19 SELL
HINGS
WALTER P. MOODY
CURTH EDITION

:
THE LIBRARY
OF THE
UNIV
RSITY
OMNIBUS ARTIBUS
CONFINE, VINCU
F MINNESOTA
CLASS
BOOK
658.8
M776
Men
Who Sell Things
4
Men
Who Sell Things
OBSERVATIONS AND EXPERIENCES OF OVER
TWENTY YEARS AS TRAVELLING SALES-
MAN, EUROPEAN BUYER, SALES
MANAGER, EMPLOYER
By
Walter D. Moody
FOURTH EDITION

ACMCCLURG
CO
CHICAGO
A. C. MCCLURG & Co.
1908
UNIVERSITY OF
MINNESOTA
i
Copyright
A. C. McClurg & Co.
1907
Published December 7, 1907
Second Edition, March 1, 1908
Third Edition, April 18, 1908
Fourth Edition, June 6, 1908
The Lakeside Press
R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMFANY
CHICAGO
658.8
OCT 20 39
Salvations
M776
894749
A Tribute to My Friend
DON FARNSWORTH


Dedicated to
The Commercial Ambassador
The Man Who Sells Things"
Foreword
When a man has taken the "third degree” in
the science of salesmanship, has put finishing touches
on a career of strapping and unstrapping cases in hot
Summers and chilly Winters, has taken a course in
hard knocks at the College of Give-and-Take; after
he has been frappéed by below-zero receptions;
after he has simmered in the caldron of competi-
tion; after he has set his foot on the path that
leads to the summit of the mountain peak Success;
after he has taken his post-graduate training in see-
ing Hope deferred, I believe he should have the
degree of Commercial Ambassador brought to him
on a golden salver, for he is now a professor in the
gentle arts of Peace and Plenty.
If you will recall the definition of Ambassador
as set down in the dictionaries, it signifies an envoy
of the highest rank sent by one government to
another for the advantage of both. If there is
anybody in the world who knows more about
diplomacy than the men who sell things, knows
more of dexterity, skill, and tact, more of the art
of conducting negotiations, I will cheerfully waive
the title of Ambassador and return to those of
Travelling Man and Drummer.
}
[ix]
Foreword
But, even then, is not every salesman worthy
the name, an envoy of the highest rank sent by one
house to another?
Herald, then, the Commercial Ambassador!
He is the herald and harbinger of the good things
in the world — all of them. When he stops bump-
ing the ties hotels will hang out "To Let" signs,
railroads will have salt-watered stock, and store-
keepers everywhere will raise cobwebs in their shop-
windows. He keeps going and he keeps all the
rest going. He is the Ambassador Extraordinary
and Plenipotentiary.
What, then, of the man who sends back the
Ambassador's card by an office-boy, who turns his
back upon him, who curtly refuses him a look-in ?
Such a man fails absolutely to safeguard the interests
of his customers, proves him ignorant of his own
welfare, and into the bargain cheats himself out of
the rich storehouse of knowledge that can be entered
only through the magic key intrusted to the Com-
mercial Ambassador that daily reviewer of the
results of human endeavor of every sort, from des-
perate failure to brilliant success. Hoch der Ambas-
sador!
1
[x]
Contents
CHAPTER
PAGE
I.
The New Era .
13
II.
Pure Grit
26
III. The Knocker
44
•
IV. The Order-Taker
57
V. The Fussy or Over-Anxious Salesman
70
VI.
The Wheelbarrow Salesman
95
VII.
The Know-It-All Salesman
111
VIII. The Quick-Tempered Salesman.
117
IX. The Sky-Rocket Salesman
125
X. The All-Head-and-No-Soul Salesman
136
XI. The Old-Timer
145
XII. The Right Kind of Salesman
158
XIII. The Mind as a Magnet
181
XIV.
Specializing Efforts
188
XV
Letters to the Trade
203
XVI.
Getting the Price
213
XVII.
Dress and Orderliness
229
XVIII.
Retail Salesmen
240
XIX. The Salesman's Relation to Credits
XX. The Salesman's Relation to the Buyer
260
272
XXI. The Sales Manager
XXII.
Getting an Interest in the Business
281
287
[xi]
Men Who Sell Things
CHAPTER I
THE NEW ERA
The salesman regularly supplies the electric
spark which keeps the commercial engine going.
THE
HIS book is an attempt to specify the qualifica-
tions necessary to the making of a successful
salesman, and the reasons for so many failures in
the greatest profession on earth, the profession of
salesmanship.
I wish to write, not of the doctrine of "luck,"
chance," and "good fortune," but of the doctrine
of effort and result; to proclaim that highest form
of twentieth-century salesmanship which brings suc-
cess, not to the indolent, the improvident, and the
dreamer, but to the striving, the intelligent, and the
busy man.
1
The commonplace salesman who is content
with a mediocre degree of success, who lacks either
desire or power to labor for the best that his pro-
fession contains, is little worthy of the name "sales-
man."
Work of the type most needed in the field of
salesmanship is the successful carrying out of that
which reflects the most credit upon the profession.
:
[ 13 ]
Men Who Sell Things
Little that is worth having is secured in this
world except by unceasing toil. The salesman must
be glad to do a salesman's work.
"Few battles are ever finally won. There are
always positions to be held and new ones to be con-
quered."
The enormous pressure of new business and
the constant tightening of competition seem to crush
out the hope and energy of a large proportion of
salesmen. The great problem of modern business
progress to the salesman is how to deal with this
tendency,― how to prevent being crushed out and
shoved to one side in the mad commercial whirl
for conquest.
The well-rounded salesman who has husbanded
his strength for the onrush will find methods to
preserve his talent and energy from decay. The
preservation will come, not through boasting or
through the acquisition of new territory and accounts,
nor through the magnification of past achievements,
but through the natural law of infinite patience,
constant study of new conditions, clearer adaptation
of means to ends, infinite devotion to instant duty,
and absolute fidelity to his house as it is and yet
may be.
There can be no more accepted time than the
present as the arena of this action. The success of
the efficient salesman will be greater in proportion
[ 14 ]
The New Era
to the number of those who are yet unaware of
the changing times and the growing feeling that
professional salesmanship must supersede the old
school of unorganized ways and methods.
The crowding of the field of salesmanship, and
the exhaustion of old-time resources in the art of
selling goods, have forced a revolution in this special
branch of industry. The pressure of business
intensified, manufacturers and merchants who em-
ploy large forces of travelling salesmen are looking
for a new degree of greatness in salesmanship
based on scientific methods.
More zealous care is needed that no talent may
be neglected, that employers may not constantly
be obliged to seek outside forces with which to
replenish their depleted sales ranks.
The successful salesman will not lose his char-
acter. His proud claim of leadership on the sales
force of his house will not pass into the hands of
others if he recognizes the fact that his first duty to
himself, and his highest duty to his house, is to have
his ship constantly cleared for the action of the
present strenuous day, and to be prepared for the
coming era of unparalleled commercial activity.
To the twentieth-century salesman it is of the
utmost moment to look at coming conditions and
make sure the defence of his selling methods against
the creeping foe lurking behind commonplace ways,
1
[ 15 ]
Men Who Sell Things
the foe that only newer, better, and quicker
methods can halt in his conquest of the indolent,
the over-anxious, the old-timer and all other types
of negative salesmen that go to make up the vast
crowd of the improvident and unwise.
A salesman of experience realizes that ideas-
practical methods of selling goods are of the
greatest value, and he also knows that it pays him
to search for them. It takes brains to influence
brains. Some one has said: "For every ten
dollars that a high-salaried man draws, he gets
nine dollars for what he knows and one dollar for
what he does.”
The same old way of doing things cannot be
successfully employed month after month and year
after year. The salesman must be modern
up to
date as much as the men of other professions.
The physician or lawyer finds that to compete suc-
cessfully he is compelled to read, read, read, all the
time, in order that he may learn of advancement in
treatments or procedures.
"To the man who fails belong the excuses.'
The more good ideas, the better the basis for good
work. The best of salesmen fail at times to sell to
certain buyers, without being able to give a reason
for falling down. The methods employed suc-
cessfully for many years seem to count for nothing.
In such cases, no doubt, a very little thing, a mere
[16]
The New Era
oversight, perchance, has caused the trouble. To
locate the "nigger in the wood-stack" in one's
methods means much. The only hope lies in
putting the plumb-line of the experience of others
beside one's own.
Every new idea aids in the salesman's ultimate
triumph-adds a sound piece of timber to the
structure of his final success.
Failure does not come through making mis-
takes, but in refusing to learn by mistakes how to
avoid them.
Experience is a good teacher, but it is a great
thing to be able to learn from the experience of
others, for we cannot all have the same experiences
or the same view of similar experiences. There
are many pathways to success, but the road of the
individual's experience is narrow and rugged.
The old-time "minstrel" travelling man is a
thing of the past, and with him have gone the days
of getting business by means of circus tricks, chi-
canery, and sleight-of-hand performances in tact.
True knowledge properly applied is the power behind
the throne winning the big business of to-day.
That vast army of business-getters known as
travelling salesmen have attained a dignity fitted to
promote the interests of their houses in the field,
realizing that scientific methods have placed their
vocation in the list of professions.
"
[ 17 ] ·
Men Who Sell Things
The real purpose, character, calibre, and life
of the commercial traveller have too long been de-
preciated by the general public. He may be suffer-
ing in this respect for the sins of his forefathers on
the road; but things have changed. No one has a
right to look upon any phase or sphere of American
manhood as subject-matter for a joke-book, and
the travelling salesman is becoming very tired, and
justly so, of being regarded as a five-ring circus, or
a wild beast going about seeking whom he may
devour.
True, the law of "the survival of the fittest
has caused business on the road to become a con-
test of wits; but it is also true that the travelling
salesman has elevated himself and his work by force
of character and dint of his own energies.
Many writers on matters pertaining to sales-
manship have not yet discovered the real character
and work of road salesmen. We are looking to a
higher and better sphere of usefulness in the business
and social world than much of the stuff written to
portray real road life would indicate.
"John Henry," "It's Up to You," and other
modern compilations are side issues compared to
the vernacular of the road as served up by some
writers in object-lesson style to attract the attention
of salesmen as a guise for a course in salesmanship.
The salesman who regards his work from a
[ 18 ]
The New Era
serious, high-grade standpoint is constantly seeking
instruction of a meritorious nature new ways
and methods. He does not want stories of road life
veneered in the coarsest slang, all tending to assign
to him a serio-comic role.
What the world of salesmanship wants is edu-
cated enthusiasm. The purest of king's English
will secure an audience and hold attention for the
salesman anywhere, while slang and short cuts of
speech often excite distrust and offend the ear of the
truly refined. The field is ripe for educated sales-
men,— the sort that refuse to give their customers
credit for knowing more about their business than
they know themselves, salesmen who can go out
and put up a selling-talk that is earnest, logical,
and clean-cut from the time they strike one town
until the train carries them to the next with their
pockets full of orders.
The question of handling a customer in making
a sale is naturally a local issue to some extent, as
merchants in widely separated localities conduct
their business according to the usages of their
particular sections.
It is also true that dealers in small towns re-
quire different tactics from the large city merchant;
but no matter what the conditions may be, the old
saying, "Business is business," holds true pretty
much the world over.
[19]
Men Who Sell Things
With the arrival of interurban electric cars
and rural free deliveries and telephones and many
other improvements in rural districts, a pace of pro-
gression has set in, even in the most out-of-the-way
village, that is rapidly changing the ideas and
methods of the country merchant. With the farmer
buying automobiles, and the prosperous small-
town business man sending his sons off to college,
it is high time for the travelling salesman to begin
to realize that a new era is dawning for him also.
It is no longer necessary in making a town to
begin the day before by planning some new and
wonderful strategy that will insure the selling of a
bill to this or that customer; no need of a "Samantha
Allen" visit, with a dance at the village hall in the
evening with your favorite customer's friends and
family.
Tact? Why, yes, that is necessary, of course.
You can no more interest the man whose store has
just been robbed, or whose head salesman has just
left to take a position with his worst competitor,
now than you could twenty years ago.
But you
can approach the merchant the country over, small
town or large, under ordinary circumstances, and
gain and hold his attention with the right kind of
selling-talk, all on business and delivered straight
from the shoulder. Even the "before-breakfast
grouch" will listen to you if there is a resolute
[ 20 ]
The New Era
ring in your voice and a good-natured sparkle in
your eye.
One of the most successful business men of my
acquaintance started life with a shoestring, and
worked his way up from stock-boy to salesman,
from salesman to buyer, from buyer to the head of
the greatest house in the world in his line, besides
holding large outside responsibilities.
The most prominent feature of his character
was his remarkable earnestness of purpose. There
was not a salesman in the long list of those in his
employ who could begin to approach him in selling-
talk, and he had some of the best men in the busi-
ness. As buyer, before he became an employer, it
is said of him that he could take prospective cus-
tomers into his office for fifteen minutes, from among
the largest and hardest merchants to sell to in the
country, and turn them out with an immediate and
enthusiastic desire to go through the great establish-
ment and select goods.
He had no time to bandy idle words, and rarely
indulged in useless sentences or light remarks. He
believed buyers came into his store bent on business;
and he despatched them with courtesy, backed up
by arguments, every word of which put new ideas
into his customers' minds and helped to swell the
accounts on the right side of his ledgers.
Basing my calculations on actual experience
[ 21 ]
Men Who Sell Things
with a large number of salesmen of all classes, sorts,
and conditions, I assert without any hesitation that
the really big men, those who have made the pro-
fession worth while, are the ones who have employed
the highest degree of science in their work,— not
an acquired science, perhaps, but a natural, estab-
lished, and classified knowledge of men and things
relating to the daily routine of their work:
'Brain stuff and soul stuff."
I am not the one to gainsay that an acquired
science of professional salesmanship will be generally
recognized by employers of large numbers of sales-
men within the next five or ten years, in fact, an
exact science of successful salesmanship has already
been formulated, and is being taught with success;
it fits the needs of our profession, just as the science
of law or of materia medica fits the requirements of
those respective professions, and is receiving wide-
spread attention on the part of thinking salesmen and
employers of salesmen.
Failures may be due to lack of natural ability,
or adaptability, but they are more often due to lack of
intelligent application.
There are many industrious salesmen who have
always applied their energies in commonplace ways,
—for instance, with territories that could easily be
made to yield much larger returns from their labor,-
who have little idea of the great values that may be
[ 22 ]
The New Era
produced on a given territory subject to high culture
in salesmanship.
There is a natural tendency, when big sales are
made by the really successful men, to suppose that
they are peculiar to some distant or especially favored
location, that the golden harvest, the good things, are
away off somewhere else, in the other fellow's ter-
ritory. Those failing to see advantages at home,
who are disposed to seek the gold at the rainbow's
end, may well ponder the story of the old Persian
who sold his little hillside farm, wandered far over
land and sea in a vain search for diamonds, and
finally died a pauper in a strange land; while the
stranger watering his flock at the stream on the little
farm found a peculiar pebble glittering in the brook,
which proved to be the first of a wealth of gems such
as the old man had gone to seek.
All salesmen start with an equal chance, but
many are soon distanced in the race. They are con-
tent with a steady, plodding, uniform way of doing
things, and while they are methodical and obtain
good results, those who win figure out some way of
getting better results and getting them more easily.
They take chances on doing things in other than the
prescribed way, often finding the new way the better.
Few have the energy to break out and get away into
the wild fields of effort worth while.
We get into a certain circular routine, and we go
[ 23 ]
Men Who Sell Things
around and around, week in and week out, year in
and year out, not realizing that life's really important
work is the doing of something new.
The opportunities of the present are vastly
superior to the opportunities of the last two or three
decades. The needs of our great commercial ma-
chine multiply with its growth; and he is the for-
tunate salesman who has learned the immense value
of educated enthusiasm, for to him is open the pathway
to high-salaried positions that appear as dreams of
Aladdin's Cave to his less ambitious brother.
True, the mountain seems high, but he who
finds the right road will surely get to the top. Every
mountain seems insurmountable at first, but little by
little the distance is laid behind, and at last, half
wondering whether it is a mountain after all, we find
ourselves at the top. But to find the easy ascent to
the golden mountain of salesmanship, the salesman
must first dig, dig, dig, deep in the fields of knowl-
edge of his profession.
Successful salesmanship carries with it large
salaries often of from five to fifteen thousand
dollars per annum. "Oh! but such salaries are not
for me," wails the timorous one. Listen! The sales-
man who lies down at the beginning with, “Oh, I
never had any luck. By the time I get there I'll find
some one else already there ahead of me," would
better stay out of the salesmanship business, or
[ 24 ] .
The New Era
any other kind of business, for that matter.
He is
of little faith, a pessimist, a failure at heart to begin
with, and wouldn't hold a position long with any
house at a thousand dollars per year, to say nothing
of five.
To the bright salesman it is not a difficult task
to map out a promising line of action for his career on
the road from among the failures and middleweights,
and a persevering hustle will do the rest.
A shrewd, perceptive faculty, together with a
convincing perseverance, is one of the main essentials
to success in promoting any enterprise.
Away with easy-going, rollicking ways and
debauching influences! Away with small salaries,
"water-tank" towns, and "one-night stands"! Let
there be more lucrative fields and broader knowl-
edge! that is the twentieth-century salesman's
slogan; and that he is manfully living up to his
battle-cry, the pay-rolls of large institutions all over
this broad land will attest.
i 25]
Men Who Sell Things
CHAPTER II
PURE GRIT
He who sleeps beneath the fruit tree must
be contented with windfalls. The one who
climbs the ladder plucks the choicest fruit.
URE Grit constitutes one of the most essential
PURE
elements of successful salesmanship. It is the
best there is in a man; it is that fine quality that
whispers in our ear in moments of discouragement,
"Never lie down." When exhausted and sinking
in the mire of Despond, it calls cheerily from the
banks of Hope along the shore: "Don't give up!
I'll pull you out.”
It does not fall to the lot of the average man to
have more hard knocks than he can stand. If he
has Pure Grit and a sound heart, there is always
open to him an avenue of escape, by which he can
avoid the knock-out blow that would put him down
and out for good. If he does lie down, there is a
lack of manliness in him.
The journey over the flinty pathway of the busi-
ness life is not unlike a ride on a lumber-wagon over
a roadway strewn with boulders in a mountainous
country. There is a constant jolting and danger of
being thrown from the seat; axles creak and groan as
you rattle on over bogs and rocks; now and then a
[ 26 ]
Pure Grit
precipitous plunge into one of Nature's ditches
causes a shiver to run through the stanch vehicle
from stem to stern, but all goes well until a sharp
turn in the road brings you face to face with a large
boulder square in your path. Before you can rein
up and put on brakes, snap goes the axle. You
climb out to examine the break, and with an exclama-
tion of dismay you wonder what you are going to do
next; then, looking about in your perplexity, you see
a blacksmith coming toward you in the form of a good
genie, Pure Grit. You failed to notice him, his little
shop having been hidden from view by the turn in
the road. The damage repaired, with a smile of en-
couragement the good genie sends you on your way
rejoicing, cautioning you to drive more carefully.
Everything goes all right for a time, but the journey
grows tiresome and you relapse into carelessness, with
a light grip on the rein; or, seeing a smooth strip
ahead, you whip up at a reckless pace, unmindful
of the deep gully just beyond, until suddenly snap
goes something else. This time the break is in all
likelihood more serious. In despair, the realization
is forced upon you that you are a long way from
home, darkness is coming on, there is no shelter,
nor any provisions for either man or beast. With
many a misgiving you set about making repairs
alone; it is hard work, and the experience is new
and rough. You scarcely know how or where to
[ 27 ]
Men Who Sell Things
begin; the task seems a hopeless one. Just as the
last hope is giving way, you look up and perceive
standing before you in the doorway of his little shop
the good genie, Pure Grit. He is beckoning you to
come in; you wonder why you had not noticed him
before. Once more he comes to the rescue and re-
pairs the break, cautioning you the meanwhile to
drive more carefully. You mount the seat more
confident than ever that the road can hold no more
terrors, but the good genie knows the road better than
you do, and, not trusting you to drive alone this time,
he climbs up on the seat by your side and rides along
until he is convinced that you are determined to keep
a sharp outlook to the end of the journey.
Robert Collyer, in a famous lecture touching this
subject, said:
"Clear grit is the power to say 'No' to what seem to be
a multitude of angels, when they would counsel you away
from a downright loyalty to your instant duty... Simply
determine once for all that any torment for being a true
man is to be perferred to any bliss for failing."
Mr. Collyer lived in Chicago when the popula-
tion numbered about one hundred thousand. Dur-
ing his twenty years' residence there he became quite
intimate with the life of that great city, and in the
early times knew every man who had come to the
front and was wielding a real power of any sort for
good. He says:
[ 28 ]
Pure Grit
"I do not remember one among them who did not
begin his life as a poor man's son. They all came up, so
far as I could trace them, without any good time at all
excepting as boys ought to have a good time in growing
strong as a steel bar on plenty of wholesome work and
what we should call hard fare; fighting their way to an
education through a great deal of effort, and then, when
they are ready, coming out West from the East with that
half-dollar in their pocket, and that little lot of things done
up in a valise that you will notice every young fellow is said
to start with who ends up by making his mark or making
a fortune."
Perhaps the first characteristic of Pure Grit lies
in the power to do a good honest day's work; and
this power to do a good honest day's work lies at the
root of every true life.
And yet it is just what a great number of sales-
men try not to do, as if they felt that the best thing is
to get the most money possible for the least work
possible, and very often for the poorest work possible
too; and that the best success they can attain in this
world is that which comes through what we call good
luck. It seems as if young men began their life in
this, the twentieth century, dazzled by "get-rich-
quick" opportunities that seem open before them
on every hand. A few, a very few, seem to strike it
"lucky," but the great majority who coquette with
the chances to get along easily, which seem as plenti-
ful as flies in summer time, generally find themselves
at last either in the penitentiary or the poorhouse.
[ 29 ]
Men Who Sell Things
They will try this and then that, and generally
fail at everything they do try, if this is all they want
to do; then they wait for something to turn up, in-
stead of turning something up for themselves. The
man who sat down on a log, waiting to get warm
enough to chop down a tree, froze to death.
Commercial achievement does not come to the
drone, neither is it a product of luck or chance.
CC
The career of every successful business man is
a ladder of effort and results; and the strength of the
effort is the measure of the result.”
Luck and chance do not enter the struggle at
any stage.
Your present position may not be congenial; but
all that can be changed, if you but set your goal-post
far out in the field of endeavor and strive with all
your might to reach it.
The stock-boy that sets his mind on a general
salesmanship position is bound to have his desire
gratified. The general salesman that sets his mind
on heading the list in sales of his house will as surely
realize his ambition as the morning's sun follows
the deep shadows of night.
'Where there is a will there is a way," and that
way is not the way of the thoughtless, the ignorant,
and the indolent, but is the way of the striving, the
intelligent, and the ambitious.
How well I remember my first employer! He
[ 30 ]
Pure Grit
was the hardest taskmaster in the world, I thought,
when I got my start in life; but now I know he was
one of the best. I would prefer to write about your
experiences, but, not knowing them, I hope you will
be interested in mine.
No experience of my lifetime has been so thor-
oughly and indelibly stamped upon my memory as
was my first three years with the wholesale dry-goods
house of S. L. & Co., of Detroit, my boyhood home
town. I began at three dollars per week, with a raise
of one dollar in the second year, and two the third. I
had the linen and white-goods stock. The work was
heavy, and the hours were long. We had it drilled
into us in those days that orderliness was - if not
next to godliness next to the next step in promo-
tion. We were taught that a good stock-keeper was
a logical candidate for a house salesmanship; after
which, the road.
There was no standing around in cliques dis-
cussing the latest sporting edition, no prevailing idea,
as now, that working when there was nothing to do
was a mere pretence for work. Idleness amounted
almost to a crime then; it does now, but plenty of
young men do not realize this truth.
The covers removed from the piles of goods, the
dusting finished, which took about an hour, for it
had to be done thoroughly, bringing down the re-
serve stock was next in order. The tables rearranged
[ 31 ]
Men Who Sell Things
we set about repairing broken covers of boxes, or
we re-wrapped goods which had been in stock a long
time. Everything had to be spotless and in apple-
pie order; so when this result was attained we started
in to dust all over again, even polishing the edges of
tables and counters with a cloth. There was keen
rivalry among the boys to see whose stock could be
made to look the best. By the middle of the fore-
noon work began to get pretty scarce, but there was
no getting away from it, for if one of us began to take
an idle stroll in the next boy's stock, the floor man-
ager would appear around the corner of an aisle to
make his usual morning inspection. It used to
bother us a great deal to know how he figured out
to spot us right to a dot, which he did with unerring
accuracy.
Having satisfied himself that there was really
nothing more of importance to do, he would order an
entire table of goods to be torn down and rearranged.
We hated him for it, but it was good exercise and
kept us out of mischief, the twin brother of idleness,
besides teaching us the lesson of "everlastingly keep-
ing at it," which was then, as it is now, one of the
cardinal principles of success. But there is a vast
difference now as to the modus operandi.
There were no janitors or scrub-women in those
days. Twice a week each stock-boy was obliged to
sprinkle and sweep the floor in his stock, and even
[ 32 ]
Pure Grit
wash the windows and clean the woodwork. We
rather balked at this; it hurt our pride a little, but
beyond that no harm was done.
Things have changed; whether for better or
worse must be argued elsewhere. One thing is
certain, the bright, industrious stock-boys of a decade
or two ago are the successful merchants and salesmen
of to-day. History repeats itself, and no doubt the
future will take care of itself; but a grave danger
confronts the merchant in the too rapid promotion
of the boys in stock, the tendency being to "nip the
flower in the bud." There is plenty of good raw
material, but too rapid growth and not enough care
in selection. The demand for high-grade men is
ever on the increase; it behooves the boys in the
ranks to keep their feet on the ground,-which is
the humble position the rest of us occupy,- to have
something to set them down on when they become
tired.
My first desire to sell goods amounted to almost
a longing. It attacked me early. I had been wres-
tling with dry-goods boxes and feather dusters for
about a year and a half, when all of a sudden the
seed burst forth, unfolding the petals of a new life,
the freedom and brilliancy of which fairly dazzled
me, young as I was.
One day a handsome, finely attired chap, with
a flow of English that sounded to me like a lesson in
[ 33 ]
Men Who Sell Things
rhetoric, appeared in the store. He hailed from
New York with a line of linens. When he encoun-
tered the buyer in my department, there com-
menced at once a contest of wits that to this day I
have never heard equalled.
Sheltered by a pile of friendly damask, I eagerly
listened to all that was said, making mental blue-
prints of the whole dialogue, even jotting down some
of the good points. In the selling-talk of that dapper
salesman lurked the germs of a new life for me.
I
became inoculated with a burning desire to do some-
thing and be something; the determination to be-
come a salesman seized me on the spot; my future
was sealed; I knew it, felt it, breathed it, and was
content to bask in the rays of its stimulating influence.
I was at the foot of the mountain, and the way
up looked steep and strewn with boulders, but the
strength of my determination made the pathway
seem easy and gave me a glimpse of the glorious out-
look at the top.
At last an opportunity came to make my first
step. It was just a little one, so small that some
would have passed it by, not realizing that it really
was an opportunity. It happened that one of the
house salesmen who looked after the German trade
had a small customer from a side street in the house
buying white goods. Having been called away to
meet a more important buyer, he turned his little
[ 34 ]
Pure Grit
customer over to me with the joking side remark,
"Sell him a good bill, my boy. He's good for it,”
and was gone. I was frightened half out of my wits
at being left alone for the first time with a real cus-
tomer. I had handled many in fancy since the great
event of the New York salesman's visit. I stood
for a moment helpless and undecided, but was
promptly brought to by Hans, who, having noticed
my backwardness, said with some spirit, "Vill you
do me sometings ?" The spark ignited the powder,
and the way I lighted into that poor little side-street
merchant was worthy of better results than the
amount of his bill afterwards showed. I had my
notebook to prompt me with my New York friend's
ideas, and many a furtive glance I stole at it when
Hans was not looking. He must have thought I
was suffering with St. Vitus's dance, for the contor-
tions of salesmanship I went through in a vain effort
to make him take two pieces of bird's-eye linen in
place of one would, with a little more polish and
experience, have landed a contract for a suspension
bridge.
Two years of waiting, and my dream became a
reality when I secured a position on the road with a
neighboring wholesale millinery house, and my cup
of happiness was filled to overflowing at the thought
of becoming a real salesman and closing the old life
forever.
[ 35 ]
Men Who Sell Things
I was fortunate in securing a little business in
my first town, and when I had finished writing and
mailing the order to the house that night, I went up
to my room and literally threw up my hat in giving
vent to my feelings. I regarded my subsequent
sales for weeks as corner-stones in the superstruc-
ture of my building toward success, and the final
results of each month, whether large or small, as
filling-in stones to its completion.
My salary contract for one year was at six
hundred dollars. The salesman ahead of me was
getting one thousand, and I said to myself I must
have that much next year. It seemed a fortune,
and the thought was ever with me that if I could
earn. one thousand dollars per year I would have
reached the end of the rainbow. Having secured
that, I wanted fifteen hundred, then eighteen hun-
dred. Finally arriving at two thousand five hundred,
I paused and looked back over the six preceding
years in an effort to measure the future by the past.
The thought occurred to me that but one-third of
my life had been spent in climbing, figuring it from
the usual estimate of "threescore years and ten";
and why stop there? The mountain was high, and
the distance to the top yet a long way up.
That was years ago, and I expect to keep on
climbing until I die.
But I have not engaged to
write a history of my life. In passing, I wish merely
[ 36 ]
Pure Grit
to emphasize the words of James Allen in his most
excellent little book, "As a Man Thinketh":
no
"Into your hands will be placed the exact results of
your efforts. You will receive that which you earn
more, no less. Whatever your present circumstances
might be, you will fall, remain, or rise with your efforts,
your visions, your aim.
"To desire is to obtain; to aspire is to achieve.
The thoughtless, the ignorant, and the indolent, seeing
only the apparent effect of things, and not the things
themselves, talk of luck, of fortune, and of chance. Seeing
a man grow rich, they say, 'How lucky he is!' Observing
another becoming intelligent, they exclaim, 'How highly
fortunate he is!'
"They do not see the trials, the failures, the struggles
which these have encountered; have no knowledge of the
sacrifices they have made, of the undaunted efforts they
have put forth that they may overcome the apparently
insurmountable, and realize the goal of their ambition.
They do not know the darkness and the heartaches; only
see the light and joy, and call it 'luck'; do not see the long
and arduous journey, but only the pleasant goal, and call
it 'good fortune'; do not understand the process, but
only perceive the result, and call it 'chance." "
Successful salesmanship is the product of intelli-
gent, earnest effort. There is no serving two masters,
Indolence and Industry. It is climb, climb, climb,
all the way, exercising watchful care; but the summit
of the mountain is your reward. The pleasure is not
all in winning, by any means; the real exhilarating
fun, or two-thirds of it, is in the climbing.
Self-deception is responsible for more than
[ 37 ]
Men Who Sell Things
39
three-fourths of the so-called "unexplained failures
in salesmanship. Many salesmen in the race for
success explain their shortcomings as they do in a
game of ten-pins. If they fail to win, something is
wrong with the alley, or the pins are not spotted, or
their arm is out of whack. The trouble is never with
themselves.
You cannot afford to fool yourself. Your suc-
cess depends absolutely upon the amount of skill
and energy you throw into your work.
If you are always on the anxious seat about your
position, the fault is with yourself, not with your
house, your territory, or your line. Just as the poor
workman always finds fault with his tools, so does
the poor salesman complain of his surroundings.
Your light will not be hid under a bushel, your
capabilities will be recognized. The good salesman
will succeed with a weak line and a poor territory,
and then hunt around for something better with
which to fit the growth of his expanding powers; but
the poor salesman is a poor salesman still. The
best line in the universe cannot supply the missing
link in his negative make-up.
Don't imagine you are kept down by lack of
your employer's appreciation. If you do, you fool
yourself, and will remain a dwarf forever.
Of all the disgruntled failures, those who de-
serve the least sympathy are the ones who gather in
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Pure Grit
foolish little cliques, praise each other, deceive each
other, and fool themselves. It is a great thing to
know yourself and acknowledge your mistakes.
Have faith in your own ability to win. Cut
loose from the weakness that prompts you to say:
"I am not appreciated"; "I have had bad luck
all my life"; "Others have had a better chance";
"I wish I could have the good fortune of Jones or
Smith or Brown."
Remember that there may be undiscovered
diamonds in your own back yard.
Determine that in your case you will not recog-
nize failure, and that "explanation is damnation."
Success lies in your ability to discover and apply
your own powers. Excuses and the admission of
failure are the thieves that rob you of your strength,
causing you to play against yourself and fool yourself
in the bargain.
A salesman is what his spirit and his determina-
tion are. Nothing hurts except that which weakens
our minds by weakening our courage.
The salesman should say, "I will stand what
comes, I won't give in. No matter what the dis-
couragements, I am going to climb this mountain
Success, from the bottom up, just as well as I know
how. No matter what happens, I am going to reach
the top, if possible, with just as much Pure Grit as I
had when I began the journey."
[ 39 ]
Men Who Sell Things
The "Chicago Examiner," in an editorial on
Courage, related the following story:
In this street of Life, walking in the darkness of the
shadow, hungry old Satan was out hunting with his dogs,
the little imps of human weakness.
A man came walking through Life's street.
Satan said to the little devil, with a bitter face, "Go,
get him for me."
Quickly the imp crossed the street, silently and lightly
hopped to the man's shoulder. Close in his ear he whis-
pered:
"You are discouraged."
"No," said the man, "I am not discouraged."
"You are discouraged."
The man replied this time, "I do not think I am.'
Louder and more decidedly the little imp said again:
"I tell you you are discouraged.'
""
The man dropped his head and replied: “Well, I
suppose I am
The imp hopped back to Satan, and said proudly;
"I have got him, he is discouraged."
Another man passed. Again old Satan said, “Get
him for me."
The proud little demon of discouragement repeated
his tactics.
The first time that he said, "You are discouraged,"
the man replied emphatically, "No."
The second time the man replied, "I tell you I am not
discouraged."
The third time he said: "I am not discouraged.
You lie."
The man walked down the street, his head up, going
toward the light.
The imp of discouragement returned to his master
crestfallen.
[ 40 ]
Pure Grit
"I could n't get him. Three times I told him he was
discouraged. The third time he called me a liar, and that
discouraged me."
Make up your mind, Mr. Salesman, that the
little demon whispering discouragement in your ear
shall always get from you the answer, "You lie."
Temporary reverses are good for the spirit,
strengthening to the mind; not calamities, but real
benefits, if we receive them in the proper spirit.
A certain business man told the following story
of a clerk in his establishment. The clerk was asked
why he remained in a poorly paid position when, by
working a little harder and taking a little more inter-
est in the business, he might get into a place that
would lead to a salary three or four times as large as
he was receiving.
"Oh," he said, "there's no chance for a fellow
to make a hit here; all the good positions are taken,
and whenever there's a prospective vacancy there
are three or four fellows waiting to step into it. No;
it's a poor chance a fellow has here; so what's the
use of killing yourself? I'm not such a fool; I'm
just hanging on here until I get something better.
I've got my lines out in two or three places, places
where there are plenty of good chances for a fellow
to start in and dig his way up. Just as soon as I
get answers to my applications you'll see me get out
of here so quickly that it 'll make your head swim to
[ 41 ]
Men Who Sell Things
watch me.
When I get into a good job in one of
these other places is when I'll begin to work. What's
the use killing yourself here? There's no chance for
you."
What a delusion! Poor dunce, playing against
yourself and fooling yourself! Employers are not
looking for professional floaters; and if you cannot
succeed where you are, you will never succeed any-
where. The place you are in right now is just the
place for you, if you mean business. If you don't,
you will not be wanted long anywhere. From this
very class of young men is recruited the vast army of
ne'er-do-wells. You must first prove to your own
satisfaction and that of your employer that you are
a success at what you are doing, before you can hope
for something better.
The salesmen who are travelling on limited
trains, making large cities, living in first-class hotels,
and drawing monthly pay-checks beginning with the
figure 3 and up and ending with two ciphers,
started where you are and stuck to it.
If
Where are you on the mountain, reader?
you have climbed for all you are worth and feel tired
and a trifle discouraged, look up; safety is there.
Remember when on an eminence there is danger in
looking down. If the way is more rugged than you
thought, do not give up. You may still have reserve
strength that you know not of. No man can tell
1
[ 42 ]
Pure Grit
what he can do until he tries. And it is a moral cer-
tainty that
“the reason why most men do not accom-
plish more is because they do not attempt more."
Cast off the dead weight that is dragging you
down; throw overboard every pound of unnecessary
ballast; let yourself soar in the thought that you
possess powers that are yet undiscovered. Make a
draft on your reserve force. Exercise new faith in
yourself and your surroundings. You cannot navi-
gate far without faith, and some of the best of sales-
men have gone down for lack of it. Cut away from
the influences and the company that can do you no
good. Seek only the approval of those above you in
authority, and you will surely win success.
[ 43 ]
Men Who Sell Things
CHAPTER III
THE KNOCKER
The man who tears down reputations
always gets most of the dirt himself.
