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Author: 
 
 Ivey, Paul Wesley 
 
 Title: 
 
 Elements of retail 
 salesmanship 
 
 Place: 
 
 New York 
 
 Date: 
 
 1920 
 
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 Irey, Paul Weeley. 
 
 ElementB of retail aalesmanshlp, by Paul Wesley 
 lTey.,» New Tork, Maomillan, 1920.. 
 
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 Bibliography » p. 237-240. 
 
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 in tfte Citp of ^eto gork 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 School of Business 
 
 I 
 
 4 
 
 X 
 
ELEMENTS OF 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 ( 
 
 BY 
 
 PAUL WESLEY IVEY, Ph.D. 
 
 Associate Professor of Economics and Commerce, University 
 
 of Nebraska. Formerly Assistant Professor of Business 
 
 Administration in the Extension Division, State 
 
 University of Iowa. Author, "The Pere 
 
 Marquette Railroad Company.'* 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 1920 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
DAMAGED PAGE(S) 
 
 COPTEIGHT, 1920 
 
 By the MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 Set up and electrotyped. Published February, 1920. 
 
 Iciju^^- 
 
 s^Xi 
 
 
 
 m 
 
 h 
 
 
 TO MY WIFE 
 
 IN APPRECIATION OF HER AID 
 
 IN THE PREPARATION OF 
 
 THIS VOLUME 
 
 ft I 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 In the following treatise an attempt is made to present 
 the elements of salesmanship and show how they may 
 be profitably applied to retail selling. Until recently, 
 retail stores have not seen the wisdom or the necessity 
 of systematically and scientifically training their sales- 
 people in selling goods. With the widening scope of 
 mail order business and the increasing competition be- 
 tween towns due to better transportation facilities, meth- 
 ods of selling goods are receiving attention that a few 
 years ago would have seemed misplaced. Selling serv- 
 ice has now become as important as selling goods. The 
 significance of this new development and its application 
 to retail stores forms the ground plan for the material 
 herein presented. 
 
 The chief reason for the presentation of this book be- 
 fore the public at this time is the many requests that 
 have come from salespeople in the department stores 
 where the author has lectured asking for the incorporation 
 of the lecture material in a permanent form. It is with 
 the hope of gratifying the wishes of these students of 
 salesmanship as well as that of satisfying a distinct need 
 now felt by progressive retailers for a practical text for 
 store classes in salesmanship, that this treatise appears in 
 its present form. If it serves to make the salesperson 
 see the educational possibilities in her ^ work and the re- 
 
 ^ The feminine gender is used throughout this book because ninety-five 
 per cent of the customers and salespeople in department stores are women. 
 
 vii 
 
Vlll 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 lation of better service to community welfare, it will 
 have accomplished the purpose for which it was intended. 
 No originality is claimed for the principles of sales- 
 manship herein introduced. However, some of these 
 have been applied In a new way and related to retail 
 selling where heretofore they have for the most part 
 been presented in relation to other phases of selling goods. 
 This intimate relating of general principles of salesman- 
 ship to retail selling by means of illustrations and special 
 retail problems makes the book of special value to the 
 retail salesperson, although the student of salesmanship 
 in high schools and colleges will find much that will be of 
 
 interest. 
 
 For the source materials the author is indebted to 
 many merchants, salespeople and teachers with whom he 
 has conducted the teaching of salesmanship. Also, the 
 many books on salesmanship, especially the more recent 
 ones, have contributed numerous important ideas, indi- 
 vidual acknowledgment of which would be impossible. 
 Most important of all sources, however, is the selling 
 experience that the author is fortunate enough to have 
 had. It is believed that this combination of practical 
 experience with theoretical knowledge is sufficient qualifi- 
 cation for presenting the most important elements of 
 
 retail salesmanship. 
 
 Paul W. Ivey. 
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER yJJ 
 
 Introduction 
 
 I Modern Developments ^ 
 
 II Knowing the Goods ^5 
 
 III Knowing the Goods (Continued) 43 
 
 IV Knowing the Customer 64. 
 
 V Knowing the Customer (Continued) . . . • 90 
 
 VI Elements of Personality ^^^ 
 
 VII Elements of Personauty (Continued) ... 140 
 
 VIII The Selling Process ^^7 
 
 IX Store System and Method 201 
 
 Problems ^^' 
 
 Bibliography ^^^ 
 
RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 MODERN DEVELOPMENTS 
 
 Before the student of salesmanship can comprehend 
 the changes that are taking place in retailing or can fore- 
 see the possibilities of the future in the merchandising 
 of goods, it is extremely necessary to realize clearly 
 and comprehensively the important changes that have 
 transpired in other fields of production. The fact must 
 soon be borne in on the student's mind that only through 
 change does progress appear; that the possibility of prog- 
 ress in the production and distribution of goods in any 
 state or country rests on the ability and willingness of 
 the masses as well as the leaders to change their minds. 
 In other words, open-mindedness precedes change or 
 progress, and the latter can never appear in practical 
 effort to benefit mankind unless it enters through the 
 door of the former. When the minds of any body of 
 people become opposed to change, when they become in- 
 flexible and static, then we have what are known as Dark 
 Ages. Because of this static nature of people's minds, 
 their opposition to change, their willingness to do as 
 their fathers have done, many towns in the United States 
 are " backward " and are accomplishing little as com- 
 
 1 
 
2 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 pared to other towns with equal advantages and oppor- 
 tunities. Because of unwillingness to adopt new ideas, 
 China is still plowing her millions of acres with crooked 
 sticks, and spinning and weaving by hand processes. In 
 some other lines of endeavor she is equally backward, as 
 are many other countries. 
 
 To keep one's mind open to new ideas is to make prog- 
 ress; and the more open-minded the people in any town, 
 state or country, the more progressive and wealthy is 
 each one of these political units. It is the privilege of 
 each student of retailing to be ever on the alert for new 
 ideas, for new ways of doing things. Just to the extent 
 that those interested in retailing take this attitude, will 
 retailing become scientific in its every detail and hence 
 capable of distributing goods at the lowest possible cost. 
 Justification for the '' middleman '' can be stated in no 
 more certain terms than this increased efficiency referred 
 to. 
 
 THE INDUSTRIAL AND AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTIONS 
 
 Until one hundred and fifty years ago, roughly speak- 
 ing, production took place in the home. Each family 
 was practically self supporting, producing its own cloth- 
 ing, food and shelter. Only a few articles such as salt, 
 plow shares, etc., were imported from other communities. 
 In this autonomous order of society there was little 
 specialization. This was necessarily so since the demand 
 for any product in a community was limited by the lack 
 of transportation facilities. There were no railroads 
 and for the most part the roads were impassable for 
 heavy trafllic. The demand for any product, such as 
 horseshoeing or weaving, was thus limited to the town 
 itself, and whether specialization was developed to any 
 
 MODERN DEVELOPMENTS 3 
 
 degree naturally depended upon the size of the town. 
 As specialization means opportunity to do one thing all 
 day year in and year out, it amounts to nothing more or 
 less than expertness. 
 
 Expertness was thus a thing unheard of in many com- 
 munities because society did not demand enough of cer- 
 tain products to justify any one spending his entire time 
 in producing them. Lack of expertness resulted in small 
 quantity and inferior quality production. In other words, 
 goods or wealth could not be produced in large quantities. 
 Another reason for this condition was the universal use 
 of hand tools and machinery. Muscular effort definitely 
 circumscribes results. No great quantity or quality pro- 
 duction of wealth could have been produced on the 
 foundations — hand tools and non-specialization. The 
 wonderful present economic welfare of the people in the 
 civilized world is due for the most part to the alteration 
 of these conditions of production, by means of the dis- 
 covery of a new and great motive power, viz., steam. 
 
 With the invention of the steam engine about one hun- 
 dred and fifty years ago and its many practical applica- 
 tions of recent years, is bound up a great revolution in 
 the methods of producing and transporting goods. 
 People who formerly spun and wove in their homes or in 
 small shops under the supervision of a neighbor, were 
 now brought together in great numbers under one roof 
 called a factory. Each person was set at a single ma- 
 chine where he performed a single operation. Specializa- 
 tion was being realized. Along with the much larger 
 production of goods went the development of steam rail- 
 ways which enabled the exchange of goods between com- 
 munities, thereby widening the market, i. e., the demand. 
 With the ever increasing facilities of transportation and 
 
4 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 communication, people were enabled to specialize in one 
 occupation and receive from elsewhere the many neces- 
 sities that they formerly produced themselves. 
 
 As a direct result of the introduction of specialized 
 and mechanical processes, production increased tremend- 
 ously, with less hours of work per day. Hours of work 
 fell from fourteen to twelve, then ten, then nine, while 
 at present there are many industries running on an eight- 
 hour day. Recently a movement has started among 
 British labor calling for a six-hour day. This remark- 
 able reduction in working hours has given the working 
 man leisure hours unknown before the last century; and 
 it has tremendously stimulated the production of luxuries 
 to give pleasure during the free hours. These luxuries 
 soon came to be looked upon as necessities that could not 
 be dispensed with without severe hardship. Thus a new 
 standard of living arose which included many things 
 formerly unheard of. The great definiteness of these 
 comparatively new demands has acted like a stimulant to 
 industry and has opened up possibilities for production 
 undreamed of even fifty years ago. 
 
 As regards the increased quantity production resulting 
 from the introduction of machine processes, it must be 
 said that not only did hours of labor diminish as produc- 
 tion increased but likewise the total number of laborers 
 employed in the industries affected. As a remarkable 
 illustration of this fact is the production of yarn. If 
 the present yearly production of yarn was produced un- 
 der the old-fashioned hand methods, it would take one 
 hundred billion women spinning ten hours per day. 
 When it is considered that there are only one billion 
 eight hundred million people in the world, the signifi- 
 cance of this illustration is seen. Needless to say, per- 
 
 MODERN DEVELOPMENTS 5 
 
 haps, this great quantity production, with less labor, has 
 reduced the price of clothing, house furnishings and other 
 articles many thousand fold. The low price of the goods 
 on the retailer's shelves Is largely due to the steam en- 
 gine specialization. 
 
 An interesting phase of this remarkable revolution is 
 the attitude that the workers have held toward it. For 
 the most part they opposed It. The hand spinners and 
 weavers who had become quite proficient in their hand 
 processes could not see the ultimate value to mankind 
 of the power spindles and looms, but realized only the 
 immediate handicap under which they were placed. 
 Children could tend the new machines as proficiently as 
 could the older spinners and weavers, and naturally the 
 latter were Incensed at the new inventions. Their feel- 
 ing of antagonism took the popular form of burning fac- 
 tories and smashing machinery wherever this was possible. 
 Only momentarily, however, was progress stopped by 
 these abortions. The new machine processes and the in- 
 creased specialization produced more goods of a greater 
 variety and at a much lower cost, and because of these 
 all-important results society supported and protected the 
 new processes until they have become a commonplace 
 part of our industrial life. No one at present, not even 
 the workers themselves, would think for a moment of 
 going back to hand production. 
 
 Such is the path of progress. Opposition has usually 
 confronted the adoption of new and more eflicient 
 methods of production or more advanced scientific ideas. 
 When Galileo declared the earth was round even his 
 scientific contemporaries were astounded that one could 
 be so bold as to attack such a well established doctrine 
 that the earth was flat. His life was threatened unless 
 
6 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 he retracted his bold assertion, and in the face of such 
 opposition he temporarily retracted his claim. 
 
 Opposition to progressive change, showing the in- 
 flexibility of the minds of large classes of people, is 
 further illustrated by the mobbing and beating of Jac- 
 quard in Lyons, France, in 1808. Embroidering had 
 been done by hand since the world began and people be- 
 lieved that it must always be done thus. Jacquard de- 
 veloped a wonderful complicated loom that permitted 
 mechanical production of this work. People's minds 
 could not accommodate themselves to the radical change; 
 they could not understand the bold nature who could so 
 set aside precedent and alter a universal method of doing 
 things. But England grasped the idea that France dis- 
 carded and today a statue of Jacquard stands in Lyons 
 on the spot where this great inventor was persecuted over 
 
 a century ago. 
 
 Another important result of the industrial revolution 
 was the division of society into capitalists, landlords, 
 managers and laborers. Previous to the industrial revo- 
 lution, when each family was almost self-sufficing, eaA 
 person combined these four functions in himself. With 
 the enlargement of industry, however. It became neces- 
 sary for more intense specialization of these functions. 
 For example, it was found that the most efficient manager 
 could be produced only If all of one's time was spent in 
 solving managerial problems. People now had to choose 
 which function they were qualified by nature or training 
 to perform and then spend their entire time becoming 
 experts In their field. 
 
 Thus we find society split up Into four factors, all 
 working toward a common end, viz., the production and 
 distribution of goods at the least cost. No factor can 
 
 MODERN DEVELOPMENTS 7 
 
 produce goods independently of the others. They are all 
 necessary for large scale machine production and are 
 ^ all interdependent. Oftentimes this fact is not clearly 
 seen by all people, resulting in the temporary disarrange- 
 ment of industry. Sometimes labor thinks itself the all- 
 important factor, and discontent and disturbances result. 
 Cooperative stores and factories are initiated by laborers 
 who have magnified their own importance in the industrial 
 and commercial processes, and minimized the value of 
 capital and management. Usually in this country such 
 movements have met with disaster because of lack of 
 capital and poor management, and workers have lost 
 their earnings. Through bitter experience many labor- 
 ers have learned that management with ability and fore- 
 sight is necessary in any business and because of Its rela- 
 tive scarcity must be well paid. On the other hand, 
 oftentimes capital or management gets the notion that it 
 is the all-important factor in production and treats un- 
 fairly the labor in its employ. In some cases only by 
 governmental action has labor succeeded in forcing capi- 
 tal or management to recognize its rights. 
 
 Fortunately, the necessity for specialization of these 
 functions and the relative Importance of each In our 
 industrial and commercial system, are becoming more 
 widely recognized among all classes. Employers are be- 
 coming more and more willing to see the employes' side 
 of any problem, and vice versa. It is to be hoped that 
 greater mutual understanding between all parties In in- 
 dustry and commerce will eliminate much of the present 
 day antagonism which is the only great handicap to secur- 
 ing greater efficiency and lower costs. 
 
 Second in statement, but scarcely inferior in impor- 
 tance, is the great revolution in agricultural methods 
 

 8 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 taking place within the last century. Since grain was 
 first grown hand methods have been used. The scythe 
 and sickle cut the grain, the raking and binding were 
 done by hand and the grain was threshed by a hand-swung 
 flail. Under such a system much labor was needed for a 
 small production and costs were necessarily high. With 
 the introduction of mowers, reapers and. binders, stimu- 
 lated by the scarcity of help during the Civil War, a new 
 era of agriculture was at hand. Less workers on the 
 farms could now produce the usual crops large enough to 
 take care of this country's demands, as well as a surplus 
 for export. An illustration of the tremendous release of 
 men for other occupations caused by the introduction of 
 agricultural machinery, is seen in wheat production. Be- 
 fore 1890, in order to produce the present wheat crop 
 ( 1 9 1 8 ) it would have taken 1 1 ,000,000 men working ten 
 hours a day, while after this date the 191 8 wheat crop 
 could have been produced by 500,000 men — a saving of 
 the labor of 10,500,000 men on one grain crop alone. If 
 all the crops were considered, the saving in labor power 
 would be most startling. In the light of these figures the 
 *' back to the country " movement appears somewhat ri- 
 diculous. If less men can produce enough grain to sat- 
 isfy our needs why employ more men? Rather, it is to 
 the advantage of the farmer as well as of all society to 
 have the men who are released from agriculture by means 
 of machinery, migrate to the cities or elsewhere and man- 
 ufacture the new luxuries that are increasingly in demand 
 as the prosperity of the country population becomes as- 
 sured. 
 
 Our farmers adopted agricultural machinery because 
 of necessity, but once adopted it has remained; while 
 other operations on the farm have gradually been taken 
 
 MODERN DEVELOPMENTS 9 
 
 over by mechanical processes. Open-mindedness, to a 
 large extent, is the reason for the ready adoption of these 
 labor saving devices. China is still plowing with the 
 crooked stick, and efforts to introduce Western machinery 
 have been of little avail. Habits of thinking and doing 
 have been fixed by too many centuries of unchanging meth- 
 ods to be altered in a generation or two. Only by the 
 most persistent efforts are backward countries made to 
 adopt new ideas and new methods and then it is usually 
 accomplished by the example of progressive foreigners. 
 The result of new ideas is illustrated no better than in 
 agricultural development in the United States; and the 
 stagnation and meager production due to Inflexibility of 
 mind and inability to change from old to new methods, is 
 no more clearly seen than in the production of agricul- 
 tural products In the Far East and other backward coun- 
 tries and states. 
 
 THE NEW PHILOSOPHY OF RETAIL MERCHANDISING 
 
 Like manufacturing, transportation and agriculture, re- 
 tailing has been revolutionized In the last century and a 
 half. From time immemorial the retailer, trader or 
 shopkeeper has been held In low esteem by his fellowman. 
 Throughout English history the unscrupulous cunning of 
 the shopkeeper seems to have been a byword. The 
 trader was believed to be a man who produced no wealth 
 whatsoever, but gained an illegitimate living by adding 
 to the price of goods that he received from some one else. 
 In other words, he was not economically justified. 
 Neither was he socially justified. It was commonly be- 
 lieved that he sought to sell goods to the disadvantage 
 of the buyer. Caveat emptor (let the buyer beware) 
 was the ruling business ethics of the time, but this fact 
 
lO RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 did not lessen the suspicion that the customer held to- 
 ward the shopkeeper. The buyer was necessarily al- 
 ways on his guard when dealing with retailers, and this 
 antagonistic attitude of the buying public has only been 
 partially dissipated within recent years for reasons that 
 
 will be mentioned. 
 
 The reason for the existence of the shopkeeper not be- 
 ing justified economically was a false view of what was 
 meant by the *' production of wealth." The Physiocrats 
 believed that agriculture was the only productive industry 
 from which all other trades and occupations received their 
 energy. Later on, it was generally conceded that manu- 
 facturing was productive of wealth, but reluctance was 
 shown in granting this function to retail merchandising. 
 Transportation was held in the same light as retaihng. 
 But in the last century it became clear to many people 
 that industries or persons were producers of wealth if 
 they satisfied some want, i. e., produced some utility. 
 It was seen that corn is not " produced " in the complet- 
 est meaning of the word until it is in the hands of the con- 
 sumer, since the only object of its " production " is to sup- 
 ply the demands of consumers. Hence the railroad and 
 other transportation agencies must function in the pro- 
 duction process and add place utilities to the articles trans- 
 ported. Then in order to get the goods into the hands of 
 the consumer, specialized agencies must be employed to 
 effect a change in ownership of the goods. Exchangers, 
 traders or shopkeepers were seen to add ownership 
 utilities to goods. So to the fundamental or substance 
 utilities added to an article by agriculture, mining or lum- 
 bering, are added form utilities by manufacturers, place 
 utilities by transportation agencies and ownership utili- 
 ties by merchants. 
 
 MODERN DEVELOPMENTS 
 
 II 
 
 4 
 
 ^ 
 
 It may seem that such an analysis as this is superfluous, 
 but one does not have to go far even today to find strong 
 traces of the old fallacy, viz., that the retailer is not 
 productive. However it must be said that, for the most 
 part, society today justifies the existence of the retailer 
 from an economic standpoint. 
 
 Economic justification for the existence of retailers 
 came much earlier than did social recognition, the former 
 being quite well accepted by the beginning of the last cen- 
 tury while the latter can only be said to have come into 
 being in the last generation. This applies, for the most 
 part, to the United States and some parts of England, 
 Germany and France, since the rest of the world with- 
 holds social recognition from the retailer even at the 
 present time. 
 
 Why has society held a depreciated idea of the retailer 
 socially when he was contemporaneously held as a vital 
 economic factor in production? This has been true be- 
 cause of the methods employed by retailers and because 
 of a vicious economic fallacy regarding the nature of ex- 
 change. 
 
 The old methods of retailing merchandise followed 
 the principle of " charging what the traffic would bear," 
 asking different prices for the same article from 
 
 1. e., 
 
 different customers. Today this system is common in 
 some parts of Europe and Asia and partially accounts for 
 the social position of the shopkeeper. Buying under 
 this system developed into a struggle between seller and 
 buyer. The two parties were antagonists. The buyer 
 was forced to be on the qui vive at all times in order to 
 get the best of the bargain, or, If this was Impossible, as 
 it usually was, then it devolved upon the customer to ac- 
 quire the goods at the least loss to himself. Such meth- 
 
12 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 ods capitalized the weaknesses of the buyers to the gain 
 of the sellers. The necessaries of life could only be ex- 
 tracted at a fair price from these vendors by means of 
 shrewdness, cajolery, threats and higgling. It was only 
 natural that society held no honored place for producers 
 who secured a living by taking advantage of the weaker 
 bargaining ability of others. 
 
 The second reason for this social attitude toward re- 
 tailers was the existence, in both the minds of traders and 
 customers, of a false idea of the meaning of exchange. 
 It was commonly held until the last century that only 
 one party to an exchange could be benefited thereby-— 
 that one party of necessity must be the loser. This 
 theory led to the practice described heretofore. ^ Each 
 party endeavored to be the winner at any odds, since it 
 was the belief there could be only one. 
 
 Economists gave to the retailer justification for his 
 economic existence, but it took many sturdy pioneers in 
 retail merchandising to place the retailer of the United 
 States on the high social level where he deserves to be, 
 and which he is fast attaining. One creator of the new 
 era in retail merchandising was John Wanamaker who 
 in 1876 adopted the "one price" system in his large 
 store the " Grand Depot " in Philadelphia, and thereby 
 helped to overthrow the earlier practice of '' bargaining " 
 and the vicious economic fallacy that supported it. 
 
 Not only this. He instituted other new merchandising 
 methods which, together with progressive methods used 
 by merchants in other parts of the country, were to revo- 
 lutionize retailing in the United States and abroad, just 
 as much as production in this country was given a great 
 impetus by the industrial revolution in England. 
 
 MODERN DEVELOPMENTS 
 
 13 
 
 In the first place, no customer was to be strongly urged 
 to buy. This meant the elimination of the " barker " 
 who was then a familiar sight on the sidewalk before 
 every retail store, and it also meant discontinuance of 
 the custom among salespeople to " load " a customer 
 with as much goods as possible before she could get out 
 of the store. 
 
 In the second place, the goods were what they were 
 represented — they were genuine. Seconds were marked 
 seconds even if they were not obviously recognized as 
 such. Caveat emptor had received its first severe blow. 
 The burden of recognizing deceit was no longer thrown 
 onto the shoulders of the customer. She did not have 
 to be on her guard, hence " shopping " became somewhat 
 of a pleasure where it had formerly been a combat to be 
 dreaded for its possible consequences. 
 
 In the third place, money would be returned if cus- 
 tomers were dissatisfied. Competitors of John Wana- 
 maker predicted that if all other innovations failed to 
 bring about defeat, this particular policy would bring 
 disaster. '* The public will swindle your eyes out," they 
 said, believing the public dishonest and unfair. Need- 
 less to say, the public met this declaration of confidence 
 in its integrity with a high resolve to be worthy of it, and 
 the success of this policy has been demonstrated by its 
 wide adoption since that time. 
 
 In the fourth place, honorable relations must at all 
 times exist between buyer and seller regardless of the 
 economic or social status of the former. War between 
 the two was at an end. Henceforth, it became the func- 
 tion of the retailer to cooperate with the customer in 
 securing to the latter goods at a fair price rather than 
 
H 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 competing with her with the aim of trying to get the best 
 of her. The interests of buyer and seller were recog- 
 nized as mutual. 
 
 The struggle that this and other advocates of the new 
 philosophy of retail merchandising underwent with their 
 competitors is a story in and of itself. Mankind has 
 always scoffed at the inventor, whether of things or ideas, 
 and men in 1876 were no exce{ition. Some merchants 
 even attempted to pass laws to eliminate what they con- 
 sidered "unfair'* competition; as the progress of others 
 in all ages has appeared *' unfair " to those less capable 
 of achievement. Similar indeed was the attitude of tex- 
 tile workers towards the introduction of power looms 
 in England during the industrial revolution, when the 
 new power machinery was smashed and factories de- 
 stroyed. But like all revolutions that introduce better 
 and more efficient methods of producing wealth, the in- 
 dustrial and retail revolutions were productive of perma- 
 nent results. No one thinks of the far-reaching effects 
 of the present methods of retailing because they have 
 become common, but to these must be attributed the pres- 
 ent social status of the retailer. Confidence of the pub- 
 lic in those with whom they have business dealings is 
 necessarily a plant of slow growth, not only because of 
 tradition but because of the frailty of human nature. 
 Steady observance of the methods adopted by Wana- 
 maker. Field and other progressive merchants is the only 
 sure means of securing efficient merchandising from the 
 standpoint not only of the public but the merchant as 
 well, besides placing retailing on a social equality with 
 the other professions. 
 
 In this revolution of retailing methods some people 
 have seen a new control established which the facts do not 
 
 MODERN DEVELOPMENTS 
 
 15 
 
 justify. It is the belief of many that competition has 
 miserably failed as a selective and controlling factor in 
 retail merchandising and must be replaced by coopera- 
 tion. Nothing that has transpired in this field would 
 warrant such an assumption. Cooperation has not dis- 
 placed competition; it has merely supplemented it. 
 Recognition on the part of retailers of certain vital char- 
 acteristics of human nature, and the energy of leaders to 
 enforce this recognition on others, have raised the plane 
 of competition and placed it on a new level. Standards 
 of competition are now elevated and hedged about with 
 new rules which are enforced hy competition. Thus it 
 has always been. New Ideas compete with old ones and 
 displace them, and are maintained by the energy liber- 
 ated by their own activity. More and more the leaders 
 in the field of retailing are recognizing the newer and 
 more far-reaching demands of the public. Merchants 
 are realizing that consumers are demanding experts in 
 retailing who know their goods, understand in what situ- 
 ations they have the greatest utility and when they are the 
 most effective. In other words, progressives in merchan- 
 dising methods are objective thinkers and are endeavor- 
 ing to give the service such as a higher educated public 
 is requiring. Methods and policies adequate to meet the 
 new requirements will become the possession of a few, 
 and public opinion will enforce the ideas of the few on 
 the many who serve the public in the capacity of retail 
 merchants. What many of these new requirements are 
 will be taken up In the following pages. 
 
 Not only has the attitude of retailers toward custom- 
 ers changed in the last generation, but almost within the 
 last decade, In the larger towns, retailers have changed 
 
i6 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 MODERN DEVELOPMENTS 
 
 17 
 
 their attitude toward the community itself; and this 
 change in attitude, which is rapidly percolating into the 
 smaller towns as well, is pregnant with a new life and 
 energy for American communities that cannot be over- 
 estimated in its influence on our national life. 
 
 From their very origin, our communities have been 
 individualistic in character. That such should be true 
 cannot be considered strange when it is realized that 
 many of the towns in the Middle West are of still recent 
 origin and contain pioneers or their children who have 
 succeeded in creating a new world from the bare land 
 itself. All the characteristics of self-sufficiency found 
 in these world builders are reflected in the worlds they 
 have built. Each citizen has tended more or less to live 
 unto himself. Each retailer has had a conception of his 
 business as a unit separate from that of his competitor 
 and from the town that included both. The theory of 
 wealth-getting in retailing was known to all and well 
 practiced. In short, it amounts to this : " Anything 
 that helps my competitor injures me, and anything that 
 helps me injures my competitor." 
 
 According to this policy, if one store was more up-to- 
 date, had better salespeople and a better organization 
 than another, this store would gain by maintaining such 
 a situation. Hence, if new methods of store accounting, 
 or ideas to further better selling, advertising or window 
 decorating, became known to one merchant, he was care- 
 ful to profit by them and keep them secret. Each re- 
 tailer believed that he could progress further the more 
 backward his competitors remained. Each merchant 
 tried to climb to success over the dead body of his op- 
 ponent. 
 
 Many examples could be given illustrating to what 
 
 extreme lengths this practice has been carried in the Mid- 
 dle West. Merchants have closely guarded their meth- 
 ods of doing business, their prices (wherever possible), 
 their overhead expenses, gross sales, methods of account- 
 ing, etc.; competitors have " knocked" each other to cus- 
 tomers and friends; enemies have been developed among 
 unsuspecting third parties; school-boards and town offi- 
 cials have been influenced, and, sad to relate, even the 
 church in some cases has become involved. Only to one 
 who has made a study of many small communities can the 
 results coming from this theory of doing retail business 
 have its full meaning. 
 
 That such practices are as foolish and the theory back 
 of them as fallacious as the theories and practices of mer- 
 chants prior to 1876, no one after a little thought will 
 deny. The practice resulting from the belief that the 
 backwardness of one merchant was beneficial to other 
 merchants has meant much loss to the retailers who be- 
 lieved it, to others less guilty and, most of all, to the 
 welfare of the community itself. 
 
 This was necessarily true because little community 
 progress could result without healthy business activity and 
 the latter was fatally throttled at its very inception by a 
 policy that effectively maintained and aided retail ineffi- 
 ciency. Towns received the reputation of being '' dead " 
 and the existence of even one progressive retailer in each 
 line could not successfully change public opinion. Peo- 
 ple from the surrounding country likely as not got into 
 the unprogressive stores, were not treated kindly or failed 
 to find the goods they desired and went over to the mail 
 order house where courtesy is a slogan and variety of 
 goods and reasonable price a reality. Thus trade left 
 town and failed to come into town because of a false 
 
i8 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 theory regarding the relation of the retailer to his com- 
 petitors and the community. 
 
 A new realization of the retailer's function in the 
 community is rapidly being realized. This is evidenced 
 by the number of so-called community clubs that are now 
 being organized, where formerly the commercial club 
 seemed to be considered adequate to deal with business 
 problems. The former organizations are attempting to 
 promulgate new methods of merchandising among back- 
 ward merchants in the community; to study defective 
 business methods in use and gather information as to their 
 remedy; to conduct short courses for business men where 
 so-called business '* secrets '' can become the property of 
 all and where experts in merchandising can tell practition- 
 ers what they know; and finally to place the farmer on the 
 same basis as the business man and make him realize 
 that he is a part of the community and not outside of it. 
 In these meetings competitors rub elbows, gather infor- 
 mation that is mutually helpful and learn to know one 
 another as men — not as enemies (competitors). 
 
 Through such and similar efforts the old business fal- 
 lacies are being relegated to the background. It is being 
 realized that a policy which helps to keep any producers 
 in the community in a backward position is injuring the 
 community, and that anything that injures the community 
 is, in the long run, a bad thing for every one, notwith- 
 standing the fact that some merchants may possibly be 
 immediately benefited. The community view has been 
 broadened, and the business view has had to develop itself 
 contemporaneously. 
 
 This widening of business vision, this endeavor of re- 
 tailers to cooperate in order to raise the plane of compe- 
 tition, is a development that is going on at the present 
 
 MODERN DEVELOPMENTS 
 
 19 
 
 time. Only the more progressive towns in the more 
 progressive states have been affected, but the movement 
 must eventually become universal, resulting in a new life 
 for our towns and a rejuvenation of our country districts. 
 
 THE MODERN EFFICIENCY MOVEMENT 
 
 As already indicated, much has been done in the last 
 one hundred and fifty years to develop machine processes. 
 In fact it is no exaggeration to say that more has been 
 done in the last century and a half in the development of 
 machine production than was done in the previous seven 
 thousand years. Progress has been made in this field be- 
 cause effort has continuously been directed toward this 
 direction, and it is well that this has been done. Never- 
 theless, the struggle to perfect machinery in manufactur- 
 ing, agriculture, mining and transportation, has tended to 
 overemphasize the mechanical element in industry as 
 compared to another element not so tangible but equally 
 important. This element is human nature. 
 
 Only within the last two decades has anything of im- 
 portance been done toward the development of this vast 
 field, and as yet only a beginning has been made. Yet 
 from the results already accomplished it may not be too 
 much to say that with a century and a half of irrigation 
 and development this field will exhibit possibilities as yet 
 undreamed of. At any rate, no matter what the future 
 may hold in store for those industries developing and re- 
 fining human processes, what has already been done is 
 most worthy of notice. In this brief discussion space 
 permits mention of only three of the most prominent 
 achievements in. age-old occupations. 
 
 Bricklaying, every one will concede, is one of the oldest 
 occupations. The earliest buildings were made of brick, 
 
20 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 MODERN DEVELOPMENTS 
 
 21 
 
 and pictures of bricklaying are found in the ruins of 
 Egypt. To set about improving the human processes in 
 this field seemed a waste of time to many people, and es- 
 pecially to the bricklayers themselves who had learned 
 to lay brick as tradition dictated. It had been done in 
 a certain way for many centuries so why should a change 
 be made, said the workers. In reality this reason, al- 
 though it sounded plausible to some, was no reason at 
 all. Yet this kind of argument has always prevented 
 change and hindered progress and at present is the great- 
 est foe to the improvement of human processes. As 
 workers have always opposed the introduction of machine 
 processes, so they have always opposed the changing of 
 human processes; and progress has only been effected 
 in some countries because the leaders have been open- 
 minded enough to give new ideas a trial. Wherever 
 these trials have been rewarded with success the masses 
 have reluctantly adopted the new methods on being con- 
 vinced of their desirability; but obviously in those coun- 
 tries where new ideas will not be put on trial no adoption 
 of them can ever come. In such a condition is China. 
 
 Notwithstanding the opposition of the bricklayers, 
 bricklaying underwent an intensive study. The laying 
 of bricks was watched by keen observers and was de- 
 liberated on as intently as any subtle ideas in religion or 
 philosophy have been. To make a long story short, it 
 was found that in laying one brick an average of sixteen 
 movements were made. Using the more skilled and in- 
 telligent workmen as subjects for experiments, it was 
 found that the average number of movements in laying 
 one brick could be reduced to five — an increase in effi- 
 ciency of over three hundred per cent. 
 
 To many it would seem that this remarkable achieve- 
 
 i 
 
 ,;i 
 
 -1 
 
 ment would immediately revolutionize bricklaying in 
 the United States. Unfortunately, because of mankind's 
 tendency to persist in doing things as they have been ac- 
 customed to do them, such is not the case. Gradually, 
 however, this improvement in human process will widen 
 its influence and set the standards for bricklaying. 
 
 When this much desired consummation is a fact the 
 significance of its effects can scarcely be estimated. If 
 brick buildings can be built at one-half or even one-third 
 of the former labor cost, the price of such buildings must 
 fall. If such buildings are cheaper, rents fall, overhead 
 expenses in retail stores become less, hence goods can be 
 sold at a lower price. Consumers (and all people are 
 consumers, including the bricklayers themselves) would 
 benefit by such a change in hand processes, while the 
 probabilities are that the wages of bricklayers would 
 be higher. This seems likely because those bricklayers 
 capable of organizing their work on the basis of the 
 new processes would be limited in supply but greatly in 
 demand. Those bricklayers who could not adapt them- 
 selves to the new conditions would obviously have to 
 seek a new trade for which they were better adapted. 
 This necessity, however, could result in only temporary 
 hardship, since their productivity in work for which they 
 were better adapted would be greater and hence their 
 wages would be higher. It is a fundamental principle of 
 economics that everybody ultimately benefits because of 
 the introduction into industry or commerce of labor sav- 
 ing processes. Only immediately does the opposite some- 
 times appear to be true. 
 
 A second example of increasing the efficiency of the 
 human element is seen in the experiments conducted by 
 F. W. Taylor among the pig iron carriers at the Bethle- 
 
22 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 MODERN DEVELOPMENTS 
 
 23 
 
 hem Steel Works. The work of these laborers consisted 
 of picking up iron pigs from piles and carrying them to 
 flat cars where they were deposited in stacks. Each la- 
 borer could load an average of 16 tons per day. After 
 three years of observing this human process at work, Mr. 
 Taylor devised more scientific handling which increased 
 the average man's carrying capacity per day to 40 tons. 
 Formerly the laborers received $1.15 per day, while after 
 the new human processes were worked out the men who 
 would follow instructions received $1.85 per day. 
 Strange to say, the men who carried 40 tons by means of 
 the new scientific methods were less fatigued at the end 
 of the day's work than formerly. 
 
 How such startling results were secured can be ascer- 
 tained elsewhere.^ In passing, it may be said that rest 
 periods were introduced at different times during the day 
 so that bodily energy was conserved throughout the en- 
 tire day's work. Several important studies in the rela- 
 tion of work to fatigue have been made, an investigation 
 of which will well repay those interested in this important 
 phase of industrial efficiency. There is no doubt that 
 this field has been little more than touched in its possibili- 
 ties, especially as regards retailing. 
 
 The third illustration of effectively altering old hand 
 processes in order to secure increased efficiency is the 
 work of shoveling. Most people are willing to admit 
 that if such an apparently simple and commonplace op- 
 eration as shoveling can be altered along scientific lines, 
 most any human process has possibilities for development. 
 It is to impress upon the reader this all important fact 
 that these instances of scientific development are given. 
 
 By experimenting with different size shovels for differ- 
 
 1 F. W. Taylor " Principles of Scientific Management." 
 
 ent kinds of material, by carefully noting the results se- 
 cured in throwing the shovel load different distances, as 
 well as observing the manner in which the shovel was 
 handled, the efficiency of shovelers was increased three 
 hundred per cent. A full account of the manner in which 
 these experiments were conducted and the results ob- 
 tained can be found elsewhere.^ For the purposes of this 
 lesson enough has been said if the reader realizes the 
 great revolution that is now going on in human processes. 
 That great opportunities for bettering retail selling 
 methods exist everywhere, very few observers of retail 
 conditions will deny. Yet there are many salespeople 
 and retailers who have become accustomed to certain 
 ways of selling goods and handling customers, which are 
 fundamentally wrong, but which are fixed in operation by 
 habit and are apparently difficult to get away from. The 
 old way is very often thought to be the best way. Expe- 
 rience has produced certain methods that have brought 
 fair success and there is a feeling of '* let well enough 
 alone." 
 
 Needless to say, if old methods were continuously fol- 
 lowed regardless of changing conditions, no progress 
 could be made. Generation after generation would be- 
 come fixed in their thought, and mental and industrial 
 stagnation would result. The hope of present day in- 
 dustry and commerce is that the leaders, the thinkers, will 
 make a careful study of present day retail selling methods 
 and change their old ways of doing things whenever these 
 old ways are found to be defective or inferior to new 
 methods in getting results. The slogan of the business 
 world is, "get results," and if the methods described 
 in this book are tried and found to be the ** result-getting 
 1 Ibid. 
 
24 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 kind," their justification will be assured. It is only fair 
 to them to say that they have already been through the 
 crucible of experiment and from practical application have 
 been found to be conducive to increased efficiency in sell- 
 ing. Many large stores have put the ideas herein de- 
 scribed into practice and are realizing increased sales 
 therefrom. 
 
 The mechanics of retail stores has been well advanced; 
 methods of window display, lighting, heating, store ar- 
 rangement, fixtures and all other details of the store 
 equipment have been given a great deal of careful thought 
 looking toward greater efficiency, and they have reaped 
 big returns. As yet, little has been done with the human 
 element, the salesperson; and it is with the hope of stimu- 
 lating interest and pointing out methods of betterment 
 in this important field that this book on salesmanship is 
 offered to the public. 
 
 i 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 KNOWING THE GOODS 
 
 The present revolution in retailing is the substitution 
 of experts for inexperts behind the counter. Specializa- 
 tion, spoken of in the previous chapter, is of little value 
 to society unless expcrtness results wherever it is prac- 
 ticed. Especially in the department store is specializa- 
 tion carried to a fine degree. Salespeople sell only in one 
 department; they handle at the most only a few lines of 
 goods; they have the opportunity to know all about the 
 things that they are handling every day. If they are 
 inexpert, society has lost because of the opportunity that 
 has not been utilized. 
 
 Not only because of the opportunity offered for special- 
 ization should salespeople be experts. Another reason 
 is the ever increasing complexity of goods as regards 
 their quality and construction. Not long ago it was pos- 
 sible for the customer to be an expert buyer and hence 
 there was no great necessity to have expert sellers. With 
 the manufacture of numberless products and substitutes 
 unheard of a few years ago, together with trade names 
 whose number is legion, the possibility of the customer 
 knowing what is in the goods and how they are made is 
 fast disappearing. Many examples to illustrate this fact 
 could be given. One case is that of congoleum. The 
 name does not describe the goods and the makeup of the 
 latter is unknown to many people. That it is merely tar 
 
 25 
 
26 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 paper painted on both sides, some customers would be sur- 
 prised to know. Yet knowledge of this fact would not 
 reduce sales, because the wearing qualities of this product 
 are well known. Linoleum is now made with cork, wood 
 fiber or rag fiber filling. Yet linoleum is only linoleum to 
 some customers. Again, fiber silks are becoming so nu- 
 merous and are made up in so many kinds of goods that 
 the customer is lost in the rapidity of change and the com- 
 plexity of construction. Leathers can only be distin- 
 guished by an expert and that expert cannot be the aver- 
 age customer. More and more the latter is seeking out 
 those stores where she can trust the salespeople to know 
 what they are selling. If neither the salesperson nor the 
 customer know the composition of the goods much op- 
 portunity for dissatisfaction arises. It is to prevent dis- 
 satisfaction that expertness in selling is advocated. 
 
 Not only do changing conditions make it imperative 
 that the salesperson become an expert in her field, but 
 they likewise make it necessary for the salesperson to be 
 an adviser. The stores that can give expert advice are 
 the stores that will have a big following in the future. 
 As an example of the need for this service is a case called 
 to the attention of the writer a short time ago in a men's 
 furnishings store. The salesperson tactfully explained to 
 a well dressed young man the correct way to tie a four-in- 
 hand tie. He likewise explained how to match ties with 
 shirts and shirts with suits. The advice was given in 
 such a clever way that the customer was delighted with 
 his purchase because he knew why it was sold him, while 
 his respect for the store was distinctly heightened. 
 
 Willingness to advise should never exist without abil- 
 ity to advise, as is indicated by the case of the inexpert 
 salesperson who offered a stout woman a shirtwaist with 
 
 KNOWING THE GOODS 
 
 27 
 
 horizontal stripes. If expert advice had been given to 
 customers, many of the absurdities in dress and clash of 
 color designs which are seen on the streets every day 
 would not be in evidence. A study of harmony of colors 
 and fitness of dress to different personalities would not 
 only yield big returns to the salespeople making it, but 
 it would yield a pleasure of accomplishment the value of 
 which could not be accurately measured in terms of money. 
 Not only does dress offer a large field for such a study 
 but also household decoration and other lines. 
 
 The first step toward becoming an expert in retail 
 selling is knowledge of the goods. This knowledge is 
 necessary for four reasons, the chief of which has for the 
 most part been overlooked in the books on retail sales- 
 manship and in retail store educational work. It is a 
 purely selfish reason, which fact may be in its favor 
 since most of our actions are based on selfish motives. 
 The first reason why a salesperson should know all about 
 the goods is because such knowledge takes the drudgery 
 out of work. So long as work is irksome and monoton- 
 ous little progress can be made. The most successful in 
 any field of endeavor are those who have the ability to 
 make their work play; those who see the significance of 
 their work in present day industry; salespeople who love 
 their goods because they know their history and the dif- 
 ficulties experienced in getting them before the public. 
 To know about anything worth while is to become en- 
 thusiastic about it. Enthusiasm is the white heat of con- 
 viction and without it the customer cannot be convinced. 
 Selling without enthusiasm is selling under a handicap. 
 Yet this invaluable quality of salespeople can only be 
 secured through knowing all about the goods they are 
 handling. 
 
28 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 KNOWING THE GOODS 
 
 29 
 
 No one ever became enthusiastic about something re- 
 garding which little or nothing was known. Is the 
 reader enthusiastic about Persia? Certainly not unless 
 its wonderful accomplishments and achievements are 
 fully realized. To what extent is one enthusiastic about 
 the great Theodore Roosevelt ? Only to the degree that 
 one knows him from reading his books or reading about 
 him. The reading of his biography would make most 
 people enthusiastic for this typical American. Does one's 
 heart beat a little faster when the Stars and Stripes are 
 unfurled? Not unless It is known for what this emblem 
 stands and to what victories it has led our troops. One 
 who has read United States history usually has a much 
 more intense interest In the United States. 
 
 Not only does what has been said apply to countries 
 and men, but it applies equally to commodities for sale. 
 Is the salesperson vitally interested in the beautiful silks 
 that she is handling every day? She is interested only 
 to the extent of her knowledge. To know how silk was 
 first^ produced by the Chinese and the secret of its pro- 
 duction kept from western Europe for five thousand years; 
 how Justinian, Emperor of Rome, Induced two monks to 
 go to China and while there, under penalty of death If 
 their purpose became known, ascertain the process of 
 making silk and bring back In their hollow bamboo canes 
 several hundred of the silk-worm eggs; how these eggs 
 stolen from the Chinese were the beginning of the silk in- 
 dustry In Europe; and how later the United States learned 
 all that Europe knew about producing silks and improved 
 upon them, becoming at present the greatest producer 
 of silks in the world; to know all this fascinating history 
 and much more is to create a foundation for Interest in 
 what one is selling that will later develop into enthusi- 
 
 asm and become the background of a convincing sales- 
 talk. 
 
 Or, in selling corsets, it might be interesting to know 
 that this piece of wearing apparel was known and in use 
 as far back as the time of Cleopatra (69-30 B. c), while 
 even in Homer's time woman had begun to learn the 
 art of emphasizing the pleasing outlines of her figure; 
 that after Caesar's time (100-44 B.C.) for twelve cen- 
 turies the evolution of the corset lagged, only a sort of 
 tightly wound bandage being used; that in the 12th Cen- 
 tury, under the reign of Louis VI of France, the " natural 
 figure " notion was discarded and an arrangement re- 
 sembling the modern corset appeared, only it was worn 
 outside the dress; that during the next three centuries 
 corset wearing became such a fad that even men wore 
 them; that in the 15th Century wooden corsets came into 
 vogue giving the wearer a tapering appearance from the 
 shoulders to the waist; that during the reign of Catherine 
 de Medici of France, no woman in her court could find 
 favor in her eyes whose waist measure exceeded thirteen 
 inches; that in order to reduce the waist measure to this 
 figure corsets were laced by serving men while in some 
 cases the figure was placed in a steel cage or corset frame 
 which held the victim's body in a vise-like and perfectly 
 rigid grip; that the death rate Increased among the 
 women due to this custom, and finally, Henry IV of France 
 stamped out the injurious fashion by an imperial order. 
 Nevertheless, the order was evaded by wearing steels in 
 the sides of dresses and after the death of Henry IV the 
 practice of wearing corsets broke out In real earnest and 
 became general among the poorer classes as well as 
 among the nobility and wealthy. Fortunately the cor- 
 set has never been developed back into such extreme lines 
 
 -' A-^c* i. *^. J 
 
30 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 as existed during the reign of Catherine de Medici. How 
 It has changed from year to year and evolved until the 
 present time is interesting. The salesperson who sells 
 anything, no matter what it is, and does not know its his- 
 tory, is overlooking one of the most vital elements in 
 making her enthusiastic over what she is daily handling; 
 and such ignorance is preventing her from becoming an 
 expert in her line. 
 
 Every article has a history. Shoes, felt, celluloid, um- 
 brellas, stockings, hats, pins, shovels, carpets, furniture, 
 stoves, musical instruments, underwear, jewelry, station- 
 ery, and many more commodities of everyday consump- 
 tion have a story connected with them. Not to know 
 this story is to be an isolated link in the chain of the 
 productive process. But, on the other hand, to see the 
 past of an article is often the only clear way to compre- 
 hend its present and future. At any rate, enthusiasm 
 can only flourish in the soil of knowledge, and the history 
 of any article is a certain kind of knowledge. 
 
 Often the history of a commodity discloses a senti- 
 mental value which, if communicated to the customer, en- 
 hances the real value of the article. For instance, the 
 design of oriental rugs is the expression of some senti- 
 ment of the weaver. To know the nature of this senti- 
 ment is to see something in the rug that otherwise would 
 remain unknown. In other words, it is a different rug 
 after its design has been explained and hence it is more 
 valuable. If the rug is made more valuable, customers 
 will more readily buy and be willing to pay higher prices. 
 It must be remembered that customers do not buy goods; 
 they buy qualities — what they see in goods. Linens, 
 tapestries, furniture and many other articles have a senti- 
 
 KNOWING THE GOODS 
 
 31 
 
 mental value. This value should be capitalized in sales 
 
 talks. 
 
 The second reason for the necessity of knowing all 
 about the goods one is selling is that such knowledge 
 creates self-confidence in the salesperson, which in turn 
 is transmitted to the customer and reflected in the latter's 
 confidence in the salesperson and her goods. All busi- 
 ness relationships are based on confidence, and anything 
 that tends to build up this invaluable asset should be en- 
 couraged and developed. 
 
 Knowledge necessary to attain this result does not in- 
 clude merely the history and sentimental value of the 
 goods but also their purpose, construction, style and fin- 
 ish. With all this information in the background of one's 
 mind, a certain confidence in one's ability to sell is se- 
 cured that instantly is reflected in the salesperson's atti- 
 tude and is recognized by customers. 
 
