Selling Things

Let the customer feel that he is buying, not that you are selling to him.

Professor Hugo Münsterberg, in an article on the psychology of salesmanship, said: “If the customer knows exactly what he wants, and has made up his mind, no suggestion is needed.” It is then a case of letting well enough alone. An ill-timed or negative suggestion may spoil a sale, as in the following instance.

A farmer once went to town to buy a self-binder. He looked at one binder and was so well satisfied that he was about to buy it. At this point the salesman said: “I’ll tell you, this binder has given us very little trouble.”

Now, this farmer wasn’t looking for a binder that was going to give him even a little trouble. He had troubles of his own. That one suggestion scared him away. He went out and bought a binder from a salesman who said, “This binder has given us excellent satisfaction.”

In the offices of a New York business house there is a quotation framed, which serves the purpose of a very effective suggestion. This house is in the paper business, and, naturally, they wish to impress upon all buyers the value of using good quality paper. Here is the quotation which, I am sure, has suggested to many customers the advisability of buying good quality paper: “A printer recently uttered this truth: ‘Printing doesn’t improve the paper any, but, for a certainty, good paper adds considerably to the appearance and worth of printing.’”

Psychology in selling is in reality only a new name for the principles which good business men, expert salesmen, have used in all times. Diplomacy, tact, cheerfulness, the good-will habit, and the suggestion of confidence—all these form an important part of business psychology.

CHAPTER XII
THE FORCE OF CHEERFUL EXPECTANCY

When a boy I used to go trout fishing in a rough New Hampshire stream with a noted fisherman. He understood the trout and their habits; he knew where the good holes were and the rocks behind which the big trout were waiting. I would fish on one side of the stream and he on the other, and he would catch as many trout as he could carry, while I caught very few.

When this man started out to fish he would say he knew that he was going to get a big string of trout. Whenever he threw in his line he expected to get a trout. I, on the other hand, had no such hope or confidence, I did not know trout and their habits as he did, and I did not expect to catch any. The consequence was I hardly ever got a bite, while the trout nearly always went to his hook.

This is just the difference between a cracker-jack salesman and a poor one. The former knows his business thoroughly and expects to succeed. He approaches his prospect with the air of a conqueror, as a man in the habit of winning. The latter is not well posted, or he fears he won’t succeed. He goes to his prospect in fear and trembling, with doubt in his mind. He doesn’t believe he will get an order, and, of course, he doesn’t.

You should approach every prospect courageously, confidently, not only at the top of your physical condition, but also at the top of your mental condition. You positively must be hopeful, you must expect to take an order. Doubt, fear, or anxiety will queer your sale, because you will communicate whatever is in your own mind to your prospective customer. We radiate our moods. Our doubts and fears are very contagious.

If you carry your goods in a hearse you will not sell them. Do not approach a customer with a long, sad, disappointed countenance, as though you had just returned from a funeral. Remember you are a salesman, not an undertaker. Go to him with a face filled with hope and cheer, with confidence and assurance.

If you are a winner, your whole canvass will be conducted as though you expected to change the prospect’s mind before you get through with him, no matter how antagonistic he may be, or how determined at the outset not to purchase.

There is a good deal of truth in the remark, “If you cannot learn to smile, you cannot learn to sell.” The best salesmen are cheerful, optimistic, hopeful. They appreciate the commercial value of a smile, of always looking pleasant. Optimism is contagious. Everybody likes a sunny soul.

