and give and give," he says. "But then it all comes back to you. It just kicks in and you have a great summer."

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