The time for the salesman to complete the sale is when he has the customer before him, face to face. There are exceptions to the rule, but in general if the customer cannot decide favorably when he has the benefit of the salesman’s advice and suggestion, it is not likely that he will be able to do so later. To suggest a decision later is the salesman’s admission that he has not completed the sale. What the buyer requires is more selling effort, rather than more time so that he may think it out for himself.
Closing the sale in the store means to learn just what the objections are that are holding up the decision, and then to present selling facts so that the objections will be overcome and the sale will follow naturally. If the customer is told to work out his own salvation by deciding later, it is likely that his objections will take on greater proportions, while the advantages must fade into the background. The result then is that the goods will be returned, and either the business is lost altogether or else the effort to sell must be commenced all over again. A sale that is completed when the customer first calls is good business for the salesman. To the customer it is even more satisfying, for the reason that he is put to no inconvenience in returning the pair first bought and in selecting some other. He is also more favorably impressed with the salesman’s ability to sell and his understanding of the goods being offered.
GETTING BUSINESS FROM OUTSIDE FRIENDS
When a salesman encourages business with outside friends he is justified in his feeling that he is offering a higher quality of personal service than the friend would receive at any other store where he is unknown to the salesman. To begin with, there is a better basis of understanding between the buyer and the seller. The salesman knows quite definitely what his friend desires in style, fit, quality, and he may know his price limitations. Furthermore, there is a natural personal interest in the customer that must surely result in his receiving the maximum of service. These are advantages to be gained by the friend. The salesman has the advantage of an enlarged list of regular customers as a result of a simple announcement that he is in the shoe business and that he would like to have a call from his friends.
Along the same line may be considered the suggestion sometimes made by the salesman to the effect that “I wear this style myself.” A point such as this would carry weight with a close personal acquaintance of the salesman and would be well worth bringing out whenever necessary. However, to customers who are not personally acquainted with the salesman it would probably seem out of place, and would carry no weight in bringing about a decision. Rather than run the risk of being misunderstood it would be better for the salesman to omit, as much as possible, personal reference from his sales talk.
TELEPHONE SALESMANSHIP
More and more the advantage of the telephone as a means of getting business is coming to be realized by shoe salesmen who are alive to ideas. With a list of his customers’ telephone numbers the salesman is in a position to place himself and his story before any one of them within a moment’s notice. He may have an announcement of the receipt of a new line of styles which he knows will especially appeal to the customer, or perhaps the salesman may have in stock a special-value shoe of the customer’s size that he will be interested to see. It may be an advance announcement of a sale, or any one of a dozen items of special interest to a buyer. The telephone is at the salesman’s elbow. It is as easy for him to tell his story to the customer as it is for him to “talk about the weather” to the man standing alongside of him.
“Good-morning, Mrs. Brown, this is the Progressive Shoe Store—Mr. Smith talking. You will be interested to know that we have today received our complete line of spring styles. There are two or three of the models I know will appeal to you especially.” ... “Wednesday? Very well, I’ll have them ready to show when you call.”
The customer appreciates genuine service of this kind. It requires just a moment of the salesman’s time, but produces big results in the form of increased business, and it establishes the good-will of the customer, both in the store and the salesman.