I knew a young man who would not impress people as having any marked ability, and yet this young man got fifteen thousand dollars salary, and did business enough to warrant it. He had a perfect genius for making friends. People seemed to be drawn to him as naturally as iron filings are attracted to a magnet. Everywhere he went he was the center of a circle, whether on a train, in a store, or in a hotel corridor. Everybody wanted to get near him. He seemed to radiate a hearty good cheer and good-will towards everybody. There was nothing mean or narrow about him. He was generous to a fault. He was always ready to jump up and grip you by the hand and shake it as if he was really delighted to see you—and he was. There was nothing put on. He loved everybody and wanted to help them. He was in some ways not a good business man, but his customers always anticipated his visits, and would say, “Isn’t it about time for Charlie to be around? It does one good to see that fellow. He is all sunshine.” Everybody knew him on his Western route, which he traveled for years. The hotel clerks all liked him and they tried to give him the best room possible whenever he came, often saving one for him for days. He was always given the best seat in the dining-room and the best waiter, and when the orders were called off in the kitchen the waiter would say, “Give me an Al steak for Charlie, for he is such a good fellow.” Wherever he went the door flew open to him. He did not have to push hard, as others do, to get in, for everybody knew that when he came it meant a good laugh and pleasant memories.

A strong determination and tenacious persistence will sometimes enable a man to become a fair salesman, even when he lacks a pleasing personality or a persuasive manner. He conquers from sheer force of continual pounding, until he wears his would-be customer out. But a pleasing personality, charm of manner, a sunny disposition, an optimistic outlook upon life, genuineness, honesty of purpose, and simplicity, when accompanied by a positive mentality and robust determination, are the qualities which win out in a big way.

Everything depends upon the attitude of mind with which you approach a difficulty. If you are cowed before you begin, if you start out with an admission of weakness, a tacit acknowledgment of your inability to meet the emergency that confronts you, you are foredoomed to failure. Your whole attitude lacks the magnetism that attracts success.

A book agent sometimes comes into my office, and I know by the way he enters that he does not expect to make a sale. Instead of walking with his head up, with an air of confidence and assurance, he sneaks in, apologizes, and asks me to please do him the honor to give him two or three minutes of my valuable time. He has lost his first chance by making a bad impression upon me, and it takes more time than I can give him to overcome it. He is beaten before he begins.

Quite another sort of agent calls on me occasionally, and I always buy from him whether I want what he has for sale or not. He enters with such an air of modest assurance, such confidence and expectancy in his bearing; he is so cheerful and interesting, that I positively cannot turn him down. He wins at the very outset by making a good, quick impression upon me, and getting my confidence.

Dr. Frank Crane, in an article on “A Consumer’s Views on Salesmanship,” gives the salesmen among other valuable points, these:

“First of all, be good-natured. I here and now confess that nine-tenths of what induces me to buy, is the ability of the seller to jolly me along. Cheerfulness and signs that you feel good, enjoy life, and are full of glee inside, are better than a letter of introduction from Mr. Rockefeller. Avoid personal intimacies. Let me talk about myself, and look interested while I am explaining, but don’t speak of yourself any more than you can help. Take an ax and chop the pronoun ‘I’ out of your vocabulary. What do you care?—Jolly me along.”

When Dr. Crane says to “jolly” him along, he does not mean that a salesman should be frivolous, or deceitful. He simply means that he ought to make a customer feel good, make him realize his importance. Show your customer that you are interested in his needs and his problems.

If you really believe in your heart, and expect, that you are going to sell, you will communicate your faith to your prospect. This faith suggestion, if vigorously backed by the magic of polite persistence, and consistent cheerfulness, will tend to produce results like itself, just as the doubt, the failure suggestion, produces a failure result.

CHAPTER XIII
THE GENTLE ART OF PERSUASION

When I was editor of a big magazine I sent an assistant to interview a young man who had had most remarkable success in the life insurance business, to get from him the secret of his rapid rise.

When my assistant returned I asked him if he had succeeded in getting his interview. “No,” he said, “but the insurance manager got me to take out quite a large insurance policy.”

This was a triumph of the art of salesmanship. The insurance man actually made his would-be interviewer forget what he had gone after, and induced him to buy something he had not before thought of buying, yet something which, undoubtedly, it was to his advantage to buy.

Why is it that one man will so easily change our whole mental attitude and make us do voluntarily the very thing that we had no idea of doing an hour before, and thought we never could do, when another might have talked to us until doomsday about the same thing, and never changed our mind a particle regarding it? Why is it that one man will convince us that we ought to buy an article which we were sure a few minutes before that we not only did not need or desire, but under no circumstances would buy?

