If the moment seems favorable you should take the order at once and dispense with all salesman’s art; but after taking the order, proceed to strengthen the customer in his decision by calling attention to certain strong points of merit in your goods, and certain strong reasons which you believe will make the customer glad he has made his purchase. Be careful, however, to avoid over-talking. This is a blunder that has cost many a man dear.
The art of a salesman shows itself in his ability to focus his energies quickly and to size up his prospect in many respects at a glance. He must see what kind of a temperament he has to deal with. He must know what to do and what to say to each particular man. Before entering a strange office he has no idea what sort of a man will confront him, whether one who is fat or lean, of a nervous or a phlegmatic temperament, whether vigorous or in delicate health, whether a thin-skinned, sensitive man or one of a coarse type with a rhinoceros hide.
In calling on regular customers, the salesman must be alert for passing whims that modify their disposition. He must take in a man’s mood at a glance. If he is in a bad mood, he cannot approach him as if he were in a happy mood, as though he had just had some good news. He must be able to tell by his appearance whether he is pleased because business is booming, or whether he is disgruntled, his mind clouded either by business or domestic troubles. In fact, a salesman must be able to recognize quickly and deal adequately with all sorts of men and moods, and business conditions, or he will fail at the start to get the sort of attention on which his sales depend.
CHAPTER IX
TACT AS A FRIEND-WINNER AND BUSINESS-GETTER
Tact eases the jolts, oils the bearings, opens doors barred to others, sits in the drawing-room when others wait in the reception hall, gets into the private office when others are turned down.
Whether you get an order or not, leave a good taste in your prospect’s mouth so that he will always have a pleasant recollection of you.
Some time ago a man and his wife went into a large store in an eastern city to buy a chandelier. The man, in a rather querulous tone, asked to be shown a Renaissance chandelier. “Now, be sure,” he said to the salesman, “to show me a real Renaissance, small and not too expensive.” The salesman perceived he had a difficult customer to deal with, but one who appeared to have a fixed idea in mind. Being extremely tactful, he knew his first task was to humor his customer, and then try to find out exactly what type of fixture had been pictured in his mind. By cordiality and an exchange of remarks on general subjects, the salesman eased the man’s mind, and by skillful questions found out exactly what sort of chandelier he wanted. Then he expressed himself pleased at having a customer with clear ideas about the sort of article he wished, as it made it so much easier for the salesman to suit him.
Only tact could ever have won over that man and satisfied his whim.