DIFFERENT TYPES OF CUSTOMERS (_Continued_)
IN A HURRY
Certain customers there are who are required at times to make purchases
in a hurry. When a man has ten minutes to use in buying a pair of shoes,
and is on his way to catch the limited train from New York to Chicago
that leaves twenty minutes later, he is in a hurry. It is safe to say,
too, that he needs the shoes pretty badly. There is nothing the salesman
can do under these conditions that will please the customer so much as
to cut through all the red tape, get right down to business and get the
customer started on his way again before the ten minutes are up.
Excitement would not do it. This would result in the salesman being
unable to think clearly and it would mean also that the customer in
excitement would probably take whatever was offered—and repent later.
Someone has said that what the salesman needs under these conditions is
to be “cool-headed and hot-footed.”
However, when a customer, especially a man, it not actually in a hurry
it is promptness and dispatch that he wants rather than “pushing.” The
distinction between these was clearly brought out in a recent article:
All men like promptness and dispatch, but few of them want to be
hurried. It is important to keep in mind the difference between
hurrying the customer and waiting on him with speed.
Quick, nervous movements or speech on the salesman’s part do not
indicate quick service; they only confuse or annoy the customer.
The salesman who puts the least extra motions in his work, the
fewest words and the keenest attention, is the one who will
serve quickly and best.
Help the man to make his choice without seeming to be
patronizing; try to anticipate his course of thought without
interrupting him. When he steps up in front of you act able to
hurry, but do not suggest hurrying. This is the safe way
because, while men do not like to waste time, few of them,
except on special occasions like catching a train or keeping an
appointment, are in such a hurry that they want to be shot
through the selling process as though they were getting into a
lifeboat.
Reflect confidence in your ability to save the customer’s time
rather than the ability to speed him out of the department.
“ONLY LOOKING”
There are a few women who take keen enjoyment in a form of indoor
amusement known as “shopping.” This may be nothing more than a desire to
use what would otherwise be a dull morning by attending a variety show
of merchandise. Such a woman may pass from one department of a store to
another trying on pretty clothes in each one, and with no thought to
buy.
After some experience on the floor the salesman soon learns to
distinguish between the customer who comes for business and the “looker”
who has come to be entertained at the expense of the salesman’s time and
effort while other customers are waiting to be served. On learning that
there is no possibility of making a sale, it is for the salesman to
suggest, perhaps, that he has shown the principal range of styles and
that if there is nothing satisfactory among them the lady might call
later and find what she is looking for. The salesman should, of course,
offer the usual courtesy extended to customers and should make no
intimation of the fact that he does not care to spend further time
showing goods. Skillful salesmanship has often been accountable for
sales in those cases where there had originally been no intention to
buy. Rather than run the risk of missing a sale it is much better for
the salesman to continue his effort for a while even after he has become
convinced that a purchase is not even being considered. The idle
“looker” today may later be ready and able to buy. Therefore whatever
goods are shown should be shown to advantage in order that they may make
the most favorable impression.
UNDECIDED
Everyone with selling experience has met the customer who is unable to
make a decision—the person who is thoroughly satisfied with the goods
but cannot come to the point of saying “yes.” In a recent booklet
written for salespeople[3] the following important points are brought
out and clearly state the position of the salesman in relation to the
undecided customer.
Footnote 3:
_Chats on Garment Salesmanship_, by Margaret Sumner.
Now for the woman who needs to be helped in making up her mind.
She is a very trying type and needs careful coaching, bolstering
up and nursing along to the point of decision. Her other
characteristics will be more or less your guide in showing you
how to bring her to the point of decision, but your own manner
must be very firm. Do not let the least hint of a doubt that she
will finally buy creep into your manner or voice. At the same
time don’t try to overwhelm her with your own forcefulness, for
then she will be frightened. Caution and timidity are the
natural weapons of the weak nature, and in all dealings with
such persons you must use all the kindness and patience at your
command. You have to make decisions for them but let them think
that they are making up their minds. Be very gentle but firm.
