In speaking of “books,” many successful retail shoe buyers and managers look upon these records of daily sales as bugbears threatening the true spirit of the shoe salesman’s service. No satisfactory substitute has as yet been found for the sales book, and so the average store management has to accept the situation and make the best of it. It is true that the mere fact of a book being kept has an influence on the salesman which, if not carefully guarded against, will result in his giving each customer a short measure of service. If the mind of the clerk is on his book primarily it does not make for the best attention to the fine points of service. It is a delicate question. The successful salesman gives no particular thought to his book but rather devotes one hundred per cent of himself to serving his customers; letting the book take care of itself. Such salesmen, as a matter of fact, do not need to worry about their books—they are certain to be successful. It is recommended to all shoe salesmen that they devote the fullest attention to service; knowing full well that perfection in service will certainly produce satisfied customers and increasing books.
To repeat, there is no standing still; we are either going ahead or moving backward, and the only sure way to prevent back-sliding is to make each day count for something more than the one that preceded. This is a matter of keeping up steam.
The position of the salesman should be somewhere between the buyer and the seller. He owes it to the customer to serve his best interest; to do everything possible to give him every advantage in the bargain. On the other hand, the salesman is the representative of the house that employs him and he is certainly expected to back it up at every turn.
The salesman who takes his job seriously, and such a man is the only one who makes anything out of his job, recognizes this responsibility at once. At first there might seem to be a gap between both sides of the bargain that would make the salesman’s double loyalty impossible. But high class business methods of the day have brought closely together these two interests. There is a mutual understanding that only as they are both well served can there be permanent satisfaction. The house cannot give service if it conducts its business at a loss and the customer will not be pleased and will not continue his business unless he gets full value in what he buys. When taken in this light the salesman’s responsibility as the connecting link between the seller and the buyer is one of double service, and incidentally there is a double advantage. A well-served customer means a steady customer and that in turn means more business and bigger earnings for the salesman and the store.
No business organization would be so foolish as to hold itself out as being perfect. It is operated by human beings rather than by machines, and that implies there are always bound to be some mistakes. The best the house can do is to make every effort to reduce mistakes to a minimum. In quality of goods and in quality of service there is the possibility of an occasional slip-up, and right here the salesman is called in to show his loyalty and enthusiasm in the face of what might develop to be the loss of profitable business. The weak or unsteady man is bowled over in the face of opposition but the strong man is made better and stronger by it. Every reasonable customer is willing to accept an explanation of the true facts, and is glad to know that he has not purposely been taken advantage of.
Have faith in the goods and the house, recognize the possibility of error and go out of your way to set the customer right when the “kick” is registered.
MAKE THE FIRST SALE TO YOURSELF
Three or four years ago a young man who had not had a great deal of business experience took up the selling of an electrical carpet sweeper for household use. This he was to offer in a house-to-house canvas over a limited territory especially assigned to him. Before starting out he read all the circulars prepared by the selling department and watched demonstrations made at the office. Armed with his equipment and a prepared selling talk the young man started in his new field. Most of the women proved to be interested to get a “close-up” of the bagpipe, as one of them called it, and even listened to the selling talk, but when it was all over—there was no sale.
For a week the same experience went on until finally the salesman’s young wife thought she would try how it worked around the house. She hitched it up and tried it on the hall rug. The result was fine, and she then tested it on the furniture, the curtains and finally on a suit of clothes. “It’s a wonder,” she said, “and I must have one. We can’t afford to be without it.” She got it, of course, but the important point, as far as we are concerned, is that the man was given in those few minutes the best selling talk he could possibly use and the only one he ever needed from that time on. The experience was the turning point in his career.
What could a cut-and-dry selling talk amount to as compared with the genuine enthusiasm of the man who had just installed a sweeper for his wife’s own convenience? He had now sold himself on the merit of his goods, and there could be no doubt or failing in his voice when approaching the customer. Now he could talk in terms of facts rather than opinions.