Last weekend, at a flea market out of state, I pulled a dusty old 10-inch LP from a box of records. It was in a tattered manila envelope, and included lots of paperwork. When I examined it, I realized it was a vintage record for training Chevrolet salesmen, which immediately got me curious. It was a couple of bucks, so why not? Near the back of the box was a second record from this same series, only by itself with no papers or sleeve...so I did what anyone else would do: I crammed it into the envelope and got two records for the price of one.
If the name "Jam Handy Organization" isn't familiar to you, it probably should be. Handy was a medal-winning Olympic swimmer who began his own company for producing marketing/training films and other materials for large companies, as well as the U.S. government. In fact, you've probably run into some of these films through MST3K or Rifftrax. And, who doesn't forget a name like "The Jam Handy Organization," anyway? I always thought it sounded like a guitar supply store ("Jam Handy to the rescue!").
Chevrolet "T-O-P" stood for "Trained Organization Program," and apparently somebody was dead set on having TOP as an acronym, because that doesn't make much grammatical sense. They began producing filmstrip/record combinations through Jam Handy for training purposes in the 1950's (the earliest on Discogs are from 1955), and ran for several years (both examples here are from 1961). I am guessing this was a monthly or bi-monthly thing, and that regular sales meetings after work consisted of watching them, lots of smoking, and then discussing thought-provoking, pre- supplied questions, just like school all over again (without so much smoking). For one of our examples, we are lucky enough to have existing copies of both the script for the Meeting Leader, as well as a copy of the "Review Book" that was handed out to salesmen (both scanned and included here). It was all this pristine paperwork (including six copies of the review books!) that really made me buy these records.
So here's what you get: In "Best Foot Forward," a narrator tells us that this horseless carriage thing is probably going to work out, and that if you are a used car salesman, you should lie a lot always tell the customer lots of useful facts, and remind them how clean the car is. If they ask questions, tell them the car is incredibly clean. In "Stranger in Town," which is the disc that includes all the swell paperwork, a folksy, James Arness-sounding narrator reminds us that there are two kinds of people: strangers we don't know, and people who have moved to town (or something like that). Also, you can actually get new customers by not screwing up, doing things on time, and completely butting into people's personal affairs by telling them exactly how they should spend their day while you fix their cars. For some reason, they also blatantly tell you to find as many things wrong with their cars as possible, in order to maximize profit. Huh. One thing that struck me--in light of the year we live in--was the story of how the entire repair shop should do backwards cartwheels in order to obtain parts to fix a car in the same day, making sure a rare motor was "on the 1:00 bus" so that it would be ready. That one made me laugh out loud.
These are fun to listen to, either for useful samples, nostalgia, or just a crash-course in the then-new philosophy of Customer Service. It's amazing to think that entire industries have built up around teaching this concept, and they all boil down to keeping your word, not screwing up, and not overcharging people. It's really that simple, and yet I can't think of any large, brand-name companies that I deal with, or use their products, that I would use as shining examples of the art. Something about the "human" part of "human nature" means it goes south every time, I guess. Enjoy!
LINK: "Best Foot Forward" and "Stranger In Town"
Scans included with download, but here's both sides of the Meeting Script, just for completeness:
