It is that great, everlasting business builder—service. It is the salesman’s stock in trade, the thing he has to deliver to the customer, and the thing that stamps him either as a salesman or a mere “order taker.”
In the financial statement of one of the big New York stores is an item called good-will listed along with merchandise, stocks, cash and other property the business owns, and this item is valued at a million dollars. Every successful business enjoys a certain amount of good-will that may be reduced to a basis of dollars and cents. It is not unusual for a well-conducted business to have good-will actually worth several millions of dollars. And this is nothing more than a trade-following the store has built up as a result of satisfactory service given to the customers in the past. It is the same kind of trade-following the salesman must build up if he is steadily to increase his earnings, and it comes only through service—through changing an occasional customer into a steady one.
SELF-ANALYSIS
Considering that the salesman’s work should be about ninety per cent head work and ten per cent leg work it is mighty important for him to know what there is in him “from the neck up.” Successful men in selling have taken time to consider these things and they have increased their earning power as a result.
Every salesman should sit down with himself and actually study what he has to offer in the way of service to the customer. Without prejudice either for or against yourself take an inventory of how you measure up on the following:
Knowledge of the business
Love for your work
Sincerity with the customer
Loyalty to the house
Effort toward improvement in the quality of service.