The tactless salesman is a misfit. He must either learn how to bait his hook properly, or else go into some other business for which he is better fitted.
CHAPTER X
SIZING UP THE PROSPECT
The art of all arts for the leader is his ability to measure men, to weigh them, to “size them up.”
A great authority on salesmanship said: “Any one can call upon a prospective buyer and go away without an order.” It is up to the salesman to get what he goes after. If he knows how to size people up readily, he will be far more likely to get what he goes after than the man who can not do this. The ability to read people at sight is a great business asset.
Marshall Field was an adept in character reading. He was always studying his employees and gauging their possibilities. Nothing escaped his keen eye. Even when those about him did not know that he was thinking of them, he was taking their measure at every opportunity. His ability to place men, to weigh and measure them, to detect almost at a glance their weak and their strong points, amounted to genius.
If General Grant had had the same ability to read politicians and to estimate men for government positions that he had for judging of military ability, he would have made a great President. Unfortunately, he was obliged to depend too much upon the advice of friends in those matters. The result was that, as President, he did not maintain the high reputation he had made as a general.
The salesman ought to make a study of his power of penetration, of his character-reading ability. He ought to make it a business to study men and the motives which actuate them.