The last rule was one suggested by Martin, and it was this: Always watch the customer's eye, and try to sell any article in which he appears to be interested.
We decided that we must not ask the customers if they were interested in the articles they are looking at, nor must we bring the articles to them, but we must casually say, "That's quite an interesting so-and-so, and is proving a mighty useful little thing," or some such remark as that. In other words, just make a casual comment on it, and then, as Martin said, "If they respond with a remark expressing interest, the sale is half made."
I really felt that Martin had, in his quiet way, dominated the whole of this meeting, but he had done it so neatly, and without in any way trying to overstep my authority, that I really felt that he had been a lot of help to us without making his show of knowledge obnoxious. I really believed Martin knew more about retail merchandising than all of us put together. What he had done was to suggest that it might be a good idea to do such and such a thing, instead of arrogantly thrusting his knowledge on us by saying we ought to do so. He was a clever man, Martin, and Barlow's son was lucky to have a fellow like him for a friend. I wished I could tie him up to my store somehow, but, of course that would be impossible in a little store like mine, for there were no prospects for a young fellow like him. . . .
The day after our meeting I saw the cleverest example of selling that I had ever seen. Probably it was old, but it was surely new to me, and the man got a small order from me, too.
About 10:30 in the morning, a well-dressed, jolly-looking man came into the store. I was busy serving at the time. In fact, we all were busy, but Larsen was disengaged first and so he asked what he could do for him.
"How do you do?" said the stranger, smiling. "I've got a message to tell Mr. Black," and he nodded toward me.
"He'll be free in a few minutes," said Larsen.
"Thank you," replied the salesman. Then, noticing a display of electrical goods which we had on one of our center tables, he said, "The man who dressed that table knows something about display, doesn't he?"
"I did it," said Larsen.
"Oh, I beg your pardon; I thought that one of your assistants had done it."