Because he is a past master of the gentle art of persuasion.

How little we realize what a large part persuasion plays in our life. The clergyman, the teacher, the lawyer, the business man, the salesman, the parent, each is trying to persuade, to influence, to win over others to his way of thinking, to his principles, to accept his ideas.

Some characters are so tactful, so sunny, so bright, cheerful, and attractive that they never have to force or even to request an entrance anywhere. The door is flung wide open and they are invited to enter, just as we invite beauty, loveliness and sunshine to enter our mind. Their very presence has a subtle influence in soothing and pleasing. They know how to persuade almost without uttering a word.

Of the many elements which enter into scientific salesmanship, none is more essential than that of persuasion.

A salesman often finds a would-be customer’s mind absolutely opposed to his. He does not want the merchandise, or at least he thinks he does not, and is determined not to buy it. He braces himself against all possibility of persuasion, of being influenced to do what he has decided not to do. A little later, however, he cheerfully buys the article, pays for it, and feels sure he really wants it. His entire attitude has been changed by the art of persuasion, of winning over, which was all done by successive logical steps, each of which had to be taken in order, or failure would have resulted.

The first step was to get the man’s attention,—otherwise the salesman could have done nothing with him. This of itself is often a difficult matter—to get the attention of a man who is determined not to look at your goods, who had made up his mind not to buy, and is braced against you. But a good salesman does not try to persuade a man to buy until he has not only secured his attention, but also thoroughly interested him in his proposition. Then he arouses his desire to possess the thing he has for sale, and when this is done, the sale is practically over.

I was talking recently with some friends about the rapid rise of a young salesman which surprised everybody who knew him. One of my friends said that the whole secret was his marvelous power to persuade people, to change their mind, to make a prospect see things from his point of view. He said he had never before met another man who had such remarkable success in changing another’s mind to his way of thinking. “And this,” he added, “is the essence, the quintessence, if you will, of salesmanship—the power to make another see things as we see them.”

Persuasive power, the ability to win others over to our way of thinking, our way of looking at things, is not a simple quality. It is in reality made up of many admirable qualities which have more to do with the heart than the head. It is one of the lovable traits of human nature, which enables one to win out in many instances where head qualities would be of no avail.

The best and most successful teachers are not always the most learned, but those who get hold of the hearts of their pupils, whose kindness, personal interest, and sympathy inspire them to do their best. The same qualities which, apart from scholarship, make the best teachers, also make the best salesmen. While education and intelligence are indispensable, it is not so much smartness, long-headedness, cunning, as the warm human heart qualities which make a salesman popular and successful.

There is a sort of hypnotic power which passes for persuasiveness, and enables a man to get orders at the outset, but it is not based on honesty, and in the long run seriously hurts a man’s business.

A magnetic, spellbinding salesman will often bring to his house larger orders than some other salesman, but in the end will lose customers and injure himself and his concern, while the one who does not sell nearly as much to start with will make many more friends, and will hold his customers, because he looks out for their interest, and only tries to sell them what is to their advantage to buy. He will not work off a large bill of goods upon them which he knows in his heart they should not buy. He studies their needs, and so wins their confidence and good-will.

The ability to make others think as you do is a tremendous power, and carries great responsibility. If it is not kindly and honestly used it will prove a boomerang and injure most the one who uses it. He will soon become known as a “spellbinder,” and people will not do business with him.

Mere “palaver and soft soap” do not cut nearly so much of a figure in salesmanship as formerly. The time has gone by forever when a salesman is chiefly measured by his ability to tell good yarns and crack jokes with his prospects. Honesty first, is the business slogan to-day. Spellbinding methods are not in demand. While you may, and should, be as affable as you please, you must be thoroughly sincere.

Even in trying to approach a man through his hobby, great caution must be used. If he is a shrewd, long-headed man he is going to see through any subterfuge, and if he gets the slightest idea that you are trying to “string” him, or if he sees the slightest evidence of insincerity or cunning, if he sees any plot back of your eye, your game is up. We must first believe in a man’s integrity, even though he may deceive us, before he can persuade us to do what we thought we would not do.