What a jolly world of grand morals this
would be if every man came up to the stand-
ard of perfection he fixes for his neighbor!
OME one has said: "There are but two kinds of
SOME
young men, those that are good, and those that
are no good."
This scarcely applies to salesmen, for there are
many kinds in between.
To which class do you belong?
We have the Knocker, the Order-taker, the
Wheelbarrow, the Sky-rocket, the Fussy or Over-
anxious, the Quick-tempered, the Know-it-all, the
Old-timer, and a few others with accompaniments
not altogether in the nature of selling-assets.
In the whole category of men who sell things,
the one whom the novice should strive to imitate is
the well-rounded, strictly up-to-the-minute business-
getter. Such a one is at once ambassador, minister
plenipotentiary, and promoter of his house.
The salesman who is worthy of his profession
is not only the ambassador of his house, he is in real-
ity the house itself, when he is out in the field. His
[ 44 ]
The Knocker
every word and action should be clothed with a dig-
nity suitable to the work with which he is intrusted.
In the natural course of business events, it is
generally found that large institutions which employ
many travellers are able to secure the services of
enough really capable ones to make the general aver-
age good. If this were not so, and they were obliged
to draw their entire selling-strength from the list of
misfits mentioned above, they would very shortly
find a padlock on the front door and the sheriff in
charge.
When one government sends an ambassador to
another, a man is selected for the mission who has
stood high in the community, and who is endowed
with peculiar ability to perform the duties. If a
mistake is made, and he is found to be lacking in the
necessary qualifications, such as tact, honesty, or
loyalty to duty, he is promptly recalled and his place
filled by another. Or, if he lacks ability only, he
may wake up some fine morning to find that he has
been relegated to some unimportant post in an out-
of-the-way country.
But to return to salesmen. Beginning with the
Knocker and taking them in order, we find them an
interesting and heterogeneous group.
The Knocker is the most obnoxious type, and
is branded at once as the most useless. He can
scarcely be rated as an asset in the selling staff, unless
[ 45 ]
Men Who Sell Things
we take him in the inventory at a discount of ninety
per cent. The remaining ten per cent might be
realized upon as a job lot, to be sold out in the first
clearance sale that comes along.
The editor of "The Philistine" says: "Knock-
ing is criticism, and without criticism there is no
advancement."
In making that statement he certainly was not
speaking of salesmen, or he would have said, "Knock-
ing is robbery, and the thief is a parasite."
The knocking salesman should not pray, with
the Pharisees, "O Lord, make other men as we are,"
but rather, "Let us see ourselves as others see us."
If the latter prayer were granted, they would take the
shortest cut possible to the nearest oculist to have
their eyes fitted with long-distance, clear-seeing
glasses to replace their blue goggles of doubt, hate,
and suspicion.
The Knocker reminds me in some of his phases
of the story of the man down in the spring branch
trying to clear the water so that he could get a
pure drink.
He was doing all he could to filter
<<
the water, when some friend called out to him:
Stranger, come up a little higher and run that hog
out of the spring, and it will clear itself.”
No trouble then. The hardest work a man ever
undertakes in this world is to try to lift himself up
while trying to pull his brother down. It is like
[ 46 ]
The Knocker
trying to pull yourself out of a quicksand; the more
you try to work free from it, the deeper you sink.
There is no such thing as boosting yourself by
knocking some one else.
Did you ever look at yourself from head to foot
-look at yourself as a salesman ?
Did you ever wake up in the morning and shut
your eyes and lie still and say: "Well, suppose every
salesman in the house were just like me, what sort
of a house would we have? Suppose every salesman
in our house knocked as much as I knock, what sort
of a house would we have? Suppose every salesman
in the house worked as little as I work, how long be-
fore the whole thing would go into bankruptcy?"
It is well now and then to get a square, honest
look at yourself.
What sort of a salesman are you ?
A salesman's tongue has a great deal to do with
his salesmanship; or, rather, a salesman's salesman-
ship has a great deal to do with his tongue.
The Knocker's tongue is full of deadly poison.
It is sharp-edged and treacherous as an ever-ready
stiletto.
Sit beside the victim of the Knocker. Put your
ear to his heart, and you can hear a steady drip, drip,
drip, as of blood from a gaping wound.
"What did that?" you say. His reply is: "An
unkind tongue wounded it there.”
[ 47 ]
Men Who Sell Things
The meanest man on earth is the one who will
wound a man's character with his tongue.
The Knocker is no respecter of persons; he
knocks the credit man, knocks the buyer, knocks
the sales manager, knocks his fellow-travellers; in
fact, he knocks everything and everybody in the place,
from office boy to president. He even knocks his
own interests. Every one but the Knocker him-
self knows that "the dog that will carry a bone will
fetch a bone"; but as a temporary mischief-maker
he causes "Maud," the mule of comic-newspaper
fame, to appear to have creeping paralysis when com-
pared with him as to their relative kicking merits.
Knocking is a habit, and a bad one. Don't
acquire it. If you do, some day you will give your-
self a knock-out blow. Remember the old saying,
The man who attends to his own business has not
time to attend to the business of others.
Now, recollect, if you are a salesman and
love your house, everything you cannot help, every-
thing you would have warded off if you could,
everything you would have conquered if you
could, everything in the salesman's life except dis-
honesty — and knocking is a form of dishonesty
works for good; and no power on earth can make
this negative quality work for anybody's good,
because dishonesty is the reversal, the throwing out
of
gear, of the machinery of our nature.
[ 48 ]
The Knocker
When we begin to undermine the honest efforts
of others, we reverse the machinery of our nature
and run it backwards. You can no more do good
work for your house when you reverse the machinery
of your nature than you can make a lawn-mower cut
grass when you run it backwards. One is as impos-
sible as the other. All things work for your good
when you are running in harmony with your house
and in line with your house.
When you walk up to a piano and touch a key,
and that key is out of tune and out of harmony, it
is out of harmony not only with the rest of the keys
of the piano, but with everything in the universe that
is in harmony with them. But when the piano-
tuner walks up to the piano and opens it, and takes
out his instruments and works away at that particu-
lar string, he restores the harmony that was lost.
And success lies in getting into harmony with your
house. Then everything moves along harmoniously,
adjusting and setting the rules of the house to music.
Is it not so?
When your firm bids you do this or that, the
command should immediately touch a responsive
chord in your nature in sympathy with the work in
hand, and then you are in harmony, which makes
easy of accomplishment the most difficult task.
Your house wills it, and they will do their part to
make your daily efforts conduce to your final success.
[ 49 ]
Men Who Sell Things
When you are tempted to believe that your
house is going straight to perdition, and that you are
the only man on the premises who can save it, think
of the incident that occurred in 1864 in the adminis-
tration of Abraham Lincoln as President of the
United States. The political aspect of the whole
country was that of a seething, boiling Niagara.
Some gentlemen from the West were excited about
the commissions or omissions of the Administration.
President Lincoln heard them patiently, and then
replied: "Gentlemen, suppose all the property you
were worth was in gold, and you had put it in the
hands of Blondin to carry across the Niagara River
on a rope; would you shake the cable or keep
shouting out to him, 'Blondin, stand up a little
straighter!' 'Blondin, stoop a little more!' 'Go a
little faster!' 'Lean a little more to the south!'
'Blondin, lean a little more to the north'? No; you
would hold your breath, as well as your tongue, and
keep your hand off until he was safe over. The
Government is carrying an immense weight. Un-
told treasures are in our hands. Keep silence, and
we 'll get you safe across.”
Knocking or “kicking” salesmen classify them-
selves as among the reform forces.
Inasmuch as their object seems to be the imme-
diate reformation of the entire business world, they
are hopelessly beyond argument, and therefore the
[50]
The Knocker
best course for a sensible salesman to pursue with
regard to them is to leave them alone, and let them
kick. They don't suggest any remedies, but they
just kick, and there are always a few of the weaker
sort standing around to give them encouragement
and assistance.
To reform the whole earth and make it over
different is a job that only the saints can tackle.
Speaker Cannon, of the House of Representa-
tives, paid more attention during the political cam-
paign of 1906 to the reform forces than to any other
faction.
"We have had ten years," said he, “of unin-
terrupted prosperity under the management of the
Republican party, but in spite of this there are here
and there among our eighty-five millions of people
kickers whose vanity leads them to believe they
could manage things much better if they had the
chance.
We used to have a mule, and when
we used to put him in the log barn and give him
a full feed of oats, as soon as he had eaten the oats
he'd begin to kick and bray. We never could figure
out whether he was braying because he was kicking,
or kicking because he was braying. But all we did
was to keep out of the barn and let him kick and
bray all he wanted to."
That's all you can do with the kickers
them alone. They are beyond reasoning with.
let
[51]
Men Who Sell Things
Your house has enough to take up all its atten-
tion with things that are happening every day, with-
out bothering about things that can't be mended or
with things that are going to happen some time in
the future, except, perhaps, to ask your resignation
if you can't break the habit of knocking.
What you have to do is to take care of the things
that are within the sphere of your duty, and you will
have no time to bother about things that do not con-
cern you. That's what your house is doing, and
what the men are doing who head the sales list in
your house.
The Knocker is bad enough, but his friends
who stand around in foolish little cliques encourag-
ing him are no better. He at least has the courage
of his convictions, such as they are, while those
others stay around in the dark and act as cat's paw
to pull his chestnuts out of the fire.
The Knocker is of the least account in the entire
group of negative salesmen. The others try to
amount to something in their own way, but he has
been mean ever since he was born.
In reviewing them all, I want you to understand
if you are a Knocker — that you are worse than
a hundred of the poorest salesmen put together.
The most stupid Knocker of the entire kicking
class is the one who seems to take peculiar delight
in running down his competitors.
[ 52 ]
The Knocker
There is no surer help to the efforts of a sales-
man than that which comes through speaking well
of his rivals in business whenever opportunity pre-
sents itself, and that not merely in the sense implied
by the witty preacher who said, while seeking a
goodly collection from a large audience, "In order
to get a good collection nowadays an audience must
be assured beyond a reasonable doubt that it will get
back two dollars for every one put in the box."
Kindness for kindness' sake alone is its own reward.
at
When I was about to make my first trip on the
road, my employer came to me and said: “I hope
you can sell Mr.
If you succeed in
getting a bill there, we will give you a long credit
mark. As yet no man calling from our house has
been able to interest him."
On my arrival there, I was given a cold recep-
tion. Quite naturally, I was anxious to land an
order, as can well be imagined; but like the rest,
I failed, and was greatly crestfallen over my defeat.
I kept on drumming that customer, determined
that I would get him sooner or later. About the
time of my fourth visit he surprised me by saying:
"I need some goods to-day. If you have what I
want, you'll get a good order.”
When he had finished looking through my
sample line, he turned to me with, "Do you know
why I am giving you a trial?”
}
{
[53]
Men Who Sell Things
I told him I supposed it was because I had hap-
pened along when he was out of goods.
"Well," said he, "that is only part of the reason.
The first time you called at my place you asked me
what house I traded with mostly, and you spoke so
highly of them that I made up my mind you would
give me a square deal if you had a chance.”
I sold that man goods until he retired from busi-
ness, ten years later, and he was one of the best
friends I had.
President Roosevelt, in his last message to Con-
gress, said: "Science in business is advanced as
never before. No one of us can make the world
move on very far, but it moves at all only when
each one of a very large number does his duty.
Our duty is not in doing what we think is best, or
what is best for ourselves, but in doing what is best
for the common good of all.”
There are people who believe that criticism and
fault-finding are indicative of wisdom, and that the
man who performs his daily task quietly and without
murmur is lacking in the substantial qualities of
mind. To be disparaged is the penalty Brilliance
must ever pay to Dulness.
A psychologist tells us: "In each human being
there are four personalities, namely; first, John as
he is known to himself; second, John as he is known
to his friends; third, John as he is known to his
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The Knocker
enemies; fourth, the real John, who is known only
to his Maker, and on whom every deed of the other
Johns leaves its impress for good or evil. Those
who love us see us at our best, and only by striving
the soul grows stronger."
However perfect a piece of mechanism may be,
it must be kept well oiled, in order that it may per-
form its functions properly. In the same manner
the house and its salesmen must fit together and work
harmoniously; yet none the less there will occa-
sionally be found external and internal causes which
create friction or clog the wheels.
The "petty dust" of daily business life is more
than apt to upset the mental machinery, and the best
lubricant is to be found in tact combined with humor.
A kind word or thoughtful silence, which sometimes
is better than speech, a boost in place of a knock,
each has its place in keeping the wheels of com-
merce running smoothly along the roadway of busi-
ness life. So that, after all, the conclusion of the
whole matter may be found in the old rule, "Do
unto others as you would have others do unto you."
Boost, brother, boost! Don't knock.
What a mighty power there is that regulation of
an establishment secured by cheerful willingness among
all concerned to carry out the laws; a willingness that
makes every member of the organization an agent in the
interests of its common good!"
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Men Who Sell Things
"In the mud and scum of things,
Something always, always sings."
“Drop an unkind word, or careless--in a minute it is gone,
And there's half a hundred ripples circling on,
and on, and
on;
They keep spreading, spreading, spreading from the centre
as they go,
And there ain't no way to stop them, once you've started
them to flow.
Drop an unkind word, or careless in a minute you forget,,
But there's little waves a-flowing, and there's ripples cir-
cling yet;
And perhaps in some sad heart a mighty wave of tears
you've stirred,
And disturbed a life that's happy, when you dropped
that unkind word.”
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The Order-Taker
CHAPTER IV
THE ORDER-TAKER
It's a good thing for the man who looks at
the corns on his hands to remember that
on Easy Street the corns are on the heart.
HE Order-taker and the Drone are identical.
THE
Men of this stamp while waiting for an in-
spiration would find success at once, if they were
not so afraid of a little perspiration.
The Salesman goes out and digs up business,
while the Order-taker just shambles around, waiting
to be fed, like the hippopotamus in the menagerie.
The only difference is that his capacity is more
limited. Even having things thrown to him worries
and wearies him. Mental or physical courage is
lacking in his make-up to the extent that anything
like effort of any sort is foreign to his comprehension
when it is necessary to go after business.
cr
As says the rag-time song, the Drone aimlessly
wanders through life in the atmosphere of — “I
don't know where I'm going, but I'm on my way."
He is bright enough in many respects, but a natural
born ne'er-do-well.
Imagine a salesman with just sufficient energy
to send out advance cards and check trunks from
one town to another; whose sole ambition seems
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Men Who Sell Things
centred in drawing his breath and his pay, and
you have a life-size picture of the Order-taker.
The Order-taker drops out of the race at the
first wayside shelter on the slope of Mount Success;
but he is a different type from the Knocker, as he
does no actual harm, though he fails to get anywhere.
Besides, knocking requires energy, even if perverted.
The mediocre capacity must be eked out by brave
resolve and persistent effort.
When the old lady was training her son for the
trapeze, the boy made three or four rather inef-
fectual efforts to get over the bar. Then she was
heard to suggest: "John Henry Hobbs, if you
will just throw your heart over the bar, your body
will follow."
And thus it is with the salesman who is inclined
to take things easy. If he will just throw his heart
into his work, success will follow, and then he will
see the employer's and employee's interests going
forward hand in hand, as they should go, supporting
each other.
William Matthews, at one time Professor of
English Literature in the Chicago University,
writing on the subject Self-reliance, in "Getting On
in the World," says:
CC
‘A lobster, when left high and dry among the rocks,
has not instinct and energy enough to work his way back to
the sea, but waits for the sea to come to him. If it does
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The Order-Taker
not come, he remains where he is, and dies, although the
slightest effort would enable him to reach the waves, which
are perhaps tossing and tumbling within a yard of him."
The world is full of human lobsters, men
stranded on the rocks of business, who, instead of
putting forth their own energies, are waiting for
some grand billow of good fortune to set them afloat.
There are many young men of vivid imaginations,
who, instead of carrying their own burdens, are
always dreaming of some Hercules coming to give
them a lift.
"The hardest fortune of all is to find fortune
easily."
Good hard work is one of the richest blessings
that God has given man. The Idler, the Drone, the
Order-taker, or whatever we may choose to call
him, either in salesmanship or out of it,― the man
who fails to make the most of his privilege to work
and amount to something,—sins not only against
his Maker, but against himself and society.
Many an otherwise good salesman has remained
all his life in the light-weight class, solely because he
lacked faith in himself.
"Faith is the lever that moves mountains."
"Faith is not faith until it gets into your fingers
and your feet."
Faith begets faith. The salesman who has
faith in himself has faith in his territory and faith
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Men Who Sell Things
in his house. His employers and his customers,
seeing the strength of his position, place their faith
in him also.
There is no standard broad enough or high
enough with which to measure the value of faith
in the commercial world. It is the Alpha and
Omega of all business activity. It is the guiding
star, shedding its beams of trust, confidence, good-
will, and good-cheer along the pathway of every
successful transaction, large or small. There can
be absolutely no trade without faith; hence, its
indispensableness as a commercial asset.
The salesman of little faith in himself is not
only enveloped in doubt and mistrust, so far as his
ability to win for himself is concerned, but his faith
in his proposition, his employers, and his fellow-
workers hangs in the balance, reducing his chances
for success to the minimum. He is apt to be peevish,
ill-natured, and enshrouded in an atmosphere of
insecurity, and he soon drops into oblivion or joins
the large class of "floaters" who are continually
looking for a job.
He
A salesman, to succeed, must not only have faith
in himself, but faith in the article he is selling.
should approach his customer in such a manner as
to leave no room for doubt that he himself believes
what he says of the article he has to sell.
In a salesman of this character, faith is the
&
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The Order-Taker
source of courage, industry, and perseverance. It
makes for him a strong personality. He surmounts
all troubles by dint of his own energy. His name
spells S-U-C-C-E-S-S.
Some one has said: "The trouble with too
many young men is that their wishbones are where
their backbones ought to be."
A practical psychologist asks the question:
"Did you ever say 'I can' and 'I will' with the strong
feeling that you spoke the truth? If so, you then felt
within you the thrill which seems to cause every atom of
your being to vibrate in harmony with some note in the
grand scale of life which has been sounded by the I AM
the real self.
“If so, you caught a momentary glimpse of the inner
light; heard a note of the song of the soul; were conscious
for a moment of yourself, and in that moment you knew
that untold power and possibilities were yours. You felt
somehow that you were in touch with the Source of all
strength, knowledge, happiness, and peace. You felt that
you were equal to any task, capable of executing any un-
dertaking. All the universe seemed to vibrate in the same
key with your thought."
Sam Jones, the famous Southern wit, lecturing
on Faith, once said:
"You well know what it is to pull on a cold collar.
It takes a good tame horse to do it. You hitch him up of a
cold, frosty morning, hitch him to a big load, and he sets
to and pulls it off like a mule. That is what we call a work
of faith, it is pulling on a cold collar. That kind of horse
you can hitch to a tree on a frosty morning, and he will
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Men Who Sell Things
make a hundred set pulls at it. That is what we call a
work of faith,— pulling on a cold collar.
"I knew a fellow once who had a wagon-load of wood
to haul to camp, and it was a cold morning. He hitched up
his horses, but they would not pull a pound. He put a
boy on each horse, and then ran them up and down, riding
about two or three miles, and got them warmed up, and
then hitched them up, and they pulled right off."
A dog will run a rabbit when he feels like
doing it, and when he does n't feel like it he
won't.
A salesman of faith will show you what he is by
what he does. If you will find me a salesman who
is busy for his house, I will show you a salesman that
has works of faith and will do his duty whether he
feels like it or not.
Some salesmen think that if they do a thing
when they do not feel like it, they are hypocrites.
Well, we will talk about that some other time.
“I feel it is my duty to do so and so.”
Sing it out; you have heard such salesmen,
haven't you?
I tell you what it is: to a real live wide-awake
salesman, his work is a pleasure; it is a privilege.
All others should keep in mind the business aphor-
ism, "They who do no more than they are paid for
get paid for no more than they do."
You know, when they first built engines, they
put only two wheels on them. They would run and
1
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The Order-Taker
make schedule time, but schedule time was only
just three miles an hour, and it was all they could do
to pull one car. After a while they put a jack
under that engine and put eight more wheels under
it, making ten in all; and that engine will cut
along at the rate of fifty miles an hour, and will pull
forty cars if you couple them on.
And then came the "great moguls"; those
great living, snorting, prancing things of finest steel,
with a speed of seventy or eighty miles an hour.
That is the difference between the little two-wheeled
fellow and the sort they run now. That is the dif-
ference between the Order-taker and the profes-
sional salesman. There are plenty of little two-
wheelers in the business world. Brother, cut that
two-wheeled business out, if you ever hope to make
a schedule of more than three miles an hour.
What would you think of a man starting from
home who would go trotting down the railroad on
foot? You ask him why he does n't take the cars,
and he answers: "Well, I feel it is my duty to go
on foot."
I remember very well one of these two-wheeled
men. He crossed my path when I had been out on
the road about three or four years. It was a "Ships-
that-pass-in-the-night" sort of experience, which
leaves behind the shadowy impression that some-
thing crossed your bow in the fading light, but you
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Men Who Sell Things
could not make out just what manner of craft it
was, or where it hailed from.
I had been out on my advance trip with a line
of ostrich goods and velvets, and was winding up
the last week of an unusually successful Fall business,
when I was suddenly stricken with a serious case of
blood-poisoning, contracted from opening a water-
blister on my hand with a rusty knife-blade. I was
working on my way home from northern Michigan,
and had but a few towns left, when the doctor ordered
me to take the first train home and see a first-class
surgeon, adding that I had no time to lose if I
valued my life.
I hesitated about taking his advice, hating to
give up a winning streak of business; besides, I
knew that my rival salesman from our house was
working might and main to nose me out of first place
on the sales list. That was not all. In the next
town I had a slim hold on an account that had started
new the season before, and as I was out ahead of
my competitors, I felt that my chances were good
to sell the customer his opening Fall bill. The doc-
tor finally convinced me that a dead salesman was of
very little use; and not wishing to shuffle off this
mortal coil at the very outset of my career, I went
home and remained there for three weeks.
I worried and chafed under my enforced idle-
ness, realizing that before I could get back to that
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The Order-Taker
town and my new customer, the country would be
full of millinery salesmen just as eager for that first
bill as I was.
As soon as convalescence set in, I wired him the
exact date of my arrival, and not waiting for the
bandages to come off, with my arm still in a sling, I
set out to do the best I could in handling my trunks
with the aid of porters and fellow-travellers.
I arrived on schedule time. Jumping out of
the bus, I did not stop to register, but called to the
porter to throw my trunks into the best sample-room
he had, and was off like a shot for my customer's
store.
Entering, I was filled with misgivings, half ex-
pecting some salesman had been there and secured
that much-coveted bill ahead of me. I greeted him
with as much confidence as my shaken faith would
permit. I expected it; almost the first thing he said
was, "A new man from & Co. was here a few
days ago." But my hopes arose when he added,
“But I did n't buy anything from him. His samples
were not opened, and he came in sort o' looking as if
he expected to be turned down. I really did want
to see his line, and might have given him an order,
having heard his house well spoken of; but I guess
my greeting was kind of cold. When I said I did n't
want anything anyway, and as long as his samples
were not unpacked I would n't have him go to the
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Men Who Sell Things
trouble of opening them just for me, as it would n't
pay him, he waited around for a few minutes for
further confirmation, and then explained that, owing
to his big territory and being late, he was making
towns pretty fast, and that if there was n't much I
wanted he'd see me next trip. But I don't believe
he will ever make another, do you?"
I thought as he did about it, and it afterwards
proved that we were both right. To make a long
story short, my friend told me just about what he
had said to the other fellow that he did n't want
much, and he had made up his mind that he would
wait until he went to market to do his buying.
I reminded him of his desire to see & Co.'s
line, adding that as he was the only customer there,
I was obliged to remain all the afternoon anyway, and
would rather put in the time showing him the line
than lie around the hotel office doing nothing.
It was not easy to budge him, but he finally said,
"Well, my boy, if you have got grit enough to un-
pack your stuff with a game arm, just to show me
your line, I guess I can find time to run over to the
sample-room a little later.”
He came before I was through unpacking and
stayed long enough to give me a bill for over one
thousand dollars, and helped me to pack up when we
were through.
No, he did n't buy from me out of sympathy for
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1
The Order-Taker
my crippled condition. He was too good a merchant
for that.
On leaving, he said half to himself but loud
enough for me to hear, “Most curious fellow I ever
saw." Then aloud to me, "Likely I would have
given him the bill I have given you if he had n't been
so confounded lazy."
While leaning back in the cushions, bumping
along over the ties, did you ever say to yourself,
"If I am a salesman, I'm going to be one all over,
through and through; but I won't be a little, old,
dried-up, knock-kneed, one-horse, shrivelled noth-
ing, anywhere"?
Haven't you had a desire to rise above the sight
of the kind of little fellow that you can pack in a
sardine-box with nineteen others? You have never
known much about salesmanship if you have never
felt in your soul that you wanted to be somebody
something - so big that you could fly up, and up,
and up. If you have had this sensation, then you
know something about what salesmanship is.
Well, now, your house acts on the principle that
each individual employee takes part in forming that
house. If your employer has forty-five salesmen in
his house, and fifteen of them are good salesmen, who
love their house and their goods, and thirty others
who are indifferent and careless, then you see what
sort of house he has two-thirds of his sales-force
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Men Who Sell Things
away from loyal duty, and one-third hustling to in-
crease the business.
With forty-five salesmen on the force and only
fifteen of them active, t' at house has all it can do to
look after those thirty invalids, and has no time to go
out for new business.
Don't you see?
To succeed, you must comply with all the condi-
tions of your house. You might ask me: "What do
you mean by conditions?"
Railroads carry you, for
conditions. I know of but two
instance, on certain
one is that you get
-
your ticket; the other that you get aboard. And just
as soon as you comply with these conditions, then all
the speed in that engine and all the comfort of that
coach are yours to your destination. And when a
salesman obeys the orders of his house and backs
them up with intelligent service, the success of that
house is his success also. And the salesman must
learn this fact.
It is not so much a question of who I am, but
with what am I intrusted? There is a great deal in
that.
I start to cross the Atlantic in a paper box, and
as soon as my box gets wet it comes to pieces, and
down it goes and I go with it. If I start in one of
those grand ocean steamers, then all the strength in
her hull, and all the power in her boilers, and all the
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The Order-Taker
skill of her officers are mine, and I'll never go down
until she does.
If I commit myself to my own weaknesses, I am
no stronger than they; but if I commit myself to the
best there is in my profession, and the best there is in
my house, I'll never go down until it goes down, with
bright, energetic men pumping a constant stream of
new life into it. Its course is upward, its sales in-
creasing all the way along.
Just a word to the salesman of the Order-taker
class, in whom there is yet a possibility of “warming
up."
Business opportunities, like orders, are not
waiting around to be served on silver platters. You
must dig for them.
"The salesman stimulates desire and really sells
something."
Arthur F. Sheldon, president of the Sheldon
School of Business Science, and founder of the Science
of Salesmanship, is without doubt the greatest author-
ity on salesmanship of any time. To him can be
attributed the statement:
"There are ten thousand positions to-day in Chicago
which are open to salesmen of high grade at salaries that are
almost for the specialists to name and take for the asking.
"Within it almost every man can find his place, pro-
vided he has that one thing desired and desirable infor-
mation and knowledge of a highly specialized character,
with a courage necessary to back it up."
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Men Who Sell Things
CHAPTER V
THE FUSSY OR OVER-ANXIOUS SALESMAN
THE
Whosoever is in a hurry shows that the
thing he is about to do is too big for him.
Haste and hurry are very different things.
HE Fussy salesman is generally visionary and a
good talker, judging from the ease with which
he dispenses the "silvern" article. Oh, no! a little
thing like talk never troubles him. It oozes away
like molasses from a stave-sprung barrel. Once
fairly started, you might as well try to stop Niagara
Falls as to shut him off. Control? It is as foreign
to him as to a kite without a tail. The speed with
which he can talk a customer into a sale and out
again causes the Twentieth Century Limited to look
like a snow-plough doing duty on a narrow-gauge
track.
Talk is a mighty necessary thing in salesman-
ship, but an equally important thing is to know when
to stop talking. And the most essential thing of all
is to know how to talk and what to talk about.
The garrulous salesman is a blue-white optimist,
seeing figures that exist only in the fluffy atmosphere
in which he soars and soars. A few pounds of ballast
accidentally taken aboard now and then allows him
to navigate his airship close enough to reality in
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The Fussy or Over-Anxious Salesman
sales-making to convince the sales manager that he is
not entirely shut out from view above the clouds of
lost opportunities. In his futile efforts to "land"
something worth while, he drifts aimlessly about with
his drag-ropes out, lightly raking the field of oppor-
tunities over which he circles. If nothing goes wrong
with the gas-bag, he feels that surely sooner or later
he will hover long enough in the vicinity of a real prop-
osition to permit his anchor to grapple and hold fast.
It generally happens that while this aërial per-
formance is going on and his customer's patience is
being tried with trifling things and meaningless
sentences, Mr. Get Busy Salesman comes along and
scoops up orders right and left under his very nose.
The salesman who wears his customer out with
visionary yarns about himself, and what he intends
to do but really never does, will amount to nothing
more than a putterer. He is a constant source of
concern to his house, until, conscious at last that
"the jig is up," he takes himself off to other pastures
where the grass looks greener. He floats around
from one house to another, until, to his dismay, the
truth is at last forced upon him that the richest fields
on earth are not for him to enjoy. Passing into
oblivion is with him like the character in "David
Harum," on the death of whom, his neighbors, ask-
ing what was the complaint, were told, "No com-
plaint at all; everybody is satisfied."
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Men Who Sell Things
The Fussy salesman and his Over-anxious
brother are in the same class in many respects.
Each in his own way fails to accomplish results.
There is hope that the latter will eventually enter
into an active sphere of usefulness on learning how
to temper his anxiety with a reasonable amount of
judgment by aid of the rugged road Experience.
The former may as well quit where he is and engage
in some other line of business.
Zeal is an admirable and necessary quality in
successful salesmanship, the excess of which rarely
develops into a permanent or fatal malady. True,
pitfalls are encountered now and then, but there is
always a chance for the man with this failing, if he is
honestly desirous of getting on in the world; while
for the Fussy fellow there is but a forlorn hope. He
never seems to know how to get right down to busi-
ness in dead earnest.
At times I like to indulge in base-ball parlance,
adapting the expressions of those engaged in the fin-
est of all outdoor sports, the National Game, to the
qualities necessary in strictly up-to-the-minute busi-
ness getting. Slogans of the diamond, such as "gin-
ger up," "get in the game," "it only takes one to hit
it," and "take a long lead off," are quite appropriate
in salesmanship, and can be adopted with good effect.
Just here I am forcibly reminded of a character
known as Fritz, who lined up with my home town
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The Fussy or Over-Anxious Salesman
base-ball team. It was in the year 1905. The team
was making desperate efforts pennantward. The
securing of that much-prized "rag" largely depended
on the batting strength of the team. In every other
respect they were thoroughly efficient candidates
for the high honor that every man on the team was
struggling with might and main to secure.
Fritz, the catcher, was one of the best in the
business, but when his batting qualities were in ques-
tion he made an ordinary "sand-lotter" look like a
National Leaguer. It was always Fritz's turn to bat
just when a hit was most needed to win the game.
His intentions were of the best when he walked
up to
select his club. Most likely Fritz had never been
told about the place that is paved with good inten-
tions; but the "fans" had, and when they saw him
walk up to the plate their stock went down several
points.
The moment Fritz faced the pitcher he was at-
tacked with stage-fright, and danced up and down
so that he could not get his eye on the ball to save his
life. He just stood there like the Fussy salesman
and fanned and fanned and fanned, until the umpire
called him out on strikes. His long suit was "hitting
the air," and he was never broken of that habit.
A good story is related of two men, both expert
swimmers, living in an American city. Their pow-
ers of endurance was the subject of admiring com-
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Men Who Sell Things
ment among their friends, who induced them to com-
pete in a swimming-match. There was neither
wager nor prize, but only a friendly contest to deter-
mine which was the better swimmer, there being an
understanding that the backer of the loser should
pay for a dinner for the whole company of spectators.
When the trial began for long-distance swim-
ming, one of the contestants decided that he would
force the pace from the outset. He shot ahead with
vigorous, powerful strokes, and left his antagonist
some distance behind. His friends cheered him
exultantly from the shore, and shouted to him to
keep up his good work. Excited by these outcries,
he redoubled his exertions and increased his lead
rapidly.
Meanwhile, his competitor was swimming with
steadiness, with a stroke which he could easily
maintain for the whole distance. He was not discon-
certed by the frantic appeals of his friends to quicken
his stroke. He was confident that his competitor
was exhausting himself by over-exertion at the out-
set, and that the race would be won before it was
more than half finished.
The two swimmers kept on without changing
their tactics until the half-distance stake was not far
away. The leader had ceased to gain upon his
rival, who was beginning to lessen the distance be-
tween them. The first man was showing signs of
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The Fussy or Over-Anxious Salesman
distress, while the other was swimming easily and
was apparently as fresh as when he started. At the
stake the leader threw up his hands and cried out to
his rival to come to his aid. The second man, call-
ing upon his reserve power, forged ahead with a few
strong strokes, and came up in time to save the ex-
hausted leader from drowning.
"Help me ashore!" gasped the exhausted man.
"The race is yours. You need not finish the course.
The weaker man was kept afloat until a boat
could be sent to rescue him. Then the stronger
man turned the stake and completed the course,
swimming with the same long, deliberate stroke
with which he had set out. When he went ashore
to receive the congratulations of his friends he was
apparently none the worse for his prolonged exercise
in the water. His success was a triumph of judg-
ment rather than of expert skill or physical endur-
ance, while the other exhausted himself by over-
straining unnecessarily in the first half-mile.
That swimming-match is a parable illustrative of
many a failure in salesmanship and of many a suc-
cessful career. Nothing is more dangerous than
Fussiness or Over-anxiety in sales-making. It is the
long, steady, deliberate stroke, with unused power
in reserve behind it, that wins lasting success for the
salesman, and makes him a candidate eventually for
a junior partnership in his house.
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Men Who Sell Things
I once had a friend who worked his way up in
the dry-goods business from floor-walker in a retail
store to the position of assistant silk-buyer in a large
wholesale house. The firm of which I was a mem-
ber was situated in the same block as the one in which
he was employed. He came into my office one day
and said: "I want your advice. We started together
in the business race, but apparently you have been
more fortunate than I, for while I am only a buyer's
assistant, you are close to the head of your own con-
cern. What is your formula?"
"No formula," said I. "Every man is the
arbiter of his own business destiny."
I told him that fortune had not favored me any
more than it had favored him; that I did not believe
in fortune anyway; and that the only way in which
the success of any man could be achieved was by
"keeping everlastingly at it." I knew he had
changed about considerably, and when he had seen
an opportunity had not taken advantage of it.
Finally, I frankly told him that I thought in his case
retarded advancement was due to his restless dispo-
sition more than to any other one thing. He seemed
disposed to argue the question, which I answered
by saying: "In every large institution there are
many opportunities for a man to make the most of
himself in a business way."
"Opportunity," said he, "that's it. That is
[76]
The Fussy or Over-Anxious Salesman
what I came in to see you about. This is my fourth
year with my present firm, and while they are
splendid people, I see no chance ahead of me for ad-
vancement. At least, it is a case of waiting for dead
men's shoes. My salary of fifteen hundred dollars
a year is inadequate for the support of a wife and
three children. I have an offer from a large spe-
cialty house in another city to go on the road at an
increase of one thousand dollars, and it's a sore
temptation; yet I dislike to leave the old firm. On
the other hand, the duty I owe my family is staring
me in the face, and I really don't know what to do.
What do you think of it ?"
"Well," I replied, “you also owe it to your firm
and yourself to weigh this matter up very carefully.
Personally, I believe in 'sticking to the bush.' Your
opportunity will come in time. I would not like to
advise you positively in a matter like this. A thou-
sand-dollar raise is a big thing for any young man,
but I would certainly consult with my firm, if I were
you, before doing anything. Put the matter square-
ly before them. Let them advise you. They will
not take advantage of you, and will no doubt make it
an object for you to remain.'
""
He departed, promising to do that, but the next
I heard from him was that he had accepted the offer
made by the specialty house, and had left the old
firm, where he was well regarded.
[77]
Men Who Sell Things
Two months later the head buyer of the silk
department of that house dropped dead in the office
of a New York hotel, and my friend's old firm was
obliged to go outside for some one to fill his place, a
position that paid five thousand dollars a year salary,
into which there was not the slightest doubt he would
have stepped had he refused the other offer and re-
mained where he was.
Many an Over-anxious salesman fails to win
ultimate success because he does not realize the
opportunity that awaits him through conscientious,
faithful labor and continued service in some one
place.
The calico-wrapper opportunity of the moment
seems to obscure his vision from the sealskin-sacque
opportunity of the future. He goes through life with-
out any set purpose at all, with face turned away
from the future and its rich possibilities, seemingly
content to wander along, worrying in the present,
anxiously occupied with a superficial survey of things
to the right and to the left, but never ahead and be-
yond. He is like the man who was so intent on
watching what was passing in the street that he failed
to notice the open coal-hole directly in his path, until
suddenly he found to his astonishment that he was
rapidly disappearing into inky blackness.