 On asking a shoe salesperson why she did not know 
 about the construction of shoes, she replied, " What's the 
 use? Nobody ever asks those questions anyway." Un- 
 fortunately this attitude among salespeople is only too 
 common. Thev seem to think that because no one asks 
 for this knowledge there is no use acquiring it. It would 
 be just as sensible to say, *' What is the value of being well 
 bred? No one ever asks me whether I am or not." 
 The point is that people know whether or not people are 
 well bred without asking them; and for the same reason 
 they know whether a salesperson knows all about her 
 goods or whether a few superficial facts constitute her 
 entire knowledge. And why do people know? Because 
 they can see. A salesperson with a wide knowledge of 
 her goods acts differently and looks differently from one 
 with a superficial knowledge. Knowing about anything 
 
32 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 reacts in a subtle way on the personality and leaves its 
 impress. No doubt the reader has sometimes felt while 
 buymg that a certain salesperson could answer any ques- 
 tion that might be asked. Perhaps you did not ask more 
 than one or two questions and perhaps much knowledge 
 was not volunteered because It was felt that you did not 
 desire it, but the point to be noted Is, you had confidence 
 In the salesperson and admired her. 
 
 Telling all that one knows about the goods is not sales- 
 manship. Salesmanship is telling what the customer 
 wants to know. Anything more than this is superfluous. 
 The salesperson may say, " How can one tell when the 
 customer has secured all she wants to know? " The an- 
 swer is by watching her closely for signs of uneasiness. 
 So long as a customer is Interested she shows It, and when 
 she Is not, such fact Is equally evident. It should be re- 
 membered that many a sale has been lost because of too 
 much talk. How to regulate tht length of one's sales 
 talk to meet the Individual peculiarities of different cus- 
 tomers is taken up more fully in a later chapter.^ 
 
 The third reason why a salesperson should know all 
 about the goods is because the more knowledge pos- 
 sessed, the easier it is to give information if It is called 
 for. Many an embarrassing situation never would have 
 occurred if the salesperson had known her goods, while 
 ill-will toward the store has often resulted from inability 
 to explain the " why " of the merchandise. Recently a 
 woman came into a dry goods store and picked up some 
 piece goods. " Is this all linen? " she asked. '' I think 
 it is," replied the salesperson. '' Don't you know? " In- 
 quired the customer, irritably. The salesperson had 
 to confess her Ignorance, whereupon the customer an- 
 
 1 Chap. V. 
 
 KNOWING THE GOODS 
 
 33 
 
 
 grily left the store. This one instance of inefficiency and 
 Incapacity to sell service as well as goods lost this store 
 three customers, this lady and two of her friends. 
 
 Hundreds of cases are known to the writer where dis- 
 gusted and dissatisfied customers have been manufactured 
 by stores employing salespeople Ignorant of the goods 
 they were selling. Suffice it to give an Instance or two 
 in addition to the one already given. A customer was 
 looking at two pairs of gloves; one was $2.00 the other 
 $2.50. They looked so much alike that the customer 
 was at a loss to know the reason for the difference in 
 price, and since the salesperson did not volunteer this 
 information the customer inquired, " Why Is one pair 
 higher priced than the other?" The salesperson did 
 some intensive thinking for a few seconds, while resting 
 first on one foot then on the other. Finally, her face 
 lit up as her mind conjured a reason, and she answered, 
 " I guess It is because they are marked that way." Per- 
 haps most customers should have been satisfied with such 
 a logical and comprehensive answer but this customer was 
 not. She lost confidence in the store and even went so 
 far as to tell her friends that this store was dishonest, 
 that It was selling the same article at two different prices. 
 The loss to this store resulting from the ignorance of the 
 salesperson would easily have paid for a liberal course 
 of instruction in salesmanship for the entire store force. 
 
 The writer had an experience similar to the one just 
 noted when he asked a piano dealer why the tone of a 
 certain piano was much clearer than that of another one. 
 The retailer replied, "That piano ought to be better; 
 it's higher priced." He did not tell why the tone was 
 better. The price evidently could not make the tone, but 
 he apparently did not realize that all-important fact. 
 
 *ma-. 
 
34 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 KNOWING THE GOODS 
 
 35 
 
 I! 
 
 I 
 
 I! 
 
 The last two instances brings us to an important prin- 
 ciple in selling. It is easier to sell a high priced article 
 if a reason is given for the pricey than it is to sell a low 
 priced article if no reason for the price is given. Many 
 cases could be given to substantiate this principle. Peo- 
 ple are willing to pay higher prices for goods if they 
 know that they are getting greater value. Thus, if the 
 salesperson selling gloves had explained that the leather 
 in the higher priced gloves had been put through a spe- 
 cial process of tanning, utilizing eggs, alum, flour and 
 other articles, which made the leather more flexible and 
 durable; and if she had explained that they were hand 
 sewed instead of machine stitched, very few people would 
 have hesitated to buy the higher priced article. But 
 without a reason people prefer not to pay high prices. 
 
 The great opportunity today in most stores is not so 
 much to sell more goods to each person, or to secure 
 more customers, but it is to sell higher priced goods to 
 the present clientele. A larger volume of sales is more 
 desirable from the store's standpoint than is a greater 
 number of sales, while from the standpoint of the cus- 
 tomer greater satisfaction usually results from the pur- 
 chase of more durable goods. 
 
 That this is true becomes apparent after a little re- 
 flection. During the sale the price looms large and a 
 high grade of salesmanship is required to minimize its 
 importance and make prominent the quality element. 
 But unless this Is done immediate peace of mind is pur- 
 chased at the expense of future satisfactions. After the 
 merchandise has been used awhile the price paid loses 
 its significance, and other factors such as quality and 
 ability to serve come into prominence. If the merchan- 
 dise is satisfactory in every way the customer is pleased 
 
 and the price is forgotten. But if the goods do not give 
 satisfactory service they are condemned and the store 
 that sold them ; and in this case also the price is a matter 
 of the past and does not figure to any extent in tempering 
 condemnation. In other words, if an article satisfies com- 
 pletely a customer's needs the latter will not reason that 
 it is doing no more than it should do because a high 
 price was paid for it. She will praise the store for giving 
 her something good. On the other hand, if an article 
 does not come up to expectations the customer will not 
 realize that the price paid was low. She will condemn 
 it and hold ill will toward the store that sold it. Present 
 satisfactions are more vivid than the former feeling of 
 reluctance to pay a high price, while present dissatisfac- 
 tions more than outweigh any peace of mind that may 
 have been secured previously on account of the unformid- 
 able appearance of the price factor. Lasting satisfac- 
 tions should be sold, not merely immediate composure. 
 
 To be able to answer all questions promptly, concisely 
 and yet thoroughly, results from knowing all about the 
 goods. Not more than one customer in ten or perhaps 
 not more than one in fifty will ask intricate questions 
 about construction, etc., but the time spent in acquiring 
 knowledge is indeed well spent if it enables adequate and 
 satisfying answers to be given to those who do call for 
 them. For it must always be remembered that it is 
 usually not only one customer that is driven away when 
 dissatisfaction with the salesperson's service arises, but 
 often many. There is no end to the harm that may re- 
 sult from the lack of a horseshoe nail. 
 
 The fourth reason for the need of intimate stock 
 knowledge is to provide material for the sales talk and 
 especially to insure " clinchers " for the closing of the 
 
36 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 sale. In observing retail selling the writer has often seen 
 the salesperson reach for the price tag and then lean back 
 waiting for the customer to form a buying judgment. 
 Price is always brought to the front when selling points 
 , are lacking. However, if salespeople would reflect on 
 the reasons for the failure to purchase they would bump 
 against the fact that price means nothing in and of itself. 
 Only when reasons for price are given is the statement 
 of price effective. 
 
 Likewise, if the workings of the human mind were un- 
 derstood much of the present laxity would disappear. 
 The human mind must be led through four distinct stages 
 before any sale can be made: the attention of the cus- 
 tomer must be secured, her interest aroused, a desire for 
 the article created, and finally, these three must be crys- 
 tallized into resolve — decision to buy. When the goods 
 are first shown it cannot be said that more than the at- 
 tention of the customer has been secured. Her mind 
 cannot pass through the three remaining stages unless 
 it is led and directed through them. Merely stating the 
 price is certainly doing no more than to arouse some in- 
 terest in the article. To create desire and secure resolve 
 to buy requires a selling talk carefully worked out and 
 cumulative in its effect. How salespeople expect the 
 human mind to form a resolve without reasons for such 
 a resolve is one of the mysteries of present day methods 
 of retail selling. " Waiting for customers to buy " is 
 too common a practice in stores. Perhaps it would be 
 more accurate to say that customers only too often 
 " wait " to get some information on which they can base 
 a logical buying judgment. If they do buy without re- 
 ceiving this information it is usually because they have 
 sold themselves, i. e., in spite of the salesperson. In 
 
 "-■— *^'^-^_- 
 
 KNOWING THE GOODS 
 
 37 
 
 such cases the store employe cannot accurately be called 
 a salesperson but an " order-taker." She has taken an 
 order for goods which the customer sorely desired (or 
 they would not have been purchased) but she has not sold 
 them. Order-takers are relatively common and there- 
 fore command only low wages, while salespeople (i. e., 
 those who induce or persuade people to buy goods because 
 of information given) are scarce and therefore are ex- 
 tremely valuable. 
 
 Lack of knowledge of goods is often evidenced by the 
 excessive use of certain terms such as " nifty," " swell," 
 " classy," " great," " fine," or by the use of superlatives. 
 Usually these are thrown at the buyer of ready-to-wear 
 clothing. Because of their commonplace character and 
 lack of definiteness they make no impression on the cus- 
 tomer unless it be an unfavorable one. Most store man- 
 agers are seeking out all sorts of ways of making their 
 store distinctive, yet strange to say they permit the use 
 of sales language that has unfortunately become universal 
 in its usage and meaningless in its application. 
 
 The use of such terms or superlatives not only indicates 
 lack of definite information about the goods but it also 
 denotes lack of a vocabulary. Where this is the case a 
 study of the dictionary will produce remarkable results. 
 Equivalents of common terms will be found intelligible 
 and practical for use in sales talks. The newness and 
 freshness of the salesperson's language will immediately 
 attract the customer's attention and convey correctly and 
 forcefully the ideas which they represent. A great op- 
 portunity for increasing selling efficiency lies in improv- 
 ing the vocabulary of the sales talk and discarding dead 
 words that have long since ceased to convey ideas. To 
 allow these formerly useful but now out-of-date convey- 
 
38 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 f 
 
 ances of ideas to persist is as ridiculous as to ride in ox- 
 carts instead of in automobiles. Ideas are of little value 
 unless they can be transmitted vigorously and intelligibly 
 to the customer. Usually a broad knowledge of the 
 goods will provide the vocabulary needed for an effective 
 selling talk. 
 
 A final reason why the goods should be described care- 
 fully and thoroughly (unless the customer shows impa- 
 tience) is because people do not see what they look af 
 they only see that which is pointed out to them. There is 
 no more important truth applicable to retailing The 
 average salesperson takes too much for granted It is as 
 sumed that when the customer is looking at the goods the 
 latter sees what it is intended she should. 6nly too often 
 this IS not true. The customer overlooks the important 
 elements of value that the salesperson takes for granted 
 are obvious, and her mind rests on objections that prevent 
 her from buying. A decision is made independently of 
 the salesperson when it should only have been made with 
 ner help. 
 
 In order to confirm this Important principle, the writer 
 has carried on some experiments with customers in order 
 to ascertain the number and strength of the impressions 
 made on them when looking at goods. The number and 
 strength of impressions made on different people by any 
 article varies widely. Some people are keen observers 
 and often see detail that escapes the view of others. 
 Very few people, perhaps no one, sees all the important 
 aspects of anything without having previously studied it 
 or without having them pointed out. A sunset holds a 
 different meaning for different people because different 
 things are seen although only one object is looked at. 
 Ihe real sunset with its delicately blending tints can 
 
 KNOWING THE GOODS 
 
 39 
 
 never be seen and appreciated by some people without 
 help from the more observant. Looking is not neces- 
 sarily seeing. Usually it is not. 
 
 The writer has watched a salesperson try to sell a 
 hammer. The hammer was described as being " good," 
 " an excellent value,'* as able to " give satisfaction," and 
 as being greatly " in demand." It seemed superfluous 
 to the salesperson to go further. The customer hesitated 
 for some time turning the hammer over in his hands, 
 and finally left the store with the statement, " I guess I'll 
 see about this later." The salesperson when asked why 
 he did not describe the different features of the hammer, 
 laughed and said, " What's the use of telling him what 
 anybody with half an eye can see ? " The reply that 
 many customers only had " quarter eyes," apparently did 
 not reach him. 
 
 Because of this incident the writer has been in hun- 
 dreds of stores observing sales. In only isolated cases 
 have the salespeople realized the principle that people 
 do not see what they look at. The features of goods of 
 all kinds (furniture, clothing or kitchenware) are sup- 
 posed to speak for themselves. Unfortunately for many 
 salespeople they fail to do this. The customer sees 
 something other than the salesperson sees or wants her 
 to see, and features of prime Importance go unobserved. 
 
 The mail order houses realize this principle and de- 
 scribe carefully even the smaller and more insignificant 
 goods. Regarding a hammer, one company describes 
 seven important features: " Full nickel plated, mahog- 
 any finished handles. Forged from crucible cast steel. 
 Faces and claws are tempered just right. Claws are 
 split to a fine point. Handles are made of selected sec- 
 ond growth hickory, put In with iron wedges so they will 
 
40 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 KNOWING THE GOODS 
 
 not become loose." ^ The writer has found customers 
 who have looked at hammers that had these features but 
 who could not name one of them. Others could not give 
 more than two or three. In only exceptional cases did 
 all the seven features impress themselves upon the mind 
 of the customer and only then because the latter was es- 
 pecially acquainted with hammers. 
 
 In looking at hammers in hundreds of stores not one 
 has indicated all of the features shown by the mail order 
 catalogue description. Salespeople take it for granted 
 that if a handle is selected second growth hickory, cus- 
 tomers will know it even though it is mahogany finished. 
 Why such wisdom should be imputed to the average cus- 
 tomer it is difficult to see. But it is not merely the hid- 
 den points about an article that customers cannot see; it is 
 just as true that the surface features often leave no tan- 
 gible impression on the customer's mind. People do not 
 see that the " claws are split to a fine point " until they are 
 appraised of this fact, even though they may be looking at 
 the claws. 
 
 What is here said respecting a simple unpretentious ob- 
 ject like a hammer applies to even a greater extent to 
 larger and more complicated articles. Yet many sales- 
 people overlook this fact. Men's ready-to-wear may 
 have many features that would make it appear of greater 
 value in the eyes of the customer if these were brought 
 to his attention, but which might as well not exist unless 
 they are. The mail order houses Indicate carefully all 
 the more important details of each garment, and with the 
 portrayal of each feature the clothing is increased in 
 value in the customer's eyes. 
 
 It may be said by some that the mail order houses 
 
 1 Sears, Roebuck & Co., Catalogue, 1918. 
 
 41 
 
 ?■ 
 
 must describe their goods carefully and thoroughly be- 
 cause they cannot exhibit them, therefore their situation 
 cannot be compared to that of the retailer who places the 
 goods before the customer's eyes. The answer to this 
 is that goods cannot be sold unless they make an im- 
 pression on the mind of the customer. In some cases the 
 retailer's goods actually make less of an impression on 
 the customer's mind than articles described In the mall 
 order catalogue " so one can almost see them," as one 
 woman remarked. She might also have said, *' and feel 
 them," as indicated by the following taken from the de- 
 scription of a mail order house mattress: "This mat- 
 tress is smooth, even, springy, as soft and buoyant as a 
 feather pillow. Made ,vlth a smooth, even surface, no 
 tufts of any kind being used, it fits itself snugly to every 
 curve and line of the body. You do not rest upon the 
 * high points ' as with the ordinary mattress. This pro- 
 vides absolute relaxation for every muscle — producing 
 the most restful, refreshing sleep." ^ Such a description 
 that makes so vivid the " feel " of the mattress takes the 
 place to a large extent of exhibiting the article itself. 
 People somehow think that they know the article; and 
 they do know it in a very important sense because they 
 have rested their bodies on this comfortable mattress — 
 in their imagination. But people have to do things in 
 their imagination before they can do them in actuality. 
 If retail stores could give descriptions of this caliber 
 (the kind that describes the article giving pleasure to the 
 owner, i. e., the kind that uses Imagination) and at the 
 same time show the goods In actuality, their effectiveness 
 in selling would be doubled. The mail order houses of 
 necessity describe their goods so people can see them; 
 1 Ibid. 
 
42 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 but is it not just as necessary for the retailers to be certain 
 that the customer sees the features that they are anxious 
 should be seen. Salespeople can never be certain that 
 the article they are attempting to sell is really seen as they 
 want it to be seen, without working out descriptions that 
 will call the customer's attention to the things most de- 
 sirable to be noticed. There is no limit to the possibili- 
 ties in this direction. The salesperson anxious to get 
 results can use effectively the principle used by the mail 
 order houses. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 KNOWING THE GOODS {continued) 
 
 Granting all that has been said is true, the salesperson 
 may ask what is the best method of procedure in securing 
 the knowledge required for selling. 
 
 In the first place, the goods should be tested in both a 
 technical and practical manner or if such tests have al- 
 ready been made by the manufacturer the salesperson 
 should have knowledge of them. A case illustrating what 
 is meant by manufacturers' technical tests is that of a 
 prominent brand of men's socks. This brand of socks 
 togther with five other brands were tested for tensile 
 strength by a board of impartial judges representing an 
 educational institution. The machine used for this pur- 
 pose stretched the socks to the breaking point and a deli- 
 cately sensitive needle registered on a dial the resisting 
 power or tensile strength of each fabric. On the basis 
 of this and other tests this nationally advertised sock was 
 given a gold medal at an exposition. In the literature 
 sent out by this company to dealers much is made of this 
 important technical test, but the writer, although he has 
 inquired for this brand of socks for two years over a 
 wide territory, has found only one salesperson who has 
 
 referred to it. 
 
 The mail order houses do not overlook such an oppor- 
 tunity of augmenting the value of their goods in the cus- 
 tomer's estimation. In a recent edition of a mail order 
 
 43 
 
44 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 catalogue on ready-to-wear clothes,^ the selling talk says 
 that the manufacturer " makes many tests — more tests 
 than the average maker of men's clothing — to be sure 
 the color Is absolutely fast, that the fabric possesses the 
 necessary strength to Insure long service and that there 
 are no Imperfections In the weave." In another cata- 
 logue this same company describes their tester sitting 
 beneath a slowly moving roll of their suit fabric, above 
 which is a powerful electric light, searching for flaws or 
 Imperfections in the material. The mail order houses 
 realize the Influence on their customers' minds of the sug- 
 gestion of the absolutely reliable nature of their mate- 
 rials. 
 
 Most manufacturers have tested their materials and 
 are always willing to give the results of their experi- 
 ments. In fact, they often send this material to retail- 
 ers but It sometimes goes unread because Its value In mak- 
 ing sales is not fully realized. Nothing gives a salesper- 
 son so much confidence In the goods as to know from ac- 
 tual test what the goods will do. The sales talk changes 
 from a half-hearted, not fully certain one, to one that 
 carries conviction because it has the ring of sincerity in 
 it — the glow of enthusiasm. Where technical tests have 
 not been made by the manufacturer the salesperson can 
 often devise some of her own. Usually, however, this 
 is not necessary. 
 
 Practical tests are more easily worked out and used by 
 salespeople. Practical tests consist of putting articles 
 to the use for which they are Intended and by careful 
 observation ascertaining to what degree they justify the 
 claims made for them. Cooking utensils lend themselves 
 readily to such tests. One of the greatest talking points 
 
 1 Sears, Roebuck & Co., 548K — 6th edition, page 3. 
 
 KNOWING THE GOODS 
 
 
 45 
 
 for the aluminum griddle is that cakes can be cooked upon 
 it without the use of grease. Yet many salespeople could 
 not use this selling point in a positive manner, and per- 
 haps not at all, simply because they doubt the accuracy 
 of the assertion themselves. Practical tests always 
 strengthen the selling talk. 
 
 Have men In your community used the brand of razor 
 your store Is selling, and do they like It? What reasons 
 do they give for desiring it more than some competing 
 razor? If these questions could be answered by ques- 
 tioning customers who are enthusiastic over their pur- 
 chases, a great moral force would be created which would 
 carry conviction in future sales talks regarding this article. 
 
 Clothing, furniture, musical Instruments, In fact most 
 everything, can undergo a practical test either by the 
 salesperson herself or by the customer; but whichever is 
 the case, the knowledge gained should be skillfully tabu- 
 lated, classified and fitted Into the salesperson's plans for 
 selling these goods. Tests of all kinds are valuable not 
 so much because they convince the customer but because 
 they convince the salesperson. When the latter is really 
 convinced about anything the customer is favorably im- 
 pressed and often does not take the time to ascertain why. 
 It is enough for her that a powerful motive based on 
 knowledge lies back of the salesperson's attitude and talk. 
 
 In the second place, an accurate, scientific and valuable 
 fund of knowledge respecting any article can be secured 
 by making an intensive study of It and classifying the re- 
 sults of this study on a card. Any size card may answer 
 the purpose but a good practicable size is three by five 
 Inches. Each card should be filed away in alphabetical 
 order so that it can be promptly found for study or re- 
 view. 
 
46 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 The first classification on this card should be a list of 
 the senses that the article appeals to. The only en- 
 trances to the will power are through the ^wt senses: 
 sight, taste, touch, hearing and smelling. Through these 
 channels the brain receives impressions. The more the 
 impressions and the greater their intensity, the greater 
 the likelihood of a sale. Very often a salesperson, not 
 realizing this important fact, holds up an article so that 
 the customer can see it and after stating the price waits 
 for the customer to decide. Only one sense is being ap- 
 pealed to, only one channel to the seat of decision is be- 
 ing utilized; all the rest are going to waste. Or, a 
 salesperson may exhibit an article in poor light or in a 
 position that makes it hard for the customer to see it ad- 
 equately. While exhibiting the article in this way the 
 salesperson may give an interesting sales talk, but prac- 
 tically only one sense organ Is functioning, I. e., the ears. 
 Now, if in each of these cases instead of appealing merely 
 to one of the senses two could be reached, the salesper- 
 son's selling efficiency in this respect would Increase one 
 hundred per cent. Further, if the salesperson could 
 show the goods to the best advantage and give a pleasing 
 and effective sales talk, and at the same time encourage 
 the customer to handle the article, or wear It if it can 
 be worn, a third sense, touch, has been appealed to and 
 the salesperson has tripled her selling efficiency. Like- 
 wise, if the other senses can be drafted to assist In securing 
 the sale, the effectiveness of the sales talk has increased 
 tremendously. 
 
 The number of senses that any article Is capable of ap- 
 pealing to is by no means always obvious. Much study 
 is often needed to ascertain In just what way an article 
 can make its appeal to the senses. Merchandise that at 
 
 KNOWING THE GOODS 
 
 47 
 
 I 
 
 first thought might seem capable of appealing to only two 
 or three senses, after a careful study can often be found 
 to be capable of appealing to four or possibly all of the 
 senses. Silks, in the hands of a clever salesperson, can 
 be made to " talk." When this Is accomplished while 
 a pleasing sales talk is being given, the sense of hearing 
 is doubly impressed. Groceries are sometimes made to 
 appeal to all the senses. Biting Into a luscious pear in- 
 variably makes some sound no matter how much care is 
 exercised to prevent it. The sound impression, though 
 faint, gives weight to the buying judgment. To have a 
 customer smell leathers may reinforce the argument in 
 their favor. To " ring " a kettle is to aid the customer 
 to make a decision. 
 
 Whether or not, however, taste and smell can be ap- 
 pealed to in any particular case, there seems little excuse 
 for failure to employ the other three most common senses 
 in securing decisions to buy. Not enough salespeople 
 allow customers to handle the goods. Present day store 
 fixtures are fortunately so arranged that in most cases 
 goods are in open display on tables where the customer 
 can get her hands on them. There is also much to be 
 done in working out the most favorable manner in which 
 to show goods. Some pile fabrics do not show up to ad- 
 vantage If the light strikes on them in a certain way. 
 Certain colors appear to better advantage under a strong 
 light, others under a more delicate one. In other words, 
 the salesperson should be certain that the customer is 
 seeing what it is desirable she should see, and not some- 
 thing else. 
 
 The second classification is, like the first one, the re- 
 sult of a careful study of an article. It answers the ques- 
 tion, What is the article capable of accomplishing? 
 
48 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 What does it do? This is a more difficult question to 
 answer for each individual commodity than is at first 
 apparent. In order to test the salesperson's ability to 
 give the functions that any article is capable of perform- 
 ing, let her sit down with a chair, a pair of shoes, a dia- 
 mond ring, or any other article before her and ask her- 
 self the question, " What will this article do? '' It will 
 be found much more difficult than was supposed to give 
 more than the commonplace about each article. The 
 value of making such an analysis is illustrated by the fol- 
 lowing case. A father was in a jewelry store seeking 
 a Christmas gift for his daughter when the salesperson, 
 somewhat against the customer's desire, interested him 
 in a diamond ring. Finally, however, he swept the ring 
 aside with the air of one having made a final decision 
 and said, " My daughter has too many of such things 
 already," inferring that any more jewelry, no matter 
 what its nature, would tend to make his daughter vain. 
 After only a second's hesitation the salesperson said, 
 " This diamond is the most beautiful and permanent form 
 in which you can show your affection for your daughter." 
 The father took renewed interest in the ring and after 
 two or three more appeals to the parental instinct ^ the 
 sale was made. That salesperson had asked herself the 
 question, "What will this diamond do?" It is true a 
 diamond is capable of making people vain but it has other 
 important functions which it is well to know. 
 
 All goods can be taken up in this same manner and the 
 results of the intensive study will be surprising. It is by 
 no means an easy task. To do any work thoroughly and 
 scientifically is not always easy, but it is not the easy way 
 that usually produces results. Apparently unknown to 
 
 1 Sec page 71. 
 
 KNOWING THE GOODS 
 
 49 
 
 some, retail selling is as capable of an intensive study as is 
 law, medicine or the other professions ; and for those who 
 make this study the rewards are even larger than can 
 be secured with equal effort in the professions. Four to 
 six years of continuous study after graduation from high 
 school is the rule rather than the exception for those 
 entering law or medicine and in some cases dentistry. 
 If a similar period of time was spent in study and labora- 
 tory work by those entering retail selling they would be- 
 come just as truly experts in their line and would com- 
 mand incomes proportionate to their effectiveness. Ex- 
 perts in retail selling are greatly in demand but there has 
 thus far been no organized, systematic method of sup- 
 plying them. Schools and stores in the future will give 
 courses of training to meet this demand. 
 
 The third item on the card should tell where the article 
 is made and by whom. Oftentimes customers have been 
 through factories or know some of the employees, di- 
 rectors or officers of establishments, the goods from 
 which are before them in the store. A sentimental value 
 is thus attached to the goods in addition to that explained 
 by the salesperson. Shoes that are made in New Eng- 
 land often hold a preference in the customer's mind over 
 shoes made elsewhere. Also, furniture made in Grand 
 Rapids sometimes seems better to customers than that 
 made somewhere else. Whether or not the customer 
 has any justification. for her belief is of no consequence. 
 Fortunately, it is not the duty of the salesperson to dispel 
 all the illusions of the customer. It is her duty to under- 
 stand the goods and the customer and sell the former to 
 the latter in the most advantageous way to the mutual 
 benefit of both parties to the transaction. 
 
 Telling the customer by whom the article is made may 
 
so 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 have great Influence if this information is given in a 
 clever manner, even though the customer has no knowl- 
 edge of the manufacturer. The writer evidenced a case 
 illustrating this point. A salesperson told the customer, 
 with a great deal of deference in her voice, that a cloak 
 was made by " The Blank Company, the well known 
 manufacturers of New York City." The customer was 
 deeply impressed, and not until after the cloak was pur- 
 chased did she realize that the name of the company held 
 no meaning for her. In the sales talk, however, it fitted 
 in as a positive point and suggested acquiescence on the 
 part of the customer by being associated with the words 
 " well known." In many cases not only the manufac- 
 turers' name could be given but also some policy char- 
 acteristic of them or some methods peculiar to their use. 
 With the deliberative customer this Information can be 
 used with especially good effect. This type often de- 
 mands an extra amount of knowledge before a decision 
 can be made, and such can be given promptly if it has 
 been secured, arranged and classified In advance.^ 
 
 The fourth classification should explain how the article 
 is made and what it is composed of. Such knowledge is 
 valuable for any article. In groceries it Is invaluable but 
 only too often lacking. How many grocery salespeople 
 could tell how some of our patent breakfast foods like 
 Grape Nuts are made. Some people are actually ad- 
 verse to buying foods like this because they Imagine there 
 is some injurious element concealed In them. It is a fun- 
 damental principle of human nature to be suspicious of 
 what one does not understand. It would seem to be the 
 function of the salesperson to replace suspicion with con- 
 fidence by giving the composition of goods and how they 
 
 1 See page 96. 
 
 KNOWING THE GOODS 5 I 
 
 are made. Such material is gladly sent by manufac- 
 turers on request, as it is to their interest to have their 
 more general processes open and well known. Knowl- 
 edge is the only means of killing suspicion. 
 
 To know what some fabrics are made of and how, is a 
 liberal education In and of Itself. The process by which 
 the beautiful brocades are manufactured is Ingenious 
 enough to excite the admiration of any one for the In- 
 ventor, Jacquard. How minerals are mixed with silks, 
 and how many of our commonest articles are constructed, 
 is intensely Interesting and often can be made to appeal 
 in this manner to the customer. Too many things In 
 the average retail store are mysteries to those who are 
 selling them. Only when they are brought Into the world 
 of reality by knowing reasons for their peculiar existence, 
 are they really "sold" to the salesperson herself; and 
 the latter must be *' sold " before the customer will buy. 
 
 In some cases, only by knowing what the goods are 
 made of, and by explaining the composition of the article 
 to the customer, can the purchase give off lasting satis- 
 factions to the buyer. Shoes are an illustration. Sev- 
 eral instances have been brought to the writer's attention 
 where customers have purchased shoes, expecting leather 
 counters, boxing and insoles (having been led to expect 
 such a condition by the salesperson), and subsequently 
 have been disappointed to find that such was not the 
 case. The salesperson In some Instances believed these 
 parts of the shoe were leather and rather than lose a 
 sale " took a chance " on positively affirming something 
 which was by no means certain. By following this policy 
 these salespeople were actually dishonest because they 
 did not treat the customer fairly.^ That they were not 
 
 1 See page lai. 
 
52 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 intentionally dishonest is little consolation when custom- 
 ers feel that they have not received a square deal. Ig- 
 norance is no justification before the law, neither is it 
 before the customer. Knowing what an article is made 
 of is an absolute necessity for efficient selling. The only 
 certain way to make this knowledge effective is to write 
 it out and place it on a card with the other information 
 about the article. 
 
 In ascertaining how the article is made and its compo- 
 sition, it may help the salesperson to be given a mTsthod 
 of approach. If the following six sale classifications are 
 comprehensively worked out in respect to any article, the 
 salesperson will have a good working knowledge of the 
 goods. 
 
 First, has the article been through any special processes 
 that would add to its value? In the case of the gloves 
 referred to elsewhere, it was seen that one pair had gone 
 through a special process of tanning that made them more 
 durable and flexible and therefore of greater value than 
 the gloves that had not had the benefit of this longer and 
 more expensive process. Some writing paper has been 
 dried by the '' loft process," while other kinds have been 
 dried on rollers. The former process having necessi- 
 tated more hand work naturally costs more, but the in- 
 creased cost not only represents added labor cost but like- 
 wise finer texture, greater utility, in other words, greater 
 value. 
 
 Many more cases could be given to illustrate the point 
 but perhaps enough has been said to indicate the necessity 
 of knowing how the product is made. To know how 
 things are made is only another way of knowing reasons 
 for prices — a most important element in sales talks. To 
 be without this information is to grope blindly about the 
 
 lyi^WING THE GOODS 
 
 53 
 
 store looking at goods but not seeing them. For it must 
 be emphasized again that people do not necessarily see 
 what they look at; they see only those things that their 
 education and environment enables them to see. En- 
 vironment alone is often dulling to the senses because the 
 elements in it become commonplace, hence the necessity 
 of invoking education (study of goods) to unearth the 
 important characteristics of the stock that would other- 
 wise remain unknown. 
 
 Second, has the article been inspected for imperfec- 
 tions? The use made of this important point by the 
 mail order houses as regards cloth for suits, has already 
 been referred to. Underwear, hosiery, shirts, dress 
 goods, furniture, lace, leather goods and many other 
 articles are often carefully inspected by manufacturers be- 
 fore they leave the factory. Such inspection adds value 
 to the product, but the customer cannot see this im- 
 portant element of value unless it is specifically brought 
 to her attention. Value must be conceived of as a com- 
 posite thing including within itself many elements, and 
 it should be the duty and privilege of the salesperson to 
 analyze carefully what goes to make up value in any in- 
 dividual case. Unless this is done, customers cannot be 
 expected to see that value is equivalent to the price 
 marked on the tag, and it is only when price appears to 
 be equivalent to value that goods are purchased. 
 
 Third, does the manufacturer stand behind the article 
 with a guarantee? If he does, it means that the manu- 
 facturer, being closer than any one else to the productive 
 process, sees in the article more than any one else pos- 
 sbily can, and perhaps even more than can be described 
 in the advertising matter. This surplus of value, in- 
 dicated by no specific process or material, is lumped to- 
 
54 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 gether and represented by a blanket guarantee that the 
 article will be satisfactory in every way, or by a specific 
 guarantee that certain special materials or procesis will 
 prove out in practice that which Is claimed for tnl 
 
 The psychology of the guarantee Is that it mlqJaizes 
 the risk assumed by the customer. With less rislc there 
 is more value. People generally are hesitant to take 
 risks of any sort, hence the large amounts of life insur- 
 ance held by people of all classes. The tendency of 
 modern industry and commerce Is toward more certainty, 
 i. e., less risk. The minimum wage, guaranteed stock, 
 increase of the salaried class and decrease of the en- 
 trepreneur class, all Indicate this general groping toward 
 more security in widely differing lines of activity. 
 Guarantees by manufacturers are following the trend of 
 the times and salespeople are overlooking a strong sell- 
 ing point if they are not Informing the customer when 
 these Insurances against risk exist. 
 
 Fourth, do hand processes figure largely in the con- 
 struction of the article? Machinery has revolutionized 
 Industry, but because It standardizes goods and tends to- 
 ward uniformity of product many people are prejudiced 
 against goods made in this way. Thus we see people 
 pointing out with exultation the unevennesses In the pat- 
 terns of rugs made by hand. The individuality of the 
 weaver has exhibited Itself In the construction of the rug 
 and the dull uniformity of the machine process does not 
 present itself. Again, most every one can have machine 
 made goods but hand made goods are not so common. 
 To get something " different " seems to be as strong 
 an Instinct In humans as Is imitation. The fact that a 
 knife blade is hand made, that button holes are hand 
 stitched, that seams are hand sewed, that shoes are hand 
 
 KNOWING THE GOODS 
 
 55 
 
 
 constructed, all tend to increase the value of these articles 
 in the eyes of customers. After some classes have suc- 
 ceeded in procuring something '* different," other classes 
 proceed to Imitate this demand and soon large amounts 
 of hand made goods are placed on the market. Soon de- 
 mand may switch to some other feature of construction, 
 but at present there is no doubt that a great impetus has 
 been given to hand processes. The salesperson must see 
 clearly this element of value and ascertain whether or 
 not it has an appeal for the customer. If this element 
 of value means nothing to the latter, the other features of 
 the article should be emphasized, or a machine made 
 article exhibited. Many people as yet would prefer a 
 machine made rug with even, uniform patterns, to the ec- 
 centric pattern of the hand constructed one. 
 
 Fifth, is there any special raw material or element that 
 enters Into the construction of the article? Many new 
 compositions and substitutes have recently come upon the 
 market to the amazement and growing perplexity of the 
 customer. Some mattresses are now stuffed with a cer- 
 tain Interesting South American wood that possesses quali- 
 ties peculiarly adapted to the purpose it serves. Chairs 
 are made of paper especially treated to give them great 
 strength, beauty and durability. Straw hats often have 
 special straw or wood chips grown under peculiar con- 
 ditions; other goods are composed of queer materials 
 brought from the four corners of the earth, with qualities 
 rarely adapted to the functions they are to perform. 
 Knowledge of the tribute customers owe to commerce and 
 mdustry is valuable because it impresses the customer 
 with a reason for the price and excites admiration for the 
 store's progressiveness in securing new products. 
 
 Sixth, has the article, naturally or artificially, been in- 
 

 S6 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 sured against deterioration? Some colors are made fast 
 by secret processes, or exceptional dyes have been used. 
 Thus, the vegetable dyes used in some imported rugs are 
 more permanent than the aniline or mineral dyes used in 
 some domestic rugs. Certain furniture is constructed so 
 it will not easily warp. Oftentimes fabrics have been 
 pre-shrunk. Some metals are treated with preparations 
 that prevent rusting, while a metal like aluminum cannot 
 rust because it does not form an oxide with the air. 
 Thread silk grows better with age while fiber silk decays 
 or cracks. Some woods are treated so as to perpetually 
 prevent decay. Likewise, there are often certain ways 
 of handling or using goods which will Increase their life. 
 
 Anything of this nature, if transferred to the customer 
 effectually, increases the Importance of the goods In her 
 estimation. It is In reality comparable to a reduction in 
 price for her because it is felt that more is being secured 
 for the money than was anticipated. If such informa- 
 tion was more frequently given, price reductions would 
 not be requested as often as they are at present, because 
 when the customer asks to have the $50 suit reduced to 
 $45 it merely means that the salesperson has only de- 
 scribed $45 worth. The customer appraises the value 
 of any article not by the price on the tag but by what she 
 sees in it. 
 
 As an illustration indicating with what interest and 
 effectiveness a description of merchandise construction 
 can be portrayed, is the following item taken from a 
 mail order catalogue : ^ *' There are no layers in this 
 mattress. It is filled with 100 per cent pure, choice long 
 fiber staple cotton, left in its natural creamy white color 
 as it comes from the pod, elastic and as pure as sunshine. 
 
 1 Sears, Roebuck & Co., Catalogue, 1918, p. 1134- 
 
 I 
 
 KNOWING THE GOODS 
 
 57 
 
 This cotton is all blown apart by compressed air until the 
 fibers are thoroughly separated, leaving each fiber with Its 
 natural curl and springiness, free and unrestrained. This 
 buoyant mass of cotton is fed into a large mold — a box 
 the length and width of the mattress and several feet 
 deep. The cotton is fed In from above, slowly and 
 evenly by compressed air, and air currents distribute it 
 uniformly as it sifts Into the mold like gently falling 
 snow. About 50 pounds of this light, airy substance is 
 blown into the mold, then compressed to the thickness of 
 the mattress. This one giant batt, made up of millions 
 of long, tough fibers all matted together in one integral 
 part, is then slipped Into the ticking, completing the mat- 
 tress. ..." 
 
 The fifth classification consists of the most important 
 selling arguments. These should be to the point and 
 reviewed from time to time. How to appeal to the buy- 
 ing motives (Instincts) of the customer should be Indi- 
 cated. As stated elsewhere,^ the more instincts that 
 can be appealed to, the more effective the sales talk. 
 How many instincts any article is capable of appealing 
 to can only be ascertained by careful study of each com- 
 modity that a salesperson sells. Such a study may be 
 found quite difficult at first but soon will become pleasur- 
 able and productive of business-getting methods. To 
 appeal in each case to the most powerful buying motives 
 is to economically sell goods, because the feelings closest 
 to the surface, I. e., those most susceptible to suggestion, 
 are the ones utilized. 
 
 If there Is still some doubt in the salesperson's mind 
 how the knowledge requisite to effective selling can be 
 secured, a few sources of material may be suggested. 
 
 iSee Chap. IV. 
 
58 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 The first of these is the goods themselves. Much of the 
 time spent at present by salespeople in idling could very 
 profitably be utilized in examining the goods which they 
 are daily handling, and in analyzing their characteristics 
 and evidences of value. Making tests as already indi- 
 cated will do much toward inspiring the salesperson with 
 confidence in the merit of the stock. Unfortunately, 
 there seems to be an impression among some salespeople 
 that the qualities of goods of daily consumption are ob- 
 vious to the casual observer. Experience has proved 
 that this belief is unfounded in fact. Careful, pains- 
 taking study must be made, even of the simplest article, 
 if that article is to be comprehensively known. When 
 it is considered that scientists sometimes spend an entire 
 lifetime studying some part of the human body or a tiny 
 insect, and still feel that there is much more to learn, 
 how necessary is it for salespeople to realize that the true 
 merit of any article cannot be ascertained by a superficial 
 examination. 
 
 Secondly, much valuable information regarding any 
 article can be secured from the traveling salesman who 
 sold it to the store. These men often have been through 
 the factory where the goods are manufactured and know 
 the processes of importance through which the goods 
 have passed. They may know their composition and 
 qualities not seen on the surface. Usually they are en- 
 thusiastic about their line and will transmit this enthu- 
 siasm if given the chance. Unfortunately, this impor- 
 tant source of information is not m.ade use of in most 
 stores, at least not by the salesperson. The department 
 buyer may profit by the salesman's information but only 
 seldom does this knowledge pass to the salesperson be- 
 hind the counter in a form that will prove effective. 
 
 KNOWING THE GOODS 
 
 59 
 
 Third, advertisements in magazines and newspapers 
 often give short concise facts about the goods that are 
 invaluable. Especially is this true of trade papers and 
 magazines. The manufacturers have studied their goods 
 carefully and have tried to ascertain their most important 
 elements of value. Not only this. They have spent 
 much time and effort in working out the most effective 
 manner of presenting these qualities. The salesperson 
 should feel grateful that such pioneering work has been 
 done for her. She should follow the advertisements 
 from week to week or month to month and keep her sell- 
 ing talk fresh and interesting by incorporating into it the 
 new ideas appearing in them. 
 
 The advertisements of the store should likewise be 
 followed closely in order to see what goods the store is 
 offering and why they are being offered. Customers are 
 invited to call at the store and look at definite specified 
 articles indicated in the advertisement. Sometimes 
 when they answer such an invitation the first salesper- 
 son they meet is ignorant of just where these advertised 
 articles are to be found. Lack of confidence in the store's 
 methods is thus generated in the customer, which it is 
 later difficult to overcome. If the salesperson knows a 
 few important facts about goods in other departments 
 and reads the store's advertisements concerning them, she 
 can aid other departments by creating interest for the 
 articles in the customer's mind; and in turn her own de- 
 partment will benefit by the intelligent understanding of 
 its offerings by salespeople in other departments. Only 
 by reading the daily advertisements of the store can 
 knowledge of the store's goods be fully known, and co- 
 operation between departments become a reality. 
 
 Fourth, a letter to the manufacturer requesting sales 
 
6o 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 KNOWING THE GOODS 
 
 6l 
 
 helps will usually bring much " dealer-cooperation " 
 literature. Of all the sources of knowledge this per- 
 haps is the most important. Manufacturers often send 
 this material with the goods but frequently the retailer 
 relegates it to the scrap heap.^ Because this literature 
 is sent free and oftentimes when not asked for, sales- 
 people and also retailers have sometimes secured the im- 
 pression that such material is worthless. In reality, it 
 could not be more valuable. Clever methods of display- 
 ing the goods are suggested, and especially important are 
 the distinguishing features of the goods clearly and forci- 
 bly stated. In one booklet sent out to retailers, a manu- 
 facturer of men's shirts states that the neck bands have 
 been cut with steel dies so that there is absolutely no 
 chance of sizes varying. The reader possibly realizes 
 the strength of this talking point, especially if he has had 
 some i^yi size shirts that have been larger than others; 
 yet the salespeople selling this brand of shirts have 
 seldom been known by the writer to use this element of 
 value in their sales talks. They do not know what the 
 manufacturer says about his own product. Every town 
 has a good many dealers selling shirts, incubators, toys, 
 underwear, firearms and other articles, and to judge which 
 dealer has the " best " is often a herculean task. Some- 
 times similar articles in different stores seem to be com- 
 pletely alike. When such is the case it is only by chance 
 or because of service that an intelligent customer buys 
 at any store. When an article has an element of value 
 which is not obvious, yet which in reality distinguishes it 
 from other makes. It is indeed unfortunate if this dis- 
 tinction Is not brought to the attention of the customer 
 
 ^ The writer has seen several stores in the smaller towns where deal- 
 ers' helps were used for lighting fires. 
 
 ^ •Kr 
 
 through the mediums of advertising and selling. Value 
 is usually not an obvious thing; reasons for its existence 
 must be dug up. The digging up process is irksome, takes 
 mental effort and is expensive; but if the manufacturer 
 sees fit to unearth the value of his goods it would seem 
 that it is not a waste of time for the retailer and his sales- 
 people to learn how this value was created, for it must 
 eventually be recreated in the minds of customers. 
 
 The last source of information is the public library. 
 Encyclopedias give the history and description of some 
 articles of everyday consumption, oftentimes quite in de- 
 tail. They provide a great mass of information that 
 is both entertaining and of an educational value. They 
 are too infrequently used. Many salespeople do not 
 know that they exist. If they do not use them it may be 
 said that these sources of Information do not exist so far 
 as they are concerned. Many libraries have books on 
 textiles, shoes, household furnishings, jewelry, novelties 
 and other goods. Some of these consist of technical de- 
 scriptions but much of the material is of a clearly under- 
 standable nature, often written in an interesting, vigorous 
 style. The salesperson should ascertain what instruc- 
 tion the library can give. If books on the line desired 
 are not in the library, the librarian can ascertain from 
 publishers' catalogues what books have been written on 
 the subject, and If there is a fund available for the purpose 
 a purchase for the library may be made. The writer has 
 often been told by librarians that few books on business 
 and allied subjects were purchased because of the small 
 demand for them. Once a healthy demand for business 
 books develops in any community, the library will usually 
 endeavor to meet it by new purchases. If the library 
 has no fund available for the purchase of a book desired 
 
62 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 by a salesperson the latter need not despair. Many 
 stores are willing to order salesmanship books for their 
 salespeople, but where they are not, such can be coopera- 
 tively purchased by several salespeople interested in the 
 same line. There Is no justification for lack of knowl- 
 edge. If the selling job looms up large enough in the 
 salesperson's mind, ways and means for coping with its 
 possibilities will present themselves. 
 
 Knowledge of goods has thus far been discussed from 
 one standpoint, viz., the elements that go to make up 
 quality value. It is important that goods should be 
 known from two other standpoints, viz., location and 
 quantity. 
 
 (a) Location, 
 ^ It is not merely enough to finally locate the goods de- 
 sired by the customer. Time is an Important element in 
 the sale. Promptness in showing goods is one of the 
 elements of service, and service is the reason for the ex- 
 istence of the store. 
 
 A systematic arrangement of stock is absolutely neces- 
 sary. Whether the goods are kept on counters, boxes or 
 loose upon the shelves, the exact location of each article 
 should be definitely known. If memorizing location is 
 found to be difficult, a chart of the section or store, with 
 the location of goods, can be made and referred to from 
 time to time until it is part of the fund of knowledge. 
 Finding of sizes, styles, grades, etc., of each class of 
 goods then becomes automatic and impresses the cus- 
 tomer with the efficiency of the store. 
 
 (b) Quantity, 
 
 Knowledge of the quantity of stock is to retailing what 
 the safety valve is to the boiler — it prevents trouble. 
 
 KNOWING THE GOODS 
 
 63 
 
 If the stock runs low an explosion by some customer takes 
 place sooner or later and dollars are lost. 
 
 Further, there should be a constant review of stock 
 so that all old, backward or surplus stock, odds and ends, 
 remnants, broken lots and shop-worn goods can be fea- 
 tured and closed out. 
 
 It is also well to make note of any goods that are called 
 for but which are not carried in stock. Possibilities of 
 substitution should be considered and reasons ascertained 
 why particular goods In question are called for. 
 
 It is the store's business to have in stock what a store 
 of its kind and character customarily carries. If it fails 
 to supply what custom and demand dictates, the store is 
 failing to perform one element of service which is vital 
 to its success. 
 
KNOWING THE CUSTOMER 
 
 6S 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 KNOWING THE CUSTOMER 
 
 A prominent salesman once said, " Salesmanship is 
 chiefly applying an intimate knowledge of human nature 
 in selling." Others occupied in selling goods have also 
 laid great weight on understanding human nature, while 
 some have even gone so far as to say that the only quali- 
 fication for salesmanship is a complete knowledge of the 
 customer. From one viewpoint this latter assumption 
 is true. The other three elements of salesmanship, viz., 
 knowing the goods, knowing one's self and knowing the 
 selling process, may be considered only as different aspects 
 of knowing the customer. Self-confidence, ability to an- 
 swer questions, and an interesting sales talk, acquired as 
 the result of knowing the goods, are necessities to a sales- 
 person because human nature is favorably impressed with 
 these requirements. Likewise, the elements of character 
 and personality such as politeness, honesty and prompt- 
 ness, are emphasized by the scientific salesperson for the 
 simple reason that she understands human nature and 
 knows that such qualities make a favorable impression. 
 Knowing the selling process is merely understanding a 
 part of human nature, viz., the working of the human 
 mind. To understand how the mind arrives at a deci- 
 sion implies a knowledge of human nature. 
 
