A well-furnished and decorated room will have colors, contours, and groupings that fit into the architectural background as though all were conceived and executed simultaneously. The salesperson should guard against the customer's rather natural feeling that there is inequity between cost and the characteristics and qualities which give harmony and beauty to home furnishings. In handling a sale at this point, the salesman will develop convincingly the idea that home decoration, although it is the distinguishing mark of all lovely homes, actually is not dependent on lavish expenditure. Personal comfort, reflection of individuality, dominant unity, and harmonious groupings result from careful planning and educated tastes rather than from loosening the strings of a heavy purse. After all, the basic consideration is suitability, not decoration.
The salesman who will assemble a harmonious grouping quickly and keep it within the customer's price range will accomplish two important things:
1. Focus attention upon beauty and satisfaction of harmonized groups instead of directing worry toward price and minor details.
2. Increase respect for his judgment and understanding of her problem.
Suitability means comfort first.—Every well planned sale of home furnishing materials starts with the assumption that the buyer is always thinking in terms of her own interests. She has little or no concern with the construction, design, style, prestige value, or price of any article unless she believes that her own interests will in some way be affected by it.
Suppose for instance she has read several of many articles which appear from month to month in magazines covering the home-furnishings field, and that she has attended lectures on home decoration. She may even have discussed particular problems intimately with several interior decorators. She understands that she should never buy just for the present with the idea of making replacements later. She long since has given over the idea of wondering what the neighbors will think of her selections. Before she faces the bewildering walk down aisles flanked with sofa beds, lighting fixtures, tables, chairs, beds, draperies, consoles, carpets, rugs, and chaise lounges, she has planned her room on paper and has visualized the picture in terms of color and often has decided on a color scheme. Furniture has been given a diagram placement on paper to conform to wall spaces and windows. Rugs, draperies, and accessories have been subjected to tests of suitability for the purposes for which they are to be used.
When the salesman finally faces her in the first vital moments of this sales effort he quickly will realize that she knows what things she wants to see, their styles, shapes, sizes, and even their colors. Without knowledge of at least elementary principles in the art of interior decoration he is certain to feel a sense of inadequacy, even of humiliation. Even with the requisite basic information, normally it will be a sheer waste of time to assure her that any article is handsome, finely made, fashionable, or even that it is a wonderful value until he is sure that she considers this piece adapted to her own situation and needs. Innumerable sales go on the rocks at this point.
Interior decoration as a selling method begins right here with the revelation of the customer's situation and needs. If she has ideas which are in the hazy, sketchy, and by no means certain stages, then the salesman must proceed to secure the information he must have in advance of any intelligent selling he may hope to do. Usually these customer situations and needs will depend on two factors, the one personal and the other architectural.
The personal factor involves such considerations as the age, sex, size, tastes, and habits of the members of the family; the amount and character of entertaining for which provision must be made; and the amount of money or credit available for new furnishings.