To-day it is the clean, straight-from-the-shoulder talk, cold facts that the average business man wants. Yet the men of persuasive powers can present those facts in such a way that the prospect will be made to feel that the salesman is his friend and acting entirely in his interest. No man relishes the idea of being “managed,” and, no matter how much he loves flattery, he will question your motive if you attempt it.

Very tactful and just praise, however, will help your cause considerably with the average man. Remember that your prospect will be always on his guard against any sort of deceit. He will be looking for evidences of insincerity. He has no intention of allowing himself to be duped or gulled. Above all, remember that there is no substitute for sincerity in any field. There is nothing that will take the place in our lives of absolute transparency, simplicity, honesty, kindness. The Golden Rule is the only rule of conduct that will bring true success in any business.

CHAPTER XIV
HELPING THE CUSTOMER TO BUY

A Quaker merchant who had made a fortune in Liverpool, when asked how he had made it, replied, “By a single article of trade in which every one may deal who pleases—civility.”

This self-same “article of trade” has been the making of the celebrated Bon Marché in Paris. The clerks in this famous establishment are instructed to show people, whether customers or not, every possible consideration. Strangers in Paris are invited to visit the Bon Marché, and are taken in hand the moment they enter the store by those who can speak their language, are shown over the whole place, and every possible attention paid to them, without the slightest influence being brought upon them to purchase. A similar courtesy is shown visitors in many well-known American concerns.

It is the service we are not obliged to give that people value most. Everybody knows that the salesman is supposed, at least, to treat a customer decently; but the over-plus of service, the extra courtesy and kindness, the spirit of accommodation, the desire to be obliging, the patience and helpfulness in trying to render the greatest possible service—these are the things customers appreciate most highly, and these are just the things that tie customers to certain houses.

Whether you are a traveling salesman or selling things behind a counter, nothing will add more to your success than the practice of that helpful courtesy which is dictated by the heart rather than the head, or by mere convention.

Doing a customer a good turn has proved the turning point in many a career. Nothing will make such a good impression upon an employer as the courtesy of an employee who has so ingratiated himself into the hearts of his customers, and so endeared himself to them, that they will always seek him out and wait to buy from him even at great inconvenience to themselves. Every employer knows that a clerk who attracts trade is worth ten times as much as one who drives it away.

It is said that when John Wanamaker went into business, he paid a salesman thirteen hundred dollars the first year, which was equal to all the rest of his capital. He did this because of the man’s wonderful personality, his ability to attract trade, to please and hold customers so that they would come again.

I know a man who has built up a big business largely because he is always trying to accommodate his customers, to save them expense, or to assist them in buying things which he does not carry.

To-day our large business houses make a great point of pleasing customers, of obliging them and catering to their comfort in every possible way. Waiting-rooms, reading-rooms, with stationery, attendants, and even music and other forms of entertainment, are furnished by many of them.

There is a premium everywhere upon courtesy and good manners. They are taken into consideration in hiring employees just as much as general ability. Great business firms find it is impossible to carry on extensive trade without the practice of courtesy, and they vie with one another in securing the most affable, and most obliging employees possible in all departments. They look upon their employees as ambassadors representing them in their business. They know that they cannot afford to have their interests jeopardized by objectionable, indifferent clerks. They know that it will not pay to build attractive stores, to advertise and display their goods, to do everything possible to bring customers to them, and then have them turned away by disagreeable, repellent clerks.

Many young men going into business seem to think that price and quality are the only elements that enter into competition. There may be a score of other reasons why customers flock to one store and pass by a dozen half-empty stores on their way. Many people never learn to depend upon themselves in their buying. They do not trust their own judgment, but depend upon the clerk who waits on them. A clerk who knows his business can assist a customer wonderfully in a very delicate way, by suggestion, by his knowledge of goods, of qualities, of fabrics, of durability.