 If, then, human nature is the chief element in sales- 
 manship, why should four elements be considered inde- 
 
 64 
 
 4 
 
 I 
 
 pendently ? Why should not the three elements of sales- 
 manship indicated above be subordinate classifications 
 under the all-important heading — knowledge of human 
 nature? The answer to this is that it is taken for 
 granted that human nature is the background for selling, 
 hence the elements of salesmanship should specifically 
 state by what methods human nature can be reached. 
 The present chapter, then, while entitled, Knowing the 
 Customer, recognizes that all salesmanship is knowing 
 or understanding human nature as represented by the cus- 
 tomer, but it likewise realizes that human nature has ele- 
 ments of likeness and difference which lend themselves 
 to specific and effective methods of approach. It is to 
 indicate this particular phase of knowing the customer 
 that this and the next chapter is devoted. 
 
 Salesmanship is the art of persuading people to pur^ 
 chase goods which will give of lasting satisfactions ^ by 
 using methods which consume the least time and effort. 
 Such methods always discover the most vulnerable points 
 in human nature and then concentrate on these. To do 
 otherwise is to needlessly expend both time and energy, 
 something which no salesperson can afford to do. Scien- 
 tific selling is selling where conditions to the sale are un- 
 derstood. It is the opposite from haphazard selling or 
 selling without plan and without anticipating what the re- 
 sults of certain operations will be. The unscientific sales- 
 person does not know where she is going but she is on her 
 way. The scientific salesperson knows what methods she 
 is using and what effect they will produce. She is operat- 
 ing intelligently. When she pulls a lever called an in- 
 stinct she realizes what reactions are taking place in the 
 customer's mind; and she knows which levers are the most 
 desirable to pull in different situations. If the unscien- 
 
66 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 KNOWING THE CUSTOMER 
 
 67 
 
 tific salesperson pulls the right lever in any situation it is 
 entirely by chance ; it is just as possible for the wrong lever 
 to be pulled. In other words, the latter salesperson is 
 working in the dark while the former sees her operations 
 distinctly by the light of knowledge. 
 
 Certain motives for buying, certain instincts, are com- 
 mon to all people. Some are stronger in some people, 
 others have greater Influence with other people, but every 
 person has certain instincts which, although apparently 
 dormant, if appealed to effectively will spring into activity 
 and initiate action in the direction desired. A knowl- 
 edge of these insincts is, then, very necessary in salesman- 
 ship. If known and understood they can be used as in- 
 struments with which to forge out sales. In a sense they 
 can be considered as the levers which, if pulled tactfully, 
 will ring up sales in the cash register. They are the 
 points of contact that every sales talk should make use 
 of; and just to the extent that these known aids to selling 
 are intelligently utilized can any sales talk be considered 
 truly effective. From the standpoint of salesmanship 
 the following instincts are the most important. 
 
 I. Self-preservation. By means of this instinct man 
 has been enabled to survive the natural terrors and 
 dangers of his environment. Stone clubs and other crude 
 weapons were made and used against wild animals and 
 hostile races in order to preserve the physical self, while 
 the necessity of providing sustenance and shelter was like- 
 wise paramount. Through ages of time these two neces- 
 sities for self-preservation primarily interested all man- 
 kind. Within recent years, since the industrial and agri- 
 cultural revolutions, man's ability to produce sustenance 
 and shelter has increased many thousand fold, thereby 
 making mere physical preservation comparatively easy; 
 
 while inventions and the production of great wealth have 
 enabled the western peoples to organize armies and build 
 navies which preserve the people from hostile outside 
 forces, thus removing what was formerly one of the chief 
 dangers to individual and collective existence. 
 
 What then is the significance of the instinct of self- 
 preservation at the present time? The necessity of pre- 
 serving the physical self has been replaced by that of main- 
 taining the social self. The present-day economic strug- 
 gle is not waged around physical existence or even physical 
 well being, but it centers in maintaining a standard of liv- 
 ing or a set of conditions necessary to mental comfort. 
 Self-preservation today consists largely in keeping one's 
 social image intact, that is, In maintaining the kind of 
 person that people think we are. How to preserve our 
 social self, I. e., what people think we are, has indeed be- 
 come a necessity as well as a problem. We can only pre- 
 serve this all-important " self " by ascertaining continu- 
 ally what goods other people think necessary to maintain 
 their " selves," and by comparing our " selves " with our 
 conception of the social image of our " selves." 
 
 This Is where the salesperson places the entering wedge. 
 If It can be intimated In a tactful manner that the cus- 
 tomer's social self will suffer through failure to purchase 
 an article, a powerful instinct has been appealed to which 
 will tend to produce action satisfying to itself. If the 
 customer feels for an instant that her " self " as others 
 see her (social self) will not be preserved unless a cer- 
 tain action Is taken, the chances are greatly in favor of 
 that action being taken. But first of all the customer 
 must see the situation clearly. Then she must be made 
 to feel what a disparaged social self would mean to her 
 mental comfort. 
 
68 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 How this can be accomplished in any individual case 
 is something for each salesperson to work out for her- 
 self. No general rule can be laid down to cover all 
 eventualities. Salespeople selling wearing apparel and 
 household furnishings have especially good possibilities 
 for making practical use of this instinct. Either sex will 
 usually buy a new garment if it believes that its " self " 
 (as viewed by others) will be strengthened thereby ; but in 
 every case, if circumstances permit, a new garment will 
 be purchased rather than have the social self reduced in 
 importance. Mental comfort has become as important 
 as physical comfort formerly was. The clever salesper- 
 son devises ways and means of showing the customer how 
 purchases of certain goods are conducive to this much 
 valued mental comfort and how going without certain 
 goods is not worth while because of the mental anguish 
 caused by what others think. Clear cut ideas leading 
 toward a definite effect must be given the customer. 
 What the salesperson desires to do should be clearly 
 visualized and then the best methods devised for attain- 
 ing this object. Instincts such as this when dealt with 
 in a definite manner produce definite results. Only a 
 clearly thought out method of approach will secure sales. 
 Until the salesperson is willing to take the time to ascer- 
 tain just how she is going to appeal to the instinct of self- 
 preservation in selling different articles, it were better 
 that it be left alone. With study, however, this instru- 
 ment of approach will prove effective. 
 
 2. Vanity. Everybody has a streak of vanity but 
 some people have a more prominent streak than others. 
 Where this instinct is strong it has powerful potentiality 
 for sales. Dress is very often a good index of vanity. 
 The man or woman dressed gaudily in order to attract 
 
 KNOWING THE CUSTOMER 
 
 69 
 
 attention is especially vain. Between this extreme and 
 the conservatively dressed people are all degrees of van- 
 ity. Where it is prominent and appears to be a con- 
 trolling factor in the customer's actions it should be ap- 
 pealed to strongly and consistently ; where it is slumbering 
 beneath the surface it should be awakened by a gentle 
 but not insistent appeal. But every sales talk should 
 have some appeals to vanity. They should be written 
 down if necessary in order that they will become con- 
 nected up with the article in the salesperson's mind and 
 hence will not be forgotten when they are most needed. 
 
 How this powerful instinct may be appealed to differs 
 of course with different goods. A ready-to-wear sales- 
 person will place the garment on the customer and then 
 step back, look admiringly at her and speak with en- 
 thusiasm of the combination. The customer's vanity is 
 being appealed to when a salesperson selling linens says 
 to the customer, '' I see you are a good judge of linens "; 
 when a kitchen utensil salesperson says, ^' Being a skilled 
 cook you will especially appreciate this new arrange- 
 ment " ; when a furniture salesperson says, '' Very few 
 people appreciate our efforts to bring out the latest de- 
 signs; I am so glad you admire them "; when a drapery 
 salesperson remarks, '' I am sure you would not be satis- 
 fied with anything but the latest"; when a phonograph 
 salesperson exclaims, " We have some new records from 
 your favorite artists "; when a ready-to-wear salesperson 
 says to a customer whose husband has given his opinion 
 regarding some garments, " Men certainly know ' right ' 
 garments." Every article has within itself an appeal 
 to a customer's vanity, but this appeal is not always ap- 
 parent. It can usually only be discovered and applied 
 after careful study of the goods. 
 
■:S 
 
 70 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 Vanity Is appealed to by repeating important remarks 
 of the customer. One salesperson oftentimes says, " As 
 you just said, etc., etc.," or, " The point you brought out 
 is a good one," or, '' Your way of putting it was just 
 right." If anything that the customer says is repeated, 
 confirmed or enlarged upon, the customer unconsciously 
 feels that her opinions are of some importance, and as a 
 result a pleasurable sensation is experienced. Customers 
 like to shop where they are " felt to be somebody " ; where 
 their ego can expand. Salespeople should appreciate 
 this fact much more than they do and provide the en- 
 vironment that the customer desires, even though that 
 desire is an unconscious one. When this is done custom- 
 ers feel that they are " understood." 
 
 A customer's vanity is appealed to when the salesper- 
 son addresses her by name, and title if she has one. To 
 say, " Good morning, Mrs. Jones," is to individualize 
 that person thereby distinguishing her from Mrs. Brown 
 or Mrs. Smith. To be solicitous of the customer's wel- 
 fare, to do unexpected favors, to approach her promptly, 
 to defer to her desires, all these things are appeals to the 
 customer's vanity. These appeals to vanity are often 
 overlooked but are usually more common than appeals to 
 vanity in sales talks. The latter is what this discussion 
 especially attempts to emphasize. 
 
 Vanity should be looked upon as a device to secure 
 sales just as the show cases and advertisements exist for 
 that purpose. A merchant who does not advertise or 
 make use of the latest improvements in store equipment 
 and design can justly be condemned, but no more than 
 can the salesperson who has selling devices such as in- 
 stincts at her service but fails to utilize them. Vanity is 
 as much a part of human beings as are eyes or ears and it 
 
 KNOWING THE CUSTOMER 
 
 71 
 
 Is just as legitimate. If this Is so, why should the senses 
 be appealed to but not the instincts? Such practice is 
 common, no doubt, due to the fact that the sense organs 
 are obvious — they can be seen, while the powerful in- 
 stincts are not visible and are therefore overlooked. As 
 the instincts become better known salespeople will gradu- 
 ally devise selling appeals to them just as they have done 
 for the senses. 
 
 3. Parental. Mothers and fathers instinctively prize 
 their children above everything else. They will not hesi- 
 tate to risk their own lives to save them from bodily in- 
 jury neither will they avoid expense if they believe the 
 welfare of their children will be bettered thereby. Par- 
 ents are responsible for the condition of their children's 
 social self,^ and in any particular case If made to real- 
 ize this by the salesperson, they will endeavor to pro- 
 tect it as they would protect their own social selves, 
 only to a greater extent. Thus a salesperson can often 
 appeal to two Instincts at the same time thereby increas- 
 ing materially the total effectiveness of the selling 
 appeal. 
 
 The limits between which the parental Instinct can be 
 utilized are only fixed by the Ingenlousness and construc- 
 tive capacity of the salesperson. Some salespeople will 
 see possibilities for its use where others do not. A wo- 
 man, accompanied by her little girl, having just made a 
 purchase was about to leave the ladies' ready-to-wear 
 department when the salesperson took some furs from a 
 nearby table and placed them on the child. The mother 
 was impressed with their appearance as was also the 
 child. The result was that the mother purchased the 
 furs for her daughter. Here two instincts were appealed 
 
 ^ See page 67. 
 
i 
 
 72 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 KNOWING THE CUSTOMER 
 
 73 
 
 to, VIZ., parental and possession.^ The mother did not 
 have the heart to withhold from the child that which 
 meant so much and was so becoming to her. Perhaps 
 another salesperson would have seen no possibilities in 
 this situation to appeal to the parental Instinct. 
 
 To Illustrate this point further, an example already 
 used elsewhere ^ to clarify another point may be used. 
 It will be remembered that the father hesitated to buy the 
 diamond ring for his daughter because he believed it 
 would make her vain. The salesperson pulled the lever 
 of parental Instinct when she said, " This diamond is the 
 most beautiful and permanent form In which you can 
 show your affection for your daughter.'' Another sales- 
 person might have taken the rebufF from the customer 
 and sought no further reasons why the ring should be 
 purchased. There are, no doubt, reasons that could 
 be devised against the purchase of every article, but there 
 can likewise be devised reasons for the purchase of every 
 article. The salesperson who can devise the most logical 
 reasons why her goods should be purchased is laying the 
 foundation for larger sales. 
 
 A vacuum cleaner salesperson appeals to the parental 
 instinct by showing that dusty carpets endanger the 
 health of little children who play on them. The book 
 salesperson claims that children should have greater ad- 
 vantages than their parents had if they are to get any- 
 where in the world at the present time. The musical 
 instrument salesperson sees a possibility of the child de- 
 veloping its taste for music. The hardware salesper- 
 son believes that the boy should have tools with which to 
 develop his mechanical ingenuity. A picture salesperson 
 
 1 See page 74. 
 
 2 Page 48. 
 
 tells the mother that certain pictures will inspire her chil- 
 dren. 
 
 If the children are with the mother or father, all the 
 attention consistent with propriety should be paid them. 
 The parents are flattered by any complimentary attention 
 to their children. If the children shop without their 
 parents they should be treated with every consideration 
 because their likes and dislikes have weight with their 
 parents. When a child praises a certain salesperson or 
 store its parents hold a more favorable Impression of that 
 store or salesperson, while if the child makes adverse 
 criticism the parent may conclude that the store has taken 
 some advantage of the child. With the parent, her child 
 is right. Pranks may be played and trouble started but 
 her boy or girl " wouldn't think of doing such a thing." 
 Since it Is difficult If not Impossible to disillusion parents 
 regarding the real character of their children, it behooves 
 salespeople to so treat children that they and their store 
 are well spoken of in the homes of the community. Such 
 a policy Is also necessary for another reason, viz., the 
 customers of tomorrow are the children of today. 
 
 4. Companionship. People enjoy the companionship 
 of others, and anything that will make others desire one's 
 companionship is thought to be especially desirable. If 
 any garment will make one more companionable; if cer- 
 tain house-furnishings will make people want to get ac- 
 quainted with us; if rare pictures, china, tapestries, linens 
 or silver will make our companionship more sought after; 
 if certain cooking utensils will facilitate the production 
 of meals that will leave a favorable and lasting impres- 
 sion on our guests; in fact, if a customer can purchase 
 anything that will make it desirable for people to become 
 acquainted with her, she will be inclined to do so. 
 
\' 
 
 74 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 Human beings are gregarious animals. To be iso- 
 lated from one's fellow beings is a great hardship. To 
 be the center of attraction is a great source of mental 
 comfort. What capacity for achieving this desirable end 
 has any article? If this question is asked of every article 
 the salesperson is selling, and if a careful study is made 
 to find an answer to it, new possibilities of appeal will 
 be found in the commonplace goods around us. Some 
 goods, of course, have a greater capacity in this direction 
 than others, but most all goods have some capacity, di- 
 rectly or indirectly, of attracting people toward the pos- 
 sessor. 
 
 5. Possession. People reluctantly part with that 
 which they have once had in their possession. This fact 
 is often illustrated in the case of children. A mother 
 promises her child a doll. The child's face lights up 
 with pleasure but the matter is soon forgotten. Later 
 on, the mother points out the doll on the shelf in the 
 store. The child is extremely pleased for a short period 
 of time but other things soon distract its attention and 
 the doll is forgotten. A few days later when the time 
 for purchase has come, the doll is taken down from the 
 shelf to be wrapped up. The child begs to hold the doll 
 and is allowed to do so. Then the mother tries to per- 
 suade the child to return the doll to the salesperson so 
 that it may be wrapped up. Does she succeed? It is 
 indeed an exceptional child if it does not struggle to main- 
 tain that which it has in its possession. The " mine " 
 feeling is predominant. What a few moments before 
 was just a doll is now " my doll." To relinquish it would 
 be to give up a part of " self." This, every one (not 
 only children) finds it most difficult to do; for when the 
 instinct of possession is utilized in selling goods the goods 
 
 KNOWING THE CUSTOMER 
 
 75 
 
 in a sense become a part of the customer. To construct 
 this intimate relation between the customer and the goods 
 is very necessary in the making of sales. 
 
 This fact is illustrated by the following incident. A 
 large 5 and 10 cent store system was accustomed to dis- 
 play pocket flashlights on an open table, but due to the 
 fact that many of them were broken or rendered useless 
 by reason of the constant handling by customers, an 
 order was issued to inclose all of this line of goods in a 
 glass case. Three months later this order was rescinded 
 and instructions were given to restore the flashlights to 
 the open tables. In the brief period of three months it 
 had been found that it was better to have large sales with 
 some broken flashlights than to have small sales and 
 no broken flashlights. When customers were permitted 
 to handle the flashlights, i. e., were able to be in posses- 
 sion of them for a few moments and could operate them 
 as their own, the instinct of possession was functioning, 
 while this was not the case when the flashlights were dis- 
 played under glass. In selling goods the instinct of 
 possession must constantly be taken into account. 
 
 Only in comparatively recent times have merchants 
 made extensive use of this instinct. This is true not 
 only as regarding the display of goods but also in the 
 matter of returned goods. When, half a century ago 
 in Philadelphia, John Wanamaker advertised that goods 
 could be taken out of the store on approval, his com- 
 petitors thought that he was insane. The latter believed 
 that the public would impose on any store adopting such 
 a policy. They did not realize that while some loss 
 would result from this plan, this would be more than 
 offset by the increased sales resulting from the appeal 
 to the instinct of possession. Since this pioneer effort 
 
7^ RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 by a far sighted merchant most retailers have adopted the 
 policy of goods sent out on approval.^ 
 
 " Goods sent out on approval " can be considered as 
 only an extension of the principle of open display within 
 the store. Within the store the customer can handle or 
 possess any article for only a few minutes and the *' mine '* 
 feeling oftentimes does not have time to harden or crys- 
 tallize into decision. The longer the period of posses- 
 sion, however, the stronger the " mine " feeling; so when 
 the article is taken home for two or three days and placed 
 in a familiar environment, time is given for this feeling 
 of attachment, this feeling of reluctance to return a pos- 
 sessed thing, to develop. 
 
 Some articles cannot be sent out on approval but many 
 are capable of being thus used without injury to them- 
 selves. Household furnishings like rugs, draperies and 
 furniture, ready-to-wear that is not easily soiled, pic- 
 tures, musical instruments, sweepers and vacuum clean- 
 ers, hardware, and many other lines are daily being sent 
 out on approval by stores all over the country and more 
 sales are being made because such is the case. Like the 
 handling of open displays in the store the sending out of 
 goods on approval means much expense and soiled and 
 damaged goods, but if the increased sales more than off- 
 set this loss the policy can be justified. That this is the 
 situation seems to be indicated by the persistence of the 
 policy. 
 
 6. Imitation. It seems to be a fundamental trait of 
 human beings to unconsciously imitate the sayings, doings 
 and dress of others. Let one gaze into the open sky 
 and soon a crowd of people are looking in the same dl- 
 
 1 Several large merchants in the Middle West adopted this policy 
 about the same time as did V^anamaker. 
 
 KNOWING THE CUSTOMER 
 
 77 
 
 rection. Let one stop and look intently into a show 
 window and soon others will be doing the same. Let 
 some fad come out and a following Is rapidly secured for 
 it. Let some one In a gathering yawn, chew gum, or 
 smoke, and the general tendency is to imitate these ac- 
 tions. 
 
 The salesperson often appeals -to this instinct by sny- 
 Ing, " These are good sellers,'' or, ** We sell a lot of 
 these." The tendency is for people to buy what other 
 people are buying. If we go to the box office to pur- 
 chase tickets for a show and see that only a few tickets 
 have been sold, the tendency Is to turn away without pur- 
 chasing, while a shortage of tickets Induces us to quickly 
 part with our money. Another salesperson will appeal 
 to the instinct of imitation by quoting what some cus- 
 tomer has said regarding a certain article. This is an 
 indirect way of Indicating that this particular customer 
 has purchased this article, and Is, therefore, especially 
 effective. To directly state that Mrs. Jones has pur- 
 chased a certain article can only be done in exceptional 
 circumstances. Very often such a statement would be 
 strongly resented as representing an attempt to influence 
 the customer's opinion. Unfortunately, this crude 
 method of dealing with the instinct of Imitation has been 
 too commonly used, and because it has often irritated 
 customers the instinct of Imitation Itself has been con- 
 demned as one not capable of favorable appeal in selling 
 goods. The trouble is not with the Instinct but with 
 the open manner In which It Is used. Much care must 
 be exercised In making such appeals so that the mechan- 
 ism Is not obvious. The mechanics of selling Is a means 
 to an end, viz., sales, and Is not the end Itself. When 
 the method or technique of selling Is more evident than 
 
78 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 the meaning of the method, then there had better be less 
 method or at least a change in it. 
 
 Besides telling what customers have said regarding 
 any article, another method of employing the instinct of 
 imitation is to indicate somewhere in the sales talk the ex- 
 periences that customers have had with fhe goods. Thus, 
 the shoe salesperson may say that Mrs. Jones likes a 
 " turned sole " because it conforms so readily to the shape 
 of the foot; or, Mrs. Smith uses her aluminum pancake 
 griddle in a certain manner; or, Mrs. Black has worked 
 out a delightful color scheme by using certain household 
 furnishings. Such methods of appealing to the instinct 
 of imitation are very effective. Many good qualities of 
 goods can be brought to the attention of the customer, 
 not by bald statement merely, but by indicating the re- 
 lationship of these qualities to certain customer's opin- 
 ions, experiences and preferences. Two methods of at- 
 tack are thus combined and the result is doubly effective 
 in convincing the customer. 
 
 Again, the statement of objections by customers often 
 affords an opportunity of answering them through an ap- 
 peal to the instinct of imitation. If the customer thinks 
 that the shoe salesperson is fitting her " too long," per- 
 haps Mrs. Jones thought the same thing but was after- 
 wards pleased because she accepted the salesperson's 
 advice. If the customer thinks that the price of a rug is 
 " too high," perhaps Mrs. Smith had the same feeling 
 until she realized that the value of the rug, because of 
 certain features, was equal to the price. If the cus- 
 tomer feels that a broad brimmed hat makes him look 
 " funny," possibly his neighbor had the same feeling 
 which disappeared when he became accustomed to it. 
 
 It 
 
 KNOWING THE CUSTOMER 
 
 79 
 
 When objections are answered by appeals to the instinct 
 of imitation as in these cases, customers are inclined to 
 imitate the action of those whom they know, and trust 
 that their satisfaction will prove as favorable as that of 
 their acquaintances. Unconsciously to the customer, 
 such appeals to the instinct of imitation challenge her self- 
 respect; because if other people made the same objections 
 as she did and yet purchased the article^ why should not 
 she see the invalidity of these objections as they did? In 
 other words, if she imitates some people in making certain 
 objections, why should not she also imitate them in pur- 
 chasing the goods against which the objections have 
 been levied? People's minds, like water, follow the line 
 of least resistance. In this case, the line of least resist- 
 ance is to imitate certain persons in purchasing an article, 
 because they have already been imitated when the same 
 objections as they gave were stated. To imitate once is 
 to make it easier to imitate again. Appeals that show 
 how a customer has already imitated make it easy for her 
 to imitate again although in a different way. 
 
 Perhaps it is not superfluous to state that great care 
 must be exercised in the selection of persons suitable as 
 objects of imitation. The persons thus used must be ad- 
 mired by the customer or held in respect, otherwise there 
 will be no incentive to imitate. Reference to a person 
 who is repulsive to the customer, or one held in low es- 
 teem, is courting disaster to the sale. Like all other 
 devices of selling, the instinct of imitation must be used 
 with caution and in an intelligent way. Unless this is 
 done it can operate no more effectively than the mower 
 that is run over stones. Under certain conditions mow- 
 ers work efficiently, and likewise only under certain con- 
 
 
8o 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 ditions will the machinery of salesmanship do what is 
 expected of it. These " conditions " the salesperson 
 must secure. 
 
 7. Curiosity. It seems to be characteristic of human 
 nature to speculate on the true significance of that which 
 is not fully apparent. When a store sale is going on and 
 the show windows are plastered so thick with announce- 
 ments of the sale that what is transpiring inside is a 
 matter of speculation, people stand outside "wonder- 
 ing" how many people are inside and whether there 
 really are the bargains announced. Usually this won- 
 dering or curiosity can only be satisfied by entering the 
 store and seeing for one's self. Again, because of little 
 incidents certain people have mentioned from time to time 
 in their conversation with others, much speculation often 
 arises as to people's ages, degrees of wealth, domestic 
 happiness, social connections, etc. Advertisements play 
 upon the instinct of curiosity when they present puzzle 
 pictures or problems to be solved. A cleverly written 
 story appeals to this instinct when the outcome of the 
 plot is uncertain. The reader's interest is maintained 
 to the finis because he knows that he will not be " satis- 
 fied " unless he finishes the story, i. e., his curiosity will 
 not be satisfied. The public speaker giving a series of 
 lectures holds the interest of his hearers through the 
 series by dropping hints as to what is going to be dis- 
 cussed, but he is careful not to give enough of the future 
 lectures to satisfy the curiosity of his audience. A great 
 evangelist holds the attention of his hearers partly 
 through use of this instinct. People " wonder what he is 
 going to do next." 
 
 If the instinct of curiosity is capable of being utilized 
 to such an extent in other fields, has it as great possi- 
 
 KNOWING THE CUSTOMER 
 
 81 
 
 bilities in retail selling? Efficient salespeople all over 
 the country have answered this question in the affirma- 
 tive. They have succeeded in appealing to the custom- 
 er's curiosity in many ways. No matter what line the 
 salesperson is handling, careful study will reveal such 
 methods of holding attention, securing interest, creating 
 desire and inducing decision to buy. Methods like these 
 do not come to the salesperson's consciousness on the 
 spur of the moment. Only in rare cases is this true. 
 Preparation of selling talks in advance is the only cer- 
 tain way to build up selling eflficiency that is the result 
 of making varied appeals to every feeling that is directly 
 or indirectly connected with the forming of a decision. 
 
 Some indication how such appeals can be made may be 
 helpful. A grocery salesperson over the phone appeals 
 to the customer's curiosity when he describes the delicious- 
 ness of the pears, but adds, " Of course you cannot real- 
 ize how really fine they are until you have tasted them." 
 Speculation as to how they will taste and whether or not 
 they will be as excellent as described, demands satisfac- 
 tion, and this can only be accomplished by ordering and 
 eating them. A ladies' ready-to-wear salesperson says 
 to a woman who has tried on a suit coat and is undecided 
 whether she wants it, " It will look altogether different 
 when you get the skirt on." How it will actually look 
 the customer can only surmise, but this very element of 
 wonder holds her interest and makes her susceptible to 
 the suggestions of the salesperson, as well as enabling the 
 latter to present the entire suit under the most favorable 
 conditions. The silk underwear salesperson says, " If 
 you have never worn silk underwear you really cannot 
 imagine how delightful is the sensation of its sheer, soft 
 touch." Here the customer's imagination is strongly 
 
 ■I.: 
 
82 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 r, 
 
 appealed to but likewise her curiosity as to just how the 
 underwear would '' feel.'' A furniture salesperson may 
 develop the customer's interest by thus appealing to her 
 curiosity: " Perhaps you would be interested in knowing 
 how this effect is produced." 
 
 The salesperson can make good use of the instinct of 
 curiosity in the first step of the selling process, i. e., in 
 gaining the customer's attention. Phrases such as, 
 "Have you seen this new material?" "There are sev- 
 eral features recently added to this article which give it 
 unique distinction," " These goods have gone through 
 a special process that makes them less liable to warp," 
 " It is only with the greatest difficulty that these furs can 
 be secured at the present time," " These hose have re- 
 cently been subjected to a severe test in order to ascer- 
 tain their tensile strength," all these appeal more or less 
 strongly to the instinct of curiosity. Certain words or 
 phrases in these sentences such as, " new," " features re- 
 cently added," " special process," " greatest difficulty," 
 "severe test," lend themselves to speculation. Some- 
 thing more must be added if their meaning is to be clear. 
 In order to get her curiosity satisfied the customer must 
 give the salesperson her attention, and this is all that 
 the latter should wish for. When attention has been 
 secured it devolves upon the salesperson to give such a 
 sales talk that the customer will desire the goods intensely 
 enough to buy them. Specialty salespeople and com- 
 mercial travelers often consider the sale three-fourths 
 made if they can get an audience, i. e., the customer's at- 
 tention. Curiosity, cleverly appealed to through phrases 
 such as those described, is a valuable device in attracting 
 customers' attention to the goods. 
 
 The other steps in the selling process (securing inter- 
 
 i 
 
 KNOWING THE CUSTOMER 
 
 83 
 
 est, creating desire and inducing decision) are also often 
 more easily reached by making use of this instinct. 
 When the customer's interest is lagging, if some goods are 
 withheld from her and she is told that these will be shown 
 in a few minutes, her curiosity to see them is the tonic that 
 enables her to hold interest in the goods at hand. Keep- 
 ing back some of the goods and yet referring to them is 
 a method often used to tide the customer over a restless 
 period and thus enables the salesperson to give the most 
 effective selling points. All that the salesperson should 
 ask for is an opportunity to present the goods in the most 
 effective manner to the customer; but it must be realized 
 that opportunities can be "created" (as indicated by 
 devices for securing attention), and the "most effective 
 manner " is something for the salesperson to devise. If 
 conditions are not conducive to efficient presentation of 
 selling points then some device must be used to create 
 favorable conditions. Appeals to curiosity are very often 
 the means of securing the right " conditions " for the 
 favorable reception of the sales talk. 
 
 8. Hunting,, People hunt for the joy of hunting. 
 Sound-minded men will spend weeks of time and large 
 sums of money in order to get a shot at a deer or follow 
 the trail of some wild thing. Whether or not they bag 
 any game is often immaterial; they have enjoyed the 
 hunt. Because of the impelling power of this instinct 
 men follow winding streams for miles in the hope of 
 catching the wily trout. If one hole does not materialize 
 the desired fish it is always the hole just around the bend 
 that must have a " big fellow " in it. But whatever the 
 result of the day's effort, many men get keen enjoyment 
 out of the effort itself. 
 
 Not only does the hunting instinct exhibit itself in the 
 
 ^ ^: 
 
 ii4 
 
84 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 actions of men but likewise in those of the opposite sex. 
 Women when they go shopping or bargain hunting are 
 responding to this instinct as much as are men who go 
 beast, bird or fish hunting. The principle in each case 
 Is the same; only the object hunted is different. Most 
 women like to shop. They take keen pleasure in scenting 
 out the " good values " — in getting bargains. In order 
 to realize the truth of this assertion one need only observe 
 stores where bargains or " specials " have been adver- 
 tised. The hunting ground has been located and the 
 hunt begins. It is no exaggeration to say that the hunt 
 becomes so strenuous at times that physical exhaustion 
 takes place. Several cases are known to the writer where 
 customers were so eager to get at the bargain squares, 
 and struggled so strenuously, that some of the contest- 
 ants fainted and had to be taken off the field. No fox 
 hunter ever made a greater effort to bag a fox than 
 some customers do to get the advantages called bar- 
 gains. 
 
 How can the salesperson capitalize this impelling in- 
 stinct? The answer Is, only by knowing when specials 
 or bargains are offered and where they are to be found. 
 This means a daily knowledge of the store advertising. 
 Recently the writer unexpectedly asked a department 
 store sales force of two hundred people what specials 
 were being offered in that store on that particular day, 
 and only ^ve^ per cent were acquainted with the special 
 offers outside of their own department. In some cases 
 the salesperson had no knowledge of the specials in her 
 own department. Obviously under such conditions cus- 
 tomers cannot have adequate knowledge of the " hunting 
 grounds,'' unless perchance they have read and remem- 
 bered the advertisements which oftentimes Is not the case. 
 
 \ 
 
 KNOWING THE CUSTOMER 
 
 85 
 
 The function of the salesperson, no matter what her de- 
 partment, Is to act as guide to the customer-hunter. This 
 does not mean that the salesperson should personally di- 
 rect the customer to the departments where the specials 
 are to be found, because very often the salesperson can- 
 not leave her own department, but It does mean that 
 adequate descriptions of specials should be given together 
 with specific directions as to where they may be found. 
 The customer is usually pleased to be introduced to the 
 floor manager who may be able to conduct her to the de- 
 partment she Is seeking. It Is only too common a prac- 
 tice, even when a customer asks the location of certain 
 goods, to Indicate In a general and indefinite way where 
 they may be found. Unless the directions are specific 
 the customer's ardor Is dampened, and as a result the de- 
 partment asked for may never have the opportunity of 
 welcoming her. 
 
 Besides a feeling of Indifference, another reason why 
 departments do not cooperate to a greater extent with 
 one another. Is jealousy. One department manager Is 
 sometimes depressed when he sees the growing prosperity 
 of another department, and his negative feeling dominates 
 those working under him. While, perhaps, the latter do 
 not openly knock the rival department, they at least do not 
 boost it or call Its specials to the attention of customers 
 shopping in their department. Such friction is Indeed 
 unfortunate, especially so because it prevents utilization 
 of the hunting instinct. If each department knows the 
 Important values in every other department, a firm 
 foundation for appeals to the hunting instinct of custom- 
 ers has been laid; but even then jealousy must give way 
 to friendly rivalry. " Each for all and all for each " 
 should be the motto of every department store. Only 
 
 
86 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 S: 
 
 p' 
 
 ( 
 
 by following such a broad policy can the maximum sales 
 in all departments be reached. 
 
 9. Building. People take pleasure in constructing 
 things. To watch something materialize as the result 
 of human effort usually affords keen enjoyment. Suc- 
 cessful appeals have been made to this instinct by " knock 
 down " furniture dealers. In reading advertisements 
 dealing with furniture of this character, the imagina- 
 tion of the customer dwells on the pleasure to be derived 
 from " putting the parts together." The same is true 
 of " knock down " houses. Patterns appeal to this in- 
 stinct in women. If the salesperson can picture the 
 pleasure to be secured from making a garment and can 
 enable the customer to visualize the finished product, a 
 strong motive force for purchasing both patterns and 
 materials has been appealed to. 
 
 Widely differing kinds of goods are capable of appeal- 
 ing to the instinct of building or construction: lace, 
 buttons, piece goods, hat forms and decorations, beads, 
 tools, lumber, paints, house fixtures, dyes, threads, yarns 
 and many other items. In fact, the limits to this appeal 
 are fixed by the salesperson herself. Each article should 
 be studied carefully to ascertain its possibilities in this 
 direction. Only in this way can the salesperson be cer- 
 tain that this lever is being utilized to its fullest extent in 
 inducing customers to buy. 
 
 Oftentimes there is an educational element involved 
 in building. Children, especially, develop muscle coor- 
 dination and dexterity by weaving, carving, constructing 
 things out of blocks, stone, clay, wood. Iron or brass. 
 Wherever this is true the parental ^ as well as the build- 
 ing instinct may be appealed to. 
 
 1 See page 71. 
 
 KNOWING THE CUSTOMER 87 
 
 Besides these instincts which arc the most important 
 ones for the salesperson to consider, there are two funda- 
 mental traits or characteristics of human nature which it 
 will be well to remember and take into account when sell- 
 ing goods. These are selfishness and laziness. Every- 
 body is selfish and everybody is lazy, although some peo- 
 ple are more selfish and lazy than others. Proof of this 
 statement is found in a study of people's actions and mo- 
 tives. 
 
 I. Selfishness. This term as here used refers to 
 people who act to satisfy Inward cravings of their being, 
 but not necessarily to the detriment of others. Thus, the 
 slum worker who leaves luxury and cleanliness and goes 
 to years of labor amid filth and squalor Is often called 
 " unselfish," when In reality the decision to accept these 
 conditions results from a desire to satisfy the feeling of 
 obligation or duty found in the innermost self. If the 
 impelling motive was not heeded, satisfaction would not 
 result. Even In this case, then, the desire to satisfy self 
 plays a strong part, although it may justly be claimed 
 that the reason for this motive is the wretched condition 
 of a certain class of people. 
 
 Again, a husband purchases a beautiful dress for his 
 wife. People say he is an unselfish husband. In reality, 
 he may be Intensely gratified by hearing men say, *' Look 
 how he dresses his wife; he must be prosperous." Or, 
 perhaps, the lover brings a box of candy or a bouquet of 
 roses to his sweetheart. Self Is thereby satisfied and a 
 feeling of exultation experienced which appears to bold 
 advantage beside the alternative of not performing this 
 act. 
 
 If the salesperson can subtly indicate to the customer 
 that self will be propitiated without evil consequences to 
 
 
88 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 » 
 
 
 Others by purchasing certain goods, or that the pleasure 
 accruing to others because of a purchase will satisfy self, 
 a strong appeal will have been made to a fundamental 
 trait of human nature. Customers may have been dis- 
 satisfied with themselves for some time simply because 
 they have failed to provide for some demand of their 
 inner selves or for the wants of those whose welfare is 
 intimately connected with their own. Here lies a strong 
 motive for buying if the salesperson can but use It. If 
 the longing to content self can be satisfied immediately by 
 the purchase of goods, the salesperson should bring forth 
 the " reasons why" this can be accomplished; and if the 
 customer can be made to feel In her own mind the pleas- 
 ure resulting from purchase, sales will the more easily and 
 quickly be made. 
 
 2. Laziness. The statement that all people are lazy 
 may be thought by some to be an exaggeration. This is 
 not so. Even the most energetic people are unconsciously 
 looking forward to the end of the day's work — to the 
 time when their duties will be less irksome. Most peo- 
 ple while zmlling to expend effort to secure desirable ends, 
 appreciate any person or device making the end attainable 
 without the effort or with less effort. 
 
 The average customer does not of course analyze mi- 
 nutely why she likes to trade in some stores and dislikes 
 other stores. The real reasons for such preferences rest 
 on the apparently most insignificant acts of salespeople. 
 The salespeople In one store may always bring the goods 
 to the customer while in another place of business the 
 customer may have to come to the goods. Or, possibly, 
 in one store the customer is always carefully seated be- 
 fore the goods are shown while in other business es- 
 tablishments this act of the salesperson is omitted. 
 
 KNOWING THE CUSTOMER 
 
 89 
 
 Again, perhaps the customer is promptly met in one 
 store and judiciously escorted to the department where 
 her needs can be most punctiliously satisfied, while In some 
 other store a great deal of energy is lost in searching for 
 the merchandise desired. The pleasure and satisfaction 
 of the customer in all cases varies directly with the degree 
 to which effort in buying can be eliminated. Fatigue, 
 irksomeness and discomfort are distasteful to people, 
 while rested bodies and mental comfort resulting from 
 mtelligent service produce lasting favorable impressions 
 of the store in the customer's mind. At a later time, 
 when she is debating with herself as to where she will 
 purchase, the favorable impression arising in her mind 
 when thinking of a certain store may be the real cause 
 for her making purchases in that store. Realization by 
 salespeople that this all-powerful total impression that 
 induces action is composed of many smaller impressions 
 which they have had a part in the making, would tend to 
 insure more careful handling of customers. One of the 
 most favorable impressions that any store can make on a 
 customer is the elimination of effort in buying, or at least 
 its reduction to a minimum. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 KNOWING THE CUSTOMER (continued) 
 
 In the previous chapter likenesses of customers were 
 considered. Elements common to all people were re- 
 viewed in their relationship to selling goods. The pres- 
 ent chapter has to do with the differences between custom- 
 ers, the elements that make it possible to classify people 
 into groups for purposes of selling appeal. Both phases 
 of knowing human nature (likenesses and differences) are 
 extremely important for the retail salesperson. 
 
 Knowing the different types of customers is more often 
 overlooked by the busy salesperson than is knowing the 
 goods, possibly because the former knowledge is osten- 
 sibly of a less tangible or more fanciful character than 
 the latter. In reality, however, careful observation by 
 the salesperson of the customers passing through her de- 
 partment will reveal definite concrete information that 
 can be used as a basis of selling appeals. 
 
 At first sight, the many customers coming under the 
 salesperson's observation may appear to be very similar 
 in reaction toward sales talks, but after continued analysis 
 dis-tinct types of individuals emerge from the mass and 
 different methods of appealing to these different types 
 present themselves. Emphasis must be placed on the 
 necessity of analysis. Just as people very often do not 
 see characteristics of goods which are in no way con- 
 cealed, even though they are looking at these qualities, 
 
 90 
 
 KNOWING THE CUSTOMER 
 
 91 
 
 so people actually fail to see or understand human beings 
 notwithstanding the apparently obvious nature of their 
 attributes. Study or analysis of people, as well as of 
 goods, precedes an understanding of them. 
 
 It should be made clear at the start that it is impossible 
 to classify all human beings between hard and fast limits. 
 The different types of customers indicated at a subsequent 
 place in this chapter d'o not adequately represent all peo- 
 ple at all times but some people at any moment of time. 
 In other words, a customer may be a certain type on one 
 day and a different type at some other time. As en- 
 vironment or physical well-being changes, temperament 
 undergoes an alteration and may result in reconstruction 
 of the human type. Illustrations showing how salespeo- 
 ple may develop certain types of customers will be given 
 later. Enough has been said at present if the salesper- 
 son realizes that human types are not necessarily stable 
 although oftentimes such may be the case. 
 
 In the last analysis, the present discussion is only valu- 
 able for the salesperson if it indicates how to deal with 
 the customer that stands before the counter today and 
 does not theorize on how to deal with a hypothetical 
 type that may appear tomorrow. Phrenology is omit- 
 ted because its claims have long since been disproved. 
 Character analysis is not emphasized because it harbors a 
 large elem'ent of error and can be applied, even in its most 
 simple aspects, only by those with training and power of 
 nice discrimination. Thus, one writer on this subject 
 says that an obstinate man usually has greater length 
 between the chin and pate than between the hair line above 
 the forehead and the nape of the neck. In what per- 
 centage of cases this assertion holds true, the writer has 
 been unable to ascertain; but it is self-evident that ob- 
 
92 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 stinacy, as a predominant characteristic In any customer, 
 can be ascertained In a less cumbersome manner. The 
 way customers act Is the basis for the classification of cus- 
 tomers here presented. Disregarding coloring, stature, 
 texture of skin, shape of head, etc., It is believed that the 
 customer's uppermost feelings and characteristics will be- 
 come evident to the salesperson by carefully observing 
 modes of conduct. Obstinacy will express itself by cer- 
 tain outward indications that are definite and can be re- 
 lied upon. Deliberatlveness, impulsiveness or other pre- 
 dommating traits can likewise be discovered without ap- 
 peal to the bumps on the customer's head. What are the 
 most common types of customers and how they can be 
 discovered and appealed to will now be considered. 
 
 I. The Impulsive or Nervous Customer. The im- 
 pulsive customer acts In response to her feelings which 
 are uppermost In her. Her emotions are easily aroused 
 and lead directly to action unless they are allowed to cool 
 off. As a result, the Impulsive customer must be rushed. 
 When desire has once been created it must quickly be 
 developed Into decision, otherwise the feelings will be- 
 come less intense and Incapable of Inducing action. Such 
 types are very often " talked out of a sale " by uncom- 
 prehending salespeople. 
 
 As an Illustration of what is meant is the story of 
 Mark Twain's attendance at a missionary meeting. 
 After listening to the missionary's plea for half an hour 
 Mark decided that he would give a dollar to the cause 
 when the collection plate came around — but the man 
 kept on -talking. At the end of three-quarters of an 
 hour Mark decided that he would give only fifty cents. 
 At the end of an hour he decided that he would give noth- 
 ing; and finally, when the collection plate did come around 
 
 KNOWING THE CUSTOMER 93 
 
 at the end of an hour and a half, Mark reached in and 
 took out a dollar to recompense him for his inconvenience. 
 
 The impulsive customer is recognizable by means of 
 her actions. She walks into the store in a quick, some- 
 times jerky manner. Her eyes are keen-looking; her 
 expression is intense, oftentimes appearing strained. Her 
 attitude Indicates that she is In a hurry. She wants 
 service now and appears fidgety until she gets it. This 
 type commences sentences without finishing them and 
 gives the impression that actions are initiated without 
 consideration as to what they were intended to accomplish. 
 Abruptness In speech and actions is characteristic of the 
 impulsive customer. 
 
 How should this kind of person be approached and 
 handled by the salesperson? Only too often the writer 
 has seen this type approached In a slow Indifferent man- 
 ner. The sales talk has gone into detail and been dragged 
 into great length. The customer has fidgeted and be- 
 come impatient. In short, In such cases the salesperson 
 has failed to understand the nature of the customer and 
 has antagonized instead of attracted. The salesperson 
 has failed to create an environment around the customer 
 favorable to selling; for it must be remembered that it 
 IS within the possibilities of the salesperson to create the 
 conditions under which goods are sold. The light, heat, 
 fixtures and other conditions for selling may be favorable 
 but all of these may be offset by an unsympathetic atmos- 
 phere created around the customer by the salesperson's 
 methods. In such cases as these, sales talks and sales 
 methods have not been individualized. They have be- 
 come standardized for all customers. 
 
 The impulsive customer must be approached promptly 
 and what she desires must be quickly ascertained (not by 
 
 I 
 

 94 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 asking questions) and found. As a rule no detail can 
 be considered, but the principal selling points must be 
 given in one, two, three order. The salesperson's man- 
 ner must be alert, giving the customer the impression of 
 activity. Any signs of uneasiness on the part of the cus- 
 tomer should be quickly noted and new methods used to 
 secure interest. Oftentimes this type likes those sales- 
 people best who talk as rapidly as they do, but care must 
 be taken not to augment the natural nervousness of the 
 customer by too excited Inquiry or talking. The least 
 amount of friction possible should be the salesperson's 
 aim in securing size, price, color, shape, etc., desired. To 
 ask questions of this type very often disorganizes their 
 unstable temperaments and creates impatience and gen- 
 eral dissatisfaction. If the '' machinery of selling " can 
 be kept In the background, so much the better, because 
 irritation is easily produced. 
 
 At this point the salesperson is no doubt wondering 
 how some merchandise can be sold without asking ques- 
 tions. A hosiery salesperson presented the following 
 problem to the writer: "I am selling men's, women's 
 and children's hose. There are many different sizes of 
 each as well as a variety of colors. When a customer 
 comes up to the counter how can I know what to show 
 her without asking questions?" Only apparently was 
 this a difficult problem. From questioning the salesper- 
 son it was found that in a majority of cases the customer 
 desired women's hose, color black, size nine. Of course 
 in any particular case the salesperson could not be cer- 
 tain that black, women's hose, size nine was desired, 
 but (and this is the important fact to note) if this kind 
 of hose was presented to every customer, the salesperson 
 would be right in a majority of cases — and without ask- 
 
 KNOWING THE CUSTOMER 
 
 95 
 
 ing questions. In such case, the customer Is impressed 
 with the ease of buying — the absence of mechanism. 
 Where something different than is being shown is de- 
 manded, the customer loses little time in voluntarily mak- 
 ing known her needs; and what is more, the latter feels 
 that she should have stated her needs instead of forcing 
 the salesperson to work blindly. She does not condemn 
 the salesperson for showing the wrong goods. Some 
 drapery salespeople feel that it is necessary to ask ques- 
 tions in order to ascertain customers' needs. It has been 
 demonstrated that questions can be dispensed with, not 
 only in this line but in many others, and to the benefit 
 of all parties concerned. The salesperson who can as- 
 certain needs without the use of direct interrogation is 
 using a principle of salesmanship that is too often over- 
 looked, especially in dealing with the Impulsive customer. 
 
 Since feelings are the motive to action with the im- 
 pulsive customer, these should be appealed to in the most 
 effective manner at the start of the sale. Decision must 
 be induced quickly when the emotions are most completely 
 functioning, otherwise their impelling nature loses influ- 
 ence over actions and the sale is lost. Long preliminaries 
 must be dispensed with and the most vital selling points 
 advanced in rapid succession. If the desire is created this 
 type does not decide " to think it over " ; it acts. Because, 
 however, sales talks to this type must be brief, the sales- 
 person should not be led to think that they are easier to 
 construct and carry out. More often the short sales talk, 
 pregnant with vital interest, having eliminated all mean- 
 ingless terms, phrases and details, is harder to develop 
 and convey to the customer than the longer and less 
 poignant sales talk adapted to other types. 
 
 Because the impulsive customer is motivated by strong 
 
ill 
 
 96 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 feelings and often buys on the spur of the moment, the 
 salesperson has a responsibility In dealing with this type 
 that does not exist to such an extent when selling other 
 kmds of customers. Great care must be taken to be 
 certain that the goods are adapted to the customer's wants 
 and that they will be entirely satisfactory after the imme- 
 diate enthusiasm for them has receded. Unless this Is 
 done ''come backs" will be frequent from this type. 
 Their desire for an article oftentimes disappears after 
 reflection. If the salesperson can use reflection for the 
 customer the latter usually appreciates it if it is done 
 tactfully. It is easy to dispose of goods to impulsive 
 people but selling them goods is another matter. Goods 
 are not sold until they are consumed, hence a sale can 
 only be justified If the goods give off lasting satisfactions. 
 To completely visualize the future relationships between 
 the goods and the purchaser is especially necessary when 
 selling to an impulsive customer although it Is to be de- 
 sired in selling to any type. 
 