I actually knew a business man once who was
quite handy with carpenter tools and enjoyed his
[ 78 ]
The Fussy or Over-Anxious Salesman
annual outings at his summer home tinkering with
all sorts of odd jobs requiring the use of saw and
hammer. It occurred to him one day to build a boat-
house over the river which skirted his country place.
While sitting on a scaffold directly over the river, he
was engaged in putting on the finishing touches, and
found it necessary to saw off a cleat that hindered his
work. It was late in the afternoon of the last day
of his outing. Desirous of finishing his work before
leaving for the city, he was rushing things. Grab-
bing a saw, he began with vigor to despatch what he
supposed was the projecting piece, and did not notice
that he was actually sawing into the scaffolding on
which he was seated instead of the inoffensive cleat.
The truth finally flashed on him with a crunching
warning, and the next moment he found himself
floundering in the river, wildly waving his saw and
calling for help.
It does not pay to rush things. The Rome of
salesmanship was not built in a day.
It is said of the English General Buller that
"he never went around anything that he could butt
his head through." And he continued that course
in the Boer War, bringing all manner of disaster
upon his command, which caused dread anxiety to
the home authorities until his recall stopped his mad
career. He was replaced by Lord Kitchener, the
tactician, who was obliged to overcome Buller's
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Men Who Sell Things
blunders before he could hope to win a victory for
England's forces, which he did in the end by his
superior generalship.
The salesman who hopes to win real success must
change his negative qualities into positive ones, and
then stick to some good reliable house where his chances
for growth are assured.
Returning from luncheon one afternoon, I was
stopped just across the street from my place of busi-
ness by a young man whom I had known as a boy,
but had forgotten. Extending his hand, he said,
"Hello, Mr. Moody! Don't you remember me?"
Failing to recognize him at first, I replied:
"You've got the best of me this time, my friend.
Your face seems familiar, but I can't recall your
name."
"Why!" said he, "my name is B—. Don't
you remember that we worked together as boys with
the old firm of S. L. & Co. ? You had the linen
and white-goods stock, and I had the laces, just
across the aisle."
"Yes," I replied, "I do remember you now,
but that's a long time ago, and many changes have
taken place on the street. The old firm has retired
from business, but I presume you are still in the
dry-goods line."
'No. I remained there but a short time after
you left. I thought I was n't suited to that line,
[ 80 ]
The Fussy or Over-Anxious Salesman
and left to go into an insurance office. I soon
found that insurance was not to my liking either,
and then I tried the retail dry-goods business for
a year or two. Realizing that there was no chance
whatever in a retail store, I entered a business col-
lege to study bookkeeping, but left the course un-
finished on being told that if I intended making
office work my life's aim I should commence at the
practical end of things by taking a position in some
large office; but-"
Not knowing where the narrative would end,
but realizing that his story was a continued one,
I interrupted him with --
66
What are you doing now ?
99
"I'm studying electrical work in a big factory.
No doubt there is a great field in that." Then, as
if by second nature, he asked: "What are you
doing now ?"
Turning, I pointed to the wholesale store
across the street which bore my name, saying simply,
"I am connected with that firm!"
He seemed not to comprehend for a moment,
but finally gasped, "You don't mean to say that you
are one of the firm !"
"Yes," I said, "I am."
"Well! How on earth
His face reddened
and he did not finish what he was going to say.
Instead he turned eagerly to me with
C
[81]
Men Who Sell Things
"Can't you give me a place in your store?
I don't get much pay where I am. Besides, I think
that if I could get in with some one who knew me and
would take an interest in me I could do much better."
And then came the wretched admission that he was
a married man and had a wife and two children.
I knew that his case was hopeless. He had
tried and condemned himself in the story he had
related of his wanderings, but for old time's sake
I asked him to call at our office the next day and I
would see what I could do for him. We needed an
extra man in the shipping room, and gave him the
place at a weekly salary of twelve dollars-just
double the amount he was receiving at the parting
of our ways twelve years before. A raise of fifty
cents a week per year for twelve years. Think of it!
Yet there are many such cases.
I heard nothing from him for a few days, and
then one night the door-bell rang at my residence,
and our new assistant shipping clerk was shown in.
I greeted him half-dressed, as I was going out for
the evening. In some surprise I asked him what I
could do for him.
"Well," he said, "you must excuse me for
calling at your house, but as you have been kind to
me I thought I ought to call and tell you that I am
afraid I cannot do the work you have put me at.
I don't seem to understand it, and rather than make
[82]
*~..
The Fussy or Over-Anxious Salesman
mistakes which might embarrass you I have made
up my mind to quit.”
There was something delicate in that halting
confession that touched me, but realizing that his
was a case for vigorous action, if the man was to be
saved for any good to himself or any one else, I
determined to let my engagement wait. Taking a
seat by his side, I gave him a heart-to-heart talk,
in which matters were not minced regarding his
past and checkered career. I pointed out that he
really had a good opportunity at last to make some-
thing of himself; that I would go out of my way to
help him and advance him as rapidly as possible,
but that it was up to him to do the rest.
Our talk seemed to bolster him up somewhat,
and he left promising to stick it out and do his best.
Two months, however, of worrying along with him,
in which many interviews took place, convinced us
that he was a confirmed ne'er-do-well, and we had
to let him out to continue his search for something
that “exactly” fitted his capabilities.
I never heard from him after that, but there is
little room for doubt that the unfortunate fellow
is still looking for a job, a sad example of neglected
opportunities and a lack of stick-to-it-iveness.
Opportunities don't often repeat; mistakes do.
The energetic, dead-in-earnest man creates confi-
dence and success.
[83]
Men Who Sell Things
Don't let the self-satisfied and thoroughly con-
tented persuade you that to-morrow's triumph will
compensate for to-day's inaction.
To-morrow is a poor time to catch to-day's
opportunities. Nothing great is ever accomplished
without trained enthusiasm, persistent energy, and
a determination to win.
The man who depends upon to-morrow's
efforts is ever a pall-bearer at the bier of lost hopes
and dead ambitions.
Results are the golden nuggets dug from to-
day's opportunities by earnest endeavor and patient,
systematic toil.
The faint-hearted man lacks the power to draw
others to himself. He dissipates confidence, and
fails utterly to secure prestige with those above
him in authority.
A dead fish can float with the tide, but it takes
a live one to swim against it.
In this progressive age a man's usefulness, like
that of the postage-stamp, consists in his ability to
stick to a thing until he gets there.
There is no use in mincing words. Let us look
squarely at the facts as they exist, with a clear eye
to bettering ourselves if possible. The fact is very
clear and pertinent here, that we must meet our
antagonists with their own weapons, hustle.
There are many salesmen in the world who
[ 84 ]
The Fussy or Over-Anxious Salesman
persuade themselves into believing that to-morrow,
next week, the week after, or next year will surely
bring them the results they should have obtained
to-day.
Not content with leaning on the broken reed of
their own procrastinating methods while others all
around them are getting away from them a large
share of business easily within their grasp, they try
to argue away the chief point adhered to by their
more progressive brethren in the race for sales,—
namely, that “a bird in the hand is worth two in the
bush."
Again I must ask the reader's forgiveness in
relating a personal experience which seems to fit
in right here, and am willing to bear criticism on
that point, if my little book prove a help to some in
bringing their attention to the necessity of increased
energy in the daily routine of their efforts at winning
success. My sole purpose in relating this incident
is to point out the reason why, in a certain class
of salesmen, the negative qualities are outweighed
by the positive. In any event, the reader will agree
with me that our sins of omission, as well as those
of commission, are traceable to our weaknesses, and
also that a cure can be effected only through the
development of strong qualities.
Our firm had experienced considerable diffi-
culty in drawing business from the West and North-
O
[85]
Men Who Sell Things
west through Chicago to the smaller Eastern market
in which our house was located. At different times
we had employed two or three salesmen in that
section without success. On looking the situation
over, we concluded that it was necessary for a
member of the firm to go out there and do a little
missionary work. Having travelled there at an
earlier period, I volunteered to make the trip.
The time to make an advance trip with Fall
goods being at hand, I immediately mapped up a
flyer for ten days, at the end of which I was to meet
our buyers in New York. There was no time to
lose and keep the Eastern engagement, so I laid out
the trip to make close connections.
The first town on the list was Oshkosh, Wiscon-
sin. I arrived there at 4:30 on a hot June afternoon,
and planned to get through and leave, if possible,
on the 9:30 train the same night.
The sample-rooms were all taken at the Ather-
ton Hotel, and I had to open my trunks in the bil-
liard room, which was used for that purpose when
the place was crowded. I made no attempt at a
regular display, but simply arranged the trays to
be gotten at handily.
Rushing out of a side entrance to make my
first call, I ran into Oley, the Swedish porter, who
stopped me long enough to say that two rival sales-
men from Chicago had been there all day long
[86]
The Fussy or Over-Anxious Salesman
winding up their Summer business. Noticing my
arrival and seeing me unpacking Fall goods, Oley
explained that they had said to him, "He'll have a
fine time trying to sell Winter goods with the ther-
mometer 93° in the shade. We have a small line
of advance goods along with our Summer stuff, but
haven't tried to do any business. Why! You
can't even interest the trade in stuff for present use,
to say nothing of goods they'll not need for three
months to come. He might as well close up and
move on. We've been around sounding the trade,
and that's the verdict."
"Give them my regards, Oley," I said. "Per-
haps they are right, but I'm going to make a stab at
it, anyway. Maybe things are not so bad as they
predict.'
It was a walk of but two blocks to my first cus-
tomer's store. A few pleasant greetings over, I
explained that I was a little pressed for time, and
followed up the remark with an earnest appeal for
an immediate engagement.
Possibly the urgency of the whole thing im-
pressed them; at any rate, they were over in my
room at 5:30. Being quick buyers, they selected a
bill amounting to three hundred and fifty dollars
by 6:30.
Snatching a mouthful of supper, I hurried back
to the sample-room and selected a few samples of
[ 87 ]
Men Who Sell Things
the best selling numbers. These I quickly packed
into telescopes and boarded a car for the South Side,
across the river. The merchant I wanted to see kept
open nights, and I was fortunate in finding him in.
Apologizing for troubling him at that late hour,
I began unstrapping my cases, keeping up a running
fire of selling-talk in the meanwhile. He protested
that he did n't want to buy so far in advance of the
season. Perhaps if I had had as much time on my
hands as my Chicago rivals I would have listened
to him, but I kept right on, ignoring his protests as
tactfully as possible, and finally caught his eye with
an unusually attractive value in the velvet line.
He called a clerk, and together they took a few
samples and retired to the rear of the store to com-
pare them. They talked them over so long that I
began to get nervous. It was eight o'clock. But
an hour and a half remained in which to return to
the hotel, pack up, and catch the train. I was
going to interrupt them, when they started toward
me, talking earnestly and nodding their heads.
Something in the manner of the dealer told me
that the deal was off. Sure enough. Handing back
my samples, he said: "You've got some good
values; in fact, I don't mind telling you they are a
shade better than the samples sent me by the other
houses. I will probably send you an order later on,
but I don't want to place it now."
[88]
The Fussy or Over-Anxious Salesman
It took me less time to tell him than to write it
that I wasn't trying to sell him a cat in a bag; that
his own judgment confirmed the quality of my goods.
that I had confidence in him, and hoped he had con-
fidence in me; that nothing could be gained by either
of us by delay; and if he wanted my goods it would
be necessary to book his order right there, as I would
not guarantee the prices for forty-eight hours.
That brought him around. When I said good-
bye, the perspiration was running down my back,
but I had his order for four hundred and fifty dollars
safely tucked away in my inside pocket. That made
eight hundred dollars for a few hours' work. It was
reassuring, to say the least, when I thought of my two
Job's comforters back in the hotel wishing me all
kinds of good luck.
I made the train by the small margin of a hair;
it was pulling in at the depot when I arrived. There
was no time to check baggage. Quickly I ordered
the drayman to back right up to the baggage car and
dump my trunks in without being checked. The
station agent was one of the sort that every travelling
salesman carries around a club for. He started
right in to veto proceedings, but he was a minute
late. The conductor shouted, "All aboard!" I
threw a half-dollar to the driver, telling him to hurry
and drive off. The train pulled out, and I swung
onto the rear platform. I stood there and waved
C
[89]
Men Who Sell Things
my adieu to the enraged agent, but it was lost in the
shuffle, for he was blessing the drayman in three
languages.
The conductor let me into the baggage car.
Handing the baggageman a cigar, I remarked
pleasantly: "I had to break the rules this time,
brother. Will you please check these trunks to
Green Bay ?"
That was rushing things too much for comfort,
but I really believe that some salesmen lose business
by having so much time on their hands that they
don't know what to do with it. Either they do not
make the effort, or they talk their customers all
around Robin Hood's barn, until patience ceases to
be a virtue; the merchants give the orders to the
man who attends to his business and then gets away
as soon as he can.
Mind you, I haven't said, "Do as I have done,
and you will succeed." Not at all; but rather, I
have hinted that you should learn by mistakes how to
avoid them.
Suppose that with a house of one hundred sales-
men we have fifteen that are full of faith in their
house and their work, and eighty-five that stand out
careless and indifferent. What can such a house do?
Only fifteen are able to fight, and there are eighty-
five fussy, feeble men to look after! Don't you see
why that house can make no inroads on the trade of
[90]
The Fussy or Over-Anxious Salesman
its competitors? Don't you see why it is that you
haven't headed the sales list in your establishment
since you first picked up your gripsack ?
My plan is to take a common-sense view of the
facts. I like to deal with facts. You can't get around
a fact. Theories you can brush out of the way, but
when you come to a fact you cannot dig under it,
and you cannot jump over it; you have to meet it.
A. F. Sheldon, founder of the Sheldon School of
Scientific Salesmanship, asked the general manager
of the largest institution of its kind in the world the
question, "How do you measure the value of an
employee?"
>>
The answer was, "By the degree of supervision
which he requires. The less supervision he needs, no
matter what he is doing, the more valuable he becomes.”
His next question was, “What is the cause of the
need of supervision ? ”
Again the answer promptly came, “All super-
vision is caused by two classes of sins: first, sins of
omission; second, sins of commission. If the em-
ployee in any capacity did not omit to do a thing which
he should do, and in doing it committed no errors,
then he would need no supervision, and his value
would be at the highest."
The manner in which James Keeley, manag-
ing editor of "The Chicago Tribune," with the as-
sistance of Harry Olsen, effected the capture of
*
[91]
Men Who Sell Things
Paul O. Stensland, the Chicago bank-wrecker, in
Tangier, Morocco, in 1906, exemplifies the sort of
enterprise that does things.
It is an admirable lesson in pluck and energy
that might well be followed by the class of salesmen
who mean well enough, but only partially succeed
through puttering around. Intelligent application
to instant opportunity is necessary in performing
such work. While the detectives were theorizing,
"The Tribune" was working. The information
received was indefinite, but investigation proved its
probable accuracy, and led Messrs. Keeley and Olsen
in tracking Stensland to Tangier, and there arresting
him.
Speaking of the incident, the leading daily of
another city said:
"The arrest of Paul O. Stensland is an indication of
what the press can do, and also what the Chicago police
cannot do. 'The Chicago Tribune' has found the man
for whom twenty-two thousand depositors of the Milwau-
kee Avenue State Bank were looking, and for whom the
united police force of the world was supposed to be looking,
while the sensational press was 'discovering' him in every
nook and corner of the world in various disguises.
The Tribune' was the first to receive something in
the nature of a clue to the whereabouts of the missing
banker. But the clue was slight, and would have been
worthless had it not been followed up with discretion, with
patience, and a study of the subject of the pursuit and what
a fleeing criminal would be likely to do under the circum-
stances in which Stensland had placed himself. A study
[92]
The Fussy or Over-Anxious Salesman
of the conditions of the various countries in which he might
seek refuge was also to be made. It required that knowl-
edge of human nature that after a time becomes a second
nature to the trained reporter.
""The Tribune' in its pursuit of the criminal did not
avail itself of the services of a detective. The trained
detectives were looking in an altogether different direction
for the fleeing banker. It is not too much to say that had
it not been for "The Chicago Tribune,' in all probability the
fraudulent banker would never have been discovered, and
might have lived in ease on his ill-gotten gains-money of
which he had robbed the poor who had confidence in him."
When Mr. Keeley finally cabled “The Tribune”
that the actual arrest had taken place, the question
of getting the prisoner safely back to the United
States was attended with all manner of international
complications. It was finally decided to send a
stenographer from the office of the State's Attorney
to Washington to confer with the State Department
in an effort to secure the aid of the United States
Government for a proper and immediate transfer.
His mission was attended with the usual amount of
red tape "necessary" to such procedure, causing
dangerous delay.
At this interesting juncture the Washington cor-
respondent of "The Tribune,” Mr. Raymond, com-
prehending the necessity for vigorous action, entirely
without regard to the traditions of international
relations, took matters in his own hands and called
upon President Roosevelt at his summer home at
2
[93]
Men Who Sell Things
Oyster Bay. A brief interview was all that was
necessary to show him that the President appreciated
the urgency of the case, and that he was in hearty
sympathy with the victims of the wrecked bank.
With characteristic independence, Mr. Roose-
velt did not hesitate to overturn the traditions of
musty international law, declaring that he would
go
to any extent necessary to secure the return and
subsequent punishment of the bank-wrecker who had
stolen millions, and who was denounced as "one of
the most obnoxious types of criminals." The inter-
view finished, without a moment's hesitation the
President sent a telegram to the Hon. Robert Bacon,
Acting Secretary of State at Washington, instructing
him concerning the case, stating that it was his desire
to appoint James Keeley and Harry Olsen as official
representatives to take Stensland in custody.
Stensland arrived in Chicago in due time in
charge of his captors, and was duly prosecuted ac-
cording to law.
The Fussy newspaper man, like the Fussy Sales-
man, makes a good stroke now and then, when for-
tune favors him, but in most cases he fools away his
best opportunities of doing something worth while.
The sort of enterprise exhibited by Keeley and Ray-
mond in behalf of their paper is the kind that will
enable the salesman to win big scoops of business for
his house.
[94]
The Wheelbarrow Salesman
CHAPTER VI
THE WHEELBARROW SALESMAN
Spasmodic attempts to get business rarely
succeed permanently.
It is the delib-
erate moving, cautiously, gradually, and
intelligently, that makes the final success.
HE Wheelbarrow salesman differs from the
THE
Order-taker in that he has going spells once in
a while, even though they come in fits and jerks,
accompanied by many twists and turns. The wheel-
barrow is a mighty useful article, but its inventor
never intended that it should play any part in sales-
manship.
You know something about the peculiarities of
the Wheelbarrow salesman if you are experienced in
the style of acrobatic stunts necessary to the naviga-
tion of that unwieldly contrivance from which he
derives his cognomen in our family of business-
getters. One thing I have noticed about the wheel-
barrow is, that it is never used to carry a valuable
load, the chances of safe delivery are too slight.
Its burden generally consists of bricks, mortar, dirt,
or rubbish of some sort. It does very good work
when there is nothing in the way to impede its pro-
gress, but let it hit the smallest obstacle, and over it
goes; or, perchance, if the man at the handle end
»
[95]
Men Who Sell Things
of the affair is well versed in its peculiar traits, he can
save the load by an extraordinary exhibition of skill
and adroitness, known only to the manipulator, and
which closely resembles an Indian war-dance.
The salesman who hopes to get on in the world
will find it a hard task on one wheel and two handles
with some one constantly pushing him from behind.
He must be a four-wheeler, with an improved
up-to-date motor power of self-energy keeping him
constantly on the move.
The one-wheel machine goes along all right
on a smooth track with a strong hand to steady it,
and two props to keep its balance when not in
motion; but it takes four wheels, all well greased
and in good running order, on a vehicle stanchly
built, to complete any kind of journey in safety in
which there is a liability to encounter all manner
of obstacles.
I remember, when a youngster, seeing some
performers at a circus do a balancing trick on one
wheel. I went home and took a wheel off the buggy
in the barn, ran a short piece of broom-handle
through the hub, and mounted from the horse-block.
The wheel made a half-revolution, which I com-
pleted, stopping the mad whirl only when my head
struck a convenient hitching-post. When the doc-
tor had taken out the stitches, and I was able once
more to sit at the table in place of standing, I said,
[96]
The Wheelbarrow Salesman
"No more one-wheel business for me," and imme-
diately turned my attention to fixing a contrivance
on my four-wheeled red wagon that enabled me to
propel it, riding at the same time, with no danger of
a fall.
A wheelbarrow is a dangerous thing at times to
itself, its propeller, or anything that happens within
short range. I once saw an Irishman laboriously
pushing a heavily loaded barrow up a steep incline.
His foot slipped, and to save himself he let the whole
load go, which was precipitated on the head of a
fellow-workman, killing him instantly.
Webster defines the wheelbarrow as
A light
vehicle, having two handles and one wheel." Bar-
row means "a portable carriage," and portable
means "capable of being carried easily." There-
fore, it must be seen at a glance that a Wheelbarrow
salesman is the one who operates on one wheel, is
light, has two handles, and is capable of being car-
ried easily.
The two handles might be labelled Push and
Pull, it being necessary only for the sales manager
to reverse his tactics that the wheelbarrow may be
made to go either way.
Under certain conditions it is easier to pull a
wheelbarrow than it is to push it; besides the
change about, it is less wearing in the long run.
The trouble with this Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
1
[97]
Men Who Sell Things
type of salesman is that he bottles up his energy in
an hour-glass of indolence and industry, in which
the negative and positive qualities are about equally
balanced but constantly at variance with each other.
When the industry end of the glass is uppermost,
splendid work is the result; but the supply gradually
runs down into the indolence end until there is not
a grain left. Then comes a period of slack work
and consequent poor results. A powerful stimulus
is required to reverse affairs, when once again indus-
try conquers for a brief time, forcing its enemy, indo-
lence, to the bottom.
The utility of this class of salesman remains an
unknown quantity so long as frequent stimulation
is necessary to produce even a fair average of results.
Nearly every large institution has its Wheel-
barrow salesmen, men who do not seem to regard it
as their duty to give their employers the first-fruits
of their time and talent under all circumstances.
There is really a fine point of honor involved in
that. Perhaps they do not weigh the matter suffi-
ciently to regard it from that standpoint.
Some of them are splendid men in many re-
spects, but lacking in that fine American quality,
stick-to-it-iveness; they possess real ability, but are
content with lapsing into commonplace ways now
and then, instead of steadily working to the limit of
their power, Occasional glimpses of their clever-
:
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The Wheelbarrow Salesman
ness are flashed forth in some particularly bright and
successful piece of work. These are mighty good
special-inducement fellows, though! I knew one
once. His house offered a prize of one hundred
dollars in gold, to be awarded to the salesman selling
the largest amount of goods of a certain brand within
a given length of time. Our Wheelbarrow friend
got a hustle on him and won that prize in a walk, but
his sales in the aggregate for the period showed him
up in the middle of the list - good in spots, chang-
ing according to conditions.
It is not often that the salesman has an oppor-
tunity to "about face" and brand his firm with being
the wheelbarrow instead of himself, but such a thing
actually occurred in the early experience of my
friend Fuller. Nature had richly endowed him with
qualifications for the work of promoting any enter-
prise, as the results of his later experiences attest.
But at the time the event related in this story took
place, his selling ability was an unknown quantity,
he never having had the chance to put it to a real
test.
One day opportunity came knocking at his
door, just as it does once or oftener in the life of every
man, and he summoned courage enough to present
himself at the desk of the manager of a willow-ware
house and made application for a position. He was
promptly engaged on his own representation of what
2
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Men Who Sell Things
he thought he could do, and was put to work selling
a new stove polish.
Securing a cloth, the manager opened a fresh
box of polish and proceeded to give his new and raw
recruit a demonstration of the merits of the article
he was to sell, by shining an ordinary piece of paper,
producing an elegant lustre, "with little effort and
no dust or dirt."
Fuller had yet to learn that what he had just
seen was a trick demonstration, and that a similar
effect could easily be produced in the same way with
almost any other brand. His supreme faith in the
article was clinched with the manager's statement
that there was "nothing in the world that could begin
to compare with it," and he started out with his little
sample-case, a box of polish, a rag, and the assur-
ance from the manager that he could find plenty of
paper on the retailer's counters with which to make
like demonstrations.
The first dealer encountered told him he had
"store polish to burn." But Fuller had it to sell, and
with the effect of the manager's demonstration still
firing his brain, he was honestly convinced there was
no stove polish on earth like his, and he shined papers
galore. The fervor of his enthusiasm reflected an
added lustre. His customer was forced to admit he
had never seen anything like it, and closed by giving
him a good order.
1
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The Wheelbarrow Salesman
In the same way he sold to the next dealer, and
the next; in fact, he worked that street from one end
to the other, making forty-seven straight sales in
three days without a single break. He made every
one of those forty-seven dealers believe what he be-
lieved himself concerning that stove polish.
Dealer Forty-eight was a stumbling-block, and
came pretty near convincing Fuller that salesman-
ship was a lost art, besides winning a dollar from him
on a wager that all stove polish looked and worked
alike, backing up his argument with Fuller's own
paper demonstration, made with a polish taken from
his own shelf.
Stove polish from head to foot, leaving the
grocer in much the same condition, Fuller rushed
from the store crushed and defeated. He worked
the balance of the day with but little success, mak-
ing a sale to but one in every eight or ten calls.
The few orders he did receive were given him as
complimentary," and out of sympathy for his
inexperience. His selling-talk, which had been
effective principally in his demonstrations, totally
deserted him with Number Forty-eight's knock-out
blow.
66
One day Fuller awoke to the fact that he really
had a good article. He had proved it by making
forty-seven sales without falling down. He asked
himself the question: "Why surrender the fine
2
[101]
Men Who Sell Things
success I have had at the start because of my expe-
rience with Number Forty-eight ?"
Pulling himself together, he reasoned out that
he had convinced forty-seven dealers that his article
was good, and that but one had convinced him that
it was no good. Having fought it all out with him-
self, he determined to make a fresh start, buoyed up
with the thought that there were any number of
Forty-sevens in his territory. He figured out that
he had really possessed some good talking-points,
but lost them all on Number Forty-eight.
Fortified with new faith in himself and the arti-
cle he was selling, his first three or four calls showed
him that his earlier methods were again working per-
fectly. Being unusually adept, in a few months
Fuller had mastered the main essentials of the stove-
polish business, and along with it one of the most
valuable lessons in salesmanship — stick-to-it-ive-
ness. The outcome of his initial experience is best
told in his own words:
"I stuck at it for several months, and began to get
acquainted with the trade, and learned that on the west
side of the city there was a firm that made stove polish, but
had practically no market for its goods, and less knowledge
of how to push them. I determined to go over and see
just what the conditions were. Examining the product, I
pronounced it O. K., and made a statement to the pro-
prietor that I could sell his goods.
"Drawing up his chair, he began picturing to me the
worst side of a business man's career that I have ever heard
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The Wheelbarrow Salesman
of before or since. Everything in the world seemed to take
on a beautiful indigo color. He sat there with his chin
between his knees, addressing me in a manner that plainly
indicated that he had completely lost his nerve.
“Young man,' said he, 'the man is not yet born who
can sell my polish. I have been plugging away at this
business for eight or nine years, and my goods are on the
dealers' shelves in the worst possible condition; the cans
are rusted out, the polish is hardened, and there is little
left of them but a faded label. It is simply out of the
question to attempt to regain my lost prestige in the face
of all that.'
"While he was outlining his side of a story which too
plainly told of a neglected past, I could think of nothing
but Number Forty-eight. When he had finished, I asked
a few questions relative to what he would do, at the same
time thinking of Numbers One, Two, and Three, all along
the line to Forty-seven.
"The question of my engagement was finally settled
on a liberal commission basis, and I got him to agree that
in case I should find a few goods of his manufacture on
a dealer's shelves in bad condition he would send fresh
goods for the bad stock.
"My first day's income was larger by far than any-
thing I had made for any five or six days' previous effort.
I delivered my orders promptly the next morning, but my
employer frankly informed me that he did not believe they
were honestly taken.
"You can imagine working for an employer of that
temperament. I tried to convince him that my orders
were honestly taken, and urged him to make an effort to
deliver. All the eloquence I could muster failed to move
him, until he had sent an insipid three-dollar-a-week clerk
around to the dealers to see if the orders were O. K.
"This would not have been so bad had the man who
was sent to confirm my work been clever enough to give
2
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Men Who Sell Things
some plausible excuse for asking such information. For-
tune favored me, as I lost but two orders through this
procedure. Within a week or ten days I had gained the
manufacturer's confidence, and he began to look upon
the bright side of things.
"A few months later the sun was shining on both sides
of the street for him. What little help he did have was
putting in full time instead of working two or three days
per week, and we all got along nicely. The manufacturer
began to see his way clear; to think in the proper channels;
to figure that if one man could sell his goods, somewhere on
this earth there were other men who could do the same.
Fuller is now the Western sales manager for a
large chemical plant, but is still on friendly terms
with his Wheelbarrow friend, the stove-polish
manufacturer, who has become wealthy, and owns
and controls a large factory. His advertised brand
is a household word the country over. He gives
Fuller full credit for literally pushing him up the
highway of success to a point that enabled him to
proceed smoothly, and he can now dictate in the
matter of opening up new territories when engaging
additional salesmen. And he is particular to have
only the best.
An indispensable requisite to success is concen-
tration, or devotion to one subject. When that sub-
ject is faithful, well-rounded service to one's house,
the reward is certain. The man who would do one
thing well must not attempt a dozen things, how-
ever attractive or inviting. The salesman who
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The Wheelbarrow Salesman
would get to the top of his profession must single
out each day's work, and into that must pour the
whole stream of his activities all the energies of
his hand, eye, tongue, heart, and brain. The sales-
man of single and intense purpose, he who is not
tempted with seductive side-line offers, who believes
that his house will pay him just as much salary when
the proper time comes as has been offered by a
neighboring house to entice him away, is the sales-
man who will accomplish lasting results and is,
everywhere in demand.
A salesman may be able to show great bursts
of speed, but if he runs first forward and then back-
ward, to the right and to the left, with periodical
fits of looping the loop in between, he will wind up
some day by missing the gap altogether.
The work of a salesman is to sell goods. No
salesman has ever yet made his mark in the world
of salesmanship who was not possessed with a
master passion to see his sales climb higher and
higher with each bulletin issued from the sales
department.
Allan Wilson says: "Fight hardest when
you're on your back. Many a down-and-outer
would be an up-and-inner if such action had governed
them at the crucial times of their careers.'
Mr. Wilson tells a good story of the awakening
of "Scherer the failure."
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Men Who Sell Things
Scherer was a failure. He was a miserable sort
of a failure. Such a failure was he that his employer
told him he was a failure, before all the other sales-
men on the force.
Scherer had conducted a small business of his
own. Then he became the general agent for his
county with the house of the man who later called
him down. But it was a small post at best, and so
he came into the general office, determined to make
a big place for himself on the road.
CC
"Well," said the manager of the sales depart-
ment, we have n't got anything against trying a
new man."
"But I'm not exactly a new man, Mr. Manager,"
said he. "I've handled the firm's line for the last
fourteen months in Wheatville County. I've sold
goods in "
"Well, it's a little different on the road,"
replied the sales manager, "but we can find a
territory for you, all right.'
So they gave him a territory, and a fairly good
one, and Scherer tugged his sample-cases to the
depot and tried hard to be a real salesman. He
was good where he was acquainted and where the
house was known. When it came to getting new
business he fell down completely. He made a
dozen towns in a week, and failed to land one single
order; then he got discouraged, and for a week
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The Wheelbarrow Salesman
tended only to fixed trade.
And when he was
turned down he took it to heart.
He managed to hold his position, but continued
to be a failure for four long years.
Then, as was
his custom, his employer held in his private office
a reception for the salesmen of the firm.
Every one was feeling good, and mutual ex-
pressions of respect and appreciation passed freely
about. Times were good, and Scherer's employer
was happy in his attitude toward his men. He told
them that never had he been so well served by any
set of salesmen in his entire career, that never had
the firm done so much business, and that never were
the promises of the future so bright and rosy. Not
a salesman on the staff but had done himself proud,
he said.
Then his eye fell on Scherer the failure, over
in the corner. The iron in his employer's soul was
touched. "That is," he said, "with one exception.
Mr. Scherer, who is our weakest salesman, has
failed, as customary, to do justice to the firm and to
the territory which he travels. However, the other
men have done so well that the handicap of one
weak man scarcely has been felt."
Scherer never knew how he left the office that
day. He went home and sat with his hands in his
lap, forcing himself to realize just what the head had
said to him. Then he became terribly ashamed.
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Men Who Sell Things
Also he was angry, as men grow angry in silence and
alone when they have unpleasant thoughts, and he
swore considerably. He did n't sleep that night. He
lay awake and cursed himself and his employer
with great impartiality.
He was in the city for a week's rest, but the
next morning found him packing his trunks and
cases for the road. He was on the road all the next
day, and at nightfall he walked into the office of
a man who had twice before refused to see him. The
man each year bought goods of the kind he was
selling to the extent of $50,000. This time Scherer
walked past the office boy and presented his card
himself.
"Mr. Blank, I've come to sell you some goods,"
said Scherer. "You can't afford to stop me from
doing it.
Will you give me some time now, or shall
I call later? "
The man tore the card into bits. "Damn it!"
he roared, "where are those office boys?"
"Outside," replied Scherer calmly. "There
was only one. I stuffed him under a bench when
he tried to stop me. And here's another card.
Now do you think I've got a proposition that can
interest you?"
The man looked carefully at the new card and
laid it down.
"What's your proposition, Mr. Scherer ?'
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The Wheelbarrow Salesman
Whew! What in the world's happened to
Scherer ?" said the sales manager two weeks later.
"He must have gone crazy. Why-why, he's
actually got the record for the sales of last week.”
He carried his discovery to the head, and the old
man smiled grimly. "Scherer? Oh, yes. Well,
you never can tell what a horse can do until you've
tried your hardest whip on him."
The old saying, “Stick to your business, and
your business will stick to you," is the only safe rule
for the man who believes that salesmanship is a hop,
skip, and jump game, requiring little practice and
less brains. We boys used to amuse ourselves with
that pastime during recess at school. The hop
and the skip looked easy enough on the face of it,
and the most awkward of us got along so far without
losing our equilibrium or our bets. But the real
test came in making the jump. No one could foretell
the result of the jump. Balanced on one foot, the
spring was made, which ended for most of us amid
hoots of derision from our schoolmates. It hurt
our feelings and dampened our ardor more than did
the header we had taken. It was an exhausting
practice, that consumed our energy and our enthu-
siasm; and how is success possible without en-
thusiasm ?
In urging the importance of sticking to the
business of our profession, I do not mean that any
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Men Who Sell Things
man should be a mere salesman, lest he become a
one-wheeler on the barrow plan.
The profession of salesmanship has its peculiar
tendencies, which more or less dwarf those that
devote themselves to it on a narrow-gauge scale,
hampering and preventing them from attaining a
well-rounded, healthful, and whole-souled sphere of
usefulness. Is not the mechanic in many cases but
an animated machine? Does not the salesman too
often get a one-wheeled idea of the road, forgetting
that the coach in which he travels is built on eight?
And do not his indolence, lack of tact, and lack of
practical methods give rise to the idea that salesmen
are born and not made?
Selling-success cannot be accomplished with
one wheel, two handles, and a prop. Every sales-
man ought to be something more than a spoke, a
cog, or a pulley in our great commercial machine.
Think it over, Brother Wheelbarrow, and
determine that it is worth while to be a salesman,
cultivating and developing, so far as you can, all your
energies on a four-wheeled plan, and then expend
your chief labors on getting there by the sole aid
of your own motive power educated enthusiasm.
1
[110]
The Know-It-All Salesman
CHAPTER VII
THE KNOW-IT-ALL SALESMAN
The only shots that count are the shots that hit.
Roosevelt.
Many a man who takes himself very seri-
ously is regarded as a huge joke by others.
Many a fool is vain and self-deceptive; many
a man of great power is modest to the last degree.
T does not follow that because air is life it has
IT
any application to salesmanship; but perhaps
that is the reason why some salesmen blow so
hard.
A noted and witty preacher once said: "The
general pulpit style of America is about like this:
Here I am, the Rev. Jeremiah Jones, D-o-c-t-o-r of
D-i-v-i-n-i-t-y, saved by the grace of God, with a
message to deliver. If you will repent and believe
what I believe, you will be saved; and if you don't,
you will be damned; and I don't care much if you
are."
Self-assertiveness is an invaluable quality in
salesmanship when properly harnessed, but it can
be overworked.
The Know-it-all Salesman claims a large share
of the lime-light wherever possible. He seeks to
impress every one with whom he comes in contact
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Men Who Sell Things
with an idea of his astonishing zeal, and by a melo-
dramatic display of activity.
If a man is going to be efficient and successful,
he must think more about his work than about him-
self. The salesman who wants to get to the top by
intelligent devotion to work has no time for self-
worship.
