RETAIL SHOE SALESMANSHIP
CHAPTER I
THE FIELD OF RETAIL SELLING
PURPOSE OF THE COURSE
The whole idea and purpose of the Training Course for Retail Shoe Salesmen is to supply the means to increase the salesman’s value.[[1]] The slogan of the Retail Shoe Salesmen’s Institute is the plain truth that “Knowledge Applied is Power.” Knowledge of itself is of no more value than idle steam from the teapot. Harness up the steam so that it may be put to work and it moves the world—it operates your factories, lights your cities, grows your food and keeps you warm. So also with knowledge. All the world’s learning is worth not a dollar unless it is harnessed-up to the practical problem of everyday life.
[1]. Although, throughout the Course, mention is often made of “the salesman,” without reference to the saleswoman, this is done to avoid repetition, simply as a matter of convenience in reading. This volume and all others of the Course are designed to meet the special needs of both the retail shoe salesman and the saleswoman. Similarly the customer is for convenience referred to by the use of the masculine pronoun forms.
Above all other things this Course is practical. It is the first-hand statement of the experience gathered as a result of years of effort by successful men in the shoe business. It is a plain statement of principles and practices of success that have cost these men hundreds of thousands of dollars to gather in the school of practical experience. This is an advanced age. No longer need the man or woman of ambition grope around in the darkness to find a safe footing on which to build a career. Business today is a red-blooded man’s game, and success comes to those who know the rules of this game. Here are the rules—learn to know them.
THE PLAN
“Anything that’s worth having is worth working for.” And the happy truth is that after you get into the spirit of the game, more than half the fun is in the working. Charles M. Schwab, the great steel magnate, said to be the greatest salesman in the world, has made millions—more than he or his family will be able to spend in a lifetime. But he is on the job every day. Not because he wants more money, but because he loves the business game, and would rather give up his millions than be put out of the game. This is the spirit that wins.
In this Course you have the tools with which success in your work is built. That you have faith in your own ability to move up is shown in the fact that you have numbered yourself among those who are no longer satisfied to continue in the rut of routine and who have taken a firm stand to move on and up.
The Training Course is not a thing of magic, like Aladdin’s lamp, that had only to be rubbed to satisfy the owner’s fondest desire. There is no royal road to success. Desire, effort, work are the signposts that mark the upward way. The Course supplies the need of ambitious men and women who realize that success comes only as a reward of industry, and are willing to meet it half way.