The courtesy and affability of clerks in one store pull thousands of customers right past the doors of rival establishments where the clerks are not so agreeable or accommodating. Everybody appreciates courtesy and an obliging disposition, and a personal interest goes a great way in attracting and holding customers. Most of us are willing to put ourselves to some trouble to patronize those who show a disposition to help us, to render us real service.

What is true in regard to the man or woman who sells in a store applies with equal or even greater force to the man who goes on the road to sell.

The motto of a well-known salesman, “Help your customer to buy, don’t merely sell to him,” is one that it would pay every salesman to adopt. Put yourself in your customer’s place, help him with your knowledge of what he really needs; mix sympathy, kindliness, helpfulness with your sales; you can give him a lot of valuable points. You are traveling all the time and constantly coming in contact with new ideas; give him suggestions from other merchants in his line.

A wide-awake, progressive salesman, without violating confidences, can help his customers wonderfully by keeping them posted on what his competitors are doing, on the latest ideas in his line, the new and original methods. You may know of some novel and striking methods of reaching the public, of displaying merchandise and arranging store windows, or of reaching customers through unique local advertising. Give your customer every suggestion you can. You may see that he is a good business man in many respects, but seriously lacks something which you could help him to supply. If he finds you are always trying to help him, that every time you come round you give him some good suggestions, it will be pretty hard for your competitor to get his order. He will prize a man who gives him helpful suggestions.

For instance, a salesman I know, who travels for a cutlery and hardware concern, makes a specialty of keeping his customers posted as to the arrangement of goods to the best advantage in window display. He keeps track of the latest ideas, new wrinkles in his line, and gives his customers the benefit of them. If he sees that any of them are getting into ruts, or that they do not have good business systems, very tactfully, without offending them, he suggests certain new devices, say, for saving expense, little short-cuts in business methods, new ideas in filing cabinets, or some other labor or time-saving device which it will be to their advantage to adopt. In his kindly, unobtrusive way the man binds his customers to him by bands of steel so that no other salesman would have any show whatever in getting them away from him. He has built up such a large patronage for his house that rival houses have made him most tempting offers for his services.

The extra service for which he is not paid does more in helping this man to get and hold customers than the actual routine for which he receives his salary. Business men who are at a distance from the big centers of trade fully realize what this extra service means to them, and are glad to keep in touch with a helpful, up-to-date salesman.

I know a successful merchant who is so afraid that his business will get into a rut, that his standards will deteriorate through familiarity with his surroundings, that every little while he invites friends to go all through his establishment in order to get the advantage of their fresh impressions, their criticisms and suggestions.

The salesman should always remember that he has an opportunity to pick up a great many new, progressive ideas which customers, who are closely confined to their business or who do not have the time to go about much, would not be likely to know about, and he can render them, as well as himself, a very great service by keeping them posted and up-to-date. Traveling salesmen are also traveling business teachers.

I know of no one quality which will help a salesman so much as an obliging spirit, the desire to be helpful, to accommodate, and to assist buyers.

Large jobbing concerns are finding that it is to their own interest to look after the interests of their customers, to aid them in every possible way, such as suggesting attractive ways of advertising, giving them new ideas and suggestions as to the best arrangement of their merchandise and advising them on other important points.

Many large concerns aid their customers financially. Mr. H. N. Higinbotham, Marshall Field’s well-known credit man, was noted for helping customers, especially when they were financially embarrassed. He often assisted them to get mortgages and loans, and, in fact, frequently made personal loans to the customers of his house. Of course affairs of this sort must go to the credit man, but at the same time a salesman often leads up to them, and thus relieves the embarrassment of customers.

Some time ago a manager of a large concern told me that he helped a customer to get a thirty-thousand-dollar mortgage on his property, an accommodation he was not able to get at the bank on a strictly business basis. Many small houses, especially in the West, have come to look upon the jobbing and wholesale houses they trade with as real friends, and whenever they are hard pushed for money they are the first places they go to for help.