The weak person must be led like a little child. She simply
hesitates to make up her mind without any reason at all. Do not
try to reason with her; just be cheerful, smiling and confident,
until you inspire a little confidence in her. Some remark about
the reliability of your goods and the reputation of their makers
and of the store behind them will help.
Other woman find it hard to make decisions when the mind is a
little weakened through worry or too great an expenditure of
nervous energy. This is the nervous, unhealthy, irritable type,
and your method must be as cheerful and sympathetic as with the
timid woman, but less insistent. Try to convey the impression,
without saying it in so many words, that it will be a relief to
get the matter off her mind by making a decision _now_. These
poor women run around from store to store, get half a dozen
different styles and desirable qualities fixed in their minds
and then lie awake at night trying to decide between them. If
this method of shopping is hard upon the salesperson, it is many
times as hard upon the shopper. When such a one leaves with the
promise to “decide later” be just as polite and cheerful as
ever, yet without any abruptness. Leave as good an impression as
possible, remarking that you hope she will come in later and in
many cases she will. Often the personality of the salesperson is
the deciding factor in a case of this kind without the customer
realizing it.
Still another type of customer who is undecided and has difficulty in
coming to a decision is the person who, for example, has a short, thick
foot and always admires the long, slim-looking styles and wishes to be
fitted accordingly. Then there is naturally the opposite—the person with
the long, slim foot who laments of its size, who thinks of the length,
which to her seems enormous. One practical salesman with years of
experience mentions that such a customer, if well served, can actually
be made to feel pleased with the shape of her foot. He says: “When
reasoned with properly the customer can be made to feel much comforted
if not really proud of the shape of her feet. The salesman can mention,
for instance, that the cubic contents of this 8AA foot is less than a
size 5½E—and besides a tall woman would not be well proportioned if she
had short feet, short arms and short fingers. To be properly
proportioned is an advantage—and before the customer realizes it the
size 8AA looks pretty well, after all, she thinks they will do all
right, the price is satisfactory and the sale is made.”
There is nothing dishonest about this means of serving the customer. It
is a genuine, whole-hearted effort to please her and to supply her with
the shoe she should rightly wear and that will give her the maximum of
service. Hugh Black, a prominent Scotch writer and a close student of
human nature, made the statement, after having toured the United States,
that one of the chief characteristics of the American people, as he
noticed them, was that “no matter what they are doing they want to be
doing something else; and no matter where they are they would go
somewhere else.” It is perfectly human for everyone to seek variety. The
woman with the long, thin foot has become tired of looking at it and
consequently it seems commonplace. The salesman in mentioning that the
slim foot has its advantages is simply reassuring his customer of a
fact, and in doing so he is serving her well.
One of the fatal mistakes in shoe selling is to attempt to please a
customer with a size or proportion that is not the proper one for her to
wear. This can result in nothing but a loss of business through
dissatisfaction when the shoe fails to give the service expected of it.
To understand the customer, to use tact—but not deceit—in selling the
shoe she should wear, is the responsibility of the salesman.
TWO FRIENDS TOGETHER
It is not unusual for a customer who may be undecided to bring along a
friend to assist in the selection. The salesman, under these conditions,
may have the task of selling two people the one pair of shoes, because
the sale depends upon the satisfaction of both. The effort to sell will,
of course, be directed to the person who is buying. However, should
there be a difference of opinion between the two concerning some
important point such as size or fit, the salesman would naturally be
supported by the person who favors the shoe he is suggesting as the most
desirable one. Although it would be a mistake for him to make a
controversy of it by setting up sides, he can assist in bringing about a
decision by a suggestion or two in favor of the person who has agreed
with the salesman’s selection.
A woman customer accompanied by her husband, or vice versa, offers
another situation that calls for tact on the part of the salesman. One
good woman explained that her husband had bought _himself_ a new suit
but that she had accompanied him simply to pick out the one he should
have. The shoe salesman under the same conditions, will soon be able to
tell which one of the two is to do the deciding, and he will then direct
his selling effort accordingly.
IGNORANT AND POOR
As a test in salesmanship and the ability to serve different types of
customers, the question was asked before a training class for retail
salespeople as to the manner in which a customer answering the following
description should be greeted and served:
A woman about thirty enters the store carrying a baby in her
arms and leading another child by the hand. Her clothes are
shabby. She is evidently tired and makes her way to the nearest
chair. She looks discouraged.