 2. The Deliberate Customer. This type is the oppo- 
 site of the impulsive or nervous customer. The deliber- 
 ate customer may have strong feelings but they are kept 
 well under control. Purchases are made only after care- 
 ful deliberation which views the proposition from differ- 
 ent standpoints and weighs the advantages against the 
 disadvantages. Hasty action and decision are distaste- 
 ful, and any attempt by the salesperson to hurry the sale 
 will be resented. Ideas make an effective appeal to this 
 type only when they are advanced slowly and in logical 
 order. Explanations may often be detailed. Often- 
 times, even after careful consideration and when the 
 mind is made up, this type will postpone action until It Is 
 " doubly certain." Procrastination Is characteristic of 
 
 KNOWING THE CUSTOMER 
 
 97 
 
 deliberative customers and nothing is gained by trying 
 to rush them. They must have time " to think it 
 
 over. 
 
 »» 
 
 How can this type be distinguished? Deliberate peo- 
 ple are deliberate in their movements. They walk slowly 
 and in a dignified manner. Their facial expression is 
 calm, poised. Gestures are uncommon but if existing 
 tend to be slow and inconspicuous. Extreme excitement 
 or expressed enthusiasm are absent, as is also the tendency 
 to jump at conclusions. Ability and willingness to listen 
 to a long sales talk dealing with details, distinguishes 
 sharply this type from the impulsive one. All of these 
 external modes of conduct, from the moment the cus- 
 tomer steps in the door until she is absorbed in the sales 
 talk, have a meaning for the Intelligent salesperson and 
 are Indicators of the correct method of handling. 
 
 Only recently the writer witnessed an example of hand- 
 ling this type in the wrong way. A deliberative man be- 
 gan looking at hats half an hour before closing time in a 
 men's furnishings store. After several hats had been 
 tried on, one seemed to gain his interest. The salesper- 
 son concentrated his efforts on this one for some time 
 but although it was plain the customer admired this hat 
 and desired it, he hesitated to decide. Finally, he re- 
 marked, " Well, I will think it over and come in and see 
 you tomorrow." The salesperson who up to this time 
 had not been especially aggressive now became conspicu- 
 ously desirous of getting an immediate decision. He ex- 
 plained reasons why decision should not be postponed 
 and attempted to rush the sale. Suddenly, picking up his 
 hat, the customer exclaimed, " I guess I don't want a 
 hat," and left the store. The writer followed him, in- 
 troduced himself and asked how he liked the store. He 
 
98 
 
 t 
 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 replied, ** Oh, the store may be alright, but they always 
 seem to rub a fellow the wrong way." 
 
 Here is one case among many where the salesperson 
 failed to create an environment around the customer fa- 
 vorable for sales. The store was a good store carrying 
 excellent lines, but human nature, the big element for 
 which the store existed, was not understood. Methods, 
 admirable when used on an impulsive customer, proved 
 to be disastrous when applied to the deliberative type. 
 If the salesperson had understood the workings of this 
 customer's mind he would have realized that the chances 
 were greatly in favor of the return of the customer next 
 day, and that urging and rushing would be dangerous 
 tactics to use. As it was, the salesperson blamed the 
 customer for wanting to get out of the store without 
 buying, while the customer felt that the store was alto- 
 gether too anxious to get his money regardless of service 
 rendered. 
 
 Salespeople often " wait " for customers of this type 
 to buy when in reality the customer is " waiting " for the 
 salesperson to sell. A most pitiful scene in a retail store 
 IS to see a salesperson give two or three selling points to 
 this type and then " wait." Very often the selling points 
 given are only generalities. The deliberate customer's 
 mind cannot decide until enough Information has been 
 given to enable a buying judgment to be formed. Here 
 is an opportunity for the Salesperson to give the history, 
 make, construction, style, design and other information 
 about the article. Usually such knowledge will be in- 
 tently listened to. The customer must be helped to de- 
 cide by providing material on which a logical decision may 
 be based. Reason must be fed; feelings are in the back- 
 ground. If there are logical reasons why the deliberate 
 
 KNOWING THE CUSTOMER 
 
 99 
 
 customer should buy, she will buy if these are pre- 
 sented. But these reasons must exist for her — in her 
 mind — and not merely in some one else's. If embar- 
 rassment before this type is not to ensue, it is imperative 
 that the salesperson should know all about the goods. ^ 
 
 With adequate knowledge at one's command it is easy 
 to interest and sell the deliberate customer. She is at- 
 tentive and anxious to see the real value of the goods. 
 She is appreciative of the salesperson who is patient and 
 painstaking in the presentation of the facts, and who al- 
 lows her the freedom of decision at a later time if she 
 cares for it. With a little tact and study the deliberate 
 customer can be made a permanent customer, even though 
 goods are not always sold on the day that they are looked 
 at. The point to be remembered is, this type is thinking^ 
 not jumping at conclusions; and if the store, the sales- 
 person and the goods are all right, little fear need exist 
 that trade will not be secured. With the impulsive type, 
 however, sales are made on the basis of Immediate im- 
 pressions, not on subsequent reasoning; and unless a sale 
 is made when the customer is before the salesperson it 
 will not be made later. Ready adaptation to these op- 
 posite types of customers is the mark of the efficient, 
 scientific salesperson. 
 
 3. The Vacillating or Indecisive Customer, This type 
 has great difficulty in making decisions. Even though an 
 object Is intensely desired and is capable of being pur- 
 chased by the vacillating customer, hesitation ensues and 
 often indefinite postponement of decision. Going for 
 an evening stroll this type sometimes has difficulty in 
 deciding which direction to go or which fork of a road 
 to take. In fact, decision to the vacillating person is 
 
 ^See Chapters II and III. 
 
lOO 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 painful. This is so because it consumes a great deal of 
 energy; for anything that is not naturally accomplished 
 takes effort to perform. Unconsciously, friends decide 
 numerous everyday problems for this type, which if left 
 to them for decision would entail much irksome effort. 
 Because of this unrealized service performed, vacillating 
 people admire the more positive types who have some- 
 thing they lack, viz., power of decision. Unlike the de- 
 liberative type, vacillating customers do not postpone de- 
 cision because they want to think over the proposition 
 from all viewpoints, but rather because they cannot de- 
 cide. The ability to make the will function is here lack- 
 ing; further thought on the subject may only tend to 
 impress the vacillating type with its own weakness. 
 
 The vacillating customer can oftentimes be singled out 
 before she gets to the counter. Indecisiveness of the 
 mind expresses itself through the actions. Bodily move- 
 ments are somewhat aimless; the manner is undecided 
 and wavering; the facial expression is timid and apprehen- 
 sive. The whole impression given is one of hesitation. 
 This kind of a customer does not quite know just which 
 department she wishes to go to first, and in case she starts 
 toward one, a second later she may decide to retrace her 
 steps and go to another. 
 
 In case the salesperson has not had an opportunity to 
 observe the customer before the latter gets to the counter, 
 quick observation will disclose at least some of the char- 
 acteristics of the vacillating customer. The latter shifts 
 from one article to another making it more difficult for a 
 decision to be formed. She does not seem to respond as 
 readily to the sales talk as do the deliberative and im- 
 pulsive types. She often seems somewhat afraid of the 
 salesperson and the goods, as if foreboding some trouble. 
 
 KNOWING THE CUSTOMER 
 
 lOI 
 
 When the time comes to close the sale this type shows 
 an inability to decide between different goods or to pur- 
 chase at all. Such customers give the impression that 
 they lack confidence in their own judgment, and naturally 
 such a feeling tends to further impair their will power. 
 
 The reader has no doubt deduced from the foregoing 
 the proper method of dealing with the vacillating cus- 
 tomer. Decide for her. Do for her what it is not nat- 
 ural for her to do. Supplement her personality with 
 yours. And yet do this without it being evident. Per- 
 haps this seems difficult to accomplish but it is not neces- 
 sarily so. The writer has seen some very intelligent 
 methods used in retail stores to accomplish this desired 
 end. In the first place, concentration of attention must 
 be secured, which means the elimination of all goods ex- 
 cepting those especially desirable for the customer's needs. 
 Next, an interesting, convincing, but not too aggressive 
 sales talk on the articles exhibited brings the customer 
 one step nearer the sale — from indecision between differ- 
 ent articles, to indecision whether or not to buy at all 
 the one most desirable. Some methods commonly used 
 to get the vacillating customer to make up her mind are : 
 
 (a) placing the goods aside as if decision had been made; 
 
 (b) beginning to make out the sales check; (c) asking 
 some question that will imply decision has been made, as, 
 "How many yards will you require?'* "Have you a 
 charge account or do you wish to pay for it?'' "Will 
 you take it with you or shall we send it? " (d) beginning 
 to measure goods, placing them in the parcel-carrier, or 
 starting to wrap them up. 
 
 Such devices for inducing decision are very effective in 
 getting the vacillating customer to purchase, but they 
 must be used with care. The salesperson should be quite 
 
102 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 if 
 
 \ i 
 
 It 
 
 i 
 
 certain of the type. A customer not at all of this inde- 
 cisive type, when asked by a salesperson, " How many 
 yards did you say you would need?*' replied spiritedly, 
 " I didn't say that I needed any yards." The obstinate 
 or more positive types resent keenly any attempts on the 
 part of salespeople to decide for them. If the sales- 
 person feels that she must decide for these types she must 
 do so in a way that will not be apparent. A wrong diag- 
 nosis of a customer often causes more friction than if 
 no diagnosis had been made, yet this is no reason for the 
 elimination of diagnosing human nature. It merely 
 means that great care should be exercised In applying some 
 methods of selling when the salesperson is uncertain as 
 to the type. Mistakes are certain to be made but it is 
 far better to learn human nature even though some er- 
 rors are encountered in the process than to standardize 
 human nature and deal with customers in a cut and dried 
 fashion. The latter method is only too often used and 
 is unfortunate not only in that it encourages friction in 
 selling but because it makes selling monotonous, mechan- 
 ical and lacking in spirit. Variety of action produces 
 pleasure, and pleasure develops enthusiasm — one of the 
 most valuable qualities in any work. Decide on the type 
 and then apply the rules. 
 
 If the salesperson understands the vacillating person's 
 make up, there will be no hesitation in deciding for the 
 customer or in using some device to produce decision. To 
 wait for this type to decide is to cause dissatisfaction. 
 The vacillating customer is accustomed to having people 
 decide for her and unless they do she has a feeling of help- 
 lessness. She obviously must purchase goods somewhere, 
 and the store that will secure her business is the one where 
 it is made easy for her to buy, where less irksome effort 
 
 KNOWING THE CUSTOMER 
 
 103 
 
 is necessary. Customers go to stores where the environ- 
 ment is favorable for buying; and when different types of 
 customers trade at every store, part of the environment 
 (that produced by the salespeople) must be changed to 
 meet the different demands (conscious or unconscious) of 
 the various types of customers. Selling environment 
 must be capable of change if it is to be uniformly effective. 
 4. The Confident or Decisive Customer. The oppo- 
 site of the indecisive, vacillating customer is the deci- 
 sive, confident customer. This kind of customer, in 
 her own estimation at least, knows what she wants 
 and all about the goods. Perhaps she has found her- 
 self fortunate in the past when relying upon her own 
 judgment; possibly in some cases she has discovered that 
 she knew more about goods than the people selling 
 them. A certain cock-sureness has thus developed that 
 dominates her actions. She will not tolerate sales- 
 people who assume to know more than she does, 
 neither will she be dictated to by them. She prides 
 herself on her cleverness and is offended if salespeople 
 do not recognize her merit. Overconfidence is the dom- 
 inant characteristic of the confident customer, which, for- 
 tunately for the salesperson, leaves her off her guard and 
 opens up vulnerable avenues of approach that should be 
 eagerly attacked. This feeling of security is a variety 
 of vanity ^ which seeks recognition and suffers materially 
 unless it receives rt. It is the duty of the salesperson to 
 satisfy this craving in a manner that will make buying a 
 pleasure. 
 
 The confident customer can be distinguished by her 
 bearing and attitude. She walks into the store as a gen- 
 eral would march into the camp of a defeated enemy. 
 
 1 See page 68. 
 
 I 
 
I04 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 She has an assurance In her manner and a general ap- 
 pearance that Indicates hopefulness and confidence In her- 
 self. When looking at merchandise this type usually has 
 decided views and no reluctance In stating them. The 
 confident customer enjoys taking the Initiative away from 
 the salesperson and telling what she knows about the 
 goods. She exhibits pleasure when the salesperson asks 
 her " opinion '' on any matter. 
 
 This type is one of the easiest to sell. Subtle flattery 
 and agreement with what they have to say gives them 
 pleasure and makes It easy for them to buy. Confident 
 customers should be encouraged to tell the salesperson 
 all about the merchandise and Its good qualities. Stim- 
 ulated by smiles and respect for their opinions these cus- 
 tomers will sell themselves the goods. Their advice 
 should be solicited on any mooted point and everything 
 said to minister to their self-esteem. Let them express 
 any Information they may possess; they will feel better. 
 A salesperson should never argue or dispute the statement 
 of any type of customer, especially not of this particular 
 type. Such a course of action would prove suicidal. If 
 the salesperson does know more about the goods than 
 the confident customer the latter should not be disillu- 
 sioned. Confident people do not like to be disillusioned. 
 
 Sometimes salespeople forget their true function. In- 
 stead of selling goods they attempt to reconstruct human 
 nature. Illustrating this, a salesperson was heard to 
 exclaim after a customer had left her department, " I 
 took her down a notch or two; she thought she knew 
 everything." It must be emphasized that people do not 
 like to be " taken down." If they think they are of 
 great account and their opinions are valuable, why should 
 the salesperson attempt to make them think less of them- 
 
 KNOWING THE CUSTOMER 
 
 105 
 
 selves? People do not take pleasure in thinking less of 
 themselves; and it must be remembered that customers 
 trade only where buying is the most pleasurable. No 
 salesperson would think of stepping on the toes of a cus- 
 tomer because the latter had big feet, neither would she 
 hold a mirror before an unattractive customer and call at- 
 tention to her apparent handicap. Why then should not 
 characteristics of customers, which are just as much a part 
 of them as their physical features, be shown due respect 
 and consideration? To show lack of sympathy and re- 
 spect for the customer's sensibilities is just as inconsider- 
 ate as to inflict physical Injury, and what is most im- 
 portant, loses sales. 
 
 Too many salespeople would like to have customers 
 " different " than they are. Many of us would prefer 
 different conditions than those in which we labor. How- 
 ever, it is not what we desire but what exists in reality 
 that counts and should determine our methods of work. 
 Perhaps confident customers should not be so confident, 
 but what satisfaction does such an admission give the 
 salesperson? It does not register sales; It does not bring 
 promotion. The latter desirable ends can only be se- 
 cured by selling goods under the conditions that exist, 
 and to the different kinds of human nature found in cus- 
 tomers. Adapting oneself to circumstances is the secret 
 of the salesperson who successfully sells different types 
 of customers. If buying can be made a pleasure for 
 confident customers by letting them give their opinions, 
 even though they may not know much about the merchan- 
 dise, let them do so. The confident customer will sell 
 herself If given half a chance. Do not stand in her way. 
 Help her convince herself. 
 
 5. The Talkative or Friendly Customer, The talka- 
 
io6 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 'li 
 
 n 
 
 tivc customer needs little description as she can be distin- 
 guished by her friendly attitude and inclination to talk 
 on many subjects. This type is closely allied to the pre- 
 ceding one but differs in this respect, that she talks merely 
 to be saying something rather than with a definite object 
 in view. Also this type is more social and lacks the con- 
 fidence of the former type. Being friendly by nature 
 talkative customers buy where there is the most complete 
 opportunity for expression of their feelings. They can- 
 not bring themselves to trade at stores where gruff and 
 unsympathetic salespeople wait on them. They must 
 have an outlet for their personalities, and like other types 
 desire to buy where buying is a pleasure. They desire a 
 peculiar environment for their purchasing and the sales- 
 person must create the kind of atmosphere desired. 
 
 At first sight, it would appear that handling this type 
 is an easy matter. In reality, however, it is often most 
 diflicult. Not that it is difficult for the salesperson to 
 reciprocate friendliness and sociability, for this is usually 
 quite easy. The real difficulty in dealing with this type 
 is to be friendly and yet sell the maximum amount of 
 goods. Talkative customers, if given a chance, often 
 talk themselves out of a sale. They change the subject 
 of conversation abruptly and it takes a good deal of tact 
 and determination on the part of the salesperson to get 
 back to the selling talk. But this must be done, and with- 
 out letting the customer know that it is being done. Dif- 
 ferent salespeople use different methods for accomplish- 
 ing this. One method is to give new unmentioned quali- 
 fications of the merchandise as a sort of afterthought, 
 such as, " By the way, I forgot to tell you, etc." Some- 
 times this type of customer has a good deal of confidence 
 in herself and if directed back to the subject will act like 
 
 KNOWING THE CUSTOMER 
 
 107 
 
 the confident customer and use her talking ability to talk 
 herself into a sale. The point to be emphasized is that 
 the talkative customer's conversation must be unob- 
 servedly controlled and directed into channels favorable 
 to sales. Unless this is done, this type of customer will 
 talk herself tired, thus producing unfavorable conditions 
 for making sales. 
 
 The salesperson selling this type needs a great deal of 
 patience. The friendly customer must oftentimes be 
 listened to on many topics before she can be induced to 
 give attention to a sales talk. But this should be done 
 since the prosperity of the business depends on the ability 
 of the salespeople to keep customers satisfied and happy. 
 It may take as long to sell the talkative customer as it 
 does to sell the deliberative type, but it does not pay to 
 encroach too much on what she has to say any more than 
 it is profitable to rush the deliberative customer. But 
 patience does not imply neglect of duty. The salesperson 
 should be careful not to become too absorbed in what the 
 customer is saying so as to overlook the necessity of 
 planning the sales campaign and initiating it. The sales- 
 person can do much constructive planning while appar- 
 ently listening to what the customer has to say. If this 
 is done, the first opening for a sales talk can be appropri- 
 ately utilized and the conversation directed to the mer- 
 chandise. Be friendly to the friendly customer but do not 
 let friendliness defeat sales. Make sociability and talka- 
 tiveness means toward sales and not ends in and of them- 
 selves. 
 
 6. The Silent or Indifferent Customer. This type is 
 the reverse of the talkative customer. No matter how 
 enthusiastic the salesperson and how interesting the sales 
 talk, this kind of customer shows recognition of neither. 
 
io8 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 She is as silent as the Sphinx. It is especially difficult to 
 handle such a situation intelligently because the salesper- 
 son cannot know where to concentrate the sales talk. 
 When customers enthuse or criticize the goods shown 
 them, sales talks may be adapted to the demands of the 
 situation. But when the customer says nothing, does 
 not respond to the efforts to Interest her, the situation 
 becomes more complicated. 
 
 Since speech does not exist as a clew to the customer's 
 likes and dislikes, other means of ascertaining desires 
 must be discovered. Facial expression and actions may 
 indicate merchandise most favored, as well as whether 
 interest centers in quality, price, utility, beauty, etc. Bod- 
 ily expressions should then be watched carefully, for 
 where it is not customary for the mental process to dis- 
 close itself in speech, it is probable that its nature will be 
 exhibited on the face and in the eagerness with which 
 some pieces of merchandise are handled as compared with 
 others. 
 
 This latter point is illustrated by a certain druggist 
 who sells brushes. A man came into his store and asked 
 to look at hair-brushes. The druggist brought out about 
 a dozen, priced from one to five dollars. The customer 
 picked them up one by one and then replaced them on the 
 counter, the druggist all the while giving an interesting 
 sales talk but the customer saying nothing. Finally, with- 
 out any apparent reason for doing so, the druggist re- 
 moved from the counter all excepting two brushes, a 
 four and a ^vc dollar one. The sales talk was now con- 
 centrated on these when presently the customer said, " I'll 
 take this one," holding up the five dollar brush. These 
 were the first words uttered by the customer with the 
 exception of those asking to look at brushes. An ob- 
 
 KNOWING THE CUSTOMER 
 
 109 
 
 server of this startling transaction stepped up to the 
 druggist after the customer had left the store with his 
 purchase, and exclaimed, " How in the world did you 
 know which brushes he liked? " " That was easy," re- 
 plied the druggist. " Do you see that fine white Ime 
 painted across the counter? Well, the brushes the cus- 
 tomer was most interested In he more reluctantly parted 
 with, and placed them on the counter partly over the 
 white line; while those he did not desire were placed 
 completely on the other side of the white line, farthest 
 
 away from him." 
 
 Besides the observation of bodily expressions, the sales- 
 person must break down the customer's reserve and make 
 her talk without obviously appearing to do so. This 
 can often be done by asking questions that require more 
 detailed answers than " yes " and '' no." Perhaps the 
 customer's opinion respecting the merchandise may be 
 solicited. By such friendly inquiries this type of cus- 
 tomer Is led out of her seclusion. Once having voiced 
 an opinion it is easier for others to follow, and soon 
 there is the usual give and take between buyer and seller 
 which gives a clew to desires. Only in exceptional cases 
 will a customer of this type openly insult the salesperson 
 by refusing to answer a question. When this does occur 
 the salesperson should overlook the apparent insult and 
 proceed further to Interest the customer In the merchan- 
 dise. Sooner or later, patient efforts to sell this extreme 
 type will be rewarded. 
 
 Unfortunately, silence on the part of the customer 
 often antagonizes the salesperson or makes her unduly 
 anxious or disheartened. This should not be the case. 
 If the customer is silent by nature no insult is intended 
 for the salesperson. Since human nature cannot be made 
 
no 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 II 
 
 over in the short space of time at the salesperson's dis- 
 posal, the latter must deal with this type as she finds her, 
 and not as she wishes her to be. This type, like all the 
 others, must of necessity purchase goods, and she will 
 go to that store where the environment produced by the 
 salesperson is best adapted to her personality. Un- 
 friendliness, exasperation, sourness or other negative qual- 
 ities, if exhibited by salespeople, will not produce the en- 
 vironment the silent customer likes. Adapting oneself 
 to circumstances is one of the prime requisites of sales- 
 manship. Only careful study of different situations can 
 produce this desirable quality. 
 
 Sometimes silence is not a natural trait but a defensive 
 pose. Timid people or those afraid to give up too read- 
 ily to salespeople's opinions may use silence as a guard 
 against unwise buying. They are reluctant to concur too 
 readily as they think it might affect their own judgment 
 or possibly impair their interests. They do not want to 
 appear too " easy." Professional buyers often pose thus 
 in order to get a better price. 
 
 It is safe to assume with this type as with others that 
 they came into the store and to the department primarily 
 because they considered buying. If such customers are 
 afraid to let down the bars of their judgment and express 
 their opinions, the salesperson should endeavor to con- 
 vince them so thoroughly respecting the merchandise that 
 their judgments will logically register in favor of the sales- 
 person's presentation. No impatience should be exhib- 
 ited because the customer has chosen to use this device, 
 any more than disgust should be apparent if the customer 
 is not cleanly, well clothed, or has some physical deform- 
 ity. Customers have a right to their personalities. 
 
 KNOWING THE CUSTOMER 
 
 III 
 
 Salespeople cannot and should not try to change them. 
 They must adapt themselves to them. 
 
 7. The Distrustful Customer, Some persons are la- 
 boring under the impression that any one who tries to sell 
 them anything is dishonest. Especially do they believe 
 this of the retailer. These people come to a store in a 
 watchful, distrustful frame of mind, and are constantly 
 looking for attempts to cheat them. Perhaps this feeling 
 of suspicion has arisen because they have been deceived 
 in the past ; perhaps this attitude is natural. But whether 
 this attitude comes from nature or environment makes 
 little difference to the salesperson. All she is concerned 
 with is the fact that it exists and must be tactfully dealt 
 
 with. 
 
 This type can usually be discovered by the cynical man- 
 ner in which they inspect goods, and often by a sneer ap- 
 pearing around the base of the nose and the lips when 
 the salesperson makes statements regarding merchandise. 
 Distrustful customers often walk in a stealthy way as if 
 they were tracing down some clew to a murder. They 
 have a tendency to pick out apparent flaws in the goods 
 or inconsistencies in the sales talk. They pride them- 
 selves on knowing the so-called *' tricks of the trade." 
 Sometimes they will be frank enough to say that they 
 do not believe the claims made for the goods. More 
 often, however, this feeling will be expressed through fa- 
 cial expression and the general attitude exhibited toward 
 the salesperson and the goods. 
 
 The distrustful person can be successfully sold by the 
 use of several methods. In the first place, the customer 
 must be inspired with confidence in the salesperson. One 
 of the most effective ways of gaining this end is to state 
 
112 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 II 
 
 obvious facts In the description of the goods. Doing 
 this causes the customer to agree. When she has once 
 agreed with anything that the salesperson has said it is 
 much easier for her to agree to something else less ob- 
 viously true that may be said regarding the merchan- 
 dise. Showing obvious facts in the description of goods 
 thus forms the basis for future agreement — a most de- 
 sirable end especially when dealing with a suspicious na- 
 ture. In the second place, this type believes her eyes 
 more than she does her ears. Hence, the sales talk should 
 be supplemented by demonstrations. Prove, by using the 
 merchandise, that it will do what is claimed for it. Bet- 
 ter yet, induce the customer to test it herself. She will 
 convince herself where others will fail. Unfortunately, 
 demonstrations are not used enough with any type of cus- 
 tomer but certainly not with the distrustful type. In the 
 third place, bring In authority to substantiate your own 
 assertions. Have some neighbor friends of the customer 
 made some favorable comment regarding the goods? If 
 so, the distrustful customer will believe them rather than 
 the salesperson. Perhaps some noted authority has 
 recommended the article and possibly this advice has ap- 
 peared In some book, newspaper or magazine. All evi- 
 dence of an Impartial nature should be presented in order 
 to secure the customer's confidence. 
 
 With an extremely suspicious customer a further more 
 radical method may be used, especially at the beginning 
 of the sales talk. This Is pointing out the more obvious 
 defects in the goods, or admitting that the goods are not 
 perfect In every detail. Such tactics are so unusual that 
 the distrustful customer's mind is immediately disorgan- 
 ized. The wind is taken out of her sails. What she 
 was going to do herself the salesperson has done. If 
 
 KNOWING THE CUSTOMER 
 
 113 
 
 imperfections that she would have overlooked are pointed 
 out, the customer is extremely grateful and is soon won 
 over to a thorough belief in the honesty of the salesper- 
 son. Then, If the Imperfections are minimized by com- 
 plete portrayal of the positive features, the customer's 
 mind is diverted from the negative considerations and 
 sales can be made. Confidence is the only basis for 
 sales, and if it does not exist in a customer it must be 
 produced. This bold method of producing confidence 
 in the minds of distrustful customers has often been used 
 effectively by the writer. The suspicious customer is 
 easily sold by the method of showing the worst side first. 
 As stated elsewhere, ascertain the type and then apply 
 the rules. Results will be in proportion to the tact with 
 which they are applied. 
 
 As a rule, salespeople only reluctantly deal with sus- 
 picious customers. They seem to take the customer's dis- 
 trust as a personal insult. They resent the suspicious 
 attitude. The only result of such actions is to make the 
 customer more suspicious. When this type of customer 
 is not sold she often comes to the unwarranted conclusion 
 that she did not buy because of traces of trickery. In 
 reality, all that she may have found was an inefficient 
 salesperson, but that does not help the matter. She goes 
 to some other store where she can get the pleasant sensa- 
 tion of buying and being satisfied. The salesperson 
 should always remember that the suspicious customer will 
 be sold by somebody. 
 
 There are many other types of customers but the ones 
 given are the most common and easily recognized. As 
 already Indicated, the salesperson should be careful not 
 to consider these types always distinct and as represent- 
 ing certain people at all times. Some customers are im- 
 
 / 
 
114 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 I 
 
 k 
 
 i 
 
 pulsive when buying inexpensive merchandise but delib- 
 erative when contemplating a larger purchase; some are 
 impulsive in the morning and deliberative toward eve- 
 ning; some are impulsive or deliberative as dictated by 
 other conditions. Again, a customer may be suspicious 
 in one store but not in another, with some salespeople 
 but not with others in the same store. Deliberative, 
 impulsive and other types may show strong evidences of 
 suspicion under certain circumstances. Still further, a 
 customer may be a confident type in a department where 
 she is intimately acquainted with the goods but may ex- 
 hibit vacillating characteristics in other departments. 
 
 Thus it IS seen that conditions of environment, physical 
 well-being, size of purchase, time of day, former experi- 
 ences, etc., may alter people's feelings and change their 
 predominating characteristics of action at any moment of 
 time. People are often combinations of types, and yet 
 notwithstanding this fact it is still important to remember 
 that distinct types do exist. Some customers are funda- 
 mentally vacillating at all times, or confident, or impul- 
 sive. The important lesson for the salesperson to re- 
 member is this: that no matter what type a customer has 
 been in the past or will be tomorrow she is a distinct 
 type now, and what type she represents can be distin- 
 guished by her actions. 
 
 In conclusion, salesmanship may be said to be the crea- 
 tion of an environment around a customer favorable for 
 selling. It is making buying pleasurable for customers 
 by dealing with them as their individual characteristics 
 dictate. Salesmanship is conditioned upon ready ad- 
 justment of sales methods to widely differing types of 
 customers. It is in reality adjustment to circumstances, 
 which constitutes service. The ability to create this 
 
 KNOWING THE CUSTOMER 
 
 115 
 
 environment or adjustment is secured through careful 
 and painstaking study of human nature. The store 
 should be considered a school where opportunities are of- 
 fered salespeople to make such a study and to secure an 
 intimate knowledge of human nature. Without such 
 knowledge the salesperson can never hope to advance far 
 in her profession. 
 
ii 
 
 lil^ 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 ELEMENTS OF PERSONALITY 
 
 Personality is that which constitutes distinction of per- 
 son. It Is a composite thing made up of many qualities, 
 negative In some persons, positive In others and a com- 
 bination of both In still others. Personalities in which 
 negative qualities or traits predominate are of little use 
 to society. They represenrt the failures in life : criminals, 
 insane and degenerates. Personalities In which the posi- 
 tive qualities predominate are reflected In the people 
 around us, those who are more or less successful In their 
 respective occupations. The person completely domi- 
 nated by positive qualities Is the most complete success. 
 
 To become the most complete success In her calling by 
 the development of personality, is the privilege and duty 
 of every salesperson; privilege, because the salesperson 
 cannot get the most out of life either in material or im- 
 material satisfaction without a deeply and broadly de- 
 veloped personality; duty, because the employer has a 
 right to expect not only efficient service but service ever 
 incrensing in efficiency. The salesperson unwilling to de- 
 velop her personality will soon go into the discard, at 
 least so far as positions in first class stores are concerned. 
 There is no such thing as standing still In personality. 
 Either progress Is being made or else there Is retrogres- 
 sion. A store with progressive ideas realizes this funda- 
 mental truth and cannot afford to keep within its organi- 
 
 ii6 
 
 ELEMENTS OF PERSONALITY 
 
 117 
 
 zation any elements of decay lest the infection of stag- 
 nation spread throughout Its entire system. Develop- 
 ment is the law of modern business and progress. 
 
 An attractive and business-getting personality is a com- 
 position of three factors: neat, clean, attractive dress; a 
 healthy body; and a combination of certain positive qual- 
 ities or attributes, viz., enthusiasm, honesty, tact, self- 
 command, courtesy, cheerfulness, promptness, memory, 
 sympathy and initiative. The first two factors while very 
 important cannot be considered in this book, but the 
 last one, separated into its component parts, is here 
 taken up for discussion. 
 
 ENTHUSIASM 
 
 Enthusiasm In a salesperson Is the quality that makes 
 her give her sales talk In an intense and earnest way that 
 carries conviction. The enthusiastic salesperson spon- 
 taneously overflows with confidence in herself, and belief 
 In the goods and the satisfactions they hold for the cus- 
 tomer. Confidence can only be secured by knowledge: 
 knowledge of one's own ability, of the customer, of the 
 goods, and of the selling process. 
 
 Enthusiasm based on confidence begets confidence and 
 enthusiasm in the customer. It Is contagious. The 
 salesperson with enough confidence in her goods and her- 
 self to become enthusiastic, soon brings others to see her 
 point of view. Sincerity, reflected by enthusiasm, is im- 
 pressive and will command the attention and respect even 
 of customers unable to share In her belief. 
 
 Enthusiasm backed by facts is a combination of the 
 spiritual and the material. The latter lacks life without 
 the former while the former is hollow hypocrisy without 
 the latter. Enthusiasm cannot be faked. Without a 
 
ii8 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 background of knowledge and belief it stands forth in all 
 its shallow futility. Counterfeit enthusiasm can never 
 pass for the genuine for it lacks in weight, sound and ap- 
 pearance. A salesperson who attempts to be earnest 
 and eager in her sales talk will fool no one excepting her- 
 self. Only by intelligent observation, reflection and 
 study can the salesperson create a harmonious background 
 for the efficient functioning of enthusiasm. 
 
 Not only does enthusiasm stimulate self-respect and 
 enhance the customer's esteem for the salesperson, but it 
 also develops loyalty for the house and its methods. To 
 be loyal to a sales institution a salesperson must have con- 
 fidence in its integrity and belief in its policies. Enthu- 
 siasm developed from knowing the goods will go far to- 
 ward developing loyalty to the house that handles those 
 goods. Further knowledge regarding the store's history, 
 its aims and ambitions, will generate new enthusiasm 
 which will form the basis for a broader and stronger 
 loyalty. 
 
 Perhaps it is not too obvious to note that loyalty to a 
 store can only be based on its honest and square dealing. 
 Truthful advertising, honest representations by salespeo- 
 ple and sympathetic treatment of customers' needs are 
 some of the foundation stones for the building of the 
 loyalty structure. Some firms that deserve it do not get 
 it from all salespeople, but no firm that does not deserve 
 it ever wins it from any salesperson. 
 
 What is loyalty? It is devotion to the store's ideals 
 and to those who are trying to realize them. It is a duty 
 that each salesperson owes to the store for which she 
 works, a duty based on knowledge of the complete service 
 rendered to the community. A loyal salesperson will not 
 adversely criticize the store, its methods, its rules or 
 
 ELEMENTS OF PERSONALITY 
 
 ri9 
 
 policies before customers or the general public. She will 
 not bemoan her lack of recognition by the store man- 
 agement, realizing that merit is compensated when fully 
 evident. She will do nothing to injure or neutralize her 
 store's best interests even though such action may ap- 
 parently be to her advantage. She realizes that to knock 
 the store is to knock herself, since she is part of the store. 
 All salespeople should have a feeling of admiration for 
 the store in which they are working or else seek oppor- 
 tunities elsewhere. Disloyalty can never be justified 
 within an organization because sincerity would thereby 
 be violated. Sincerity can only be preserved by with- 
 drawing from any association the ideals or policies of 
 which are contrary to one's dictates of right dealing. 
 And, it must be remembered, sincerity is at the basis of 
 enthusiasm; it of all qualities must be preserved. 
 
 What has been said does not preclude helpful criticism 
 of the store. This is always solicited by progressive 
 managers and where it is not directly solicited by others 
 its acceptability will be recognized if suflUcient tact is dis- 
 played by the salesperson submitting it. Constructive 
 criticism is the only kind of criticism of any value and 
 this is of doubtful value unless called to the attention of 
 those whose position equips them to profit by it. Loy- 
 alty to the stores does not exclude this latter form of 
 criticism — it demands it. 
 
 Enthusiasm can be developed by making work enjoy- 
 able. People are only enthusiastic about those things 
 that create a pleasurable sensation in them, hence the 
 necessity of removing the real or imaginary aspects of 
 drudgery and monotony from sales work. Lack of in- 
 terest or a feeling of monotony results when an operation 
 becomes mechanical — when the salesperson becomes an 
 
I20 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 automaton. Automatism is the natural development of 
 ignorance ; ignorance of store history, ideals and policies ; 
 ignorance of inspiring facts about the goods; ignorance 
 of any definite scheme of procedure in selling; ignorance 
 of self-analysis. From such desert soil only hardy weeds 
 can grow: lack of interest, a feeling that the work is 
 monotonous, and general unhappiness. 
 
 The only work that can truthfully be called monotonous 
 is that which requires repeated effort of the same kind 
 and quality without variation. Such is the operation of 
 wrapping oleomargarine in the packing plants. Here 
 a girl stands all day in one position and performs the 
 repeated operation of taking cakes of oleomargarine from 
 an endless bplt in front of her, putting each of them in a 
 separate box taken from a receptacle at her right, and 
 then transferring the package to another endless belt at 
 her left. 
 
 Work of such a monotonous character is unknown to 
 the retail store. Here the chief factor is the human one 
 which is the most variable of elements that any worker 
 could deal with. Customers are different from each other 
 and the same customers are different at different times; 
 the salesperson herself partakes of the same characteris- 
 tics; any article has innumerable talking points and sel- 
 dom can two successive sales talks on the same article be 
 identical because of the varying element — the customer; 
 there are many qualities of the same article as well as 
 many articles in any one department; multiply these 
 possibilities for variety of action by all the articles in the 
 store (where salespeople can sell out of their depart- 
 ment) , and by all the different types of customers and the 
 varying moods of each type, and by the changing mental 
 and physical conditions of the salesperson herself — and 
 
 ELEMENTS OF PERSONALITY 
 
 121 
 
 work with greater possibilities for variety of action and 
 constant adjustment to new conditions cannot easily be 
 imagined. 
 
 Only does monotony exist in sales work when it exists 
 in the mind of the salesperson, when she makes each 
 operation, each selling talk, identical with every other 
 one and regards all customers capable of similar hand- 
 ling. When a salesperson disregards the possibility for 
 variation of operation, the work does become monotonous 
 for her, but she Is not fair in calling her work monotonous 
 in the usual meaning of the term. Paradise would be re- 
 named by those unfitted to appreciate its happiness. 
 
 To adapt one's self to one's environment, to vary one's 
 operations where varying operations are necessary to ade- 
 quately meet conditions, to replace Ignorance by knowl- 
 edge, to develop loyalty and faithfulness, are the privi- 
 leges and duties of every salesperson, and are rewarded 
 by material satisfactions but above all by happiness — the 
 generator of enthusiasm. 
 
 HONESTY 
 
 Honesty is fairness and straightforwardness in con- 
 duct, thought and speech. It Is the opposite of fraud 
 and misrepresentation. A salesperson is honest when she 
 IS fair in her dealings with the customer, upright with 
 herself and trustworthy to her employer. Anything less 
 than this trinity of honorable dealings cannot be called 
 honesty. 
 
 If salespeople were to critically analyze themselves 
 for honesty in the light of the above definition, many of 
 them who believed themselves entitled to a clean bill in 
 this respect would be disappointed. Some of their com- 
 mon modes of conduct would appear unfair to their em- 
 
 1 
 
 i:, 
 
 1 
 
• 
 
 122 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 ployer and to the customer while certain trends of thought 
 would be recognized as unjust to their own development. 
 
 A salesperson is not honest with her employer, the cus- 
 tomer or herself if she is not efficient in her work. Some 
 salespeople indicate by their actions that it is nobody's 
 business whether or not they are experts in their line. 
 Only a few shoe salespeople that the writer has met 
 seemed to think it their duty to know something about 
 the construction of the human foot. Because of such an 
 attitude many persons are ill-fitted; they are unfairly 
 dealt with; they have paid for service but have not re- 
 ceived It; in other words, they have been deceived. Of 
 course, in a great many cases the public have learned 
 through experience not to expect expert service in retail 
 stores and if they do not receive it are not disappointed. 
 However, a large portion of this class have ceased to buy 
 from the retailer where they have had to pay for some- 
 thing that was not given them, and instead have become 
 purchasers from mail order houses where prices are lower 
 because the services of ( i ) letting the customer see and 
 handle the goods, (2) telling her all that she wants to 
 know about the article, (3) expertly fitting garments to 
 her individual peculiarities, and (4) prompt delivery, 
 cannot be offered because of the nature of the business — 
 and are not expected by the customer. With all these 
 handicaps, still the mail order houses have built up a repu- 
 tation for honesty and fairness because they have given 
 what they represented to give whether little or much. 
 
 Nevertheless, two-thirds of the people in the United 
 States still patronize the retailer in the hope that they 
 will get the service that they pay for and for which they 
 long. Hence it is to be assumed that if any customer 
 does not receive the facts wished for, or fails to get the 
 
 ELEMENTS OF PERSONALITY 
 
 123 
 
 fit desired, she is disappointed and feels that the store 
 has not treated her fairly, that is, has not been honest 
 with her; since by hypothesis, she would not be a retail 
 customer if she were not anticipating and ready to pay 
 for some services other than those given by the mail 
 order houses. To keep faith with the customer who 
 wants service and is willing to pay for it, is the duty of 
 the salesperson. She cannot be considered honest in the 
 fullest meaning of the term unless she does so. 
 
 Besides dishonesty due to lack of knowledge and skill, 
 which robs the customer of service and reacts unfavorably 
 upon the store and salesperson, is the dishonesty arising 
 from idleness on the part of salespeople. Gossiping, 
 lounging and loitering seem to be the pastimes of some 
 salespeople between sales. Although they are hired to 
 work the entire period between certain hours each day, 
 one would think, to see their utter relaxation and aban- 
 donment after each sale, that they were hired to work 
 only when a customer appeared before them. The stock 
 for these reasons is not kept arranged and in good order, 
 shortages are often overlooked, cleanliness becomes 
 subordinated to matters of lesser importance, and many 
 other errors are made, any one of which would result in 
 injustice to the customer, unfaithfulness to the store, and 
 so far as bad habits of conduct are developed, injury to 
 the salespeople themselves. 
 
 The kind of dishonesty usually thought of in regard 
 to retail stores is that of misrepresentation of goods. 
 Misrepresentation may be intentional or unintentional 
 and may be concerned with the manufacture, construc- 
 tion, purpose, operation, composition or durability of 
 
 any article. 
 
 Whether the misrepresentation is intentional or other- 
 
 ii 
 
 
124 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 wise — the effect on the customer is the same. When 
 the truth is ultimately ascertained from use of the article, 
 distrust of the store and the salesperson results. From 
 the standpoint of the customer, if the salesperson did not 
 know the facts she should not have practiced deception by 
 giving an appearance of knowledge in order to tide over 
 an immediate embarrassment. Far better would it have 
 been for her to have exhibited ignorance than to have 
 bluffed. On the other hand, if the salesperson inten- 
 tionally misrepresented in order to effect a sale, when 
 the facts become known as they always do, the extent of 
 the repulsion on the part of the customer for the store 
 can hardly be realized. Thus it is seen that misstate- 
 ment or misrepresentation of facts, intentionally or un- 
 intentionally done, amounts to about the same thing for 
 the customer because she is the loser thereby; and the 
 salesperson can justly be condemned in either case al- 
 though from an impartial standpoint not to the same 
 degree. But it must be remembered that the customer 
 is not as a rule " impartial '' but is willing to impute ul- 
 terior motives to the salesperson. Expert knowledge is 
 necessary to avoid " an appearance of evil." 
 
 Misrepresentation of construction has caused many 
 disgruntled customers and destroyed millions of dollars 
 of good will. A customer inquired from a furniture 
 dealer the price of a mahogany bed-room suit that was 
 displayed in the window. She was told that it sold for 
 $135.00. On being asked whether the suit was all-ma- 
 hogany, the salesperson replied that a solid mahogany 
 suit could not be purchased for that price ; that the side 
 rails and Inconspicuous parts of the chairs were birch but 
 matched perfectly with the mahogany; that the mahog- 
 any was a veneer but was so perfectly applied that it 
 
 
 ELEMENTS OF PERSONALITY 
 
 125 
 
 could not be detected excepting by an expert; that it 
 would last a life-time. The customer seemed a little 
 disappointed on receiving this information as she thought 
 the style of the furniture ideal and had made up her 
 mind that it was a solid all-mahogany suit. Several 
 days later the same customer returned to this furniture 
 store and purchased the suit in question. She told the 
 salesperson that she had gone to another furnltur-e store 
 where a suit represented to be solid and all-mahogany 
 was offered for $150.00. The customer was perplexed 
 and believed that the salesperson in the first store had mis- 
 represented the facts. To make certain she called up a 
 friend who knew furniture and had him come down with 
 her and decide on the case. The furniture proved to be 
 veneered and supplemented by birch in inconspicuous 
 parts. The customer was Indignant at the deception, 
 and although the dealer protested that he had purchased 
 it for solid mahogany she left the store after accusing 
 him of intentional deception. Her friends soon heard 
 of the affair and those who were customers of this store 
 transferred their trade elsewhere. 
 
 Another case of misrepresentation of construction was 
 called to the writer's attention a short time ago. Two 
 friends had purchased 14-inch lawn mowers from two 
 different stores, one paying $6.00 and the other $8.50. 
 Talking about their mowers some time later the prices 
 were disclosed, the difference in price causing surprise and 
 dissatisfaction on the part of the man who had paid the 
 highest amount. After some reflection this man said, 
 " But mine has ball-bearings." " So has mine," replied 
 the. other, " because I asked the salesperson that ques- 
 tion in particular. He didn't seem to know much about 
 it but felt sure about the ball-bearings. In fact, I be- 
 
 m 
 
126 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 lieve he said that all lawn mowers had ball-bearings." 
 " Well, if he said that," returned the first man, " he was 
 wrong. Let's take it apart and find out." So the mower 
 was analyzed and found to be ball-bearingless. The 
 lawn mower was returned and in spite of the fact that the 
 retailer tried to explain away the mistake by saying the 
 salesperson was " green," the customer never went back 
 to that store. 
 
 Cases innumerable could be related illustrating mis- 
 representation of construction, always resulting in loss of 
 customers' confidence and not only their patronage but 
 often that of their friends. In respect to authentic in- 
 formation regarding construction of goods, the mail or- 
 der houses are far in advance of the average retailer. 
 This reliability of statement is not voluntary on their 
 part but is imposed by law since the mails transmit their 
 sales talk and the mails cannot be used for misstatement 
 or fraud. But whatever the reason, accurate statements 
 regarding construction exist and are one of the chief rea- 
 sons for the immense good will that these establishments 
 have built up in the last few years. 
 
 Misrepresentation of the purpose to which goods 
 should be put results in useless purchases, misdirection of 
 wealth, and suspicion of the store on the part of the cus- 
 tomer. The salesperson should realize that in an effort 
 to meet competition articles are frequently manufactured 
 which are of fair value for the price asked but are ill 
 adapted for some kinds of service. Oftentimes goods 
 that have to stand wear and tear are of this class al- 
 though their appearance and finish may fail to reveal the 
 low grade quality. It is a great temptation for sales- 
 people in handling goods of this character to omit tell- 
 ing all the truth, especially when the customer is a doubt- 
 
 ELEMENTS OF PERSONALITY 
 
 127 
 
 ful judge of the quality. When the truth about the goods 
 does come out, however, as it usually does with use the 
 customer feels that the store is deceitful and perhaps 
 withdraws her patronage. The old maxim. Let the 
 buyer beware," is becoming a thing of the Pf ' ^^^^^^ 
 sooner the better for all parties concerned with the seUing 
 
 transaction. . . 
 
 A common illustration of misrepresentation of purpose 
 
 is that of selling silk shirts and other silk goods where 
 the impression is given that the higher price is paid for 
 greater durability, when in reality this material does not 
 wear as well as cottons of cheaper price. These articles 
 should be put on a ^' style " basis, i. e., explanation should 
 be made that the attainment of distinction in dress costs 
 money just as does the realization of durabihty. If such 
 care is taken no misunderstandings of customers wil 
 occur. Each customer will be called upon to decide what 
 function she desires the goods to fulfill, and then goods 
 capable of meeting the exact needs can be sold. 
 
 Misrepresentation of purpose often results ^^om fail- 
 ing to state conditions under which the article should be 
 used Thus, a customer came into a hardware store and 
 said to the salesperson, '' I want a can of green paint. 
 The salesperson procured a can of green paint, wrapped 
 it up and delivered it to the customer. It failed to give 
 satisfaction and the store was forced to admit its negli- 
 gence. The salesperson should have asked what the 
 paint was for : window blinds, kitchen floor, porch chairs 
 or something else. It should have been realized that 
 the store was not selling a can of paint alone, as was 
 supposed, but also service. The realization by salespeo- 
 pie that goods cannot be separated from service would 
 mean a revolution in present day retaihng. The store 
 
128 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 and Its sales force would be given a new standing In the 
 community -a standing as high as the professions; 
 more goods would be sold by a fewer number of sales- 
 people; wages would be higher, with lower selling costs- 
 hence prices would fall enabling more universal consump- 
 tion of the newer luxuries as well as the necessities of 
 life; and finally, the lower prices of commodities of 
 every-day consumption would mean greater general wel- 
 
 fare and happiness — the goal of all far-sighted 
 effort. 
 
 Misrepresentation of operation Is illustrated by the 
 following case. A woman was debating with herself in 
 a department store whether or not to buy a washing ma- 
 ctiine. Her indecision was quickly transformed into de- 
 cision to buy when the salesperson said, '' It Is so easy to 
 work that a child can run it." Sometime later her hus- 
 band remarked, ^' It takes a child the size of a man to 
 move It The injustice caused by the exaggerated state- 
 ment of the salesperson was a fresh sore for a long time. 
 It healed up only when the salesperson left the store 
 where the machine was purchased. 
 