Hundreds of Western concerns, through the initiative of the salesman, owe their prosperity to-day to the assistance of the jobbing house which carried them through hard times. When they could not have secured the ready cash they needed upon purely business grounds, firms accommodated through the efforts of a salesman become life customers and a perpetual advertisement for the concern which has helped them, always saying a good word for it whenever possible.

There are a hundred and one small ways in which both wholesale and retail salesmen can accommodate their trade. Be alert to do all these trifling personal favors, which mean so much and cost only a little thoughtfulness.

A word of caution in regard to promises. Guard carefully against making promises you can’t fulfill. In your zeal to help the customer do not, for instance, promise deliveries that are next to impossible or very hard for your house. You thereby hurt yourself, your customer and your firm. Be accommodating, but always use common sense.

Your customer may forget a lot of things which you say to him, but he will not forget how you spent your time and energy in trying to show him that which would be a real benefit to him; your effort to give him new ideas, to show him how he could be a little more up-to-date; your explaining to him how other progressive men in his own line were doing things. There is nothing which makes a better impression on a man or woman than the unselfish effort to please, to be of service, and the demand for salesmen and all sorts of employees who will put themselves out to do this is constantly growing. There was a time when human hogs could do business, provided they had the goods and could deliver them, but all this has changed; to-day the art of getting on in the world is largely the art of pleasing.

CHAPTER XV
CLOSING THE DEAL

A man who was waiting impatiently outside the church for his family, asked the janitor if the pastor was not through with his sermon. “Yes,” said the janitor, “he is through, but he hasn’t stopped yet.”

Many a salesman queers a sale by not stopping when he is through—his tongue outlasts his brain. He has not tact enough to see that when he has convinced his prospect it is time to close the deal. Others again make the mistake of lingering after their object is accomplished, squandering their own and their prospect’s time to no purpose.

If there is anything a business man appreciates in a caller it is a regard for the value of his time. Every minute is precious with a busy man, and directness, conciseness of statement, saying a lot in a few words, always makes a favorable impression.

“When you get what you went after, quit,” said one big selling agent of a national concern. “Many a sale has been queered because the salesman ‘stuck ground’ after he had signed his man.”

“I knew a salesman who put over a big deal one afternoon. Then he lighted a cigar and sat talking with the man to whom he had sold. Presently the telephone rang. It was a long-distance call from the buyer’s financial headquarters. Evidently the president of the concern was advising his representative to economize, to cut expenses everywhere he could, to lay off men, and to buy only necessities.

“I’m glad you didn’t go,” said the buyer to the salesman, after he had hung up the receiver; “I find my appropriation has been decreased and I won’t be able to take those goods now. This saves my writing you to cancel the order.”

“That salesman always said he talked himself out of that deal. He felt sure that if he had not been there, the buyer would have kept the goods and would have started his economy on the next salesman.”

Some salesmen with many splendid qualities talk themselves out of business. They tire out their prospect, bore him, disgust him. They do not have tact enough to see that when a prospect begins to move about uneasily in his chair and to look around the room that he wishes they would get out. Now, when a man feels pressed for time, or when you no longer interest him, it is a great mistake to try to hold him or to recover his lost interest. It is high time to stop and close the deal.

Brevity and directness are the very soul of business, and make a good impression on a business man. The roundabout talker, the man who prefaces everything with a long introduction, the man who goes around and around half a dozen times before he gets to the point, tires and irritates a busy man. Good business men are direct. They drive right to the marrow of things at the first plunge; and when a deal is put through, they want to close and go on to the next thing.

The closing step is one of the most important in any business transaction. There are plenty of salesmen who can conduct the progress of a sale clear up to the point of closing the deal quite as well as infinitely better salesmen, but here they fall down. They cannot gather up their threads of persuasive argument and reasoning to make a successful close, and when they become panicky they communicate their fear to the coveted customer, and then the game is up.