Salesmanship is like a great river coursing its
way onward through the innumerable channels and
branches of the world's activities, the shores of
which are strewn with wrecks and failures, who
held their own personalities as paramount to their
work. If the quality of a salesman's work will
pass muster with the head of his house, his per-
sonality will shine through it unushered by any
effort on his part.
Salesmen that talk as though they were well
pleased with themselves do not find many in their
neighborhood who are well pleased with them.
Whenever a salesman gets more self-consciousness
than he has sense, he's going to talk foolishness
most of the time. Selling-talk and foolishness do
not mix well, the one must suffer at the expense of
the other.
You associate with salesmanship thought,
wisdom, and a reasonable amount of self-restraint,
don't you? Now, some salesmen say that they
don't have to study, and they don't need the advice
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The Know-It-All Salesman
of their sales manager. They can paddle their
own canoes.
The president of a great house travelling many
men appropriated a large sum to be invested in the
education of his corps of salesmen through the
organization and equipment of a class in scientific
salesmanship.
A few weeks after the study had been installed,
he went to one of his salesmen and inquired how he
was getting along with the work. The reply was:
The author of that course don't know anything
about our line. He can't learn me nothing."
And sure enough he could not.
When selling goods, that salesman just opened
his mouth and let come out of it what would, and it
was generally filled with air. That is all such a
mouth can be filled with. There is many an old
air-gun salesman shooting around over his territory.
You can't bring down big game with an air-gun.
Three things are necessary to enable a salesman
to put up a good selling-talk - knowledge, judg-
ment, and enthusiasm. Buyers associate those qual-
ities with every good selling-talk they hear.
No one will ever do anything for you that you
can do for yourself. The sales manager in your
house has too much to do to go running around post-
ing lazy salesmen that have no disposition to learn
anything new.
X
[113]
Men Who Sell Things
You show me a salesman that feels he is all-
sufficient in his own knowledge, one who does n't
have to keep posted on the latest and best of every-
thing that will aid him in holding and gaining prestige
with his trade and his house, and I will show you an
Air-gun. I write with safety, for of course there are
no Air-guns around your house. I refer to those in
the house of your neighbor down in the next block.
The next thing to an Air-gun is an old Powder-
gun-one with nothing in it but powder. No trade
is ever secured with that. The Powder-gun Sales-
man shoots at his trade without any shot. His
customers enjoy it as much as he does none of
them ever get bagged. But whenever a salesman
puts a shell filled with shot into the magazine of his
selling-talk and lays the barrel on solid judgment,
and takes careful aim, training the sight on the sale
he is bent on securing, and fires, he is sure to hit the
bull's-eye.
After his shot tells, he can stop and apologize:
"I didn't mean to hit you there. I aimed here."
That is a salesman who aims where he hits, and hits
where he aims.
The greatest power any house ever had is a game
salesman - never afraid of competition. And the
greatest drawback is the Shotless Salesman, who
aims at nothing in particular, and misses everything.
He is in the same category with his fussy friend who
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The Know-It-All Salesman
is afraid of hurting somebody's feelings if he takes
careful aim.
Don't let any one say of you that you talk too
much of yourself and your affairs.
A reasonable degree of self-assurance is a good
thing; the best of salesmen practise and live self-
confidence and self-assertiveness to a certain meas-
ure; but the overworking of these qualities is the
cause of the failure of many a bright salesman. You
are obliged to have something more.
Salesmanship does not consist of what you pro-
fess, but it consists of what you are, what you do, and
how well you do it. When the doing follows the
being, the result swells your sales, increases your
chances for ultimate success.
There is no objection to a man professing sales-
manship. There is no quarrel with a salesman as
long as he lives on a level with what he professes;
but when he gets down below that, the sales manager
should go for him. When the salesman mixes too
much of himself with what he is trying to sell, he
is not living on a level with his profession.
sufficiency does not secure efficiency.
Self-
The real worker must forget self; business is the
main thing.
It is hard for the Know-it-all Salesman to realize
that nobody is always right.
The man who either will not or cannot efface
2
[115]
Men Who Sell Things
himself enough in performing his duties will find it
exceedingly difficult to get along. He cannot hope
to win the approval of those above him in authority,
or to make lasting friends of his customers. He is
like a man toiling up an icy glacier without the aid
of an alpenstock. The most arduous effort too often
means a sudden plunge into the yawning abyss.
[116]
The Quick-Tempered Salesman
IT
CHAPTER VIII
THE QUICK-TEMPERED SALESMAN
If a man opens his door, his dog runs
out in the street before he knows it.
Your tongue is a sort of revolving
fan to a fire; and the first time you
let your tongue go, you are gone.
T is astonishing how many things will come up to
the salesman, and come when he least expects
them, upon his tongue.
Some one has told us that we get our idea of the
word "temper" from the blacksmith's shop, where
the blacksmith is shaping an axe, for instance, and
upsetting the blade of it. He heats the blade and
pushes it down into the water, and, taking it out,
he watches it take its color; and again he pushes it
into the water and takes it out and watches it take its
color; and then directly he passes it to the hand of
the farmer, and says: "I think that is tempered, but
I don't know. If you will grind it and take it out to
that knotty log and throw it in a time or two, I shall
be able to tell you whether it is tempered or not."
And the farmer takes up the axe and goes out to
the log and strikes it a time or two, and the axe is
full of notches. He takes it back to the blacksmith,
and says: "You missed it this time. Look here!
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Men Who Sell Things
It is notched all over with gaps." And the black-
smith takes it and puts it in the fire again and tests
it; and when the owner next takes it out to the
log, its edge is all right, and he says: "This edge
is perfect." That is where we get our idea of
temper.
Many a time the salesman has his disposition
upset and tempered, and then he goes out and says:
"Well, now, I will never get that way any more. I
have got the edge all right this time. I have got it
tempered up in every respect." But the first old
knotty customer he gets to, away it goes, and the
notches are made in it, and the edge is destroyed,
and he says: "Dear me! It's of no use for me to
try at all. I did worse this time than I ever did
before."
Haven't you ever felt that?
A good temper will stand anything without the
breaking out of a gap or the turning of an edge.
There is a great difference between the good-
natured salesman and the good-tempered salesman.
We hear people say, “Oh, that person has less
temper than anybody I ever saw." Well, he is of
less account than anybody you ever saw, if you mean
by that that he is simply good-natured.
Given a man with immense temper, and when
that temper is of the right sort, then it is
the finest character this world ever saw.
you've got
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The Quick-Tempered Salesman
0
We can have good tempers only with vigilant,
watchful care over them. Did you ever manage
your temper by clinching your teeth together and not
letting your tongue run a bit? Your tongue is a sort
of revolving fan to a fire, and the first time you let
your tongue go, you are gone. Did you ever try to
curb your tongue once? If you'll do it, you'll be
astonished.
If you are a Quick-tempered Salesman, begin
now by saying, "I will watch my temper; I will
watch my tongue; I will watch my disposition; I
will watch within; I will watch without; I will be
vigilant; I won't be surprised by anything. I am
going to see my enemy approach; I am going to
watch him as he comes, and I am going to meet him
as he comes.'
299.
A soldier in the last war said: "One of the
hardest things I had to do was to lie still under
fire."
Humanity wants to fight back, and kick back.
But the salesman never fought back, or kicked back,
or talked back in his life that he was not sorry that he
did it. The best thing is to stand and hold out and
let your enemy kick himself to death, and he will soon
do that if you will hold right still.
Speaking on the subject of self-control, a noted
reformer once said: "If a man called me a liar, I
would not get mad and fight him. I would say to
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Men Who Sell Things
him, ‘If I'm a liar I ought to be ashamed of my-
self; and if I'm not a liar you are a liar.'
It is a mighty good plan to combat insult and
injury with wit or a smile. These quickly disarm
our adversary.
The value to the salesman of self-control in
meeting the selfishness or insults of a customer, or of
managers, is demonstrated over and over again in the
life of every man on the road. Many instances
occur in the career of every salesman where right-
eous indignation seems justifiable, but if used at all
as an antidote, it should be in homoeopathic doses
only.
While travelling on the road, long before em-
barking in business for myself, I once lost my temper
under very trying circumstances in dealing with the
buyer of a large firm.
Years afterwards I secured the services of a
traveller who was intimately acquainted with that
buyer. The first time our new man called on him
he was surprised at the reception he received upon
presenting the firm's card. The man with whom I
had quarrelled opened up on our new representative
with, "We have been good friends, and you have
always given me a square deal. It would be a real
pleasure to continue my business relations with
you personally, but you can go back and tell your
employer that I will see him in Hades before he
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The Quick-Tempered Salesman
gets another dollar's worth of business from my
firm."
During the years that followed, our firm was
deprived of thousands of dollars' worth of business
from him because I had lost my self-control just
once.
Get the habit of self-control, and never part with
it. When tempted by weakness, keep away as far
as possible from the danger-line. There is always
a fascination in seeing how near we can go to the
edge of a precipice without toppling over.
A wealthy man, owning a fine country home
far up on a mountain-side, desired the services of a
coachman. The road leading to his place was very
dangerous. It skirted the edge of great caverns and
made many sharp turns. Several applicants sought
the position; the same question was asked each,
How near can you drive to the edge of the preci-
pice without going over ?"
The first replied, "I think I could go within
two inches."
The wealthy man said, "You will not do.”
The second thought he could go within an inch,
and was promptly refused.
The third man was an Irishman. His reply
was, “Begorra, I'd kape as far away as I could."
Promptly came the answer, "You're the man
I'm looking for. The place is yours."
[121]
Men Who Sell Things.
Thomas De Witt Talmage, in one of his most
popular lectures, "Big Blunders," speaking of in-
dulgence in bad temper, said:
"Good humor will sell the most goods, plead the best
argument, effect the best cure. The poorest business firm
in town is Growl, Spitfire & Brothers.
They blow their clerks. They insult their custom-
ers. They quarrel with the draymen. They write impu-
dent duns. They kick the beggars. The children shy off
as they pass the street, and the dogs with wild yelps clear
the path as they come. Acrid, waspish, fretful, explosive,
saturnine, suddenly the money market will be astounded
with the defalcation of Growl, Spitfire & Brothers.
'Merryman & Warmgrasp were poor boys when they
came from the country. They brought all their posses-
sions in one little pack slung over their shoulders. Two
socks, two collars, one jack-knife, a paper of pins, and a
hunk of gingerbread which their mother gave them when
she kissed them good-bye and told them to be good boys
and mind the boss.
"They smiled and laughed and bowed, and worked
themselves up higher and higher in the estimation of their
employers. They soon had a store on the corner. They
were obliging men, and people from the country left their
carpet-bags in that store when they came to town.
Henceforth when the farmers wanted hardware or
clothing or books, they went to buy it at the place where
their carpet-bags had been treated so kindly. The firm
had a way of holding up a yard of cloth and 'shining on'
it so that plain cassimere would look almost as well as
broadcloth; and an earthen pitcher would glisten like
porcelain.
"Not by the force of capital, but by having money-
drawer and counting desk and counter and shelves all full
of good temper, they rose in society, until to-day Merryman
I
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The Quick-Tempered Salesman
& Warmgrasp have one of the largest stores, and the most
elegant show windows, and the finest carriages, and the
prettiest wives in all the town of Shuttleford.'
Many a salesman has gone down under his tem-
per. They usually begin by pluming themselves
with the idea that their firm does not expect its men
to make doormats of themselves for crusty custom-
ers to wipe their feet on. That is a greatly over-
worked idea with those who have a short hold on
their tempers. They end with kicking themselves
out of that very firm and the good graces of their
trade, because they are continually going about with
chips on their shoulders, looking for trouble.
People who have never seen the tide come in at
the ocean beach do not understand it.
Like the development of a bad temper, the
waves creep slowly up at first and then recede.
"The tide is going out," says one; "the sea is going
down." Ere it is gone another wave comes. This
time it reaches a higher point; but it recedes again,
and he says, “Surely the tide is going out, and the
sea is going down." Again a wave rolls in, this
time it comes higher; and presently the tide is full.
So with the advance of an ungoverned temper
- its baneful influence engulfs and destroys every
chance the salesman ever had to become a power in
his profession.
Some one has said, “A melancholy musician
2
[123]
Men Who Sell Things
may compose a Dead March, and make harp weep
and organ wail; but he will not master a Battle
March, or with that grand instrument, the organ,
storm the castles of the soul as with flying artillery
of light and love and joy, until the organ pipes seem
filled with a thousand hosannas."
When a salesman boils over quickly, you soon
find out what is in him.
Show courtesy to others, not because they are
gentlemen, but because you are one.
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The Sky-Rocket Salesman
CHAPTER IX
THE SKY-ROCKET SALESMAN
A salesman who seeks to establish him-
self on a good footing by unfair means
is soon spotted by his trade and by
his fellow-salesmen. He loses the con-
fidence of the first and the friendship
of the latter. He is not a salesman,
but a bribe-giver, or something worse.
EARLY every phase of salesmanship has been
NEAR
made an exhaustive subject of discussion at
some time or other, but all too little has been said or
written concerning the Wear-well salesman. Just
here, however, while we are attempting a descrip-
tion of the negative types, the Sky-rocket looms up
as the opposite of the Wear-well class, those who
serve as beacon-lights along the shore of salesman-
ship.
The mariner attempting to guide his ship safely
into harbor on a dark and stormy night would be-
come hopelessly lost in his bearings with nothing but
sky-rockets to beckon him into haven. The steady
glare of the trusty light on the rocky point is his one
hope.
Sky-rockets are used at sea as signals of distress
to attract the attention of passing ships or of the
life-saving station, to their helpless condition.
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Men Who Sell Things
The Sky-rocket salesman is ever a signal of dis-
tress, causing much concern to the unfortunate house
with which he is connected. A flash in the pan; a
streak of light; an outburst of sparks; a thin line of
smoke marking its meteoric course; a smell as of
something burning-and all is over but the drop
of the stick; and who can predict where that will
alight?
With a crash and a thud his presence is an-
nounced among the list of "also rans," whose break-
down on the course prevented his finishing the race.
Happily this type of salesman is gradually disappear-
ing, thanks to the exacting business methods of the
present strenuous day.
But the occasional flash of the Sky-rocket on
the horizon of professional salesmanship is sufficient
cause for reflection to the sales manager, suggesting
the necessity of pointing out the true way to ultimate
success, which is possible only by sure-footed meth-
ods, infinite patience, undaunted courage, and un-
blemished integrity.
Even when a salesman understands his line
thoroughly and knows how trade conditions stand,
much depends on the personal qualities he brings
into play when interviewing people.
Selling goods of even the highest class is arduous
work. The salesman must see that he brings to his
task the necessary strength of character. In no
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The Sky-Rocket Salesman
other line of business is a man so quickly reduced to
his right level as in salesmanship. He cannot live
for long on a false plane.
In brief, salesmanship is a profession that finds
room for all kinds of minds. But a man ought not
to rate himself too highly at first. When he suc-
ceeds in a small way, he assuredly will be asked to
fill more important positions.
It is rarely the case that the Sky-rocket sales-
man is designedly unprofessional in his methods.
He is by nature oftener imprudent, or unacquainted
with the characteristics of the finished salesman,
which are produced only in the school of human en-
deavor taught by Master Results.
Again he may be the victim of bad training, the
result of unrestricted latitude in business-getting.
It is a regrettable fact that some employers are
not very scrupulous and exacting as to the ways and
means employed by their salesmen, so long as orders
are forthcoming.
They wink at the means, satisfying their con-
sciences with the fallacious saying that, fair or foul,
it is justified by the end.
Houses that tolerate such methods, though they
do not actually encourage them, generally find them--
selves victimized by their own men. Sooner or
later either the sheriff or the receiver takes charge,
leaving the unfortunate salesman to drift into other
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Men Who Sell Things
pursuits, or perchance find his way into the sales
force of a competitive institution, where for the first
time in his career he is given a real introduction to
legitimate, high-grade selling and merchandising
methods.
Here the work of the resourceful sales manager
is put to a true test. If the subject over which he
labors possesses in any degree the rudiments neces-
sary to the making of a successful salesman, the
make-over process of true selling education, based
on knowledge, character, and honesty, begins.
The reward for time thus expended affords a
peculiar sense of gratification to the manager and his
house; and to the salesman unbounded happiness
and true-blue loyalty on being won over to a sphere
of genuine usefulness to himself and others.
The disaster that may be expected to result
from bad training in salesmen is exemplified in the
experience of a competitor of our firm. The pro-
prietor of that house was a pioneer in the business,
and made considerable money in his day. Being
an old man, however, he could not adjust himself to
modern methods. Competition became too strong
for him, and he was finally forced into bankruptcy.
The business was taken over by his son, who secured
enough money from his wife's people to settle his
father's indebtedness at about twenty-five cents on
the dollar. The younger man possessed some of his
I
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The Sky-Rocket Salesman
tather's peculiarities, which bordered on the lack of
principle. His remaining assets were in the nature
of a college education that he did not seem to know
what to do with, and a skimmed-milk knowledge of
the business.
In spite of these handicaps, he surrounded him-
self with a fairly capable staff of salesmen, and he
really had a working chance to make a success of his
undertaking. He started in to manage his business
from an office chair, and that kind of management
soon runs its course. Like the foolish man who turns
on the light to look for a burglar, he stood out boldly
in the glare of his unpractical methods, while his sales-
men worked out his ruin, doing about as they pleased,
secure in the shadow of their graft. Those of the
men who had been upright soon lapsed into careless
indifference. Others robbed their employer under
his very nose, with little fear of prosecution, because
he was in such bad financial straits that he did not
dare to make a move. In three years ruin and dis-
grace fell upon that house, and it was again forced
out of business, this time for good.
By no means are all Sky-rocket salesmen worth
the effort to save them, but this can be determined
only by giving each a fair chance.
The trying-out process will usually demonstrate
that they possess marked salesmanship ability, which
is susceptible of high culture under the right tutorage.
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Men Who Sell Things
ļ
To harness their enthusiasm with judgment,
create in them singleness of purpose, impregnate
their selling-talk with logical, honest arguments,
and endow them with wear-well qualities requires
patience; but all this is possible of accomplishment
under a firm hand.
Is it worth while?
Certainly. The best salesmen any house ever
employed are secured in this way; but there must be
a good foundation to build on. The trouble is,
many employers will not be bothered with this
class. As soon as they discover their weaknesses,
out the weaklings go. And what comes then?
Order-takers, perhaps, to fill their places.
Give me enthusiasm - even though perverted ·
rather than indolence.
Now, let us see how it works out.
A Sky-rocket salesman once secured a position
with my house on the recommendation of one of our
old travellers who knew him by reputation as being
a good man. And right here let me emphasize the
fact that there is a vast difference between reputa-
tion and ability or character. Character is what a
man is; reputation is what he seemeth to be."
66
We fixed up a territory for our new man and
started him out with our hopes keyed up to the last
peg.
Our confidence was shaken by a letter received
!
[130]
The Sky-Rocket Salesman
before he had been out a week. He advised us, on
making a certain town, that the only merchant to
whom we would pass credit was trading at a neigh-
boring house, concluding his statement with a
request to send the merchant a letter under plain
envelope, addressed in care of our competitor, in-
viting him to call and inspect our line while in
the city.
We replied that we considered his request a
breach of business ethics, and that our policy did
not countenance such procedure, adding a few
side-lights on legitimate, clean-cut, above-board sell-
ing methods.
His first trip ended with a gratifying showing in
sales as indicated on the surface, and our hopes in
him seemed in a fair way to be realized.
A little later, however, goods were returned
from every section of his territory, with the state-
ments, “Not ordered,” or “Ordered on approval; if
not satisfactory to be returned." These claims for
credit were accompanied by claims for express
charges, extra discounts, and all manner of things
not quite consistent with fixed deals. Mr. Sky-
rocket had promised to do thus and so, his customers
wrote, but investigation of the order sheets sent in
failed in every instance to discover any record of
these special arrangements. We were continually
being placed in the embarrassing position of pitting
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Men Who Sell Things
the word of our salesman against that of his cus-
tomers.
We began to realize that our prize package
contained a sky-rocket, but, on the whole, enough
goods "stuck" to convince us that we really had a
good man, provided he could be made over to do
business our way. We lost no opportunity of
taking him vigorously to task. We gave him to
understand how we wished him to govern himself
in the discharge of our affairs.
Gradually a little improvement was noticed.
Complaints became less frequent and his sales con-
tinued to increase; but at best he was nervous.
He got mad at little "cropy" customers because
they did not buy enough goods to suit him; then
he would vary the programme by writing in that this
or that line was not up to the standard. When
he had exhausted his regular line of specialties, he
would wrangle about his expense account. He was
always "out" in making a settlement to the house,
notwithstanding that it was expressly understood
from the beginning that his daily allowance was not
to exceed a stipulated amount.
Training that man was more like an experience
in fitting two lengths of stove-pipe than anything I
have ever undertaken. As soon as one side was
nicely adjusted it would bulge out on the other. If
you have ever done any stove-pipe fitting, you
!
[132]
The Sky-Rocket Salesman
know that it is the most exasperating work that
man was ever engaged in. Finally, with the aid
of many heart-to-heart talks, we convinced him that
there was but one way in which he could ever hope
to build a safe and sound career; that he would
never again have so good a chance to make the best
of his opportunities in life; that if he failed to make
good with us, the crisis in his business career would
have been reached, then would come the reaction in
a down-grade pace that all the influence in the world
could not check.
The turning-point came at last, and with it
the admission from Mr. Sky-rocket that it was in-
deed a revelation to him to see the manner in
which our business was conducted, his great regret
being that he had been deprived of such training
earlier in life.
His territory, which was generally hated, was
in "the enemy's country." Under the new life that
our made-over salesman gave it, however, it devel-
oped into one of the best selling-assets of the house.
The salesman who secures patronage for the
moment by over-colored propositions and loosely
fixed principles does no lasting harm to either his
trade or his house. He merely fools himself.
If Mr. Sky-rocket will stop cheating himself
and look honestly into his career, he can read there
pretty accurately what is going to happen to him.
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Men Who Sell Things
And best of all, not only can he foretell his own
business fortune, but he can control it, if he will be
guided and warned by the weaknesses written on
the pages of his own personality.
If you are a Sky-rocket salesman, don't look at
the picture of your past misdirected effort in a
careless kind of way.
Don't say, "I'm just as good a salesman as So-
and-so." I know lots of people who might well
investigate their own characters. When you retire
for the night look into your own methods, study your
own weaknesses. Tell yourself truthfully just where
you fell down on this or that transaction, and follow
along the lines of your misconduct to the inevitable
end. If you are the least bit of a philosopher, you
can see that the end will be failure and discharge,
unless you are sincere, and mean to be guided by
what you see in your character study.
Make a new and determined effort to put
yourself under the sort of control that leads to riches
and honor.
The young man going out on the road for the
first time, if he is made of the right stuff, will soon
learn the importance of knowing what not to do to
insure his ultimate success.
A well-known authority on salesmanship says:
"The reason why there is no work in the world like
that of the travelling salesman, where a man's actions will
[134]
The Sky-Rocket Salesman
so quickly determine his success or failure, is because per-
haps that in no other vocation is a man put so absolutely
upon his own honor and ability to work out his own salva-
tion.”
The realization of this does not come with the
first trip. A salesman gets to know it only after he
has been packing and unpacking trunks for several
years. The best the salesman can attain to is what
he learns by the "rubbing" process, taught only
through bitter lessons in the school of experience.
Learn in this school how to avoid doing the
wrong thing.
[135]
Men Who Sell Things
CHAPTER X
THE ALL-HEAD-AND-NO-SOUL SALESMAN
THE
Sharp men do not cut much ice.
HE riches of salesmanship depend as much
upon what we sow as what we save.
The All-head man is like a sponge, absorbing
everything and giving out nothing. There is
neither much of sentiment nor of sympathy in his
mental make-up.
We hear it said that the actions of one man
proceed from his head, and those of another from
his heart. This difference is usually pointed out by
the man who prides himself on being "heady.”
It is well to be "heady," as the term goes, but there
is such a thing as being too heady.
A salesman is too "heady" when he measures
the value of every sale by mere head-work, and does
not allow anything for the natural influence of the
soul qualities; when he does not take into considera-
tion the greater results which might have been at-
tained through combining brain stuff with soul stuff.
On the other hand, a salesman is ruled too
much by his heart when he disregards his head and
either ignorantly or carelessly acts contrary to what
sound experience has proven to be true.
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The All-Head-and-No-Soul Salesman
Give heed to this, then: Use your head to
make your plans and carry them out, but don't neglect
the promptings of your heart, just because you meet
with a few men who have more heart than common
sense. Soul qualities, those which spring from the
heart, give life to your plans and actions. Balance
head action with heart action. I have known
some very brainy men who were wretched salesmen,
simply because they had neglected to develop soul
qualities in gathering their mental equipment
together. But you could not get them to see it.
The hardest kind of man to reach is the All-
66
head man. Stuff and nonsense," says he, when
you talk about the soul playing any part in sales-
manship. He waves you off with, "That will do
for women and children, but don't talk it to me.'
Strangely enough, failure is never humble.
That's because some one else is always to
blame. We ourselves make our successes; the
other fellow makes our failures. Failure, therefore,
always thinks itself deserving of the success which
it has not achieved.
The science of salesmanship involves the exer-
cise of the positive qualities of the body, mind, and
soul. The last is perhaps one of the most impor-
tant factors in successful salesmanship. Practical
psychology as a mighty motive power in business-
getting is receiving marked attention on the part of
"
[137]
Men Who Sell Things
intelligent commercial men everywhere. If travel-
ling salesmen as a class were to set about the develop-
ment of the powers and functions of the soul, such as
faith, brotherly kindness, and reverence, and apply
these in a practical way to the daily routine of their
business life, the results of their work would be
much enhanced.
On a certain occasion the sales manager of a
large house called one of his salesmen to his office
and said to him: "Mr. C-, you have represented
us for two years in one of the best States in the Union.
The results of your work have not been what we
might expect. It is not our purpose to discourage
you, but you have been two years planting seed
down there - now for the harvest. We shall expect
you to show largely increased sales during the next
year.
"Now, let us examine the situation. You have
an excellent territory, backed up by the strongest
house in the world in our line; you have a personal
asset in the way of general appearance that many
men would give thousands to possess a fine phy-
sique, a pleasing countenance, and a good knowl-
edge of the business. But you lack one thing."
What is that?" asked the now thoroughly
abashed but interested listener.
"Soul power, my boy. That's it. You remind
me of a fine piece of sculpture I once saw in Rome.
[138]
The All-Head-and-No-Soul Salesman
It was a statue of Moses by Michelangelo. The
work was so lifelike and so perfect in every detail
that the great artist was overcome, and in his excite-
ment struck it a severe blow on the knee, as if to
awaken it to life, and commanded, 'Speak, Moses!'
"Your work lacks life life of a nature born
of real interest in your customers. You must culti-
vate the qualities that will enable you to get close to
people, permitting you to play upon the very harp-
chords of the hearts of those with whom yoù come
in contact. Learn to draw the sympathies of your
trade to you, or you will never make your mark in
salesmanship.
"Now it is an actual fact that men generally
act more on feeling than judgment. If you make
your customers feel like buying, they are pretty sure
to buy, but if they do not feel like it they won't do it,
even if they know they ought to. Your failure
results from the fact that if there is no desire there
is no possibility of doing business.
66
Go out now and see if you cannot make your
real power lie in your ability to awaken interest and
create desire.
"Do not insist upon keeping yourself before
your customer; bear in mind that he is not interested
in you or your proposition. To make him care,
begin as soon as possible by talking about his situa-
tion, never mentioning yourself. In short, show
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Men Who Sell Things
your customers that you are deeply interested in
them."
Mr. C thanked his manager, and, depart-
ing, promised to act upon his advice.
The very first day of the following week recorded
an order from him for five hundred dollars that he
secured from an old "blue line" merchant on a line
of goods that he had always bought in another mar-
ket. He increased his sales that year twenty-seven
per cent, and all other departments of his work
showed a decided improvement. He continued right
on the next year to grow in usefulness to himself
and his house, in a way that he had not dreamed of.
The power to sway people is not altogether a
gift, by any means. It can be cultivated. In most
cases it merely requires an awakening of the soul
faculties, as in the career of Mr. C—————.
The great majority of salesmen have neglected
this side of their education, either from ignorance of
its tremendous power as a commercial and selling
asset, or because they regarded it from an erroneous
standpoint, believing it should be regarded as mere
sentimentalism.
The work of the salesman differs little in char-
acter from that of the lawyer, the preacher, the actor,
or the statesman. In each of these professions suc-
cess depends on the power to draw and persuade
people.
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The All-Head-and-No-Soul Salesman
From a business standpoint, the most important
self-knowledge is the discernment of one's powers
and the possibilities of their development. One of
the greatest of these is the power of attraction.
Many a great statesman has attained political favors
of the highest nature by his wonderful psychologi-
cal powers.
The
Some men have the faculty of easily winning
consent from the majority of their acquaintances;
at least, to almost anything they propose.
essence of this quality is not in their logic-in
the arguments and reasons with which they are
equipped,— but in arousing an impulse in the
listener to agree to the proposition that has been
advanced, before hearing all the evidence, which he
would usually require before making up his mind.
Some years ago a remarkable demonstration
along this line occurred in the city of Chicago, when
from some previously unheard of Western town
there came William Jennings Bryan, an unknown
Congressman, as a delegate to a national political
convention. In him this power had reached a won-
derful degree of development. It had an irresisti-
ble effect on most of the people who heard him. He
did not have to force the acceptance of his views on
the convention the convention's acceptance was
a matter of course so soon as he claimed its attention.
The man from the West sprang into leadership by
Y
[ 141 ]
Men Who Sell Things
acclamation; he received the unanimous nomina-
tion for the presidency of the United States, putting
all other candidates entirely out of the race.
Psychology forms the very basis of dramatic
art. It is that power developed to a marked degree
in a minister of the Gospel that causes him to move
and sway a great concourse of people, drawing them
to himself as one man. Salesman who have devel-
oped this quality, in relating experiences of certain
transactions, often speak of having felt a peculiar
power of persuasion that could not possibly result
in anything but success. Let the salesman once
taste it, and a peculiar longing to meet people and
sell goods will fasten itself upon him, impelling him,
like Alexander, to look for new worlds to conquer.
He will then have come into full realization of what
it means to exert the power of his soul functions to
the fullest degree, and his success will be an assured
fact.
Merchants will buy a bill from the purely
"head" man now and then because he is surrounded
with an atmosphere of seeming superiority, but they
do not bestow on him large and continued favors.
Somehow or other their sympathies are inclined
toward the genial fellow who employs genuine
whole-heartedness with his headiness.
One of the "headiest" salesmen in our estab-
lishment gloried in the boast of a twenty years'
[142]
The All-Head-and-No-Soul Salesman
experience on the road. He was a past master at
analyzing a proposition; a regular "stand patter❞ on
system. He constantly held up his sleeve a dozen
theories for the successful management of every
branch of the business, from the shipping depart-
ment to the office of the president.
He kept a watchful eye on every one about the
place. For any one to make a mistake was with him
an unpardonable sin. If an error occurred in any
department, he went railing and fuming about,
unmindful of the fact that his business was that of
selling goods; forgetting in his uncharitableness, or
rather, perhaps, never having known that the man
who never made a mistake never made a success of
business.
There was a certain geniality of facial expression
about this mathematically correct stickler for pre-
cise business methods, but there was no sunshine
in his soul. He never spoke a kind, helpful word
to any one or about any one. He had no sympathy
in common with his fellowmen, not the faintest con-
ception of the life-giving precepts founded on the
brotherhood of man.
While still a young man, in place of crowning
each successive year with increasing sales, he be-
came soured and embittered, on finding his annual
sales falling off and his salary cut down. This same
man might have been a power in his profession, had
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Men Who Sell Things
he but known and applied the A B C of practical
psychology in the daily routine of his work.
The brand of salesmanship that pays is the sort
that plants the seed of the brotherhood of man in the
soul, cheeriness and gentleness in the voice and man-
ner, charity toward others in the thoughts, and a
sympathetic, whole-souled genuineness in the hand-
shake. There is no better selling-asset on earth.
The All-head and No-soul Salesman must learn
to mix soul stuff with his "gray matter," if he ever
expects to achieve lasting results.
·
[144]
The Old-Timer
CHAPTER XI
THE OLD-TIMER
Don't get your headlight behind; reminis-
cence means stagnation.— Elbert Hubbard.
EXT to being turned down in his first town,
ΝΕ
NEX
the youthful First-tripper encounters no greater
discouragement than that of his initial meeting with
the professional pessimistic Old-timer, with his per-
petual grouch.
A few words with this grumbler cause the young
man to feel that the whole world of salesmanship is
a dismal slough; that nowhere in the great desert of
commercial life is there a single oasis where the dusty,
travel-stained wayfarer may rest his tired limbs and
take fresh hope with which to renew his arduous
journey. Nothing in the wide, wide world is as
good as it used to be; everything is on the highway
to perdition. If some good genie could only come
along and by a wave of the hand and a “Presto,
change" turn the whole business world backward
twenty-five or thirty years to where it was when he
first took up his gripsack, then the travelling man
would have a fair chance.
Where is the commercial traveller who has not
encountered him and given him a wide berth? He is
to be seen in the hotel lobby, disputing his bill with
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the clerk because something or other went wrong.
Next he is found quarrelling with the baggage agent
at the depot for charging too much excess on his
trunks. In the smoking compartment of the train
he is telling the boys — if he is fortunate enough to
have any listeners
listeners that business has gone to the
dogs, and that a travelling man's life at best is
nothing but a weary pilgrimage.
If he has a beaten path, he is soon singled out
For the same reason
as a bore and left to himself.
he loses business, his customers finding pleasure in
giving their favors to the man who approaches with
a light step and a cheery smile.
Not all Old-timers are of this class by any
means, but there are enough of them to warrant a
passing glance at the type. The best thing for any
young man to do is to leave him severely alone to
continue his grumbling where no harm may be
done.
No character is more beautiful in the business
world than that of the man of advanced years who
has come all the way down through the trials and
uncertainties of a busy career and preserved a cheer-
ful disposition and optimistic temperament, keeping
step with all the changes that betoken progress in
any line of industry.
You cannot go forward to any prize without
leaving behind many things that seem desirable.
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Pessimism dwarfs and dries up the soul; it kills
ambition.
Honest admiration for progress is an incentive
to good work; it develops and gives strength to all
the ambitions.
Among commercial travellers there are many
men of actual ability whose entire lives have been
thrown away because of their bitter hatred for and
constant opposition to progress of any sort. A habit
of mind once formed is hardly ever lost; and there
is no more common habit, unfortunately, among this
class than that of envy and bitterness toward innova-
tions. Among salesmen how many words are wasted
in decrying the real worth of others! A successful
salesman, old or young, is too busy to think of chang-
ing times or of what others are doing, unless it be to
look occasionally with approval and admiration at
the progressive and the successful and say, “I am glad
that times are growing better," or, "I am pleased
he is doing so well. I shall try to improve also.
""
Do we not all know instinctively, as soon as we
hear a man talk optimistically or praise another
freely and highly, that the man who talks thus is
himself on the right track? And do we not all know
that the man criticising, attacking, and belittling
real effort is small, and growing smaller?
Jnless the heart is light, we cannot keep pace
with the times.
$
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"Bigotry puts blinders on the best of men."
The value of keeping step is humorously illus-
trated in a story I once heard Alexander H. Revell,
a prominent Chicago merchant and public-spirited
man, tell on himself.
In the year 1877 he joined a regiment of State
militia. On a certain public occasion before Mr.
Revell had graduated from the awkward squad,
the regiment turned out on dress parade, he being
given the end of a line in the march. He had a
maiden aunt with soldier blood in her veins, in-
herited from Colonial days. She, with others, had
a prominent place in the store window facing the
line of march. As the regiment appeared, her enthu-
siasm knew no bounds. The old-time spirit fired her
blood, as she fairly glowed with satisfaction, com-
menting on each company as it passed. When the
company arrived in which her nephew was march-
ing, she was observed to wear an expression of per-
plexity, and was heard to remark: "Look! look at
that company! Every single man is out of step except
my nephew Alexander.”
The trouble with every Old-timer who is out
of tune with the universe is that he thinks every-
thing in it is out of step and out of harmony but
himself.
While engaged in a special line of work in con-
nection with the Chicago Commercial Association
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!
The Old-Timer
i
I once had occasion to call to arms a large number
of business men in that city eligible to membership.
Among the hundreds of replies received there was one
from a man old enough to be my grandfather that set
my red corpuscles to tingling. It is the best illustra-
tion of optimism in old age that I have ever encoun-
tered. In the hope that it may inspire every young
man, as it did the author, I publish the letter
verbatim.
"MY DEAR SIR:
Your kind invitation to become one of the
Bully, Busy, Brother Boosters is received, and I am
exceedingly sorry to have to send regrets, only on
account of my financial inability.
66
'Yes, I attended the Goodfellowship Supper
and took great delight in the many good things that
were said about Chicago, and to see the determina-
tion of that magnificent body of live men, live work-
ers, showing they were all connected with a live wire,
and would make Chicago a good place to live. I
first saw Chicago the year that Mr. Wacker said he
was born
66
1856.
'My heart is with you, and what influence I
have shall be used toward making Chicago a greater
Chicago, and in doing what I can to improve the
condition of my
fellowmen.
