But Scott most decidedly devised new applications of newly evolved principles.  He did this so effectively and with so much originality that he had a marked influence on the evolution and utilization of psychology.

Walter Dill Scott's many activities helped to build up his reputation on a national scale.  But, characteristically, it was the direct application of his ideas in the field of business that led to the next turn in his career, a development that was to open up even more opportunities for even more momentous achievements.  These developments, and others, came about as if with predestined inevitability.  Fortunately, in Scott's case, each change was a happy one.

Just as his book on The Psychology of Public Speaking was in part a by-product of his work in the field of advertising, so his entry into the sphere of salesmanship was an offshoot of his activities in advertising.  In analysing advertisements, Scott found that most of them were poorly done, and when he began thinking about how they might be improved, he came to the conclusion that a basic step in that direction was the selection of properly qualified people to prepare the ads.

Writing copy, making layouts, and providing illustrations for advertisements, he knew, were fundamentally selling jobs.  The combined aim of these activities was to create or stimulate a desire and readiness to buy the item advertised.  Hence it was natural for Scott to proceed from the consideration of the qualities essential for high effectiveness as an advertising man to a consideration of the qualities needed for success as a salesman.

Thus Scott was prepared to listen when representatives of the American Tobacco Company consulted him in 1908 about their difficulties in hiring good salesmen.  He agreed to help get to the bottom of their problem, provided the company would co-operate fully.  As a result of their agreement, the tobacco company sent its employment interviewers and applicants for sales positions to Northwestern, where Scott and a staff of student assistants could observe them in action.
 

During which year it was that Scott carried through his salesmen-selection experiment for the American Tobacco Company is not altogether certain.  He remembers it as 1908.  Written evidence, however, indicates that such an experiment was conducted for this company, under his direction, in 1915.  Possibly, then, there were two of them.

To Scott the assignment was appealing since it offered him an opportunity to work out tested criteria for systematic selection of salesmen.  The first thing he did was to observe closely how the interviewers operated.  But it didn't take him long to realize that they used a hit or miss method, that he could learn nothing from them, and that it would be necessary to start from scratch.

Characteristically, Scott first examined and analyzed the qualities shown by the company's most successful salesmen.  He and his staff then discussed these qualities with the company's interviewers and coached them on how to ascertain whether applicants had the desired qualities.  Following this Scott and his assistants supervised the application of this approach until he was completely satisfied that the interviewers were doing it effectively.

The result was highly gratifying to the American Tobacco Company and brought Scott other commissions to screen or appraise sales staffs.

In this connection he tells a story on himself.  In appraising the salesmen of a Pittsburgh steel company he encountered a man named B______, who seemed obviously stupid, slow-witted.
 "Fire B_____," Scott advised, "or have him placed elsewhere.  He's not fit to be a salesman.  Why, he's brainless."
 "What?" snapped the sales manager.  "Fire B______ You think I'm crazy?  He is my best salesman."
 Scott was amazed to the point of speechlessness.
 Noting this, the sales manager smilingly explained.  "Sure, everybody knows B_____ is not very bright.  But what of it?  He brings in the business.  And that's what counts.  You see, it's like this.  We don't send him out alone.  That would never do.  We send him on the road with a fellow who's a whiz when it comes to closing a deal.  B_____  gets the customers in a buying mood.  He has a sunny disposition, makes people feel good-particularly in the small towns.  And then the fellow with him gets all their orders.  See?"
 "I sure do," smiled Scott, "and thanks for a valuable lesson."

Scott's progress in the first decade of the century was steady and satisfying.  In 1906 he had built his own home in Evanston and moved into it with his wife and his four-year-old son.  His second son, Sumner Walter Dill, was born in 1908, the year of the salesmen-selection project.

It was during this period, too, Mrs. Scott began a literary career of her own.  She wrote two children's books: A Year with the Fairies and The Flower Babies Book, published in 1914.  Both are in verse and profusely illustrated in full color.

The Flower Babies Book gives youngsters an intimate glimpse of a wide variety of wild and garden flowers. A Year with the Fairies consists of bright and fanciful portrayals of festive scenes and occasions, with verses especially notable for their musical quality.  In those years Mrs. Scott also was a regular contributor to Child Life.

Another psychologist who sensed a need to implement psychological knowledge and approach in the world of business and industry was Walter V. Bingham.

Bingham, a quiet, persevering man about ten years Scott's junior, was, in 1915, professor of psychology and head of the Division of Applied Psychology at the Carnegie Institute of Technology.

Bingham sensed that what was needed was a way of applying psychological knowledge functionally in the world of business and industry.  And when he read some magazine articles by Scott on his new method of selecting salesmen, he knew he had found his man to do the work.

