In a brief and helpful course on salesmanship “System,” a business magazine, gives great emphasis to the value of dwelling on five buying motives—1, Money; 2, Utility; 3, Caution; 4, Pride; 5, Self-indulgence, or Yielding to Weakness.
If a salesman will keep before his mind these five points, and if he appeals to the human traits they indicate he will become a master in closing deals.
A great many methods are used to-day for rating employees, just as Dun and Bradstreet rate firms. According to Roger W. Babson, there is a Mr. Horner, of Minneapolis, who rates his salesmen and trains them along these lines:
HABITS OF WORK
A final and very vital point to consider is this: Why do salesmen meet opposition?
Mr. Huff, in his very practical and interesting book on salesmanship, has classified under six general heads the causes of opposition. These are: First, Prior Dissatisfaction; Second, General Prejudice; Third, Buyer’s Mood; Fourth, Conservatism; Fifth, Bad Business; Sixth, Personal Dislike for Salesman.
It is up to the salesman to analyze the customer and decide just which of these six points of opposition is causing him to lose business.
Just in the degree that he can locate the exact trouble, and then overcome it in the proper way, will he be able to get the business which may seem at first absolutely beyond him.
Any or all of these six causes of opposition will not overwhelm the master salesman, but the mediocre or indifferent salesman is bound to collapse when confronted with any one of them. And if he does not train himself to meet and overcome opposition he is doomed to failure, or at least to a very poor grade of success—not worthy the name.