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.