"I have been closely associated with the whole-
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sale grocery trade of Chicago and the entire North-
west for fifty years, and, though seventy-one years
old, am an active, live broker, working every day in
the year.
"The old man with the napkin in his hand, op-
posite the word 'ciation' in the lower left hand
corner of your 'Appeal to join the Legion,' is me.
I just got in by the skin of my face."
The last paragraph of this remarkable letter re-
fers to his attendance at the Goodfellowship Supper.
Our progress is made by what we forget as well
as by what we remember. Too many of us remem-
ber the wrong things. We need to learn what to
forget. We all dislike to remember that we are
sometimes wrong and need to be straightened out.
It hurts to have the kinks taken out. Of course
you have no kinks; but your neighbor has,—we've
heard you say so. Well, then, it's a good thing to
get a picture of your neighbor. It will help you to
learn how he can be straightened. That's a matter
of vital importance.
Diplomacy above all other things should become
more deep-seated with the salesman who has long
served in the harness.
The salesman who is a born diplomat has much
to thank the fates and his parents for; but what is
still lacking in his princely heritage may be acquired,
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The Old-Timer
like many other valuable qualities; without it the
salesman is like a ship without a rudder, caught in
the trough of the sea of commercial competition.
Reduced to its lowest terms, diplomacy is just
plain, good horse sense.
A diplomat is a man who jumps from in front of
a moving train. He does not put dynamite in his
oven to dry. He has due respect for the hind quar-
ters of a strange mule. He reins up on perceiving
a red light in the centre of the road. He talks to the
point when he addresses a brusque business man.
He does not feed the animals at the circus. He be-
lieves in to-day, and that to-morrow is worth only
twenty-four hours of uncertainty. He believes that
human nature is the humanest thing on earth, and
therefore makes his own deductions for egotism,
grouchiness, reserve, penury, and woe; and he does
not prod them with a sharp-pointed rod when to do
so would bring only defeat.
Chicanery is not diplomacy, and policy is often
deceit; both are bogus when measured by the stand-
ard of true tact.
It is mean to press an unfair advantage, but the
man is a simpleton who refuses to recognize the ad-
vantage that is rightly his.
The born salesman, young or old, is the one who
towers head and shoulders above his fellows in the
science of reading human nature.
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There should be no age limit for The Man Who
Sells Things, provided he retains his youth in old
age.
Good
"It is better to wear out than to rust out."
hard work, performed with a cheerful disposition or
temperament, never yet produced creeping paralysis
under three-score years and ten, at least. Age does
not disable a man, but inactivity, lack of progressive
instinct, or a despondent disposition does.
If the salesman wants to preserve his usefulness
and likewise his position, he must not become an-
tiquated in his methods.
One of the most common and most fatal of mis-
takes made by many middle-aged salesmen is that
when they have built up a good trade and are
headed well up toward the top of the sales list of
their firms, they seem content with the record they
have made, and are inclined to rest on their oars.
At the precise moment when energy and advance-
ment no longer enter their calculations, decay sets
in. The trade that has required years of patient,
intelligent toil to establish will soon be gobbled up
by energetic young fellows eager for the fray.
I well remember witnessing, when a boy, a
twenty-five-mile bicycle race. It was the champion-
ship race for the long-distance record of the world,
and was participated in by two brothers, famous the
country over for speed and power of endurance.
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The Old-Timer ·
>
They held all manner of medals and prizes for races
won, and were quickly picked as the winners of the
race on that day.
It was a beautiful day; the occasion was a gala
one; the clear, crisp air was fraught with excitement
in anticipation of the results that would determine the
world's championship.
The two brothers were cheered again and again
as they mounted their wheels and rode leisurely away
to what was generally conceded to be another victory
to be added to their already long list of conquests in
the sport.
The first lap of six miles was finished with the
contestants pretty well bunched as they passed the
judges' stand. The friends of the favorites ex-
pressed surprise because the brothers had not left the
others behind at the offset. Confidently, however,
they believed that the finish of the half would see
them well in the lead.
A great shout rent the air as the riders hove in
sight on the second lap. As they came nearer it was
observed that the brothers, although riding close
together, were distanced several lengths by three
others who seemed determined on keeping the lead.
As they passed, they apparently were riding easily,
with no thought of defeat; but their apparent con-
fidence was not shared by the anxious crowd. A
foreboding swept over the throng, not so much from
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the position of the riders as from that indefinable
suspicion that all was not right.
Cries of dismay were quickly suppressed on the
assurance of the over-confident ones that all good
riders started that way,- slowly and without effort,
-holding in reserve their speed and strength, in-
creasing these as the race continued, and finishing
with a burst of both.
Anxiously we waited for the finish of the three-
quarters. A cloud of dust announced the leaders
in the distance as they rounded the home-stretch.
On they came, tearing like mad straight for the wire,
where the crowd was thickest. Like a flash they
were past
each man was bending lower and work-
ing like a Trojan. In a second they were out of
sight again around the curve - but that second was
all that was necessary to disclose the sickening fact
that the distance between the brothers and the first
rider had not been diminished. The confident ones
still adhered to their first theory, which seemed to
bring a measure of assurance, for at last the brothers
were working with a determination that bordered on
the supernatural.
The agony was soon over. The last half was
finished in about half the time the others had re-
quired. As the riders again appeared in the home-
stretch the vast crowd was on tip-toe, anxiously
hoping for the best; which meant that the race
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The Old-Timer
must be won by the favorites. The rider who had
held the lead all along was a stranger, and naturally
was regarded as an intruder.
All things must end some time, happily or
otherwise, and that race was soon finished.
There is little else to tell that cannot easily be
imagined; the brothers failed to regain the position
lost on the start through over-confidence resultant
from past achievements. When they came up to
the judges' stand, willing but disappointed hands
helped their almost lifeless forms from their wheels,
and carried them away from the field of conquest,
which, for them, had been turned into defeat.
honors could not win a race that depended solely
on present opportunity. With that defeat, their
daring and skill seemed to desert them. Like the
bird with the broken wing that never soars so high
again, they were not heard much of after that in
racing circles.
Past
I have seen many such cases among salesmen
in my business career.
Don't become antiquated in your business meth-
ods; don't let your customers see that younger men
are more energetic, more up-to-date than yourself.
If
you want to hold old customers and make new
ones every year—which is absolutely necessary —
you must be progressive and aggressive.
March forward with the times. Then you will
*
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hold your place in the ranks of salesmen as well as
any young man starting on the road to-day.
Close your eyes and think of the past, the pres-
ent, and the future, and —
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying,
And this same flower that smiles to-day,
To-morrow will be dying."
It is far better to be optimistic, even though we
begin late in life.
"Drop a word of cheer and kindness — just a flash, and it
is gone,
But there's half a hundred ripples circling on, and on, and
on,
Bearing hope, and joy, and comfort, on each splashing,
dashing wave,
Till you would n't believe the volume of the one kind word
you gave.
"Drop a word of cheer and kindness — in a minute you
forget,
But there's gladness still a-swelling, and there's joy a-
circling yet;
And
you 've rolled a wave of comfort, whose sweet music
can be heard
Over miles and miles of water, just by dropping a kind
word."
Q
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The Old-Timer
66
'Hard licks make good luck."
1
THE BASE-BALL GAME OF LIFE
Life is like a base-ball game,
With Chance as pitcher: Fate,
Alert, determined, pitiless,
Stands just behind the plate.
Out in the field are Hopelessness,
Timidity, and all
Our other weaknesses prepared
To catch or stop the ball.
The stands are filled with many who
Accord us hoots and jeers,
And sprinkled with them, are a few
Who give us honest cheers.
And each man gets his chance to bat,
And many fan the air,
And now and then one makes a hit,
And wins out then and there.
Life is like a base-ball game,
And bitterly we choose
To fasten all the blame on Luck,
The umpire, when we lose.
E. KISER, in the "Chicago Record-Herald."
ご
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SU
CHAPTER XII
THE RIGHT KIND OF SALESMAN
You shall find no boy's play here, I
can tell you.
Thou ever strong upon the stronger
side!
Thou Fortune's champion!
When the hurly burly's done. When
the battle's lost and won.
To attempt a great work is to become a
great worker.
No man rises without being knocked
down a few times.
The front door to success lies through
the garden of duty.
A salesman's science never dies so long
as it is doing something.
UCCESSFUL salesmanship is a product of the
positive qualities. Its component parts might
best be indicated in the statement that the Right
Kind of a Salesman has what his negative brethren
have not.
In place of being a knocker, he is a booster;
in place of being an order-taker, he is a business-
getter; in place of being fussy or over-anxious, he is
composed, but aggressive; in place of being a wheel-
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The Right Kind of Salesman
barrow, he is a Great Mogul; in place of being a
know-it-all, he is keen and dignified; in place of
being quick-tempered, he is self-poised and genial;
in place of being a sky-rocket, he is a wear-weller;
in place of being all head and no soul, he is a mix-
ture of both; in place of being an old-timer or a
down-and-outer, he is an up-and-inner.
By this I do not mean to imply that right sales-
men possess all the positive qualities that enter into
successful salesmanship, but the average is good.
I have known many "top-notchers" in our profes-
sion, not one of whom but was marked by some
specific qualification that easily distinguished him
from the man of mediocre ability.
:
In every case there showed development of some
one positive quality to a marked degree,— such as
educated enthusiasm, unswerving fidelity to pur-
pose, persistent determination to win, a thorough
knowledge of his own business and a reasonable con-
ception of business interests in general, with a fair
balance of other requisites, like tact, honesty, and
good-fellowship.
It goes without saying that an indispensable con-
dition for success in every career is contained in a
single word-WORK.
The little girl was perfectly correct in her answer
when the teacher asked her to give an example of a
quadruped.
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"A horse," was the reply.
"Correct. Give another example."
"Another horse." No room for doubt there.
And thus, in this and every other age, in the
lives of all men who do things, there has been but
one way to spell success, and that is W-O-R-K,
WORK.
A salesman may be brainy, but he must work;
honest, but he must work; diplomatic, but he must
work; optimistic, but he must WORK.
If he would graduate from the classes we have
been discussing in the nine preceding chapters, and
come into the field of endeavor worth while, he must
work.
What does an optimist do?
Having the choice of many opportunities, he
chooses them all. Just the reverse of the pessimist,
who, having the choice of two evils, chooses both.
Again, being of good cheer and good faith, he
counts every day a good day in his struggle for self-
mastery and higher and better results, looking toward
permanency.
The only sure way to win is to commence to win
from the start, and then-keep everlastingly at it.
Another and most pronounced feature of suc-
cessful salesmanship is faith.
It is exceedingly difficult to get many otherwise
bright and capable men to realize that their lack of
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The Right Kind of Salesman
success is more often due to a lack of faith in them-
selves than to any other one thing.
I shall never forget the inspiration that was
mine when I first thoroughly learned the lesson of
the value of faith in one's self and surroundings.
For several years I was equally interested with
four others in a jobbing business which was located
in an isolated market, and which yielded but a
fair working salary to its owners. I grew restless
because we were unable to build the business up to a
point of greater profit, and determined to cut loose
and seek more lucrative fields, where there would
be some possibility of expansion.
Having carefully considered several proposi-
tions, I finally selected the one that, so far as I could
judge, held forth the best advantages for a perma-
nent and successful future.
The deal closed, I removed to another and much
larger city to enter upon a three years' contract as
sales manager for the largest house of its kind in the
world, employing a force of forty general salesmen
and twice as many stock or house men. I entered up-
on my new duties filled to the brim with enthusiasm,
believing that I knew salesmen from A to Z, having
travelled myself ten years, before taking charge of
our own salesmen in the business that I had just left.
But I soon learned that I still had a great deal
to learn in the management of so large a force. The
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experience was not only newer and larger than any-
thing I had previously undertaken, but my new house
had not up to that time conducted a thorough sales
department under a managing head, such as was
then being installed in all large concerns.
This meant that I had two new propositions to
work out the organization of the men, and the
organization of the department. And right here,
with all due respect to our men for they were the
best in the business let me say that, for a new
man coming into a new house to tackle a new
proposition like that, where so many travelling
salesmen were concerned, was like running a col-
lege freshman up against a Rugby foot-ball team for
the first time.
Naturally the men regarded me with suspicion
and as an intruder, coming among them perhaps to
limit their freedom and to make their future a night-
mare of red-tape rules and regulations.
Carefully I figured this all out beforehand, and
well did I know that I should have to gain their con-
fidence before instituting any radical new policies.
Somehow or other things did not progress as
nicely as I had calculated they would, and I began to
construe their attitude toward the new departure as
being hostile to me. The men were slow in making
or reciprocating friendly overtures, and instead of
taking things easy, working the meanwhile along the
1
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The Right Kind of Salesman
lines of least resistance, I began to force things; but
I soon learned the error of such a policy. Every-
thing was really going along as well as could be ex-
pected under the circumstances, but I could not see
it that way.
The trouble? Impatience, that's all,-the
common fault of most young men who want to get
on in the world. Impatience is about as useless a
thing as any young man can encumber himself with.
It produces no end of worry and absolutely nothing
in the way of profit.
The trouble I was experiencing was due to im-
patience, and was for the most part an imaginary
and not a real trouble.
If there was discord in our work together, it
was simply and solely because I was continually an-
ticipating something of the sort - as the boys would
say, "sort of egging it on in my mind."
I worked on in that mental atmosphere for sev-
eral months, chafing inwardly at this chimerical
enmity between the men and their manager, at the
same time putting on the best front I could muster.
Finally, one morning I had an awakening. It
was a rude shock, but it did the business.
While speeding along on an “L” train to the
office, I began to arraign myself something after this
fashion
"You're a nice sort of sales manager! You
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preach Faith continually to your men, and you
haven't a drop in your own veins. You're not will-
ing to meet your men half-way on confidence, while
expecting every man jack o' them to give to you, a
stranger, the fullest degree of that precious article.
Here you've been building up trouble for yourself
in your mind all these months on account of the sins
of the other fellow, when the trouble lies entirely
with yourself. Now, this can't go on much longer.
This whole business is mere mental moonshine, if
you only had good horse sense enough to realize it.
"There's nothing in the world the matter, ex-
cept with yourself. Sweep the cobwebs of distrust
out of the place where your gray matter is supposed
to be and likewise the despondency out of your
mental atmosphere, and things will look different.
"You are doing good work. You have heard
no complaint from headquarters. Your methods
are all right. Both will win out in time if you'll
give them a fair chance. Now, brace up and have
FAITH in your house, your men, your proposition,
and yourself.
"That's all you need-just faith, coupled with
good horse sense."
There was no rebuttal evidence. The examina-
tion finished, on reaching my office I rested the case,
and that was all there was to it.
From that hour, things took on a different hue.
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The Right Kind of Salesman
Everything connected with my department moved
forward with a vigor and a satisfaction that were
reassuring, to say the least.
That mental blue-print of myself was my
salvation, and added immeasurably to the comfort
and well-being of all concerned.
It's a great thing to have faith in yourself,-
not too much, but enough to keep you from slipping
backward in the race for success.
The famous Glasgow clergyman, Mr. John Mc-
Neil, while preaching in Chicago during the World's
Fair year, wishing to emphasize the value of faith,
related the following rather remarkable incident
which occurred in his career as pastor. Said he:
"Many Christian people have their prayers only half
answered because they have not sufficient faith that they
will be answered in full. Let me illustrate that.
"During my pastorate of a certain church in
we had occasion to make extensive repairs, and the church
was heavily in debt. It worried me a great deal, and I
made it a subject of much prayer. A stranger called on
me one day in my study, and to my utter amazement he
said: 'Mr. McNeil, you do not know who I am, and it does
not matter. I understand you have a debt on your church
that you are anxious to pay. I have heard a great deal
about you and the work you are doing, and I want to help
you with that debt.'
"Taking a check-book out of his pocket, he tore out
a blank and laid it before me on my desk. "There,' said
he, ‘fill that out for the amount you require, and I will
return later and sign it'; and he was gone before I could
stop him.
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"I sat there looking at that blank check, failing to
comprehend what it all meant. 'Surely,' said I, 'he does
not realize that the amount of our debt runs into thousands
of pounds sterling. He would never give that much if he
knew. But he told me to make it out for the full amount.
No. He could n't have known. I'll put down half the
amount. I am afraid when he sees how large it is he will
not sign even for that amount.'
"After a little the stranger returned, asked for the
check, and with scarcely a glance he affixed his signature,
took
up his hat, and left without another word.
"Mechanically I looked at the bit of paper, felt it,
searched it; at last the name drew and held my gaze.
With peculiar force the truth dawned upon me, and like-
wise the genuineness of the check. The signature was
that of a wealthy and philanthropic man whose generous
acts were well known to me, although I had never met him
before. When I realized that he meant what he said, and
could easily have paid the whole amount of the debt, I said,
'O man of little faith! I will never doubt again.
That story is a faithful picture of many men
in the business life who fail to take opportunity
when it is offered.
To every salesman Opportunity opens the door
to success. Those who perceive and enter gain
the treasure. To those who do not heed, Oppor-
tunity says:
Master of human destinies am I;
Fame, love, and fortune on my footsteps wait;
Cities and fields I walk; I penetrate
Deserts and seas remote, and passing by
Hovel and mart and palace, soon or late
I knock unbidden once at every gate.
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The Right Kind of Salesman
If sleeping, wake; feasting, rise before
I turn away. It is the hour of fate,
And they who follow me reach every state
Mortals desire, and conquer every foe
Save death; but those who doubt or hesitate,
Condemned to failure, penury, and woe,
Seek me in vain, and uselessly implore.
I answer not, and I return no more.
JOHN J. INGALLS.
Successful salesmen - those who make terri-
tories yield a permanent, profitable business, the
sort who "wear" well-must and do possess strong
positive force.
Doubt befogs mind force. Indecision crucifies
precision of action.
Inoculation of doubts in the salesman's mind
poisons his enthusiasm.
There is little doubt that the degree of a man's
power of persuasion depends upon his earnestness
and enthusiasm.
Persistently thinking right means persistently
acting right.
The true salesman learns what kind of thoughts
count; he thinks them, acts them, until they become
a part of his being, forming the directing force in
his success.
The Right Kind of Salesman begins by training
himself. From the first mistake in the first town of
his first trip until he lays down his grip for the last
time, he is in constant training.
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and what a
Early in his career he discovers
power that discovery is!-that the same tactics he
would employ in training his horse would, if used
upon himself, secure him against doubt and failure.
Over and over again with infinite patience and
determination he declares to himself with spirit,
"I Will" and "I Am"- until he comes to a thor-
ough belief in his power to win men and sales.
Right thinking and right doing those are the
means by which he keeps his name at the top of the
sales list.
The Right Kind of Salesman has no fear of
opposition, whether it be from his customers or
his competitors.
How well he knows from experience in his
early days that to listen to rebuff with ears that hear
is but to succumb to a greater force than he himself
possesses! Sharp thrusts received in the school of
experience cause him to be watchful. Constantly
he cultivates the thoughts and habits in himself
that teach him how to parry successfully all negative
influence from within or without.
All successful salesmen are optimistic. They
see only the side of things that wins, and recognize
no superior among competitors. The real salesman
so schools himself that he is able to sell a poor line
of goods on a poorer territory, solely upon the
strength of his own personality. What a mighty
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The Right Kind of Salesman
human dynamo he is when he finds his lot cast
among circumstances wholly congenial!
And so
the world about him always moves onward to better
and bigger things; slowly but surely he leaves
behind to rust and shrivel and die every adverse
suggestion, everything that has tended to lessen his
power.
It is lack of brain activity that keeps the class
of salesmen that go round and round and round,
year in and year out doing things in the same old
way, always hugging the despicable place at the
bottom of the sales sheet.
It is lack of the kind of brains that work and
dig and sweat till they find a way to get things done,
brains that go to the bottom of things, brains that
are always looking for better things, brains that
never give up a problem till they find a way to
solve it.
In mechanics to-day the electric dynamo
stands as the highest development of mechanical
power. Among salesmen the highest is the human
dynamo, the man whose brain is charged with
dynamic force; whose heart is on fire with enthu-
siasm and push; who leads the strenuous life and
likes it; who is always dissatisfied, always fighting
for bigger and better results; who sets his goal-post
far out in the field of endeavor, and knows no rest
until he reaches it; who is on the keen scent for
2
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1.
newer and better ideas to help him in his work;
who is willing to sweat blood to get what he wants;
who believes the head of his house and his manager
know as much as he does; who believes the credit
man will give both himself and his customers a
square deal; who believes that the buyers of the
establishment that pays him his salary know as much
about buying goods as he does about selling them;
who knows that the goods of his house are good
goods, the right kind, and will sell, and that he can
sell them; who spurns the habits of indifference, of
shirking, of mischief-making, of arrogance toward
customers, of mutual jealousy, the "click" habit;
who avoids, as evidence of weakness, such thoughts
as "Oh, what's the use? The sales manager's
got it in for me. He's a dreamer, anyway.
always get the worst end of everything, no matter
what I do." The model salesman avoids, as worst
of all, the habit of fault-finding and criticism of
superiors. He is the kind of salesman that forms
the title of this chapter. It is that kind, and no
other, that gets the big prizes in the business game.
What are you, Mr. Salesman ?
I
A human dynamo, or just a common member
of the Sons of Rest? Never mind the other fellow
-how is it with yourself? That is the question.
Are you cultivating confidence in the value of
your own ideas, and in your power to use them?
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The Right Kind of Salesman
Did it ever occur to you that you could do as well
as others, if you would only bring yourself to believe
it ?
I have observed in many successful salesmen
the desire and willingness to grasp at every good idea
from any source that will aid them in making sales.
The humblest men in our profession are those who
are at the head.
I remember on a certain occasion issuing a
statement to our travelling force, which was intended
to inspire in them an optimistic survey of the month
upon which we were about to enter. The state-
ment contained facts and figures of the month just
ended, showing the percentage of increase in various
departments, and wound up with a forecast of the
month to come as viewed from the standpoint of
the managing staff. The men were all in from
the road, winding up a period of house trade, and
about to depart for a "filling in" trip.
A few minutes after the letter had been dis-
tributed, I chanced to saunter down "Salesmen's
Row," the name the stock-boys had given the aisle
that skirted their long row of desks. My approach
was unnoticed by a group of salesmen clustered
about the desk of one of our "Sons of Rest," who
happened to have the distinction of being the ring-
leader of a small coterie of professional critics.
He was reading aloud to the others from my
*
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Men Who Sell Things
statement, and had reached the part concerning the
forecast of the coming month, when he laid the
paper down and in a tone of withering sarcasm
said, "Umph! The idle dream of an office man.”
Catching the exclamation on passing, I wheeled
and squarely faced him. Perceiving me standing
there for the first time, he became confused. His
eyes sought the floor as he blurted out, "A fine
letter, sir, and right to the point. Hit the nail right
on the head. Yes, sir, hit the nail right on the head.”
Six weeks later the man who led the force in
point of sales and general efficiency bustled into my
office, just in from his trip. Warmly extending his
hand, he said in tones of deep appreciation:
"That statement you compiled just before I
left home did the business. It helped me wonder-
fully. It was tough work landing business this trip;
but on one occasion when I had sweat blood with a
dealer in my sample-room without being able to
sell him, I pulled out your letter and read it to him.
Stamped as it was with the authority of the house,
it made an impression, helping me to get some hard
orders that otherwise I would have lost. Send me
that kind of stuff as often as you get it out."
His attitude, coupled with that simple state-
ment, furnished the key to his success, namely, that
he was alert, and made use of everything that could
possibly contribute to his success in sales-making.
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The Right Kind of Salesman
A day or two later brought in the other man,
the leader of the Order of the Sons of Rest. As
may easily be imagined, he reported a poor trip.
He had all manner of excuses to offer for his failure.
Failure and excuses go together.
If such salesmen could only read what takes
place in their employer's mind when weighing the
salesmen on his staff, one against another, there
would be at least a slight hope of their being grad-
uated from the Order of the Sons of Rest, but their
untrained powers of calculation do not admit of their
philosophizing so far.
Believing the opportunity was at hand to arouse
Mr. S. O. R. Van Winkle from his state of selling-
lethargy, I asked him whether or not he had found
the statement issued by the sales department just
before he left of any use to him on his trip. He
looked perplexed, scratched his head, and remarked
that he could not remember just what statement I
referred to. There were many statements issued.
He thought he could find it in his grip, where he
carried all current mail from the house; he would
look it up when he returned home that evening.
"No matter. Let it go, let it go," said I.
"It's too late to use it now, but let me remind you
that that little piece of paper you misinterpreted to
your fellow-salesmen as 'An idle dream of an office
man' helped one of our men to increase by a goodly
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Men Who Sell Things
margin, while you have been idling along in an
atmosphere of self-satisfied self-efficiency, which has
amounted to nothing more than inefficiency."
The salesman who hopes to get on in the world
comes to know sooner or later that
Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much;
Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.
The salesman who succeeds believes that his
position implies that the firm puts its trust in him,
that it calls for the best work in him, and that he
should perform it to the best of his ability. That
is the only view that brings any satisfaction to the
doer.
The salesman who skimps his work not only runs
an excellent chance of being detected, but he is con-
stantly injuring himself.
The position of the salesman at the top of the
sales sheet may seem to be up-hill, but to the sales-
man on the down-grade it only increases the oppor-
tunities of the up-grade man to try to cheat.
No salesman ever built his house upon the sands
but some hurricane came along and blew it over. In
this age of lightning-like business changes, who can
predict when the next hurricane will arrive? When
it comes to the salesman it is better for him to be
living in a secure place.
No salesman can tell to what test his salesman-
ship will be put. It is better, then, to fortify himself
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The Right Kind of Salesman
against the day of trial with true knowledge, so that
no matter what strain is put upon it, his professional
skill will pass through triumphantly and bring to him
promotion and honor.
The most selfish salesmen agree that it is poor
policy, if nothing worse, to cheat oneself. The best
is none too good to attempt.
It is sometimes necessary to have nerve enough
to lose some business, in order to gain the best busi-
ness that is to be secured on your territory. A great
many salesmen form the practice in sales-building of
holding a dime so close to the eye that they fail
utterly to perceive the dollars beyond.
$
One of the most successful salesmen of my ac-
quaintance employed the quality of self-restraint in
his work on the road to a marked degree.
At the time of my first meeting with him he was
very much cast down because his house had inti-
mated a desire to let him go, for the reason that his
sales did not seem large enough for the territory he
was covering mostly in large cities.
He related his experience to me, and his plan
was one of the most logical I have ever known; but
during the two years he had been representing that
house he had not been able to secure their confi-
dence to the extent that he could frankly confide in
them his plans for ultimate success.
We talked things over, and I encouraged him to
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Men Who Sell Things
persist in his methods, maintaining that they were
bound to win, because, whether he knew it or not, he
was working along highly scientific lines. I urged
him to take his managers more fully into his con-
fidence, which he was shortly afterwards able to do
through a fortunate combination of circumstances.
And then I watched him advance, which he did by
leaps and bounds. To-day he enjoys an enviable
reputation for high-grade salesmanship in that very
house that wanted to let him out a few years since.
On first entering his territory, his plan was to
look the ground over carefully. He then com-
menced to build, always with an eye to the future.
The prospect of immediate sales failed to dazzle him,
unless they were of the sort that would make good
timber for erecting his superstructure as a whole.
When calling on the trade in a large city, it was
entirely foreign to his policy to jump right in and sell
to every dealer that had a Bradstreet or Dun rating
that would pass muster in the credit department.
Instead, he cautiously laid his acquaintance among
a limited number of the very best merchants, and
began by trying to secure their confidence, and thus
draw their sympathy largely to himself and his house.
He believed that the best way to do that was not by
selling them the largest possible bill every time he
had a chance, but by often selling them the smallest
bill possible.
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The Right Kind of Salesman
Frequently on his return visits, if conditions
were not just right, he would not attempt a sale at all,
preferring to cement his relations by helpful sugges-
tions, and otherwise strengthen his position in their
confidence.
In starting a new customer, he highly favored the
plan of selling merely a sample or “ sorting up” order.
From the small vantage-point gained, step by step he
followed up his work, never permitting himself to
betray a confidence once reposed in him by over-
loading a customer.
He was clear-headed, patient, honest, logical,
courteous, always on his guard, and extremely tact-
ful. Finally, when his preliminary work was com-
plete, he moved in and took possession of his own.
He sells the very best accounts in his territory, and
no competitor can either undermine or wrench away
from him the confidence his customers repose in him.
To sum up his work from start to finish, he
succeeded because he was not over-anxious, and
knew the value of making his work fit a set plan.
It is a great thing to be able to play, not a dull
game, but a waiting game in salesmanship. The
salesman gets what he goes after, provided only he is
not afraid to work and sweat. But he must not for-
get that it is a good thing to sweat mentally once in
a while, as well as physically.
There are no dull months for the intelligent
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Men Who Sell Things
salesman. Dull months are for dull salesmen, not
for live ones. If you were a carpenter and your saw
was dull, would you say, "I can't work this month;
my saw is dull"? No. You would get up early in
the morning and file that saw before breakfast. You
would make it eat its way through an oak board
like a ten-year-old boy through a piece of pump-
kin pie.
The live salesman does exactly the same thing.
At the first sign of approaching dulness he sharpens
up his business tools and goes after business. And
he gets it, too.
The salesman who expects trade to be dull, and
is willing it should be dull, will have it dull.
Likewise the salesman who expects his customers
to have no more confidence in him than in the ordi-
nary salesman will find just what he expects.
The salesman who lags back on the straight and
narrow path of rectitude, and says, "I've got my
customers just where I want them now, and I'll take
pretty good care that they get enough of my goods
to keep them from buying elsewhere,” just because
he has succeeded in winning their confidence for the
time being, will get just what he is looking for,- lost
prestige, by the shortest possible route. You can
have lost prestige, like dull months, if you want it.
But you'll be out of date if you get either, because
confidence is the basis of all right trade.
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The Right Kind of Salesman
The Right Kind of Salesman believes in doing
his duty every day, and in doing each duty faithfully.
President Roosevelt tells a good story to urge
duty and emphasize his oft-repeated declarations
that opportunities are often overlooked.
"I remember down in the village where I lived
there was a decent but dreamy young fellow, a little
apt to spend his time thinking how well he could have
led his life under other conditions. His mother was
a hard-working woman. One day he was reading in
the paper an account of a fire in New York and the
heroic deeds of a fireman in rescuing people from the
burning building. His mother was busy around the
room. Soon he put down-the paper and said, with
a sigh, 'Oh, how I would like to rescue somebody
from a burning building!'
"His mother answered, 'Well, I'll tell you.
This building is not on fire, but if you will get in the
kindling wood, I'll be obliged to you.'
There is a good moral lesson in that for all
salesmen.
The way to be a good salesman is to be a good
neighbor to your customers, then a good neighbor to
your fellow-salesmen in your own establishment, and
to act toward your firm so that you become the kind
of man they are glad to have work for them, or for
whom they are glad to work. The business life of
the employer and that of the employee should go
C
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Men Who Sell Things
hand in hand, supporting one another. Make your
firm feel glad to have you in their business family;
feel that you are a good man to do business for
them, and a good man for them to do business with.
That's what the Right Kind of Salesman does. His
creed for all day, and every day in the year except
Sunday, is:
"I believe in the goods I am selling, in the firm
I am working for, and in my ability to get results.
"I believe that honest goods can be sold to
honest men by honest methods.
"I believe in working, not waiting; in laughing,
not weeping; in boosting, not knocking; and in the
pleasure of selling goods.
"I believe that a man gets what he goes after;
that one order to-day is worth two orders to-morrow;
and that no man is down and out until he has lost
faith in himself.
"I believe in to-day and in the work I am
doing; in to-morrow when it comes, and in the
work I hope to do; and in the sure reward which
the future holds.
"I believe in courtesy, in generosity, in good
cheer, in kindness, in friendship, and in honest com-
petition.
every
"I believe there is an order somewhere for
man ready to take one. I believe I am ready right
now."
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The Mind as a Magnet
HAL
CHAPTER XIII
THE MIND AS A MAGNET
He who adopts no high standards
is the only one who never fails.
ALF the pleasure in making a big success con-
sists in knowing just how it has been accom-
plished in being able to say, "I used this or that
chance to good advantage"; "I should have failed
if I had not known just how and when to apply this
faculty or that talent, as the case required. How
glad I am that I understand myself and my work,
and can use what accomplishments I have intelli-
gently!"
But a good many men lose half the pleasure
of their success. All they know is that they have
worked hard and done their best, and, "as luck
would have it," everything has prospered. They
are satisfied with the material results, so that it
does not occur to them to find out specifically to
what powers within themselves these results can
be attributed.
If you were to ask them by what steps they had
developed into "geniuses," they would have to an-
swer, like Topsy, that they "jest growed." Or they
perhaps would privately agree with you, if you called
them "born salesmen." It would be more satis-
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Men Who Sell Things
fying to know just what qualities, alleged to have
been born in a man, operate in assuring the success
of everything he undertakes.
Any salesman who seriously hopes to improve
his work must sometimes weigh very carefully the
mental qualifications that tend to make him either a
success or a failure. If he is at all thoughtful, he
attaches more importance to his progress than he
does to the weighing of external conditions, such as
labor troubles, a shortage in crops, rumors of war,
etc. He knows that the laws that govern the mind's
action have a more direct bearing on the results of
his work as a salesman than foreign complications
and the stringency in trade conditions described as
"hard times."
Practical psychology is a mighty motive power
in business-getting, and is receiving marked atten-
tion on the part of thinking men in various walks of
business life.
Some people speak of the "soul power" which
gives its possessor some measure of control over
others. We hear of ministers and missionary work-
ers who are practically masters of whole commu-
nities. Sometimes they are opposed and even per-
secuted when they begin their work, but end by
commanding the docile obedience of the persons who
at the start made trouble. Other people describe
the same quality as "psychic force." The impor-
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The Mind as a Magnet
tant thing is not so much the name given to such an
agency as the fact that it enables a man to make
others see and accept his point of view as their own.
The vital question is, whether or not it can be used
by salesmen as a means for increasing the volume
of their orders.
Some salesmen have demonstrated that this can
be done. They seldom hear a refusal. Customers
who are prejudiced and obdurate forget their nat-
ural combativeness when a salesman of the type we
are describing appears. He gets their order, some-
times without any argument at all, and almost
always without any difficulty or waste of time. It
seems natural that all people should agree with him,
accept the ideas he advances, and do very nearly
what he wants them to do.
Either consciously or unconsciously, he is
exercising what has been variously described as
"soul power," "psychic force," and "personal mag-
netism.'
""
There is no question that the power of attraction
which gives one man ascendency over others can be
cultivated by any one who is sufficiently persistent
and painstaking in the effort. Psychologists have
not given us any formula for developing this quality.
Any one who is interested, however, can suggest
ways and means for himself, which will help toward
the desired end.
!
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Men Who Sell Things
The first step toward accomplishment in this
direction is a careful study of the successful men
who are described as "born salesmen," and who get
their results by exercising this mental force. It will
be found that all men possessed of personal magnetism
are very much in earnest. Their intense earnestness
is magnetic. Their minds are filled with one con-
trolling idea-success in whatever undertaking they
have in hand.
Their earnestness cannot fail to have its effect
on every prospective customer with whom they come
in contact. Besides its direct effect on the man ad-
dressed, the quality of earnestness in the salesman
has also an immediate effect upon himself, in in-
creasing his powers of reasoning and self-expression.
By stimulating these powers, and through their
agency, it also has an indirect effect upon the cus-
tomer.
Among people who live much alone, and whose
labor exercises their muscles and not their brains, a
common and significant phenomenon is observed.
We are all familiar with cases where an ignorant,
stolid fellow, ordinarily incapable of expressing him-
self in speech very well, has suddenly found himself
gifted with eloquence at some emotional crisis in
his life eloquence not the less splendid and power-
ful for grammatical inaccuracies.
When this happens, the mind of the speaker
[184]
The Mind as a Magnet
·
has swept aside by the very force of earnestness the
limitations which hampered it in ordinary inter-
course. The same principle accounts for a man's
ability to improvise means of escape from great and
sudden danger, which would have been entirely
beyond his ingenuity at other times.
The second step toward gaining the end in view
is for the salesman to put himself as far as possible in
entire harmony with all the conditions under which
he works. To do this, his relations with his house
should be candid and agreeable; there should be no
rankling remembrances of differences which he may
have had with the manager or others in the house.
He should have absolute faith in the product he is
selling; he should feel in entire sympathy with every
prospective customer with whom he talks.
This last is a most important matter. Some
salesmen seem to think that it is sufficient if they
preserve the outward forms of courtesy and pa-
tience and consideration in dealing with a trying
customer.
Perhaps the customer's objections are ridicu-
lous because of his ignorance, and prejudiced because
of his narrow-mindedness. It is necessary to get
down to first principles and improve upon his edu-
cation before he can form any conception of the
value of what is offered him. The salesman who is
not genuinely in earnest will hate this slow and
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Men Who Sell Things
tedious process. He will talk in the kindliest possible
manner to his customer, of course, but mentally he
will be calling the man a fool, and wondering how
such an antiquated specimen managed to survive
the flood. The customer, of course, hears what the
salesman says, and does not know what the sales-
man is thinking. Still, he is very likely to be affected
by the negative thoughts in the salesman's mind.
