I have known of negro families who did not have a whole plate, or a knife and fork in the house, to buy from unscrupulous agents plush autograph albums, books which they could not read or understand, pictures, picture frames, organs, pianos, etc., when they were so poor that every member of the family was ragged, and apparently only half nourished.
Many such agents and solicitors, who travel through the country, live upon the gullibility of people who are not mentally equipped to protect themselves against their dishonest wiles.
Every salesman is familiar with the “tricks of the trade” which the unscrupulous practice, but to which the conscientious man will not resort. His clean record, his straightforward methods, his reputation for reliability, mean infinitely more to him than to get an order by driving a sharp bargain, deceiving, taking advantage of, or hypnotizing his customer. His honesty, his character, is dearer to him than any gain, temporary or permanent, however great.
Nor is there any great demand for the man whose sole aim is to “deliver the goods,” regardless of the methods employed. They may be hired by cheap-John concerns which have no reputation to sustain, but high-class houses will have nothing to do with them. They know very well that men who practice real dishonesty in their mental methods, who use unfair means in winning confidence, only to abuse it, who make a business of overcoming weak minds for the purpose of deceiving them—they know that such men would hurt their house, injure their reputation. They know very well that the tricky, dishonest man who deceives or who over-sells his customer, is not a good man for his house.
The high-class salesman, like the high-class house, thinks too much of his good name, too much of his customers’ good opinion of him, to attempt to practice the slightest deception in his dealings with them. Their implicit faith in him, their belief that they can absolutely depend upon what he tells them, that it will not be the near-truth, but the exact truth, his real desire to serve them, these things mean infinitely more to him than the taking of an order. His reputation for straightforwardness, for reliability, his reputation as a man, is his chief capital. He is doing business without money; his only assets are his ability and his character, and he cannot afford to throw these away or vitiate them by dishonest mental practices.
Aside from the vital question of character, he is a very poor salesman who does not study the interest of the man at the other end of the bargain.
CHAPTER XVIII
MEETING AND FORESTALLING OBJECTIONS
Opposition is the physical culture of determination.