Retail Shoe Salesmanship

by George F. Hamilton; Frank Butterworth; H. T. Conner; A. H. Geuting

“The other class of salespersons take an interest in their customers to make them satisfied with the service given. They firmly believe that a sale is not complete unless satisfaction on the part of the customer accompanies it. They firmly believe in the goods they are offering and they communicate this confidence to their customers. They know that a satisfied customer is a walking advertisement for their store.”

The salesman should bear in mind that the customer is not a shoe expert, that the person of average means does not buy a pair more than two or three times a year, and that he actually needs helpful advice and suggestions. By learning, first of all, just what it is the customer has in mind to buy, the salesman, with his knowledge of the stock and of the business, is well able to offer a genuine service. An important point is well brought out above, that a customer, rightly served, is a living advertisement, not alone for the store but also for the man who serves him.

TALKING IN TERMS OF “YOU”

A splendid thing it is, and a needful part of every salesman’s make-up, to have loyalty for his house and a firm conviction in its high standard of business character. On the other hand, in his relations with the customer he should always remember that there is in the customer’s mind just one question and that is, “In what way will this thing be of benefit to me?” He is interested in the honesty of the house and the guarantee behind its word, he is interested in the salesman who serves him, he is interested in the style of the shoe, in its fit and wearing qualities only in so far as they are to be of special benefit to himself. It is for the salesman to appreciate and to take advantage of this fact in his treatment of the customer.

This same idea has been expressed in another way, as follows: “The man who is to be a success in selling must learn to ‘put the buyer in the picture.’” This is just another way of saying that the salesman, in his effort to serve, must convince the customer, at every turn, of the special advantages the goods hold for him. If the customer is a stout woman she is not interested to know that the shoe would look exceptionally well on a tall slender person, nor does she care especially that there are some very nice shoes in stock at twice the price she has to spend. From start to finish talk shoes for stout women of her height and around the price she has to spend, bearing in mind, of course, that she may be able to increase her idea of price.

In selling women’s suits and dresses, and men’s suits, too, there is a little trick of the trade to get the goods on the back of the prospective customer as soon as possible. The salesperson might show the customer a fine picture of a slim young miss wearing a similar pattern of dress as the one in which the woman expressed an interest, or the man might be shown the picture of a college boy wearing the same model as the one he inquired about, but the experienced salesperson knows better than to waste time that way. The moment he finds a suit in which the man, for instance, has shown an interest, he asks him to slip on the coat “just for the size,” and then leads him over to the mirror. What he has done, you will notice, is to place the customer in the picture, which is just exactly what appeals to every buyer.

Follow this cue from the experience of the clothing salesman. Plan the whole effort to please the customer from the moment he enters the store until you bid him “Good-by,” by showing him himself as the central figure in the picture.

STICK TO THE SALE

Someone has told an exaggerated yarn of a young sales clerk who had been given as a word of advice by a well-meaning salesman of more experience the suggestion that he should show a special interest in each customer, because upon that would depend his success. The first customer to approach the clerk was an old lady heavily weighted with the worries she had accumulated and nursed for almost sixty years. Being comfortably seated in one of the chairs her mind began its usual pastime of freshening up the worries of the past, and the old lady became talkative. Determined that he would be a success as a salesman, according to what little he had been told of it, the clerk showed every indication of interest and sympathy—even grief as the sad story proceeded.

The old lady, encouraged and comforted because she had found such a good listener, continued on and on and on, and as she continued her recital became more expressive and her grief more bitter. At any rate the two of them enjoyed the sorrow together, and after the lady had been partly revived with a glass of water and a large fan she was then able with assistance to reach the door and make her way homeward. She had lost all thought of the sale and had wasted an hour of her own time and the clerk’s.