The salesman on considering these facts realizes at once that such a
customer cannot be served in the same manner as the care-free
schoolgirl. If he places himself in the position of the tired woman he
will realize that her problems are different and that she requires in a
shoe not only service but quality, fit, style and price to meet her own
circumstances.
The salesman would make no effort to hurry such a customer. He would
realize that she would get genuine comfort by resting for a minute or
two before getting down to business and that she might not even care to
think of shoes while resting. Being discouraged, as shown by her
expression, she would probably be cheered by a remark and some show of
interest in the children. To show an interest would not mean to pry into
her personal affairs or to ask a lot of questions, but a kindly word
would serve to direct the woman’s thought from her troubles and to put
her in a buying frame of mind.
Such a customer would expect shoes that would give her the maximum of
wearing quality for the money she has to spend. Her appearance indicates
that she is poor. She wants the greatest possible wearing service and
comfort that she can get. She deserves the best fit that it is possible
to give her, and she will generally be glad of the salesman’s
suggestions concerning the shoe she should wear. The matter of pattern
and style is not a prime consideration. Talk quality and supply a
strong, serviceable shoe. Show an interest in the children and they will
at once be lined up for the next pair of shoes the mother is able to buy
them. It may have taken ten minutes longer to serve the woman well, but
she has been satisfied and has been made a steady customer.
STYLE REGARDLESS OF PRICE
A certain amount of almost every store’s trade is made up of the
customer who is interested above all other things in style. Something
has already been said concerning the personal appearance of such a
customer. The whole outfit from hat to shoes will speak in terms of
style.
With the customer who puts style before all other considerations there
is great likelihood of there being objection in the matter of correct
shoe fitting, especially if the person’s foot is unusual in size or
shape. Here the salesman is called in to use all he knows of the art of
tactful selling. Business of the kind where price is no object is
certainly well worth cultivating, but here, as in all other successful
shoe selling, the matter of correct fitting is essential to
satisfaction. Avoid talking in terms of sizes. This always lays bare a
tender part of the customer’s conceit or consciousness and opens up the
possibility of dispute and misunderstanding. It is _correct fitting_
that the customer is buying and not size marks. The salesman will
concentrate his efforts to give the maximum of _style with correct
fitting_, but with customers whose first and only thought is style, he
will speak only in terms of _style_.
ACTUAL OR ASSUMED FOOT TROUBLES
Among customers there are a certain number who continually have trouble
with their feet but who are never able to come to the point of realizing
that the shoes they insist are the proper size are the real cause of
their great discomfort. The salesman should serve his customer by
furnishing him with a shoe that actually fits the _foot_ and not one
that fits some mistaken idea of size.
J. M. Watson, president of the Guarantee Shoe Company, San Antonio,
Texas, emphasizes very strongly the need to serve the customer with
_fit_ rather than sizes. In explaining the policy of his company he
said:
If the customer asks what size the shoes are, change the subject
if possible. However, if you are pinned down to where it is
necessary to talk size, do so. But do not say simply “6A”—say
“6A, which is the size that fits you.” Then if the customer
should say, “They are too long, I don’t wear a 6A, I wear a 5C,”
the salesman would reply: “When I sell you a shoe you wear a 6A
because I do not misfit my customers. The shoe you have on is
exactly the model and size that your feet require—to give you
any other would mean that I would be selling you the wrong shoe
for your feet.”
This is a clear statement of fact, but it is bound to impress the
customer favorably because it is said with an air of authority and
because it brings out the importance of correct fitting. The subject of
shoe fitting will be fully treated in the next following section of the
Course. It is mentioned here simply in its important relation to the
treatment of different types of customers. If the customer actually has
foot trouble he needs expert advice such as the salesman will be in a
position to give after having mastered the section of the Course on
“Correct Shoe Fitting.” On the other hand, if he does not have foot
trouble, he needs good salesmanship to protect himself from insisting
upon a poorly fitted shoe that would later bring on trouble.