With the customer who puts style before all other considerations there is great likelihood of there being objection in the matter of correct shoe fitting, especially if the person’s foot is unusual in size or shape. Here the salesman is called in to use all he knows of the art of tactful selling. Business of the kind where price is no object is certainly well worth cultivating, but here, as in all other successful shoe selling, the matter of correct fitting is essential to satisfaction. Avoid talking in terms of sizes. This always lays bare a tender part of the customer’s conceit or consciousness and opens up the possibility of dispute and misunderstanding. It is correct fitting that the customer is buying and not size marks. The salesman will concentrate his efforts to give the maximum of style with correct fitting, but with customers whose first and only thought is style, he will speak only in terms of style.
ACTUAL OR ASSUMED FOOT TROUBLES
Among customers there are a certain number who continually have trouble with their feet but who are never able to come to the point of realizing that the shoes they insist are the proper size are the real cause of their great discomfort. The salesman should serve his customer by furnishing him with a shoe that actually fits the foot and not one that fits some mistaken idea of size.
J. M. Watson, president of the Guarantee Shoe Company, San Antonio, Texas, emphasizes very strongly the need to serve the customer with fit rather than sizes. In explaining the policy of his company he said:
If the customer asks what size the shoes are, change the subject if possible. However, if you are pinned down to where it is necessary to talk size, do so. But do not say simply “6A”—say “6A, which is the size that fits you.” Then if the customer should say, “They are too long, I don’t wear a 6A, I wear a 5C,” the salesman would reply: “When I sell you a shoe you wear a 6A because I do not misfit my customers. The shoe you have on is exactly the model and size that your feet require—to give you any other would mean that I would be selling you the wrong shoe for your feet.”
This is a clear statement of fact, but it is bound to impress the customer favorably because it is said with an air of authority and because it brings out the importance of correct fitting. The subject of shoe fitting will be fully treated in the next following section of the Course. It is mentioned here simply in its important relation to the treatment of different types of customers. If the customer actually has foot trouble he needs expert advice such as the salesman will be in a position to give after having mastered the section of the Course on “Correct Shoe Fitting.” On the other hand, if he does not have foot trouble, he needs good salesmanship to protect himself from insisting upon a poorly fitted shoe that would later bring on trouble.
CHAPTER IX
SHOWING THE GOODS
FRESHEN-UP THE SELLING TALK
The purpose of the selling talk is to assist the customer along in the sale from the start up to the point of his decision to buy. To exercise a helpful influence requires of the salesman life, spirit and freshness. Everyone, in order to make a living for himself, is required to have and to use a certain amount of selling ability, and in proportion to his skill in using it will depend the value of his services. The best newsboy is the one who puts the most life and spirit into his efforts, the one who lets you know, even though you may be across the street, or around the corner, that he is on the job and that he has papers to sell. In short, the most successful newsboy is the one who is the best salesman.
The president of any business organization, no matter how large his salary nor how great his importance, must be a salesman. He does not have a free hand to do as he pleases, but must get his authority on important matters from the directors, who represent the interests of the stockholders. Unless the president is salesman enough to convince the directors that his plans are sound and that they will prove profitable to the business he cannot expect to receive authority to proceed with them, and therefore he cannot succeed in his work. In other words, his problem is exactly the same as that of the shoe salesman except that he must sell an idea or his opinion, whereas the retail salesman sells merchandise.