SELF-ANALYSIS
Considering that the salesman’s work should be about ninety per cent head work and ten per cent leg work it is mighty important for him to know what there is in him “from the neck up.” Successful men in selling have taken time to consider these things and they have increased their earning power as a result.
Every salesman should sit down with himself and actually study what he has to offer in the way of service to the customer. Without prejudice either for or against yourself take an inventory of how you measure up on the following:
Knowledge of the business
Love for your work
Sincerity with the customer
Loyalty to the house
Effort toward improvement in the quality of service.
The first step toward progress is to know your strong and weak points; to make the most of the strong ones by using them whenever possible and to build up those that are below the standard. Go over the list and grade yourself on the percentage basis, from one to a hundred, according to your honest opinion. A person might rate one hundred per cent on his knowledge of the business, but what good would it do him if he did not have tact in handling the customer? He might find perhaps that he was only fifty per cent on tact. That would be his cue, to plan at once to learn how to improve his approach to the customer, how to take advantage of suggestion rather than argument, and how to get the customer to agree with him.
Go right down the list, one after another, treat yourself fairly, and find out just how you stand in relation to the qualities of service that make for success. And remember this, that in developing tact, enthusiasm, sincerity, loyalty, and the others, you are not building for success as a shoe salesman alone, but as a buyer, manager, owner, and as far beyond that as you have the courage to go. The qualities of success are the same whether they be for a small success or for a large one; be sure you get them right and then go ahead.
Unless a man can convince himself absolutely that he has in him something worth while he will never be able to get anyone else to believe it. He should be so cock-sure of his own ability to move up that it will never occur to anyone to doubt it. But that does not mean he should be satisfied with himself. Confidence is not self-satisfaction.