 Another case of an error of this nature transpired not 
 long ago in a large department store. A customer was 
 examining an aluminum coffee pot with a percolator con- 
 srsting of a long cylindrical sieve resting loosely inside of 
 another cylindrical sieve with a bottom. On being asked 
 where the coffee should go, the salesperson remarked, 
 The coffee goes inside and the water is poured around 
 It.'' The customer purchased the utensil and had great 
 expectations of the coffee it would make, but actual use 
 proved It to be disappointing. The coffee was impossible. 
 The customer believed that she had been swindled and 
 brought the utensil back to the store for an explanation. 
 
 ELEMENTS OF PERSONALITY 
 
 129 
 
 It turned out that the salesperson made a costly error 
 in describing the operation of the percolator, for the cof- 
 fee should have been placed in the outside cylinder and 
 the hot water in the inside one. The explanation was 
 sufficient to induce the customer to keep the coffee pot 
 but her confidence in the salesperson and the store was 
 
 weakened. 
 
 Misstatement of composition is one of the most com- 
 mon forms of every-day dishonesty in sales talks. ^ A 
 salesperson was glibly describing a shoe in superlatives 
 when he was asked whether the shoe was solid leather. 
 Without hesitation he replied, "Yes." After a short 
 period of wear the shoes exhibited fiber counters, paper 
 insoles and the probabilities were that the boxing was 
 composition as it rapidly lost its shape. The word of 
 that salesperson will never be trusted again by this cus- 
 tomer and although she would like to trade at this store 
 because of its variety of stock, she hesitates to do so fear- 
 ing that she will be waited on by this ignorantly deceitful 
 
 salesperson. 
 
 Representing three-fourths wool as " all-wool," fiber 
 silk as " silk," seconds in leather as " firsts," part linen 
 as " linen," etc., are all cases of misrepresentation of 
 composition that most of the mail order houses do not 
 make. Because of their use of the mails such misrepre- 
 sentation would constitute " fraud," yet the retailer often 
 fails to say that goods are three-fourths wool, or that 
 leather goods are seconds, thereby laying himself open 
 to the charge of fraud even though the law does not en- 
 danger him. It would seem that if retailers are to com- 
 pete successfully with mail order houses, they must adopt 
 at least the same standards of square dealing as the latter 
 use. Loss of retail trade in some quarters can beyond 
 
I30 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 H 
 
 doubt be partially attributed to the failure of retailers to 
 recognize this important truth. 
 
 Misrepresentation of durability often takes the form 
 of misleadmg, mdefinite statements regarding the length 
 of time that articles will last. This form of misrepre- 
 sentation is illustrated by the novelty jewelry salesperson 
 who on being asked how long a cheap gold plated brooch 
 would wear, exclaimed, - Oh, a lon^ time." The em- 
 phasis placed on the word " long " gave an entirely wrong 
 implication. Such methods might make a few sales but 
 they are short-sighted to say the least. 
 
 Another salesperson, when asked if the finish on an 
 aluminum tea pot would '' last,'^ replied reassuringly, " It 
 will last forever if properly cared for.'' What '' prop- 
 erly cared for " meant it is difficult to say, but any one 
 who is acquamted with aluminum ware knows that if it is 
 used constantly the polish is only momentary in life, but 
 the metal although duller after use presents a clean, white, 
 attractive appearance. A clear, comprehensive, intelli^ 
 gent answer describing the merits of the metal would 
 have sold the tea pot permanently and left good will; 
 as it was, the tea pot was disposed of to the customer 
 but not " sold," for it must be remembered that an article 
 rs not sold in the most complete meaning of the term 
 unless It brings daily satisfaction, I. e., meets the expec- 
 tations of the customer, and the expectations of the 
 customer are determined by Impressions left by salespeo- 
 ple. In this case the customer had the Impression that 
 the luster would remain on the tea pot, and when it grew 
 dull even with the best of care, this article that should 
 have been a source of constant pleasure If rightly sold, 
 became in reality a perpetual cause of annoyance and 
 dismay. Dollars of good will had been destroyed by a 
 
 ELEMENTS OF PERSONALITY 
 
 131 
 
 Single unintelligent statement of the salesperson. Pro- 
 duction of good will, not ill will, is the privilege and duty 
 of every salesperson. 
 
 Oftentimes the word " guaranteed " Is used in a loose 
 meaningless way without indicating for what period or 
 under what conditions. Again, the phrase, " it will last 
 a life-time " Is open to question. Does it mean the Bib- 
 lical three score years and ten or the balance of the pur- 
 chaser's life, or what? Still further, the phrase, " It will 
 last as long as you will want it " often gives an Impression 
 of durability that is not justified. If a definite term of 
 life is attributed to an article by a salesperson she should 
 indicate the readiness of the store to put the guarantee in 
 writing, especially if the life of the article is a long one, 
 since human memory is short and changes detrimental to 
 the customer might occur. 
 
 Statements comparing the durability of two different 
 articles, such as, " this piece of goods will wear longer 
 than that," should be backed up with evidence which the 
 customer can analyze and use for self-conviction; then if 
 the goods prove to be disappointing the customer will feel 
 that she purchased them with her eyes open — on her 
 own judgment, and not on that of the salesperson. Es- 
 pecially in sales talks respecting articles the durability of 
 which is the most Important factor, great care should be 
 taken to make the customer see the " reason why " for 
 claims that are made. When style is the chief considera- 
 tion, what has just been said does not usually hold true 
 as individual caprice must be appealed to and satisfied. 
 
 Exaggeration is one of the many forms that misrepre- 
 sentation takes. This may and often does concern each 
 of the elements of commodities, such as durability, opera- 
 tion, composition, etc. It is common for ignorant peo- 
 
 I' 
 
 I! 
 
 I. 
 
 I' 
 
*l 
 
 13^ 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 ELEMENTS OF PERSONALITY 
 
 133 
 
 • » 
 
 I 
 
 11 
 
 H 
 
 i\ 
 
 pie, children and simple-minded folk to enlarge on what 
 they actually see and exaggerate the facts in any situa- 
 tion. It seems to be a common occurrence for salespeo- 
 ple who know little about the goods they are selling, to 
 artificially expand the minute information they do pos- 
 sess. This Is true In all fields of activity; if we do not 
 know why an article or phenomenon is good or bad, some 
 superficial circumstance makes us decide either one way 
 or the other and then we search our imaginations to find 
 reasons to support our decision. In the case of sales- 
 people, the superficial circumstance is the supposition that 
 the goods are all right or they would not be in the store. 
 That the goods may be all right under some conditions but 
 unsatisfactory under others, or the fact that taking things 
 for granted rather than ascertaining the " reason why " 
 cannot develop an effective, to say nothing of a truthful 
 selling talk, never seems to occur to many salespeople. 
 The best remedy for exaggeration is knowledge based on 
 careful analysis. Goods will then appear in their true 
 light and not with distorted functions and false charac- 
 teristics. 
 
 The discussion on honesty may well be concluded by 
 representing a certain procedure that Is dishonest al- 
 though not always recognized as such by salespeople. 
 This Is the practice called '' loading." Especially In the 
 past was a salesperson considered clever if she could dis- 
 pose of a large order of goods that were not wanted. 
 Fortunately such ideas are becoming passe. Salespeople 
 are becoming Impressed with the fact that it Is poor busi- 
 ness to give the customer any cause for future regret. 
 It Is more and more being realized that a customer Is not 
 profitably sold if only sold once. The cost of getting a 
 new customer into the store is great and can only be min- 
 
 imized by dividing it over many sales to this customer. 
 Furthermore, the significance attached to the term sale 
 has undergone a radical change. Disposing of goods 
 Is not necessarily selling goods. Goods are not success- 
 fully sold unless they stay sold, i. e., unless they continu- 
 ally give off satisfactions and during their entire lives give 
 no reason for disappointment. 
 
 This does not mean that the customer should not often 
 be strongly urged to buy. The point is that the inter- 
 est of the customer should be held paramount, and If this 
 is faithfully done the interest of the store and its pros- 
 perity will take care of Itself. The salesperson must see 
 that the interest of all parties to the selling transaction 
 are mutual and cannot be disregarded to the benefit of 
 any one party to the sale. 
 
 The difference between loading and not loading is il- 
 lustrated by the following case. A certain customer en- 
 tered a drug store to look at toothbrushes. After hav- 
 ing decided to purchase one, the salesperson said, " Won't 
 you take two of them? " " I guess one will be enough," 
 replied the customer, feeling that the salesperson was 
 trying to sell all he could. A short time afterwards the 
 same customer was in another drug store in the same 
 town looking at toothbrushes. " I surmise that you 
 travel a good deal," Inquired the salesperson, after the 
 customer had indicated his desire to purchase a tooth- 
 brush. ** Yes," said the customer. " Well," continued 
 the salesperson, " you know how it goes. A fellow puts 
 the toothbrush on the shelf in the hotel bath-room and 
 goes away and forgets It. Then when It is wanted, it is 
 not to be had. Possibly several hours may elapse before 
 the opportunity arises to get another one. Such Incon- 
 venience can be avoided by carrying an extra one in your 
 
134 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 V 
 
 case. You will always have one then." The customer 
 purchased two toothbrushes and later on told a friend 
 that he would have purchased six if the salesperson could 
 have told him why he should purchase them. Here is a 
 case where the salesperson worked out a logical reason 
 why it was to the interest of the customer to buy more 
 than one article. 
 
 Suggesting that customers buy more goods than was 
 their intention is not loading, if their viewpoint and satis- 
 factions are always kept in mind. Unless this is done, 
 suggestions to increase the number of articles sold 
 amount to nothing more or less than begging. " Won't 
 you take two," said a collar salesperson. Why should 
 a customer purchase two? The implication was that 
 the salesperson would like larger sales. A selfish view- 
 point alone was prominent. Such a viewpoint defeats its 
 own purpose. Unless salespeople can think of reasons 
 why it is to the customer's interest to buy more goods, 
 they should sell only what is asked for. Increasing sales 
 by suggestion is only limited by the scope of the sales- 
 person's ingenuity in finding reasons why it is to the in- 
 terest of the customer to buy. 
 
 All lines of goods have great possibilities in this di- 
 rection. A certain collar salesperson is selling collars 
 by the hox, and he says that it is easier to sell boxes of 
 collars than it is to sell one or two collars. He has 
 thought out three reasons why it is to the advantage of 
 every man to buy collars by the box. This salesperson 
 gets a high salary but the store manager says that he is 
 cheaper than other salespeople receiving less. Some shoe 
 salespeople sell two pairs of shoes where others sell only 
 one. They have discovered why it is to the advantage of 
 the customer to purchase two pairs of shoes instead of 
 
 ELEMENTS OF PERSONALITY 
 
 ^ZS 
 
 one. They are looking out for the interests of the cus- 
 tomer and in such cases the salespeople's interests take 
 care of themselves. Service to the customer is the only 
 honest objective which justifies suggesting more goods 
 than customers ask for. 
 
 TACT 
 
 " Tact," some one has said, " is to say the right thing 
 at the right time." However, tact might be considered 
 the saying and doing of the right thing at any time. It 
 is the lubricant that keeps the selling wheels running 
 smoothly. Tact guides salespeople around dangerous 
 pitfalls and leads them triumphantly through critical situa- 
 tions. Its presence Is not always perceived by customers 
 but Its absence is readily recognized. 
 
 Tact is nothing more nor less than " mental alertness," 
 the ability to see a situation and adapt one's self to it. 
 When customers are analyzed and the selling talk made 
 to appeal to the most predominant buying motives, then 
 tact has been used In adapting the selling talk to cir- 
 cumstances. When sales methods are varied to meet the 
 varied whims and temperaments of different people, 
 tact has been displayed. Tact can only thrive in con- 
 junction with other virtues such as cheerfulness, courtesy, 
 patience, promptness, keen perception and the ability to 
 decide quickly on the most expedient course to pursue. 
 In fact, these attributes of personality are part of tact, 
 the latter being non-existent without them. To have 
 one's being in sympathetic vibration with one's fellow- 
 beings, to see with their eyes, to hear with their ears, to 
 think with their minds, to feel their feelings, is to be un- 
 derstandingly atune with customers. If their point of 
 view is considered in all cases, there can be no contro- 
 
13^ 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 ELEMENTS OF PERSONALITY 
 
 I 
 
 versies and antagonisms which are disagreeable to all 
 concerned, and unfortunately are only too common in 
 present day retailing. 
 
 Failure to use tact is usually due to lack of imagination. 
 Tactless persons do not adequately visualize the complex 
 results that arise from their unconsidered acts. They 
 do not seem to be able to get out of themselves. They 
 are, in fact, selfish, critical or contemptuous in attitude, 
 any one of which qualities destroys the sympathy of under- 
 standing. 
 
 A man entered a men's ready-to-wear store and asked 
 to look at suits. One suit in particular seemed to interest 
 him. " That's certainly a fine cheviot," he remarked, 
 stroking the sleeve of the coat. *' That's not cheviot," 
 said the salesperson, going on to explain what it was ; but 
 he was talking to deaf ears. The customer's interest in 
 the goods was effectually killed by the tactlessness ex- 
 hibited by the salesperson. In reality, the customer was 
 wrong in his assertion — the cloth was not a cheviot, but 
 apparently the salesperson could only rectify the error 
 by antagonizing the customer. A tactful salesperson 
 would probably have said, ** That's an excellent material 
 and does look like a cheviot, in fact most people would 
 take it for a cheviot. However, it is a . . . etc." 
 Such a method of giving information " lets the customer 
 down easy " and increases rather than decreases in- 
 terest in the goods. The correction of mistakes can be 
 forced unneutralized down customers' throats to their 
 dissatisfaction and loss of interest, or it can be sugar- 
 coated by tact and utilized as a factor in consummating 
 a sale. The tactful salesperson never contradicts. 
 
 A tactful salesperson is careful to avoid all argument. 
 Argument stimulates the customer to think of and formu- 
 
 137 
 
 late objections to buying. It is antagonistic to sugges- 
 tion. It places the salesperson on the defensive; makes 
 her follow instead of lead. If continued for any length 
 of time it may lead to alienation of the customer. A 
 tactful salesperson does not handicap herself by encour- 
 aging or being a party to an argument. She knows when 
 to concede to statements made by customers and when to 
 object; but the important thing to be remembered is, she 
 knows how to object. 
 
 Some personalities appear to be fundamentally and ir- 
 reconcilably opposed to each other. The buyer and 
 seller, the cogs in the selling machine, do not mesh, and 
 friction occurs when the wheels of the selling machine 
 commence to grind out sales. When such is the case, a 
 tactful salesperson will relegate her own personality into 
 the background as soon as possible, by interesting the 
 customer in the goods and by avoiding any reference to 
 herself. A tactless salesperson, who does not sense the 
 reason for the cold attitude of the customer, would prob- 
 ably commit the fatal blunder of attempting to warm her 
 up and make her more genial. 
 
 An instance of clashing personalities was experienced 
 by the writer in a men's furnishings store. The sales- 
 person " grated on " the customer from the first, making 
 the latter sullen and unresponsive. The salesperson, 
 misunderstanding the cause of the customer's attitude, 
 attempted to jolly him into a better mood. Open offense 
 was not taken at even such untactful methods; but when 
 finally the salesperson took an attractive cravat and held 
 it up against his own shirt front, commenting on its ap- 
 propriateness to the customer, the latter became incensed 
 at the invidious comparison and left the store disgusted. 
 The worst thing that salesperson could have done was 
 
 • i 1 
 
 f 
 
138 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 ELEMENTS OF PERSONALITY 
 
 139 
 
 H 
 
 to have called attention to himself— and he did it. A 
 tactful salesperson would have analyzed the situation 
 and kept himself In the background, first of all getting the 
 customer Interested In the merchandise. In other stores, 
 the placing of a cravat against a salesperson's shirt front 
 has made a " hit '' with the same customer because the 
 former's personality has appeared attractive to the latter. 
 A tactful salesperson knows when his personality is ad- 
 mired and when Its Influence is negative. 
 
 The existence of a mood cannot successfully be chal- 
 lenged by a salesperson; its cause should be ascertained. 
 If the reason for its existence Is not known there is danger 
 that the mood will be ignored as visionary or else some 
 haphazard method Improvised to deal with it. Tact 
 recognizes conditions as they actually exist (not as they 
 appear to be) and handles them intelligently. 
 
 " Never give up " is a good slogan for the salesperson 
 to follow but if vigorously adhered to under all circum- 
 stances may prove to be a stumbling block. The slogan 
 should be, " Never give up while there is hope." The 
 tactful salesperson knows when she can hope no longer 
 for a sale, and graciously gives in. The tactless sales- 
 person tries for the sale to the very last because she 
 has not perceived the point beyond which any further 
 selling endeavor Is useless. Her persistence irritates the 
 customer and leaves a bad Impression. 
 
 Salespeople sometimes think that they are using tact 
 when they are not. Flattery is not tact. To attempt 
 to ingratiate one's self Is not necessarily tact. Neither 
 is tact always stating what is In one's mind even though 
 the thought is believed to be true. On the other hand, it 
 would not be tact to omit statement of any facts that are 
 necessary to keep the goods sold, even though such facts 
 
 are difficult of formulation. Tact meets present difficul- 
 ties and conquers them without endangering the good will 
 of the customer. 
 
 In conclusion, a tactful salesperson diagnoses a situa- 
 tion and gets favorable results with the least amount of 
 time and effort. She surveys a route of procedure that 
 may be winding in its details but one which gets results. 
 Conservation Is her watchword. Conservation of the 
 customer's patience, cheerfulness and good will; conser- 
 vation of the store's prestige and reputation for service ; 
 conservation of her own energy, sympathy and spirit of 
 helpfulness. Tactless selling is a great destroyer of these 
 positive qualities that are of Inestimable value. It is 
 destructive, not constructive. It is negative, never posi- 
 tive. Like forest fires, the boll weevil and other loss 
 producing agencies, tactlessness In selling should be care- 
 fully watched, closely guarded against, and if possible 
 entirely eliminated. 
 
 # 
 
M 
 
 ELEMENTS OF PERSONALITY 
 
 141 
 
 It 
 
 •^ 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 ELEMENTS OF PERSONALITY (continued)' 
 
 COURTESY 
 
 Courtesy is that attribute of personality that softens 
 and makes flexible the other attributes. Without cour- 
 tesy, natural aggressiveness (an excellent quality in sell- 
 ing) becomes obnoxious to some types of people, whereas 
 if moderated by courtesy, it loses Its harshness and be- 
 comes more effective. Courtesy Is the polish that dis- 
 tinguishes the kind and considerate salesperson from the 
 unsympathetic and thoughtless one. It Is a luster that 
 attracts people to its possessor; It is the brilliancy that 
 only the finished diamond exhibits. 
 
 Some persons have been characterized by their friends 
 as " diamonds-ln-the-rough." Only the friends and rela- 
 tives of these people can see their sterling qualities be- 
 cause these attributes are covered up so far as the casual 
 observer is concerned by inconsiderate actions and unkind 
 appearance. Some few Intimate friends may " know '* 
 such discourteous persons and " overlook " the discrep- 
 ancy between worth and appearance, but others less dis- 
 cerning will not be so painstaking. In other words, so 
 far as the great mass of the people who meet discourteous 
 persons are concerned, the good qualities of the latter are 
 non-existent. A discourteous salesperson places her 
 *' light under a bushel." 
 
 140 
 
 Courtesy is, therefore, not only a sterling quality in 
 and of itself, but also the means of discovering and ex- 
 hibiting other success attributes, which, without its aid, 
 would exist unknown excepting to intimate friends. 
 Courtesy makes customers tolerant and willing to listen 
 to what the salesperson has to say. It therefore not 
 only brings out the salesperson's positive qualities but also 
 tempers the natural critical tendencies of the customer 
 and makes her open to suggestion. It places the cus- 
 tomer in a favorable attitude to buy because it tends to 
 disarm her antagonism, and enables the commendable and 
 attractive qualities of the salesperson to be exhibited. 
 
 Attempts to render service, to explain the goods and 
 make buying pleasurable, often go unrecognized by the 
 customer because she has not been made to see these things 
 through the avenue of courtesy. Because of the cus- 
 tomer's apparent indifference to the salesperson's at- 
 tempts to serve, the latter often becomes discouraged and 
 comes to the conclusion that her efforts to please are un- 
 requited and therefore might just as well be discontinued. 
 Thus, lack of courtesy actually breeds discourtesy. The 
 customer cannot buy goods from such a salesperson be- 
 cause she believes the latter has not understood her and 
 does not try. There not only seems to be no way for the 
 salesperson to transmit her ideas and her personality to 
 the customer, but there likewise seems to be no avenue 
 through which the customer can bring her own person- 
 ality to bear on the salesperson. In short, discourtesy on 
 the part of either party to the selling transaction, espe- 
 cially if perpetrated by the salesperson, acts as an insu- 
 lator between buyer and seller preventing the contact of 
 their finer sensibilities. Under these circumstances sales 
 talks do not have an " appeal"; they are superficial for 
 
142 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 ELEMENTS OF PERSONALITY 
 
 143 
 
 
 i 
 
 the most part and never excite the deep and more perma- 
 nent buying motives of customers. 
 
 Discourtesy closes the door to a sympathetic compre- 
 hension of our fellow-beings' thoughts and feelings. 
 Customers are not understood and therefore cannot be 
 intelligently dealt with. Courtesy Is nothing more nor 
 less than a medium of exchange. It Is a means by which 
 the finer feelings and thoughts of buyer and seller can be 
 exchanged. It permits an ebb and flow of sentiments 
 that are the very well-spring of the motives for buying. 
 It releases all the pent desire and good will In the cus- 
 tomer, makes buying a pleasure for her because of 
 a feeling of mutual understanding, and enables her to 
 readily discover the attractive features In the goods as 
 well as the sturdy attributes of the salesperson. It per- 
 mits Intercourse between " Inner selves " and therefore 
 may be considered as a liberator of personalities. 
 
 Courtesy as a medium of exchange Is current every- 
 where and always good for its face value. It cannot be 
 counterfeited, disfigured, or " sweated," by evil-minded 
 ones who do not possess its excellent qualities. It is the 
 money of the realm for buying immunity from discourtesy, 
 ill will and unpleasantness. It should be the coin that 
 is " thrown in " every package to make the customer feel 
 that she has been given something " extra." People like 
 anything extra and will often come long distances If any- 
 thing of such a character is offered. That the extra 
 which acts as an inducement to come Into the store could 
 be something other than goods, has often been over- 
 looked. Courtesy should be the extra and sold with the 
 goods, for It must be remembered that In the last analy- 
 sis people do not buy goods — but goods and service. 
 The former is no more important than the latter, and if 
 
 anything, it is less important. Other things being equal 
 of two stores excepting service and price, the store with 
 the better service, even though it has the higher prices, 
 will win out in the race for trade. Realization of this 
 fact by salespeople will go far toward relegating the 
 price factor into the background, and tend to lay the 
 proper emphasis on the necessity of giving the customer 
 the kind of service that she desires. 
 
 The best way to develop courtesy is to be courteous, 
 polite, considerate, and sympathetic with others' views. 
 An overbearing attitude toward others should never be 
 permitted to exist even for a moment of time. What 
 others believe and think should be studied carefully and 
 weighed against one's own thoughts and beliefs before a 
 judgment is formed regarding their respective merits. 
 Tolerance is thus developed, and the habit of postponing 
 judgment until all of the evidence is in, is encouraged. 
 No more healthy habit could be formed by people in all 
 walks of life. 
 
 To be distinctive, to give the public something " differ- 
 ent," is the aim of progressive retail establishments. 
 Customers are looking for the new, the unexpected, and 
 store managers are merely trying to satisfy this demand. 
 What can courtesy contribute to satisfy this growing 
 demand for the novel? The answer is by giving the cus- 
 tomer unexpected favors and displaying unusual polite- 
 ness. It is not often fully realized the extent to which 
 " new " and " different " service can go in satisfying the 
 longing of the public for change, and the desire of the 
 store management for distinction. Conducting a cus- 
 tomer unacquainted with the store to the elevator, plac- 
 ing chairs for customers to be seated, opening of doors, 
 saying " Thank you " and meaning it, showing deference 
 
144 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 ELEMENTS OF PERSONALITY 
 
 145 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 f 
 
 to all opinions expressed by the customer, getting the 
 customer's point of view in all matters, and expressing 
 opinions or stating facts in a gracious and pleasing man- 
 ner, are all acts that should be cultivated. The dogmatic, 
 overbearing salesperson is too common; the positive, ag- 
 gressive, yet sympathetic and considerate salesperson is 
 too seldom seen. 
 
 No doubt untempered aggressiveness has great effec- 
 tiveness in some lines of industry^ but certainly not in the 
 business of dealing with human nature. The fact that 
 Americans, until comparatively recent years, were 
 pioneers engaged in wresting the land from the age-long 
 grip of nature, accounts in part for their rough aggres- 
 siveness and desire to get quick results. Then, men had 
 to deal for the most part with material things and sav- 
 ages, neither of which demanded a display of courtesy; 
 and by reason of the nature of such dealings the name 
 pioneer became the synonym for uncouthness. Since all 
 Americans were more or less pioneers, the discourtesy 
 and boastfulness of Americans became proverbial in Eng- 
 land and on the Continent. Gradually this conception of 
 Americans is changing, but in some parts of the Middle 
 West the old rough-and-ready method of dealing with 
 customers in retail establishments still obtains, to the 
 great loss of the communities. Mail order house cour- 
 tesy, expressed in its correspondence and dealings, has 
 been the '* different " element in connection with com- 
 modities that many people in these communities have been 
 longing for in vain and are now getting — from the out- 
 side. Unfortunate it is that courtesy is not indigenous 
 to the soil of these communities, but far more is it to be 
 deplored that the seeds of courtesy, considerateness and 
 
 kindness can only be transplanted to this soil from more 
 fortunate localities with the utmost difficulty. 
 
 More important, perhaps, than how discourtesy origi- 
 nated is an understanding of why it persists. The failure 
 to understand its importance, which has already been 
 elaborated upon, is, no doubt, one of the chief reasons for 
 its persistence. Another reason, almost equally impor- 
 tant, is the belief prevalent among some people that hon- 
 esty consists of " stating one's mind " at all times. Thus, 
 if a friend is enthusiastically exhibiting a painting and is 
 endeavoring to get the hearty corroboration of a person 
 of this character, the latter, if she cannot appreciate the 
 art, thinks that she is dishonest unless she boldly con- 
 demns and depreciates it. She does not try to see what 
 her friend sees. She is not sympathetic, and in case her 
 friend is of a sensitive structure such ruthless criticism 
 goes counter to her nature. Honesty is not discourteous- 
 ness, neither is courtesy dishonesty. In fact, discour- 
 tesy is very often dishonesty because it is not fair 
 
 dealing. 
 
 Again, some salespeople *' act as they feel " and think 
 that they are sincere and honest. The trouble with them 
 is that they '' feel " wrong. They do not put themselves 
 in the place of the customer and hence they act incorrectly 
 from the standpoint of their own intentions. In other 
 words, they are not sincere to themselves although they 
 believe that they are acting in an honest way. So-called 
 sincerity to one's feelings can never be justification for 
 lack of politeness or absence of courtesy in dealing with 
 
 others. 
 
 To continually get on the other side of the counter 
 and see herself as customers see her, is the important 
 
 if 
 
 4 
 
::1 
 
 146 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 ELEMENTS OF PERSONALITY 
 
 duty of the salesperson. To measure her courtesy from 
 their standpoint, to learn to appreciate what customers 
 appreciate, to ascertain their feelings and interests and 
 magnify them rather than her own, are fundamental les- 
 sons in selling goods. Often, successful selling means 
 self-abnegation which is distasteful to some types of 
 salespeople, but it must be remembered that subjugating 
 self is sometimes the only means of raising self to a higher 
 level. Personality is an all-important element in selling, 
 and any means available or method employable for de- 
 veloping it should not be depreciated. 
 
 The most insignificant actions of which people are 
 capable may become the most prominent elements of 
 their personality. Discourtesy may prove to be of small 
 consequence in early life but its growth may be at a faster 
 rate than the development of positive qualities, so that 
 in later years the individual finds other characteristics 
 dwarfed and rendered of secondary importance by the 
 super-development of this negative attribute. To see the 
 comparative growth and development of our personal 
 attributes is to progress, and this can only be accom- 
 plished by getting out of ourselves, i. e., getting on the 
 other side of the counter. 
 
 PROMPTNESS 
 
 An authority on retail selling ^ estimates that the 
 prompt salesperson gains from twenty-five to fifty per 
 cent more business than her less vigilant companion. 
 Whether or not this per cent is correct, it is certain that 
 every store loses much trade each year because of the in- 
 different and dilatory attitude of some of its salespeople. 
 To substantiate this assertion one need only visit half 
 
 1 Corbin, W. A., " Principles of Salesmanship, Deportment and System," 
 p. 79. 
 
 147 
 
 a dozen stores at random and observe the manner in 
 which one's needs and those of others are served. Slow- 
 ness in discovering and approaching customers, and an at- 
 titude of hesitation would characterize many of the sales- 
 people. In fact, in some stores an utter indifference to 
 the customer's needs and desires is the most impressive 
 feature. The customer is made to feel like an intruder 
 or a nuisance, often both. 
 
 Contrasted with this reception is the eager, courteous, 
 cheerful attempts at trade-getting carried on by the mail 
 order houses. The customer is made to feel that her 
 trade is valuable; that it is wanted now; and also, that 
 it is appreciated. If retail salespeople can learn to give 
 more customers the prompt service they demand, further 
 loss of trade will be prevented and much of the business 
 already lost will be regained. But the customer's busi- 
 ness must appear worth active, energetic effort; any other 
 kind of endeavor is an insult to the customer's concept of 
 values. 
 
 The causes for lethargy, sluggishness and indifference 
 on the part of salespeople are many in number, but the 
 ones considered below account for the majority of of- 
 fenses of this character and are therefore worthy of care- 
 ful consideration. The remedies for these evils are 
 practical and so obvious as to be often overlooked; be- 
 cause after all, in retailing as elsewhere, the student is 
 impressed with the old fact that what is closest to people 
 is the most difficult to discern. Thus, instead of the ob- 
 viousness of retail selling evils and their remedies being 
 a deterrent to the restatement and reiteration of sound 
 principles of improvement, it is, in fact, all the more rea- 
 son why these principles should be given fresh considera- 
 tion and examination from time to time and be more 
 
"^ 
 
 m 
 
 148 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 ELEMENTS OF PERSONALITY 
 
 149 
 
 
 i 
 
 ^ I ! 
 
 fully emphasized. Practical experience proves beyond 
 a doubt that constant study by salespeople of the causes 
 and remedies of evils that become obscure through fa- 
 miliarity, produces greater selling efficiency. It is with 
 this end in view that the succeeding subjects are included 
 in the present discussion. 
 
 One of the chief reasons why customers are not given 
 prompt attention is because salespeople collect in groups 
 and carry on conversation. Whatever is the subject mat- 
 ter of the intercourse — gossip, business, religion or his- 
 tory — interest in what is being said by the members of 
 the group produces abstraction, salespeople forget what 
 is going on around them, and as a result customers are not 
 served promptly and are often antagonistic in attitude 
 when approached. 
 
 That the customer has just cause for being vexed un- 
 der such circumstances cannot successfully be contradicted. 
 Perhaps she is of an impatient disposition and cannot eas- 
 ily resist her rapidly swelling indignation at the insult; 
 possibly she is more of a deliberative person, in which 
 case she reasons that if the store is slow in providing her 
 with prompt service it is probably slow in getting the 
 latest goods on the shelves ; in case the customer is vacil- 
 lating in temperament, this indisposition to decision is 
 aggravated by the negative indetermination of the sales- 
 people — it will now be more difficult for her to decide. 
 Whatever the type or social position of the customer, the 
 impression given by salespeople that they are more in- 
 terested in their own petty affairs than in the larger in- 
 terests of the store, keeps people from buying from such 
 a retail establishment. Customers feel that this kind of 
 a store would not appreciate their patronage. A lack of 
 confidence in the store's goods and methods finds root 
 
 ■y 
 
 t 
 
 and flourishes in the soil of salespeople's indifference to 
 customers' desires. 
 
 Alertness of attitude on the part of salespeople im- 
 presses the customer with a sense of thoroughness and 
 confidence. This positive and valuable impression should 
 be in evidence as much as the goods themselves. Con- 
 gregating in groups of two or more gives as bad an impres- 
 sion as having dust on the goods or being ignorant of their 
 location. Readiness to serve at all times is some of the 
 best interior advertising a store can have, and no matter 
 how excellent Its window display or its newspaper ad- 
 vertising these latter will be nullified If the customer's 
 needs are not promptly served when she accepts the Invi- 
 tation of this exterior advertising and enters the store. 
 
 Some salespeople are at a loss to know what to do be- 
 tween sales, and because nothing offers Itself they seek 
 to justify themselves In conversing with their neighbor. 
 Strange it is that they do not realize that such intervals 
 are valuable and can most profitably be spent in a not 
 too absorbing study of the goods. Leisure does not le- 
 gitimately exist behind the counter until the salesperson 
 knows all about the goods from the standpoints of loca- 
 tion, quantity and quality. In other words, leisure mo- 
 ments behind the counter never exist. As already Indi- 
 cated elsewhere ^ goods offer Infinite possibilities for study 
 by reading, which should be done out of hours of work, 
 and by first hand analysis of the goods themselves, which 
 of necessity can take place in the store only during work- 
 ing hours. 
 
 If professional men followed the practices of salespeo- 
 ple the public would receive sorry service. If the doctor 
 only worked when he sold his goods, i. e., performed the 
 
 1 Chapter TIL 
 
 I 
 
I 
 
 m 
 
 150 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 operation or administered the medicine, if the clergyman 
 only worked when he delivered his sermon, if the lawyer 
 only worked when he defended his client, what degenera- 
 tion in service would be evidenced in the professions. 
 Long hours of study and investigation in office and labora- 
 tory are a prerequisite to the final selling of their serv- 
 ices. Are the salesperson's services of less moment? 
 Or, are her services of a high character without study? 
 
 On being asked why salespeople did not know as much 
 about the goods they handled as doctors did about medi- 
 cine, a salesperson replied, " Doctors know a lot because 
 they are paid a lot." Here lies the fallacy that obtains 
 in many a salesperson's reasoning and prevents her from 
 becoming expert. Apparently, it is thought that society 
 selects some people because of their good appearance, 
 health, disposition or what-not, and says to them, " We 
 have selected you as the beneficiary of our favor. Here 
 is a large salary in return for which you are expected to 
 have expert knowledge in the field of activity you choose 
 for your own." 
 
 Fortunately for the well-being of all, such a conception 
 is the exact opposite of the actual facts. Society, in real- 
 ity, says to all mankind, " Become expert in any field of 
 endeavor, be prepared to give expert service, and as a 
 result your services will be greatly in demand, people 
 will be willing to pay more for your work than for the 
 effort of others less expert, and you will be happy be- 
 cause reward has repaid effort." If this true causation 
 were fully realized by salespeople, as well as the univer- 
 sal necessity for study in all occupations before services 
 are offered to the public, a new standard of expertness 
 would appear in retail selling that would be revolutionary 
 in its character. 
 
 ■Vl*i« 
 
 ELEMENTS OF PERSONALITY 
 
 151 
 
 Another reason for lack of promptness is preoccupa- 
 tion in stockkeeping. Stockkeeping, highly necessary and 
 commendable in itself, sometimes so completely absorbs 
 the attention and interest of salespeople that the latter 
 not only overlook the fact that customers wish to be 
 waited on, but sometimes actually view them in an im- 
 patient petulant manner as disturbers of their rightful 
 labors. 
 
 In such cases, in the maze of her duties, the salesper- 
 son has become so intimate with her work that she has 
 lost sight of the raison (Tetre of the store. She has made 
 certain work the end instead of the means to the end. 
 Satisfied customers should be the aim of every retail 
 establishment. To secure this end satisfactory service 
 must at all times be supplied. This cannot be done un- 
 less salespeople realize the end toward which their efforts 
 are supposed to contribute. " The customer is the big- 
 gest thing in the store " is a good motto to have imbed- 
 ded in the mind of each salesperson. Whether one ac- 
 tivity is discontinued or another one commenced depends 
 entirely on whether or not it conduces to keeping the mind 
 of the customer in a happy condition. With the end 
 of all selling effort clearly and continuously in mind, 
 sluggishness in response, and antagonism toward disturb- 
 ers of daily routine, cannot occur. Preparation to serve 
 the public well should never stand in the way of securing 
 that result. 
 
 A third cause for salespeople's slow approach to as- 
 certain customers' needs, is fear. This may arise be- 
 cause of, ( I ) the natural timidness or indecision of the 
 salesperson, (2) the memory of unfortunate experiences 
 with customers in the past, or, (3) the unprepossessing 
 appearance of the customer. 
 
-0» 
 
 it 
 
 II 
 
 152 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 The first cause of fear can be eliminated by training. 
 At the very beginning of her career the salesperson should 
 realize that timldness has no place in selling. Salesman- 
 ship is leadership if it is anything — the leading of cus- 
 tomers to satisfactions. Timid salespeople are never 
 leaders. They lack self-confidence, vision, and are usu- 
 ally self-conscious. They are occupied with negative 
 thoughts — how they may offend the customer, instead of 
 being dominated by positive thoughts — how they may 
 serve the customer. Subjective thinking must give way 
 to objective thinking if the salesperson is to become ef- 
 ficient. In other words, she must fully realize that the 
 customer has many wants; that probably some of them 
 are at present unsatisfied; that unsatisfied wants give a 
 feeling of displeasure while satisfied wants give a sense 
 of happiness; that all people are seeking satisfactions 
 and happiness; that the store is in existence to satisfy 
 people seeking satisfactions; that the salesperson Is only 
 performing her legitimate function when she aggres- 
 sively and promptly attempts to give customers satisfac- 
 tions by ascertaining and supplying their needs. The 
 fact should never be overlooked that the Initiative and 
 th« right to exercise It rests with the salesperson. Inde- 
 cision should never vitiate prompt action. 
 
 This does not mean that in every case the salesper- 
 son should advance toward the customer the moment 
 the latter comes within range of approach. Some cus- 
 tomers are timid and would be driven away by too bold 
 an approach, but the point to be made is that the Initia- 
 tive should remain with the salesperson -and be exercised 
 when it will be the most effective. In most cases, 
 promptness In meeting customers is desirable and is part 
 of the service that is paid for. 
 
 ELEMENTS OF PERSONALITY 
 
 153 
 
 In the second place, the remembrance of some cus- 
 tomer who took offense at the salesperson's promptness 
 in offering service, has oftentimes had too much weight 
 in deciding the course of the salesperson's future action. 
 The many cases of satisfaction exhibited by customers 
 because of the salesperson's readiness to serve, apparently 
 have had less weight and leave a less vivid Impression on 
 the salesperson's mind than the comparatively few in- 
 stances where customers took offense at the initiative 
 shown. That the minority experiences should receive 
 more emphasis as a guide for action than the majority 
 is a lamentable fact, but yet one that can fortunately be 
 altered so as to develop a more logical procedure. Usu- 
 ally, to call attention to this error is to supply the remedy 
 for it, while a careful study of the different types of cus- 
 tomers ^ will tend to reduce to a minimum those cases 
 where dissatisfaction arises because promptness rides 
 roughshod over peculiar temperaments. 
 
 In the third place, uninviting and morose appearing 
 customers should never be the reason for sluggishness of 
 approach. People of this type necessarily must purchase 
 goods, and they will naturally trade at those stores where 
 exchanging their dollars for merchandise is the most 
 pleasant operation. In selling, the attitude of mind 
 (vision) of the salesperson Is everything. If the 
 latter can forget the objectionable characteristics of 
 such persons and keep constantly In mind the fact that 
 they are consumers looking for satisfactions, she will 
 be able to make the right approach and leave a good 
 impression. 
 
 Fear is an enemy to sales and in common sense has no 
 foundation. The reasons for its existence are real in the 
 
 1 See Chapter V. 
 
■'■^ 
 
 V 
 
 154 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 minds of salespeople and may often be difficult to remove, 
 but education and experience can eliminate them. 
 
 The fourth reason for lack of promptness in rendering 
 service is a misunderstanding as to who desires and de- 
 serves service. Apparently the belief obtains among 
 salespeople in some stores that the '* looker " is not 
 worthy of prompt service or else that she does not de- 
 mand it. Whichever is the case, the results are the same : 
 dissatisfied customers, wasted publicity, loss of profits and 
 bonuses and the ingraining of a dangerous negative atti- 
 tude in salespeople. 
 
 From one viewpoint all customers are lookers. Even 
 though a customer knows exactly what she wants and asks 
 for it, she is still a looker. She is glancing around try- 
 ing to mentally masticate what she sees so as to be able 
 to form wise judgments in future buying. In fact, she 
 was no doubt a looker for the article directly asked for 
 before she became a buyer of it. Looking precedes buy- 
 ing and yet is an intimate part of buying, just as continu- 
 ous satisfaction is a part of selling although it follows 
 the actual transfer of goods known as the " sale." 
 
 From another standpoint, however, nine-tenths of all 
 customers are lookers. It may safely be said that not 
 more than one out of ten customers has a definite idea of 
 what she desires. The others may think that they have 
 but when different styles, patterns, sizes and colors appear 
 before them, they are educated to change their former 
 plans and specifications. How true this is becomes ap- 
 parent if customers will reflect on the basis for their own 
 judgments. A true judgment can only be formed after 
 the evidence is all in, and such a condition can exist not 
 merely after the customer has " looked " at a multitudin- 
 ous array of commodities in different stores, but only 
 
 ELEMENTS OF PERSONALITY 
 
 155 
 
 after the facts regarding the goods have been presented 
 by salespeople. Many superficial and trouble-causing 
 judgments would be formed if customers had to " look " 
 their way into conviction and ultimate decision. 
 
 Salespeople not only overlook lookers for the reasons 
 already given but also because they do not realize their 
 true significance in our industrial order. The customer 
 and the position she holds is not appreciated. Salespeo- 
 ple fail to fully realize that all industry works for cus- 
 tomers, i. e., lookers. All of our mines, smelters, for- 
 ests, farms, mills, factories, quarries, and shops, work to 
 produce goods for the person who comes into the store to 
 look or buy; all the wagons, automobiles, steam and mule- 
 pack trains, ships, caravans, and human shoulders, are 
 enlisted for one purpose — to satisfy human wants by 
 making accessible goods and services; every human be- 
 ing is endeavoring to supply something to the ultimate 
 consumer — the person across the counter. 
 
 That the salesperson should be apparently oblivious to 
 the tremendous strategic importance of the ultimate con- 
 sumer can perhaps be accounted for by the benumbing 
 influence of daily personal contact with the instigators 
 and supporters of industry. The latter may often seem 
 so numerous and so monotonously similar as to be of lit- 
 tle importance. If the salesperson could view the cus- 
 tomer in her true significance, the latter would be a much 
 more respected person and would receive prompt service 
 whether or not she proclaimed herself a looker. 
 
 Of what does promptness consist? How may lookers 
 be promptly served without giving offense? The fact 
 that such questions as these arise in the minds of sales- 
 people at this time would indicate a close connection be- 
 tween the character of the approach and the nature of 
 
1 
 
 t 
 
 156 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 the customer. It is true that this relationship exists but 
 it IS of little significance in this case because whether or 
 not the customer is a looker cannot be determined in ad- 
 vance. In fact, she is not a looker until the salesperson 
 has forced her to so brand herself by means of an untact- 
 ful although it may be a prompt approach. In other 
 words, lookers are not in existence until they are made 
 by the salesperson. This might appear contradictory to 
 the above statement that all customers are lookers. In 
 reality, this contradiction is one in appearance only. The 
 explanation of the paradox is that every one, from an 
 outsider's view, is " looking " in order to form buying 
 judgments which may develop into finality at the time of 
 looking or at some later time. This acknowledgment 
 of being a looker is not, however, uppermost in the con- 
 sciousness of the customer and if not called forth remains 
 in the background. Unless the salesperson, therefore, 
 forces the customer to so define herself, the customer is 
 neither a looker from her own standpoint or from that 
 of the salesperson. She is a potential buyer waiting to 
 be interested and not an individual appearing in the store 
 to receive a condemnatory classification that prevents 
 further intercourse with the sales force of a department 
 and inhibits possibility of buying goods. So far as the 
 looker in this sense (meaning something to be let alone) 
 is concerned, she is made, not born. 
 
 How are lookers made ? The answer is, by a method 
 of approach or a salutation which leads customers to so 
 characterize themselves, and having once declared their 
 position they are loath to alter it. The methods sales- 
 people use in manufacturing lookers are apparent to all 
 after a moment's reflection. The most common method 
 is by asking questions such as the following: " Is there 
 
 ELEMENTS OF PERSONALITY 
 
 157 
 
 anything today," ''Waited on?" "Do you wish any- 
 thing? " " Can I show you something? " " Is there any- 
 thing I can do for you?" "What can I do for you?" 
 "Something?" Interrogations of this nature usually 
 place the customer on the defensive, and as a protective 
 measure she declares herself merely a looker. Past ex- 
 perience has demonstrated to her that in most cases such 
 a declaration insures immunity from further attack by 
 the salesperson. 
 
 Psychologically considered, the direct interrogation 
 is a crude form of approach or introduction. Especially 
 is this true if the customer is apparently interested in 
 something on display. Her whole chain of thought is 
 suddenly altered and the necessity of constructing an an- 
 swer to the question is presented. Being alien to the in- 
 terest she has exhibited in examining the articles on dis- 
 play, it impedes rather than facilitates a sale. If the 
 question is stated in a pleasant and gracious manner, its 
 harm may be greatly neutralized, but if the asking of the 
 question has become mechanical as it usually does after 
 much use, the customer senses its sterility and is as un- 
 favorably impressed as if the salesperson had not made 
 a prompt approach. In other words, promptness in ap- 
 proaching a customer, if coupled with certain methods of 
 salutation, may be worse than waiting for the customer to 
 approach. Promptness must be tempered with under- 
 standing. 
 
 Promptness in selling means promptness in rendering 
 service, not promptness in asking questions of a useless 
 and harmful character. Promptness should imply readi- 
 ness to serve if needed, also, the ability to approach a 
 customer with a friendly greeting without giving an im- 
 pression of intrusion. Only too often a customer feels 
 
158 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 that she is under obligation to buy if she examines goods 
 under the supervision of salespeople, so she surrepti- 
 tiously looks at goods when salespeople are not over- 
 diligent in the endeavor to form unbiased buying judg- 
 ments. In reality, the judgments are one-sided not hav- 
 ing included the information possessed by salespeople. 
 So far as the customer is concerned, however, the fear of 
 an interrogation and the dread of feeling under obligation 
 to buy greatly exceed the value of the salesperson's con- 
 tribution to the buying judgment. The latter can be 
 dispensed with if the former is removed. So thinks the 
 customer. 
 
 If promptness of approach and salutation can avoid 
 startling the customer and at the same time leave no im- 
 pression that she is under obligation to buy, it combines 
 the elements of effectiveness and desirability. This can 
 be accomplished by avoiding all questions, and after a 
 friendly salutation such as, " Good morning," by directly 
 accelerating interest in the goods that have commanded 
 the attention of the customer. Thus, if a customer is 
 handling neckties, the implication is that he is interested 
 in them. To ask if there is " anything today " is to 
 repeat the most foolish and universal phrase heard in 
 retailing, and, needless to say, the customer has formed 
 the habit of answering this question in a certain stereo- 
 typed manner. Produce the universal question and you 
 get the universal answer; it is merely cause and effect. 
 On the other hand, suppose the salesperson says, " Aren't 
 they distinctive?" and demonstrates one of the choice 
 ties against his own shirt. What is the difference in the 
 two cases? In the former, a mechanical question brought 
 forth a mechanical answer ; it served to destroy the cus- 
 tomer's interest in the ties by introducing something alien 
 
 ELEMENTS OF PERSONALITY 
 
 159 
 
 to them. In the latter case, the salesperson's state- 
 ment fitted in with the customer's train of thought; what 
 the customer was thinking was merely stated, enlarged 
 upon and demonstrated. No friction was apparent, and 
 if the salesperson gives pleasing information and educates 
 the customer's sense of appreciation, ties will be sold 
 without the necessity of " asking the customer to buy." 
 People resent being '' asked to buy " ; they buy when there 
 is sufficient reason. 
 
 This method is scientific because it enters the selling 
 process at the psychological moment. It recognizes that 
 the attention of the customer has been secured and that 
 interest is aroused, and proceeds to arouse more inter- 
 est, create desire and produce decision. It makes use 
 of what has already been accomplished and builds on it. 
 All the invitations to buy and the descriptions of goods 
 in the advertisements have attracted the customer to the 
 store and aroused some measure of interest in certain 
 goods. To make use of this force is to supplement it; 
 it is intelligent selling. 
 
 The method of interrogation fails to recognize the 
 steps in the selling process. It shatters interest in the 
 goods by altering the mode of thought of the customer, 
 and is wasteful of effort in that it fails to take advantage 
 of the ground already won. Instead of following the 
 presumption that the customer intends to buy, it presents 
 for consideration by the customer, the alternative of not 
 buying. Its suggestion is negative and in the wrong di- 
 rection. It should, therefore, be eliminated from all re- 
 tail selling. When customers are looking at goods, to 
 present the attractive features of these goods, promptly, 
 energetically and pleasantly, is the best method of ap- 
 proach when done tactfully, i. e., when adapted in form 
 
\t 
 
 I 
 
 1 60 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 and character to different types of customers. A positive 
 suggestion or two regarding the goods is all that is neces- 
 sary for some types, but for others more comprehensive 
 information must be given. With certain customers, the 
 salesperson must give the impression that she Is only 
 passively interested in what they are looking at, but stands 
 ready to answer questions or demonstrate ; she must not 
 give the impression of " prying In.'' In other cases, ener- 
 getic attention to the customer's every whim and remark 
 is essential to success. 
 
