The secret of being well dressed is to wear clothes that match or harmonize so well that no one part of the attire is conspicuous. Often we recognize a man to have been well dressed but cannot describe the clothes he wore. The whole effect was pleasing, his shoes were polished, his linen clean and his suit pressed, but the effect was one of completeness rather than of attracting attention to individual articles of clothes.
For most people the question of neatness in dress can be very well taken care of by a liberal use of the whisk broom and shoe brush every morning, a clean collar daily and a suit pressing once a week.
CHAPTER IV
ENTHUSIASM WITH HONESTY
GETTING “LIFE” INTO THE SALE
A successful New York sales manager, in a recent book on salesmanship, makes the following statement, the truth of which every shoe salesman will at once recognize.[[2]]
[2]. “Salesmanship and Sales Management,” by John G. Jones.
“The old idea that anyone can sell behind a counter is fast giving way to a keen realization of the value of salesmanship in retail selling. Selling behind the counter is largely what the individual makes it. There are those who simply supply what is asked for, and that none too graciously; who do not take the trouble to study the line they are selling, and who give no thought to devising ways of increasing their sales. There is, on the other hand, a rapidly growing class who have made it a point to become thoroughly acquainted with their goods; who by their frankness, courtesy and knowledge win the confidence of their customers.
“They give timely advice to their customers, and are able to sell a better class of goods than the customer intended to buy; and they can close a sale when the customer is in doubt and plan methods of awakening interest in lines other than those the customer had in mind when he entered the store. The demand for this latter class is so great that the larger, more progressive retailers throughout the country are establishing training schools to develop this kind of salespeople.”
There was a time when selling meant simply having a lot of goods on hand so that if the customer happened in he might pick out what he wanted or else decide he didn’t want anything. Most of us still remember the old-fashioned cigar store with the wooden Indian on guard outside the door, and the corner drug store with a couple of mysterious-looking glass jars filled with colored water in the front window. In those days we were happy to keep away from such stores except once in a while when there was a prescription to be filled or a postage stamp to be bought. And the reason was that these places did not express life, enthusiasm and interest. The modern drug store, cigar store, and practically every other kind of store is attractive, inviting and so filled with human buying suggestions that it is almost a general thing to come out with more than we had planned to buy. Human interest and service are the things that encourage business and make it prosper.
The most commonplace of things take on interest if the story is properly told. We find full-page advertisements of a bottle of ink, a cake of yeast and a toothbrush—the most everyday sort of things imaginable, but although the cost of the ads. is at least five thousand dollars for each issue of the magazine, they draw enough business to pay for themselves. The reason for this is that the story is made interesting enough so that it will be read, certain points of advantage are brought out; the reader then remembers that he needs, say, a toothbrush, is anxious to try the one he now knows something about and—lo! the sale is made. If all this is possible in a printed story, how much greater are the possibilities in personal selling? Take a cue from the ad. man and put life into your story.