If he gives his order at all, it is because he has either
been beaten in argument or made to feel ashamed
of his own conservatism. It is certain that he has
not been influenced by the power of attraction.
The salesman who was really in earnest would
undertake the same task without any mental reser-
vation. This at least would leave his mind free to
devise ways and means by which his prospects might
be enlightened. He would have a quicker insight
into the circumstances that govern the case. A
mutual understanding and appreciation would be
established, such as exist when two persons are said
to be en rapport-a very necessary condition be-
fore one mind can exercise any attraction over
another.
No one should confuse the mental action de-
scribed here with hypnotism. It is not recom-
mended to make an attack on the will power of a
customer, for that is neither fair play nor practical
business. One can, however, develop a power to
[186]
The Mind as a Magnet
arouse the interest and good will of others, so that
they will sometimes do voluntarily what a hypnotist
seeks to make them do involuntarily. Such power,
when acquired, assures some measure of success at
least.
2
[187]
Men Who Sell Things
Is
CHAPTER XIV
SPECIALIZING EFFORTS
your mind on the real game of sales-
manship, or on a dozen outside ones?
THIS is the age of the specialist. In the world of
materia medica the general practitioner is all
right in his place; but when you are suffering with
some specific ailment that requires a careful diagno-
sis and more careful treatment, if you value your
life, a specialist is called in for consultation.
If you were obliged to engage the services of a
lawyer on a difficult case, you would employ a law-
yer who had a reputation for being particularly
skilful in the very line in which your case is classed.
The merchant does not long patronize a salesman
whose energy is wavering and whose mind is set on
anything and everything but the thing he has to sell.
Singleness of purpose is one of the predominating
features of successful salesmanship, just as it is in
any other profession.
Some years ago a city clergyman of inquiring
mind sent a number of postal-card inquiries to non-
church-going men in the neighborhood in which his
church was situated, asking why so few business
men attended church. He received many interest-
ing replies, but the one that opened his eyes and set
[188]
Specializing Efforts
him to thinking hard was from a travelling man. It
ran something like this:
"The doctor practises medicine; the lawyer
practises law; a politician talks politics, and the
business man talks his business; but the average
modern clergyman of the so-called new school talks
everything and preaches everything but the Gospel,
the thing he was ordained to preach. Business men,
or any other class of men, except, perhaps, Beau
Brummells, do not care to go to church and listen
to talks about the boys' brigade, the girls' cooking
school, the ladies' sewing society, a treatise on the
latest novel, nor side talks on current events of the
day."
The salesman who wanders about in his profes-
sion, like the Mississippi River seeking a straight
course but not finding it, is not unlike the minister
portrayed by our friend the travelling man.
If you are selling shoes, talk shoes; dry goods,
talk dry goods; clothing, talk clothing. Keep your
mind on the one important thing.
Your customers do not care to discuss with you
the candidacy of the next President of the United
States; whether your baby has a new tooth or a
dozen, your wife's disposition, nor the disposition of
your neighbors. Neither are they interested in your
competitors from your point of view. Their whole
mind is centred, so far as you are concerned, on
2
[189]
Men Who Sell Things
what you can do for them with your goods, not the
other fellow's.
Concentration-putting your real thought in
your real work; that is it.
You don't need to waste time reading this chap-
ter if you are morally certain that the best that is in
you is being used every hour, and used to give your
customers, your house, and yourself the best chance
possible, maximum results with minimum waste;
and that applies to everything pertaining to your
work-energy, time, expense, territory, and all.
Among the thousands of salesmen there may be
a few that play the game of salesmanship as a good
checker-player plays the game of checkers. The
few in the thousands do not need to think about
the importance of concentration, but a very great
majority of salesmen do need to realize what oneness
of purpose might mean to them.
Every salesman wants something that he has
not got. "His wish-bone may be where his back-
bone ought to be," but he wishes just as if Nature
had made him right.
There is not a single salesman that is not plan-
ning in a more or less aimless way to do something,
to get somewhere in life's journey, to be something
worthy of the recognition of his superiors; and there
is really not one that could not have his heart's
desire, or at least succeed in a fair measure, if he
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Specializing Efforts
would wear that wish-bone in the place for which it
was originally intended. Keeping his mind on the
essential things in salesmanship, and off other things,
will help wonderfully his desire to get, do, and be
something more than a wayfarer on the highway of
success.
Have you ever seen two salesmen with relatively
equal chances - a good salesman and a bad sales-
man ?
The bad salesman makes excuses for himself at
the end of every trip, all through the year, and at
the end takes a cut in his salary or looks for another
position. The good salesman plans his year's work
from the beginning. Carefully he studies his terri-
tory, making his work fit his set plan; watches every
move of his competitors; takes every vantage-point
smilingly, easily, but fairly, and wins in the end
because his mind has been on his business.
One of the most important things to the average
salesman in specializing his efforts is to confine his
work to as limited a territory as possible, insuring
profitable returns for energy expended. Seven out
of ten salesmen travelling with trunks and represent-
ing wholesale concerns, cover from 333 to 50
per cent
more territory than is necessary to produce the best
results to be obtained. Few, apparently, recognize
the fact that concentration of energy on a limited
number of accounts produces in the end much more
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Men Who Sell Things
satisfactory business than the same results reaped
from a broader field. A little soil well tilled is in-
finitely better than a large acreage half raked over.
Your territory is an asset of your house just as
much as its surplus capital, stock, or book accounts.
The worth of your territory as an asset is gauged
entirely by the manner in which it is gone over. This
does not apply to all lines in the manufacturing
world, but it is invariably the case with jobbing
houses or wholesalers in any line.
The too infrequent calling upon customers
leaves a loophole for your trade to escape and scat-
ter its accounts among a large number of houses;
but this escape could not be possible if you would
visit your customers oftener. Every time you give
your competitors a chance to wean away your cus-
tomers' accounts and likewise their confidence, you
render your trade of an uncertain quantity as well
as quality.
"But," argues the salesman who has not tried
this plan, "how can I keep my road work up and
show good sales every day, if I visit my trade oftener
than their demand for goods requires ?"
The answer is: The nature of your accounts and
the results at the end of the year, not at the end of the
day, is the determining factor in your ultimate suc-
cess.
By keeping in the closest possible touch with
1
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your trade you are eventually enabled to establish a
custom that you can call your own, and your work is
accomplished with the minimum amount of effort and
expense. But that is not all. Confidence in busi-
ness is the guiding-star of all satisfactory operation.
It is secured mainly by a close relationship between
buyer and seller. .
Did it ever occur to you how thoroughly you can
aid in promoting the interests of your customers, as
well as your own, when you have once obtained their
confidence to the fullest degree, and that the best
possible thing under any circumstances for them is
to keep their purchasing eggs as much in one basket
as possible, provided the basket is the right one?
Many a small town dealer has allowed his ship
of commerce to ground on the shoals of bank-
ruptcy, solely because he purchased from too many
houses and could not watch his payments, besides
getting more goods on hand than his limited output
demanded. All this the clever salesman with single-
ness of purpose can avert.
I have witnessed the plan of travelling men on
limited territories carried out to an eminently suc-
cessful conclusion in many cases where it was tried.
A few years ago my house had but one man cover-
ing the State adjoining the one on the east of that
in which we were situated territory that was
generally conceded to be in "the enemy's country."
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Right here I want to emphasize that that "enemy's
country" cry is pretty much a time-worn, punctured
theory in the minds of the energetic salesman and the
progressive and aggressive house. These assume —
and correctly so that the logical market for any
territory, irrespective of distance or position, is the
one that can offer the best inducements to draw the
patronage of that territory.
Well, Mr. Salesman of the "enemy's country"
argued that there was not enough business for a
second salesman in his State. He protested against
the intrusion with a fervor that would easily have
made him top man on the annual sales sheet had this
new-found energy been directed on sales-making on
his own account in place of arguing against it on the
other fellow's. He stoutly maintained that if a
division of his territory occurred he could not con-
duct a profitable business on the section allotted
him; that the experiment was bound to be a failure;
that the house would regret it, and in the end he
would be obliged to take back that portion of his
territory given to a new man, and have the up-hill
work of regaining the lost prestige that was certain
to result from the change.
We were determined to try the experiment, how-
ever, and the following year the State was split in
halves, the eastern section going to a new man and
the western to our old traveller.
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1
Five years later the new man's sales amounted
to one hundred thousand dollars a year, against
eighty thousand of our former salesman, and yet
the latter showed an increase over his previous work
and was gaining every year.
Later, precisely the same thing was repeated in
two or three other States, with the same results.
In a still more notable instance we had a man
travelling on a territory situated far distant from the
house. His annual sales amounted to about one
hundred and forty thousand dollars, for the greater
part of which he received credit on house sales.
The sales manager endeavored to point out to
him the superior advantages of his territory, and the
results to be obtained by making two trips each sea-
son in place of one, as was his custom. Being of that
"divine rights" class of men, he was a trifle touchy
on the subject of any interference from the house as
to the regular routine of his work as he thought it
should be conducted. The matter was urged upon
him until it got on his nerves, and he became exceed-
ingly uncomfortable, so much so that one day he
rushed into the office of the president and flaunted his
resignation before him in a tragic manner, loudly pro-
testing against interference with his personal rights.
Little did he realize that the man who always thinks
of his rights is the first to forget that they involve
an equal number of responsibilities.
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1
The reverse of what he expected from his melo-
dramatic effort happened. His resignation was
accepted promptly, and just as promptly there com-
menced a rehabilitation of his former territory. It
was divided into three sections and given to three
young men in the house anxious to get on the road,
and who were charged to the brim with enthusiasm
and with ideas instilled into them from headquarters.
At the end of the first year their sales in the aggregate
amounted to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
Three distinct territories had been established, each
covered by a man with fine, growing prospects,
and each man working like a Trojan in a spirit
of friendly rivalry, the outcome of which could
only mean a largely increased business for all con-
cerned.
It is a great thing for a salesman to realize that
honest, intelligent effort will bring its reward much
more effectually and satisfactorily on a territory that
does not encumber him with dead weight on ac-
count of its size. Clear your ship for action, and
see to it that the barnacles of shortsightedness are
cleaned from its bottom.
At the very period in which this chapter was
under consideration it was my privilege to form the
acquaintance of a gentleman whom I engaged on a
commission to assist the committee of which I had
the honor to be chairman, in the great public-spirited
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Specializing Efforts
movement looking to the commercial and physical
advancement of a Greater Chicago.
In the special work upon which we were en-
gaged the services of my new-found acquaintance
proved to be invaluable, notwithstanding we were
paying him a commission that netted him on an
average more than four hundred dollars per month.
From boyhood his business career had been decid-
edly checkered, embracing the promotion of all
manner of enterprises, from political campaigns,
mining stocks, and expositions, to the management
of theatrical companies, and even appearances be-
fore the footlights himself as an understudy when
occasion demanded.
As a man he was prepossessing in appearance,
of pleasing personality, honest, and clean-cut. As
a salesman he possessed marked ability and adapta-
bility. He had the best approach and the finest
tact, put up the best argument, and closed a deal at
the psychological moment, in the neatest manner I
have ever witnessed.
In relating to me his experiences one day he said:
"I began life without any chance for an education.
There was no one to tell me how to begin or what to
do to make the most of myself. I know that I am
fitted for something better than the work I am doing.
I know that I have real ability in my way, but no one
has ever told me how to use it to the best permanent
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Men Who Sell Things
advantage. I'm tired of this changing from one
thing to another, even though I manage to derive an
income better than the average of men engaged in the
work of selling things."
He wound up by adding: "Could n't your firm
give me permanent employment on the road? I
know I could sell your goods successfully. I have
never seen anything that I could n't sell.
If you
could make room for me I would commence at three
thousand a year and take my chances on advance-
ment with something permanent in view.”
That is the story of a man who made one hun-
dred thousand dollars, made it honestly, and lost it
because of the lack of such discipline as would have
taught him to focus his mind on some set plan in his
life's work.
It is the story of a man eminently talented, and
who might have managed a prosperous enterprise
of his own, or at least earned a big salary in an
executive position or at the head of a large sales
organization but for the fact that he lacked single-
ness of purpose, oneness in business aspirations,
concentration, or whatever you choose to call it
that enables a man to stick to a thing until he
gets there.
There is another feature in specializing efforts
in sales-making that enables the salesman to make
a ten-strike, and that is in guiding his customers in
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Specializing Efforts
the matter of selection. In order to do that suc-
cessfully, a careful study must be made of general
conditions surrounding the line which he is selling,
as well as the requirements of those to whom he
wishes to sell.
For instance, some salesmen selling line goods
seem to feel that if general conditions are not up
to par, there is no chance for immediate sales.
Nothing is so far from the facts. This is particu-
larly demonstrated on advance trips where no goods
are in immediate demand, and where desire must
be created out of whole cloth. I have known bright
salesmen to start out with a general line represent-
ing their business, only to find a decided apathy on
the part of buyers toward their proposition as a
whole at that particular time. Did they lie down
in despair and write the house that business was
dull, it was too early, some one else had been out
before them, and a host of other lame excuses ?
No! They sharpened their wits, and likewise
their selling-talk, took a careful survey of things, and
then selected a particularly good value or two in some
specific pattern or style from their general line; then
they pinned their selling-talk down to that until they
aroused interest, created desire, and captured resolve,
and at the end of the trip they were more than satis-
fied with results in the aggregate.
In our line I have known it to be so dull during
3
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Men Who Sell Things
a "filling-in" season that there was absolutely no
desire on the part of the trade for anything in par-
ticular, when some bright salesman in the line-up
would single out some one thing that had not been
especially strong, from among the hundreds in the
various departments, and specialize his efforts on
that article in every town on the trip, and thus roll
up figures on the monthly sales sheet that were even
larger than might have been the case in taking
orders more widely distributed under more prom-
ising circumstances. The customers, too, were
satisfied, because a new idea had been advanced,
and they had something new to talk about to their
trade.
After all, the average dealer in the rank-and-file
town takes his selling-talk pretty much from his
favorite salesman. Did you ever think of that?
Salesmanship is a profession, but it is also a
game. Every salesman must play it either poorly or
well, and always with the same opponent in the
game Time.
Your opponent waits for nothing relentlessly
he watches the game progress. He clutches his
scythe, ready to cut you down. All around you and
your adversary Time, there is Success. If your mind
is distracted from your work, Time gains a vantage-
point.
Thousands of salesmen are saying every day,
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Specializing Efforts
!
;
"If I had my life to live over again I would do thus
and so."
The most profitless occupation in the world is
to sit idly thinking of what you would do if you
had another chance. Forget what is behind. Press
forward to the future, which is every man's, to do
with as he will!
The game will last as long as you do. Thinking
of the foolish plays you have made will not help you
to win, unless the experience has taught you how to
avoid them and to concentrate your mind on better
ones, brushing aside all obstacles. Young salesmen
especially need to think much about singleness of
purpose, for their temptations are on every hand.
Many young salesmen, and old ones, too, for
that matter, act like men lost in the woods, trying
to get out without the aid of a compass. They
turn to the right and to the left, then go round in a
circle, stumbling over logs and entangled under-
brush, finally giving up in despair. The road be-
fore every salesman is perfectly clear: walk straight
ahead to the end of it, and you will come out into
the clearing.
Suppose you were to engage a man to bore a
well for you. What would you think of him if he
bored a few inches here and a few inches there, and
kept on boring down just a little way all over a ten-
acre field, never going deep enough to strike water?
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Men Who Sell Things
You would think he ought to have a guardian ap-
pointed over him. Well, that is exactly what a
great many salesmen are doing. Just boring down
through the subsoil, never striking bed-rock and
through and beneath it the sparkling water Success.
Try one way, but be sure it's a good way, and
keep at it, Brother Salesman, until you strike the
bed-rock of efficient salesmanship.
Don't let your grim old opponent, Father Time,
get there ahead of you and block up the way with
his impenetrable chain of lost opportunities.
[202]
Letters to the Trade
CHAPTER XV
LETTERS TO THE TRADE
The next best thing to interviewing a good cus-
tomer is to write him a personal letter occasionally.
YOU cannot personally shake hands and jolly up
You
your customers every few days; so the next
best thing is to write them personal letters, just as
you would talk to them if you were to meet them on
the street or in their places of business. Now, is n't
that so?
Such letters bring new business and hold old
customers.
Naturally, the more personal talks you can have
with your customers, the better; but in between
trips write them a heart-to-heart letter now and then,
just to make them feel that you are keeping them
in mind. It will show that you have a strong per-
sonal interest in them, and the results, if watched,
will both please and surprise you. Make your let-
ters talk to your customers. Make them believe
in your letters just as you want them to believe
in you.
Galileo taught that the earth moves around
the sun, but was compelled by the Inquisition to
renounce the theory. Perhaps you feel a little that
way about what your customers might think of your
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Men Who Sell Things
letters; that is because you have not discovered the
right way to go about it.
Letter-writing, like advertising, is the written.
method of salesmanship. You can make bad sales-
manship of it, the same as of personal interviews, if
you do not understand and rightly apply the science.
What would you think of a kid-gloved salesman
who approached his customers in the manner that he
would approach his hostess at an afternoon recep-
tion? Well, that is precisely the way in which more
than two-thirds of the business letter-writing is done.
Such letters often begin with
"I beg to acknowledge yours of ——”
"Replying to your esteemed favor of even date,
permit me to say
"Your letter of
carefully noted."
is at hand and contents
And they often end with
"I beg to remain
"I am yours
99
These shop-worn types of the customary style
should have been relegated to the waste-basket a
decade ago. Begin your letters in an easy, natural,
conversational way. Have something to write about,
and think hard about the best way to write it to
attract the sympathy of your customer to your
proposition.
Be original in your style.
Don't write as a
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Letters to the Trade
dozen other salesmen that cover your territory are
in the habit of doing, in a pointless, stereotyped
fashion. Think about your customer; think about
what you are going to write, and then write it in a
manner that you feel certain will please and interest
him.
If you are in the habit of scratching off any old
thing the quickest and easiest way, stop to figure
out the effect such letters are going to have, if any.
Try to realize the great value that it is possible to
secure with a little care and study in presenting your
subject.
Some salesmen go on the plan that letter-writing
is of no avail in helping to increase their sales any-
way, and as it is laborious, they let it alone. Igno-
rance or mental laziness is the foundation of such
ideas, aided, perhaps, by a desire to enjoy a game of
billiards, or an idle chat with the clerk when the last
customer has been called upon and packing is fin-
ished. Recreation is necessary and proper, but the
salesman in any line who hopes to get on in the
world will play only when the last tap of work is
finished at the close of each day.
A decade ago commercial letter-writing was
deprecated by most business houses as a medium to
attract and hold trade. Its use was mainly to cover
immediate necessity that could not be adjusted by
personal interview. All that has changed with the
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Men Who Sell Things
changing times, and to-day every business institution
of any note has a correspondence department in
charge of a high-salaried head, who is especially
versed in the art of writing the kind of letters calcu-
lated to aid in strengthening its connection with its
customers, and to assist its sales force in building
new business.
It is as necessary to hold as to build. The sales-
man who fails to get in touch with the head of the
correspondence of his house and seek his aid at
times is a poor prop for any house to lean upon.
The most efficient salesman values the backing
the house can give him through this department,
realizing that his position with his trade is mainly
one of aggression, and at times is apt to be mis-
construed, no matter how securely he may be in-
trenched in the confidence of his customers.
A general promotion letter now and then to
his trade, bearing the authority of his house, stamps
the salesman's efforts, methods, and assertions with
added power of persuasion.
While a sincere letter of appreciation of favors
received, eliminating entirely any flavor of bid for
business, at the end of each season, promotes a
feeling of good will conducive to the interests of all
concerned, and effectually paves the way for stronger
and better trade relations.
Although salesmen of more than ordinary suc-
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Letters to the Trade
cess are to be found in many houses, who put their
hands up in a know-it-all, self-satisfied sort of way,
deprecating support of this kind as unnecessary, if
not actually interfering with what they term "their
interests," yet he is a wise salesman who encour-
ages it and seeks every opportunity to make free
use of it.
The best managed house in the world makes
mistakes at times, and mistakes make disgruntled
customers. Something goes wrong in the billing
department; a piece of goods fails to come up to
par; a certain pattern, through the fault of no
one, does not turn out exactly as represented; a cus-
tomer in the house is not given the attention he
thinks he should receive; in fact, a dozen things
of similar nature are liable to occur in the best regu-
lated establishments, which tend to disquiet this or
that customer for the time being. Do what you
can to straighten out the kinks, and make sure that
there remains no cause of complaint in which your
customer may find a reasonable pretext for giving
business to a competitor that otherwise might have
gone to you. Tell the correspondence man about
it; that's what he is there for.
It's your business to sell goods, and you are
supposed to know your business. You'd get mad if
some one told you you didn't know it, wouldn't you?
Well, then, leave the matter of "fixing" the custom-
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Men Who Sell Things
ers in the hands of the man whose business it is to
look after that part of the work. Put the same
degree of confidence in him that you demand and
expect to receive yourself, and see how quickly and
nicely all these things will be adjusted.
"But," says Mr. Salesman of inquiring mind,
"if I tell my troubles to the house I may get a letter
telling me that the house has troubles of its own,
and that I am paid to fix these things for myself.”
Do all you can for yourself in fixing the business
of your house, no matter how you may be called upon.
but when all is said and done to the best of your
ability, seek help from headquarters. If your house
has a manager that would send you that kind of a
reply, and you do not get the sort of help you require,
the best thing for that house is to discharge him and
get a manager who understands that a fine piece of
machinery needs oiling to make it run without fric-
tion.
Not only energy is needed in salesmanship, but
method, system, and a readiness to adapt oneself
to the conditions required to accomplish results.
There are many salesmen eager to sell a bill of goods,
but careless about other things pertaining to the
fulfilment of the contract to the minutest detail.
There are many who seem to think that if they
have made a customer, it is immaterial whether
they keep him or not.
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Letters to the Trade
The business letter of the average salesman is
of a very low standard - has little if any pulling
power. It is meaningless, because it contains noth-
ing of personal interest to the recipient. If you
write every customer in exactly the same way and
as you have been writing all your life, it is no wonder
that you do not believe in letter-writing.
He who rests at the foot of the mountain knows
of the glories of yonder peak only from other travel-
lers who have completed the arduous journey.
There is a certain style in drawing up a letter
on any question so as to make it produce desired
results. The key to the mastery of this style is of
so great value as to make it worth months of effort
and hundreds of dollars to any salesman to discover
it. It is not undiscoverable, by any means.
To begin with, don't put too much of yourself
into your letters. The best customer on your calen-
dar is not interested overmuch in you. The thing
that concerns him is how you can help his situation.
Don't fool yourself into believing that you have him
solidly bound to you by close ties of friendship. In-
timate acquaintance is worth much, to be sure, but
your own brother will patronize you in a business
way only so long as you can make it worth his while
from a dollar-and-cent standpoint. That is because
business is business. Friendship is another matter.
It is useful only as a path-opener in business. It
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Men Who Sell Things
7
will keep the opening clear only as long as it con-
duces to your customer's commercial prosperity.
But to return. In letter-writing keep yourself
in the background, put your customer's interests to
the fore, and avoid construction of the machine-like,
ready-made order. Introduce your subject in a
graceful, natural, and friendly style; then, carefully
avoiding meaningless sentences, proceed into the
real pith of your proposition, making your points
tell one on another, briefly, vividly, connectedly,
down to the leave-taking, which should be genuinely
polite, but withal natural and pleasant, as you would
say good-bye to a friend or acquaintance about to
depart on a short journey.
You would n't greet an old acquaintance on the
street with, "Excuse me for taking this liberty in
saying how do you do," or "The favor of your pres-
ence here on the street with me is heartily appreci-
ated, I assure you." And you would n't leave him
with, "I hope you will remember me. Good-bye,"
or, “I hope I have pleased you in this meeting, and
that you will offer me further opportunity for con-
tinued acquaintance."
Sounds funny, does n't it?
Well, that's the way it sounds when you write
letters that way. If you would n't talk that way to
your friends, why do you write in that style? Think
it over.
{ 210 }
Letters to the Trade
You don't do it? Oh, yes, you do! And you
are not alone in it either.
Bring your customer as close to you in a letter
as you would in a personal talk, if he were sitting
at your elbow in the sample-room or talking to you
at his own desk.
Men of limited schooling have found an easy
method of increasing their vocabulary in reading
extensively and studiously from the lives of great
men, and other works of educational interest.
In precisely the same way the salesman may in-
crease his knowledge of correct letter-writing by
making a careful study of the style adopted by men
who are specialists in the art of business-letter
writing.
Take pains with your letters. When one is
finished in which you wish your powers of persua-
sion to have full swing, read it over carefully;
study the weak points, and try again. Keep on
trying until you hit upon a style that you feel cer-
tain will have the desired effect.
I have known men who, from long practice,
were skilled in the art of constructing powerful
business-getting letters, to ponder for hours and
destroy many copies in an effort at shaping up just
what they wanted for a strong letter with which to
fit a specific purpose.
The power of business-letter writing as a silent
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Men Who Sell Things
factor in salesmanship is second only to the oral
method.
To any salesman who will intelligently explore
the field there awaits a golden harvest. Begin now
while the subject is fresh in your mind. In place
of using the conventional advance cards, that out-
lived their usefulness before their invention, invest
a dollar or two occasionally in the services of a pub-
lic stenographer, and keep your customers in touch
with you by heart-to-heart, elbow-to-elbow business-
getting and business-holding letters.
It will please and surprise you amazingly to see
how quickly and effectually your work will take on
new life. All that is necessary to germinate it is a
little time employed from among the many idle
hours on board the train or about hotel lobbies,
coupled with the slight investment of a few cents,
and a larger one of sense.
[212]
Getting the Price
CHAPTER XVI
GETTING THE PRICE
The highest delights are often found by turning
the back on inviting by-paths and facing cold duty.
T is hard to redeem the salesman who is under
the narcotic of price-cutting.
IT
The habit of making your own prices on your
employer's goods is a moral kink in your selling
education, a holdback on your advancement in the
profession, and a sink-hole for the profits of your
house; and if you cannot break yourself of it, better
far that you quit salesmanship and become an auc-
tioneer; then you can have unlimited latitude to
indulge in the pastime of tobogganing on a sliding
scale of price-making where no harm can be done.
The most inexcusable fault in any salesman is
the lack of ability to get the price.
If you will always keep in mind the principle of
not allowing your customers to make your price, you
will find how easy it is to make sales at the prices
with which your goods are marked.
There are shrewd buyers everywhere who have
learned that if they can put the price on the other
man's goods they are morally certain of getting the
best end of the bargain.
When a customer enters your sample-room and
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Men Who Sell Things
informs you that your competitor has offered him
the same article you have just shown him at a lower
price than you named, you should at once settle it
with yourself that you will be establishing a danger-
ous precedent in falling into the hands of that cus-
tomer, if this reported cut in price is met without
careful investigation. And even then you should
generally stand firm and refuse to meet this com-
petitive attack. The salesman who sells the right
goods to his customers in the right way has no need
to do business at a loss on any article, or to allow his
competitors or his customers to make his prices.
It is a good thing to remember the old rule
that a good buyer never calls attention to the fact of
prices being higher in one place than another. If a
higher price has actually been named than he could
buy the same article for elsewhere, he quietly drops
it, slips away to the store of the man who made the
lower price, and places his order there.
In nine cases out of ten, when a buyer questions
your prices he is merely testing your nerve as a sales-
man. If you should yield just once, and your house
be lax enough to permit it, you are done for on price-
getting with that buyer as long as you travel that
territory.
The weak-kneed salesman who is unacquainted
with the mind of the average buyer imagines because
he is not strong himself on his own goods and prices,
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Getting the Price
that the buyers on his territory will share his uncer-
tainty. If they do share it, it is because of his re-
flected weakness, and not on account of his values.
All through the various phases of salesmanship,
faith runs like a silver thread. If a salesman's
faith is weakened with dread and doubt, he must
blame his failure on his lack of confidence, and not
on his goods.
When you start out with a new line of goods at
the beginning of a season, and your faith is abundant,
how easy it is for you to drive your points home and
clinch your arguments with every article shown.
No room for price-cutting then!
Now, as a matter of fact, the prices of the goods
in your house are pretty generally right. An off
price now and then, even on a marked article, is per-
fectly liable to occur, but it is nothing to be alarmed
at. Your house could not remain in business and
pay you the salary you are drawing, if it were
always under the market on everything it had to sell.
While you are looking with an eye to picking
the easy sellers in your line, don't forget that price
in merchandising does not cut so much figure as it
did ten years ago. The buyer's argument then was
price and quantity; now it is selection and quality.
The merchant is out of date who goes about the
market wearing that old price bugaboo around his
neck. There is little room for doubt that his shelves
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are filled with shop-worn "bargains," in place of
up-to-date merchandise.
On a certain occasion a big and pompous dealer
from the West came into our store, and in a loud
voice said:
"I'm looking for the man who makes prices."
The sales manager was called, and explained to
him that no one in the place was empowered with
that privilege. "Our prices," said he, “are the
same to you as to others."
"But," answered the merchant, "I have always
heard it stated that you were high-priced."
"You are willing to trust to your own knowledge
of values, are you not ?" asked the manager.
He said he was, and expressed a desire to go
through the house. Stopping on one of the floors
where he thought it would be a good place for the
merchant to start in to buy, the manager launched
into a brief, terse argument, in which he cut loose
from cheapness, emphasizing merit,― laying stress
on inherent worth both of style and quality.
That buyer placed an order for fifteen hundred
dollars before he left, and came back for more
goods each season afterwards, always acknowledg-
ing that that argument on quality had been worth
a great deal to him in his own business.
I have known salesmen to be so weak on price
that, when they discovered an article in the line that
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Getting the Price
was overvalued, from among hundreds of others of
exceptional value, all they could do was to go about
the place and hound everybody they came in con-
tact with about it, as if the whole future of the house
and themselves depended on immediate adjustment
of the matter. Their argument was that if a cus-
tomer should happen to run across it, it would
prejudice him toward the entire line. Nice com-
pliment to their customers' knowledge of values,
was n't it?
For the edification of just such salesmen, let
me emphasize right here that buyers do not turn
down a house of standing because of a price or two
being out of the way. Every buyer has certain houses
on his staff that he likes to favor. Before going to
market he makes a mental blue-print of the amount
of goods he intends to purchase, and about how
much he will leave with each house. In visiting the
various places he is in the habit of frequenting, his
chief attention is given to selection on style not
price. He picks out patterns in one house that he
did not see in another, and vice versa. If, perchance,
he actually discovers the same article in two places
at different prices, and he has already purchased it
at the higher price, he simply cancels his order
for that one thing and places it with the other house.
But on no account does he condemn the entire
plant because of that experience. So there is no
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need of fear that your trade is going to leave you on
any such pretext.
Enlargement of the heart is responsible for
price-cutting on the part of some salesmen. They
permit a buyer to work on their sympathies with
stories of the quantity of goods he can use if the
price is right. He pleads his case so eloquently and
with such ardor that the salesman forgets that
successful salesmanship depends upon his ability
to lead his customers not on following them.
Leaders are finders; followers get but leavings.
-
"Clouds are helped by winds to rise. Be not
a cloud; strive to be the wind whose will the clouds
obey."
The spirit of accommodation is all right in its
place, but it amounts to an offence against your
house when you take the liberty of displaying it at
the firm's expense. It is easy to be generous with
other people's resources, unless your character is
free from kinks. Price-cutting is character weak-
ness. Did you ever think of it in that light?
What right have you to reduce the price of an-
other's goods purely of your own volition?
No more right than you have to go behind the
cashier's desk, put your hand in the money-drawer,
and take out the same amount you lop off in a cut
price and give to a customer.
Sounds severe, does it not? It is the truth.
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Getting the Price
Truth hurts sometimes, but when it hurts most it
does the most good.
You are paid to sell goods at a profit.
The Sheldon definition of salesmanship is the
best I have ever heard
"Power to persuade people to purchase at a
profit.'
""
Not simply to purchase, but to purchase at a
profit.
Your salary is based upon a percentage of your
sales, plus travelling expense. When you cut
prices, this percentage does not fluctuate with
your cuts.
It goes on just the same whether you
are steady on prices or not. The basis of profit
to you remains the same. If your house fixes the
percentage on the profits of your sales instead
of the actual sales, that is a different proposition.
That is the safest and surest remedy for price-
cutting; it makes the fiddler dance to his own
music.
The house employing many salesmen without
a profit-figuring department is like a steam boiler
without a safety-valve.
Strange as it may seem, salesmen who have
enjoyed the widest liberty in the conduct of their
firm's affairs abroad, and whose basis for salary
has been changed from net sales to profit on sales,
decidedly prefer the latter method. It leaves no
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gaps in the selling-fence through which the salesman
is tempted to wander into by-paths. It is always
easier to keep your mind on one object than on a
dozen. When that object is the sale of goods at a
profit, it is easier of accomplishment with the course
positively defined. The man is yet undiscovered
who can successfully watch all the attractions going
on at once in a five-ring circus.
If, however, your house is still operating on the
old plan of percentage on sales, and there is no
limit to your latitude (don't put the coat on, now,
unless it fits; this chapter is intended for that class
of salesmen for whom instructions have but little
restraining influence), stop for a moment to con-
sider your house. It pays you your salary. It is
the head of the business family of which you are a
member. True, you could go elsewhere and secure
a position almost any one could. That is the
meanest argument you could use. The question is,
Have you no filial business regard for the head of
your business family?
Why, of course! Down in the inner recesses of
your sterner nature you know you have, only you
have not stopped to think of it in that light. Show
it, then, by quitting the price-cutting habit.
You would not lift your hand against the
safety and maintenance of your own father's house-
hold, would you? Why do you do it, then, against
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Getting the Price
the home of your business family? When you
compare the two cases there is not much difference.
You have some pride, have you not? Well,
then, if you don't want to be known to the father
and brothers of your business family as a weakling,
constantly requiring care and watching, quit that
habit of price-cutting. Start in to hold up your end
in supporting that family, in place of being a drag
on it.
Every time that you take a liberty that you
have no business to take, some one suffers for it.
When you fail to do your part in keeping up the
profits of your house, your brother salesmen have to
carry the load you have imposed upon them by your
lack of sense of obligation.
The most justifiable kick any salesman ever
makes is when another salesman in his house cuts
the price, while he remains firm. If you want the
privilege of being a “special rights" member of the
family, you ought to be willing to pay for it.
My first business venture was the establishment
of a house that travelled ten men. Our capital was
limited, and we could not afford to make many
mistakes. But in our desire to get a foothold, we
allowed our salesmen a considerable degree of
latitude the first two or three years. Finally we
were obliged to call a halt. The cutting of prices
was ruining our business. We took the men aside
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one day and explained matters, asking their support
in refusing to cut prices any longer. Our best men
stopped the practice at once, but there were three or
four weaklings on the staff, who thought the request
was a joke, and to correct these it became necessary
to make a positive rule that all salesmen cutting
prices would be charged with the difference.
The rule worked splendidly, and our sales in-
creased. All but one man fell into line. He was
the tail-ender on the force, and a little, nervous,
over-anxious fellow, as methodical as an eight-day
clock about everything except getting the price.
That worried him. He had an enormous bump of
conceit that prevented anything from penetrating
to his gray matter that was not conceived by himself.
Two days after the new rule went into effect he
sent an order in with several cut prices. On the
face of it, there was no earthly reason for his action,
as the quantities were all small and the prices
shaved just a little all down the line. These cuts
amounted to eight dollars in all. We immediately
authorized the cashier to debit his personal account
with that amount and to deduct it from his next
pay-check.
When our star cutter received his check minus
the eight dollars, he got very mad and came in from
a near-by town to tell us so. As soon as he arrived
we told him to save his breath; that we knew
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Getting the Price
}
what he had come in to tell us; that our profits were
involved, not his, and we would do the talking.
In language that he managed to comprehend at
last, he was informed that the rule would stand-
the eight dollars that he had taken from us and
donated to his customer would not be refunded;
that we would add to it the amount of his railroad
fare from the town he had run in from and back to
the next one; that he would be docked for the time
lost while in the house and en route; that it was
costing him money every minute he remained; and
if there was any doubt left in his mind that we meant
business, and he still wanted to deliver himself of
that kick he had brought in with him, that we would
accept his resignation then and there and put a
man in his place from among the dozen young
fellows in the store who were waiting and anxious
to fill it, and who would obey instructions.
That settled it with him. He turned red in
the face, a lump came up in his throat, he swallowed
it along with his conceit and with whatever it was he
had come in to tell us, reached for his hat, picked
up his grip, set it down, and extended his hand,
simply saying, "Thank you. I can get the price,
and was gone.
We never had any more trouble
with him, and he did not lose his trade either.
""
Honestly made merchandise that is not out of
date is equivalent in value to gold. Who ever heard
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of a man selling a five-dollar gold piece for four
dollars and ninety-five cents? Is there any reason-
able excuse why a salesman should sell a piece of
cloth regular goods, up-to-date, and worth a
dollar for ninety-five cents? Certainly not from
the two common causes that lead to price-cutting
fear that a customer will think you are robbing him,
and the fact that your customer has more staying
qualities than you have, when he talks you into giving
him a lower price than that marked on your goods.