 In conclusion, it should be said that promptness means 
 readiness to serve when tact shall dictate. It does not 
 mean rushing up to customers to ask questions, neither 
 does It imply great haste in showing goods. Surface ac- 
 tivity is not necessarily promptness as here considered. 
 Promptness is one of the resultants of right thinking and 
 understanding. It is best seen where salespeople are on 
 the alert at all times; where they have the correct mental 
 attitude toward their work and know the reason for the 
 customer in the store; and where they understand the 
 selling process and fit their work Into It rather than going 
 counter to it. Promptness implies tact, enthusiasm, 
 cheerfulness and the other positive elements of personal- 
 ity. Without them it is indeed handicapped. 
 
 CHEERFULNESS 
 
 Cheerfulness is a most necessary element in the per- 
 sonality of the successful salesperson, although just what 
 this term connotes few salespeople understand. Cheer- 
 fulness is the state of being gladdened or animated which 
 shows Itself In the face, the voice, and the actions; It sug- 
 gests a strong and spontaneous but quiet flow of good 
 spirits. It is prompted by dominantly agreeable emo- 
 
 ELEMENTS OF PERSONALITY 
 
 161 
 
 tions and is conditioned upon mental and moral health 
 and freedom from irksome cares. 
 
 Cheerfulness does not consist of wearing " the smile 
 that won't come off." Cheerfulness cannot be worn like 
 a garment. To be effective It must be a part of the body 
 as much as the eyes, nose or ears. When merely " worn," 
 affected cheerfulness appears In the form of a smirk in- 
 stead of a smile on the face. It advertises the bluff be- 
 ing practiced by the wearer. Instead of radiating con- 
 fidence, it arouses suspicion. Instead of being an asset, 
 it Is a liability. 
 
 Since cheerfulness must be natural, spontaneous, in 
 order to be valuable as a confidence winner, the ubiquitous 
 Injunction, " Smile," found In offices and stores, or the 
 same command displayed with other words of doubtful 
 propriety, can accomplish little In the direction intended. 
 Business, realizing the utilitarian value of a smile, has en- 
 deavored to find a quick standard method of manufactur- 
 ing It In unlimited quantities and with interchangeable 
 parts. Fortunately, for those who love naturalness of 
 conduct, such placards have only performed the doubtful 
 service of wall decoration. They cannot be effective be- 
 cause they are dealing with an effect instead of a cause. 
 There are no short cuts to happiness or cheerfulness. 
 
 Cheerfulness is a matter of the Inner being, of the 
 heart. The external Indication of what is going on in- 
 side Is the smile or frown. The former appears, if the 
 salesperson has developed a kindliness for humanity and 
 an Intense enthusiasm for the goods, if she has good health 
 and Is not harassed by worries and cares. The frown 
 appears, as part of the bodily appearance, when selfishness 
 rules ; when ignorance of stock knowledge makes a sales- 
 person loath to respond to the customer; when exercise 
 
 'i 
 
1 62 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 ELEMENTS OF PERSONALITY 
 
 163 
 
 13 
 
 has been neglected, wrong foods eaten, or rest inter- 
 rupted; when domestic troubles or financial anxieties are 
 forever on the surface to chafe and aggravate the nerv- 
 ousness resulting from the day's work. The conditions 
 must be right before cheerfulness can appear. The cause 
 must exist before the effect. 
 
 Cheerfulness is emphasized in all selling because it has 
 a great money value. Customers are attracted toward 
 the cheerful pleasant salesperson. There is enough sor- 
 row in this world without attempting to sell it; for, it 
 must be remembered, a salesperson sells her personality 
 as well as the goods. Gloom is a drug on the market 
 because there is a lot of it; cheerfulness is high priced be- 
 cause it is scarce. Consequently, the store with much 
 cheerfulness exhibited by its sales force is more valuable 
 and attractive because it has an article that is too seldom 
 found and is much in demand. 
 
 Cheerlessness is negative and repels customers. Peo- 
 ple who intended to buy, unconsciously turn away from a 
 gloomy salesperson. This is true because cheerlessness 
 implies indifference, abstraction and unwillingness to 
 make buying pleasant. Customers like to shop where 
 buying is pleasant, where they have confidence in the sales- 
 people. Cheerlessness destroys both of these incentives. 
 It is the force that neutralizes valuable advertising and 
 good will. People have been invited into the store by 
 publicity, expecting a warm welcome and a show of appre- 
 ciation for their effort in responding to the invitation. 
 They cannot consider a store entirely honest that contra- 
 dicts its words by its actions, and the latter speak louder 
 than the former in retailing. 
 
 Cheerfulness is a remarkable buffer against the friction 
 and wear and tear of the day's work. It is the cushion 
 
 that eases up the jar and shock incident to contact with 
 customers. Mistakes in representing goods or in hand- 
 ling different types of customers inevitably occur during 
 the day's efforts, but the evil effect of these is reduced to 
 a minimum by the factor of cheerfulness. Cheerfulness 
 may *' cover a multitude of sins," — the customer will 
 overlook a great many inefficiencies if the salesperson is 
 cheerful. Conversely, no matter how much the salesper- 
 son knows about the merchandise or the customer, if 
 cheerfulness is lacking, the efficient qualities lack in luster 
 and may go for naught. 
 
 Cheerfulness should be ever present whether or not it 
 is encouraged by circumstances. Sometimes a salesper- 
 son is rebuffed by the silence or apparent indifference of a 
 customer. It is hard for cheerfulness to thrive in such 
 soil but it is a plant of little stamina unless it does. 
 Usually its persistence wins out and eventually commands 
 the admiration and respect of the irate customer. Un- 
 wavering amiability in the presence of provocation often 
 heaps the necessary coals of fire which burn a sale into the 
 unreasonable customer. Under all circumstances, the 
 best antidote for gloom and cheerlessness is w^hole- 
 hearted sweetness of temper and cheerfulness. This rule 
 has no exception in selling. 
 
 A smile has a money value in selling it if it is attractive, 
 but there are some kinds of smiles worn by salespeople 
 that are a liability. One writer ^ has presented the fol- 
 lowing classification : 
 
 I. The pitying smile, when the customer signifies a 
 desire to look at a cheaper article than the first 
 shown her. 
 
 1 Fisk, J. W., " Retail Selling," p. 203. 
 
164 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 m\ 
 
 2. The sarcastic smile, when the customer intimates 
 
 she Is a more competent judge of her own needs 
 than Is the salesperson. 
 
 3. The knowing smile, when the customer says she is 
 
 buying an Inexpensive garment for the maid. 
 
 4. The Idiotic, meaningless, vacant, perpetual smile of 
 
 the salesperson who considers a smirk her stock 
 in trade. 
 
 5. The bored smile, when the customer speaks proudly 
 
 of the exceptional cleverness of her sister-in-law's 
 second cousin's children. 
 
 6. The *' Heaven-help-me " smile, exchanged with a 
 
 fellow-salesperson when the customer finds dif- 
 ficulty in deciding between two silverware pat- 
 terns. 
 
 All salespeople will recognize the Importance of facial 
 expressi-on and the necessity of being cheerful and re- 
 flecting it in a genuine inviting smile. Artificiality is 
 never attractive, especially not at close range. The kind 
 of smile a salesperson Is going'to have twenty years from 
 now is the smile being worn today. Is it attractive or 
 repulsive? Is it an asset or a liability? Dress can be 
 improved upon at some future time but not so with 
 facial expression. The lines developed today will be the 
 features tomorrow, permanent and unchanging. 
 
 If cheerfulness does not come to a salesperson natu- 
 rally, it can be developed. The smile can be artificially 
 developed but this need not necessarily result in an artifi- 
 cial smile, any more than artificially stimulating the 
 growth of plants produces artificial flowers. If a melan- 
 choly or foreboding salesperson will repeat to herself on 
 rising in the morning: " This is a wonderful world. It's 
 
 ELEMENTS OF PERSONALITY 1 65 
 
 great just to be alive," or, " I feel fine, 1 feel happy," or, 
 if she will sing or whistle, the feelings and counte- 
 nance will respond appropriately. Continuously do- 
 ing what happy people do, oftentimes sows the seeds 
 of optimism and cheerfulness, just as artificial expan- 
 sion and contraction of the lungs of a drowned person 
 may be the means of their natural functioning. Cheer- 
 fulness, reflecting a wholesome attractive smile, should 
 come naturally from a gladdened animated being in 
 good spirits, but if It cannot come in this way it must 
 come by whatever method It can. Artificially produced^ 
 smiles are often just as good as the naturally grown, 
 and sometimes they are better and more winning; but 
 an artificial smile, naturally or artificially produced. Is a 
 great liability to the possessor and is repulsive to other 
 people. 
 
 Cheerfulness in retailing is at present too conspicuous 
 for its absence. This is no doubt partially due to lack 
 of emphasis having been put on its. importance, to store 
 conditions which are not conducive to happiness (ig- 
 norance of salesmanship Included) and to Ignorance on 
 the part of the salesperson as to the conditions under her 
 own control conducive to cheerfulness. The future is 
 large with opportunity for betterment as the value of 
 genuine cheerfulness and the means of acquiring it be- 
 come more generally known by store proprietors and 
 salespeople. Part of the recreation hours now spent 
 in idleness or cheap entertainment will be illumined 
 with study and reflection, which will Increase the sales- 
 person's interest in her work and create cheerfulness. 
 Keener competition, as well as exhortation of store man- 
 agers, will be the leading causes for such a result. 
 Greater efficiency in distribution (increased sales per 
 
i66 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 salesperson) must be developed if retail stores are to be 
 justified in the future. If cheerfulness can help in bring- 
 ing about this result, it will have economically justified 
 the expense and efiort consumed in its production. 
 
 ■ 
 
 m 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 THE SELLING PROCESS 
 
 The selling process consists of four operations, viz., 
 gaining attention, securing interest, creating desire and 
 inducing decision. Unless the customer's mind is led 
 through these four steps no sale can be made. When 
 customers such as the impulsive type make up their minds 
 on the spur of the moment, these four steps have been 
 gone through just as truly as when the deliberative type 
 consumes much time in deciding. 
 
 Does not every salesperson realize that sales cannot be 
 made without performing these four operations? Every- 
 day observation answers this question in the negative. 
 How often has the reader had a salesperson bring out an 
 article, give two or three facts about it including the price, 
 and then "wait" for the customer to buy? In such 
 cases, the salesperson does not comprehend the w'orklngs 
 of the human mind. She does not understand the selling 
 process; she does not realize the task cut out for her by 
 natural conditions. The customer " waits " for the sales- 
 person to sell and the salesperson " waits " for the cus- 
 tomer to buy. In many such cases the writer has seen 
 sales lost because the customer had no material with 
 which to form a buying judgment. Her mind had not 
 been logically directed toward a certain goal. 
 
 In order to understand how sales are made, i. e., what 
 elements enter into -their determination, the selling proc- 
 
 167 
 
p 
 
 i68 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 THE SELLING PROCESS 
 
 169 
 
 f H 
 
 'r; 
 
 J 
 
 1 
 
 ess must be broken up into its constituent parts and each 
 part carefully analyzed. In this way, the importance of 
 each act, method and procedure of the salesperson may 
 be determined, both in its relation to the other elements 
 and the sale as a totality. From such an analysis it is 
 to be hoped the salesperson will get a more comprehen- 
 sive idea of the significance of influencing the minds of 
 customers, and be able to make practical use of the ma- 
 terial presented In previous chapters. Unless the sales- 
 person can apply the knowledge regarding herself, the 
 goods, and the customer, in the actual selling process, all 
 this wisdom goes for naught. The one end of all knowl- 
 edge in salesmanship Is to sell goods. The analysis of 
 the selling process will now be given. 
 
 ATTRACTING ATTE.NTION 
 
 There are six general methods by which attention can 
 be attracted, viz., promptness, attitude, facial expression, 
 attentiveness, form of speech and tone of voice. 
 
 Promptness means constant alertness and watchfulness. 
 The salesperson should immediately discontinue other 
 work on seeing a customer and rapidly advance to meet 
 her, either walking toward her behind the counter or out 
 on the floor. The farther away from her original posi- 
 tion the salesperson meets the customer, the more favor- 
 able attention does she attract. The customer feels that 
 the salesperson Is pleased to see her, and as a conse- 
 quence her initial attitude toward the store is not one of 
 antagonism. Many salespeople take a step or two to- 
 ward in-coming customers but a more aggressive advance 
 as here advised has greater attention-attracting value.^ 
 
 Attitude, The salesperson should show recognition 
 
 1 See page 146 ff. ' 
 
 by a nod of the head, and expectancy and deference by 
 her general attitude. If she is pleased to see the cus- 
 tomer her whole attitude will reflect this feeling and pro- 
 claim welcome. However, no matter what her words 
 and face may say. If her attitude is overbearing and un- 
 concerned the former favorable indicators are negatived. 
 
 The salesperson should also appear energetic, thus im- 
 plying that it is a pleasure to serve the customer. 
 Promptness is a kind of energetlcness, but what is here 
 meant is a show of strong vitality or animation after the 
 customer has been met. Excellent health produces this 
 quality more than anything else. 
 
 Finally, a self-confident hearing attracts attention to 
 the possessor and creates confidence in the customer for 
 the salesperson and the store. This attitude is extremely 
 valuable and can only be procured by knowledge and ex- 
 perience. Knowledge of the goods, the customer, one's 
 personality, the selling process, and the realization of 
 having successfully applied the same, is the only soil in 
 which self-confidence can grow and thrive. 
 
 Facial expression. The face should show expectancy. 
 Such an expression can be produced by wondering in what 
 way the customer can be served. Blended with this ex- 
 pression should be a smile. The latter results from being 
 truly pleased with one's opportunity to serve. The smile 
 must be natural,^ as an artificial smile repels and destroys 
 confidence. A natural winning smile is one of the best 
 attractors of attention. Customers attend to it because 
 it creates a pleasant sensation in them. 
 
 Attentiveness. Can the salesperson perform some 
 unexpected service for the customer? If so, the latter's 
 attention is irresistibly directed toward the person per- 
 
 1 See page 160 flF. 
 
170 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 THE SELLING PROCESS 
 
 171 
 
 H! 
 
 forming the unusual act. The out-of-the-ordinary never 
 fails to get people's attention. 
 
 Another form of attentiveness is to catch the custom- 
 er's first words. No worse initial impression could be 
 left with the customer than to ask her to repeat what she 
 has said. The salesperson may sometimes find it neces- 
 sary to ask the customer to restate what she has said 
 when the latter has garbled her words, but very -often 
 salespeople ask for the repetition of the custodier's first 
 words simply because they have not been paying strict 
 attention. If the salesperson looks the customer in the 
 face there is little necessity for requesting her to repeat 
 her statements. Careful attention must be given to every 
 move the customer makes, else some meaningful expres- 
 sions will be overlooked, thereby indicating a lack of in- 
 terest on the part of the salesperson. 
 
 Form of Speech. The salesperson's speech attracts 
 favorable attention when it is courteous. So much of 
 every-day speech lacks this refined element that when it 
 does exist it attracts attention. Secondly, it should be 
 suited to the customer. It must be simple and direct with 
 some people, more dignified and less persistent with 
 
 others. 
 
 Thirdly, instead of asking the customer whether she 
 wants " something," the salesperson should greet her with 
 a " Good morning." If this is said with the expectation 
 that the customer will speak and state her desires, such 
 will be the case. However, it can be said in such a way 
 as to discourage expression. The important point to be 
 noted is that the salesperson should, by her speech, offer 
 service immediately without using cut and dried saluta- 
 tions which have long since become devitalized by constant 
 
 use.^ Each store or department should have its dis- 
 tinctive salutation which could be discarded and replaced 
 by a new one whenever its virility and effectiveness were 
 lost. In some cases, a question is satisfactory if it does 
 not place customers under an obligation to buy. Ex- 
 amples of such salutations are: " Do you desire serv- 
 ice? " " Do you wish attention? " etc. Usually, how- 
 ever, questions of any kind are a bad means of greeting 
 people because energy is required to answer them. When 
 customers are permitted to tell their needs of their own 
 accord, a much more favorable impression of the store is 
 left with them. 
 
 Fourthly, the customer's name should be used in the 
 salutation. Few salespeople recognize the importance 
 of this principle. Attention is often easily secured by de- 
 taching a customer from her surroundings through the 
 mentioning of her name. Where a minute before she 
 was just a customer, now, after mentioning her name, she 
 becomes an individual. The attention-getting value of 
 this individualizing device cannot be too greatly empha- 
 sized in the first step of the selling process. 
 
 Tone of voice. In the first place, the tone of voice 
 should be clear and distinct. There should be no ques- 
 tion on the part of the customer as to what the sales- 
 person is saying. Attention can be secured through the 
 tone of the voice only when the latter carries to the cus- 
 tomer an unmistakable meaning. 
 
 In the second place, the tone of voice should be sin- 
 cere. If the salesperson believes what she says and is 
 conscientiously looking out for the welfare of the cus- 
 tomer, her voice will reflect the sincerity in her heart and 
 
 lB( 
 
 
 1 See pages 156-7. 
 
172 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 I 
 'I 
 
 i 
 
 impress the customer favorably. If the customer's con- 
 fidence can thus be secured at the start, not only is atten- 
 tion secured but also good will. Sincere thinking and 
 acting are prerequisites for a sincere tone of voice. 
 
 In the third place, the tone of voice should be rhythmi- 
 cal. A high-pitched voice irritates, a low unintelligent 
 mumble exasperates, while a rhythmical measured tone 
 soothes the customer. The latter variety is attractive, 
 inviting and actually impels attention, while the others 
 repel and antagonize. Whether or not a customer stops 
 at the counter long enough to inspect the goods, often 
 depends to a large extent on the cadence of the salesper- 
 son's tone of voice when speaking the words of introduc- 
 tion. A well-modulated voice should be a part of every 
 salesperson's equipment. If it is not a natural acquire- 
 ment then special training should produce it. 
 
 In the fourth place, the tone of voice should be suited 
 to the customer. If the customer is an impulsive type 
 the tone of voice will be louder and more aggressive than 
 when speaking to the confident customer.^ With the 
 suspicious type the tone of voice must be warm with en- 
 thusiasm, but with the friendly customer it must be 
 cooler, lighter and carrying less assurance. With the 
 deliberative customer the tone must indicate carefulness 
 and willingness to go into detail without hurrying; the 
 obstinate man must be impressed with the flexibility of 
 tone. Whatever type of customer the salesperson meets, 
 the tone in which the first few words are said secures at- 
 tention or loses it just in proportion to its suitability. 
 Much study can profitably be spent in analyzing the dif- 
 ferent tones in one's voice and in ascertaining in what 
 circumstances each is the most effective. 
 
 ^ See pages 92 ff. and X03 ff. 
 
 THE SELLING PROCESS 
 
 AROUSING INTEREST 
 
 173 
 
 Interest can be aroused by the first words regarding the 
 goods and the initial actions in showing them. 
 
 First words regarding the goods. First, some definite 
 information should be given. The customer must have 
 something around which she can build her thought. In- 
 stead of glittering generalities that make no impression, 
 definite facts about the goods should be stated.^ Thor- 
 ough knowledge of the merchandise will enable the sales- 
 person to make this valuable first impression. Hack- 
 neyed phrases are valueless. 
 
 Second, the most vital selling point should be presented. 
 Early in the selling process this point is of greatest value 
 although later on it should be repeated. The vital im- 
 portance of an article is a " reason " for buying which 
 should not be overlooked by the salesperson. It is the 
 element that gives perspective to the sales talk. By the 
 very *' bigness " of an idea, interest is often aroused and 
 opposition forced into the background. The most vital 
 selling point of any article for all conditions may not be 
 determinable, but may vary with customers. However, 
 whatever the salesperson decides upon as most important, 
 that should be given. 
 
 Third, a positive statement arouses interest. Let the 
 salesperson affirm in a positive manner some function that 
 the merchandise is supposed to perform, and the cus- 
 tomer will tend to ignore the less positive impressions 
 around her and become concerned about what the sales- 
 person is saying. Having confidence in what one is say- 
 ing is here an important factor, because without it a deep 
 enough impression cannot be made on the customer's 
 
 1 Sec pages 35-42. 
 
 
^ 
 
 174 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 THE SELLING PROCESS 
 
 17s 
 
 «*■.. 
 
 mind to arouse strong interest and sustain it until desire 
 develops. Self-conviction must occur before customer- 
 conviction can exist. 
 
 Fourth, the purpose of the purchase should he referred 
 to. Just what the merchandise is supposed to do or ac- 
 complish should be clearly understood by customer and 
 salesperson. Any chance of future misunderstanding is 
 thereby removed, and both parties to the selling trans- 
 action feel that they are dealing with the same thing. 
 When customers feel that their interests are being looked 
 after, interest is more readily aroused. 
 
 First actions in showing goods. First, there should 
 be promptness in showing goods. Interest can be aroused 
 by an immediate display of appropriate merchandise or 
 it can be effectively killed by hesitation in finding and 
 showing goods. Especially is this true with the im- 
 pulsive customer who becomes irritated over delays. 
 Asking other salespeople where goods are to be found 
 or being unable to locate them immediately are two good 
 methods of deadening the customer's interest in the goods. 
 Lack of promptness in showing merchandise implies in- 
 difference on the part of the salesperson, and indifference 
 never yet succeeded in arousing a customer's interest. 
 The goods should be displayed before the customer as 
 soon as she is ready to look at them. 
 
 Second, the salesperson should always bring the goods 
 to the customer. It ought not to be necessary for the 
 customer to follow the salesperson around in order to 
 purchase goods. If the customer is comfortably seated 
 and the goods brought to her, there will be less friction 
 because of tired nerves. Interest is a plant that grows 
 out of the soil of satisfaction. Bringing goods to the 
 customer creates in her a sense of satisfaction because it 
 
 appeals to her vanity and laziness.^ The expenditure of 
 the customer's energy discourages the expenditure of her 
 money. An effort on the part of the salesperson to con- 
 serve the customer's energy always brings appreciation 
 from the latter and arouses her interest in the goods. 
 
 Third, the goods should be placed in reach of the cus- 
 tomer. This permits the functioning of the senses of 
 touch, smell or taste,^ thereby vivifying the initial im- 
 pressions of the merchandise on the customer's brain. 
 Moreover, goods just out of reach often exasperates the 
 customer although she may say nothing, and thus op- 
 posing ideas may enter her mind to inhibit arousal of in- 
 terest. Sometimes customers cannot resist from reach- 
 ing for goods out of their immediate reach. This action 
 indicates that for a time their interest or ardor was damp- 
 ened and could not be revived without momentary pos- 
 session of the goods. The universal characteristic of 
 laziness was overcome because the instinct of possession 
 was stronger. In some cases, however, the reverse of 
 this may be true, and the customer's sense of touch or her 
 instinct of possession may never be appealed to if the 
 goods are not displayed so that she can handle them with- 
 out effort. Indeed, if she can be induced to handle them, 
 interest will be aroused more quickly than otherwise 
 would have been the case.^ 
 
 Fourth, the goods should be displayed to the best ad- 
 vantage. For example, pile fabrics appear more at- 
 tractive when the light strikes them a certain way, while 
 some articles seem to take on a more desirable color 
 when exposed in natural light. If possible, the article 
 should be put to the use for which it is Intended. Thus, 
 ready-to-wear arouses interest to the fullest extent only 
 
 1 See page 88 ff. 2 See pages 46-7- ^ See page 74 «• 
 
h 
 
 ^i 
 
 176 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 when it is placed on the customer. Shoes must be worn ; 
 draperies should be exhibited in the manner they will 
 appear in use ; neckties are effective when held against a 
 shirt as a background; socks appear to best advantage 
 when shown on a model ; furniture exhibited in a sympa- 
 thetic environment arouses interest. Merchandise, to ap- 
 pear to the best advantage, must be displayed from the 
 standpoint of color and form as it will look in actual use. 
 The customer is usually interested to know '' how it will 
 look,'' and this reflection of the instinct of curiosity ^ is 
 satisfied through appropriate display. 
 
 Fifth, objectionable features should be removed. This 
 applies to the immediate surroundings or to the goods 
 themselves. If neighboring goods tend to distract the 
 customer's attention or neutralize the salesperson's efforts 
 in any way, these must be removed. Sometimes a cus- 
 tomer does not get interested in draperies, ready-to-wear 
 and other merchandise because their colors clash with 
 those of near-by goods. The difficulty is supposed to re- 
 side in the contemplated purchases when in reality it lies 
 in the inharmonious surroundings. 
 
 Moreover, if the goods themselves have temporary 
 features which depreciate them in the eyes of customers, 
 these must be physically eliminated or talked out of ex- 
 istence. An example of using physical elimination was 
 recently seen by the writer, when a shoe salesperson fitted 
 a " boxless " shoe to a customer's foot. Because of the 
 lack of stiffening over the toes the leather wrinkled. 
 For this reason the customer lost interest in the shoe until 
 the salesperson filled the point of the toe with curled hair, 
 preventing further wrinkling. The customer showed re- 
 newed interest in this particular type of shoe because of 
 
 1 See page 80 flp. 
 
 THE SELLING PROCESS 
 
 177 
 
 the quick elimination of the objectionable feature. Ob- 
 jectionable features are talked out of existence when a 
 salesperson tells a customer who has tried on a suit, that, 
 *' The wrinkles will all be pressed out, of course," or that, 
 " The coat will look altogether different when it is ' fit- 
 ted.' " Whatever and wherever the objectionable fea- 
 tures may be, the salesperson should promptly locate and 
 eliminate them. Interest can then be aroused and de- 
 veloped into desire without opposing influences. 
 
 Sixth, the goods should be handled so as to enhance 
 value. Unrealized by some but nevertheless true, the 
 value of any article is not fixed at any moment of time. 
 The price of an article is fixed in a one-price store at any 
 moment of time but its value fluctuates with different cus- 
 tomers and different sales talks. It is within the power 
 of every salesperson to increase or decrease the value of 
 the merchandise. The writer has seen beautiful silk 
 yard goods reduced fifteen per cent in value by careless 
 handling, while in other cases the very same kind of goods 
 have appeared more valuable because they were held up 
 admiringly and handled in a deferential and respectful 
 manner. A certain salesperson enhances the value of 
 shoes by carefully wiping them with a flannel cloth before 
 the customer tries them on. Likewise, the gentle way in 
 which he removes them from the box gives them an added 
 importance in the customer's eyes. The most expensive 
 article in any store may be reduced in value and the mean- 
 est commodity may have its value increased, by methods 
 of handling during a sales talk. Salespeople are creators 
 of value, and just to the extent that they perform this 
 function well can interest be sustained, desire created and 
 decision induced. 
 
 Seventh, interest is augmented by showing the right 
 
178 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 '^ 
 
 IfH 
 
 ^oods, A customer asked to look at silk dresses, size 
 36. The salesperson showed a few dresses among which 
 was only one that appealed to the customer. A good 
 deal of valuable time was consumed in considering the 
 different features of this dress before the customer acci- 
 dentally discovered that it was size 38. Immediately in- 
 terest in silk dresses in that store was seriously dampened 
 and could not be revived, although there were several 
 right size dresses back in the stacks that might have 
 proved desirable. Asking for a basket-ball and being 
 shown a foot-ball is another example illustrating the point. 
 Many more could be given. Enough has been said, how- 
 ever, if the salesperson realizes that the customer loses 
 interest in the goods and confidence in the salesperson 
 when the wrong goods are brought out for display. 
 
 CREATING DESIRE 
 
 As in the case of arousing interest, desire can be ere- 
 ated by two means, viz., words and actions. 
 
 fFords. First, the sales talk should adapt itself to the 
 customer's suggestions. If the customer desires any par- 
 ticular kmd of merchandise the salesperson should bring 
 herself mto Ime with the customer's ideas, unless, of 
 course, the customer's ideas are contrary to her own wel- 
 fare. Even in this latter case, however, if the customer 
 IS determined to wear or use something contrary to what 
 the salesperson thinks is best, the latter should concede 
 the point, always realizing that the customer must be 
 satisfied — not the store or its salespeople. It is diflH- 
 cult to draw the line where the salesperson as an expert 
 adviser should end and the salesperson as a reflector of 
 the customer's ideas should begin, but every salesperson 
 knows that such a line exists. By the time the third 
 
 THE SELLING PROCESS 
 
 179 
 
 step in the selling process is reached, the salesperson 
 should have discovered just what her function is in this 
 respect, and proceed accordingly. One thing is certain, 
 unless the salesperson consciously directs her course of 
 action at this critical point, the sales talk will become 
 either inflexible, rigid and uncompromising, or weak, un- 
 certain and lacking in direction. Adapting the sales talk 
 to the customer's suggestions is necessary, but it can be 
 overdone thereby robbing the salesperson of the initiative. 
 Second, desire will be created if new ideas are supplied 
 as rapidly as they can he utilized by the customer. If a 
 pot of boiling water receives no additional water, it will 
 burn dry; while if water is added at a faster rate than 
 evaporation takes place, the pot will overflow. The same 
 is true of customers who are at the boiling point of desire. 
 New ideas must be added as fast as they can be assimi- 
 lated, but no faster. If new ideas are not given to the 
 customer as quickly as the old ones are absorbed, her 
 mind will regain its freedom and go into realms of its 
 own selection. In other words, the customer's thinking 
 has ceased to be directed^ and when this happens the sales- 
 person has lost control of the situation. Whether or not 
 the former tactical advantage can be regained depends on 
 the ability of the salesperson to redirect the customer's 
 thought along lines most advantageous for the creation 
 of desire. On the other hand, if new ideas are introduced 
 before the old ones have been assimilated, the customer 
 has mental indigestion and rapidly loses interest in what 
 the salesperson is saying. If the customer is observed 
 closely at this point in the selling process, it will be quite 
 evident when ideas have taken effect and when they have 
 not. 
 
 Third, questions should he answered readily. If there 
 
m 
 
 i8o 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 M 
 
 ; J 
 
 !*M 
 
 is any hesitancy in answering questions the customer's 
 confidence is shaken, and it is difficult to regain it at this 
 point in the sale. Friction or inability of any kind are 
 especially conspicuous when the salesperson is gathering 
 momentum for the closing. A complete knowledge of 
 the goods is necessary to create desire. No matter what 
 the customer wants to know, it should be given if asked 
 for. Salespeople cannot afford to be found wanting in 
 this respect for the simple reason that this knowledge is 
 of incalculable value and can readily be acquired.^ 
 
 Fourth, objections should he anticipated,^ Objections 
 are doubly effective when expressed during the last stage 
 of the selling process even though they are adequately 
 answered. When objections are met before they are ex- 
 pressed they lose their force and act in no way to lessen 
 desire but rather to increase it. It is no doubt difficult 
 to anticipate all objections during any one sale but there 
 is no sale in which some objections cannot be forestalled. 
 The strength of the sales talk is increased in proportion 
 to the number of objections anticipated. In order to be 
 sure of forestalling some objections the salesperson can 
 make a study of the most commonly expressed objections 
 and how they may best be answered. The results of this 
 analysis may then be incorporated into the sales talk which 
 will become capable of removing the hidden objections in 
 a large percentage of cases. 
 
 Fifth, the most vital selling points should be used. 
 One or two of these should have been used previously 
 in arousing interest, but now these should be emphasized 
 again and enlarged upon. Also, new vital selling points 
 must be presented. Whatever may be said to make the 
 customer want the article, should now be disclosed. Glit- 
 
 1 Sec page 32 ff. 2 See page 184 ff. 
 
 THE SELLING PROCESS 
 
 181 
 
 tering generalities have no place here. The big out- 
 standing features of the merchandise should be made to 
 dominate the customer's mind to the exclusion of every 
 competing idea. These must then be related to the 
 customer; they are of little use unless connected up with 
 needs. 
 
 Sixth, other purchasers' experience should be cited. 
 Have other people, including the salesperson, used the 
 merchandise? What have they to say regarding its 
 claims?^ Sometimes it is not diplomacy for the sales- 
 person to tell the customer that she has used certain 
 goods herself and likes them, because some customers 
 do not want to buy anything that a salesperson buys. Es- 
 pecially is this true of ready-to-wear. On the other hand, 
 salespeople often feel that they have won the customer's 
 confidence and respect and may strengthen their case by 
 referring to themselves. Whether or not the salesper- 
 son's personal experience is referred to must depend upon 
 the type of customer and related circumstances. Other 
 customers' experiences may be advanced without the dan- 
 ger that attends the salesperson's own experience, but 
 even here care must be taken in using people's names. If 
 the people referred to are held in high esteem by the cus- 
 tomer, well and good, but if such is not the case great 
 harm may be done by quoting them. Citing other cus- 
 tomers' experiences is valuable not only because it sub- 
 stantiates the claims of the salesperson but also because 
 it appeals to the instinct of imitation.^ 
 
 Seventh, the evidence of manufacturers or other au- 
 thorities should be used.^ Sometimes educators, scien- 
 tists, manufacturers and others have evidence that is of 
 
 1 See pages 44, 77. 2 See page 78. 
 
 3 See pages 43-4. 
 
l82 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 ' 1 
 
 a convincing character. If this proof is brought to the 
 attention of the customer, her desire for the article is 
 created, because she feels that the merit of the merchan- 
 dise is universally accepted and is greater than she had 
 anticipated. The creation of this new element of value 
 freshens the sales talk and helps to construct a conception 
 of value that is commensurate with price. 
 
 Eighth, getting the customer to agree with the sales- 
 person is an effective means of creating desire. If the 
 customer agrees once it is easier for her to agree again. 
 On the other hand, if the salesperson encourages argu- 
 ment the possibility of increasing opposition is augmented. 
 Action tends to take place along the lines of agreement, 
 so if enough agreement can be induced, opposition is elim- 
 inated and action appropriate to reason ensues. Asking 
 a customer her opinion of the merchandise often brings 
 words of praise which react on her making her enthusi- 
 astically desirous of the goods. A sale does not " grow " 
 like Topsy; it is built up by conscious effort with positive 
 elements such as agreement. 
 
 Actions. First, the right quantities should he shown. 
 In selling ready-to-wear the tendency is to show too much. 
 The customer is overcome by the extensive array and 
 wide variety of merchandise and has difficulty in concen- 
 trating her attention on any one article. In the case of 
 yard goods oftentimes not enough is shown. The cus- 
 tomer feels that the salesperson is not willing to go to the 
 trouble of bringing down and displaying a wide range of 
 merchandise. There is a happy mean between these two 
 extremes. Like ideas, no more merchandise should be 
 exhibited than can be readily observed and assimilated. 
 The customer must be able to note and remember the at- 
 tractive features of each article, otherwise accurate com- 
 
 THE SELLING PROCESS 
 
 183 
 
 parisons are impossible. If too limited a stock is dis- 
 played the customer soon assimilates their qualities and 
 becomes uneasy. Her interest does not develop into de- 
 sire unless her appetite for seeing is satisfied. By care- 
 ful observation of the customer, correct quantities of 
 goods can be shown. 
 
 Second, comparison with other goods. This compari- 
 son should reveal the points of superiority. Without 
 " knocking " lower priced goods, or goods of competi- 
 tors,^ the salesperson may show exactly wherein her goods 
 contain more value for the price. Demonstration often 
 reveals excellence better than words. Thus, if a cus- 
 tomer reclines in a $60 davenport and then rests in a 
 $100 one, the superiority of one over the other is actually 
 experienced. A desire for the better article is created 
 whether or not the customer can afford to pay the higher 
 price. Again, if the customer can be made to realize that 
 a certain mail order house rug, while it looks similar to 
 one in the store, is cheaper because it has ten per cent 
 of jute woven into it, the salesperson has ^ven a reason 
 for the higher price of her rug and demonstrated its su- 
 periority at the same time. Unfortunately, too often the 
 salesperson does not know the true character of com- 
 petitors' goods and therefore cannot speak with author- 
 ity. It means nothing for the salesperson to say that she 
 thinks her rug is better; she has to know and demonstrate 
 her knowledge before opposition in the customer's mind 
 is broken down and desire created. 
 
 Third, the more of the senses that are appealed to, the 
 more efficient is the sales talk in creating desire.^ The 
 only means of approach to the brain is through the five 
 senses. If the salesperson can work out sense appeals 
 
 1 See page i88. ^ See page 46 ff. 
 
.z-,=~^~-^.^^^„.amam~~« , fflfU 'YT^ 
 
 184 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 .'Uji! 
 
 
 for everything she sells, the greater will be the possibility 
 of getting people to desire goods. Much yet remains to 
 be done in this field. 
 
 CLOSING THE SALE 
 
 The final step in the selling process may be successfully 
 accomplished by certain definite appeals by words and 
 actions, yet, first of all, the salesperson must be able to 
 recognize the best time to close. With the impulsive 
 type the sale may not be closed in time ; with the deliber- 
 ative customer it may be closed too quickly. The prob- 
 lem of when to close arises with the other types as well. 
 No one can tell the salesperson just when to close. She 
 must be able to sense when the psychological moment has 
 arrived. Study plus experience will develop this ability. 
 If the previous three steps have been well performed, the 
 last step should not be extremely difficult. Yet there are 
 certain subtle factors which tend to obstruct decision, a 
 consideration of which in the following paragraphs should 
 aid the salesperson in successfully overcoming them. 
 
 Closing by Words, First, handling objections. No 
 matter how effective the sales talk, or how much interest 
 has been developed, if an objection presents itself in 
 the customer's mind and is not dislodged, the salesperson 
 is prevented from closing the sale. Such objections are 
 known in psychology as inhibiting ideas. As long as 
 these ideas or objections are prominent in the customer's 
 mind, or are even lurking in the margin of her conscious- 
 ness, she will not decide to buy. All obstructions to de- 
 cision, expressed or unvoiced, must be eliminated before 
 the fourth step in the selling process can be reached. 
 The express train of selling effort cannot reach its desti- 
 
 THE SELLING PROCESS 1 85 
 
 nation — sales — unless it has a clear track on which to 
 operate. 
 
 The salesperson should know quite thoroughly the ob- 
 structions that are most likely to be thrown into the path 
 of her sales talk. Preparation to meet objections is the 
 only successful way of handling them. Extemporaneous 
 treatment is fraught with danger. Naturally, unexpected 
 objections that under no circumstances could be foreseen 
 and provided for, will come up from time to time during 
 any day's work. Clever impromptu handling of such by 
 able salespeople often occurs, but, unfortunately, this suc- 
 cess sometimes obscures the necessity for careful study to 
 meet most effectively the objections that usually occur. 
 
 Not only should the salesperson be prepared to meet 
 expressed objections, but also unexpressed objections or 
 inhibiting ideas. These inhibiting ideas can often be as- 
 certained by noting the attitude of the customer when the 
 price is mentioned or when quality or style is explained 
 or emphasized. If the buying motive can thus be ascer- 
 tained, the most logical inhibiting ideas detrimental to a 
 sale may be disclosed and effectively eliminated according 
 to prearranged plans. To ably meet an objection that 
 is Stated, is good salesmanship, but to anticipate and 
 adroitly meet an unexpressed objection thereby forestall- 
 ing it, is better salesmanship. Inhibiting ideas should be 
 killed while they are still on the fringe of consciousness ; — 
 before they come to hold the center of the stage. 
 
 Some of the most common objections, whether stated 
 or unexpressed, are known to every experienced and able 
 salesperson. One of these is price. How often has the 
 objection, '' the price is too high," ended all effort to 
 consummate a sale. When customers say this do they 
 
«ti 
 
 i86 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 mean that the price Is absolutely too high for them, i. e., 
 that they actually cannot afford It, or do they mean that 
 the store Is asking too much for the goods, I. e., that a 
 lower price would Insure a fair profit? Or may It be 
 possible that customers in some cases may mean neither 
 of these possibilities? Sometimes people use the above 
 phrase to cover up a general disinclination to buy. Be- 
 cause of the latter use, this phrase has developed Into a 
 commercial term, which, when expressed, usually Indicates 
 that the salesperson has failed to gain the Interest of the 
 customer. Redoubled effort to interest the customer is 
 the best means of handling this objection under these cir- 
 cumstances. 
 
 Where price appears to be the real stumbling block to 
 the sale, i. e., when the customer feels that she cannot af- 
 ford it, the reason usually Is because the salesperson has 
 not demonstrated that the worth of the article (Its ability 
 to satisfy wants) Is equal to the price or is fairly repre- 
 sented by it. In cases of this kind the trouble is with 
 the customer's estimate of the article's value. Her con- 
 ception of value Is faulty because of her lack of apprecia- 
 tion, which in turn Is due to the negligence or inability of 
 the salesperson to supply it. The customer must be made 
 to feel the sensations of a possessor; she should realize 
 distinctly the satisfactions that would accrue to her in 
 return for the price asked. 
 
 The worth of the article is what the customer could 
 get out of it; the value is what the customer thinks she 
 could get out of It. The worth must be equal to or 
 greater than the customer's conception of Its value if the 
 sale is to be permanently satisfactory. Whether or not 
 the customer buys depends on the salesperson's display 
 of the article's virtues and their relationship to the needs 
 
 THE SELLING PROCESS 
 
 187 
 
 of the customer. Hugh Chalmers says, " If you need 
 an article, you pay for It whether you buy it or not." To 
 show the need Is often the business of the salesperson. 
 Needs do not always present themselves clearly to the 
 customer. In order to be fully realized they have to be 
 held before the attention. Worth becomes value when 
 anv article Is fully appreciated. No commodity is highly 
 valued or " Is worth much " until its qualities and their 
 relationship to the customer is known. Hence the ne- 
 cessity of " knowing." 
 
 Price Is the money expression of the costs of produc- 
 tion and distribution, Including a legitimate profit In both. 
 It should not be more than the worth of the article and is 
 oftentimes less. If the customer's conception of the 
 article's value Is less than its price, not only should the 
 worth of the article be further demonstrated, but also the 
 reason for the price, I. e., the care taken in Its manufac- 
 ture, products used, processes gone through, and any other 
 features that might Interest the customer. Especially 
 with high priced articles Is It necessary to explain the 
 manufacture and selling costs to a thrifty customer. To 
 thus legitimatize the price is often the only way to close 
 a sale, even when the worth of the article Is fully re- 
 alized by the customer. Unfortunately, ignorance of 
 the factors that go to make up cost often stands in the 
 way of meeting an objection against price itself. 
 
 A second objection often met Is sometimes expressed 
 by the phrases, " I want to look around before I decide," 
 or, *' I'll think It over and come In again." Unexpressed, 
 it is indicated by uneasiness on the part of the customer 
 when the salesperson attempts to close the sale. In the 
 latter case the customer may not be able to adversely 
 criticize the article In any way and may desire it. How- 
 
«l 
 
 i 
 
 i88 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 ever, in the margin of her consciousness Is the inhibiting 
 idea that possibly a better bargain may be secured else- 
 where, and that there will be regret later if action is 
 premature or hasty. 
 
 When the salesperson realizes that the customer is 
 desirous of shopping before coming to a decision, what 
 should be her attitude toward the situation? Should she 
 attack competitors or try to depreciate their lines? Al- 
 though this is often done it Is poor salesmanship. The 
 result of such action is a feeling on the part of the cus- 
 tomer that the salesperson fears the competitors and is 
 afraid the sale will be lost if she has a chance to look 
 around. This increases the customer's desire to do so. 
 There is an old saying, " If your competitor talks about 
 you, put him on your pay roll. It does not matter what 
 he says so long as he talks." Talking about one's com- 
 petitor or his goods suggests that these are Important 
 considerations — important because they have forced 
 themselves to the front for consideration. But when 
 competitors' goods have been brought Into the foreground 
 by the customer, their merit should be recognized; they 
 cannot be ignored. Competitors and competing goods 
 can best be placed in the background by describing thor- 
 oughly the merit of the goods the salesperson is trying to 
 sell. One department manager, when asked how he 
 handled " shoppers," said, " We endeavor to sell them. 
 Women will always look around before they buy, so we 
 realize that we cannot always get their order at first. 
 But we try to find something In the line they are Inter- 
 ested in that entirely suits them, and then we endeavor 
 to Interest them in this article and get them to desire it 
 so much that anything else, no matter where it is found, 
 will not appeal to them." To sell goods on their merits 
 
 THE SELLING PROCESS 
 
 189 
 
 rather than on the demerits of competitors' goods, is 
 good salesmanship. 
 
 If the customer expresses her desire to look elsewhere, 
 it is always wise for the salesperson to appear perfectly 
 willing to have her do so. To attack the idea of looking 
 elsewhere brings It from the margin Into the focus of 
 consciousness and makes it more effective in controlling 
 action. Confidence should be expressed that no competi- 
 tor can surpass the article in merit, but that the customer 
 cannot fully realize this until she has seen other articles. 
 Renewed energy should then be put forth In summing up 
 the points of merit possessed by the article, and in bring- 
 ing out new clinching arguments. Nothing will sell 
 goods to a customer prone to look around, so much as a 
 willingness exhibited by the salesperson for her to look 
 elsewhere, and a large fund of convincing information 
 about the goods. Customers, like children, have a tend- 
 ency to do what they are not desired to do ; so when the 
 salesperson answers their declaration of looking around 
 by commending it and advising its performance, forces 
 are at once set at work In the customer's mind opposing 
 its own suggestion and tending to eliminate Its practical 
 application. Expressed or Implied unwillingness to have 
 a customer look around before purchasing Is justifiable 
 under no conditions and Is usually evidence of the inabil- 
 ity of the salesperson to arouse the Interest of the cus- 
 tomer In the goods. This may be due to the defects of 
 the goods themselves but more often it is due to the blun- 
 ders of the salesperson. Restraint is not a proper nor 
 is it an effective way of selling goods. 
 
 A third objection to closing a sale may be the presence 
 in the customer's mind of Inhibiting ideas in the form of 
 rival desires competing to be satisfied. Thus, if a set 
 
 m 
 
M 
 
 190 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 of encyclopedias is purchased, a trip to the Adirondacks 
 must be foregone; or if a set of furs is bought, an old 
 piece of furniture may escape the discard. Since most 
 people have limited means, one purchase usually displaces 
 another, although customers may infrequently view a 
 purchase in terms of goods gone without. With high 
 priced articles, however, if the satisfying ability of one is 
 pitted against the satisfying ability of the other, a logical 
 buying judgment is formed that will insure maximum 
 satisfaction. The salesperson can better display the 
 merits of her goods if she can obtain knowledge of com- 
 peting desires that serve as inhibiting ideas. Often- 
 times this information can be secured from something that 
 the customer may say, or by questioning her. Knowl- 
 edge of such objections places the salesperson in a po- 
 sition to advise the customer and perhaps remove her 
 from an unsatisfactory dilemma. 
 
 A fourth objection sometimes expressed is, " My hus- 
 band must see it." Where the customer is sincere noth- 
 ing remains for the salesperson to do except wait for the 
 husband to come. However, in many cases this objec- 
 tion is expressed merely to give some reason for not pur- 
 chasing an article for which no desire has been created. 
 It thus resembles the objection, " Price too high." The 
 salesperson should realize that interest has not been thor- 
 oughly developed, and an attempt must be made to more 
 intimately connect up the sales talk with the characteris- 
 tics of the customer and her needs. 
 
 If the sale is lost, a searching analysis of the reasons 
 therefor should be made. In going over the sales talk it 
 will usually be found that important points were omitted 
 or else thrown into the talk haphazardly. Perhaps the 
 needs of the customer were not sufficiently considered or 
 
 mmmm 
 
 THE SELLING PROCESS 
 
 191 
 
 ascertained. Possibly other reasons could be advanced 
 for failure to close the sale. Not in all cases can the real 
 reason for the loss of a sale be ascertained, but analysis 
 is the only means of finding the reason in any case. If 
 reasons for the loss of half the sales could be determined, 
 corrective salesmanship would earn big results. That 
 some causes for failure to close sales would be unearthed 
 by study is beyond question, and this alone is sufficient 
 justification for careful analysis of each sale. 
 
 A fifth objection is, " It's not the right kind," meaning 
 perhaps, not the brand usually used. Thus, on being 
 shown a certain brand of underwear, the customer asked, 
 "Haven't you the Blank brand?" The salesperson 
 sadly announced that she did not. The customer left, 
 saying that only the Blank brand would suit her. In re- 
 ality, the underwear offered by the salesperson was su- 
 perior to that asked for, but the salesperson did not know 
 it. Competing goods must be known as well as the 
 goods on the shelves. Customers must be educated to 
 see advantages in other goods, and the ability of these 
 goods to better satisfy their needs. No customer will 
 ever feel imposed upon by a salesperson if the latter con- 
 scientiously shows the relative superiority of goods. 
 Service is desired and appreciated when offered. 
 
 The offering of objections should not be solicited or 
 encouraged, as ideas contrary to closing the sale are 
 thereby brought into the focus of consciousness. A new 
 line of thought is started which will have a tendency to 
 eliminate the interest already aroused. The salesperson 
 should seek to make the customer forget all objections by 
 intensely interesting her. 
 
