CHAPTER VIII
HOW TO GET ATTENTION
You must interest your customer before you can hope to influence him.
“Shape your argument in harmony with conditions; don’t try to force a square block into a round hole.”
There are three principal ways in which to get the favorable attention of a prospect; the first is “affording pleasure;” the second, “exciting admiration,” and the third, “arousing curiosity.” As often as possible we should combine all three.
If our words and our expression radiate genuine, cheerful good-will, then the customer is pleased to meet us. We can cause him to be still more pleased, if we praise, in a very tactful way, some of the good qualities which we quickly observe in him.
Our appearance, from head to foot, is what causes admiration. We should always be well groomed; hair properly cut and carefully arranged; teeth well cared for; eyes bright; linen immaculate; clothes well pressed; cuffs and collar free from frayed edges. Loud colors and loud jewelry always detract from the power of the salesman. Heels that are not run down, and shoes that are well polished, are final factors to consider.
We arouse a customer’s curiosity by asking him suitable questions. It is a good idea to prepare him for the kind of an answer you expect, by some positive suggestion, before you ask the question. For instance, a man who wishes to sell a beautiful piece of jewelry can say: “I consider this a very beautiful stone, which has been set most artistically.” Then he can say to the customer; “What do you think of that jewel?” Invariably, the customer will tend to agree with him, and this helps to get their minds together.
The late Elbert Hubbard used to say that he always began an advertisement with the statement of an incontrovertible fact. The public read it and agreed. It could give rise to no antagonistic or opposing train of thought. It established a coördinate bond between the writer of the ad. and the reader. Then Hubbard followed with statements concerning the article advertised. With these the reader might not agree, but at least he started reading the ad. in a friendly spirit.
Remember this: it is never best to begin to talk much about your goods until you have secured real attention, not simply a civil attention, for courtesy’s sake, but the genuine thing. Real attention is “a thought spiller and a thought filler.” The customer “spills” his thoughts, and “fills” in the salesman’s thoughts.
Some salesmen have found it a big advantage to get the customer to do some little thing for them, such as holding a sample, loaning a pencil, getting a piece of paper on which to figure, etc. Requests for favors of this kind, however, must be made in a tactful way. The idea back of this ingenious method is to start the will of the customer acting according to the salesmen’s will.