Selling goods or soliciting requires careful study. The salesman who
makes the greatest success in the long run is the man who has practiced
truth and established himself in the confidence of his customers.
The whirlwind makes a good showing on the start, but, by the law of
compensation, what a man gains in speed he loses in power.
Some customers are slow to open up and extend their confidence to a
salesman. Others make up their minds quickly and express their
preferences.
A great deal of preliminary work can be avoided if the salesman is
tactful on the start. First impressions are lasting, and a salesman
should study carefully his first appearance. He should be neatly but
not flashily dressed. He should be a gentleman above all things. The
gentleman dresses so that later we can not accurately describe the
clothes he wore. It is the flashily dressed salesman we can describe
later on, for his clothes are so out of the ordinary that they are
remarkable in this respect. The flashily dressed salesman is remembered
by his clothes rather than by his personality.
The solicitor should never smoke in the presence of the customer on
first acquaintance. The matter of smoking in a customer's presence has
prejudiced many a man against a salesman who has this practice.
Business men have prejudices, and to some smoking is highly obnoxious.
Under no circumstances smoke in a customer's presence unless the
customer is smoking, or until at least you are well acquainted with
him, and have received his permission to smoke.
Times without number the writer has left his half-finished cigar in the
hall-way before entering the customer's presence.
Story telling is like a two-edged sword; sometimes it helps and
sometimes it is a distinct disadvantage to tell stories. You must know
when to tell stories, and, above all, do not tell stories to your
customer that he could not repeat in his home.
Above all things, the salesman must know his man. If the customer gives
evidence that he is fond of a story, then remember a good story and
tell it to him. No salesman ever made a distinct hit by telling vulgar
stories. While a customer may laugh, he forms an opinion of you that is
not complimentary, and, if you are always telling stories that you
would not repeat where women were present, the customer forms a very
low estimate of your character.
The facts are the world is full of good stories, and good stories help
your case, while vulgar stories hurt it.
Drinking is another method used by many salesmen to gain favor with a
customer, and what we have said about vulgar stories may be applied to
the matter of drinking.
Years ago it was a general practice to take the customer out and get
him half seas over before trying to sell him.
The customers who are most susceptible to influence through whiskey are
the ones who are most likely later on to cause you trouble, either
through failure in business or through their preference for some other
individual who can outdo you in the matter of drinking.
You must get your customer by the heart and not by the stomach. You
must make your customer believe in you.
In these days the business man likes to deal with a salesman who is
business from the start. He only buys goods because he expects to make
money on them, and the sooner the transaction is over, the sooner he
can turn his attention to other matters.
The best advertising solicitors and best salesmen are those who get
business on business grounds and through their knowledge of their
business, rather than through their ability to tell stories, order
dinners and drink liquor.
The good salesman studies the other side of the question. He acquaints
himself with the method used by the customer in disposing of his goods.
He does not talk his own side of the case all the time. He works with
the customer, tries to give him good advice and shows an interest in
the customer's business. Such a salesman gets close to the customer,
and retains his patronage long after the good fellow has passed away.
Be wise, be patient, and above all things, acquaint yourself thoroughly
with the goods you are selling. Know more about them than your customer
does. Live up to your obligations. Keep your appointments. Study your
customers' welfare. Help them when opportunity offers.
The life insurance solicitor who gets the most turn-downs is the one
who writes the most policies, because the fact he gets so many
turn-downs is owing to the fact that he has seen so many people.
Hard work, cheerfulness, honesty, patience, sobriety and knowledge of
good goods will make a man a successful salesman.