 This does not mean that objections should not be an- 
 ticipated and forestalled. Such a policy lessens the force 
 
192 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 THE SELLING PROCESS 
 
 193 
 
 •i 
 
 of the objection. What is meant is, that unless the sales- 
 person is quite certain that a certain objection exists it is 
 unwise to mention it. If it does not exist, the customer 
 may think that the salesperson is setting up a man of 
 straw in order to show her cleverness in knocking him 
 down; or else, she may adopt the suggested objection and 
 the interest that has already been gained will be endan- 
 gered. Clever questioning will often indicate when a 
 certain objection exists, without increasing its importance 
 by encouraging the customer to voice it. When unspoken 
 objections are met and answered, unconsciously the cus- 
 tomer feels that she is understood — that she is in the 
 hands of a capable salesperson who knows her needs. 
 Needless to say, the ability to anticipate objections can 
 only come through the study of experiences and custom- 
 ers. No one can be 100 per cent efficient in such delicate 
 dealings with human nature but every salesperson can 
 have the satisfaction of knowing that she is dealing more 
 scientifically with the problems arising in her work. 
 
 Second, other reasons for delay must he ascertained. 
 What is meant is illustrated by the following incident. A 
 farmer and his wife were undecided whether to purchase 
 a $125 or a $200 coat for the latter. Both of them 
 showed a preference for the higher priced garment but 
 something was delaying decision. The salesperson re- 
 alized that if she did not close the sale soon the cheaper 
 coat would be selected. The farmer was well-to-do and 
 prosperous, so the salesperson could not believe that 
 the desire to economize prompted delay. Finally, the 
 salesperson surmised that a misconception of values pre- 
 vented decision, so she said, " Why, the difference in price 
 between these two coats only amounts to the price of one 
 of the calves on your farm." Immediately the farmer's 
 
 mind went back to the farm where he saw many calves. 
 He could hardly realize that he was letting one of these 
 common insignificant creatures stand between his wife 
 and the $200 coat. Quickly he said, *' Guess we'll take 
 the best one." In this case, even though the farmer was 
 well-to-do, dollars were very significant and of great value 
 to him because he had few of them. But calves were 
 lightly esteemed because he saw them every day and had 
 many of them. Translating dollars in terms of a calf 
 removed the obstruction to decision. That such work is 
 of a high mental character goes without saying. Quick 
 thinking and analysis of reasons for delay closed the sale 
 for the higher priced article. Other cases could be given 
 to illustrate the point, but enough has been said if the 
 salesperson realizes that delay in decision exists only 
 because the reasons for delay have not been discovered 
 and eliminated, A high quality of mental effort which 
 results from training is needed in all phases of present 
 day retailing. 
 
 Third, referring to the customer's approval of the 
 merchandise tends to suggest a finality which is favorable 
 for inducing decision. The customer wishes to be con- 
 sidered logical, but her position in this respect appears 
 endangered if she does not confirm her former words of 
 approbation. The act of confirming them strengthens 
 the salesperson's position and weaves the threads of the 
 sale more closely about the customer. Enough approval 
 and the sale is inevitably made. 
 
 Fourth, the advantage of immediate buying should be 
 shown. This is illustrated by the following incident. 
 Some linen yard goods were on display for forty cents 
 per yard, marked down from fifty. A customer was tell- 
 ing the salesperson that she was going to " wait " until 
 
 Hi 
 
 
194 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 THE SELLING PROCESS 
 
 195 
 
 n 
 
 m 
 
 linens were cheaper, as forty cents was an *' outrageous '' 
 price for such goods. The salesperson had no " come- 
 back " to offer. One of the proprietors, overhearing the 
 reason for not purchasing immediately, asked the cus- 
 tomer when she believed orderly conditions would be re- 
 stored in Russia. Russia was in such a turmoil at the 
 time that the customer was forced to smile. She replied 
 that she did not believe it would be for some time. Then 
 the proprietor went on to show how that country was one 
 of the great flax producers and unless trade opened up 
 soon prices of linens would rise still higher. The reduced 
 price of the linens on display was then referred to in such 
 a way as to make the customer feel that she was being 
 shown a favor to be offered such a reasonable price. This 
 explanation, giving a reason for immediate purchase, sold 
 several yards of linen. In many cases there are reasons 
 why customers should not postpone buying, but they are 
 seldom obvious to either the salesperson or the customer. 
 They are known only as the result of looking for them, 
 i. e., study with a definite end in view. 
 
 Fifth, the customer's consent can sometimes be obtained 
 by suggesting that the decision has been made. When 
 the customer is balancing between buying and not buying 
 the slightest word may make or lose a sale. A ready-to- 
 wear salesperson suggested that the customer had de- 
 cided to purchase a certain suit, when she said, " You 
 couldn't have decided on a more attractive suit." A fur- 
 niture salesperson said in closing the sale, " Mrs. Jones, 
 you have selected the best davenport we have in stock." 
 A men's furnishings salesperson remarked, " Now, let me 
 show you a necktie that you will enjoy wearing with that 
 shirt." All of these quotations indicate a finality of de- 
 cision which induces decision if the customer's mind is in 
 
 i 
 
 the balance. With vacillating customers certain devices 
 for inducing decision must be used or else the salesperson 
 must decide for them herself. Examples of some de- 
 vices used to induce the vacillating customer to decide 
 are found elsewhere.^ 
 
 Closing by actions. First, by eliminating other goods. 
 If other goods are lying around the article in which the 
 customer's interest has been most pronounced, their elim- 
 ination will tend to make the customer feel that she has 
 decided to purchase what remains on display. Her whole 
 attention is thereby concentrated on one piece of mer- 
 chandise and is not scattered over several. It is too com- 
 mon a practice in retailing to allow piles of merchandise 
 in which customers are not interested, but which distract 
 their attention, to lie on the counter in close proximity to 
 merchandise the salesperson is trying to sell. The very 
 act of taking these extraneous goods away lends a feel- 
 ing of conclusiveness to the selling process. Very often 
 this simple act may induce the customer to decide to pur- 
 chase the goods remaining. 
 
 Second, by suggesting that decision is made. Some 
 salespeople induce decision by folding up the merchandise, 
 setting it to one side, and reaching for the sales book. 
 A ladies' ready-to-wear salesperson performed this op- 
 eration by calling to the fitter to inspect a garment that 
 the customer had tried on. Any change of actions may 
 be used to suggest that decision has been made. If 
 earnest, intense actions have been used in bringing the 
 customer up to the close, the direct opposite kind of 
 actions, if introduced at the right moment, may produce 
 the situation desired. A change of methods implies a 
 change in thinking; it indicates a turning point in the sell- 
 
 1 Page loi. 
 
 '.n 
 
^^w 
 
 f WW ' 
 
 :l! 
 
 Ill 
 
 196^ RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 Ing process — the Introduction of the new element of 
 decision that brings the sale to a close. Practice and 
 study will develop devices which will make it compara- 
 tively easy for the customer to decide. The salesperson 
 should always be on the lookout for such aids to selling 
 since the number of sales closed depends on the number 
 of people persuaded to purchase. 
 
 INTRODUCING OTHER GOODS 
 
 After the sale has been made, the salesperson is only 
 75 per cent efficient unless she introduces new goods in 
 a positive manner and secures good will for the store. 
 The latter step in the selling process has already been 
 discussed.^ The present discussion will give considera- 
 tion to different methods of bringing other goods before 
 the customer. 
 
 A common method used Is negative suggestion, as, 
 "Nothing else?" " That^s all?" "You wouldn't care 
 to look at anything else?" Such phrases should never 
 be used because they suggest negative answers. Auto- 
 matically, people say " No " when such questions are 
 asked. In fact, the writer has sometimes intended pur- 
 chasing socks or shirts, but after buying collars these other 
 articles have been forgotten because of the fateful finality 
 of some such negative suggestion. Questions of this 
 character are not methods of Introducing other goods 
 although salespeople use them as such, but rather, meth- 
 ods of chloroforming customer's minds. They are de- 
 vices to make people forget what they actually Intended 
 to buy. For these reasons they are worse than useless. 
 The real foolishness and weakness of such methods are 
 clear when the principle underlying them Is applied to 
 
 1 Chapters VI and VIL 
 
 THE SELLING PROCESS 
 
 197 
 
 Other fields. Thus, for instance, what would the girl 
 think of the man who asked, " Mary, you wouldn't want 
 to marry me, would you?" or, "You wouldn't want to 
 go to the theater tonight, would you?" In the former 
 case the girl would be getting out of It pretty easily and 
 in the latter, the fellow. An agent came to the writer's 
 home and said, " You wouldn't want your silverware 
 plated, would you?" He was met with an emphatic 
 *' No," whereupon he replied, " I didn't think you did." 
 After he had gone it dawned upon the prospect that he 
 did need his silverware plated, and badly. But that did 
 the agent little good. This salesperson had suggested 
 a negative answer and had received it. 
 
 Another method of introducing other goods is by ask- 
 ing a question in a positive manner, as, " Something 
 else?" "Would you care to look at shirts?" "Would 
 you be interested in anything else?" Such phrases are 
 an improvement over the preceding ones but they all give 
 the customer an opportunity to say " No." They place 
 the issue before the customer In such a bald manner that 
 a decision must be reached, and reaching a decision is 
 always irksome. In most cases it Is easier to say " No " 
 than it is to say " Yes." Moreover, the customer may 
 feel that she will put herself under obligations to pur- 
 chase if she answers In the affirmative. This, all cus- 
 tomers hesitate to do. It is poor salesmanship to phrase 
 questions so that the customer is given an alternative of 
 not buying, or answering negatively. 
 
 As an example of this principle, one newsboy calls, 
 "News, Sir?" "Herald, Sir?" or, "Buy a News?" 
 "Won't you buy a Herald?" while another boy says, 
 " News or Herald, Sir? " In the case of the former boy 
 his questions offer the customer the alternative of not buy- 
 

 Ill 
 
 ' I 
 
 198 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 ing, but the other boy gives no such alternative. Which- 
 ever way the customer decides, a sale will be made. A 
 men's ready-to-wear salesperson made use of questioning 
 without offering the alternative of a negative reply, when 
 he said, " Do you prefer light or heavy weight socks? '* 
 The answer of the customer led to a brief discussion on 
 socks which developed into a sale. 
 
 The best method of Introducing other goods is not to 
 ask questions either in a positive or negative way, but to 
 show the goods. Obviously, where the customer is in a 
 hurry this cannot be done, but excepting this case most 
 customers are willing to look at other goods if the sales- 
 person brings them out in a tactful manner and does not 
 give the impression that the customer will be under obli- 
 gations for having looked at them. There can be no 
 delay in hunting other goods or in placing them before 
 the customer. After a sale has been made and before 
 the goods have been wrapped, the salesperson can have 
 at hand some new goods or goods that she thinks the cus- 
 tomer will be interested In, and these can be presented by 
 some such phrase, " I thought you might be pleased to 
 see some of our recent designs, '' or, " Here are some 
 shirts that harmonize with the ties you have just pur- 
 chased." 
 
 It has been said that these suggestions should be made 
 before the goods are wrapped. This is wisdom because 
 there is a finality about wrapped goods which suggests 
 that the purchase has been completed, while goods pur- 
 chased and laid aside suggests that other goods can be 
 placed with them. Some may think that this latter 
 method is commonly followed, but the writer could give 
 many instances where such has not been the case. In one 
 instance, two packs of playing cards were purchased and 
 
 aas 
 
 THE SELLING PROCESS 
 
 199 
 
 after they were wrapped up the salesperson suggested 
 score cards. Now it happened that score cards were ac- 
 tually needed, but rather than go to the bother of having 
 a new package wrapped or having the old one put into 
 another package, the customer said " No." If the score 
 cards had been produced and suggested along with the 
 playing cards, they would have been purchased. 
 
 In a discussion of introducing other goods the question 
 arises, what goods should be suggested. In the first 
 place, closely related articles. Thus, if socks are asked 
 for, garters should be shown. Shirts suggest collars, ties, 
 cuff-links. Screws suggest a screw-driver. Shoes sug- 
 gest laces, cleaner, arches, etc. Such suggestions as 
 these are elementary and fundamental. They should 
 always be made. In the second place, goods less inti- 
 mately related with the purchase should be shown. In 
 the third place, merchandise in other departments should 
 be suggested. Very few stores have complete enough 
 cooperation between the different departments in this re- 
 spect.^ The customer will appreciate any information 
 that will enable her to find special values elsewhere in the 
 store. But before such suggestions can be made, knowl- 
 edge must be had of what other departments are offering. 
 This information can only come from a careful reading 
 of the daily advertisements of the store. 
 
 By suggesting other goods after every sale, any sales- 
 person can increase her total sales twenty per cent. This 
 is a conservative estimate based on the experience of 
 salespeople who have adopted the methods here indicated. 
 There should be no hesitancy on the part of the salesper- 
 son in performing this service because it is to the ad- 
 vantage of the customer as well as of the store. Sales- 
 
 ^ See pages 83-4. 
 
fl* 
 
 \i 
 
 200 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 people are doing the customer a service If they can ascer- 
 tain her present needs and anticipate her future desires. 
 It is chiefly from the standpoint of service — a desire to 
 help and satisfy the customer — that other goods should 
 be introduced at the close of a sale. If the customer's 
 satisfaction is always kept in mind, larger sales will natur- 
 ally follow. Negative suggestions can be condemned 
 chiefly on the grounds that they perform no service for 
 the customer and oftentimes make people forget merchan- 
 dise they intended purchasing. As an obstruction to the 
 satisfaction of customers they should be eliminated. 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 STORE SYSTEM AND METHOD 
 
 The aim of Instruction In salesmanship Is to develop 
 satisfactory service for the public as well as to bring 
 greater profit to both salesperson and store as a result 
 of higher efficiency. This aim cannot be realized if the 
 sales check Is omitted from consideration, since it offers 
 as many opportunities for error and Is productive of as 
 much error as is the actual process of selling Itself. In- 
 numerable Illustrations could be given where customers 
 have become disgruntled and have refused to continue 
 to purchase goods from certain stores simply because of 
 mistakes which were traceable to the master error In the 
 sales check. In some cases, trade has even been diverted 
 to mail order houses and near-by cities, and the commu- 
 nity as well as the stores has suffered. However, whether 
 or not sales check errors have actually driven away trade 
 in any particular case, the fact that they exist is sufficient 
 cause for our effort to point them out, to indicate their 
 consequences and to offer suggestions of a remedial char- 
 acter. 
 
 OMISSIONS 
 
 Omitting valuable information on the sales check is a 
 source of much annoyance and confusion. Among the 
 
 most prominent omissions are the following: 
 
 201 
 
 ] 
 
 \<'\ 
 -M 
 
 \ i 
 
^, ■ p.|^.-,.-.7T- 
 
 202 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 STORE SYSTEM AND METHOD 
 
 203 
 
 K" 
 
 : it: 
 
 I '! 
 
 (a) Name. 
 
 In case of a charge or C. O. D. order this error would 
 prove a serious one. In the former case the store might 
 be the loser of the goods and in the latter case the de- 
 livery man might have infinite trouble finding the pur- 
 chaser unless the address was exceptionally specific. 
 
 (b) Letters in name. 
 
 Wrong spelling of names cannot be justified under any 
 circumstances. The salesperson should always ask the 
 customer how the name is spelled, even if there seems no 
 chance for error. This method of verifying first impres- 
 sions is by no means a waste of time. It is in reality a 
 conservator of time, for mistakes in names may mean that 
 the wrong person will get the goods, or more probably 
 that the wrong person will be charged with them. 
 
 Some errors of this nature are illustrated in the fol- 
 lowing : 
 
 F. B. Herman 
 S. M. Blakly 
 C. F. Ruman 
 P. W. Ivy 
 
 B. O. Schmidt 
 
 C. D. Layman 
 
 should be 
 should be 
 should be 
 should be 
 should be 
 should be 
 
 F. B. Hermann 
 S. M. Blakely 
 C. F. Reuman 
 P. W. Ivey 
 
 B. O. Schmitt 
 
 C. D. Lehmann 
 
 (c) Items. 
 
 If the name of any article sold Is not recorded on the 
 sales check, loss to some party of the transaction may en- 
 sue. Especially is this true If it is a charge account. 
 The Item cannot be charged without extra Investigation 
 and perhaps not even then. 
 
 Care should not only be taken In inserting the item but 
 also in inserting the quantity of each item. '* Handker- 
 
 chiefs, .25 " means very little. This might indicate two 
 or more, depending on the grade. To omit the number 
 in the quantity column of the sales check is in reality omit- 
 ting the item itself, since no knowledge is tabulated to 
 Indicate " how many " items were sold. Only a guess 
 as to the correct quantity can be arrived at from the 
 figures in the dollars and cents column. 
 
 (d) " In care of." 
 
 A package should not be sent to a public place like a 
 hotel or railroad station unless addressed to some indi- 
 vidual. If the individual is not well-known or her ad- 
 dress is temporary, she should be addressed " in care of " 
 some responsible, well-known person. Failure to add 
 " in care of " may mean that the customer fails to receive 
 her order, or it may mean that the house loses the goods. 
 
 An illustration of the former case is found in the fol- 
 lowing instance : Mrs. Henry Plummer, Hortonville, N. 
 Y., failed to get her order. She had asked the salesper- 
 son from whom she made the purchase to send the pack- 
 age " in care of Mrs. Milner, opposite the post office." 
 The salesperson omitted to add this designation to the 
 main address, and since no such address could be found 
 in Hortonville (Mrs. Plummer lived some miles from 
 town) the goods were returned to the store for a more 
 adequate address. Because of this error, Mrs. Plummer 
 failed to receive the goods in time for the occasion for 
 which they were intended. 
 
 (e) Numbers in address. 
 
 Much loss of time and inconvenience is caused through 
 omission of figures in addresses, illustrations of which are 
 as follows: 
 
 4: ^ 
 
204 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 should be 
 
 3069 
 
 should be 
 
 7722 
 
 should be 
 
 508 
 
 should be 
 
 2206 
 
 369 Chestnut Avenue 
 722 Helmuth Avenue 
 58 E. Rock Island St. 
 206 Bloomington St. 
 
 (f) House number. 
 
 Quite commonly, salespeople write down the street 
 address but omit the house number, especially when the 
 name of the street is a number. Some examples of this 
 mistake are seen in the following: 
 
 J. B. Roe 
 
 0. R. Meister 
 
 1. L. Brown 
 J. Houseman 
 
 ( 
 ( 
 ( 
 ( 
 
 ) Gemain Ave. 
 
 ) 1 8 th Street 
 
 ) Norfolk Ave. 
 
 ) W. 36th Street 
 
 (g) Local address. 
 
 Especially when the goods are sold to an out-of-town 
 person, salespeople often forget to ask for the local ad- 
 dress. In many cases, securing the town is not sufficient 
 for prompt delivery of the goods, and unless the local 
 address is likewise placed on the parcel the customer will 
 be disappointed in not getting her goods when expected. 
 The following are some examples of local address omis- 
 sions : 
 
 Roland E. Baird, Vinton; should be 
 
 Elmwood Place and Magenta St., Vinton, Iowa. 
 Miss Virginia Newcome, Rock Island, 111., should be 
 
 4th St., Rock Island, 111. 
 Mrs. Frank Pierce, St. Martin, Minn., should be 
 
 Cor. School House and County Road, St. Martin, 
 Minn. 
 
 STORE SYSTEM AND METHOD 
 
 205 
 
 ( h ) Locality — town. 
 
 Not so common an error, but a serious and irretriev- 
 able one, is the omission of the name of the town, when 
 the customer lives in another locality from that in which 
 the store is located. Illustrations of this error are as 
 follows : 
 
 6^6 Jefferson St., Minn., should include Austin. 
 47 N. 9th St., Iowa, should include Washington. 
 22 E. University Ave., Iowa, should include Iowa City. 
 18 E. Hickory and 33d Sts., Iowa, should include 
 Council Bluffs. 
 
 Closely allied with the omission of the town is the sub- 
 stitution of the name of the city where the goods are 
 purchased for the purchaser's town. This occurs to a 
 large extent through the misleading term of " City." 
 Thus a customer gave her address as 675 Leon St. The 
 salesperson said *' City? " and the customer absentmind- 
 edly said " Yes." Later, upon receiving complaint that 
 her order was not received, she was located in another 
 town. 
 
 Some further examples of this error are as follows: 
 
 307 N. 7th St., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, should be Belle 
 Plaine, Iowa. 
 
 12 12 Bloomington St., Iowa City, Iowa, should be 
 Tipton, Iowa. 
 
 738 Crawford St., City, should be Marengo, Iowa. 
 
 201 W. 3rd St., City, should be Moline, '111. 
 
 (i) Omissions and other errors in designation of direc- 
 tion. 
 Errors of this nature mean much expense in the aggre- 
 gate as two delivery trips are necessitated by them. 
 
 
206 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 Their apparent Insignificance may partially account for 
 their great number. A few illustrations are as follows : 
 
 672 E. 64th St. 
 1498 N. 2 1st St. 
 306 N. Berry Ave. 
 405 Morris St. 
 
 should be 
 should be 
 should be 
 should be 
 
 TRANSPOSITIONS 
 
 W. 64th St. 
 
 S. 2 I St. St. 
 
 306 Northbury Ave. 
 405 W. Morris St. 
 
 (a) Letters. 
 
 Transposition of letters is always due to carelessness 
 and when made in charge names often causes confusion 
 and ill will toward the store. People are charged with 
 that which they did not order and those who have the 
 goods in their possession receive no bill for them. Be- 
 cause of the nature of some names it is very easy to trans- 
 pose letters, as is seen in the following cases: 
 
 J. G. Neider 
 M. Mackenfroth 
 R. L. Storm 
 E. J. Romsley 
 C. A. Steckel 
 
 should be 
 should be 
 should be 
 should be 
 should be 
 
 J. G. Nieder 
 M. Mackenforth 
 R. L. Strom 
 E. J. Ormsley 
 C. A. Steckle 
 
 (b) Figures. 
 
 While there is great danger of error from transpo- 
 sition of letters, there is even greater danger from trans- 
 position of figures. In the latter case, if the goods are 
 delivered on a charge account they are often left at the 
 residence of the wrong person, and even if not lost as is 
 sometimes the case, the goods do not get into the hands 
 of the right person at the time they were due and a dis- 
 satisfied customer results. Dissatisfaction often becomes 
 contagious and in time may mean a tremendous loss to 
 
 STORE SYSTEM AND METHOD 
 
 207 
 
 the store — all as the result of transposing two small 
 figures. 
 
 Some common cases of transposed figures in street 
 numbers are as follows: 
 
 43 1 Wilmington Ave. 
 
 should be 
 
 413 
 
 1708 Ft. Madison St. 
 
 should be 
 
 7108 
 
 1 6 14 Columbus St. 
 
 should be 
 
 1416 
 
 302 23d Ave. N. 
 
 should be 
 
 203 
 
 (c) Transposition of purchaser's name and street name. 
 This error, as illustrated in the following cases, is very 
 apt to occur unless the salesperson exercises close atten- 
 tion to every detail of the address. 
 
 R. M. French, 478 Brown St., should be 
 
 R. M. Brown, 478 French St. 
 E. L. Forest, 11 92 Forrester Ave., should be 
 
 E. L. Forrester, 11 92 Forest Ave. 
 O. F. McBrlde, 2700 McBroom St., should be 
 
 O. F. McBroom, 2700 McBrlde St. 
 C. G. Dickman, No. 10 Hickerson Apartments, Hark- 
 ness Blvd., should be 
 
 C. G. Harkness, No. 10 Dickman Apartments, Hick- 
 erson Blvd. 
 
 Together with these cases of transposition of pur- 
 chaser's name and street name, may be given the closely 
 allied cases illustrating substitution of purchaser's name 
 for street name and vice versa : 
 
 Mr. S. T. Shelby, 582 Shelby St., should be Green St. 
 Mrs. Harrison Crawford, 178 1 Harrison Ave., should 
 
 be Marion Ave. 
 Mrs. M. O'Brien, 2004 O'Brien St., should be Oberlin St. 
 
 i. 
 
2o8 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 STORE SYSTEM AND METHOD 
 
 209 
 
 Miss L. D. Freeborn, 814 Freeborn Place, should be Miss 
 
 L. D. Furman. 
 Mr. Otto Davies, 1262 Davies St., should be Mr. Otto 
 I Nordstrum. 
 
 INDISTINCT AND ILLEGIBLE WRITING 
 
 One of the most important requisites of a salesperson is 
 that she should write well. A salesperson who writes 
 items, names and figures so that one able to read cannot 
 comprehend them, must soon fail. As a rule, illegibility 
 results from carelessness, lack of pressure on the pencil 
 or because of misplaced carbon. Whatever the reason, 
 the salesperson should examine her sales checks from 
 time to time and note any bad tendencies in writing that 
 exist or are developing. A little systematic practice will 
 enable any salesperson to write plainly. To ignore, con- 
 sciously or unconsciously, the necessity for correction 
 of careless writing, invites justly the charge of laziness 
 and incompetency. 
 
 A. Some errors due to illegible and Indistinct writing 
 are as follows : 
 
 If 1 1 
 
 (a) Names of persons. 
 
 P. W. Quay written for 
 
 Miss Janet Nullke written for 
 
 J. A. C. Fost written for 
 
 Prof. W. R. Frayer written for 
 
 Mrs. B. Juman written for 
 
 Mrs. N. A. Holland written for 
 
 (b) Names of streets. 
 
 Clinton St., written to look like 
 Ronald St., written to look like 
 
 P. W. Ivey 
 Miss Janet Muelke 
 J. A. C. Fort 
 Prof. W. R. Frazer 
 Mrs. B. Inman 
 Mrs. N. O. Holland 
 
 Hinton St. 
 Donald St. 
 
 Summer Ave., 
 Barrett St., 
 Cooper St., 
 Case St., 
 
 written to look like 
 
 written to look like 
 
 written to look like 
 
 written to look like 
 
 Sumner Ave. 
 Garrett St. 
 Copper St. 
 Cass St. 
 
 (c) Names of places. 
 
 Lounsbury 
 
 Bentonville 
 
 Fremont 
 
 Leesburg 
 
 Beardstown 
 
 Bairdstown 
 
 written to 
 
 written to 
 
 written to 
 
 written to 
 
 written to 
 
 written to 
 
 look like 
 look like 
 look like 
 look like 
 look like 
 look like 
 
 Lowsbury 
 
 Hurtonville 
 
 Tremont 
 
 Leesbury 
 
 Bairdstown 
 
 Randstown 
 
 (d) House numbers. 
 
 1255 W. 6th St. 
 
 should be 
 
 1253 
 
 1012 Maiden Lane 
 
 should be 
 
 1017 
 
 373 Elm St. 
 
 should be 
 
 573 
 
 606 Worster Ave. 
 
 should be 
 
 3606 
 
 189 N. 1 8th St. 
 
 should be 
 
 489 
 
 It should be noted that 5's and 3's, 2's and 7's, and I's 
 and 4's are often mistaken for each other. 
 
 B. Misplaced carbon causes many errors. The car- 
 bon may shift out of its proper place causing omissions, 
 or it may become thin resulting in indistinct writing; but 
 whichever is the case, the trouble as a consequence means 
 a big loss — the deliveryman must make two trips while 
 in some cases there is absolute failure to deliver the 
 goods. 
 
 Examples of some errors due to misplaced or poor 
 carbon are as follows: 
 
#l! 
 
 210 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 (a) Names of streets and number of houses. 
 
 1158 
 2145 N. 
 182 
 
 21 II W. 4 
 1607 S. I 
 
 409 N. 17 
 
 Mangold 
 
 dac 
 ney Ave. 
 
 should be 1 158 New Mangold 
 should be 2145 N. Cardac 
 should be 3182 Fordney Ave. 
 should be 21 11 W. 47th St. 
 should be 1607 S. nth St. 
 should be 4409 N. 17th St. 
 
 (b) Names of persons. 
 
 Most of the errors of this kind are caused by the car- 
 bon not being high enough. Here It will only be possible 
 to indicate cases where the carbon was not parallel with 
 the sides of the sales check. 
 
 F. S. Carrol 
 Fred Buchan 
 J. C. Jacobs 
 W. Mathe 
 Nester Milfo 
 
 should be 
 should be 
 should be 
 should be 
 should be 
 
 ABBREVIATIONS 
 
 F. S. Carroll 
 Fred Buchanan 
 J. C. Jacobson 
 W. Mathewson 
 Nester Milford 
 
 (a) Items. 
 
 Less mistakes in interpreting sales items would occur 
 if the salesperson realized that what Is evident to her 
 may be Incomprehensible to the proprietor, those In the 
 office, or the order-filler. If the items are obscure be- 
 cause of abbreviation or for any reason whatsoever, such 
 mistakes may mean the delivery of the wrong goods, in- 
 terruption of the perpetual inventory if such is kept, and 
 delay which cannot be viewed other than as a loss of 
 money. No abbreviations excepting standard ones like 
 doz., oz., etc., should be written. Some Illustrations of 
 bad abbreviations in sales items are as follows ; 
 
 STORE SYSTEM AND METHOD 211 
 
 I Alum. K for i two qt. aluminum Berlin kettle 
 
 I L. Mow. for I Drummer lawn mower 
 
 I Chair for i American Walnut Windsor chair 
 
 I Rem. for i remnant georgette crepe 
 
 12 Yds. goods for 12 yards gingham 
 
 1 Cam. for i camisole 
 
 2 Stocks for 2 prs. stockings 
 
 I suit for I misses blue serge suit 
 
 I F. Cook. for I Reliable fireless cooker 
 
 Closely allied with abbreviation is the tendency to con- 
 tract names of Items, often resulting in an Incorrect name 
 that may be the case of misunderstanding. Thus, the 
 item I dog, should have been i toy dog; i brush, i shoe 
 brush; i mat, i table mat; i tablet, i note book; i lantern, 
 I magic lantern; 2 dishes, 2 wash basins. 
 
 Futher, there is a tendency for salespeople to place un- 
 der one designation several Items of the same kind but 
 of different quality. In order to make the transaction 
 entirely clear to all parties concerned, each item should 
 have its particular rate specified according to Its cus- 
 tomary measurement, such as: per, @, doz., pkg., for, 
 etc. Thus, if four shirts were purchased for a total 
 amount of $9.50, they should be separately itemized as 
 follows : 
 
 I shirt $2.50 
 
 1 shirt 3.00 
 
 2 shirts @ 2.00 .4.00 
 
 If certain articles are sold in lots, such Information 
 should be clearly specified as Illustrated by the following: 
 
 3 ties for $2.00 
 
 I nest bowls 5^ 
 
212 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 1 pkg, needles $ .10 
 
 y2 doz. men's hose 2.00 
 
 2 boxes crayons 3-00 
 
 I black muskrat set 7S*oo 
 
 (scarf and muff) 
 
 (b) Towns and street name. 
 
 N. Gate Ave. written for Northgate Ave. 
 
 Man. Hts. written for Manvllle Heights 
 
 Newburg C. written for Newburg Center 
 
 Grafton C. written for Grafton City 
 
 Bl. Vis. PI. written for Belle Vista Place 
 
 Green Lk. J. written for Green Lake June. 
 
 E. Erbrook St. written for Easterbrook St. 
 
 Spr. Val. written for Spring Valley 
 
 Ft. S. Hampton written for Fort Southhampton 
 
 PHONETIC ERRORS 
 
 Errors of this nature are sometimes due to a lack of 
 appreciation of sound. Because of different degrees of 
 clearness In hearing, salespeople differ In their suscepti- 
 bllltv to confuse similar sounds. 
 
 A second reason for phonetic errors is carelessness. 
 This latter reason accounts for most mistakes of this na- 
 ture. Salespeople put down on the sales check what they 
 think they hear Instead of being certain that their concep- 
 tion Is the accurate one. 
 
 A question will always clear up the possibility of error 
 and impresses the customer as business-like and pains- 
 taking. The possibilities are that she has had trouble 
 before on account of misspelled names, places and locali- 
 ties, and will welcome the endeavor to prevent any mis- 
 understanding. 
 
 STORE SYSTEM AND METHOD 
 
 213 
 
 The following are illustrations of some prominent 
 cases of error that have necessitated two or more trips 
 by drivers, verification by salespeople on charge accounts, 
 and disappointment to customers because of delay: 
 
 (a) Names of persons. 
 
 R. D. S. Jarden 
 
 written for 
 
 R. Des Jarden 
 
 C. R. Gray 
 
 written for 
 
 C. R. Graves 
 
 A. Elwood 
 
 written for 
 
 A. L. Wood 
 
 M. Kohler 
 
 written for 
 
 M. K. Ohler 
 
 P. A. Dare 
 
 written for 
 
 P. Adair 
 
 J. W. Dickenson 
 
 written for 
 
 J. W. DIckerson 
 
 J. Swing 
 
 written for 
 
 J. S. Wing 
 
 E. Fordering 
 
 written for 
 
 E. F. Ordering 
 
 B. C. Kay 
 
 written for 
 
 B. C. Cade 
 
 R. N. Lighter 
 
 written for 
 
 R. N. Leiter 
 
 P. 0. Weyl 
 
 written for 
 
 P. 0. Leyl 
 
 (b) Names of streets. 
 
 
 Weller 
 
 written for 
 
 Woeller 
 
 Ayre 
 
 written for 
 
 Ware 
 
 Woodland 
 
 written for 
 
 Woodlawn 
 
 Morton 
 
 written for 
 
 Horton 
 
 Elm 
 
 written for 
 
 Allen 
 
 Anderson 
 
 written for 
 
 Henderson 
 
 Hammond 
 
 written for 
 
 Harmen 
 
 North 
 
 written for 
 
 Fourth 
 
 Morris 
 
 written for 
 
 Mt. Morris 
 
 Church 
 
 written for 
 
 Birch 
 
 Roy 
 
 written for 
 
 Royce 
 
 li 
 
214 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 (c) 
 
 House numbers 
 
 • 
 
 
 
 4001 N. Cliff e 
 
 
 written for 1401 
 
 22X2 E. 8th 
 
 
 written for 2012 
 
 3556 Madison 
 
 
 written for 2556 
 
 2223 Rarldan 
 
 
 written for 2233 
 
 6366 Proctor 
 
 
 written for 53^6 
 
 3134 N. 27th 
 
 
 written for 4134 
 
 878 N. 32nd 
 
 
 written for 868 
 
 2717 W. nth 
 
 
 writter 
 
 I for 2727 
 
 Names of places. 
 
 
 
 Hanover 
 
 written 
 
 for 
 
 Conover 
 
 Afton 
 
 written 
 
 for 
 
 Grafton 
 
 Bixley 
 
 written 
 
 for 
 
 Hlxley 
 
 Falrbow 
 
 written 
 
 for 
 
 Faribault 
 
 Hamburg 
 
 written 
 
 for 
 
 Amberg 
 
 Forest Jet. 
 
 written 
 
 for 
 
 Norrls Jet. 
 
 Marston 
 
 written 
 
 for 
 
 Mauston 
 
 Melville 
 
 written 
 
 for 
 
 Mlllvllle 
 
 Downsville 
 
 written 
 
 for 
 
 Dunnville 
 
 Iron Lake 
 
 written 
 
 for 
 
 lona T,ake 
 
 Hagerton 
 
 written 
 
 for 
 
 Edgerton 
 
 ERRORS IN ARITHMETIC 
 
 Great care should be taken by the salesperson in addi- 
 tion, subtraction and multiplication of figures in items. If 
 errors In figures occur, they may mean loss in dollars and 
 cents to the store, the customer or the salesperson, and 
 general dissatisfaction on the part of all three parties. 
 The customer loses faith in the ability of the store to ef- 
 ficiently tend to details within its scope of responsibility, 
 the store manager feels indignant that a customer should 
 
 STORE SYSTEM AND METHOD 
 
 215 
 
 be lost on account of an error that could have been pre- 
 vented, and the salesperson feels humiliated by the accusa- 
 tion (spoken or silent) of not only the customer and store 
 manager but of herself. 
 
 The recognition of errors made tends to undermine 
 one's ability to successfully withstand the negative sug- 
 gestion of self-failure, unless effort is made after each 
 error to prevent Its future recurrence. If errors In calcu- 
 lation (as well as other errors) are not eliminated by in- 
 telligent effort, they become a millstone around the neck 
 of the perpetrator. In other words, the ability to elimi- 
 nate errors varies Inversely with the length of time that 
 they are permitted to exist. Not only this, error is in- 
 fectious and If permitted to remain In every-day action 
 for any length of time without counter irritants, It will 
 multiply itself in wide directions. Likewise, ability to 
 eliminate error grows with application and disseminates 
 itself as a protective measure throughout the entire con- 
 duct of an individual, finally eliminating old tendencies 
 toward error and guarding against the development of 
 new negative qualities. 
 
 Mistakes in calculation are due to carelessness, lack 
 of training or lack of ability. Seldom is a salesperson 
 found without the ability to carry out simple arithmetic 
 processes, although It must be admitted this ability varies 
 between wide limits. In other words, any salesperson 
 who cares enough about her work and her own success to 
 put forth a little effort and study, can become proficient 
 enough in calculation to avoid error. 
 
 Lack of training, no doubt, accounts for at least one- 
 fourth of the errors in calculation. Practice and then 
 more practice is the only remedy. If the salesperson will 
 begin with simple arithmetic processes, progressing up to 
 
2l6 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 those involving more figures, and spend some time each 
 day working these out, she will soon become proficient to 
 a degree formerly considered Impossible. Calculation 
 without the use of paper and pencil may be practiced on 
 the way home and back to work, thereby Increasing the 
 salesperson's ability to avoid error and yet not absorbing 
 enough of her leisure time to make her work monotonous. 
 In fact, as proficiency increases, the possibilities are that 
 new interest will grow in the work and more and more 
 of the salesperson's time out of hours will be employed 
 in understanding more about her occupation. It is need- 
 less to say that such Industry brings its material as well 
 as its mental satisfactions. 
 
 Carelessness accounts for two-thirds of the errors in 
 calculation. From one point of view this is merely an 
 aspect of lack of training, because. It may be said. If the 
 salesperson was trained she would not be careless. No 
 doubt this is true in a sense, but carelessness as here con- 
 sidered has a little different meaning. It is here used to 
 account for the errors in all those cases where salespeople 
 have ability and are able to calculate accurately when 
 they concentrate their attention sufficiently on the prob- 
 lem. Often a certain speed and accuracy Is attained in 
 calculation and the salesperson becomes contented and 
 elects to merely maintain this efficiency instead of increas- 
 ing it. Because of this fact the calculation becomes me- 
 chanical, the salesperson's mind Is often dwelling on other 
 things when she is adding, subtracting and multiplying, 
 and error creeps in when the back Is turned. Conscious 
 vigilance Is the only surety against error, no matter what 
 the field of endeavor. 
 
 The annoyance and cost of errors in calculation in dif- 
 ferent kinds of orders, are illustrated as follows: 
 
 STORE SYSTEM AND METHOD 
 
 217 
 
 (a) Overcharge In C. O. D. Orders. 
 
 With a C. O. D. order the driver could not leave the 
 goods unless the customer paid the amount called for, 
 in this case an overcharge. If the customer, realizing 
 that the mistake was no fault of hers, refused to pay the 
 overcharge, she could not have the goods and most likely 
 the store would have lost the sale and possibly a cus- 
 tomer. If she accepted the goods and paid the over- 
 charge, her attitude of mind upon coming to the store for 
 an explanation would not be pleasant to contemplate. 
 Whether or not the customer continued to purchase from 
 this store, a mistake of th-is nature has neutralized many 
 costly devices that a clever store manager has used to 
 build up good will and make his store distinctive for its 
 service. 
 
 (b) Undercharge in C. O. D. Orders. 
 
 If the customer pays less than she should have paid 
 had the error not existed, It Is Impossible in some cases 
 to collect the amount of the undercharge and in other 
 cases it Is not expedient. For the most part, it is wis- 
 dom on the part of the store to make no further claim 
 from the customer and thereby magnify its own mistake, 
 but to bear the loss Itself or shift it to the salesperson 
 making the error. Experience would seem to indicate 
 that It would be good policy for the store to bear the loss 
 Itself, but to eliminate any salesperson incapable of reduc- 
 ing such errors to a minimum. 
 
 (c) Overcharge, Cash and Delivery Orders. 
 
 In this case It would be necessary to notify the customer 
 of the overcharge, I. e., to call her attention to the store's 
 negligence, and credit her account with the excess charge 
 
 
 I 
 
2l8 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 or pay her the difference in cash. She may wonder how 
 many mistakes may have been made in the past, unknown 
 to either herself or the store. While notification of the 
 overcharge will indicate the store's intention to be honest, 
 it likewise indicates its inability to give service at all 
 times. Formerly, where the customer implicitly trusted 
 the store's calculations, she will now have cause for dis- 
 trust. For it must be remembered that not only in- 
 tentionally dishonest people should be distrusted but also 
 those with good intentions but little knowledge. No 
 salesperson can be trusted any further than her knowl- 
 edge. 
 
 It should be realized by all salespeople that their func- 
 tion is to create confidence in themselves, the store, its 
 methods and its goods — and not the contrary. The 
 salesperson who, for any reason whatever, causes dis- 
 trust to arise in the customer's mind is a liability to any 
 retail store. 
 
 (d) Overcharge, Cash and Carry Orders. 
 
 If, in this case, the goods are taken home and some 
 time elapses before the customer receives notice of the 
 overcharge, the effects on all parties concerned will be 
 very similar to those just indicated in the Overcharge, 
 Cash and Delivery Orders. 
 
 However, if the salesperson can rectify her error be- 
 fore the customer leaves the counter, the evils resulting 
 from the mistake are less marked and are not so perma- 
 nent in character. The customer has not lost the use 
 of the excessive charge for more than a few moments; 
 she has not had much time to think of what the article 
 cost and hence her impressions are not deep-set and can 
 be more readily removed; the salesperson is before her 
 
 STORE SYSTEM AND METHOD 
 
 219 
 
 to diplomatically explain away the blunder and to distract 
 her attention from it to the goods ordered or to other 
 articles on display; the error will not become a topic for 
 conversation among her friends and hence the good will 
 of the store will not be injured. 
 
 Besides these advantages of remedying the error be- 
 fore complications with the customer ensue, might be 
 mentioned the saving of time and the prevention of con- 
 fusion to the store which result from prompt discovery 
 and remedy of error, as well as the satisfaction accruing 
 to the salesperson herself. Better no error at all, but 
 error admitted, its prompt correction prevents the sever- 
 est condemnation. 
 
 (e) Undercharge, C'ash and Delivery, Cash and Carry 
 Orders. 
 
 What has been said in (b) regarding undercharged C. 
 O. D. orders applies to these two cases under considera- 
 tion. If the goods have been turned over to the customer 
 for a definite sum of money, a contract of sale has been 
 completed — goods have been sold and delivered for a 
 consideration. The implication is that the store is will- 
 ing to dispose of the goods for the sum involved, since 
 a business establishment is, prima facie at least, working 
 from the motives of self-interest. Errors it will make 
 in judgment as well as in contracts to buy and sell, but 
 such should in no way be assumed by the customer or 
 called to her attention. 
 
 In these cases under consideration, if the error is dis- 
 covered before the customer leaves the counter the situa- 
 tion is somewhat different. What has been said in (d) 
 regarding Overcharge, Cash and Carry Orders applies 
 here. Tact and cheerfulness on the part of the sales- 
 
 rt< 
 
 .:; ■ 
 
 t 
 
220 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 person can accomplish a successful correction on the sales 
 check; for it must be remembered that a correction is not 
 successful unless the customer is entirely satisfied. 
 
 In justification of such a correction the argument can 
 be plausibly advanced that the sale is not completed until 
 the customer has left the counter, and there is no implica- 
 tion that the store is willing to give up the goods for 
 less than marked when it has not yet delivered those goods 
 to the customer. In other words, the error takes place in 
 the midst of a transaction to buy and sell and not after 
 the transaction is completed and the goods delivered. 
 Hence, again the necessity of being certain that the sales 
 check is correctly made out before the customer leaves 
 the counter. 
 
 (f) Overcharge, Charge and Deliver, Charge and Carry 
 Orders. 
 
 What has been said regarding the cash orders in (c) 
 and (d) when the customer has left the counter, applies 
 here; with the exception that it is much easier from the 
 standpoint of preventing customers' dissatisfaction to 
 eliminate the excess charge from the books, than it is to 
 refund the actual cash to the customer. In one case a 
 theoretical sum has been taken from her while in the 
 other case tangible money. 
 
 Obviously an overcharge on a Charge and Deliver 
 Order is not fraught with the danger incident to an over- 
 charge on a C. O. D. Order, the details of which have 
 already been discussed. 
 
 When the customer has not left the counter, adjustment 
 without friction can be made as discussed in (d) and (e), 
 and for the same reasons. 
 
 STORE SYSTEM AND METHOD 
 
 221 
 
 (g) Undercharge, Charge and Deliver, Charge and 
 Carry Orders. 
 
 These cases, where the customer has left the counter, 
 are somewhat different from other cases of undercharge 
 under similar circumstances, since, it may be argued, the 
 sales transaction is not complete until a bill has been sent 
 to the customer and paid by her. Then, only, is the 
 transaction closed. Until that time readjustments of a 
 necessary nature can be made on the books. 
 
 Since the error is a more or less theoretical one until 
 the customer has actually paid the money for the goods, 
 there is less possibility of dissatisfaction arising. In 
 case the customer has not left the counter, what has been 
 previously said regarding correction of errors would ap- 
 ply here. 
 
 ERRORS IN HA.NDLING ORDER 
 
 (a) Orders sent C. O. D. instead of Charge. 
 
 This error is fraught with serious consequences. A 
 charge customer has usually established her credit and 
 is trusted; if an order is sent to her C. O. D. such action 
 intimates that her credit is not good. The customer feels 
 that the store questions her buying or paying integrity. 
 The insinuation is a cruel one especially if thrust into a 
 sensitive or supersensitive nature. The customer has 
 asked the store to have her goods charged and she feels 
 that if the store mistrusts her willingness or ability to 
 pay, it ought to inform her in a fair open way, and not 
 in an insulting manner by sending the order C. O. D. 
 
 Usually, on being appraised of an error of this nature, 
 the salesperson retorts that the customer wanted the 
 goods delivered C. O. D. Since it is an exceptional thing 
 
 
 : 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
•*#r' 
 
 222 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 for a charge customer to request her orders sent C. O. 
 D. an error of this kind can be practically eliminated by 
 questioning the customer on this point definitely and then 
 writing on the sales check, " C. O. D. by request," thereby 
 indicating that an understanding of the case exists. 
 
 To one who may think that the error just referred to 
 is an uncommon occurrence, it may be stated that a com- 
 petent authority estimates that over looo such errors ex- 
 isted in one year in one large Philadelphia department 
 store.^ There can be little doubt but that some of these 
 customers were irretrievably lost because of the error. 
 All possibility of such mistakes can be avoided by follow- 
 ing the plan of procedure given on the following page. 
 
 (b) Orders sent Charge instead of C. O. D. 
 
 While this error is not so frequent as that just dis- 
 cussed, it is of sufficient occurrence to be given serious 
 consideration. When such an error has been made, the 
 customer is under the necessity of coming to the store to 
 pay for the order which the deliveryman insisted on leav- 
 ing without pay; or it may be that the customer is sur- 
 prised on receiving a bill at the end of the month and, be- 
 ing without an established credit with the store, she may 
 refuse to pay the bill on the grounds that the order was 
 never received. 
 
 Whether or not the error develops into the extreme 
 situation just made reference to, errors of this nature 
 cause a feeling of distrust on the part of the customer, 
 which, if fanned into activity by a rapid succession of more 
 trivial errors in her store dealings, may prove to be the 
 
 1 Corbion, W. A., " Principles of Salesmanship, Deportment and System." 
 Page 319. 
 
 STORE SYSTEM AND METHOD 
 
 223 
 
 entering wedge to dislodge this customer's patronage 
 from the store. 
 
 In conclusion, the most certain safeguard against the 
 errors portrayed is to systematically gather the Informa- 
 tion in the following manner: 
 
 (a) The attention of the customer should be secured 
 and held. Distractions of all kinds must be eliminated 
 and the Impression given that even though the sale has 
 been made, there still remains a very important transac- 
 tion to be fulfilled. 
 
 (b) Write plainly, with sufficient pressure on each 
 letter, making certam that the carbon Is In the right place 
 and functioning correctly. 
 
 (c) Looking at the customer, the salesperson should 
 ask for her name and then write It down, requesting her 
 to spell It if necessary. The same practice should be 
 followed as regards the street name, house number and 
 town. In other words, each of the four parts of the ad- 
 dress should be dealt with as distinct units, after the sales- 
 person has placed herself In an attentive and efficient way 
 to receive them, I. e., in an upright position facing the 
 customer. 
 
 Sometimes there is a fifth element in the address, viz., 
 " In care of." If the name of the Individual is not given, 
 or is at a temporary address, or Is not well-known, the 
 salesperson should place some definite responsible name 
 under this caption. 
 
 (d) The salesperson should read aloud the name and 
 address in a clear concise manner, without slurring vowels, 
 dropping off endings or '* mouthing " syllables. 
 
 (e) The entire sales check should be presented to the 
 customer for verification and the salesperson should en- 
 
 I 
 
224 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 courage careful inspection of the name, address and items. 
 If such care is taken in making out sales checks, innum- 
 erable errors now being committed will be eliminated, 
 much good will now being lost will be retained and aug- 
 mented, and a large cause of friction between salespeople 
 and store managers will be wiped out. Such an increase 
 in efficiency will also prove to be a community builder, 
 since the chief thing that a retailer has to offer, viz., serv- 
 ice, will have been greatly bettered. 
 