Like all other points of salesmanship, the quickest and the simplest way of taking the final step is the best. Closing a deal is the result of having created an earnest wish on the part of the customer for what you have to sell. He must have the “I want it” feeling or you are likely to have trouble. If you have made your customer want your goods, made him see the profit and the pleasure that will accrue to him in buying, then the question of closing the deal becomes very much simplified.

There is a school of experts strongly inclined to what they call “Reason Why” advertising. I think the “Reason Why” school is strongly entrenched. We buy things because there are reasons why we should buy them, and the salesman who can set forth the strongest reasons why, will have the least trouble in closing his deals. The goods may be all right in themselves, but the sale will not be made unless you can make the customer see why he, personally, should buy.

A shrewd salesman will let his prospect or customer handle the samples as much as possible, and let him do the talking. You watch him. You will learn a great deal about the operation of the man’s mind. If he shrugs his shoulders and shakes his head when he picks up a particular sample you had better not talk too much about that; it will not pay to try to convince him; you had better try something else, at least for the moment. If you see that he is anxious to make an impression upon you by his skill and his knowledge of goods, don’t try to switch him to something else. If he expresses an admiration for a certain piece of goods follow it up. If it is regarding the color, or shade, do not go too much into the quality of the texture. Let him take the lead.

In closing, always look for a peaceful and cheerful surrender of the will. If the standards of the house are high, and if the goods are of a high quality, the customer will feel quite reassured in surrendering his will to that of the salesman. He really thinks his will is deciding. Very often he is right, but it is the duty of the salesman to guide the will of the customer, so that the right decision will be made with the least loss of time and energy.

The “winner” salesman does not wait for his prospect to say, “You can put me down for so and so. Yes, I’ll take that.” He uses his own positive mind to guide and bring to a focus the vacillating, almost-decided mind of the prospect, for he knows from experience that the temptation of most buyers is to hang off, to wait. Knowing the processes through which his prospect’s mind is passing, he seizes upon the psychological moment to close up the thing, to bring the man’s mind to a decision.

Always be ready to close. Have plenty of well-sharpened pencils, a fountain pen in good working order, clean order blanks, and every facility at hand for signing orders. The customer should not be expected to fill in name, facts or figures any more than is absolutely necessary. When asked to sign his name, the salesman should indicate clearly the exact line on which the name should be written. The idea is to make everything so simple and easy that the mind of the customer does not have a chance to balk. Human nature is peculiar. Very often men are contrary. They will act against their own best interests, just because they think some one is trying to compel them to do a particular thing. We all love freedom.

In closing a deal, have all minor points made clear, such as time of delivery, method of packing, method of delivery, the way payment is to be made, and all similar details.

CHAPTER XVI
THE GREATEST SALESMAN—ENTHUSIASM

Why is it that one salesman can often accomplish three or four times as much as another? The difference is not always that of ability. It is often a difference in the effort—in the character of the effort. One salesman tries harder. He adds enthusiasm and a splendid zest to his work, which increases the quality as well as the quantity of the result.

Joyous zeal, dead-in-earnestness, will sell more goods than all the technical training in the world, minus enthusiasm.

How often have I heard salesmen say in the morning that they fairly dreaded the day’s work, that the hours dragged and that they were glad when the ordeal was over. They felt no enthusiasm for their employment.

Can any one hope to succeed in life who considers a day’s work an ordeal, who goes to it as a slave lashed to his task?

An employer measures his employees largely by the spirit in which they do their work. The salesman who goes to his task with energy, determination, and enthusiasm, by his very bearing gives assurance that the thing he undertakes will not only be done, but will be done as well as it can be done. On the other hand, when a salesman drags himself about as though existence were a burden, when he takes hold of his work with repugnance, as though he dreaded it, it does not take an expert judge of human nature to know that he will never amount to anything.

No matter how strongly and perfectly constructed, or how powerful a locomotive may be, unless the water is heated to two hundred and twelve degrees, the train will not move an inch. Warm water, water at two hundred and eleven degrees will not answer. The water must be at the boiling point.

