THE SALESMAN’S CREED
To be a man whose word carries weight at my home office, to be a booster, not a knocker, a pusher, not a kicker; a motor, not a clog.
To believe in my proposition heart and soul; to carry an air of optimism into the presence of possible customers; to dispel ill temper with cheerfulness, kill doubts with strong convictions and reduce active friction with an agreeable personality.
To make a study of my business or line; to know my profession in every detail from the ground up; to mix brains with my effort and use method and system in my work. To find time to do everything needful by never letting time find me doing nothing. To hoard days as a miser hoards dollars; to make every hour bring me dividends in commissions, increased knowledge or healthful recreation.
To keep my future unmortgaged with debt; to save money as well as earn it; to cut out expensive amusements until I can afford them; to steer clear of dissipation and guard my health of body and peace of mind as my most precious stock in trade.
Finally, to take a good grip on the joy of life; to play the game like a gentleman; to fight against nothing so hard as my own weakness and to endeavor to grow as a salesman and as a man with the passage of every day of time. This is my creed.—W. C. Holman.
Salesmanship is the ability to sell the largest possible quantity of goods, to sell an increasing quantity of goods, to get the greatest possible results from the advertising done by his house, to make a regular customer of a new buyer, and to hold the friendship of a regular customer.—H. E. Bowman.
Never sit down or stand, if you can possibly avoid it, below where your prospect is seated. The man who is the highest always has the advantage, the superior position. Many salesmen can do better standing while the prospect is sitting.
Approach your prospect as a professional, not as an amateur, not as a little fellow, or almost a salesman, but approach him with the air of a professional. Give him to understand that you are no third-rate salesman. Your manner will have everything to do with the impression you make.
Establish confidence as quickly as possible. Business men are constantly dealing with mean, tricky men, unscrupulous men, hypnotizers, bull-dozers, but when they strike the real article, the genuine man, they will give him their confidence.
Remember your whole success will often turn on the first two or three minutes of your interview. Just here your knowledge of human nature is a tremendous factor. You must size up your man quickly and find the line of least resistance, the best approach to his mind. Not only his temperament but his health, the frame of mind he happens to be in, all must be taken in at a glance.
Be a tactful salesman. You will often be told that tact cannot be cultivated, that it is a quality that is born in one, but remember that every man is tactful when he is courting the girl he is dead in love with. If you are dead in love with your work and bound to win you will be tactful.
Make it an invariable rule never to use any influence or to say anything in the presence of a prospect which will lessen your self-respect. If you do, you lose power. You are not paid for being less than a man.
A real salesman sells goods. Fakers sell customers. Don’t be a mere order-taker; be a salesman.