“There is no occasion for these present high prices of shoes. The manufacturers and the dealers are simply taking advantage of conditions to make big profits,” says the customer.
“Yes, the prices certainly are higher than those we have been accustomed to lately,” says the salesman, agreeing but preparing the customer to accept the facts, “but when we consider that the price of hides and skins has advanced anywhere from two hundred to five hundred per cent, due to scarcity, and that labor costs are close on to seventy-five per cent higher than they were a short time ago”—and the salesman need not go further in most cases. He has “let the customer down easy” and at the same time given him the facts. The result is a better understanding of the true conditions and a higher regard for the salesman’s ability. It distresses any man to have himself brought face to face with the fact that his statement is without foundation. The salesman should plan, as in this instance, to offer his facts so skillfully that the customer will not recognize that he is being convinced of his error.
Concerning the goods of competitors, the salesman in most instances will find it best, by all means, to make no effort to go into the relative merits of quality, style, fit, business policy or any other such questions. He is not in business to advertise his competitors, and therefore the more he leaves them in the background of the picture the greater will be his success in selling his own line. This point is treated more fully in the chapter on “Showing the Goods.”
WAR-TIME PORTIONS OUT OF DATE
During the war period everyone learned to accept gladly war-time portions, of food especially, and also to a great extent, war-time portions of service. That term “war-time” meant to us just a little bit less or just a little lower quality than what we had been accustomed to and what we needed in order to be perfectly content.
Although a salesman may be busy and have several customers waiting to be served, there is no need for him to render war-time service. A few words of explanation to the customer the moment he or she enters the store will bridge over the delay caused by the salesman’s inability to give instant service.
Courtesy and consideration of the customer’s needs does not, as a rule, require more time than slip-shod service and the delay caused by it. As already mentioned, the general run of men and women come to the store on a matter of business and they do not have any special desire to remain any longer than necessary to get well served in their requirements.
A full measure of service, then, is the just dessert of every customer. It pays dividends for the store and increases the salesman’s salary.