Later Prof.  Bingham had occasion to tell Edward A. Woods, head of a large agency of the Equitable Life Insurance Company, about the articles.  The two of them put their heads together and decided it was time to establish a large-scale project in salesmanship research, a move Woods highly favored since his business was so highly dependent on salesmen.

The upshot of the agreement between Bingham and Woods was the establishment of the Bureau of Salesmanship Research at Carnegie Tech, in collaboration with 30 leading business firms.  Scott was invited to be director of the bureau, and he accepted the offer with enthusiasm.

Accordingly he obtained a leave from Northwestern in 1916, a year Scott has often called America's greatest year of progress in the field of applied psychology.  The year that preceded America's entry into World War I saw the creation and development of the first aptitude tests and the first intelligence and vocational interests tests by American psychologists.  It saw, also, the establishment of the first professorship of applied psychology authorized by a university board of trustees.  It was set up at Carnegie Tech, and Scott was chosen to fill the post.

Pertinently illuminating this achievement is a letter from Dr. Bingham.  "Scott's achievements," Bingham wrote, "should be recorded in full detail because he exerted a profound influence on the history of psychology during the era when it was expanding from the status of an academic discipline to that of a learned profession.

"There had been much study and writing and teaching of psychology for centuries, and psychology as an experimental science had made great progress since 1879, the year in which Wilhelm Wundt established the first psychological laboratory in the University of Leipzig where Scott took his doctorate in 1900.

"But there was almost no practising of psychology as a profession in business firms, factories, social agencies, hospitals, and armies, until a few of us, like Scott and those we trained, chose to break with tradition and undertake psychological work outside as well as inside of schools and colleges.  Today, as a consequence, the center of gravity in psychology is non-academic, off-campus.

In his letter, Bingham recalls how he, as professor of psychology and head of the division of Applied Psychology at Carnegie Tech, persuaded Scott to accept the appointment to the chair of 'Professor of Applied Psychology and Director of the Bureau of Salesmanship Research.'

"Scott has modestly neglected to list that full title in Who's Who; but it is a fact that should be given prominence because that was the first time in history that a Board of Trustees had created a Professorship of Applied Psychology.

"To be sure, James P. Porter was given that title at Clark College at almost the same time.  He had been Professor of Psychology there since 1912. 1 am not quite certain whether his term as Professor of Applied Psychology began on July I or in September.  But Scott's appointment has priority because he came to Pittsburgh and rolled up his sleeves on his new job on the first day of June, 1916.  He and I had to complete arrangements for initiating studies in selecting salesmen in ... firms

like H. J. Heinz, Ford Motor, Equitable Life, Burroughs Adding Machine, Goodrich Rubber and Pittsburgh Steel, which had put up money to start the Bureau. . . . "

In addition, Scott and Bingham "had to get set to put on a demonstration of sound methods in the selection of salesmen, to be featured at the First World Salesmanship Congress in Detroit on July 8."

The story of how the Bureau of Salesmanship Research was conceived and brought into being, what it accomplished, and what grew out of it is told by Bingham in an article published in The Scientific Monthly for February, 1923.

In this article he gives an account of his first meeting with Edward A. Woods, whom he had met through A. A. Hamerschlag, president of Carnegie Tech.  He describes Woods as "a businessman of exceptional leadership" who was at the time "district representative of one of the great life insurance companies and . . . nationally reputed to have the most productive of all life insurance agencies. . . .

"Woods," Bingham related , wanted Carnegie Tech to teach courses in salesmanship that would go much further than any being then offered in other institutions."

In line with this suggestion, Bingham observed: " . . . Before entering this field, we ought to find out more than is now known about selling and salesmen.  We should. . . learn the difference between successful and relatively unsuccessful salesmen.  We ought to study their talents, their aptitudes, their traits, their personal histories, their duties.  We should... gather information as to the potency of incentives and appeals to sales effort and the best methods of selection, development and supervision of salesmen."

President Hamerschlag pointed out that the required research could be carried through only with-the active co-operation of a group of representative business firms.  And the question was raised as to whether such co-operation could be obtained.  Woods answered in the affirmative, citing as the basis for his optimism "the annual financial loss to business and to the public through employment of new salesmen who eventually fail to make good."

"As a result of this," Bingham continues in his article, "I prepared a plan for a research bureau to be sponsored and housed by Carnegie Institute of Technology and to be supported by a group of 30 co-operating industrial and business houses, each contributing $500 annually for five years toward the research budget.  This budget was underwritten personally by Mr. Woods and two of his friends, Mr. H. J. Heinz, the manufacturer of food products, and Mr. Noval A. Hawkins of Detroit, at that time manager of sales for the Ford automobile. . .
"They, in turn, with President Hamerschlag's help, secured the co-operation and support of other concerns of national scope, such as Burroughs Adding Machine, Carnegie Steel, Westinghouse Electric, Armstrong Cork, American Multigraph, Packard Automobile and several of the great life insurance companies. . . . "

But soon Bingham and his associates encountered difficulties.  "We found," he says, "little precedent for the proposed form of co-operation between college and business.  We aimed to attack with the tools of psychological and statistical measurement a group of problems that had not previously been admitted within the pale of scientific inquiry, It was hard to find men with training adequate to such work, who could be secured for the Bureau staff.