 RECEIVING AND MAKING CHANGE 
 
 Misunderstandings arise in receiving cash from cus- 
 tomers because the latter often believe they give the sales- 
 person an amount of money other than is actually the case. 
 Usually the mistake arises over the denomination of 
 paper money. The customer hands the salesperson what 
 she believes to be a five-dollar bill when it is actually a 
 one or two^dollar bill. The salesperson makes change 
 and returns the silver. The customer is taken back be- 
 cause she expects more money than she receives. Some 
 cases have arisen where the salesperson could not make 
 the customer believe that a mistake had been made by 
 the latter, and the suspicions of the customer were 
 aroused. 
 
 Such a misunderstanding is absolutely unnecessary and 
 can be forestalled by the salesperson '' calling back " the 
 amount of the money received from the customer. If 
 the customer admits by a nod of the head or a look of ac- 
 quiescence that the amount called back is what she in- 
 tended to give the salesperson, then there is no possibility 
 for controversy. The salesperson should be careful in 
 " calling back " the amount not to make the operation me- 
 chanical and therefore endanger its passing unobserved by 
 
 STORE SYSTEM AND METHOD 
 
 225 
 
 the customer. The " calling back '' should take the form 
 of a question thereby attracting the customer's attention 
 and insuring an understanding. 
 
 Not only are errors made in receiving change but also 
 in making or returning it. The change should never be 
 returned in bulk, as such an operation avoids an under- 
 standing with the customer, and later on, if she has less 
 money in her purse than she had supposed, she will most 
 hkely lay the blame on the salesperson instead of looking 
 further for some better reason for the shortage. The 
 amount of change should be counted out, piece by piece, 
 commencing with the total price of the purchase. For 
 example, if the order cost forty-five cents, the salesperson 
 should first say, " forty-five cents," then laying down a 
 nickel, complete the addition, calling out " fifty cents," 
 then laying down a fifty-cent piece, complete the addition, 
 calling out " one dollar "— or the amount originally given 
 by the customer. Such a method secures an understand- 
 mg between both customer and salesperson and also an 
 agreement by the former that she has received the correct 
 amount. Very seldom is there a " come back " on the 
 salesperson when such care to avoid error is used. 
 
 The change should always be counted out on the 
 counter directly in front of the customer, and not Into her 
 hand. This method prevents the customer receiving any 
 pieces of money that are not desirable to her, such as 
 Canadian, chipped or disfigured coins, or coins made use- 
 less by holes. It also, in necessitating her picking up the 
 money, forcibly attracts her attention to the operation and 
 thus tends to minimize the possibility of her mind being 
 elsewhere. 
 
 The change should be delivered to the right person — 
 never left on the counter. The necessity for this caution 
 
 
 i: 
 
226 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 can best be Illustrated by an experience of the writer's 
 two years ago In a northern Indiana town. A collar had 
 been asked for and received. A dollar was handed to the 
 salesperson, who, on request, directed the customer to a 
 mirror where the new collar was made to replace the old 
 one. On coming back to the counter where the purchase 
 had been made, the customer asked the salesperson, who 
 was waiting on another customer, for his change. The 
 salesperson replied that he had left it laying on the coun- 
 ter. The customer looked all around but could not find 
 it and protested that it was nowhere to be seen; where- 
 upon the salesperson examined the counter where the 
 change should have been and admitted the money had 
 disappeared. On being asked for new change (85c) , the 
 salesperson replied that the loss would have to be borne 
 by the customer since it was the business of the latter to 
 look after his change. The customer protested in vain 
 and was forced to pay one dollar for the collar. 
 
 PROBLEMS 
 
 Chapter I 
 
 1. Progress in any line of endeavor is essentially dependent upon 
 what attribute of human nature? 
 
 2. What is a specialist? The specialist is under what obliga- 
 tions to society? 
 
 3. " The manufacturer is a producer of wealth because he 
 makes things, but how about the retailer ; he only buys goods and 
 sells them at a higher price. He doesn't make anything, i.e., 
 bring anything into existence, and therefore he is not a producer 
 of wealth. All who are not producers of wealth are parasites, and 
 as such should be eliminated from our society." 
 
 Criticize line by line. Admitting that the last sentence is true, 
 does this necessarily force us to agree with the rest of the quota- 
 tion? 
 
 4. " In every sale of goods one party to the transaction is always 
 the loser. The retailer must be the winner in the largest per 
 cent of the sales that he makes or he must go out of business.*' 
 
 Point out fallacy in both sentences of quotation. 
 
 5. Account for the historical social standing of the tradesman 
 or retailer. 
 
 6. " The buying public showed a ready willingness to respond to 
 the new principles of retailing brought forth by the revolution 
 in distribution." Explain. 
 
 7. Retailer, " If I can keep my competitor across the street 
 ignorant of better merchandising methods, and if I can profit by 
 a knowledge of these methods, it stands to reason, doesn't it, that 
 I will be the gainer? A man is a fool to give up trade secrets. 
 
 227 
 
228 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 Put the other fellow out of business if you can. That's the only 
 way you can live nowadays." 
 
 Criticize sentence by sentence. 
 
 8. What is the most important change going on in retail selling 
 at the present time? 
 
 Chapter II 
 
 1. What are the chief reasons why the salesperson should be- 
 come an expert? 
 
 2. What new functions will the expert salesperson be called 
 upon to perform in the future? 
 
 3. " Expert merchandising knowledge reacts on the salesperson 
 so as to increase her efficiency." In what ways does such knowl- 
 edge perform this function? 
 
 4. " Not one customer in a hundred desires to know the history 
 of merchandise, hence the time spent in acquiring such informa- 
 tion is unproductive." Salesperson. Do you agree? 
 
 5. " Too much low priced merchandise is being sold in retail 
 stores at the present time." How would you remedy this? 
 
 6. What stages must the human mind be led through before 
 a sale can be made? Give any evidence to show that salespeople 
 overlook these important stages. 
 
 7. What is meant by the assertion that salespeople often lack a 
 " vocabulary " ? How can a vocabulary be secured ? 
 
 8. " The mail order advertising merely dwells upon those fea- 
 tures of the merchandise that would be obvious if the goods were 
 actually displayed before the customer." Discuss the value of 
 dwelling upon these " obvious " features of the goods when selling 
 in retail stores. 
 
 Chapter III 
 
 1. Enumerate the facts that the salesperson should know about 
 the merchandise. 
 
 2. In showing an aluminum cooking utensil to a customer in 
 the effort to make a sale, a salesperson held the article and cx- 
 
 PROBLEMS 
 
 229 
 
 plained many interesting facts regarding its manufacture and its 
 capabilities for use. Although her talk was interesting and pleas- 
 ingly given it did not appear to induce the customer to action. 
 
 What further would you have done to persuade the customer to 
 buy? 
 
 3. State three services that some article in your department will 
 perform for the customer. 
 
 4. In ascertaining the composition of any article, what questions 
 would have to be answered? 
 
 5. *' The value of any article is not fixed. A salesperson has 
 unlimited possibilities to increase or decrease it." What are some 
 of these " possibilities " ? 
 
 6. Where can expert knowledge be secured? Which source is 
 the most valuable and readily available? 
 
 7. Is it enough for the salesperson to know merchandise from 
 the standpoint of quality f 
 
 8. What is the best method of preparing a sales talk? 
 
 Chapter IV 
 
 1. Discuss the statement, " Salesmanship is chiefly applying an 
 intimate knowledge of human nature." 
 
 2. Compare the scientific with the unscientific salesperson in 
 their manner of handling human nature. 
 
 3. What are buying motives or instincts? Enumerate them. 
 
 4. Using some article in your department, how could you utilize 
 these instincts in a selling talk? 
 
 5. Illustrate how the instinct of vanity may be appealed to? 
 
 6. A salesperson, in selling a large easy chair, indicated its de- 
 sign, finish and construction, and pictured it in the personal own- 
 ership of the customer in the latter's own home. What instincts 
 would you appeal to in order to induce decision ? 
 
 7. " Appeals to instincts must be tactfully made or the cus- 
 tomer will be antagonized." In the case of what instinct is this 
 especially true? Explain. 
 
 8. (a) A woman who loves the emulation of her companions 
 
-i'^ m 
 
 230 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 hesitates buying a set of furs, although appeals have been made 
 to her from the standpoints of economy, pleasure, style and utility. 
 What further buying motive should be appealed to? 
 
 (b) The wife of a certain professional man often finds it to her 
 interests to associate virith w^omen whose husbands have a larger 
 income than does her own. The salesperson's appeals to her ideas 
 of economy and utility obviously aroused intense interest and 
 created a desire to buy a set of furs, but no action resulted. The 
 appeal to what buying motive should have quickly produced ac- 
 tion ? 
 
 9. " One important instinct cannot be appealed to unless the 
 salesperson has an intimate knowledge of offerings in departments 
 other than her own." Explain. 
 
 10. '' All people are lazy." How can the salesperson make use 
 of this attribute of human nature? 
 
 Chapter V 
 
 1. "The differences between people are small." 
 " People are as different as night and day." 
 
 Can you reconcile these two statements? Of what significance 
 to salespeople is your conclusion? 
 
 2. A man with a quick nervous walk and a tense expression 
 comes to the counter and asks in a short, sharp, rapid way for a 
 
 certain article. 
 
 What would be your reaction toward this type of customer? 
 
 3. The number of hats that a certain customer is interested in 
 has sifted down to three, then two, then one. It seems apparent 
 that the customer realizes that he ought to decide but for some 
 reason or other he hesitates and says that he will come again. 
 
 How would you handle such a case, (a) If the customer has 
 slow, rhythmical movements and gestures; a poised, dignified ex- 
 pression ; speaks in a slow, careful manner ; and gives careful at- 
 tention to detailed information regarding the hat? 
 
 (b) If the customer has a somewhat shifting glance; eccentric 
 and uncertain bodily movements ; speaks in a catchy and hesitating 
 
 ■■^"•som^mmimmmmm^' 
 
 PROBLEMS 
 
 231 
 
 manner; and gives only a divided or haphazard attention to the 
 sales talk. 
 
 4. Customer, looking at a piece of suiting, *' That's a beautiful 
 cheviot." Salesperson, " That's not a cheviot, it's a serge." 
 
 With what type or types of customer would such a rejoinder 
 be suicidal to sales ; with what type or types would it make little 
 difference ; with what type or types would it strengthen the sales 
 talk? 
 
 5. " The salesperson should never force the customer to buy." 
 Are there any exceptions to this rule ? 
 
 6. Is it always the fault of the salesperson, the goods or the 
 store, when one or all three are held under suspicion by a cus- 
 tomer ? 
 
 Where such suspicion exists, how would you handle it? 
 
 7. " Some customers are just ornery; they keep quiet, look wise 
 and try to impress the salesperson with their personality. When 
 I get one like this I just let her know that she can't put anything 
 over on me." Salesperson. 
 
 What type or combination of types is here referred to? How 
 would you deal with the customer here described ? 
 
 8. " A certain customer may exhibit different mental types at 
 different times." 
 
 " The average man at any one time cannot be classified with 
 any one particular mental type; he is a combination of different 
 types." 
 
 Allowing that these quotations are correct, does the study of 
 the different mental types have any value? 
 
 9. " You can't judge a man by his clothes." 
 " The apparel doth oft proclaim the man." 
 Which quotation is right? 
 
 10. " Certain types of customers demand the argumentative 
 method as the one to be used in selling them goods." Just how 
 do customers " demand " this method ? 
 
 I 
 
232 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 Chapter VI 
 
 PROBLEMS 
 
 233 
 
 I 
 
 1. What is personality? 
 
 2. What is enthusiasm? How can it be developed? 
 
 3. Of what does loyalty consist? What are the "conditions'* 
 
 for its existence? 
 
 4. Explain why retail selling is monotonous for some sales- 
 people. 
 
 5. " Honesty is not merely telling the truth; it is a trinity of 
 
 honorable dealings." Explain. 
 
 6. Describe some common forms of dishonesty in selling goods. 
 
 How may these be remedied ? 
 
 7. " Lack of merchandise knowledge may induce salespeople to 
 fall back on their imaginations for descriptive material." What 
 form of dishonesty usually results in such cases? 
 
 8. Supposing a traveling salesman desired to look at tooth 
 brushes. Give a sales talk that would induce him to purchase two 
 brushes, and yet one which would be entirely honest. 
 
 Supposing any kind of customer, perform the same exercise with 
 collars, shirts or any article in your department. 
 
 9. *' It doesn't always pay to tell a customer all that you know 
 about the goods." 
 
 Discuss from at least two difEerent standpoints. 
 
 10. " A salesperson must be sincere with herself ; she must act 
 
 as she feels." 
 
 Show wherein the practice of the command embodied in the 
 last clause might vitiate the principle stated in the first. 
 
 11. A thorough knowledge of merchandise is the basis for what 
 important element of personality? 
 
 12. A certain store advertises bargains but seldom has any to 
 offer ; it has different prices for the same goods to different people. 
 
 As regards the positive qualities of its salespeople, how is this 
 store defeating its own success ? 
 
 13. A certain salesperson loafs on her job and fails to acquire 
 expert knowledge of the goods she is selling. What quality or 
 qualities of personality are being destroyed? 
 
 14. What characterizes a tactful salesperson? 
 
 15. The personalities of a customer and salesperson clash. The 
 customer is sullenly looking at neckties. How might an untactf ul 
 salesperson antagonize the customer ? What would a tactful sales- 
 person do under the circumstances? 
 
 16. '' Tactless salespeople lack imagination." Explain. 
 
 17. "A tactful salesperson diagnoses conditions before proceed- 
 ing." What is meant ? 
 
 18. A woman with a troublesome child is endeavoring to ascer- 
 tain the nature of the values offered at the counter. What most 
 prominent qualities of personality would be needed to handle the 
 situation successfully ? 
 
 19. On being asked the nature of the material in certain neck- 
 wear, the salesperson answered, " Silk." The customer said that 
 she was certam the material was " Three-fourths cotton." 
 
 What forces of personality should here be used ? 
 
 Chapter VII 
 
 1. Why cannot a salesperson afford to be a "diamond in the 
 rough " ? 
 
 2. Enumerate six acts of courtesy that any salesperson could 
 daily perform with each customer. Name three unusual acts of 
 courtesy that would make one's selling distinctive. 
 
 3. " Courtesy is a means of discovering and exhibiting other 
 success attributes." Explain. 
 
 4. What is meant by saying that courtesy is an " avenue of 
 approach " ? "A medium of exchange ? " 
 
 5. How may courtesy be developed? 
 
 6. Illustrate how discourtesy may become confused with 
 honesty; feelings with sincerity. 
 
 7. Of what does promptness consist? 
 
 8. Discuss the reasons for lack of promptness. 
 
 9. Who are " lookers "? How should they be handled > 
 
 10. Explain why direct interrogation is psychologically a crude 
 form of salutation. 
 
f 
 
 234 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 II." Customers resent anything that tends to put them under 
 obligations to buy." Explain. 
 
 12. " Cheerfulness is not merely a matter of the face." Ex- 
 plain. 
 
 13. What are some " conditions " necessary for cheerfulness? 
 
 14. "A salesperson not only sells goods but also her person- 
 ality." What is meant? 
 
 15. Enumerate some smiles that do not indicate cheerfulness. 
 
 16. " Unless you are naturally cheerful there is no use * putting 
 on * a smile. A smile that is not natural is soon detected and 
 appraised at its true value." 
 
 (a) Admitting that the last sentence is true, does the first con- 
 tention necessarily follow ? 
 
 (b) In place of the word " cheerful," substitute " a salesper- 
 son," and after the word " use," substitute '* attempting to sell 
 goods." Do you agree to the implication of the new reading? 
 
 17. What is the relation between cheerfulness and merchandise 
 knowledge? Knowledge of human nature? 
 
 Chapter VIII 
 
 1. How does every-day observation indicate that many sales- 
 people do not understand the selling process? 
 
 2. Indicate the different elements that enter into the act of 
 attracting attention. 
 
 3. How may words and actions be utilized to arouse interest? 
 
 4. ''Desire to buy must be created; it doesn't just happen." 
 What methods should be used to create desire ? 
 
 5. When should a sale be ** closed " ? 
 
 6. Describe some methods of closing sales. 
 
 7. State some common objections and indicate now they may be 
 
 met. 
 
 8. " There is no way that a salesperson can tell what objection 
 a customer has up her sleeve." Do you agree? State one or two 
 practical ways of determining unstated objections. 
 
 PROBLEMS 
 
 23s 
 
 9. " An anticipated objection is no objection while a stated ob- 
 jection is twice an objection." Explain. 
 
 10. " Objections can sometimes be forestalled by appealing to 
 the instinct of imitation." Explain. 
 
 11. Explain how ability to forestall or meet objections may be 
 dependent upon merchandise knowledge. Knowledge of the cus- 
 tomer. 
 
 12. How should a customer be treated who desires to " shop "? 
 
 13. Is there any advantage in knowing competitors' goods? 
 
 14. Give three methods of introducing other goods after the 
 sale. Which is the best method? Why? 
 
 15. What goods should a salesperson suggest after a sale has 
 been made? 
 
 16. When is the best time to introduce other goods? 
 
 17. " It is chiefly from the standpoint of service that other 
 goods should be introduced at the close of the sale." Support this 
 contention. 
 
 18. A customer asked the salesperson for a linen collar. The 
 salesperson in a pleasant manner took down a box of collars, re- 
 moved one, then said, " You wouldn't want two, would you ? " 
 " No," said the customer, as he returned the congenial smile of 
 the salesperson who wrapped up the collar neatly, in the mean- 
 while remarking about the results of the election which was the 
 topic in the minds of the people at the time. The customer took 
 the package, left the store and was impressed with the friendliness 
 and courtesy of the salesperson. 
 
 What principle of salesmanship was violated ? 
 
 Chapter IX 
 
 1. Illustrate and trace the diflftculties that may occur because 
 (a) items of sale have been abbreviated, (b) figures are indistinct, 
 (c) charge name is illegible. 
 
 2. " The average salesperson doesn't even know the three R*s." 
 Store manager. 
 
 What basis is there for such a statement? 
 
236 
 
 ■I 
 
 T 
 
 m 
 
 w 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 2013 Market 
 
 578 N. llac 
 
 148 1 chid Ave. 
 
 205 E. 15 
 
 nil N. 4 
 
 2013 New Market. 
 1578 N. Cadillac. 
 1 48 1 Orchid Ave. 
 1205 E. 15th St. 
 nil N. 47th St. 
 
 3. " Close attention supplemented by careful interrogation is 
 the best insurance against sales check blunders." 
 
 Argue in support of this contention using illustrations if neces- 
 sary. 
 
 chetk^'''^ ^'"^trations of common errors of omission on the sales 
 
 5. What is the danger of transposition of figures and letters in 
 names and addresses? 
 
 6. The following errors have been made on sales checks. How 
 can you account for them ? 
 
 should be 
 should be 
 should be 
 should be 
 should be 
 
 7. " A large percentage of mistakes found in sales checks are 
 due to phonetic errors." 
 
 ^^Explain and illustrate what is meant. What remedy can you 
 
 8. "Incorrect naming of articles sold is a great source of in- 
 convenience to the customer and embarrassment to the store." 
 
 Illustrate. 
 
 9. A customer, in payment of a $1.25 purchase, handed the 
 ^lesperson a two-dollar bill thinking it was a five-dollar bill 
 I he salesperson accepted the money, made change and handed 
 back seventy-five cents to the customer. The customer protested, 
 claimmg that she had tendered a five-dollar bill in payment for 
 the goods. 
 
 How could this unpleasant situation have been avoided ? 
 
 10. In a certain store the semi-annual inventory always* reveals 
 a shortage in piece goods. The management is certain of the 
 integrity of the salespeople in this department and is at a loss to 
 understand the cause. 
 
 Can you give any reason that might account for this shortage? 
 
 11. Indicate some problems that arise in the wrapping of goods. 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 SALESMANSHIP BOOKS 
 
 Atkinson, W. W., Psychology of Salesmanship. 19 12, Towne, E. 
 Benedict- Roche, A., Salesmanship for Women. 19 13, Meadville, 
 
 Pa. 
 Blackford, K., Analyzing Character. 1916, Alden. 
 Brisco, N. A., Fundamentals of Salesmanship. 19 16, Appleton. 
 Butler, E. B., Training for Salesmanship, Academy of Political 
 
 Science. 
 Cody, Sherwin, How to Deal with Human Nature in Business. 
 
 1915, Funk. 
 Corbion, W. A., Principles of Salesmanship, Deportment and Sys- 
 tem. 191 7, Jacobs. 
 Dukesmith, F. H., Salesmanship Analyzed. 19 10, Dukesmith 
 
 School of Salesmanship. 
 Eastman, G. R., Psychology of Salesmanship. 19 16, Service Pub. 
 
 Co., Dayton, O. 
 Estabrook, P. L., The Science of Salesmanship. 1904, Univ. 
 
 Text Book Co., Dallas, Texas. 
 Fisk, J. W., Retail Selling. 19 16, Harper. 
 Fowler, N. C, Practical Salesmanship. 191 1, Little. 
 Goffe, W. T., Problems in Retail Selling. 19 13, Western Ptg. & 
 
 Lith. Co., Racine, Wis. 
 Hall, S. R., Short Talks on Retail Selling. 191 5, Funk. 
 Hirschler, D., The Art of Retail Selling. 1909, Inst, of Mercan- 
 tile Training, N. Y. 
 Hollingsworth, H. L., Advertising and Selling. 191 3, Appleton. 
 Hoyt, C. W., Scientific Sales Management. 19 13, Woolson. 
 Knox, J. S., Salesmanship and Business Efficiency. 191 7, Knox 
 School of Salesmanship. 
 
 227 
 
! 
 
 238 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 Knox, J. S., Science of Applied Salesmanship, Vol. II. 191 8, 
 
 Knox School of Salesmanship. 
 Leichter, E., Successful Selling. 1914, Funk. 
 Lennington, N. G., Seven Principles of Successful Salesmanship. 
 
 19 1 8, Science System, Scranton, Pa., Commercial. 
 Lindgren, C, New Salesmanship. 191 1, Laird. 
 Mantegazza, P., Physiognomy and Expression. 1905, Scribner. 
 Marden, O. S., Selling Things. 19 16, Crowell. 
 Mason, R. O., Hypnotism and Suggestion. 1901, Holt. 
 Maxwell, W. M., Salesmanship. 19 14, Houghton. 
 Moody, W. D., Men Who Sell Things. 191 2, McClurg. 
 Nystrom, P. H., Retail Selling and Store Management. 19 14, 
 
 Appleton. 
 Opdycke, J. B., News Ads and Sales. 191 5, Macmillan. 
 Russell, T. H., Salesmanship, Theory and Practice. 19 10, Inter- 
 national Law & Business Inst. 
 Rust, T. D., A. B. C. of Salesmanship. 191 4, Fenno. 
 Scott, W. D., Influencing Men in Business. 191 6, Ronald. 
 Sheldon, A F., The Art of Selling. 191 1, Sheldon University 
 
 Press. 
 Stanton, M. O., The Encyclopedia of Face and Form Reading. 
 
 19 1 3, Davis. 
 Taylor, H. C, What a Salesman Should Know. 1913, Browne 
 
 & Howell. 
 Vardaman, B. R., Master Salesman. 191 1, Merchants Trade 
 
 Journal, Des Moines, la. 
 Whitehead, H., Salesmanship and Business Efficiency. 1914, 
 
 American School of Business. 
 Whitehead, H., Principles of Salesmanship. 191 7> Ronald. 
 Woodworth, S., Success in Salesmanship. 1912, American School 
 
 of Commerce. 
 
 m 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 239 
 
 BOOKS ON BUSINESS 
 
 Blackford, K. M., and Newcomb, Arthur, The Job, the Man, the 
 
 Boss. 1 9 14, Doubleday. 
 Bogart, E. L., Business Economics. 19 15, LaSalle Extension Uni- 
 versity. 
 Brisco, N. A., Economics of Business. 1913, Macmillan; Eco- 
 nomics of Efficiency. 19 14, Macmillan. 
 Casson, H. N., Ads and Sales. 191 1, McClurg. 
 Cherington, P. T., Advertising as a Business Force. 19 13, Dou- 
 bleday. 
 Cottingham, W. H., Business Success. 1916, W. H. Cotting- 
 
 ham, Cleveland, Ohio. 
 Crewdsen, W. A., Building Business. 1907, Appleton. 
 Eastman, G. R., Psychology for Business Efficiency. Service Pub. 
 
 Co., Lafayette, Indiana. 
 Emerson, H. The Twelve Principles of Efficiency. 1912, Eng. 
 
 Magazine. 
 Fiske, A. K., Honest Business. 19 14, Putnam. 
 Gilbreth, L. E., The Psychology of Management. 191 4, Sturgis 
 
 & Walton. 
 Higinbotham, H. N., The Making of a Merchant. 1906, Forbes. 
 Kleiser, G., Salesmanship and Advertising. 19 13, Funk. 
 Larsen, C. D. Business Psychology. 19 12, Crowell. 
 Lewis, St. Elmo, Getting the Most Out of Business. 19 16, Ron- 
 ald. 
 McVey, F. L., Economics of Business. 191 7, Alexander Hamil- 
 ton Inst. 
 Marden, O. S., Training for Efficiency. 191 3, Crowell; The 
 
 Exceptional Employee. 19 13, Crowell. 
 Munsterberg, H., Psychology of Industrial Efficiency. 19 15, La 
 
 Salle Extension University. 
 Nystrom, P. H., The Economics of Retailing. 19 15, Ronald. 
 Rose, W. G., Success in Business. 191 3, Duffield. 
 Sammons, W., Keeping Up with Rising Costs. 19 15, A. W. 
 Shaw. 
 
240 
 
 RETAIL SALESMANSHIP 
 
 Scott, W. D., The Psychology of Advertising. 1908, Small; The 
 Theory of Advertising. 1903, Small; Increasing Human Ef- 
 ficiency in Business. 191 1, Macmillan. 
 
 Shaw, A. W., Approach to Business Problems. 19 16, Harvard 
 Univ. Press. 
 
 Sparling, L. E., Business Organization. 1906, Macmillan. 
 
 Stoll, A., Winning the Trade. 19 13, Business Man's Pub. Co. 
 
 Swinney, J. B., Merchandising. 191 7, Alexander Hamilton 
 Inst. 
 
 System Magazine, How to Talk Business to Win. 
 
 Tipper, H., The New Business. 1914, Doubleday; 1915, Dou- 
 bleday; and Hollingsworth, H. L., Advertising, Its Principles 
 and Practice. 191 5, Ronald; and Hotchkiss, G. B., Adver- 
 tising. 1 91 4, Alexander Hamilton Inst. 
 
 Veblen, T., The Theory of Business Enterprise. 1904, Scribncr. 
 
 Warren, W. P., Thoughts on Business. 19 15, Forbes. 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Abbreviations on sales check, 210; 
 items, 210; town and street name, 
 
 212. 
 
 Advertising, source of information 
 for salespeople, 59; knowing de- 
 partment, basis for cooperation 
 between departments, 59, 85; 
 promptness is good, 149; supple- 
 menting, 159; neutralized by 
 carelessness, 162; knowledge for 
 suggestion comes from, 199. 
 
 Adviser, necessity of salesperson 
 becoming an, 26. 
 
 Agricultural revolution, 7-9. 
 
 Alertness, necessity of, 94, 160; 
 value of, 149. 
 
 Approach, direct interrogation 
 crude form of, 157; best method 
 of, 159-60. 
 
 Arguing with customers, inadvisa- 
 bility of, 104; increases opposi- 
 tion, 132; tactful salesperson 
 avoids, 136-7. 
 
 Arithmetic (errors in), on sales 
 check, 214; mean loss to store, 
 214; reasons for, 215; remedies 
 for, 215; illustrations of diflFerent 
 kinds of, 216-21. 
 
 Attention, gaining customers', 82, 
 159; method of concentrating cus- 
 tomers', loi ; six general methods 
 of attracting customers', 168; a 
 method of attracting, 169. 
 
 Attitude, how to attract attention 
 by, 168-9. 
 
 Authority, value of, in sales talk, 
 H2; should be cited in creating 
 desire, 181-2; salesperson cannot 
 speak with, 183. 
 
 Bargaining in retailing, 12. 
 
 Buying motives, see Instincts. 
 Building, instinct of, 86. 
 Bodily expression, indicator of 
 mental processes, io8, 114. 
 
 Carelessness, errors in calculation 
 due to, 216. 
 
 Change, errors in receiving and 
 making, 224; correct way of re- 
 ceiving, 224; correct way of re- 
 turning, 225. 
 
 Character analysis, 91. 
 
 Cheerfulness, definition, 160; can- 
 not be worn, 161; utilitarian 
 value of a smile, 161; meaning of 
 smiles and frowns, i6i; money 
 value of, 162; cheerlessness re- 
 pels customers, 162; is buifer 
 against wear and tear of day's 
 work, 162-3; should be ever- 
 present, 163; smiles that are a 
 liability, 163; can be developed, 
 164; methods of developing, 165; 
 too seldom seen in retailing, 165 ; 
 in correcting sales checks, 219. 
 
 Communities, reasons for back- 
 ward, I ; individualistic nature 
 of our, 16; relation of retailer to 
 community clubs, 17; new view- 
 point of, 18; suflFer from ineffi- 
 ciency, 201. 
 
 Companionship, instinct of, 73-4. 
 
 Competing goods, must be known, 
 191. 
 
 Competition, unfair, 14; alleged 
 failure of, 15; keener, in future 
 will cause better service, 165; 
 meeting, 189. 
 
 Competitors, antagonism of, 16; 
 goods, 183, 188-9. 
 
 Conditions for selling, creating 
 
 241 
 
242 
 
 INDEX 
 
 m 
 
 favorable, 79-80, 83, 93, 103; 
 adapting oneself to, 105. 
 
 Confidence, how to build up cus- 
 tomers', 32-3, m-13; basis for 
 salesperson's, in goods, 58 ; rea- 
 son for customers' lack of, 59; 
 product of enthusiasm, 117; illus- 
 tration of loss of customers', 126, 
 129; customers trade where they 
 have, in salespeople, 162; self- 
 confident bearing of salesperson 
 creates, in customer, 169, 173; 
 customer loses, in salesperson, 
 178 ; means of shaking customers', 
 179-80; function of salespeople 
 is to create, in themselves, 218. 
 
 Cooperation, supplements competi- 
 tion, 15; lack of, between depart- 
 ments in stores, 85, 199. 
 
 Corsets, history of, 29. 
 
 Courtesy, definition, 140; means of 
 discovering success attributes, 
 141 ; lack of, breeds discourtesy, 
 141 ; a medium of exchange, 142 ; 
 an " extra " thrown in the pack- 
 age, 142 ; how to develop, 143 ; 
 makes store distinctive, 143 ; how 
 discourtesy originated, 144; why 
 discourtesy persists, 145 ; not dis- 
 honesty, 145; sincerity no justifi- 
 cation for lack of, 145; impor- 
 tance of realizing growth of dis- 
 courtesy, 146; courteous speech 
 attracts attention, 170. 
 
 Criticism, value of constructive, 
 119. 
 
 Curiosity, instinct of, 80-3, 176. 
 
 Customers, deliberate, 50, 96-9, 172, 
 184; knowing, 64, 90; why cus- 
 tomers trade in certain stores, 
 88-9, 105-6, no, 148, 153, 162; 
 likenesses of, 90; differences be- 
 tween, 90; basis for classification 
 of, 92; impulsive or nervous, 
 92-6, 167, 172, 174, 184; vacillat- 
 ing or indecisive, 99-103, 195 ; 
 obstinate, 102 ; confident or de- 
 cisive, 103-5, 172; respect for 
 
 sensibilities of, 105 ; talkative or 
 friendly, 106-7, 172; silent or in- 
 different, 107-10; breaking down 
 reserve of, 109 ; have a right to 
 their personalities, no; distrust- 
 ful, in-13, 172; getting, to agree, 
 112, 182; different at different 
 times, 1 1 3-14; interests of, should 
 be held paramount, 133; satisfied, 
 should be aim of store, 151; 
 character of approach regulated 
 by type of, 153; uninviting, no 
 reason for lack of promptness, 
 153; are looking for satisfactions, 
 153; "lookers," 154; salespeople 
 do not appreciate, 155; impor- 
 tance of, 155; different methods 
 necessary with different, 160; 
 winning over the unreasonable, 
 163; tone of voice suited to type 
 of, 172; must be satisfied, 178; 
 desire information, 199; satisfac- 
 tion of, 199. 
 
 Dealers' Helps, value of, 60. 
 
 Decision, inducing, 83, 92, 95, 97, 
 loi, 155, 159; methods of induc- 
 ing, 184; obstructions to, must be 
 eliminated, 187, 189-91, 192-3. 
 
 Demand, limited, 2; widening of, 3. 
 
 Demonstrations, value of, 112, 183. 
 
 Desire, creating, 83, 92, 95, 159; 
 means of ascertaining, 108-9; 
 methods of creating, 178. 
 
 Development, law of modern busi- 
 ness, 117. 
 
 Directing customers, 85. 
 
 Dishonesty, see Honesty. 
 
 Distinction, demanded by customers, 
 54-5 ; aim of retailers, 143. 
 
 Dress, important element of per- 
 sonality, 117. 
 
 Drudgery, relation of stock knowl- 
 edge to, 27; removing aspects of, 
 119-20. 
 
 Efficiency, modern, movement, 19; 
 increasing, in bricklaying, 19-20; 
 
 INDEX 
 
 243 
 
 carrying pig iron, 21-2; shovel- 
 ing, 22-3 ; of retailer can be 
 doubled, 41 ; increasing selling, 
 46; employer has right to expect 
 increase in, 116; relation of hon- 
 esty to, 122; study produces the 
 greatest selling, 148 ; greater 
 selling, must be developed, 165. 
 see Goods, how to study. 
 
 Enthusiasm, definition, 27, 118; how 
 to develop, 102, 119; contagious, 
 117; cannot be faked, 117-18; 
 develops loyalty, 118; sincerity 
 basis of, 119. 
 
 Exaggeration, 13 1-2. 
 
 Exchange, erroneous ideas as to 
 nature of, 12. 
 
 Expertness, meaning of, 3 ; reason 
 for, 26 ; indifference of salespeo- 
 ple in desiring, 122; necessary in 
 order to avoid dishonesty, 124; 
 reason for lack of, 150; new 
 standard of, 150; use of, 178. 
 
 Experts, present demand for, 25 ; 
 necessity of having, 25 ; lack of 
 knowledge prevents salespeople 
 becoming, 30. 
 
 Facial expression, value of, 164; at- 
 tracting attention by means of, 
 169. see Smiles, Cheerfulness. 
 
 Gloom, see Cheerfulness. 
 
 Goods, complexity of, 25 ; knowl- 
 edge of, necessary, 27, 43, 99; 
 knowledge of, basis for enthusi- 
 asm, 30; history of, important, 
 30; knowledge of, provides vo- 
 cabulary, 38 ; should be de- 
 scribed, 38; how to display, 47; 
 how to study, 46-57; sources of 
 material for study of, 58-62; 
 qualities of, not obvious to cus- 
 tomer, 58; location of, 62; quan- 
 tity of, on hand, 62-3 ; sent out 
 on approval, 76 ; introducing 
 other, at close of sale, 196; easy 
 to dispose of but hard to sell. 
 
 96; not sold until consumed, 96; 
 misrepresentation of, 123 ; offer 
 infinite possibilities for study, 
 149; best method of introducing 
 other, 198; when to introduce 
 other, 198-9; kind of, to intro- 
 duce after sale, 199. 
 
 Gossiping, see Honesty. 
 
 Guarantee, psychology of, 54; used 
 in loose sense, 131. 
 
 Happiness, reason for lack of, in 
 work, 120; bases for, 121; rela- 
 tion of increased efficiency to, 
 124. see Cheerfulness. 
 
 Health, 117; importance of, 169. 
 
 Honesty, definition, 121 ; some sales- 
 people dishonest, 121-2; relation 
 of efficiency to, 122; mail order, 
 122; lack of, robs customer of 
 service, 123 ; dishonesty due to 
 idleness and gossiping, 123 ; mis- 
 representation of goods, 123-31; 
 convincing customer of salesper- 
 son's, 124; not discourteousness, 
 145 ; cheerlessness a form of, 
 162; relation of knowledge to, 
 218. see Exaggeration, Loading. 
 
 Human nature, importance of, not 
 recognized until recently, 19; 
 value of understanding, 64, 114; 
 characteristics of, 87; illustra- 
 tions of failure to understand, 
 98 ; mistakes in diagnosis of, 
 102 ; impossibility of making 
 over, 109-10. 
 
 Human processes, illustrations of 
 increasing efficiency of, 20-3. 
 
 Human types, instability of, 91. 
 see Customers. 
 
 Hunting instinct, 83-5. 
 
 Ideas, unwillingness to adopt new, 
 9 ; care in conveying, 37 ; must 
 be supplied intelligently, 179; in- 
 hibiting, 184, 189-90. 
 
 Imagination, appealing to the, 41 ; 
 
244 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Illustration of appeals to, 8i, 86; 
 lack of, 136. 
 
 Imitation, instinct of, 76-80, 181. 
 
 Indistinct and illegible writing on 
 sales check, 208; names of per- 
 sons, 208 ; names of streets, 208 ; 
 names of places, 209 ; house num- 
 bers, 209; misplaced carbon 
 causes errors, 209. 
 
 Industrial revolution, 2-8. 
 
 Inefficiency, cause of retail, 17. 
 
 Instincts, sales talk should appeal 
 to, 57 ; enumeration and discus- 
 sion of, 66-89. 
 
 Interest, securing, 82-3, 159; how 
 to detect, 108; increasing, 136, 
 158; destroying, 158-9, 178; 
 methods of arousing, 173. 
 
 Judgments, value of salesperson's 
 information in forming buying, 
 98, 158; forming true, 154, 190; 
 no information on which to form 
 buying, 167. 
 
 Knocking competitors' goods, 183. 
 
 Knowledge of goods, 25 ; effect of, 
 on personality, 31; loss to stores 
 because of lack of, 33; kind of, 
 necessary, 31, 43; how to handle, 
 effectively, 45 ; classification of, 
 45 ; means of killing suspicion, 
 51; is liberal education, 51; 
 basis of customers' satisfactions, 
 51; how to secure, 52-7, 180; 
 no justification for lack of, 62; 
 easy to sell with, 99; basis 
 of salespersons' confidence, 117; 
 expert, necessary, 124; remedy 
 for exaggeration, 132; relation 
 of, to attitude, 169; arouses inter- 
 est, 173 ; necessary in creating de- 
 sire, 180; aids in meeting compe- 
 tition, 189; suggestion dependent 
 on, 199. 
 
 Language, inefficient use of, 37. 
 Laziness, 88-9, 175. 
 
 "Loading," definition, 132; illus- 
 tration of, 133. 
 
 " Lookers," view of salespeople to- 
 ward, 154; all customers are, 
 154; reason lookers are over- 
 looked, 155; worthy of prompt 
 service, 155; are made, 156; are 
 potential buyers, 156; how, are 
 made, 156. 
 
 Loyalty, stimulated by enthusiasm, 
 118; based on stores' square- 
 dealing, 118; definition, 118; lack 
 of, can never be justified, 119. 
 
 Mail order houses, describe goods, 
 39-4if 53. 56-7; augment value 
 of goods, 43-4; can sell cheaper, 
 122; honesty of, 122, 126, 129; 
 courtesy of, 144; methods of 
 trade-getting employed by, 147 ; 
 trade diverted to, 201. 
 
 Mechanics of selling, should be 
 subordinated, 77, 94-5. 
 
 Middleman, justification of, 2. 
 
 Minds (human), ability to change, 
 I ; change of, reason for progress, 
 9; must be led through four 
 stages, 36, 167. 
 
 Misrepresentation of goods, illus- 
 trations of, as regards construc- 
 tion, 124-6; purpose, 126-8; 
 operation, 128-9; composition, 
 129; durability, 130; exaggera- 
 tion, 131-2. see Honesty. 
 
 Monotony in work, produced by 
 ignorance, 119-20; illustration of, 
 120; unknown to retail store, 
 120; creation of, by salespeople, 
 121. 
 
 Needs, salesperson must develop 
 customers', 187. 
 
 Objections, answering, by using in- 
 stinct of imitation, 78-9; arguing 
 stimulates customer to formulate, 
 136-7; should be anticipated, 
 180, 191-2; necessity of meeting. 
 
 \y' 
 
 INDEX 
 
 245 
 
 184; examples of common, 185; 
 offering of, should not be en- 
 couraged, 191. 
 
 Omissions on sales check, 201 ; of 
 name, 202; of letters in name, 
 202 ; of items, 202 ; of " In care 
 of," 203 ; of numbers in address, 
 203 ; of house number, 204 ; of 
 local address, 204; of locality — 
 town, 205 ; of designation of 
 direction, 205. 
 
 Order-takers, significance of, com- 
 pared with salespeople, 37. 
 
 Orders, errors in handling, 221- 
 24. 
 
 Parental instinct, 71-3, 86. 
 
 Patience, salespeople need, 107. 
 
 Personalities, antagonistic, 137. 
 
 Personality, elements of, 116-75; 
 definition, 116; salespeople 
 should develop, 116; combination 
 of three factors, 117; enthusiasm, 
 117-21; honesty, 121-35; tact, 
 i35~9; courtesy, 140-6; impor- 
 tance of, in selling, 146; prompt- 
 ness, 146-60; cheerfulness, 160- 
 66\ salesperson sells, 162. 
 
 Phonetic errors on sales check, 212 ; 
 in names of persons, 213; in 
 names of streets, 213; in house 
 numbers, 214; in names of places, 
 214. 
 
 Phrenology, 91. 
 
 Possession, instinct of, 74-6, 175. 
 
 Price, opportunity to sell higher, 
 goods, 30, 34; failure to know 
 reason for, 33; unwillingness of 
 customers to pay a high, 34; 
 importance of, element during 
 sale, 34-5 ; undue prominence of, 
 36; basis of, 52; relation of value 
 to> 53 \ illustration of reasons for, 
 55; method of reducing, 56; less 
 important than service, 143 ; is 
 fixed but not value, 177; common 
 objection to closing sale, 185; 
 meaning of, 187. 
 
 Production, home, 2; inferior, 3; 
 increase in, 4; stimulation of, 4; 
 efficiency of machine, 4; attitude 
 of workers toward change in 
 methods of, 5 ; at least cost, 6 ; 
 changes in agricultural, 8 ; of 
 wealth, 10; reason for progress 
 in machine, 19. 
 
 Progress, cause of, i, 9; opposition 
 to, 5 ; illustrations of, 6, 8 ; foe 
 to, 20, 23. 
 
 Promptness, lack of, 93 ; loss of 
 trade due to lack of, 146-7; rea- 
 sons for lack of, 148-60; lack of, 
 due to stockkeeping, 151; lack of, 
 due to fear, 151-4; lack of, due 
 to misunderstanding, 154-60; 
 must be tempered with under- 
 standing, 157; meaning of, 160, 
 168, 169, 174. 
 
 Public library, value of, to sales- 
 person, 61. 
 
 Quality, important element subse- 
 quent to sale, 34-5. 
 
 Questions, ability to answer cus- 
 tomers', 33-5; selling goods with- 
 out asking, 94; used to make 
 customers talk, 109; manufac- 
 ture lookers, 156-7; crude form 
 of approach, 157; avoidance of, 
 in approach, 158; use of, over- 
 looks steps in selling process, 
 159; asking, not promptness, 160; 
 sometimes a good form of saluta- 
 tion, 171; prompt answering of 
 customers', 179 ; introducing other 
 goods by asking, 197; ascertain 
 when objections exist, 192. 
 
 Retail revolution, 9-19; productive 
 of permanent results, 14; defini- 
 tion, 25. 
 
 Retailer, early attitude toward, 11; 
 not productive, 11; early methods 
 of, 11-12; modern methods of, 
 12-13; demands of public recog- 
 
4i' 
 
 
 246 
 
 INDEX 
 
 nized by modern, 15; attitude of, 
 towards community, 15-16. 
 Retailing, possibilities of, 48-9; 
 variety of action in, 120-1. 
 
 Sales, methods of increasing, 134, 
 199; how made, 167, 182; clos- 
 ing, 184; reasons for loss of, 
 190-1. 
 
 Sales check, offers many opportuni- 
 ties for error, 201 ; examples of 
 errors on, 201-24; safeguards 
 against making errors on, 223-4. 
 
 Salesmanship, definition, 32, 64, 65, 
 114; meaning of, 152; good, 145, 
 188-9; bad, 188, 197; corrective, 
 191 ; aim of, 201. 
 
 Salespeople, real function of, 104; 
 professional people contrasted 
 with, 149-50; vision of, 153; 
 creators of value, 177. 
 
 Sales talk, knowledge of goods 
 necessary for a convincing, 29, 
 35; preparation of, 81, 95. see 
 Goods, how to study. 
 
 Salutation, methods of, 156-7, 158, 
 170; value of distinctive, 171; 
 using customer's name in, 171. 
 
 Satisfactions, basis of sale, 96, 130, 
 152, 186. 
 
 Scientific selling, 65, 99, 159, 192. 
 
 Self-confidence, knowledge of goods 
 creates, 31. see Confidence, At- 
 titude. 
 
 Selfishness, 87-8. 
 
 Self-preservation, instinct of, 66-8. 
 
 Selling process, first step of, 82; 
 second, third and fourth steps of, 
 82-3 ; interrogation fails to recog- 
 nize steps of, 159; definition, 
 167; analysis of, 168. 
 
 Senses, how to appeal to, 46-7 ; 
 illustration of appeals to, 47; 
 method of appealing to, 175; 
 creating desire by appeals to, 
 183. 
 
 Service, illustration of lack of, 
 32-3, 122; value of, to retainer, 
 
 60; to give, is reason for exist- 
 ence of store, 62; desire of public 
 for, 122-3, 191 > selling, 127; to 
 render, is only honest objective 
 for increasing sales, 135; more 
 important than price, 143 ; 
 prompt, demanded, 147; neces- 
 sity of satisfactory, 151; prompt- 
 ness is part of, 152; an unex- 
 pected, attracts attention, 169 ; 
 salutation should offer, 170; use 
 of suggestion in giving, 199 ; aim 
 of salesmanship is satisfactory, 
 201 ; inability of some stores to 
 give, 218. 
 
 Shoppers, attitude of salespeople 
 toward, 188. 
 
 Silk production, history of, 28. 
 
 Smiles, classification of, 163; attract 
 attention, 169. see Cheerfulness. 
 
 Society, division of, by functions, 6. 
 
 Specialization, limited, 2 ; realiza- 
 tion of, 3 ; necessity of, 7 ; rela- 
 tion of, to experts, 25. 
 
 Speech, form of, a method of at- 
 tracting attention, 170. 
 
 Steam engine, importance of, 3. 
 
 Stockkeeping, undue importance of, 
 151. 
 
 Store system and method, 201-26. 
 
 Study, value of, 53, 68, 137, 148; 
 necessity of, 69, 81, 91, 110, 114, 
 150; basis for enthusiasm, 118; 
 when to, 149 ; in the professions, 
 150; more, in future, 165; of sell- 
 ing process, 167-8; of tone of 
 voice, 172; of objections, 180, 
 194; when to close sale, 184; 
 necessary if sale is lost, 190-1. 
 
 Suggestion, increasing sales by, 
 134; negative, 159, 196, 199; in 
 closing sale, 194-5. 
 
 Tact, Importance of, 113; criticism 
 possible if, is used, 119; defini- 
 tion, 135; failure to use, 136, 
 138; use of, in approach, 159-60; 
 introducing other goods in tact- 
 
 INDEX 
 
 247 
 
 ful manner, 198; in correcting 
 
 sales check, 219. 
 Tests of materials, technical, 43-4; 
 
 practical, 44-5; reason for, 45. 
 Timidness, no place for, in selling, 
 
 152. 
 Transpositions on sales check, 206; 
 
 of letters, 206; of figures, 206; 
 
 of purchaser's name and street 
 
 name, 207. 
 Traveling salesman, source of 
 
 knowledge, 58. 
 Types of customers, see Customers. 
 
 Value, sentimental, 30; methods of 
 adding, to goods, 30, 34, 44, 52, 
 177, 182; price not necessarily an 
 indicator of, 33, 182; basis of, 
 
 34; correct conception of, 53; re- 
 lation of a guarantee to, 53-4; 
 illustrations of increasing, 54-5 ; 
 meaning of, 56; failure to indi- 
 cate, 60; not obvious, 6i; sales- 
 people creators of, 177; custom- 
 er's estimate of, is faulty, 186; 
 "worth" contrasted with, 186. 
 
 Vanity, instinct of, 69-71, 103; 
 method of appealing to, 174-5. 
 
 Vocabulary, salespeople lack a, 37. 
 
 Voice, importance of tone of, in at- 
 tracting attention, 171. 
 
 Wanamaker, John, 12, 75. 
 Work, reduction in hours of, 4. 
 Worth, relation of, to value and 
 price, 186. 
 
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