From actual experience, covering many years
as salesman, as buyer, and as manager of salesmen,
I am prepared to say that ninety per cent of the
cases where price-cutting is indulged in are due to
one or the other of the causes mentioned above.
Almost without exception, in every case where
the salesman weakens on prices, the desire to cut
to meet a combined attack from competitor and
customer results from his ignorance of values.
Know your goods; know that the price is right;
know that your goods are good goods and will sell;
know that you can sell them,— and you will never
dream of price-cutting. A dollar's worth for a dollar
is all that any reasonable-minded dealer has any
right to expect, or that any honest wholesaler or
manufacturer has any right to give.
Every time that a manufacturer, wholesaler, or
salesman, knowingly or otherwise, undersells a com-
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Getting the Price
petitor or cuts to meet him in price, he either estab-
lishes or aids and abets a practice that is widespread
in its destructiveness to commercial interests in gen-
eral. Such methods are at once illegitimate and
unbusiness-like, and therefore unqualifiedly wrong.
"That's queer," chorus the salesman and
wholesaler of little principle and less backbone.
Can't a man do with his goods what he pleases ?"
Legally, yes. Morally, no.
No man has any moral right to undermine the
work of others all around him who are honestly
engaged in their efforts to become successful. The
quicker the price-cutting salesman is forced out of the
profession, the better. If it is his house that is guilty,
the sooner it fails and goes into bankruptcy, the bet-
ter for the common good of others engaged in its line.
At the time our new rules went into effect with
our salesmen, we also abolished the two-price system
which had been in vogue in our store since its incep-
tion. Our men loudly proclaimed that the “short-
price" customers would never stand for it, and that
we should lose a large percentage of our big accounts.
I do not now recall that we lost a single customer.
Our line being a seasonable one, we paid a little
closer attention to the buying end of the business, and
we found our customers ready to pay our price for
merchandise that was in demand; the kind that was
not, they would not take at any price.
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I took a short trip into the West in the interests
of certain large accounts. The line I took along was
exclusively from our manufacturing department.
This line we sold both to jobber and retailer. We
had placed it that season with a number of large
jobbers in our own territory, whose competition we
were obliged to meet on our own goods sold through
our own jobbing department.
Naturally, the matter of fixing the price was an
interesting one with us, having, as stated, abolished
the two-price system, while the jobbers to whom we
had sold were still using it. The situation was per-
plexing, but we were determined to act on the princi-
ple we had laid down, and so we marked the line at a
fair and reasonable profit without concern as to what
others were doing with it.
This was an unusual instance, and I am relating
it solely for the purpose of illustrating how utterly
groundless are the salesman's fears, who attempts to
prognosticate the attitude his customers may take
toward his house in case it is discovered that he over-
charged them.
But to return to that Western trip. An old
customer and personal friend, who conducted an
extensive business in one of the cities visited, took a
decided fancy to the line. He was a good buyer, was
very direct, said but little, and required no urging.
After thoroughly looking the line over, he
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Getting the Price
selected twenty or thirty numbers in good quantities,
without question as to prices.
There was one pattern, however, that came in
several styles that attracted his attention, but he
could not seem to decide upon it. When we had
gone through the entire line he returned to that
pattern, examining very attentively the various styles,
the meanwhile revolving something in his mind that
was slow in coming out.
Venturing to help him, I remarked, "That
pattern seems to interest you."
"Yes, I like it," he answered, "but at the price,
eighteen dollars per dozen, I can't use it. The
pattern suits me, and I would give you an order for
several dozen at sixteen fifty, which would enable
me to put it out at a certain price I was figuring on,
but I don't want to make a price on your goods."
I chaffered with him a little to no purpose,
finally making the concession. I figured out that no
harm could come of it, as he was our only customer
there; besides, I wanted to please him, as he had
given me an exceptionally good order, and sixteen
dollars and fifty cents was all that I would have
asked of him under our former two-price system.
Ah! but those are not the real reasons why I
came down on the price. I might as well own up
that I was afraid some one of those other houses
carrying our line would come along and quote him
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a short price on that number, placing me in an
embarrassing position that would be difficult to
explain, especially as I knew that two houses were
selling him more goods than we were, who had the
line from us that season.
When I returned home and related my ex-
perience to our manufacturer, he laughed so long and
loud that it made me angry, and I asked him what
there was funny about it.
"Funny? Ha! ha!" he exclaimed, "it's the
funniest thing I ever heard of. Here you've been
conjuring up in your mind what our competitors
would do to you on the price of that pattern, and it's
the only dead thing in the line. We positively
haven't placed a dozen of it with any jobber on our
books."
It did look funny, and I laughed too, but that
cured me of worrying about my competitors' prices.
Work hard, intelligently, and perseveringly on
your line of goods. Never fear competition; do not
see it, hear it, or feel it that is the way to make com-
petition fear you. Too much time is lost in watching
for possible evil to ourselves resulting from another's
methods. Let the other fellow lose it.
Competition is like the weather: it is different
on different days, but it is always with us.
man who fears the weather is sure to catch cold.
The
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Goo
Ꮐ
CHAPTER XVII
DRESS AND ORDERLINESS
Pay attention to your clothes, and
others will pay attention to you.
Orderliness in salesmanship is
the science made more perfect.
OOD clothes help to make a salesman. Ob-
servers are more impressed by the tidiness of
one's clothing than by its expensiveness or variety.
It is said that no one ever notices a man's linen,
unless it is soiled; or his hat, unless it is of unusual
shape, or dusty, or shabby; or his shoes, unless they
are loud, or need blacking, or are worn down at the
heel.
True, unpleasant conditions do attract notice,
but it is undeniable that the observer is always
agreeably impressed by the cleanliness and good
style which distinguish the gentleman. Every sales-
man, therefore, owes it to himself and to his house to
be well dressed.
The secret lies more in the choice of clothes and
the way they are taken care of than in their expensive-
ness or variety. Often the man with a modest ward-
robe is better dressed than the one with many suits.
Naturally, the man is light-headed, not to say wicked,
who would squander on coats, boots, and neckties an
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income sufficient to support several families; but the
example of the careless, slovenly man is not inviting,
and if extravagance is to be deplored, there is merit
in good dressing. Strike the happy medium. Be
neither a Beau Brummell nor a dust-stained Weary
Willie.
Neglect of the clothing is a symptom of sloven-
liness that is apt to be progressive.
The well-dressed salesman is scrupulously neat,
carries himself well, and is alert and active. The
salesman who is content with ill-fitting clothes,
shabby hat, soiled linen, rusty shoes, and a collar
that is a size too large may be a very bright man and
representing a first-class house, but he certainly does
not look that way. The first impression the observer
forms of him is that he is a "down-and-outer,"
bordering on a state of collapse. So much depends
on first impressions and in keeping up good impres-
sions once formed, that every salesman should regard
his personal appearance as important.
Contempt for clothes is too often associated with
laziness. The salesmen whom the general trade care
to meet are those who "keep up" in every way. In
matters like dress, it is a good thing for the salesman
to try to get a look at himself "as others see him."
It matters little what your income is or the
claims there may be upon it, you can at least afford
to patronize a tailor who can give your clothes a
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Dress and Orderliness
stylish cut and a neat fit. Properly selected and
adjusted fifty-cent neckties look as good as dollar
ones; and a hat that becomes you costs no more than
a misfit.
Personal appearance in salesmanship counts so
much and costs so little, that any salesman can afford
the price, and it is money well invested. A man is
judged almost as much by his appearance as by his
actions or the degree of his sanity in this progressive
age. A well-dressed, alert salesman will get a "look
in" with a brusque merchant, while his slovenly
brother is being waved aside with the busy signal.
Orderliness in dress goes hand in hand with
orderliness in the sample-room and orderliness in
everything else connected with the work of a sales-
man. Nothing creates in the buyer a desire to buy
like stepping into a well-ordered salesroom. The
most attractive line of goods will lose out fifty per
cent through ineffective display in a cluttered-up
room.
The proper display of samples on the road is a
subject worthy of the closest study. Due care should
also be given to cleaning up the sample-room in
general before going out to round up a customer.
Waste paper, trays, and empty boxes should be
stowed away out of sight, and everything arranged
in apple-pie order, if one hopes to conduct a cus-
tomer through the line without a hitch.
ご
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Some salesmen are naturally orderly; others
learn to be, by hard knocks taught in the school of
experience; and still another class never learn the
lesson. I graduated from the second class during
my first year on the road. It happened in this way.
My line was displayed in a large, hustling,
northern Michigan town. Our house had practi-
cally no business there, and my first three visits
were devoted largely to an effort to interest the
largest concern in the place; but I failed.
On my fourth trip I found the buyer of my line
away on sick leave. The head of the house was a
crusty, nervous old man; but not wishing to be
turned down altogether, I summoned courage enough
to approach him.
In place of the curt refusal I expected to receive,
to my surprise he asked in a quick, sharp manner if
I would be in my room at the hotel at twelve o'clock.
Receiving a reply in the affirmative, he promised to
meet me there at that hour. With eager expectancy
I went back to wait out the interval. I was nervous
and dreaded his coming, for that was my first ex-
perience face to face with a big merchant.
He was on time to the second. With youthful
indiscretion I greeted him rather more effusively than
the occasion required, which he failed to notice, how-
ever, for he pushed right by me into the room without
any ceremony whatever. Before I had recovered my
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Dress and Orderliness
mental equilibrium, he was firing questions at me,
two at a time, concerning the value of various items
in the line. Without giving me time to answer even
his first inquiry, he started for the door, with the
remark that he guessed there was n't anything he
wanted. Stopping on the threshold, he turned and
said, "If you have a black silk at —, I can use
a few pieces."
"C
Certainly," I said, "I'm sure we have it," and
commenced a search that ended in despair. The
piece-goods samples were jumbled in a telescope
with two or three other lines, and in spite of desper-
ate efforts to locate that silk sample I couldn't put
my hand on the right one, although I knew it was
there.
He got impatient, and I got nervous, which gave
me blind staggers, and I couldn't have found that
sample if it had stood in front of me as large as the
statue of Liberty. Muttering something about "dis-
orderly salesmen," he rushed out, banging the door
behind him. I dropped into a convenient chair in a
cold sweat. Ten minutes later I located the offend-
ing sample and started to run over to his store with
it, when it struck me that he was probably at
luncheon. At one-thirty I found him in his office
and hastened to apologize for the delay.
"Never mind troubling yourself, young man,
he said, in a rasping tone, "I have just placed an
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order for twenty pieces of the silk I wanted with a
New York salesman who keeps his samples where
he can find them." And then to give good measure,
he added, "If you remain on the road and expect
to succeed, you'll have to keep your wits about
you."
The loss of that order amounted to four hun-
dred dollars, besides a chance to get an opening-
wedge in with a gilt-edge concern. I did n't need
any coaching after that, on how to keep stock in
the sample-room.
Proper care of samples is as necessary as effec-
tive display or orderly arrangement.
The three vital factors in the successful sale of
goods from samples are: first, the standing of your
house; second, your own power of persuasion; third,
the condition of your samples.
The most painstaking salesman will find that
with packing and unpacking his trunks every day,
his samples soon become worn and unattractive.
What then happens to the careless man? Many a
time I have seen a line of what had once been choice
goods in an utterly shabby condition before they had
been out ten days, and for the balance of a trip
of several weeks the salesman carrying them was
obliged to make the best showing he could with
ruined samples.
It is a difficult matter, even for a buyer possess-
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Dress and Orderliness
ing the keenest imagination, to stretch his fancy
from a straw-hat sample that looks like a punctured
bushel basket to the smart article of headgear it was
when it came fresh from the factory.
When a clothing salesman extracts from a pile
a garment that resembles a linen duster instead of the
snappy, up-to-date coat that it once was, his cus-
tomer is very likely to class it with the "has-beens"
and ask to be shown something in the prevailing style.
A good-looking sample is a sale half made.
When I was in the jobbing business at D-
a prominent straw-goods manufacturer called on us,
accompanied by his regular salesman.
The occasion of his visit was to introduce a new
line. He succeeded in arousing the interest of our
hat-buyer, who induced me to go along with him to
the manufacturer's sample-room to look his line over.
Picking up a certain block that he thought was des-
tined to have a great run, the manufacturer started
to show forth its merits. Stopping suddenly, his
eyes riveted on a certain spot on that hat, he called
his salesman over to our group, and there in front of
us all gave the unlucky fellow the worst "roasting
I ever heard.
66
'Do you see that dent in the crown of this
hat?" he asked.
It was so small that the rest of us had failed to
notice it; but his salesman admitted it was there.
C
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Men Who Sell Things
"Well," continued the manufacturer, “have n't
I told you repeatedly to pack your samples so as to
insure them against damage? In another two weeks
this sample will be utterly worthless. Do you ex-
pect to finish your trip introducing this hat, and to
take orders from it in a dilapidated state ?”
The manufacturer worked himself up to a great
state, while his salesman stood before him, utterly
unable to defend himself. Although he was guilty
of carelessness, he was too manly to offer excuses, so
said nothing.
cr
46
Perhaps you know where another line is com-
ing from; I don't," his employer started in again.
"I tell you what it is, I want you to take more care
with these samples. If it takes all day to pack up,
you see to it after this that they are packed to avoid
breaking."
The salesman was saved from further reprimand
by a telephone call from the office. When he had
left the room I asked his employer if he was n't a
little rough on him, and whether such talks were
not more effectively conducted in private.
"Perhaps so. No doubt you are right," he
answered in a half-apologetic manner, "but it is so
exasperating. I lost my self-control for the moment.
Permit me to explain, however, what my salesman
knew from long experience, that a new line of samples
like these is made ready only after weeks of work
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Dress and Orderliness
and great expense. Our sample line is our stock in
trade until the orders are all in and the factory run-
ning. A duplicate line could not be had, excepting
at great cost and a loss of time. In any event,
there is really very little excuse for careless packing.
A damaged sample is a poor foundation argument
which to build a satisfactory business in a new
upon
line."
Barring the unpleasantness of the sample-room
incident, that talk impressed me so, that, immediately
on returning to my office, I caused to be sent out to
our own travelling men a detailed account of what
had taken place.
A salesman's duty to his house does not consist
alone in reaching a satisfactory figure in volume
of sales. Other things require his attention to com-
plete his real worth. Profit, not sales, is the objec-
tive point of every house. Chasing sales instead of
profits is a disastrous game for either salesman or
employer. Wanton extravagance in expense, loss
from damage on samples, returned goods, and claims
of whatsoever nature, resulting from loose methods
in making sales, are all profit-drainers. If you wish
your sales to increase, and if you have an honest
interest in seeing your house make profits, see to it
that your sample-line is kept in the best possible
condition.
Again: orderliness plays an important part in
C
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Men Who Sell Things
the clerical work every salesman is obliged to do
each day. Your bad penmanship may be pardoned
if you have not had the advantages of thorough
training, but there can be no possible excuse for you
if your orders are so carelessly transcribed as to be
incomprehensible.
We had in our employ a man of exceptional
ability as a salesman; but in spite of his superior
attainments in other respects, it seemed impossible
for him to transcribe an order properly. The habit
of carelessness had such a hold upon him that,
in spite of the repeated efforts of the head of the
house and others, down to the order clerk, he could
not be made to reform. He would invariably omit
the name of the town, or the customer's name,
or neglect to state departments, so that the office
was in a constant turmoil when filling his orders.
He was great on abbreviating. He would so
abbreviate words that only he and a mind-reader
could have deciphered them. We never could get
him into the habit of being orderly about these
things.
Don't let the habit of disorderliness grow upon
you if you want to be a help instead of a nuisance
to the order-filling department, where so much de-
pends upon quick service. Be particular also to see
to it that your manager is kept in constant touch with
your movements on the road. At times it means
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Dress and Orderliness
much to any business to be able to reach a salesman
within a few hours by wire.
Some men travel their itinerary with the pre-
cision of an advance agent for a theatrical company.
The office can put its finger on them any time, any-
where around the circuit, almost on the instant.
And their return home occurs on the very day and
hour of their original schedule left in the office on
their departure. Others leave behind a carefully
prepared route list, and from the moment their
backs are turned on headquarters, they proceed to
hop, skip, and jump erratically over their territory.
They are never to be located, and seldom return
within three or four days of scheduled time. When
they do come in, it is ten to one that a bee-line is
made for the manager's office, where they begin to
kick about being "neglected" on new samples and
other current matter such as was sent out to the
men every few days.
Keep in touch with the office if you want the
office to keep in touch with you.
Be orderly about everything pertaining to your
work, and your interests and the interests of your
house will move forward with clock-like precision,
bringing satisfaction of a triple alliance nature to
customers, house, and salesman.
A
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Men Who Sell Things
CHAPTER XVIII
RETAIL SALESMEN
Less working at it, and more thought about
it, would help many
help many salesmen behind
the counter to rise above the dead level.
Sunshiny salesmanship softens the frostiest buyer.
OT yet, but soon"-the "near-salesman's
"NOT
motto -- explains the reason why more sales-
men measuring calico at eight dollars a week are not
earning eighteen hundred dollars a year or more,
at the silk or dress-goods counter. Yet there is
room for real salesmanship even behind the calico
counter, and the essentials are the same there as
anywhere else.
It is an honorable occupation, to be sure; but
when a young salesman is content to remain at it
longer than a year, his gumption is several degrees
below ambition. If he cannot in some manner
raise it up a few degrees at a time, until it reaches an
ordinary man's thinking and working capacity, he
will be rooted there for the remainder of his days.
Many retail salesmen drudge along, satisfied
with a mere treadmill existence. "Oh, what's the
use ? they argue, “there's no chance in a retail
store, anyway.
If there is no chance for you where you are, it
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Retail Salesmen
is a dead certainty that you are not suited for the
work you are doing, and the sooner you get out and
give some one else a chance, the sooner will you be
giving both yourself and your employer a square
deal. As a rule, the salesman's position behind
the counter is a pretty fair measure of his capa-
bilities.
Some salesmen have the capacity to draw mo-
lasses from the bung-hole in a barrel without smear-
ing it over the measure and on the floor; they can
weigh out a dollar's worth of sugar, and do it so well
that the balance is a hair's weight in favor of the
customer; but if they were put in charge of the gen-
eral order-filling department, with several salesmen
under them, they would fizzle out completely. They
have not the breadth of mind to grasp the require-
ments of a large position, and they attempt to apply
their small conception of trotting from the molasses-
barrel to the sugar-box to the more important mat-
ter of mastering many details. It can't be done;
and naturally they fail.
As the retail salesman broadens his position,
he assumes new responsibilities, and he must change
his viewpoint to fit the expanding scope of his greater
undertaking. Floaters, life-buoys, and danger-ropes
are all right for timid surf-bathers, but to swim out
into broad, deep water requires physical courage
and well-seasoned powers of endurance. Inability
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Men Who Sell Things
to leave the shore line marks the man who would bet-
ter stay in close to shore, where little boats are safe.
There is, oh, so much for a salesman to be, to
do, to get, to earn, to try, in every retail establish-
ment, that there is little excuse and less hope for the
man who says there is no chance.
I have no desire in my heart to say one thing
derogatory to your position, no matter how humble
it may be.
The man whom I am after, whether he is at
the five-cent counter or taking orders that run up
into the hundreds, is that self-important, small-
calibre "near-salesman" who so thoroughly neglects
his customers that they grow chilly in his presence,
even though the day is hot. Few retail shoppers
escape frequent experiences of that kind, and it is
safe to say that no one ever becomes a better customer
of the house where salespeople of that stamp are tol-
erated. The house may be a good one, but one goes
away feeling that they do not appreciate his trade.
Now, if you "near-salesmen" don't like what I
am writing about you and to you, don't look at me.
Get your eyes open so that you can see yourself,--
that is the first sight to look at.
What are you cutting up about? Putting on
airs with a twelve-dollar-a-week position! That's
what every one who patronizes your counter is trying
to figure out.
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Retail Salesmen
Your house does not pay you to strut around
like a farm-yard bantam rooster. All that your
customers want from you, and have a right to ex-
pect, is courteous, business-like attention, without
frills of any kind.
I want to get you mad. That's why I'm using
unceremonious language in developing your picture.
When a man gets good and angry because some one
has told him the truth about himself, he can gener-
ally be depended upon to go out and "clean up" in
a thorough, wholesome manner. If he makes a
good job of it, it won't be long before you hear of
him doing something of real account.
I never saw an uppish salesman in my life
in whose salesmanship I had any confidence. A
"smart" salesman is a man whom no one cares to
have much to do with.
germs
When a man becomes inoculated with the
of true salesmanship, he gets it in his blood, muscles,
head, and soul, all over from head to foot, and it
makes a sensible, industrious man of him.
Carry a smile through your work. Whenever
a salesman cannot be sunshiny with his customers
he is in need of a liver tonic.
Co
Blessed is he who, having found his own
work, clutches it, clings to it, directly, consecutively,
and always."
Therein lies the secret of accomplishment.
[243]
Men Who Sell Things
When a salesman has little or no conception of the
obligations his position imposes upon him, to say
nothing of lack of desire for advancement, then
it is that soft platitudes and high-sounding phrases
are of no avail.
ones.
This book is for negative salesmen, not positive
The man who is surrounded and choked up
with weeds of indolence, neglect, and carelessness
is the one I want to reach.
Pulling weeds loosens the roots and injures the
growing plant for the moment; but soon it lifts its
head and takes on new growth in the free soil,
becoming sturdy and eventually fruitful instead of
a weak, withered, inanimate thing almost crushed
out by the weeds that were gradually sapping its
life.
The safest and surest way for the retail salesman
to advance from a lowly position to a better one is by
performing his daily work in a thoroughly satisfac-
tory manner. His present surroundings may not be
congenial, but all that can be changed if he will set
his mind on something better and strive hard to
reach it. Wishing will not do it. He must work
and be patient.
Begin by being polite and obliging to every
customer that visits your counter, whether you think
there is a chance for a sale or not. Make it plain
that it is not only no trouble for you to show goods,
[244]
Retail Salesmen
but a pleasure. Make your customers feel at home
with you on the instant by an immediate willingness
to serve them intelligently. Create desire by mak-
ing tactful, helpful suggestions.
There is considerable difference between the
salesman that attempts to force facts down the
buyer's throat and the one that offers information
in reasonable, smooth, and pleasing doses. Do not
thrust your ideas upon your customers, but in an
easy, natural, and pleasing way attract their sym-
pathy and secure their confidence. You will then
experience little trouble in making sales, even where
desire is totally lacking, as indicated on the surface.
Get over the idea that where there is no desire
there is no chance to make a sale, and that almost
every one entering a retail store has his mind fully
made up on what he intends to purchase. Nothing
could be farther from the real facts. The average
shopper is glad to have suggestions when he knows
they are honestly and intelligently given. But the
whole matter rests on confidence. You can do nothing
to aid a customer in making selections until you
have first secured his good-will by that indefinable
something in your manner that leads him to believe
that you are to be trusted, and that you really wish
to be of service to him.
It is important also that you do not fool your-
self into believing that your employers are unmind-
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Men Who Sell Things
ful of your presence in their establishment, and that
whether you are serving them ill or well makes no
difference, because either way it escapes their notice.
That mistaken idea is at the foundation of
many a clerk's failure. Depend upon it, your
weekly sales are closely scanned, and your general
deportment keenly observed. That you do not
receive periodical lectures from your superiors, or
that you are not discharged, as you might have
expected, is not good evidence that you are not
being watched. On the contrary, every move you
make is mentally or otherwise recorded.
If you are a half-hearted, go-as-you-please sales-
man, the chances are that you would have been
discharged long ago, but for the fact that your
employers know from experience how hard it is to
get capable, trustworthy salespeople, and that the
best they can hope for is a fair average.
Where are you, Mr. Salesman? Above or
below the average ?
It matters not so much to your employers to
which class you belong, so long as the average
remains good, but it is of the utmost importance to
yourself. If you are below the average, the responsi-
bility rests solely with you to get on the other side of
the dead-line. That there is plenty of room goes
without saying; it only remains for you to show
your real worth, and the transfer will take place
[ 246 ]
Retail Salesmen
without your giving notice that you are ready to
move up.
There are as many opportunities for advance-
ment in the retail as in the wholesale branch of any
business; but if the wholesale salesman conducted
himself as thousands of retail salesmen are doing
every day all over the land, he would last just about
one trip, and that would end his career on the road.
The travelling salesman goes out and digs up
business, while his retail brother stays at home to
receive it. In either case the chances for advance-
ment are about even.
The average travelling salesman does not miss
many towns without making sales of some sort; but
hundreds of prospective buyers are turned away
from retail stores every day without being properly
waited upon, and this results in a serious loss of
business to the house where indifferent salesmen are
employed.
How many customers visit your counter or de-
partment every month and go away without buying
anything, is a question for you to decide. One
thing is certain to the man who is familiar with both
branches of the trade, and that is that many sales
are lost at retail in large establishments every day
from lack of attention and proper selling ability,
such as is absolutely necessary on the part of the
travelling salesman.
[247]
Men Who Sell Things
If every retail salesman could take a trip on
the road for a few weeks, he would return to his
counter and increase his sales fifty per cent the
first month thereafter,
The best way for a retail salesman to decide
on how to treat his customers is to pay an occasional
visit to other retail houses for purchases, and to take
particular notice of the treatment accorded him by
the salesmen in each place, and the effect it has
upon him. Then he should remember to put him-
self in the place of the salesman who made the
best impression on him, whenever his customers
come to buy.
When a prospective buyer approaches you, who
has just been treated in a cold-blooded manner by
an inefficient, neglectful clerk in a competitor's store,
and you greet him with a pleasant smile and oblig-
ingly show him everything he wants to see, and
especially something that he will be much inter-
ested in, you will generally succeed in making a
sale, and your new-found customer will go away
feeling that he has done well to change his trade
from the cold-blooded house.
Now, Mr. Retail Salesman, stop and give this
matter some thought. Remember that while behind
the counter in your employer's store, you take the
place of your employer to every customer with whom
you come in contact. Also remember that in other
[248]
Retail Salesmen
stores, and perhaps at other counters in the one
in which you are employed, there are plenty of
salesmen who are cold and "chesty" to their cus-
tomers, and that if you can manage to be never out
of sorts with any customer, you gain a signal advan-
tage over your grouchy neighbors.
Which salesman do you think it will best pay
you to copy, the one who made the best im-
pression on you on your own purchasing tour, or
the one who, with a cold look and an impudent
sneer, freezes the very buying instinct out of every
possible customer that comes within his reach?
Do not think that because your neighboring
salesman is discourteous and neglectful of his trade
without losing his position, you can afford to be
that way whenever you feel like it. Your worst
competitor is yourself. The most important battles
to fight are from within, and not without.
By always being pleasant to your customers,
great and small, by showing your appreciation of
their trade, and by interesting yourself in the things
you know will interest them, you can soon out-
distance your ill-natured neighbor in the race for
success. A continuation of the same kind of treat-
ment which puts him out of the race will, also,
soon show results in the fight you are making for
promotion.
You can be sure of one thing if you try
[249]
Men Who Sell Things
your best to be friendly and accommodating to all
customers and show them you appreciate them, you
will be doing all that any one could possibly do to
get and hold their trade, all that was ever done by
those who were once struggling as you are for a
foothold, but who now enjoy high-salaried positions
and a share in the profits in the house where you
are employed.
Every successful retail merchant started where
you are and won out by being faithful to his trust.
Your very biggest club with which to despatch
all doubt as to your advancement is the good-will
and confidence of those above you in authority,
and the friendly feeling of every one with whom you
have dealings of any sort. With this, a thorough
knowledge of your particular line of goods, and a
careful study of the duties of the man just ahead
of you in a more responsible position, you will find
you are in mighty good shape to hold your own
against all newcomers, and to be a candidate for
promotion on the first opportunity that arises.
There is no such thing as good salesmanship without
enthusiasm. I know we have what we call “ near-
salesmen," but they do not possess that precious
quality.
I do not believe you can separate enthusiasm
and true salesmanship. In fact, enthusiasm is the
life of salesmanship.
[250]
Retail Salesmen
The salesman who is enthusiastic in the sense
that he pays more attention to the sporting edition
of the daily papers than to his customers, who hands
out a yard and a half of unbleached cotton and a
mile and a half of self-importance for twelve cents,
does not know the meaning of enthusiasm.
And I want to say to you men who profess to be
salesmen, but who are just plain every-day shams,
that I do not intend to lose a single chance to pour
hot shot and grape and canister into your ranks.
You are the gentlemen I am after.
Now, if the sham salesmen who happen to en-
counter these lines want to continue to be shams in
the open, I say, "Go it, go it, boys"; but if you
members of the profession who are only "near-
salesmen" posing as the genuine article want to
continue so to pose, I will brand you as no-accounts
until you either reform or renounce your faith in
the profession of salesmanship, and start to look
for some other kind of employment.
Somebody has a right to say a few things along
these lines, and I propose to have it out with your
class before I get through with you, whether you
interpose any objections or not. I want to talk to
you men who have made your sham pretences in
the world of salesmanship and drawn pay for work
wretchedly done, keeping a real salesman out of the
game that you are trying to play. You have been
K
[251]
Men Who Sell Things
at it long enough to be a stumbling-block and a dis-
grace to the science of the greatest of all professions.
I can stand anything better than I can stand a
sham or shirking salesman. I always did have a
hatred for near-things, humbugs, and cheats, and
of all the humbugs that ever plied a profession, the
"near-salesman" is the "humbuggest."
When a man who thinks he is a salesman gets
a little swell-headedness, a little "I'm-it-ness,"
and a little of almost everything, and is made up
out of a hundred different sorts of negative things,
and attains a little twelve-dollar-a-week position, then
he is a first-class humbug in every sense of the word.
With your salesmanship right, with the foun-
tain clear, the stream will be clear. With a good
tree the fruit will be good. And I declare to you,
"near-salesmen," that the hardest work a
ever tried to do is to be a salesman without sales-
manship; to be a good salesman with a shallow
nature and a sham heart.
There's no denying the fact that every retail
salesman is at times sorely tried with people who
look at the world through blue glasses, but the pro-
fessional salesman knows that sunshiny salesman-
ship softens the frostiest buyer. It is difficult to
keep patient while waiting on a grumpy customer,
but it pays in the end to keep your temper, even with
the most obstinate and surly.
[252]
Retail Salesmen
The salesman who is intent on achieving the
greatest selling results literally burrows into the
business of selling goods. He must have a nose for
sales-making as true and keen as the scent of the
bloodhound. That is enthusiasm. It can be devel-
oped. Fall in love with your work, and you cannot
help becoming enthusiastic.
Enthusiasm is a soul quality springing from
knowledge and confidence. The more knowledge
you have, the greater becomes your confidence, and
your enthusiasm increases in the same proportion.
Look on the bright side of things. Nothing so
paralyzes enthusiasm as pessimism.
Next to honesty, enthusiasm is the most essen-
tial quality in successful retail salesmanship.
Arguments are of no avail, and tact is worse
than wasted, if you do not present your subject with
all the enthusiasm you can muster.
The listless answers and hesitating manner of
"near-salesmen" cause all shoppers to wonder why
these men are not displayed in the show-cases in
front of them in place of the goods they represent.
Put the goods on top of the case and crawl in-
side, Mr. Near Salesman. Almost any article of
merchandise in your department is able to plead its
own case much more eloquently and effectively than
can you,
you will give it half a chance.
if
Who has not been angered and driven away in
[253]
Men Who Sell Things
disgust by having goods banged down in front of him
and the price hurled in his teeth by a dyspeptic sales-
man with a makes-little-difference-to-me-whether-
you-take-it-or-leave-it expression, who, believing his
whole mission is performed, stands glaring at him,
waiting for his decision?
In truth, the only thing the customer is trying to
decide upon is whether to land on his brainless
cranium, report him at the office, or go across the
street and get what he wants from Joy, Gladhand
& Co. If he is of a peaceful, retiring nature, and
does not want to create a scene, he hastily selects
something that he would n't have as a gift under
other circumstances; but he is determined to have
no more dealings with that house.
He will keep
on trading with Joy, Gladhand & Co.
Then there's a twin brother to our dyspeptic
friend, a few doors down the street. His name is
Meander Gadgood. You walk blithely up to his
counter, feeling at peace with all the universe, and
stand there, first on one foot and then the other,—
two, three, five minutes, waiting for Meander to
separate himself from a group of pennant-winning
judges in council at the other end of the counter.
Just as you are thinking of going over to Joy,
Gladhand & Co.'s, Meander, with a ten-mile look
in his eyes, saunters up. Never a word does he speak.
With one eye menacingly raking you over from head
[254]
Retail Salesmen
to foot, and the other regretfully focussed on the
other boys, he stands there, his gray matter — what
little there is of it-following his favorite ball team
on a distant diamond.
Though there is a reasonable excuse for homi-
cide on your part, you smother your wrath and polite-
ly ask to be shown the latest styles in three-dollar
fancy shirts. Listlessly reaching into the case,
Meander paws over the stock, extracts a couple of
patterns, slides them over to you with the air of one
administering absent treatment, and stalks back
to see how the judges have settled the matter.
About the time you have concluded that you
don't need any more shirts anyway, back he comes
and hovers like a phantom long enough for you to
say, in tones that indicate a gathering storm, that if
he is through with his more important business than
waiting on his customers you will look at a few more
shirts, including some of the good sellers.
Not being an adept at human barometer read-
ing, Meander fumbles around in the stock, finally
lugging out one or two more patterns that any man,
to say nothing of a shirt salesman, might know were
selected with poor taste. Bombarding you with his
new-found relics of a past season's success, he retreats
again in perfect order to the rear-guard for another
confab. Intuitively feeling the angry glances cast
in his direction, he determines to renew the attack by
>
[255]
Men Who Sell Things
rushing things, and sails back only to be repulsed
with a fusillade of indignant protests.
Without a moment's further loss of time, you are
well on your way to Joy, Gladhand & Co.'s, where,
when you ask to see shirts in any style or price, no
effort is spared until the entire line is promptly dis-
played, if necessary, to please a customer and insure
a sale.
Are you that kind of salesman? If you recog-
nize your portrait and it fails to please you, don't
blame the photographer. He cannot improve on
nature by making a pleasing likeness from an un-
attractive subject.
Mr. Near Salesman, the time has gone by when
representation without courtesy, or life, or enthus-
iasm can produce profitable sales. You must show
the spirit of accommodation and be interesting and
convincing in your arguments. You cannot do that
successfully unless you are full of your subject, have
the utmost faith in your proposition, and are running
over with enthusiasm.
A new spirit rules the world of salesmanship
in place of the old go-as-you-please régime. It is
an expression of the mighty force that does things
enthusiasm. If your blood corpuscles are not sat-
urated with it, you are out of date, and you will soon
be out of salesmanship if you do not find a way to
cultivate it.
[256]
Retail Salesmen
Enthusiasm, the first requisite in salesmanship,
a sincere interest in the thing to be sold, and a
desire to sell it decently, that is, really, nearly all
there is to it; for enthusiasm must perforce lead to
a study and a knowledge of the thing to be sold, as
well as a study of those to whom we wish to sell it.
You cannot cultivate enthusiasm with one eye on the
clock and the other on everything else than the cus-
tomer who is patiently waiting an opportunity to
spend some of his money at your counter.
A good salesman must know more about his
goods than the man he is selling to knows about
them. Knowledge and enthusiasm beat oratory
every time.
Enthusiasm in a salesman begets en-
thusiasm in a customer.
You must know your business and you must
work, if you wish to hold trade, get new trade, and
draw a bigger salary than the common average of
salesmen.
The law of nature is yet to be discovered that
will prevent a salesman being diplomatic, enthusias-
tic, honest, and hard-working all the time. Look
about you, and you will discover a few like that
in the very ranks in which you serve. Keep your
eyes on them, they will not remain with you long.
You will see them advanced to managing posi-
tions or owning their own businesses in a few
years.
*
[257]
Men Who Sell Things
There is a chance for
a chance for you if you will about face
and take up the line of action in real earnest.
In an interview by a well-known writer on busi-
ness subjects with one of the leading State Street
department stores in Chicago, he was told by the
manager that a young man once applied to his house
for a position as salesman. He was asked what his
qualifications were, and he answered, "My stock
in trade consists of knowing the faults of ordinary
salespeople through having to put up with them
during many years of shopping."
He
He was given a place, and the first day sold
more goods than any other salesman in his depart-
ment. He had the knack of putting customers into a
good humor by laying himself out to please.
studied his customer's first inquiry intently, and
followed that up instantly and intelligently. At
the end of a year he was earning twenty-five dol-
lars per week in that store. A short time after-
wards he was offered fifty dollars a week by a
gentleman accompanying a cross-grained customer
whom he, without losing his temper, had success-
fully waited upon under exceedingly vexing circum-
stances.
On leaving to accept the new position, one of
his fellow-salesmen asked him how he accounted for
his remarkable ability to effect sales.
Promptly came the reply: "The great majority
[258]
Retail Salesmen
of salespeople lack tact, enthusiasm, and sympathy
with customers."
A great many high-salaried travelling salesmen,
and nearly all of the most successful retail merchants
in the country, have themselves been behind the
counter. There is no better place to get a selling
education.
