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Click on the group below to view the FAQs relating to them.
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What is the Southwestern
Company?
How much can a successful student make? How many dealers participate in the Summer Selling Program? The answer lies in the work ethic of the student, the conviction they have for the product and the confidence they have in themselves. The most successful students work 75 or more hours a week during the summer. Here are the statistics from Summer 2006: Average Gross Profit First Year Dealer Average Profit: $7,944* Second Year Dealer Average Profit: $15,660* Third Year Dealer Average Profit: $21,663* Fourth Year Dealer Average Profit: $28,809* *Based on a 3 month summer. Student dealers selling less than 20 days are excluded. Delivery days have also not been included when calculating dollar amounts. Can you describe a year in the life of Southwestern? Southwestern is a unique company in the fact that product is sold only four to five months out of the year by student dealers participating in the Program as independent contractors. The other months are spent on college and university campuses interviewing prospects, corresponding with parents, solidifying the product line, and preparing training for Sales Manager and student dealers. The following is cyclical list of events that make up Southwestern: Product – Negotiate, communicate & plan product line, implement distribution and promotion of product, production editing and printing of product Recruiting – Sales Managers and student managers in the U.S., Canada and Europe recruit on approximately 350 campuses worldwide, including France, Estonia, and South Africa! Students are recruited on over 350 colleges and universities in the U.S., Canada and Europe. Recruiting begins with the fall school term and continues through the end of the spring term. Nearly 3,200 students attended Sales School in 2002, Sales Managers and student managers interview on campuses, meet with parents, prepare students for what to expect in the summer and meet with campus officials throughout the year. Training – Throughout the school year, student dealers are trained on campuses on product and are prepared for the summer. Sales Managers are trained at various meetings and workshops. Student dealers attend Great Recruiters Seminar and Great Recruiters Seminar 2 held by the company during the school year to learn valuable team building and life skills. Sales School – Sales School is the week-long training dealers receive prior to selling that covers such topics as product, sales etiquette, ethics, business management and dogology. The time a dealer attends Sales School depends on when their spring semester was over. Sales Schools are held in the U.S., Canada and England. Selling - Students dealers travel to their selling territories. (Although students from all over the world participate in the Program, they only sell in the U.S., Canada and the U.K.) Students obtain the proper permits typically live with a pre-arranged host family for the summer with 2 to 4 students per home. The most successful dealers work 72+ hours in a six-day work week. On Sundays, they relax and meet other students to exchange ideas and receive additional training. The typical summer consists of 12 weeks. Very important: each student dealer is an independent contractor selling Southwestern Product. They do not work for Southwestern. They work for themselves, as they are running their own business. Delivery – Students order the product they have sold from Southwestern’s warehouse in LaVergne, TN. It is shipped to them via freight line. They re-visit each home they made a sale to and deliver the product and show the customer how to use it. Upon returning to Nashville, dealers take any unsold product to the warehouse for reimbursement and to be placed back into inventory. Check Out - Check Out is held in Nashville at the end of the summer. It is when dealers reconcile their accounts, remit the monies collected at product delivery, fill out and turn in necessary paperwork and receive a big check for their summer efforts. After Check-Out, dealers head back home to see loved ones and then return to school. Can you describe a day in the life of Southwestern student dealer? A student dealer’s day is anything but boring! Although each dealer’s day may differ slightly, here is what a typical day may be like:
The day may seem long, however students have found it helpful to break it up into goal periods of 2 hours and 15 minutes each. The dealers are trained to stick to a schedule in order to show the product to all of the families in the community over the summer. They may knock on as many as 100 doors to reach their goal of 30 demonstrations in one day. The rigor of this schedule is practiced six days a week, with Saturdays being a day to catch up with families missed during the week and to fulfill appointments. Sunday is a day of fun, training and a time to see friends. Additional training and a fun activity is planned as students in a particular area converge to meet and talk about their week. How much training do students receive? What is “Sales School”? Sales School is the week-long training students receive before traveling to their sales locality During Sales School, students learn sales presentations, success principles, business practices, ethics and other valuable skills to help them during the summer and beyond The training involves a variety of mediums and methods, from video and PowerPoint, to live role play and simulations. All the sessions are conducted by Sales Directors and Sales Managers, all of whom participated in the Southwestern Program During the school year:
During the summer:
Why is product not sold on the Internet or at retail outlets? When Rev. Graves set up the Southwestern Program up in 1868, it was to benefit the student to help pay for their education expenses and give them an experience that would build character to last a lifetime. To this day, the program has remained true to its roots. Southwestern remains committed to the student dealers that sell our product and the people that build our companies. Selling product by any other means than the student dealers would hurt the opportunities to make a sale each time they sit down with a family. Put simply: Southwestern is committed to the philosophy the company started with regarding the opportunity offered to students and life lessons that can be learned through hard work, persistence and a positive attitude. |
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