Experienced student sales people, called Student Managers, also live and sell on the field along with first year students. These Student Managers, who have sold at least one summer, will be mentors for the student, available to answer questions. If a student is not living with a Student Manager, he or she will be living close to one. In addition, each organization is headed by one or two Organizational Leaders, who have usually sold three or four summers. Each Southwestern Sales Manager is also in frequent contact with his or her sales organization over the summer.
Students send in sales reports each week, and call in their sales statistics regularly.
Through phone calls, regular letters and personal visits to the field during the summer, the Sales Manager stays abreast of each student's situation and is able to provide support and constructive suggestions. Students are first given the opportunity to work a few days on their own, applying what they learned in Sales School. Then, each student works for part or all of a day with a Student Manager, going from house to house observing the manager perform every aspect of the selling process. During the course of the summer, if students are having difficulty with their sales efforts, they can again work with an experienced salesperson in order to improve their performance and get new ideas. Few of our first year sales people have any previous sales experience.