“THESE ARE BETTER”
The following is the experience of a Boston business man as told by him to show the importance of a knowledge of the stock, on the part of the salesman:
After having looked around in several of the shop windows I finally saw a shoe that seemed to be just what I wanted. Entering the store I was met by a young man to whom I pointed out the shoe in which I was especially interested. Within a short time he brought a shoe of the same style in my size and placed it on my foot.
For some reason or other, however, the shoe did not seem to look as well on my foot as it did in the window, and I asked to see some other shape. The young man produced another and after lacing it up explained that the price was twelve dollars, which was two dollars more than the one first shown.
On a point of information I then inquired, “Why should this pair be worth twelve dollars as compared with the other at ten?” And the answer I received was:
“Oh, these are better shoes than those.”
Although the customer knew practically nothing about shoes and values and may not have been able to distinguish a calfskin from an alligator hide, and although he knew nothing of footwear styles and make, it was an insult to his intelligence to tell him that he was paying two dollars more because the twelve-dollar shoe was better than the ten-dollar one. He might just as well have been told that he was paying two dollars more because twelve was that much greater than ten. The salesman owes it to himself and to his success in selling to acquire a knowledge of his stock. On any other basis he can do nothing more than hand out shoes at the customer’s direction and hope that no questions will be asked. But it is not on this basis that success is measured out either in selling or any other work calling for the use of brains.