❤
[ 259]
Men Who Sell Things
CHAPTER XIX
THE SALESMAN'S RELATION TO CREDITS
Credit builds up business; truth builds up credit.
HE fortune of a business house rests on the wis-
THE
dom and courage of the credit man.
There are three vital branches
and credits.
buying, selling,
The credit department, while last in the logical
line-up, is first in real importance in the final analysis
of the house's prosperity as a whole. The woods are
full of salesmen bright men who can argue and
ably defend the right of the selling-branch to claim
paramountcy over the other two; and buyers are
ever ready to fall back on the old axiom, "Goods
well bought are half sold"; but in reality the credit
department is the foundation-stone upon which rests
the prosperity of salesmen, buyers, and all.
These three great departments are so closely
interlinked that perforce they must go forward,
shoulder to shoulder, supporting one another. Like
the engine, tender, and cars of a train, they must
pull together. The engine hauls the train; the
tender carries the coal and water with which to
get up steam; and the cars bear the load. Each
has its work to perform. The breaking of a
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The Salesman's Relation to Credits
coupling threatens disaster and means a standstill
all around.
The object of a train of cars is to get somewhere
with something. The something is its freight. A
great business house is a commercial train in charge
of engineer and conductor.
Somewhere in a book on salesmanship I have
seen the salesman described as the engine, steam,
coal, and the whole paraphernalia. Not so. The
salesman is just the engineer furnishing the force.
The buyer is the tender supplying the material. The
credit man is the car that carries the load. The track
is its trade.
The real object of the entire outfit is the load.
In business the load is its credits. Credits properly
made mean profits and salaries. The credit man is
the conductor of the train. The best thing the sales-
man can do if he wants to get aboard is to keep near
the cars.
Credit men are the commercial conductors, and
salesmen are the commercial engineers; there you
have it right.
Every salesman should seek to establish a close
friendly relationship with the credit man of his house.
The man who thinks he can get along well enough by
himself makes a great mistake, encountering many
pitfalls that could easily have been avoided by advis-
ing with his credit man. In the end he must do that
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Men Who Sell Things
anyway, for no sale is final until it passes the credit
department. The salesman who thinks he could get
along very nicely if it were not for the "old man" at
the desk would get along a great deal better if he
took him entirely into his confidence and freely
sought his advice concerning his trade.
In turn information to the credit man from the
salesman, under ordinary conditions, is peculiarly
valuable. The salesman is posted as is no one else,
by frequent visits, knows the buyers' strong and
weak points, the general condition of trade in the
towns and surrounding country, and, if shrewd, can
intuitively sense the hazard of an account from actual
contact with all conditions surrounding it. If a
salesman reports his opinion of each risk assumed
by the house on his territory, it does not take long
to tell the value of his observations and whether
he possesses the capacity of giving a dependable
rating.
The credit man, like the salesman, must know
more of a man than he knows himself.
The two classes of men resemble each other in
the delicacy and the onerousness of the duty they
have to perform in reading the signs of the coming
stoppage of an account.
No salesman, however efficient in other respects,
who saddles his firm with uncollectable or trouble-
some accounts, can hope to succeed in the long
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The Salesman's Relation to Credits
run.
profit.
He is a source of loss instead of a medium of
In reality, the salesman is the first judge of
credits for his house. No matter what fate may
attend his choice of accounts, when they reach the
credit man the first selection is entirely in his hands.
If he is bent on rolling up sales at any hazard more
than to the more important work of carefully pick-
ing his way and keeping the credit department
posted on the changing complexion of his customers'
affairs, he will find himself continually in hot water.
He is the first judge of credits in every transaction.
The credit man may exercise supervision, may accept
or reject his orders, but he depends upon the sales-
man's judgment more than on any other source of in-
formation, and looks to him as the man on the ground.
Exercise your discretion to the best of your
ability, and where the slightest doubt exists as to a
basis for credit, tell the credit man all about it. Many
salesmen, like the ostrich that hides his head in the
sand, point only to the bright side, in the blind hope
that the other side will not be detected. One thing
is certain where this is practised: if the credit man
is unable to verify the negative side, accepting the
salesman's report, and ships the goods, sooner or
later the telltale truth will come out in the ledger.
"Be sure your sin will find you out"; there is no
escaping that ledger in its work of separating the
ご
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Men Who Sell Things
·
sheep from the goats. Then it is that the salesman's
weakness is discovered and his measure taken.
The shrewdest and most experienced make
mistakes, but picking good accounts means a great
many things to be avoided as well as accomplished.
A general warning for over-zealous salesmen, and
especially for the young salesmen, may be sounded
in the statement that poor credits always betray
themselves to the close observer in some manner or
other, and to avoid unpleasant complications the
result of such observations should always accom-
pany the order.
the order. Better still, leave the "lame ducks'
for the other fellow. There is no sport to the real
sportsman in taking a crack at a winged bird simply
to bag the game. Go after the good accounts; there
are plenty of these on every man's territory.
When an account that has once been good begins
to go the other way, do all you can to preserve it by
proper nursing, helpful suggestions, and accurate
information to the credit department Remember
that the very existence of your house rests on the
ability of its credit man to know the assets of its
customers, the condition of their business, the chances
of being willing and able to pay. With his experi-
enced eye and mind he can foresee a coming crash
long before the man most interested. He can see
the faults of location, of stock, of character of the
man. In refusing credit he oftens renders a service
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The Salesman's Relation to Credits
to the prospective customer, but it is seldom appre-
ciated. Now and then a merchant is wise enough
to take advantage of the candid opinion of an out-
sider and curtail rather than increase his liabilities.
Usually he is not.
On the other hand, the credit man, by extending
credit, often puts heart into a struggling man and
makes his success certain. A mark of confidence
from one whose judgment is considered good is
enough to strengthen a merchant's belief in him-
self, shaken, perhaps, by unexpected experiences.
""
When you are tempted to inwardly curse the
credit man for "sitting on orders," try to figure out,
if you can, that you have no one but yourself to blame
for your disappointment. Orders "held up" in the
office form two classes those that are "N. G.,
and those that require the most rigid inspection. The
latter frequently receive the approval of the credit
man and are “passed out" as soon as he is satisfied
from all points of the compass that no real risk is
involved. The delay in shipment often rests with
the salesman for not having furnished a correct state-
ment with the order. Remember, the credit man
must make no mistakes. There is no department of
the establishment where a blunder may prove so
costly. He must not reject a good customer or
approve a bad one.
ing the truth and in
He must use tact in ascertain-
stating it. The future of the
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Men Who Sell Things
house rests on his wisdom and courage. A credit
man can no more make mistakes without discovery
than a train despatcher can. He cannot begin over
again like a salesman or buyer; he must do perfect
work every time. He cannot sink his personality in
mechanical performance of duty; his personality is
an essential part of his equipment for work.
The science of credits is not an exact one, and
not one to which the same rules are applicable at all
times and for all lines of business. The endeavor of
the credit man is to keep his losses as near the zero
point as possible without limiting sales. There are
many things he must know, to guide the ship of
commerce with which he is intrusted, such as the
condition of a territory as regards money when a
comparatively small area may be experiencing busi-
ness depression because of continued bad weather,
extension of a new railroad cutting off trade, crop
failure, or similar causes, while other territory in the
same locality is enjoying phenomenal prosperity; he
must be informed as to the cost of production, amount
of stock on hand, and in fact all the operative details
of his own business, to enable him to judge wisely in
putting out goods. He is obliged to have access to
many sources of information. What a great help
it is to the credit man to know he can rely absolutely
upon the trustworthiness of his salesmen !
The credit man's position is the most responsible
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The Salesman's Relation to Credits
of all in the establishment. Like a woman's work,
it is never done. He is first at his desk in the morn-
ing and the last to leave at night. Don't add to his
cares by being churlish in fancying you are not get-
ting a square deal when your orders are occasionally
delayed, or ruled out altogether. In his every action
the best interests of the house receive his first consid-
eration. If it were otherwise, how long could it con-
tinue to pay you your salary? Too often is criticism
of the credit department indulged in, because of the
salesman's desire to increase his sales at any risk.
The habit of
In judging a basis for credit on short notice,
when selling to a customer for the first time, the
salesman is obliged to act quickly. His time with
his customer is necessarily limited. He sells a bill
and is on his way to the next town.
observation, alertness, most of all his powers of per-
ception are the qualities which must determine the
worth of a new man. The ledger will find him out
in the long run-that is not difficult; the thing is to
do so on the spot by common instinct.
It is the place of the credit man, and not of the
salesman, to ask direct questions, for the attempt to
investigate a customer's affairs by that method is
offensive, and nearly always resented. It is a barrier
to sales-making. Intuition is the only safeguard
with which to take the measure of the trustworthi-
ness of a man on first approach.
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Men Who Sell Things
It is not easy to sell goods to a hard-headed
dealer who discounts all his bills. The man to
look out for is the one who places his orders with a
lavish hand, indicating his belief that a wholesale
retirement of manufacturers and jobbers is immi-
nent. Such a buyer leaves usually without even so
much as asking your terms. The wary salesman is
always suspicious of the man to whom he can sell
without an effort. A reckless buyer invites failure
from the start. It is only a question of how long the
bank can stand the run before his creditors are
notified that a smash-up is inevitable.
The general appearance of a merchant's store
or office is a pretty sure indicator of his moral and
financial standing. Any evidence of waste, lack
of system, or bad management should not be over-
looked. A slovenly kept store goes hand in hand
with inefficient office management. Haphazard
bookkeeping has ruined many a small merchant.
It is the common experience of most salesmen
frequently to encounter dealers who do not know
the cost of things and cannot tell from year to year
whether they are making a profit or a loss. Their
collections are no better than their payments.
Steer clear of the man who spends money that
belongs to his business. The high-liver, however
prosperous he may appear, is a menace to credit.
It is a good thing for the salesman to realize
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1
The Salesman's Relation to Credits
that every time his house extends a line of credit
to the financially low-water merchant, it is doing
him a far better business turn than his local bank
in loaning him a few hundred dollars.
With a cash payment of five hundred dollars a
dealer obtains a thousand dollars' worth of goods
from his wholesaler, and returns home without funds
for his current expenses. With the credit thus
obtained he secures from his bank a few hundred
dollars, for which he gives his note secured by goods
in his store as collateral. The wholesaler takes no
note, is not secured in any way. Credit is extended
on confidence. That is a thing the salesman should
know and impress upon his trade when occasion
demands. Confidence is the common law of barter
and selling with the wholesaler. Confidence has
built up the great credit system that rules the com-
mercial world. Confidence makes it possible for the
merchant with small capital to do business and pros-
per if he is honest and hard-working. Therefore, his
obligation with his dealer should be safeguarded as
religiously as his obligation with his banker. But
too often this is not the case. The note at the bank
is promptly met because of a wholesome fear of
banking methods. If there is not enough to go
around when pay-day arrives, the wholesaler is put
off with excuses and a plea for an extension.
Customers are not always grateful for financial
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Men Who Sell Things
favors. They seem to forget easily, and are often
touchy on the subject. After a long up-hill run,
during which they are assisted again and again,
finally coming out in the clearing, with a little
surplus in the bank and the last payment made,
they draw a self-satisfied breath and say, "There
now, I've got you paid up. I can do as I please.'
""
It's a great thing to be free from the bondage of
debt, and a greater thing to remember with gratitude
the helping hand that made deliverance possible.
It is the salesman's duty deftly but firmly to persuade
customers like this to appreciate and recognize their
obligation.
I remember a customer who had been “carried
over” from year to year by the house that gave me
my start on the road. The firm went out of its way
on many an occasion to help him to make good
when no other house in the country would trust
him for a dollar. He was always treated right,
receiving all the advantages that the best customer
on the books enjoyed. His business finally grew
to a point where he was obliged to have more goods
than his line of credit with us would permit. Realiz-
ing that his need was urgent if his creditors' demands
were to be met, I volunteered to set him right with
a travelling acquaintance from a neighboring house.
The other traveller accepted my statement of his
condition, and on his first visit sold him quite a
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The Salesman's Relation to Credits
large bill. He kept increasing his purchases with the
new house and likewise his payments, neglecting our
house on both, naturally feeling that the new house
should be paid promptly. As our payments grew
smaller, he concluded that he would better place the
burden of his business where his remittances were sent.
His business continued to grow, and by the time he
had wormed himself free from our debt his purchas-
ing power had increased one hundred per cent. Far-
away houses began to scent his prosperity, which
tickled his vanity. Gradually he slipped farther and
farther away from the house that had faithfully stood
by him for so many years when he was getting a start.
One day a dispute arose over a price; his pur-
chases had dwindled down to practically nothing;
he began to abuse my firm. The ire in my soul was
now thoroughly aroused, and I told him in unvar-
nished terms what I thought of his whole conduct
toward us. He got sulky, but was too much ashamed
to resent the flaying he received; besides, he knew
every word of it was true.
I let him sulk for six months, then called again,
greeting him as though nothing had happened. He
seemed glad to see me. Cordially extending his
hand, he said, "Don't say a word. It's all right.
I deserved what I got, and now I'm ready to stick
to the old firm." And he kept his word, becoming
one of our strongest accounts.
ご
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CHAPTER XX
THE SALESMAN'S RELATION TO THE BUYER
E
One for all and all for one," is the
watchword that causes the interests of buyer
and seller to go forward arm in arm, sup-
porting each other, as they should go.
VERY salesman who has overcome the obstacles
that beset his path, and made good, realizes
the weight of responsibility that is attached to the
daily routine of his work. Heavy as the load ap-
pears to be at times, it is as nothing when compared
to the thorny road every buyer is obliged to travel
in his efforts at selecting only the best sellers the
marts of the world afford.
How to pick the winners is as much of a prob-
lem to most buyers as the operation of a shell game
is to the average public. If the buyer's foresight
were as good as his hindsight, all buyers would
soon be trying to dodge the proposed tax on swollen
fortunes.
It is a great deal easier to criticise than to help.
The buyers of your house can get along without
your criticism, but they must have your help. Two
or three disgruntled salesmen in the line-up can
turn enough others against a line of merchandise to
swamp the best buyer on earth in less time than it
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The Salesman's Relation to the Buyer
takes to write it. The salesmen of a house can make
or break a buyer at will. Nearly all salesmen live in
glass houses when it comes to puncturing the mis-
takes of the buyer with barbed arrows of criticism.
It is discouraging for the salesman to be obliged to
have to make good the buyer's mistakes on the road;
but the true salesmen, the really big men in the
profession, are those who have long since learned
that to be free is to have power to overcome all
obstacles.
There should be no cause for discouragement
because of an occasional error in judgment on the
part of the buyers. There are enough good sellers
left in the line to insure a substantial increase in
your sales, if you will devote some of the time to
finding them that is spent in trying to persuade other
salesmen that the buyers who do not come up to
your standard of fitness should be operating peanut
stands.
It's a great thing for the salesman to be optimistic
about the goods he has to sell; to take a cheerful view
of the buyer's ability. The salesman with a cheerful
view will grow and succeed with the poorest sort of
backing that is where personality comes in; a
gloomy, discouraged man can never hope to be
anything but a trailer. An opportunity to buy
United States Government bonds bearing interest
at ten per cent, or Bank of England stock at fifty
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Men Who Sell Things
cents on the dollar, would have no rose-colored hue
for him.
Gloom depresses the heart and weakens the
salesman's selling-talk.
We learn to do by doing - not by complaining.
Make the best of things, and see how clear a path is
the road that leads to success.
Lucky is the salesman who can put his little
individuality on the side of that big giant Progress,
and do his share to pull in the right direction, and
help to take away from others the stupidity that
clings so desperately to those who believe in the
superiority of their own knowledge of how things
should be done, as measured against that of those
whom they are serving.
To save myself from being misunderstood, I
feel called upon every little while to explain that
"Men Who Sell Things" is written for negative
salesmen, not positive ones
Speaking of positive salesmen, Billy Morris
came in to sell my partner hats one day. After
a voluble talk —it was a warm day - Billy took
off his coat and began all over again. My partner
knew that Billy was up against it with a poor line,
but he was a great admirer of men who possess
contagious enthusiasm, and he gave him the privi-
lege of showing a few samples.
Billy knew that it was not a very good line that
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The Salesman's Relation to the Buyer
he had, but he singled out one hat and waxed warm
with enthusiasm, saying, "I positively want to tell
you, Mr. M, this is, without exception, the
best hat in the world."
"Do you mean that, Billy,— the best hat in
the world?" asked my partner.
Quicker than a flash he came back with, "Yes,
the best hat in the world."
Billy dwelt on the beauties of that hat so much,
repeating that it was "the best hat in the world,"
barring none, that my partner bought a bill of him.
For years after that, through his having made
such a strong assertion, we remembered him always
as the man with the best hat in the world," and he
got an order pretty nearly every time he came
around through his having made a hit with his
superlative.
Billy used to be familiarly known to those in the
trade who had salesrooms in the vicinity in which
he was located in New York, in congested Lower
Broadway.
He would approach a customer entering his
salesroom, and walk him up to his display, and
dilate on the beauties of his hats with great force and
positiveness. If he succeeded in making a sale, he
would come out rubbing his hands, his face clothed
in smiles, and say, "Well, there's a good merchant."
If things went the other way after he had soared to
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Men Who Sell Things
the highest enthusiasm, and he failed to land his
man for a bill, he would come out and tell the boys
with a very solemn face, "That buyer can't last.
He don't know good values when he sees them."
Billy is still travelling and prosperous. He
owns a partnership in the business he helped to
build up by his unbounded faith in his line, and
has money from his income to speculate in New
York real estate.
A poor workman always finds fault with his
tools, and a poor salesman always finds fault with
his goods. He may have the most salable line to be
found anywhere, but that is generally a small part
of what he has to sell. His strong line is excuses,
travelling to get ahead of some competitor, or
cutting the price. Billy Morris sold goods because
he believed in what he had to sell. If secretly he
had admitted that his goods were poor, he could not
publicly have impressed his customers with their
merchantable value.
The man who knows, or thinks he knows, that
his line is not up to that of his competitor, begins
by doing all manner of things not calculated to add
to his efficiency, things in keeping with his lack of
confidence. He is a negative salesman, imbued
with the idea that he must in some manner over-
come the fancied weaknesses of the buyers.
For a time his sole object in life seems to be to
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The Salesman's Relation to the Buyer
try to be ahead of his competitors. Meeting you
in the lobby of some hotel, he will ask, "Have
you seen Jones yet?" Upon receiving a negative
answer, he continues with, "I cleaned up with him
all right. I was in X ahead of him, and I have
been two days ahead of him all the way around."
He seems delighted and satisfied to be two days
ahead of the other man, when it could be shown in
numerous instances that his bugaboo, Jones, while
following behind him, was selling anywhere from
two to four times as much goods with a poorer line
of merchandise, simply because he was out to sell
merchandise, while our weak-kneed friend was out
to make towns ahead of his competitors, in the blind
hope of covering the supposed errors in judgment of
the buyers of his line.
Never quite sure of his goods, we find him again
in the role of "starter"- the salesman that is always
selling some article below cost for a bill-starter.
About three-quarters of his business is done on bill-
starters, without profit. He always has the bright-
est possible prospects on paper, but they never ma-
terialize. Cornered by the sales manager for cutting
the price, he will begin by excusing his action on the
ground that the goods were not right, or that the
house around the corner had the same thing at a
closer price.
Another idea that he possesses is that one new
M
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Men Who Sell Things
account looks better to him than twice the amount
sold to his regular customers.
He is always chasing new scenery, and giving
Jones plenty of room to take his old trade away
because of his instability.
He seems willing enough to open his goods if a
customer will look at them; which reminds me of a
friend who said that when he was a boy he used to
.call frequently in company with neighboring boys on
a lady who lived close by. She would tantalize the
boys by telling what lovely cake she had in the pan-
try, and she would get each of them a piece if they
cared for any. Being well-bred boys, they always
refused, until one day they broke her heart by saying
in chorus that they would have a piece.
The man who never thinks his goods are right is
easily led into arguments with his trade. I once
had such a salesman. His prices and styles were
never right, and apparently he would rather get into
an argument than sell goods.
One day he got into an argument with a cus-
tomer who was an ardent Romanist, and in place of
selling the man merchandise, began to argue that
there was no such place as Purgatory. In the midst
of the argument, a young Irish priest came in, and
the merchant said, "Father Reilly, what do you
think of this man, who argues there is no such place
as Purgatory?"
i
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The Salesman's Relation to the Buyer
Father Reilly answered, "Let him go to Hell,
then." The salesman who is continually endeav-
oring to defend his right of position and parading
the errors of the other fellow by arguing is beyond
redemption.
Bring yourself to the point where you believe
there are no buyers in the business like the buyers
in your house, and you will soon forget that your
competitors live in the same block.
While no move of the competitor should be
overlooked, it is also well not to lose much time
keeping an eye on him. He will perceive your
eagerness, and will certainly mislead you.
That is natural, but don't lose sight of him; at
the same time do not follow or watch all his moves
for fear of losing a customer or a sale now and then.
If you allow your competition to get on your nerves,
the shrewdest of buyers and the most seductive of
prices will fail to look attractive to you.
Let the buyers take care of themselves. Your
business is not buying, but selling.
Establish an individuality and a good reputa-
tion, and live up to them and not upon them, and
success is likely to abide with you.
If you are going to get rattled or flustered at
some sensational move of a competitor, he will play
upon your weak spot, and you will be apt to find
yourself spending your energy at random.
A
[ 279 ]
Men Who Sell Things
i
Drive the nail home, and get a reputation for
doing so, and every one will come to know by the
appearance of the work that you did it, because your
individuality is stamped upon it. Between taps,
of course, you might glance from the corner of your
eye at your competitor's strokes; but make up your
mind first, last, and all the time that you are not
selling your competitor's goods, that the goods of
your house are good goods, and that you can sell
them.
And you will sell them.
Time and thought taken in complaining of com-
petition is useless expenditure of energy. It lessens
your capacity for the accomplishment of things for
which you were employed.
The worst competition is that of the inefficient
man of poor ability.
If you are a good salesman, you will understand
your advantages over such men, and profit by them
through a proper relationship to the buyers of the
house that puts its signature at the bottom of your
monthly salary check.
[ 280]
The Sales Manager
1
CHAPTER XXI
THE SALES MANAGER
The backing up a man gets has a large amount
indeed to do with his success. Don't let a man
fall down. If he comes back discouraged, dis-
heartened, and blue, make him understand he is
doing as well as could be expected. Encourage
him and stimulate him with newer and better
ideas. That is the sccret of the sales man-
ager's method in building successful salesmen.
THE
HE saying that a man must work out his own
salvation as a salesman is good as far as it goes,
but it does not go far. That is only part of the pro-
gramme.
The best salesmen any house can have are
the salesmen it builds for itself. The old saying,
"Salesmen are born, and not made," is the veriest
kind of tommyrot in this day of science and prog-
ress.
Naturally, the root of salesmanship must be in
the man himself, but the knowledge of how to de-
velop that root into a plant that blossoms and brings
forth fruit is where the work of the Sales Manager
comes in.
One good salesman trained and developed in
this way is worth a dozen floaters the here-to-
day-and-gone-to-morrow class.
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Men Who Sell Things
When a salesman gets ready to hear, he is going
to be profited by the Sales Manager.
You can take the best seed in the world and
scatter it about and leave it alone, but there will be
no crop; but when you plough the soil, put in the
seed, and harrow it, in due time comes the harvest.
So you can take the best seed from the gran-
aries of salesmanship and scatter it about on the
ground of men's intellect, and you need not expect
any return from it; but if you take the ploughshare
of ripened judgment and prepare the ground and
harrow it over with faith, patience, and encourage-
ment, then the seed falls down into good ground
and springs up and bears fruit in the salesmen, some
fifty, some sixty, and some one hundred fold, to the
success of that house.
It is just as necessary that you prepare your
mind to hear as it is to prepare your ground for
the seed. This is the seed of salesmanship falling
upon your mind, and if there is no preparation for
the seed there will be no harvest. Get ready to
hear.
The poorest Sales Manager on earth talks
enough salesmanship to his men every month to
make them all top-notchers, when there is a willing-
ness to hear on the part of the salesmen.
The greatest boon to the sales interests of any
house is a game Sales Manager, one who is never
[ 282 ]
The Sales Manager
afraid of the truth and who knows how to use it in
dealing with men; and the greatest drawback is the
time-serving Sales Manager, who is afraid of hurt-
ing some one's feelings if he does his duty.
Now, it takes two things to make an efficient
sales department - a good Sales Manager and a
good hearer; and when you get a good Sales Man-
ager and a good hearer together, then you are going
to have a first-class sales force.
Well, if a Sales Manager, backed by the very
experience that you must encounter in order to be-
come successful, must also think and plan continual-
ly in order to get ready to prepare the ground for
the seed, what must you do to get ready to hear ?
Be not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the
work.
If you want to be successful in your work, get
ready to hear.
How will you get ready to hear?
By thinking and planning and willingness.
Just precisely as the Sales Manager gets ready to
help you, you ought to get ready to hear.
The standards of two salesmen may differ.
Not because one is more capable than the other, but
because one has a willingness and a desire to do big
things, and the other has not. The man of large
conceptions once worked in narrow channels, but
when he saw a wider view of what his work might
2
[283]
Men Who Sell Things
be he embraced the opportunity to become a bigger
man. It is just about as easy to think of a twenty-
story building as it is of a one-story building, when
you turn your mind to contemplating it.
Make it your business to know what is the best
that might be in salesmanship for you, and stretch
your mind to conceive it, and then devise some way
to attain it. Keep in close touch with the head of
your sales department, but let him advise you. A
willingness on your part to seek and make every
possible use of his counsel and experience will aid
you materially in your purpose.
An evil habit may be fostered in a sales organi-
zation as in an individual, the habit of indiffer-
ence, of shirking, of mischief-making, the clique
habit, and a thousand ills of a negative kind, not
the least of which is the habit of finding fault with
superiors.
Sometimes the trouble may have started with
one wrong-headed man or one restless malcontent,
and have spread and fastened upon the business
until the evil is perpetuated and infects every new-
comer.
The Sales Manager must not only watch for
the development of any wrong tendency and check
it in its incipiency, but must labor directly to incul-
cate right tendencies, high ideals, cheerfulness, and
loyalty.
[ 284]
The Sales Manager
Every outward expression of a business is a
reflection of something within, and any sales force
must get right with itself before it can hope to be
right and work in harmony with the other branches
of the business and with the outside world.
Business houses employing many salesmen may
well tremble to think of the good or bad impressions
being continually multiplied and sent out from their
sales departments. Proprietors may be totally un-
acquainted with that intangible but poten thing, the
spirit of their sales force. They are not likely to
see it as it impresses outsiders; or they may realize
that it is wrong, and feel helpless to change it.
The necessity for a specific organization of sales
departments in large institutions, giving the sole
direction to a managing head, is responsible for the
creation of the position of Sales Manager.
mon cause.
Primarily, the position of the Sales Manager is
to stimulate enthusiastic devotion of all to the com-
That is the thing which spells success.
The contagious enthusiasm of a real leader of sales-
men culminates when it is communicated to all the
members of the sales force. It has then produced
an army of doers.
The power to persuade others is, perhaps, the
greatest faculty in salesmanship, just as the power
to inspire others is the greatest faculty in successful
leadership, and is the one thing to which the Sales
[285]
Men Who Sell Things
Manager devotes his undivided attention in the
management of his men.
No man should be at the head of a sales depart-
ment who does not have this gift of leadership - the
ability to inspire loyalty. The habit of loyalty must
be established. Those who are not receptive, or
incapable of it, must be weeded out.
The salesman who considers no one but himself,
who is continually saying, "Where do I come in ?”
has a negative influence on any sales aggregation,
and should be let out. When a salesman cannot be
made to realize this, he had better quit and give both
himself and his house a square deal. He does an
injustice to himself, his managers, and his house
when he continues in a position of lacking confidence
in the institution and the men at the head of it.
Every salesman has an influence either for good
or bad. If he cannot have a good influence he has
no right to have a bad one.
[286]
Getting an Interest in the Business
CHAPTER XXII
GETTING AN INTEREST IN THE BUSINESS
K
Never look behind when running a race, unless
you want to lose it. Keep your eye on the finish;
you can make your exertions count for more.
EEP your eye on the finish.
Every man who sells things should be working
for a purpose.
What is the desire of your heart and soul as a
salesman? What is it that binds you down to years
of tireless effort?
It is to succeed in the end. Am I not right?
You hope ultimately to secure an interest in the
business. Your dominant aspiration is to have a
partnership in the business which you have helped
to build. Is it not so?
The only way that that hope can ever be realized
is by the principles of right salesmanship. There is
no room in the stockholders' meeting or at the direc-
tors' board for negative salesmen.
By that I do not mean to say that all right sales-
men eventually become employers. Good men, aye,
first-class men, are to be found in every institution,
who, for various reasons, do not seem to bend their
energies in the direction of a partnership in the busi-
ness; but for those who desire in the end to have a
[287]
Men Who Sell Things
voice in the management through personal invest-
ment it can be obtained in no other way than through
inherent quality of character in salesmanship.
Profit and prestige lie in positive and highly
developed qualities of salesmanship, not in negative
ones.
Successful men are men of quality.
Without equivocation I might say that sales-
men lie closer to the hearts of proprietors than any
other class of employees.
When at last you are invited to a place entitling
you to share in the profits, what a mighty revelation
the whole field of salesmanship becomes! A glance
behind the scenes is sufficient to change your views.
completely. Getting an interest in the business-
that is what opens the eyes of a salesman at last to
many things that were difficult for him to under-
stand when serving as a private in the ranks.
The head salesman in the house of which I was
a senior partner was a man of exceptional ability in
many things, but he was generally to be found on
the defensive where the policy of the house was a
matter of question between the management and the
sales force. Finally, opportunity was presented him
to take a moneyed interest in the business. His
certificates of stock had scarcely been transferred
and duly recorded when he wanted to start reform
measures on the other salesmen.
i
[ 288]
Getting an Interest in the Business
{
There is a certain code of ethics in every estab-
lishment governing salesmanship from the viewpoint
of the house, and quite a different code from the
viewpoint of the salesman.
Having worked my way from stock-boy to sales-
man, from salesman to buyer, from buyer to sales
manager, and from sales manager to employer, I am
prepared to say, without qualifying the statement,
that the average employer's conception of true sales-
manship is the correct form for any salesman to
aspire to; and getting an interest in the business will
confirm it beyond the shadow of a doubt.
Almost without exception, the histories of great
business establishments reveal the truth of the asser-
tion that the executive heads - the proprietors-
were once salesmen. You have only to look to the
past of the men at the head of the house whose
goods you are selling to verify this statement.
Take cases like the Field establishment in
Chicago, the greatest business house in the world.
Marshall Field was himself a salesman; and that is
also true of many of his partners and most of the
army of the Field managers.
Find, if you can, one of the great manufac-
tories or mercantile establishments, either wholesale
or retail in any line, the world over concerns
that have emblazoned their names and trade-marks
around the circuit of the globe- and find one, if you
[289]
Men Who Sell Things
can, that was not established and promoted to
greatness by men who had once upon a time in
their business careers sold things. What is true of
Marshall Field is true of other merchants and
manufacturers, great or small, in every line of trade.
When a salesman has ground out his task for a
certain number of days, months, and years, he begins
to ask himself where he is going, what he is doing,
and why he is doing it.
Young salesmen begin with enthusiasm, and
gradually they settle down into the daily grind,
relieved and rewarded now and then, if the results of
their efforts justify such acknowledgment.
To the salesman who does not admit to himself
that his daily work is a grind, who enters the race
and sets his face resolutely toward the finish, never
looking back, belong the rich prizes.
The other class, men who have no set purpose
in life at all, plod along bravely enough and without
any real idea of giving up, and likewise without any
real idea of where the journey of business life will
lead them. Without the aid of business chart or
compass, stopping along the way at times, they ask
themselves if the game of salesmanship is worth
while, and if they would not have done better to have
entered some other field. To each the task that he is
doing seems irksome and void of results. That is
because his interest is not in his work.
[290]
Getting an Interest in the Business
Some one has said that the greatest hell one can
suffer on earth is to lose interest in life.
Losing interest in business, looking back from
the plough, means, first, decay, then stagnation,
and finally retrogression - the beginning of the
end.
Worth while or not is n't the question. We can-
not run away from our allotted task in life whether
we think it is worth while or not. The only men
who have tried it successfully are professional hoboes;
and salesmen who have endeavored to improve their
condition and relieve their minds on the subject by
constantly changing about in a vain attempt to locate
the star of business success eventually become sales-
men hoboes.
The best thing for us all to do is to look at the
bright side of things where we are.
There are two ways to contemplate our work.
It is neither bright nor black but as the eyes of the
onlooker make it so.
Men who sell things are divided into two classes
those who regard their work with rebellious eyes
that do not understand, and those who view their
work with a mind that rises above conditions and
makes the best of them.
When Lincoln freed the negroes from slavery, a
great army was necessary. Every man of that army,
of course, wanted and hoped to be an officer; every
[291]
Men Who Sell Things
man would have liked to do the work that Lincoln
was doing.
No man should be blamed for having high
aspirations, for wanting to be more important; but
any man should be despised for refusing to do the
humble work of which he is capable, because he
has not been made commander-in-chief.
The highest salesman is he who does the lowliest
thing well.
We know that, important as Lincoln was, the
thousands of brave men who followed his generals
in the field of battle were, as a body, infinitely more
important. They could have done great things,
finding other leaders, perhaps, without Lincoln.
Lincoln could have done nothing without them.
The fight that Lincoln and his followers began
against the Secessionists a little more than forty years
ago is the same fight that the men who sell things
must continuously wage against negative qualities in
salesmanship, personal weaknesses, competition, and
whatever set-backs may be encountered.
In the great panorama of the business world a
few names stand out. We see and admire indi-
viduals, great business leaders; but the power that
controls the entire field of business activity, and has
brought business up to where one feature alone,
freight by rail, measured in ton-miles, has increased
three hundred and fifty per cent in twenty years, ex-
[292]
Getting an Interest in the Business
ceeding by far the most optimistic railroad presi-
dent's dreams that power is the army of Men Who
Sell Things.
In salesmanship it is essential that all grades
of men be associated among the beginners. Time
only can be depended upon in the necessary weed-
ing process which shall determine the successful
among the many. It is the beginner who is
the most susceptible to the influence of bad ad-
vice.
Let the young salesman who finds himself among
the small worries of his environment stop and take
stock of himself and his position. If in the begin-
ning he could feel that he was choosing wisely the
field of salesmanship, surely he cannot so stultify his
first judgment as to weigh it against the influence of
another beginner who may have had less experience,
and who he knows has far less judgment than him-
self. Yet this is the one thing which all his nature
may prompt him to do.
One of the especial weaknesses of the young
salesman lies in expecting too much of his house.
He must recover himself and get back his sense of
proportion which shall guide him sanely in his
expectations. Then, having it, he can do no better
than to be guided by this new judgment, keeping
his own counsel.
There is no surer measure of a salesman's re-
[ 293 ]
Men Who Sell Things
sources and strength than his ability to move and
judge for himself.
If the young salesman will begin this course,
merely, he must find it redounding to his every in-
terest in business.
I have little more to say. If I have appeared
to be harsh in my treatment of the subject, the ap-
parent harshness has emanated wholly from a de-
sire to paint a faithful and true picture of both the
negative and positive phases of our great profession
as I have come to know them.
A thorn in the flesh hurts; pulling it out hurts
still more; but leaving it in to fester and poison hurts
most of all. The pain is severe when the foreign
substance is being removed, but that is the only way
that health and life can be insured. The thorn out,
the wound quickly heals.
The whole problem of negative salesmanship
looks to me like the manner in which the farmer
killed a neighbor's dog. The farmer was walking
down the roadway, whistling a merry tune. A pitch-
fork was carelessly slung over his shoulder. As he
was passing a neighbor's house, a big and vicious dog,
with ears back and teeth showing, jumped out and
showed fight. The farmer took down his fork and
rammed it through the dog, killing him on the spot.
The neighbor, coming from a field close by
and seeing his dog dead, exclaimed, "Oh, you
[294]
Getting an Interest in the Business
have killed my dog! Why did n't you take the
other end of the fork to him?”
The farmer calmly replied: "If your dog had
come at me with the other end, I would." And he
went on his way.
Hundreds of men who are selling things now
will some day doubtless be employing salesmen
themselves. You can see it by studying their faces,
their actions, the quiet, determined, resolute manner
of the one who is sure that one day he will have an
interest in the business in which he is now em-
ployed, or be in business for himself, and make a
success of it.
Business is a great battle-field, and there are,
roughly speaking, several million men who sell
things, surging backward and forward over its sur-
face, fighting for success. Each has a separate
little battle of his own.
One side of the business battle-field is black,
while one side is bright. May the readers of this
little book try to look always upon the bright side,
patient in their hard work, without losing ambition.
And may many of them change their present position
in the ranks for a higher and more responsible one in
the officers' quarters that will give them a chance to
do more and better work.
Work is all there is in a man.
THE END

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UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
658.8 M776
Moody, Walter Dwight, 1874-1920.
Men who sell things;
3 1951 001 579 589 T
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