“But,” some shoe salesman may say, “we don’t have to demonstrate the shoe to the customer, she knows what it is and all about it.” Provided the salesman is simply to take the order it is true that he does not need to demonstrate or convince. The genuine salesman, however, does more. He will sell the customer the shoe she ought to have. He will probably sell her a more expensive one, or he may sell her two or three pairs, and at the same time have her realize that she is being served best in buying them. This is real salesmanship, and it is only possible of a man who is thoroughly sold on the superior merit of his own goods and his house—who has made the first sale to himself.
THE FUTURE A REFLECTION OF “TO-DAYS”
“Cheer up; better times are coming.” That is a cheerful tune to sing, but it may be misleading unless we realize that it does not mean that time alone will make times better. What we are today is simply a reflection of what we made ourselves during the yesterdays; and next year we shall have to show only what we make of opportunities today. None of us is in business just for a day. The shoe salesman has a future which is, first of all, to make himself a better salesman. Therefore his responsibility today is to put forward everything he has in order to reach the goal he has set. Enthusiasm is the power needed to drive the effort day by day.
HONESTY
Every person in business realizes that there are as many shades of honesty as there are shades of color in the rainbow. Sometimes we might very well be considered dishonest simply by standing by and saying nothing. Any misunderstanding a customer might get concerning a matter of importance connected with the sale should rightly be corrected by the salesman. There is the possibility that the customer may never learn the true fact and that no harm will come as a result of an untrue statement or mistaken idea, but the chances are the other way, and men of experience know that the results are fatal to further satisfactory business when the fact of deception is realized.
Business today is conducted on the basis of mutual confidence in the honor of recognized people. An example of this is in connection with transactions on the stock exchanges where business running into millions of dollars every day is conducted on the basis of a spoken “yes” and “no” between men. A buyer might easily claim he had not made the bargain, and in so doing save himself sometimes thousands of dollars, but he would sooner break his bond than break his word. Wholesale buying of shoes and all other merchandise is carried on in such enormous quantities that the honor system must be depended upon to a very great degree. No one is more despised either in business or private life than the man whose word cannot be depended upon and he must sooner or later descend to his own level.
Honesty in the salesman relates both to the house and to the customer. Any man who would stoop to stealing of stock is, of course, simply a plain everyday thief and the law provides for him. On the other hand, the matter of time as a thing of value is sometimes overlooked. There are only a limited number of working minutes in a business day and they rank pretty high in money value. They should be spent with as much care as we spend our money.
The customer is the man who pays the salaries. Without his business there could be no sales force, no stock and no organization. For that reason he deserves the best that can be given. He should not be oversold nor should he be sold under a mistaken impression. It may mean a little less business this time but the difference will be more than made up on the next sale.
DANGER OF OVER-ENTHUSIASM
In listening sometimes to the salesman explaining the wonderful merits of his newly discovered hair tonic, or perhaps to the great possibilities of profits from some undeveloped copper mines in which he gives us the “opportunity” to buy some shares, the one thing that impresses us above all else is the great enthusiasm of the salesman. When he tells us that the tonic will grow hair on the door knob or that the quality of ore taken from the mine shows that the stock will pay a hundred per cent profit the first year, the man is either over-enthusiastic, if he believes what he says, or he is just plainly dishonest. From this it is clear that the dividing line between the two, so far as the customer is concerned, is not very sharply drawn, and that there is a possibility of the salesman being judged as dishonest when he may be absolutely honest, but perhaps over-enthusiastic in making the sale.