Retail Shoe Salesmanship

by George F. Hamilton; Frank Butterworth; H. T. Conner; A. H. Geuting

The first step toward progress is to know your strong and weak points; to make the most of the strong ones by using them whenever possible and to build up those that are below the standard. Go over the list and grade yourself on the percentage basis, from one to a hundred, according to your honest opinion. A person might rate one hundred per cent on his knowledge of the business, but what good would it do him if he did not have tact in handling the customer? He might find perhaps that he was only fifty per cent on tact. That would be his cue, to plan at once to learn how to improve his approach to the customer, how to take advantage of suggestion rather than argument, and how to get the customer to agree with him.

Go right down the list, one after another, treat yourself fairly, and find out just how you stand in relation to the qualities of service that make for success. And remember this, that in developing tact, enthusiasm, sincerity, loyalty, and the others, you are not building for success as a shoe salesman alone, but as a buyer, manager, owner, and as far beyond that as you have the courage to go. The qualities of success are the same whether they be for a small success or for a large one; be sure you get them right and then go ahead.

Unless a man can convince himself absolutely that he has in him something worth while he will never be able to get anyone else to believe it. He should be so cock-sure of his own ability to move up that it will never occur to anyone to doubt it. But that does not mean he should be satisfied with himself. Confidence is not self-satisfaction.

CONFIDENCE

Assuming that the salesman thoroughly knows his job and is in a position to give his customer service, he will then have in him that air of assurance that will at once win confidence. He will not, of course, openly “rub it in” on the customer and give him the feeling that his opinion counts for nothing. The success of the sale depends upon the salesman’s ability to make the customer feel that his opinion is of first importance, but that in making his decision he may absolutely rely upon the value of the expert’s suggestion. This impression will “get over” only as the salesman shows a natural sense of confidence in his service to the customer.

On the other hand, self-satisfaction is dangerous. It is one of the chief causes that limit progress. Satisfaction means the taking away of the driving force of success that urges the person to do the task a little better next time. There is no standing still in the shoe business, either for the salesman, the department head, or the company itself. The movement is either forward or backward. The satisfied shoe salesman is drifting backward although he may be booking as much business this week as he did last. His is a case of “dry rot,” and it is only a matter of days before the condition will begin to show in the size of his book.

So do not confuse confidence with self-satisfaction. One is the fountain head and dear flowing stream of life and advancement; the other is the stagnant pool that shows on the surface its story of rot and decay.

CHARACTER

The man who said, “I would rather be right than president,” expressed in seven short words what some other statesmen have required volumes to express—and have done it with less clearness. He expressed to the world that he was a man of character and that he placed above all other things, even the greatest honor the country can give, the importance of holding to a principle of right he had set for himself.

In speaking of business character we mean the sum total of all those uplifting qualities of honesty, ambition, courage, loyalty, courtesy, enthusiasm, and a dozen others that go to make up the moral fiber of a man. Bring these all together, or as many of them as the individual may have, and you get a product which is that man’s character. There were times in the pioneer days of the United States when it was possible for a business man to “shade” some of his dealings and still retain his position among his associates. Nathaniel Drew, who was a financial power a few generations ago, was one of the first men to practice stock watering. Driving his cattle from upper New York State to the wholesale market in New York City, he very carefully provided that they should be given no water to drink until about ready to enter the market. Just before being weighed-in, the thirsty animals were given water to their fullest desire. The result was that Drew collected on “watered stock,” and was considered clever.