"Tell you what we'll do," I said. "Let's leave that until next week, for we want to have some good ideas from Mr. Field while we have him here."
Mr. Field, in his good-natured, friendly manner, started in by inviting us to interrupt him at any time and ask any questions we wanted, because he wasn't going to make a speech, but was just going "to talk."
I wish I had put down verbatim what he said; but, as I didn't I will outline the main points he brought out—and some dandy pointers on selling he gave us.
He was talking about courteous service to customers.
"Courtesy is something more than mere politeness," he said. "You have to have the real feeling of wishing to do something for the customer, and you have to show the customer you want to help him by every word and action. Such a feeling, don't you know, will make you, when you see a customer coming, go to him instead of standing still and waiting for him to come to you."
"That's just what Mr. Barker was telling me last week!" I exclaimed.
Mr. Field then spoke about introducing other lines to the customers while they were waiting.
"Have you ever noticed," he said, "when you go into a store to buy something and you are waiting for the parcel to be wrapped, or waiting for your change, that the salesman will usually make some remark about the weather, or talk about the ball game, or the election returns? That's all right and very interesting, perhaps, and it helps to make the customer like the salesman. But it would make the cash register work harder—and you know, boys, there's no Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Cash Registers—if, instead of talking about the weather, or something of that kind, the clerk talked about something that might make the cash register 'ting.' See what I mean, boys? Instead of saying, 'A nice day, isn't it?' why don't you say 'This is a nice safety razor,' or 'do you use a safety razor?'"
Larsen broke in with:
"You ask him to buy something after he got what he wants? He get mad? no?"