The goods should be sold only on the merits they have and not on the merits the customer may expect to find in them at the price he is paying. The duty of the salesman under such conditions is to explain frankly that he is offering the maximum of style, fit and quality he is able to give, either at the stated price or from the selection he has in stock. If the customer insists on better quality he will, in most cases, be able to raise his idea of price. If the style, fit or color is not satisfactory and there is no further selection to be offered it is better to say so frankly rather than to force on him something he does not want. This does not mean, however, that the salesman will show his stock with the attitude of “take it or leave it.” What it does mean is that he will use every effort he has to satisfy the customer by getting him to realize that what has been offered is the best that can be given, that it is the maximum of quality and the whole range of style and fit to be had at present. If, then, the salesman is not able to land the sale and the customer is still unsatisfied, he should explain the facts just as they are, with all the courtesy possible, and put the decision up to the customer.
R. C. Hearne, buyer and manager of the Daniels and Fisher Stores Company, Denver, Colorado, has made this important point:
“There is as much cleverness in missing a customer as there is in selling her. A customer properly missed is a future customer. For instance, a woman enters your store and you fail to sell her, but you must not let her walk out with simply a ‘good-afternoon.’ Say instead, ’I would like to have you come in at a little later date’—mentioning the date—’when we expect to have a new line, which I would like to have you inspect.’
“This means that you have probably stamped on your customer’s mind the thought that she will call at your store in the future. Nine times out of ten she will come back to your place of business.”
Every salesman is working to build up a following of regular customers. This he can do only by changing the occasional customer or the “looker” into a “regular,” and this is possible only as a result of genuine, sympathetic service.
PROMISES
If for any reason it is not possible to give the customer some service he asks for, he should be given an understanding then and there rather than a promise that cannot be filled. “I’ll see to it personally,” the salesman may say, “that these shoes are delivered to you tomorrow.” He then passes along the box in the regular way. It may be delayed for a day, the customer is disappointed because he had planned to use the shoes on a special occasion, and in turn his confidence in the salesman is lost. To the salesman it was a small matter; he took it for granted that the delivery would be made without delay, but he did not “see to it personally,” as he promised he would. He should either have done what he promised, or he should not have offered the service unless he could have carried out the promise as cheerfully as it was made. And that, by the way, is the test to be made of every promise before it is given.
“I’ll let you know when the new style is received,” says the unthinking salesman, in a moment of enthusiasm and genuine effort to serve the customer. But then he promptly forgets his promise and the incident is closed. With the customer, it is different, however. She waits a reasonable time to be notified but receives no word. Naturally she assumes the style has not been received and, being in need of the shoes, she goes elsewhere and makes her purchase. The sale is lost and the chances are great that her future business also will be lost, provided she gets service in making the outside purchase. Taken in this light it is a pretty serious matter, both for the salesman and the house.
Enthusiasm is a wonderful business-building power, but it must be sincere and it must be lasting.