“You can size up your man while you are going forward to meet him. But by all means take him easy. Undue interest might embarrass him. Suppose he only wants a pair of 15c. socks; if he does, there is a test of your ability that you may not realize.
“Many a clerk who can close a Twenty dollar transaction with tact and dispatch never seems able to handle a Ten cent sale so that the customer goes out feeling pleased with himself.
“Nine men out of ten who come into the store are self-conscious. The thing to do is to make your man feel that his requirement is important simply because it is his requirement.
“A good salesman keeps his own personality in the background: he keeps the store and the sale in the background. He puts all the emphasis on service to the customer, and to do this he must mentally put himself in the customer’s place.
“Try to be as interested in the customer’s finding what he wants as if the article was for yourself; but don’t insist on his taking only the thing that appeals to you.
“Quietly dominate the sale, but leave him plenty of room for the exercise of his own taste and ideas.
“Most men, though they may not show it, are slightly on the defensive when they come into a clothing store. That is why it is so very important that there be no talking or laughing among the clerks.
“You may find it hard to realize the effect of a whisper or a titter on the part of the store’s help when a customer is present. In nearly every case the man becomes sensitive or resentful and thinks he is being ridiculed.
“Try it yourself sometime by going into a strange store in another line of business in a distant city: when you hear a laugh or a remark passed among the clerks, see if you don’t wonder if there isn’t something wrong with your clothes or feel sure that comment is being made on your appearance or behavior.
“There is another form of impatience or self-consciousness on the part of a customer who is more or less acquainted with the store. He hurries past everyone in front, headed for the part of the store where he thinks the goods he wants are kept.