"Looking back, now," he continues it is astonishing to recall the dearth of psychologists with an interest in business problems.  Only two or three in all America had at that time exhibited a competence in practical business psychology which would warrant us in expecting them successfully to direct such an undertaking as the new Bureau.

"We were fortunate in persuading Northwestern University to give us the loan of Walter Dill Scott, who came to Pittsburgh in June, 1916, as the first American
‘Professor of Applied Psychology' and Director of the Bureau of Salesmanship Research.  Scott's connection with this division (Applied Psychology) during the following three years brought it prestige.  His scientific acumen, his exceptional personal leadership and his shrewd, sensible insight into practical business affairs were invaluable aids in the movement to apply psychology to the problems of commerce. . . ."

In his article Bingham also describes the research problem for the first year-the selection of salesmen.  "Visits to sales managers of the co-operating concerns," he observes, "helped to define the line of attack.  The practical experience of these executives was pooled, their methods analyzed and compared.  Some experiments in actual selection were tried. . . . "

As a result of these experiments, a systematic and comprehensive procedure for the selection of salesmen was evolved by Scott and his associates.  The core of this procedure was to ascertain, analyze, and break down the necessary qualities for salesmanship, then to score established salesmen on the basis of these qualities.  The rating scale, thus obtained, provided a criterion for scoring applicants for sales positions.

The Interviewer's Scale devised for use in this connection consists of seven parts: The first covered appearance and manner; the second, convincingness; the third, industry; the fourth, character.  Value to the firm took up the fifth, sixth, and seventh parts.

In preparing the substance of this scale interviewers followed detailed instructions.  For example, in setting up criteria for appearance and manner, they were told to disregard every characteristic of each of a company's salesmen "except how well he impresses customers by his appearance and manner." They further were told to "consider physique, bearing, facial expression, clothing, neatness, voice, cheerfulness, self-confidence, courtesy."

Then they were instructed to select the company salesman "who ranks highest in appearance and manner," and enter his name on a specified blank line.  Following this they were required to select the salesman who, in their judgment, ranked lowest in manner and appearance.

His name was to be entered on the fifth line, or four lines below that of the salesman they ranked highest.  The third line was reserved for the salesman ranked halfway between highest and lowest; the second line for the one who, in their opinion, ranked halfway between the highest and the middle; the fourth line for the one who ranked halfway between the middle and the lowest.

The same procedure was followed for the other qualities.  Convincingness was designated as including tact, clearness, and a forceful approach; industry as meaning energy and perseverance; character as comprising ambition, honesty, thrift, loyalty, spirit of service, and freedom from drinking, gambling, and other undesirable conduct; value to the firm as including both present and probable future value.

Thus each man was scored seven times, and the whole Interviewer's Scale was used as a basic pattern for the formulation of the Interviewer's Rating Sheet.  The latter, however, was made more comprehensive than the former.  In addition to its seven fundamental divisions the Rating Sheet provided space for ratings by five interviewers and a physician.  It also contained salesmanship tests as well as space for the summation of ratings and final disposition.

The first four fundamental divisions had the same headings as their counterparts on the Interviewer's
 Scale:
I. Appearance and Manner,
II.  Convincingness,
111.  Industry,
IV.  Character.
Divisions V, VI, and VII were headed respectively-Personal History, Reports, and All Things Considered.

With regard to the first four qualities on the Rating Sheet, the reports from various sources, and the applicant's own personal history sheet, the interviewers used their own judgment in rating each of the men seeking a sales position.  The Personal History Score was based on the Personal History Sheet alone.  That is, the applicant's possibilities, as judged by this, were rated in comparison with the rating of the five men listed under the heading Value to the Firm on the Interviewer's Scale.  The reports were scored as one unit in the same manner.  So were All Things Considered, the basis of which was the interviewer's total impression of an applicant.

Each applicant was also given a written intelligence test and was required to make sales talks before Scott and his associates, who, for that purpose, represented specifically described categories of customers and buyers.

Conceived, tested, and formulated during the school year of 1916-17, these procedures were embodied in a volume called Aids in Selecting Salesmen.

It included a model application form or personal history blank; an ingenious and compact model letter of reference to former employers; a set of aids in personal interviews designed to focus the interviewer's attention on essential points and to quantify his judgments on those points; and a battery of mental tests with full instructions for giving and scoring.

These various "aids" were issued to member companies with the expectation that they would be used in employing new salesmen until sufficient data had been accumulated for checking their worth against the criterion of relative sales success.