QUALITY AS A SALESMAN
Integrity is the ground of mutual confidence.
Never misrepresent your goods; when it becomes necessary to do
so it is time to quit the business.
A.J. Lauver, General Manager Burroughs’ Adding Machine, says, “The ideal
salesman is one who is making an honest and determined effort to render
a real service to his customers. He believes thoroughly in the value
of his goods and has faith in the honesty and ability of the house he
represents.”
An unqualified confidence in the value of what you are selling will
multiply your selling ability tremendously, just as a lack of confidence
in its merit will greatly diminish your power to make a sale. All of your
mental operations follow confidence. Your faculties will not give out
their best unless they are led by the honest faith in your house and in
your goods which generates enthusiasm.
The salesman communicates his faith, or lack of it, to the experienced
buyer. Whatever passes through your mind will be telegraphed with
lightning rapidity to your prospect’s mind. He will feel what you feel.
He will sense mentally what you are picturing secretly, as you imagine,
in your own mind. If doubt is there, if unbelief is there, he will feel
them no matter what you may say to the contrary. He can tell very quickly
whether you really believe what you are saying or whether you are just
talking for a sale. He can tell whether you honestly believe that what
you are trying to sell would be good for him to buy or not.
The consciousness that you are representing an absolutely reliable firm,
and that you are selling a superb thing, something which you really
believe it would be as advantageous for your prospect to buy as it would
be for you to sell, will not only increase your self-confidence, but will
also lend wonderful dignity and power to your bearing and your manner,
and greater force to your presentation and persuasion.
On the other hand, if you are conscious that you are selling shams, that
you are merely trying to get a person to buy that which you know will
not be of much value to him, you are immediately shorn of power. The
conviction that you are not doing your fellow-man a good turn, that, on
the contrary, you are trying to deceive him, trying to palm off on him an
article which you would not buy yourself, will make you contemptible in
your own eyes and also in the eyes of the man who is shrewd enough to see
through you.
Nothing can take the place of confidence in the quality of what you are
selling. Quality is really the best salesman in the world. The article
that is a little better than others of the same kind—that is the best,
even if the price is higher—“carries in its first sale the possibilities
of many sales, because it makes a satisfied customer, and only a
satisfied customer will come again.”
The salesman thinks more of himself when he is conscious that he is
giving his customer the best that can be had. The assurance that it is
not possible for another to beat what he offers is a wonderful tonic
and encourager to the seller. He does not need to resort to “tricks of
the trade”; nor does he have to hang his head or apologize when he
approaches his prospect, for he knows that he is backed by quality and
that there will be no disappointment or “come backs.”
A superb quality, like good things to eat, always leaves a good taste in
the mouth, and the salesman who deals in the best knows that he will be
welcome when he goes back for another order to a buyer who has once had a
taste of the quality of his goods.
The reputation of a house noted for its square dealing is of itself a
powerful salesman, and representatives of such a house have a tremendous
advantage over those who represent tricky, sharp-dealing, shoddy houses,
where the buyer knows that he has got to look out for himself, to drive a
sharp bargain or get taken in—and he knows that he is liable to be taken
in anyway.
Quality is the best possible advertisement. The salesmen of a house
thoroughly established in the confidence of the public have a
comparatively easy time of it, because they do not have to do nearly as
much talking and convincing as those who represent unreliable concerns.
The high reputation of a house is a great business asset, and a
salesman’s best argument. It is not so difficult a matter to persuade men
to buy what they know from experience to be all that it is represented to
be.
When a customer has been in the habit of buying the best, dealing with a
quality house, and has acquired a taste for the best, he does not like
the second-best—only the best is good enough for him.
International sales experts tell us that is where American salesmen fall
down, especially in seeking foreign trade—in South America for instance.
They dwell at too great length on price, and skim over quality. They
dilate on cheapness, and the inference is that the goods must be low
grade to be marketed at such a low price.
No matter how hard pushed you may be, never undertake to sell
questionable goods; never taint your reputation, or smirch your character
by becoming the representative of a shifty, dishonest concern. Resolve
that whatever comes you will not cheapen yourself by stooping to low-down
methods, that you will not sell shabby goods, or deal in cheap-John
commodities. Resolve that you will be a high-class man or nothing, that
you are not going to do another’s lying for him, that you are not going
to deceive for a salary, that you are not going to do anything which will
make you think less of yourself, which will make you less of a man.