No matter how fine a brain or how good an education a salesman may have, without the steam of enthusiasm, which propels the human machine, his work will be ineffective. It is the enthusiastic man in every trade or profession, the man with fire and iron in his blood, whose enthusiasm is at the boiling point, who makes things move in this world. The half-hearted, indifferent, aimless worker, who is never aroused to the two-hundred-and-twelve degree of live interest and enthusiasm in his especial task, is headed for failure. He will never be his own manager. He is lucky if he succeeds in holding down even a poor job.

The prizes of life are for the dead-in-earnest and enthusiastic. The world has ever made way for enthusiasm. It compels men to listen. It convinces the most skeptical. As Bulwer-Lytton once said: “Nothing is so contagious as enthusiasm; it is a real allegory of the Lute of Orpheus; it moves stones; it charms brutes. Enthusiasm is the genius of sincerity; and truth accomplishes no victories without it.”

Knowledge and skill have never been a match for enthusiasm. It multiplies a man’s power, raises whatever ability he has to its highest. One talent with enthusiasm back of it has ever accomplished more than ten talents without it. Enthusiasm is the powder that drives the bullet home to its mark.

To produce the best results, enthusiasm must be steady, continuous, not fitful or uncertain.

I know a man who is a valuable solicitor if his employers can only keep him keyed up to the right point, supplied with enthusiasm. When his enthusiasm is at high tide he accomplishes wonders, but the moment it ebbs he is good for nothing. And his enthusiasm often ebbs; it is very uncertain. One day he will impress you as a powerful man, a man with great determination, vigor and push—he makes everything move; then you meet him on one of his off days, when the tide is out, and scarcely know him. His mentality is flabby, his courage is down. He goes about with a blue and discouraged look, and is practically good for nothing. But when he rallies and his courage and enthusiasm come back, he is a regular giant.

If this man would learn to control his moods and get complete possession of himself; if he would strengthen his will so that he should always be ruler in his mental kingdom, instead of abdicating every now and then and allowing his pessimism, his blue moods to take control and rule him, he would be invaluable—a king in his line.

Enthusiasm must be guided by level-headedness or it may defeat its object. Some people allow their enthusiasm to run away with them and thus greatly weaken their power and possibilities. While it is an indispensable factor in salesmanship, too much enthusiasm develops weakness, destroys one’s good sense and good judgment and one’s ability to convince people. And the power of carrying conviction to the mind of a prospective buyer is the very marrow of salesmanship.

I have known over-enthusiastic young salesmen to be so completely carried away with the possibilities of what they were selling, to exhibit so little judgment and so much fervor in their canvass, that they aroused suspicion in the minds of their prospects as to their good judgment.

In cases of this sort a level-headed man will say to himself: “This young fellow is too wrought up over this article; he is hypnotized by it and has an exaggerated idea of its merits. No man in this state of mind is reliable; his judgment is warped. He is honest enough, but I cannot afford to rely on what he says. He is too enthused to be trustworthy.”

You can be as enthusiastic as you please without overstepping the bounds of reason. The A1 salesman knows how to steer his course between the enthusiasm that excites suspicion, arouses distrust, and the enthusiasm that persuades and convinces. There is now and then one who with abounding enthusiasm, guided by good judgment and horse-sense, pours his very life into his sale, just as a great advocate flings his life into his pleading. He is the sort of man who will win out in any proposition he attempts to put through.

On the other hand, there are lukewarm salesmen who put so little of themselves into their sale, so little enthusiasm and zest, so little magnetism, so little diplomacy and tact, and so little of the art of persuasion, that they remain third or fourth rate all their lives. They barely get a living in a field where the energetic, enthusiastic man makes a fortune.

The salesman or other worker who gives only his second best instead of his best, who gives indifference instead of enthusiasm, who doesn’t think it worth while to fling his soul into his work, never amounts to much. In an age when increasing stress is everywhere placed on efficiency, and yet more efficiency, there is no future for the indifferent. Give to the world the best you have and the best will come back to you.

CHAPTER XVII
THE MAN AT THE OTHER END OF THE BARGAIN