The Washington herald., 1921-05-23
By HENRY s. DENNIsoN.
President Dennison Manufaeturins Company
Farmingham, Mass.

President Dennison Manufacturins Company,
"a Fsrminshsm, Mass.
Very soon after We began a crit
ical study Of our sales methods It
became apparent that the long "trip
statesmen and the manager with the
widespread selling territory were
the chaps with the most ragged and
inconsistent sales habits At that
time we had divided the country
into five territories, with their head
quarters in Boston. New York, Phil
adelphia. Chicago and St Louis.
Roughly, the Boston office covered
New England: the Philadelphia Of
hce, Pennsylvania, the Virginias and
carolinas; New York. besides its own
state. covered the water routes,
which gave ii most of the south
and all the Pacific coast: st. Louis
covereed the southwest, and Chicago
the middle west to the Rockies.
The managers in these five cities
met together frequently, but the old.
deep-rooted feeling that conditions
I'm my territory are different" pre-
vented any sort of real mutual uu-
derstanding; hence, as a matter vi
fact, we had five selling policies.
In the early days OF relative iso-
lation of west from east and north
from south, this situation didn't
cause much obvious harm, but as
travel and communication became
more perfect the many inconsistent
cies in policy demanded correction.
But worse than the inconsistency
in policy between one territory and
another was the condition of irreg-
ularity within each of the terri
tories-especially those of the larg-
est extent. In neither the New York
not the Chicago territory could a
sales manager keep in close enough
touch with his job to be master
of it. He sent his statesmen out
on long trips. which made il neces-
sary to allow them wide discretion:
and II was just these long-trip men
whose infrequent contact with US
made them tend to lean more strong
ly toward the customers interest
than toward an even balance be-
tween the customers interest and
our own. Only the older men and
the best of them could handle the
long trip effectively. and it was the
older men who deserved the chance
to settle down and who had earned
relief from excessive travelling. As
business grew in these larger ter
rttories the manager found il next
TO impossible to get out of his Of
nee. and when he did IL was pos
sible to do only the most Grass.
high-spot inspection Each year.
moreover. he was further removed
from actual selling experience.
Evolution of the District System.
1t was this situation within the
larger territories which started us
developing the smaller sales unit
which we called the district. AT
FIRST the districts were managed
from the old territorial bases and
consisted, therefore. in practice, of
placing managers lieutenants at
strategic points in his selling field.
These lieutenants or district man
ayers were located in princinal
cities with enough territory sur
rounding them so that they could
cover il with from three to a dozen
men. while the lieutenants would
themselves have part of their time
for actual selling.
AS the district system gradually
developed. there have been as MANY
as 40 districts in -" ra'.~d
States and Canada, although the
number during the sellers market
of the last few years has been re-
duced to 80. The districts fol-
lowed roughly along state lines.
though there might he in one case
two districts in a state and in an
other section two to five states in a
district An important part of the
district system is that the unit
should be kept flexible. fit to be
changed to match most closely with
the demands of the market and the
demands of personnel
Sales Managers Move to Factory,
The district system. with its gen.
eral sales management scattered
among the five original cities, had
not gone very far before it was ap-
parent that. the manager of any
group OF districts found that most
OF his problems required informa-
tion from the factory for their un-
outstanding, and cooperation with
the Factory or mercha ndising di-
VISION for their best solution. One
oy one. therefore. as convenience