Time was when the best salesman was the one who could tell the biggest
lies, drink the most whiskey and show his customers the liveliest time.
Today the best salesman is distinguished by the following attributes:
Truth, trustworthiness, together with a fine knowledge of the goods he
is selling.
The man who sells goods must be prepared to hear from nearly every man
that his price is too high. If the buyers would always tell the truth,
then the salesman who sold the most goods would simply be the one who
actually sold at the lowest price.
Price does not mean anything. Price is high or low only when quality is
taken into consideration.
The man who sells merchandise, or advertising, for instance, must be
thoroughly acquainted himself with the thing he sells. He must be
reliable, he must give good measure, he must keep his word.
We hear a good deal about the live-wire, rapid-fire salesman, who goes
out on his initial trip and comes back with a bagful of orders. It must
be remembered that ever and always there is the law of compensation to
take into consideration. The salesman who bags a lot of orders on the
first trip does not get so many the second time. He has colored his
picture too highly on the first trip. He has made too many side
promises, too many mis-statements, and the customer finds out he cannot
be believed, and this smooth article of a salesman is not as welcome in
the buyer's office the second trip.
On the other hand and in strict accordance with the law of
compensation, the salesman who tells the truth, who moves quickly, who
does what he agrees to and knows what he is talking about, who talks
convincingly and attends strictly to business will eventually succeed.
The great house of Marshall Field & Co. of Chicago have operated along
the line of fairness, good treatment and willingness to right a wrong
and correct a mistake quickly. Marshall Field had horse sense when he
inaugurated his business.
Wonder workers who start out with a burst of speed and smash records in
the matter of selling will still be salesmen at fifty years of age, for
you can't go fast far.
Those wonder workers change frequently. They flit from house to house.
They work because they need the money to have a good time with, and as
soon as they get the money they proceed to have a good time until
their little pile runs out, and then they get another job. Business
men know this wonder worker well. Go into any wholesale house and you
will find them. They are living in the past and relating their
conquests. They never speak of the present but always of the past.
They have done things they can't do again. The good salesman is doing
things now better than he has done in the past.
The permanently successful salesman does not cut much of a figure in
the matter of dress. He is not as handsome as the wonder worker. In
fact, he may be physically uncouth, but he has a heart under his rough
exterior. The customers he mingles with have confidence in him. They
know he will do what he promises, and finally this man is the one who
builds up a good trade and at fifty years of age he has a place of his
own, sends salesmen on the road, and his house does a good business
because his policy permeates the institution, and the customers have
confidence in the house because he is at the head of it, and they are
familiar with his methods and practice.
Some buyers seem to think that it is necessary for them to give the
impression to the seller that they are buying at lower prices than the
seller quotes. The wonder worker tries to make each customer believe
that he is buying at the lowest price. The common sense salesman does
not resort to such tactics.
The average buyer does not concern himself so much about being able to
buy cheaper as he does to feel sure that his competitor does not get
better treatment than he does.
In the matter of selling there is no one thing that ultimately proves
so successful as the one price plan. By that we mean the same price to
all who purchase the same quantity or the same amount in a given time.
The more elastic and variable your prices, the more ingenuity required
to keep these cut prices from getting into the hands of your customers.
This matter of cutting prices causes no end of worry. In proportion as
you indulge in cutting prices, so in proportion you will receive an
increased number of cut price offers.
Let it be known that your prices are subject to reduction at the hands
of a smooth buyer, and the news will travel fast.
Let it be known that you don't cut prices, and that news will gain
currency in the trade, and you will not have cut prices offered you.
There is something in the matter of selling beyond dollars and cents,
and that is dollars and sense.
Remember this, when you sell goods you are also selling reputation. If
your goods are bad your reputation will be bad too. You can't have a
good reputation and sell bad goods and make a permanent success.
Remember, every sale you make is an advertisement.
Remember, you can take advantage of the buyer once or twice, but if you
want to hold his trade you must be fair with him.
Smooth tactics that bring in present money react and lose trade for you
later on.