FINDING CUSTOMERS
“Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
The King is the man who can.—CARLYLE.
The hardest problem with any business man is to find customers, that is
to say, desirable and profitable customers. Identical with the problem of
finding customers, is the more difficult one of finding the men who can
find the right kind of customers.
There’s the rub—“To find _the man who can swim_.” The right kind of
salesman will solve for himself this problem of getting customers as
he will most others connected with selling. How, you ask? This is how
the question was answered recently by a little, short, unprepossessing
salesman who is said to have written the largest amount of life insurance
in one of the largest insurance companies in the world.
Some time ago this salesman went to Canada and at an influential
gathering saw a man whom he sized up as a good prospect. He got his
name and address, found out all about him, his habits and hobbies, one
of which was the success of a big hospital in which he was especially
interested. Next day the salesman went to this hospital, and asked to
be shown through it, after which he called on his prospective customer,
told him he had heard of his interest in —— Hospital, and said, “I have
been studying this hospital, also; it is doing splendid work, and I
would like to make a little contribution to its funds.” He thereupon
wrote out a check for $250.00 and handed it to this man. _This check was
the entering wedge for a $250,000.00 life insurance policy_, which this
resourceful salesman soon after wrote for the man whose pet hobby was the
big hospital in question.
The main trouble with most salesmen is that they put the problem of
finding customers up to the sales manager or heads of the company. They
want them to do all the thinking in the matter of where to go, and how to
proceed in this difficult business. Let me say right at the start; there
is no iron-clad rule for finding customers. Some say it is just a matter
of “plan and push,” as illustrated in the above instance.
The Sheldon Course in Salesmanship gives five ways for finding a
customer, namely; Advertising, Window Display, General or Door to Door
Canvass, Selected List Canvass, and Following Up “Leads” or Inquiries.
Many books have been written on the various forms and values of
advertising. It is a well-known fact that much money is wasted through
injudicious advertising, but no successful business man can dispense
with the right kind of publicity. Whether he uses the newspapers, or the
magazines, bill-boards, or cards in street-cars, or novelties, will all
depend on the goods and the various conditions which have to be met in
the marketing of his particular product. Different kinds of advertising
should be adapted to each particular territory.
A salesman quickly becomes familiar with such conditions as affect
different places and different seasons, so that he plans his campaigns
accordingly. Where a man has a fixed territory and is handling goods
which are used by a restricted class of people, then the matter becomes
relatively simple, although it is important to be always alert, so as not
to miss any possible customers, and so as to learn well in advance about
new firms who may want your goods.
A specialty salesman will have to use more originality in finding
customers than would have to be used, ordinarily, in the wholesale or
retail business, where the home office, or the head of the firm, can map
out pretty well just what people should be reached, and how to reach
them. Many salesmen lose a lot of valuable time, and waste much money
chasing from one town to another, or from one part of a city to another,
following up so-called “leads.” Unfortunately, the majority of these
“leads” are answers to advertisements which were so alluring, and seemed
to promise so much for nothing, that a large number of curiosity seekers
have written to the home office, with little thought of buying, and more
often with little ability to buy, what was advertised.
The salesman who has the courage “_to go to it_,” without any “lead” or
point of contact, is the one who will ultimately make the biggest success.
If you have something to sell, do not be afraid to walk into a man’s
place of business and introduce yourself, telling just what service
you are prepared to render. The only good reason for being in business
is because you can render service. You should feel that you are the
benefactor of the man whom you approach. He may be your superior
financially, but in the matter of your particular article or articles
for sale, you should feel that you are his superior, and therefore you
should approach him with the utmost ease and confidence. The big winners
in salesmanship are those who possess the initiative, the originality,
and the poise, which enable them to go out and find customers quickly and
intelligently, covering the biggest amount of territory in the shortest
time, and concentrating their energies.
The use of the telephone in finding customers and making appointments is
a method that requires considerable skill. There are those who believe
that it is too easy for a man to “turn you down” on the telephone. There
are others who believe that it is foolish to waste carfare and time, when
you can quickly arrange matters over the telephone. Experience and native
ability must guide the salesman in the use of the telephone.
So, in the matter of letter-writing,—often where a letter would be thrown
in the waste-basket, or receive a negative reply, a personal call from
the salesman might get a big order. Yet, in many cases the right kind
of letters would get the business and save the salesman much useless
expenditure of time, money and energy.
The day may come when, if our goods are exactly as represented, customers
will make a beaten track to our door, but this will not happen until
human nature has changed very much. The human element enters so much into
sales that it is still quite an important part of salesmanship for the
salesman to make personal visits, so as to get the orders. To be sure,
we have the department stores and specialty houses which have built up
a well-known reputation for merchandise of high quality and reasonable
price. These will continue to draw customers, with the help of wise
advertising, but they must employ the right kind of sales-force to handle
properly the customers who visit their places of business.
Finding a customer does not mean simply inducing him to look over what
you have to sell. It means actually inducing him to make a purchase,
and satisfying him so thoroughly that he will continue to do business
with you. It is because finding the customer is so vitally important that
the selling end of a business continues to be, by long odds, the most
important department.
No better advice can be given, to sum up, than this: If you would find
customers, study all the means and ways in your power; keep thinking,
thinking, thinking, and the right thoughts will come, then act, act, act.
Never wait for to-morrow. “To-morrow” is a loser. It will never find
customers.