ANOTHER “SALESMAN’S CREED”
“I believe in the goods I am handling, in the company I am working for, and in my ability to get results.
“I believe that honest stuff can be passed out to honest men, by honest methods.
“I believe in working, not weeping; in boosting, not knocking, and in the pleasure of my job.
“I believe that a man gets what he goes after; that one deed done to-day is worth two deeds to-morrow, and that no man is down and out until he has lost faith in himself.
“I believe in to-day and the work I am doing; in to-morrow and the work I hope to do, and in the sure reward which the future holds.
“I believe in courtesy, in kindness, in generosity, in good cheer, in friendship, and in honest competition.
“I believe there is something doing somewhere for every man ready to do it.
“I believe I am ready right now.”
Do you ever go to see a prospect expecting to be turned down—to meet unanswerable arguments or deep-rooted prejudices that you can’t overcome? If you do, it’s pretty likely that that’s what happens.
Half-knowledge is worse than ignorance.—Macaulay.
This is one business man’s motto: “Nothing pays like quality.” There is a whole sermon in this motto, for what is there that pays like quality? There is no advertisement like it. Quality needs no advertisement, for it has been tried. Talk quality. A high-class salesman tries to convert his prospect from a lower to a higher grade, for there is not only greater satisfaction but also larger profit both for seller and buyer in the high grade article.
Did you ever realize that when you are working for another you are really selling yourself to him, that your ability, your education, your personality, your influence, your atmosphere—everything about you is sold for a price? Every time you sell goods you are selling part of yourself, your character, your reputation, what you stand for—it is all included in the sale.
Progress depends upon what we are, rather than upon what we may encounter. One man is stopped by a sapling lying across the road; another, passing that way picks up the hindrance and converts it into a help in crossing the brook just ahead.—Trumbull.
Fate does not fling her great prizes to the idle, the indifferent, but to the determined, the enthusiastic, the man who is bound to win.
How true it is, as some one says, that true salesmanship consists in selling goods that don’t come back to people who do. This is the whole story. Selling goods that give perfect satisfaction in such a pleasing, attractive way that the customer comes back; leaving a pleasant taste in the customer’s mouth, pleasant pictures in his memory of the way you treated him, so that he will put himself out to look you up the next time, this is the salesmanship which every one can cultivate. One doesn’t need to be a born salesman to do this. Every one can treat a customer kindly, pleasantly, with a cheerful, helpful manner, in an accommodating spirit. The best part of salesmanship can be acquired.
Winning back a customer who had quit buying of your house because you have offended him, or because he thinks the house did not treat him right, is a tough proposition. It is not every salesman who can successfully tackle such a job as this. It takes great tact and a lot of diplomacy, and yet a diplomacy that does not show itself. The art of arts is to conceal art. A great diplomat leaves no visible trace of his diplomacy. It will pay to acquire the art of the diplomats. It will pay better to avoid offending customers.
“We broke all output records to-day.” This was the message Andrew Carnegie’s superintendent sent him one day. “Why not do it every day?” wired back the ironmaster. Why not beat your sales record every day? You don’t know what you can do until you try.
“The salesman that tries to sell, without using his upper story, has a lot of good loft space unoccupied.”
To be a conqueror in appearance, in one’s bearing, is the first step toward success.
Walk, talk and act as though you were a somebody. Let victory speak from your face and express itself in your manner.
Every dishonest trick, every deception, every unfair transaction, is a boomerang which comes back to hit the thrower.
You should make your prospect feel that you are a real friend, that you are something more than an ordinary seller of merchandise, that you are trying to be of real service to him, and that you would not take the slightest advantage of him in any way. A man’s friendship should be worth a great deal to you, whether you get the particular order you are after or not.
The “selling sense” is to the salesman what the “nose for news” is to the journalist. No knowledge, however profound, of mere technical salesmanship will make a salesman of you if you lack selling sense, into which many factors enter,—such as tact, spirit of kindliness, good fellowship, good judgment, level-headedness, horse sense, initiative, courage.
Like the good things you eat, a superb quality leaves a good taste in the mouth. The article that is a little better than others of the same kind, the article that is best, even though 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.”
Staying power is the final test of ability. The real caliber of a man is measured by the amount of opposition that it would take to down him. The world measures a man largely by his breaking down point. Where does he give up? How much punishment can he stand? How long can he take his medicine without running up the white flag? How much resisting power is there in him? What does the man do after he has been knocked down? This is the test.
Where is your giving up point, your breaking point, your turning back point? This will determine everything in your career.
If you represent a large house, make a careful study of the top-notchers and cracker-jack salesmen in your firm. Study their history, their methods; get at the secret of their great success and their big salaries. The study of men above you will whet your ambition, will sharpen your perceptions and will make you more ambitious, more determined to win out, and this will enable you to make an impression of progressiveness upon your firm. They will see that you are growing, that you are reaching out, that you have no idea of getting into a rut or becoming petrified in your methods.
Thomas Brackett Reed, the famous Speaker of the House of Representatives for many years, used to say that one-half of the battle in Congress is to get the speaker’s eye. Get your prospect’s eye first of all, and then you will not only get his attention, but you will interest and hold him. No other feature has such power to command and hold as the eye.
It is said that the moment a wild beast tamer shows the slightest signs of fear when he enters a cage of wild animals his game is up. They will leap upon him and kill him. The animals watch the trainer’s eye and they can very quickly tell when he has lost his courage or shows the slightest sign of fear.
Remember that suggestion is the soul of salesmanship. The first thing you should do when you go into a prospect’s office is to suggest harmony, good will. Antidote all possible antagonism, kill prejudice. A pleasing personality is all suggestion. Suggestion is the soul of advertising, and to sell you must advertise. A salesman must be his own advertisement.